This was absolutely chaos, but at least there was one thing Vivi figured out: If she stayed in her wolf form, there was no chance of her accidentally shifting. Being on all four was surprisingly easy, yet it didn’t seem like it was the same for anyone else she passed. The only thing Vivi had going for her was that she was used to changing forms, albeit she was more used to losing her legs for a tail instead of having four and a tail.

It wasn’t as she was scared, because she was. What Vivi was feeling was more sadness. As she, in her canine form, looked out over the ocean, her head lowered as she could not hear its call anymore. It felt like it was the sea calling for retribution, karma for her ignoring its call until she was forced to shift to keep living. Now her tail was just gone.

Cold. How had he gotten so cold? That was the only sensation that was running through his veins. Enjolras was experiencing a coolness he had never truly felt before. Being a fae with an affinity for fire meant there was not an ounce of cold in his body. It felt unfamiliar to him, he felt completely unfamiliar as he had woken up shivering in skin that didn’t feel like it belonged to him. Enjolras was a stranger to the frigidness he was experiencing now. Sure the Autumn Court was known for having a few brisk days here and there, but he had always had the fire and the heat right at the palm of his finger tips. And now, he snapped his fingers looking for any semblance of a spark, yet there was nothing. No small flickers of flames or flashes from striking the tips of his fingers like matches. Could he have possibly come down with some sort of illness? Something that diminished the fire within him and the affinity that came along with it. He flexed his muscles slightly as if his wings were going to wrap around him like a blanket draped over his shoulders, yet they weren’t there. He let out a slight whimper of frustration before shaking his head. This isn’t happening. He thought to himself as he shook his head. He wanted to shake it, that feeling of dread that he was left with nothing. But he was desperate to feel something, to feel the warmth crackle against his skin once more.

Enjolras perked up the moment he thought of something, a sure fire way to get him warm. He remembered the hot springs hidden in a grove in the Wilde Wood, a place secluded enough that only Fae knew about it. He had plenty of fond memories there, ones that were almost as steamy as the springs themselves. But that wasn’t the reason he thought of it. It was the only place he could think of that was out of sight and out of mind from all of the chaos that had already ensued in the Spring Court that morning. He could hear the wailing cries from neighbors as they woke to discover that their wings were no longer upon their back. Frankly, he was sick of hearing all of the faeries weeping over the loss of their wings. There was only one thing that could truly explain what had made them this way and it was probably thanks to some faeries’ magic that got them all here in the first place. He grumbled and cursed to himself pulling over a cloak from a prince he had gotten from one of his plunders with the Renegade. Enji never had a use for it, but now seemed as good as a time as any. He wrapped himself up tightly before stumbling out of his home. It was only then that he had realized he hadn’t eaten all day, feeling the lightness in his head from missing out on some of the great pleasures of food. It was probably because he was so damn focused on how fucking cold he was.

Brown eyes the color of the earth after torrential rains stared directly into the white light above. The sun splayed down on the sandy beach of the Mediterranean coastline, just west of where they had been staying during the summer of her twentieth birthday. She wanted to remember the sounds and the sights of the beach the most. To remember the laughter from the families peppered around them creating memories that would last a lifetime. Remember that brilliantly blue hue that had been painted across the sky with no clouds to act as smears on the perfect canvas. To remember the deafening roar of the water as the tides cascaded down to the shore before retreating back to the sea. The picturesque Spanish summer day. How beautiful of a moment it could have been if those thoughts had not been created in her mind to mask the harsh reality she had been living. She was convinced if she constructed lies that twenty year old girl would not remember what truly happened. And with the burns across her sun kissed skin and the thoughts that had been seared into her tumultuous mind, she wanted more than anything just to forget.

Alejandro Cabello held her youth like sand in his palms. Adrienne wished she could fast forward the time so she could crumble into dust to slip through his stern grip of calloused fingers. She wished that her features were not as soft, as if anytime anyone had touched her in a way that she did not consent her features would harden and make her less desirable for coin. She wished, she wished, she wished. She wished a lot of things. But mostly she wished that she was here on the beach by herself. With the rays of sun being the only thing that beat down on her skin. That the only rage she would be dealt was rumble of the ocean crashing to the shore. The only blue would be one of the color of the sky instead of the blue across her cheek, between her ribs, and around her neck. Instead she sat next to him in the sands, tethered by a leash of gold, wanting nothing else but to walk forward and let the ocean swallow every last bit of her so she could wash away to sea foam.

Adrienne remembered the lull of the sea, the static that overwhelmed her senses, every ebb and flow that continued to swell far past the horizon. She remembered how she yearned to be apart of it, to be one with the sea. To not fear the rise of the moon and the time when darkness fell like a blanket over the city. To feel safe among the vastness of the calm water as the night came. The sea whispered her name through the static. It called to her singing a song of freedom. Though she hadn’t done it then, for Madam Amalia made it very clear what would happen if someone stepped out of line, she stood up from the sand and bolted to the water. This after all was only a dream, and while she could not change the past, she could run from it in her dreams. Adrienne could create new memories, ones where she wasn’t bound to anything or anyone. So as she entered the water she closed her eyes let the tide sweep her feet from under her and let the sea drag her to its dark depths.

When she opened her eyes, the water hadn’t been that dark at all, though the sun did not shine over her now. Adrienne, still in a dream like trance, looked around her as she felt the water enveloping her like a warm blanket. It took her a moment to realize that she was no longer dreaming, that she was really in the water, letting it fill her lungs with each breath she took. Except… She wasn’t drowning at all. She found herself fully submerged into the water, seeing through it, breathing it in, and feeling like this was always where she was meant to be. Adrienne hadn’t been to the beach since that day with Alejandro. It had held too many bad memories. And yet now she felt… A sort of ease in the water. If killing the king hadn’t been enough closure for her, then running into the water in that dream had. Still she was curious why she was here, in the depths of the ocean in the middle of the night. Then she saw a brilliant flash of shining gold beneath her. It took only a moment for her to realize that she had now donned a tail, one of a mermaid. Whether it had been some horrible glamour gone wrong or she was still truly dreaming, she felt an odd sense of comfort from seeing it. While she felt at home with a strong sense of familiarity in the water, she knew that her home was with Gabriel in his court. 

He had to be something. People he kind of recognized were sprouting wings or fangs or turning into wolves when he knew that wasn’t what they were yesterday. That light did something and Aiden easily figured out that what species people were yesterday, they weren’t today. Vampires were wolves, fae were now vampires, wolves were now mermaids? The whole world had turned to shit and Aiden had to be something. He could not just be a mere human. He refused to believe it.

a human! mercy drabble

A heartbeat woke Mercy up. That in itself was not weird. A vampire was supposed to be on the brink of death, beats so slow that it was easy to forget that there was a heart inside of her chest. But this one was rhythmic, beating every so often that it rang in her ear. And–oh her ear was warm as she put her hand to it. In fact, her cheek was too. But the heartbeat, it was irritating and the more she heard it, the faster it seemed to go. But then this pit in her stomach formed. This gaping pit that was not there before, yelling at her, growling like a wolf protecting its kin. It was like her bloodlust but worse. So much worse.

Mercy threw off the sheets and searched for Adrienne’s supply of blood bags but her fangs, they were not sprouting out and she didn’t think too much of it. No, she needed to fill this fit, feed it with something that wasn’t blood. She wanted food. Bacon. Eggs. Tostada. Her stomach was crying out for her mother’s tostada smothered in olive oil and topped with crushed tomato and ham. She raced down to the kitchen, startling the poor cooks inside, a frenzied woman whose face was red from the blood coursing through her veins and demanding a breakfast platter. It didn’t matter what was on the plate, she just wanted food. Immediately, a basket with a baguette was placed in front of her, paired with an array of jams and a small saucer of butter. Coffee, croissants, pain au chocolat. Of course, this was Gabriel’s staff. It was a French breakfast, but Mercy started devouring it nonetheless, a ravenous monster grabbing whatever she could put in her mouth.

The weeks since the wedding had passed and Oakley was completely exhausted. Between running around to different places during the day in the kingdom trying his best to fill the boots of his captain, to spending his nights awake at Mina’s side trying to make sure she was alright he had been worked to the wire and he was starting to get wary. If Oakley ever had any sliver of hope being a captain, it was well diminished now considering it just wasn’t something he was fit for by any stretch of the imagination. Though this morning as he stirred awake, he felt so well rested in a way that he hadn’t been in a long time. Oakley had woken up just as the sun started to spill onto the sheets lightly draped over him and his captain. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he pressed a small kiss against Mina’s forehead before he untangled himself from her grasp. He pushed himself from the bed so that he could get ready for the day. There was a lightness in his step and his stomach felt as if it were floating as if he had been falling from some great height. Those feelings didn’t faze him in anyway though, only until he stood in front of Mina’s vanity.

He blinked a few times as he looked in his reflection. His scars and imperfections were no longer and there was a soft glow that seemed to be emanating from him. Then his attention drew to the wings that now fluttered softly in the mirror. They were wings of the deepest blue of the night sky and flecked with the small shards of shimmering silver as if the stars had been plucked directly from the sky and sewn intricately to adorn his wings. The gods must have carved a small section of the sky and directly gave it to him. As he realized that he had never actually had wings before, he turned around a few times trying to sneak a look of them. 

Something felt different when he woke up-- the air seemed a little thinner as he drew his first breaths in the morning. The air in the Winter Court had always been a little on the thin side considering it was winter at all times, but this… This was something else entirely. His heart felt like it was racing a little faster now too. With his affinity for air, breathing never seemed to be an issue for him. Drawing in breaths from air as he commanded it always settled his heart, putting it at ease from the anxieties that plagued his mind. Cassius’ mind was a dangerous place to be, for it was there that he waged a war between his thoughts and his actions and remained ever so stoic with his emotions. At least when he could control his breaths he could have some semblance of control over the tumultuous thoughts in his head.

But for whatever reason, this morning he couldn’t. As he lay in his chambers, there was no indication that he could even control anything. What had happened in the night so that he could no longer bend air to his will? Remembering that he had been traveling with Giselle making their rounds to the courts, he knew that he needed to go and see her and tell her what he had discovered. He exited his chambers as quickly as he could, jumping up out of habit to begin to fly since it was a faster method only to immediately stumble back onto the ground. The hit to the ground had been a lot harder than most and he could feel his knees sort of burn as if they had been scraped. Though it wasn’t unusual for a fae to bleed, it surely took a lot more than just falling onto the ground to do it. As he lay on the hard stone floor, he reached his hand back to try to feel his wings, only to find there was nothing there. No control over the air and no wings meant that he wasn’t a fae anymore-- but what was he, and why was he not a fae any longer. The realization of it all only made his already jumpy heart beat faster and his breaths become shallower. Now he had to find Giselle.

Something happened, that was clear when Vivi woke up at the edge of the forest with the only thing covering herself was her hair. She could smell the sea air, so that meant she wasn’t too far from her home, but what happened? A quick examination of her body showed no signs of damage and just plain deduction meant she didn’t wander through the forest naked. There was no bodies of water nearby so she couldn’t have shifted then passed out on her way back, could she have?