- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's not Leet crafted. She buried everything Leet made. The sword is perfectly normal.
This Is the Story of a Teenager With a Sword
- Thread starter YseultNott
- Start date
Just realised that in the chapter before last, Theo was probably referring to Jack Slash
Chapter 10
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Here's the plan:
Theo will scale the tower until he reaches a window on the fourth flour that looks large enough for him to go through. Then, he will get inside, solidly tie his rope to something, and she will use it to scale the wall. Then, they will discreetly find the children, and use the rope to get them outside, before fleeing to safety.
(Taylor did suggest she should be the one to go first, but a quick test on a tree showed Theo was a better climber.)
Watching Theo scale the tower is terrifying.
It's scary because the gaps between the stones are small enough Theo had to take off his shoes, because he almost slips once or twice, because he is high enough he could die if he falls.
It's scary because there is nothing Taylor can do.
The window is open, and Theo slips inside. A few minutes later, the end of the rope lands before Taylor, and she climbs after him.
The room looks like a study, with book-covered shelves and a huge, heavy table supporting stacks of a strange material covered in annotations that looks somewhat like parchment, but isn't. Strangely, the chair is mounted on wheels.
Taylor has a quick look at the books. They look to be about a very wide range of subjects, from mathematics to children tales and Taylor can't make out a common theme. She can't make head nor tail of what is written on the not-parchments.
They're about to go looking for the children when the room is drowned in a strange silver light.
Theo will scale the tower until he reaches a window on the fourth flour that looks large enough for him to go through. Then, he will get inside, solidly tie his rope to something, and she will use it to scale the wall. Then, they will discreetly find the children, and use the rope to get them outside, before fleeing to safety.
(Taylor did suggest she should be the one to go first, but a quick test on a tree showed Theo was a better climber.)
Watching Theo scale the tower is terrifying.
It's scary because the gaps between the stones are small enough Theo had to take off his shoes, because he almost slips once or twice, because he is high enough he could die if he falls.
It's scary because there is nothing Taylor can do.
The window is open, and Theo slips inside. A few minutes later, the end of the rope lands before Taylor, and she climbs after him.
The room looks like a study, with book-covered shelves and a huge, heavy table supporting stacks of a strange material covered in annotations that looks somewhat like parchment, but isn't. Strangely, the chair is mounted on wheels.
Taylor has a quick look at the books. They look to be about a very wide range of subjects, from mathematics to children tales and Taylor can't make out a common theme. She can't make head nor tail of what is written on the not-parchments.
They're about to go looking for the children when the room is drowned in a strange silver light.
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- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
They just broke into the Wrong Dragon's tower, huh?
Alternatively, it's Bakuda.
Alternatively, it's Bakuda.
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"... but your dragon is in another tower"?
Chapter 11
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- He/Him
There's a man standing in the door, and he holds something with a long pole in his hand, and the light coming out of it makes him hard to look at.
Theo hides his eyes with his arm, and Taylor suppresses a groan because no, Theo, letting the enemy out of your sight is a bad idea.
The man does something, and the light dims to tolerable level as she draws her sword.
The thing is a halberd, with the light coming out of the head. Probably alchemy.
Alchemy makes no sense whatsoever, and Taylor doesn't like it.
"You gonna fight me?" asks the man, and Taylor clutches her sword harder.
"Where are the children?" she says as threateningly as she can, and Theo makes an horrified squeak from behind her.
The man rubs his face with his free hand, muttering something that sounds a lot like not again, and Taylor notices the hand holding the halberd is covered in armor, and that his right eye is a sphere of solid gold.
"As I said to the people who came before you," he says, and he sounds… Annoyed. "We didn't kidnap any children. People have started to come live around Cawthorn, and my wife Theresa agreed to let the younger children stay in the Tower under the supervision of a few older ones so that the parents can focus on… Whatever they do during the day."
Oh.
Oh.
"What… What about the dragon?" asks Theo hesitantly.
"Theresa is an amazing person," answers the man, before letting out a sigh. "Listen, there's obviously been a misunderstanding. Why don't we go to the kitchen and discuss it around a cup of warm milk?"
And maybe it's not the smartest thing to follow him, but if he was Ahane Kenta or one of his men, his reaction would have been a lot more violent, and they did break into his home.
She exchanges a look with Theo, and agrees.
It's only three flights of stairs lower that she realizes the man implied his wife was a dragon.
Theo hides his eyes with his arm, and Taylor suppresses a groan because no, Theo, letting the enemy out of your sight is a bad idea.
The man does something, and the light dims to tolerable level as she draws her sword.
The thing is a halberd, with the light coming out of the head. Probably alchemy.
Alchemy makes no sense whatsoever, and Taylor doesn't like it.
"You gonna fight me?" asks the man, and Taylor clutches her sword harder.
"Where are the children?" she says as threateningly as she can, and Theo makes an horrified squeak from behind her.
The man rubs his face with his free hand, muttering something that sounds a lot like not again, and Taylor notices the hand holding the halberd is covered in armor, and that his right eye is a sphere of solid gold.
"As I said to the people who came before you," he says, and he sounds… Annoyed. "We didn't kidnap any children. People have started to come live around Cawthorn, and my wife Theresa agreed to let the younger children stay in the Tower under the supervision of a few older ones so that the parents can focus on… Whatever they do during the day."
Oh.
Oh.
"What… What about the dragon?" asks Theo hesitantly.
"Theresa is an amazing person," answers the man, before letting out a sigh. "Listen, there's obviously been a misunderstanding. Why don't we go to the kitchen and discuss it around a cup of warm milk?"
And maybe it's not the smartest thing to follow him, but if he was Ahane Kenta or one of his men, his reaction would have been a lot more violent, and they did break into his home.
She exchanges a look with Theo, and agrees.
It's only three flights of stairs lower that she realizes the man implied his wife was a dragon.
I was thinking "Lung, Lung, Lung" the whole time and never even considered Dragon. Though, thinking back, the place was named Cawthorn so it should have been obvious.
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- He/Him
Several people did guess this plot twist on pacebattles, AO3 and Discord, based on:
1) The place being called after one of Dragon's craft
2) The story taking place in the same universe as a story where Dragon is an actual dragon
3) The Lung fight in canon was based on a misunderstanding, it made sense for this one to also have one
4) The chair having wheels in the previous chapter
That said, it was supposed to be a plot twist, so I'm glad I mananged to fool some people, although I'm also glad that it doesn't seem to come out of nowhere.
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- He/Him
Lung definitely exists in this universe
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Yeaaah, that's how I thought it'd go.
The only ones capable of Paper and Wheeled Chairs are Alchemists, but I really doubted Bakuda would make such things when she could instead discover how to twist people into flesh balls.
The only ones capable of Paper and Wheeled Chairs are Alchemists, but I really doubted Bakuda would make such things when she could instead discover how to twist people into flesh balls.
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- He/Him
Ironically enough, neither the paper nor the wheeled chair are Alchemy related. Paper was invented in China literal millenia ago (the first papermaking process was documented 25 BC at the latest), and only appeared in Europe in the middle-ages. Colin and Theresa are using it because it's more pratical than parchment, but it would actually have pointed more towards Ahane Kenta if Taylor had known what it was.
Concerning the wheeled chair, it was made for Colin after he lost his limbs in No Princesses, but it doesn't use Alchemy. It's just a chair with wheel.
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Well...damnit. I thought I was being clever. I thought "oh hey, fantasy AU" and didn't realize Paper was that old...
- Location
- The Midlands.
You weren't that far off. Paper was relatively rare and expensive for a long time because the process of making it requires more complex tools than parchment. Not an obstacle for a wealthy scholar who knows the basics of metallurgy, woodworking and chemistry but somewhat more inconvenient for most ordinary folk at the time.
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Which is why Taylor didn't recognize it.
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
So I was right for the right and wrong reasons?
Damn this Universe and it's complexities, I want to go back to the days where Pong was a technical marvel.
Hecatonchires
Just an H-class cyborg with an octopus brain stem
- Location
- The Gong, NSW, Australia
If you want to learn more about paper making, Ascendance of a Bookworm is an isekai about a woman inserted into a slightly fantasy medieval world as a 6 yo. She wants to read books, but they are too expensive, so decides to bootstrap a minor technological revolution by inventing paper. But she's, you know, 6. Trials ensue. A manga version is available at lots of online manga reading places.
Chapter 12
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The man's name is Colin Wallis and his wife is, in fact, a dragon.
She's a very nice dragon. She calls her husband sweetheart, and offers Taylor and Theo honey to put in their milk, and she has scales and fangs bigger than Taylor's hand.
She's also far too big to fit in the kitchen, let alone through the door, but she does anyway.
She calls them good, and brave. Her husband says they were very brave indeed, but suggests they should make less assumptions and more research in the future.
They ask how Theo and Taylor came to go together to fight a dragon, and say they'll take care of Theo's killer problem.
They ask Taylor what she wants to do now, and she thinks about Dad.
She left him all alone.
"I think I want to go home," Taylor says.
(She will come back to help Theo, but she wants to see Dad first.)
---
The Wallises give Theo and Taylor matching empty books, with the promise that what would be written in one could be read in the other, and then, in the morning, Mrs Wallis takes her husband and Taylor on her back, and flies all the way back to Taylor's hometown.
Mrs Wallis stays in the countryside so the townspeople won't panic, but Mister Wallis walks Taylor all the way back home.
Despite the hour, Dad is there, and he holds her tight and cries.
She's a very nice dragon. She calls her husband sweetheart, and offers Taylor and Theo honey to put in their milk, and she has scales and fangs bigger than Taylor's hand.
She's also far too big to fit in the kitchen, let alone through the door, but she does anyway.
She calls them good, and brave. Her husband says they were very brave indeed, but suggests they should make less assumptions and more research in the future.
They ask how Theo and Taylor came to go together to fight a dragon, and say they'll take care of Theo's killer problem.
They ask Taylor what she wants to do now, and she thinks about Dad.
She left him all alone.
"I think I want to go home," Taylor says.
(She will come back to help Theo, but she wants to see Dad first.)
---
The Wallises give Theo and Taylor matching empty books, with the promise that what would be written in one could be read in the other, and then, in the morning, Mrs Wallis takes her husband and Taylor on her back, and flies all the way back to Taylor's hometown.
Mrs Wallis stays in the countryside so the townspeople won't panic, but Mister Wallis walks Taylor all the way back home.
Despite the hour, Dad is there, and he holds her tight and cries.
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Hecatonchires
Just an H-class cyborg with an octopus brain stem
- Location
- The Gong, NSW, Australia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thanks, I always forget family names can (and should) be made plural in English
Epilogue
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Colin isn't stupid.
Knowledge is power. The University has knowledge. The University controls the knowledge and who gets to learn it. The University is powerful.
The University wants to keep its power.
Colin isn't stupid. He knew why the University didn't want him to invent the Book then, knows why they don't want him to share it now, understand the reasoning behind those decisions.
He was part of the University, once, but they cast him aside for petty politics and the ravings of a madman, and he cares little for their wishes now.
The University is powerful, and Colin made an enemy out of them.
They won't go for a frontal assault. They fear Theresa too much for that, and even though Colin's artificial limbs still hurt him when he keeps them on for too long, they know he can hold his own in a fight, and has the knowledge and skill to prepare a few nasty surprises should it come to it.
So they went for subtlety instead, for misinformation and rumors assimilating Colin and Theresa to Ahane Kenta and his men, and brave, foolish people fall for it and prove themselves a steady source of inconvenient.
At least, Miss Hebert and young Mister Anders proved accommodating once their mistake revealed.
Which reminds him…
"What are we going to do about the Anders boy?" he asks Theresa.
"We promised to help him get rid of the killer," she says.
"I meant afterwards. We can't just… Keep him."
Theresa shrugs, and wraps a wing around him, and Colin lets himself lean against her.
"I don't see why not," Theresa says.
Uh.
"You're right."
They have room.
Knowledge is power. The University has knowledge. The University controls the knowledge and who gets to learn it. The University is powerful.
The University wants to keep its power.
Colin isn't stupid. He knew why the University didn't want him to invent the Book then, knows why they don't want him to share it now, understand the reasoning behind those decisions.
He was part of the University, once, but they cast him aside for petty politics and the ravings of a madman, and he cares little for their wishes now.
The University is powerful, and Colin made an enemy out of them.
They won't go for a frontal assault. They fear Theresa too much for that, and even though Colin's artificial limbs still hurt him when he keeps them on for too long, they know he can hold his own in a fight, and has the knowledge and skill to prepare a few nasty surprises should it come to it.
So they went for subtlety instead, for misinformation and rumors assimilating Colin and Theresa to Ahane Kenta and his men, and brave, foolish people fall for it and prove themselves a steady source of inconvenient.
At least, Miss Hebert and young Mister Anders proved accommodating once their mistake revealed.
Which reminds him…
"What are we going to do about the Anders boy?" he asks Theresa.
"We promised to help him get rid of the killer," she says.
"I meant afterwards. We can't just… Keep him."
Theresa shrugs, and wraps a wing around him, and Colin lets himself lean against her.
"I don't see why not," Theresa says.
Uh.
"You're right."
They have room.
- Location
- USA
Huh. I don't think I've ever seen Theo adopted by either Armsy or Dragon before. I want to see more of this sort of thing in the normal Earth Bet setting.
I also love the reasoning for the misunderstanding Taylor had about Theresa and Kenta. That makes so much sense.
I also love the reasoning for the misunderstanding Taylor had about Theresa and Kenta. That makes so much sense.