Thinking About Aether And Dew Baby...

Mushy May 2024

Day 10- Quiet Nights

I played it a little loose with the concept of the prompt, but it still fits and overall is something I enjoyed writing :)

Rating: G

Characters: Sunshine and Zephyr, background Ifrit and Swiss

Words: ~1.1k

Summary: Shortly before her summoning, Sunshine gets worried about how being summoned topside and having the latent fire magic inside of her activated will change the air element she already has. Some late evening meetings with some ghouls recently returned to the pit alleviate her concerns.

Involves my personal headcannon that while hybrid ghouls are born as such, multi ghouls are made so

Thanks to @forlorn-crows for organizing and @ghuleh-recs for the great dividers ♡

Already, Sunny can feel the pull. The humans of the ministry might not know yet, but she has been told by the Dark Lord himself that she will be the next ghoul summoned by the satanic ministry. In three short months by topside calculations, she will be summoned.

This time is different though, a direct blessing from Him to strengthen the fire element within her. She has always felt its potential, but once she goes topside she will be both air and fire. A true multi ghoul. The prospect is exciting, everything she could ever ask for, but nerve-racking all the same. What if she learns to love the fire too much, forsaking the air element she has known her whole life? What if in order to strengthen the one element the other weakens?

These and various other questions have been blazing through her mind ever since she got the news, a wildfire of worry charring any other line of thought caught in its way.

The answer to her worries comes in the form of a resource she didn’t even know existed, the previous band ghouls. Getting an introduction to Zephyr and Ifrit was simple enough, news of returning ghouls travels fast and why not set up a dinner meeting for them and the new kid to chat.

Sunny sees the meeting with the ghouls for the perfect opportunity that it is, exactly the chance she needed to quell all her worries about being topside and her latent fire element.

She has always been extremely direct and voices her concerns to the two ghouls almost immediately, before the hellish vintage Zephyr picked out has even finished being poured.

She carefully notes the roaring laugh this pulls from the fire ghoul and the fond exasperated sigh from the air ghoul.

“Told you she wasn’t worried about the fire part, this is all on you my dear” Ifrit teases, pouring a little extra wine into Zephyrs goblet with a knowing look.

The plan gets worked out quickly leaving lots of time to chat and get to know one another. Each night leading up to her summoning Sunny will meet up with Zephyr and work on meditations to better connect her to her air magic. In addition, every other evening she will meet with Ifrit briefly to go over fire ghoul things. Just because it’s not her present concern doesn’t mean it won’t come in handy and Ifrit is historically eager to help anyways.

The meetings with Ifrit are raucous and energetic, freeing in a way she didn’t know was possible. The meditations with Zephyr are magical in multiple senses of the word.

As in tune with her magic as Sunny previously thought she was, it quickly becomes clear how much more she could improve.

Zephyr's techniques tend to be a mixture of focused meditation and light yoga, after which she swears she can sense the ambient magic swirling on the breeze around her.

There’s a closeness that grows in the silence. The shared concentration and mirrored movements accompanied by the soft sounds of air rustling the plants around them imprints upon Sunshine a feeling of having the air ghoul’s soul laid bare and hers revealed in turn. These moments together quickly become the highlight of her day, and something she knows will be missed terribly once she is summoned.

Halfway through her summoning countdown she meets up with Zephyr but something feels different. The older ghoul is holding back, but this time she doesn’t push, willing to let the conversation topics float along however Zephyr sees fit.

After several minutes she finally hears it, that same resigned sigh from the night they met.

Still, she waits patiently. A light smile and a turn of the head as encouragement to spur Zephyr to speak on whatever is weighing his mind without pressuring him. It works perfectly.

“If it helps at all, you won’t be the only multi ghoul up there. I hope that you find kinship with them,” he starts, nerves seeping into his normal light demeanor. “The method I want to show you tonight is something I made with said multi ghoul. There are parts specific to a multi-element aptitude, which I do not possess, but I hope I can explain clearly enough for you to understand.”

Sunshine works through the movements slowly, a drawing of pure elemental power into the body and a push down towards the ground to expel any other random magic within. It makes her veins feel like they are sparkling in an intoxicating way.

She frowns a little noticing there doesn’t seem to be as strong of an effect on Zephyr, but shakes it off choosing to enjoy the time with her new friend.

Night after night the two have dinner, joyous swapping of stories without a care in the world, followed by quiet purposeful meditations. Before they know it though, it is the eve of Sunny’s planned summoning.

Zephyr, Ifrit, and her have one final dinner together to celebrate the short friendship that they have fostered. The two older ghouls insist that they will see her again and cannot wait to hear about all the fun she will get up to. They both pass her along a few messages for ghouls on the surface, and leave her to prepare for the following day.

As she moves through the magical exercises on her own that night she feels at peace, bolstered to tackle whatever being topside will throw at her.

~~~

The summoning is chaotic as always, but overall goes uncharacteristically smooth. Sunny takes to her new element with gusto, the time spent with Ifrit more than paying off.

Everything is definitely still an adjustment for her with many new places and faces, but there are a few people in particular she is on the lookout for as the day moves along.

Late in the evening after all the chaos calms down, she sets out to wander the grounds and find a nice spot to meditate and reconcile both the elements inside her. From a distance she spots a lovely looking clear patch in a garden and makes her way over to it.

In the center of the clear patch stands a tall ghoul, performing movements that at this point are as much a part of her as anything else. A calm breath in, a forceful one out. A purposeful sway to facilitate the movement of ambient elemental energy. Leaning back on a bench nearby is a skeptical looking Ghoulette, looking on and heckling him as she corrects his form.

A hopeful smile creeps its way onto Sunny’s face and with a confident stride she bounds over to the meditating ghoul, hand outstretched.

“Hi, I’m Sunny and I bet you must be Swiss, Zephyr and Ifrit have told me so much about you. Mind if I join in?”

Mushy May Day 31: Looking at/Taking Pictures

The fridge in the den kitchen tells a lot of stories.

Thank you so so so much to @forlorn-crows for putting Mushy May together again this year, and to @ghuleh-recs for making us the dividers. Love you guys, cannot thank you enough. I had so much fun doing this again <3

Arguably, the kitchen is the central point in the entire ghoul den. It seems like someone's always there, cooking or cleaning or making a snack, coming in from the gardens or slipping out to have a smoke.

So naturally, it makes sense that the fridge is the pack corkboard. Magnets from just every stop the band's ever made cover the stainless steel, holding up shopping lists, reminders on bright colored sticky notes, a calendar, but most frequently, photos. Polaroids and glossy film and printed out on paper, the kitchen fridge is an amalgamation of the big moments and the little ones.

There's one right next to the freezer handle, a little blurry, out of focus. It shows the inside of the band tourbus, a soft purple blanket covering two sleeping forms. It's dark, but if you look close enough, you can make out Dew's spindly fingers, arm wrapped tight around Aeon's waist as he big spoons them. Rain had taken it, the first night they had shared a bunk, early into Aeon's first tour. It makes the little quint blush every time they see it, but the way their tail wags betrays any semblance of embarrassment.

There's one in the center of the fridge, a polaroid film, the flash bright and a little over exposed, two ghouls with their backs to the camera. Aurora is easily recognizable, her hot pink hair covering the bottom quarter of the image. Dew's in the background, sitting in Mountain's lap, a little out of focus as he throws up an As Above gesture. Rain's the star of the show though, his blue black waves pulled back into two French braids, decorated with clips and baubles and ribbons. Dew's hair is in a similar state. There's a caption written in Aether's blocky handwriting below it that reads "Playing Barbies."

A glossy 4 by 6 print is stuck to the fridge with a magnet shaped like a palm tree, from Cirrus's disposable camera. It's summertime at the Abbey, taken from the edge of the dock. Mist's perched on Alpha's shoulders, successfully shoving Dew from Swiss's shoulders in a game of chicken fight. She'd taken it at the perfect moment of realization, Dew's eyes wide in panic just as he tips backwards. They had all laughed when she had gotten the print developed, even as Dew grumbled. He couldn't hide the fond look on his face when it had been pinned up, though.

On the side of the fridge is a picture of Omega and Terzo, the big ghoul sprawled out in an armchair during one of the pack's frequent movie nights, Terzo practically in his lap, smudging paint against the side of Omega's neck. They both had passed out within the first half hour of a particularly loud action movie, much to the snickers of the pack.

There are several from the road, new scenery and places and tourist stops, a polaroid of Aurora proudly holding up a soft drink that's almost the size of her torso captioned "Baby's First Big Gulp." One of Aeon sticking their face through a cut out that makes them look like a video game character in some mall. Swiss giving Dew bunny ears while the fire ghoul takes a picture with Rain and Mountain. Cumulus floating on a blow up raft smuggled into a hotel pool. All three of the ghoulettes squeezed onto a greenroom couch in a way that cannot possibly be comfortable but they had sworn up and down that it was.

There are close to two dozen pictures with a similar set up, the entire band and crew all lined up on stage after the last show of a tour. The lineup changes and shifts, familiar faces running through several photographs, looking bone-deep exhausted but with grins on their faces, satisfied with a job well-done.

Aether approaches the fridge, a photo in hand, searching for an empty magnet. He finds one, chuckling as he grabs one shaped like a bat but in a hot pink plastic, pinning the picture front and center. It shows Aeon and Aurora, both ghouls grinning, wearing cheap plastic party hats, the elastic hooked under their chins. There's a cake on the table in front of them, a sparkler candle lit in the middle. There's words frosted on it, in red frosting in Mountain's loopy handwriting that proudly display "Happy First Summoning Day."

He sighs, smiling at the picture of his newest packmates, before his eyes drift up to a picture pinned to the top corner of the fridge. Aether always looks to it when he's in here, feels a warmth settle in his heart as he takes in the picture. He's memorized it, it will be seared into the back of his eyelids for the rest of his time Up Top and long after that.

It's him and Dew, standing at the front of the chapel, grasping each other's forearms as Copia wraps a multi colored cord around their wrists, the fondest smiles on each of their faces. The cord was a four stranded braid of ribbon, he remembers, purple and black and blue and orange. He remembers the warmth of Dew's hand on his arm, the glint of the gold jewelry in his ears, hair soft and falling over his shoulders, every inch the ghoul he had fallen in love with the moment he had arrived Up Top.

Aether smiles, running a finger along the edge of the photograph reverently, reaching up for the bunch of bananas on the top of the fridge, breaking one off and going to rejoin the pack with his snack.

I had this idea the other day of Ifrit and Alpha and Baby Dew spending some quality fire ghoul time, either doing some fire ghoul traditions or just the three of them hanging out in general!

-🌺

Just a quick little thing! I hope this is ok 🩷🩷🩷

Cw: alcohol is mentioned a couple times in passing, just sipping it

If anyone were to ask Alpha what his favorite part of summer was, he'd grumble and say nothing, it's too hot and too sticky and the bugs are annoying.

But it's this.

He smiles to himself as he carries back an armful of fire wood to the spot that has long since been designated the bonfire spot. He can hear Ifrit and shortly after his voice he hears Dew's happy giggle.

He loves it, getting a fire set up for his pack, just him and the other fire ghouls getting it ready. It's somehow more special to him when Dew's little and excited, clapping and tossing little sticks into the circle happily babbling about fire, at least they assume that's what he's talking about.

When he breaks out of the trees he watches Dew's chubby little dirt covered hands point in his direction, alerting Ifrit that Alpha was back.

"I see him." He smiles and kneels to kiss the baby's head.

"Alf! Sticks!" He points at the circle, showing off his little twigs strewn about.

"Doing all the hard work for me?" He kneels beside the baby, stacking the wood the way he wants it while Dew continues to toss things.

"Fuoco!" (Fire)

Alpha wipes his hands on his pants and picks the baby up. "Faremo un grande e bellissimo fuoco." (We will make a big beautiful fire)

Ifrit smiles and wanders closer, taking Dew's little hand and pressing a kiss to it despite the dirt clinging to his skin.

"Are you excited for the fire? Sunteți entuziasmați de foc?" (It's the same question asked)

Dew wiggles to be set down and points at the fire pit again. Alpha glances around, the sun is finally starting to set and he's pretty sure he can hear a giggling gaggle of ghoulettes getting closer.

"Will you help me light it, Piccola fiamma?" (Little flame)

Dew's eyes are bright when Alpha takes his hand and a little flame flickers between his fingers. He guides their hands down to the kindling and Dew giggles with the flames catch. Ifrit cheers, telling Dew what a good job he'd done.

Cirrus and Cumulus are the first to arrive, wrapped together in a blanket with wine flushed cheeks and a basket of snacks Cumulus had been busy baking all day.

"Mamma!" Dew crawls as fast as he can over to Cumulus and she beams as she picks him up.

"Hi baby!"

His chubby little hand points at the fire. "Me!"

She gasps. "Did you make it all by yourself? You're so talented!"

"Alf me!"

"Oh, you let him help you? That's very kind, I'm sure Alpha was happy to help."

The rest of the pack trickles in slowly, Swiss has Phantom on his back even though the Quint isn't dropped and Aurora beside him holding his hand. Mountain and Aether follow behind with arms full of blankets for everyone to sit on. Rain and Omega are a bit behind them with another basket of snacks. Omega has his arm around Rain's shoulders, steadying him up the bumpy path so he doesn't trip.

Dew's the first to excitedly greet everyone and Ifrit moves closer to Alpha, the way he always does on nights like this. He doesn't say anything but he drapes his arm across ifrits shoulders and let's him scoot closer to his side.

He takes a quiet moment to just appreciate it, having them all here,scattered around the fire, talking and laughing, watching Dew play and babble to himself.

It's not something he talks about often, how deeply he loves them, words aren't always easy for him, but there's nothing he wouldn't do for them. He tightens his arm around Ifrits shoulder, drawing a content purr out of the younger fire ghoul.

This is his peace.

Alpha watches Swiss help Phantom and Aurora make smores, watches Aether lift Dew up onto his lap so the baby can gnaw on a marshmallow that Mountain is holding for him, unbothered by the copious amounts of drool. He watches the way Rain kicks his legs up over Omega's lap so the Quint and help keep him comfortable as they talk to Cumulus and Cirrus, sipping wine and giggling about their conversation.

"This is nice." Ifrits voice is soft, almost sleepy.

"It is." He takes a minute, glancing down at Ifrits head against his shoulder before he starts purring, rolling his eyes fondly at the happy chirp and Ifrit shuffling himself around until hes all but wrapped around the bigger fire ghoul. "Clingy."

"Yeah, I am."

He doesn't say anything but he ducks his head to press a kiss between ifrits horns.

"You-"

"Shush or I'll push you down the hill."

Ifrit snorts and shakes his head but keeps quiet about it. Alpha watches across the fire as Dew's eyes start to get heavy, the excitement starting to catch up to him. He shoves Mountain's hand away and squirms until Aether let's him slip to the ground, the Quint keeping a close eye on him.

He crawls over to Alpha, pausing and holding his little arms up.

"Alf up p'ease."

Ifrit moves just enough for him to bend to scoop the tiny ghoul up into his arms, the baby snuggling into his warmth immediately, his rumbly little purr joining Alpha and Ifrits.

Cirrus tosses a blanket to him and he drapes it over Dew's back as he starts to drift off.

"Alf mine."

He smiles a bit and glances around, taking in the easy contentment filling the space, the warm sense of belonging.

He is Dew's, he's all of theirs. Forever.

their combined powers were too great. he never stood a chance. rip king.

downloading a fic when ao3 dies (when you have the link)

looks like ao3 is down again and i was in the middle of a multi chapter fic when it died on me.

and if that happens to you, this is what you can do to download the fic:

copy paste https://download.archiveofourown.org/downloads/00000000/fic.html in your browser url

replace the pink bit with the number right after /works (that's the work id)

for instance, in https://archiveofourown.org/works/44970790/chapters/113154673 the highlighted bit (44970790) would be the number you swap for the 0s

the download link will look like https://download.archiveofourown.org/downloads/44970790/fic.html

if you want the fic to be downloaded as an epub instead, use .epub at the end of that link

it should start downloading on your device

i'm sure a bunch of people know this and use it but in case you don't, hope this helps

This is totally me

Be proud of the dumb, little thing you wrote, just because you wanted to write a dumb, little thing. Your writing doesn't need to be serious and award-winning for you to be proud of it.

The Ghildo is trending on X. Why do I find this so funny?

Does baby Dew ever get his languages mixed up at all? I love that he knows them all but I just wonder if when he's little he can't really get them out right?

Very quick short little thing!

Cw: sick baby Dew

Dew had fussed all night, warm with a fever and uncomfy. Mountain had stayed up with him, pacing the halls or rocking in a rocking chair, swaddling him or leaving him in just his thin jammies…

But nothing worked.

His little cheeks were red and he was obviously exhausted but he couldn't sleep.

He kisses the top of his head as the sun rises, waiting for anyone to come take the baby so he can shut his eyes for a little while. Swiss answers the group chat first, letting Mountain know he's on his way.

“Swiss is coming, honeybee.”

“Duele…” More tears gather in his eyes. (Hurts)

Mountain cocks his head. “I don't know what that means, I'm sorry.”

Dew sniffles, rubbing his eyes and pressing his ear closer to Mountain's chest, whimpering and sniffling.

Swiss knocks once before quietly entering the room, eyes soft when he spots Mountain still standing and swaying with the baby.

Dew reaches his arms out and snuggles up under his neck as soon as Swiss takes him.

“He's still warm and hasn't slept.” Mountain squeezes the back of his neck, groaning at the tension.

Swiss kisses him quickly. “Get some sleep, Mount.”

Swiss carries Dew down the hall to his room, humming as he walks. Dew squirms against him, clearly uncomfortable and Swiss wishes he could read his mind.

He gets his record player going, hoping the music will help him settle a bit but his little face is still twisted and red, dry tears on his cheeks.

“Fa male. Brutto…” His voice is weak, exhausted and the words are jumbled and slurred, still mostly babbling but Swiss knows he's trying to say something. (Hurts bad)

“What was that, amor?”

But he doesn't repeat it, his lower lip wobbles and he cries again, twisting his head and pressing tight against Swiss' chest. He sighs and bounces him gently, hating that he can't just help him.

He keeps him close, singing and bouncing him until Phantom runs into his room with their jacket on.

“Are y-you ready?”

“Oh bug I'm sorry, I forgot!” He had promised the little quint they'd go on a walk on a rainy day so they could splash in puddles.

“Oh…s’ok…”

“No, give me just a second. I promised I just forgot. Dew doesn't feel well so I was just a little distracted. Let me text Rain real quick ok?”

Swiss lays the baby on the bed, keeping his hand pressed against his little chest. Phantom climbs up beside him, frowning at Dew's sad eyes.

“D-don’t be s-sad Dew!”

Dew sniffles. “Ant…”

The little quint cocks their head, trying to focus on why Dew's upset but it's hard to control their magic when their little.

“Ok mi amor, Rain's going to look after you for a bit.”

“Mor.”

“Yeah, he's on his way.” He smiles and kisses his forehead.

Phantom manages to pull a tiny smile from the baby before Rain shows up. Dew's little fingers are curled around two of Phantom's, holding onto them while they talk just to distract him from his discomfort.

He turns as soon as he realizes Rain is there, sleepily reaching out. His eyes are red and puffy and Rain scoops him up quickly, holding him close and rubbing his back.

“He's still fussy.” Swiss lets him know as he adjusts the baby in his arms.

He presses his warm little face against Rain's cool neck. “Mor…tut weh.” (Hurts)

Rain glances at Swiss who just shrugs. “He's been saying stuff but it's nothing I can recognize.”

He nods and kisses the top of Dew's head, saying goodbye to Swiss and Phantom. He shushes the baby softly when he whimpers as they are walking, humming until he settles a bit.

Rain rocks him in the chair for a while, hoping the gentle motions will ease him into sleep. He's quiet for a bit before he cries again, big tears rolling down his cheeks as he presses his ear tight against Rain's chest, his little fingers clawing at Rain's shirt.

He pulls out his phone and texts Aether, getting an almost immediate response to bring Dew down to him.

“We are going to go see Aether, amour.”

Dew sniffles, blinking his big sad eyes up at Rain. “Daidí…”

“Yeah baby, we're going to go see him.” He promises as he stands from the chair, patting Dew's back as they leave the room to go to the infirmary.

Aether is waiting by the door when they make it down and Dew reaches for him as soon as he sees him.

“Daidí.”

Aether holds him tight. “Dia duit mo ghrá.” (Hi my love)

Dew fusses again. “Gortaítear…” (hurts)

“What hurts?”

Rain flinches just slightly. “He was trying to tell us that…” He shakes his head and rests his hand on the baby's back. “I'm so sorry, Mon amour, I didn't know what you were saying.”

Aether touches his shoulder. “It's ok, Rain.”

They get Dew in one of the rooms and Aether lets his magic work, seeking out the pain to soothe it, finding an ear infection. He keeps the pain down and eases back the fever.

His eyes brighten as soon as the pain fades. Rain relaxes when Dew claps his hands.

“That's better, hm?” Aether smiles, wiping Dews face with his sleeve, brushing the remaining tears away.

He points at his ear. “Ow…bad ow!”

“I know, I'm sorry. But it'll be better now.”

Rain sits beside them in the bed, shaking his head fondly. “You've got too many languages in that little head of yours.”

Dew just giggles, clapping his hands again. They chat for a while, letting Dew relax with Aether until sleep finally starts to catch up to him. He rubs his eyes, snuggling closer into Aether.

“I've got to get back to work, firefly.” He kisses his forehead. “If he starts fussing again, text me, I'll come up to see him.”

“Thanks Aeth.” Rain leans against him for a moment before picking Dew up carefully, smiling when his sleepy eyes find his for a second before closing again.

He carries him back to his room and settles on the bed with Dew up on his chest now soundly sleeping. He texts the group to let them know, sending a picture of the sleeping baby along with it before he lays his hands on Dew's back and shuts his eyes, focusing on the rumbly little purr in Dew's chest.

Ghost Live @ Strasbourg

Photo: Alva IG: @shameless_ghoul

The Nameless Ghouls Official Ghost Cult.

#TNGofficial #13thAnniversary

(totally copy and pasted that from the book of faces

If you have Ghost you have everything