#statue au

I started this more than a year ago but I finally got around to finishing it 🥳💗 close ups below!

Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland (True Love's Kiss AU)

If there is one place that True Love’s Kiss will work, it is here, where the literal dimensions of the realm bring the dead as close to life as possible, so as to extract more pain, more pleasure, more sensation.

It’s a desperate idea. A horrible idea.

But it is the last idea.

Everything else hasn’t worked. Potions, anti-curses, going to space via mirror, to the bottom of the ocean, to volcanos, experiments, sacrifices, none of that.

This is it. 

If this doesn’t work, then Charles has a map that will take him down to the ninth circle, where the traitors belong. Where he belongs, for erasing Edwin Payne’s beautiful soul from existence, for allowing Edwin to risk his life because he was in love with someone who never, ever deserved his affections.

Charles wants this to work. He needs this to work.

Because the answer, at the end of the day, is that Charles cannot exist without Edwin Payne. He cannot love without Edwin Payne.

What if I told you that this is for the Statue au… Antonio’s ancient ass was stinky af and Lovino bravely volunteered to take care of him

Plus a sussy crop 💙🩵 u know where to find the rest

So at the end of across the Dark Plain, Skulduggery has a little bit of a monologue to himself about how his time as a soldier is coming to an end and he doesn't know what he'll do once that time is over if Serpine is alive:

'It was a slow-burning heat, capable of firing up at a whim, but never in any danger of puttering out. It kept him. It sustained him. Maybe there was even a part of him that was glad Serpine had wormed his way free. As long as the man who’d killed him and his family was alive, somewhere out there across the dark plain, Pleasant had a reason to fight, a reason to keep putting one foot in front of the other. But kill the killer, and what was left? Something cold and uncertain.'

So this AU is based on Skulduggery capturing Serpine in time and killing him before he can escape and be saved. Of course, this leads to him wondering if he can be at peace finally (with his wife, child, siblings. The roster.)

Ghastly encourages him to leave the remaining war behind and seek out said peace so he can finally put his soul to rest. Skulduggery, revenge extracted and war basically over, does this and finds out that he can meditate. He reasons to himself that if he mediates for long enough he'll eventually pass on.

Once the war ends, Ghastly finds him sitting on a boulder overlooking the sea, silent but unmovable. He decides to set up his new shop in the small village nearby. Skulduggery's skeleton becomes a legend and a good luck charm for the villagers that continues in the present day.

The village becomes Haggard.

Now the difference between Valkyrie here and in canon is that she meets Skulduggery by coincidence. Necromancers are moving past the town and wake Skulduggery up with their presence. He obviously goes to explore and runs across Stephanie Edgley, who had been swimming.

And she's also eight years old.

This is for two reasons:

That is Skulduggery's child's age when they die in this AU.

I want to experiment with Valkyrie in this AU and it's fun.

This makes the year 2003 with nothing major going on besides Skulduggery waking up and the child who agreed to hide him Echo-Gordon style in her wardrobe because he doesn't understand the world around him.

"Eat up."

Whenever Qi Xiaotian dreamed of meeting Sun Wukong, it was always dramatic and cool. Right now, however, it was the exact opposite.

The Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, looked...

"Like he's been dragged through a hedge." Long Xiaojiao winced at the resulting elbow in her side from Tang. "What?! He does." Xiaotian had to agree with her.

Sandy had been weirdly insistent on kicking everyone out of his room. The last thing Xiaotian had seen was the blue giant carefully scooping up Wukong, dressed in that blue hanfu. The following hour had been tense, with Pigsy retreating to the kitchen before Sandy and Wukong had arrived. Guess that was where the noodles had come from.

Wukong didn't have leaves or stuff in his fur, but he looked exhausted. He was dressed in the spare outfit Tang kept in Xiaotian's closet with the sleeves rolled up. ("Sorry," he had said. "I just needed to get out of that thing.") He was hunched over the counter and just looked small.

"Thanks," his voice was raspy as he picked up the chopsticks. He eyed the noodles before setting them down. Pigsy made a noise and Wukong made a noise that sounded between a sigh and a chuckle. "I figured you guys might have questions."

Xiaotian winced at the resulting slam of a hand against the table, because of course, it was Tang who spoke up first. "We do!" Out of nowhere, a notebook was yanked out and the scholar began to ask. "How are you real? How did you get inside the statue? How long have you been inside the statue?! If you're real does that mean all the great figures are real?! How-" He barely dodged the spoon at his head.

Pigsy pulled his foot back and set a glass of water next to Wukong, who was leaning back. "I think he meant one at a time, Tang." the chef huffed.

"Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice." Wukong cleared his throat. "Well, uh...I just am? Yes, Erlang Shen is a bitch. And..." He glanced at Sandy. Xiaotian didn't know his dad's friend well, but the worried look on his face was new. "I really don't know the details of how I got in there. Someone who wanted to attack Heaven did it to get me ut oof the way. All I remember is, one minute, I'm preparing to go to Red Boy's birthday party, and the next I'm in the statue."

Red Boy... the son of the Demon Bull King? Before Xiaotian could think too hard about that, something else occurred to him. "Have you been awake? The entire time?"

Wukong shook his head. "No..." He paused. "I mean, kinda? I couldn't see anything."

Xiaojiao raised a brow. "But you could hear?"

"There's the kinda. It was like...you were asleep but could hear people faintly talking in the next room." A warm smile bloomed to life across his face and those golden eyes locked on Xiaotian. "I heard you kid, and you sound like a fun kid."

How were you supposed to respond to that?

Merlin AU where Merlin is tired of waiting for Arthur so he turns aithusia and himself into stone for until he and any of his reincarnated friends can reunite

There’s always been dragon statues around Pendragon Manor and Arthur has always been told to not touch or play on them he’s never been the type to disobey his mother so he keeps a distance from them throughout his childhood. His half sister Morgana jokingly gives the old one in the garden a kiss which accidentally brings it to life

(Context: Aurelia and I have been discussing yet another YellowFlowerShipping AU, this one has Ilima as a prince from medieval times who got turned to stone and then got freed by Kiawe in modern times)

Kiawe and Ilima are walking in the park during one of their “get Ilima used to modern life” adventures. seeing Kahili getting harassed by Hunter, and manage to chase him off. She thanks the boys for their help, and Ilima asks about Hunter. Once she explains the situation, he tells her about what he went through thanks to Dessa (at least, a less fantastical version, because no way she was going to believe he was petrified by a witch with an obsessive crush on him) and how he understands her pain. Because of this, he offers to serve as her bodyguard if Hunter ever tries to come after her or Molayne. Kahili’s not sure about it, but she appreciates the offer and the two become friends.

Hey Lovely!

Ah, I could be better, but I'm trying my best.

Oh, I love that headcanon; I know there are or were a few fics a long while ago with a similar premise, but I'm not seeing anything on my MFL list that immediately pop out.