Chapter Text
Scott managed to finish the mage tower surprisingly fast. It had taken a couple of days, but it was easy when he had a strong determination not to focus on anything and just drown himself in work.
Was it healthy?
Probably not.
Was it working?
Honestly? Pretty well.
Pain curled in his heart, why did he have to fail, he needed to be better–
He started to expand his greenhouse a little. Recently, Scott had the idea to plant maybe some lilies of the valley, rhododendron, but those were poisonous, so he needed an extra section for them.
It wasn’t his intention to poison people, but lilies of the valley were his favorite flower, and he really did want to plant some of them. Maybe he should write a sign that told people not to go near them?
He was interrupted by a yell. “Scooott!”
“I’ll be so real right now, don’t know a thing that is happening,” Scott told his flowers. “But I think there’s something extra scheduled today?”
Graecie popped her head in. “What are you doing? There’s a circus in town, we should go together! I think all the kingdoms are going to be there, except a couple who don’t want to, like 4C, let’s gooo!”
It took a second for the quick pace of the rant to load through Scott’s mind. “Ah, okay! Let me finish up here first,” he responded.
Placing down a couple last planks, Scott stretched and then headed out.
“Okay, okay, so we’re gonna head to the midway bridge thingy where the jesters were– wait, you weren’t there for the jesters, were you?” Graecie asked.
“No, I was… away. Indisposed,” Scott said. Busy being useless.
“Mmm, ‘kay, I’ll lead you then!” Graecie chirped, grabbing Scott’s hand. He didn’t jump.
He did not.
Instead, he opened his mind to the plants again and started a new “stream”, as they all called it. They began to flood in, hundreds of them chatting and talking.
Hiiii!
bannerfall!!!
you need to stream more scott we’re feeling neglected
Not as bad as 4c though
4c feeds us then starves us :(
“No, I’ve been doing a stream literally every day,” he muttered to them.
Graecie overheard. “Oh, are you talking to the voices?”
Scott had long learned people all had different ideas of what seemed to be flowers. Some thought they were just loud voices, Shan thought they were waterdrops, he thought they were flowers, and the necromancer called them “ancient spirits of the long-dead.”
He had no idea how Sausage managed to be so eloquent in one sentence and then crass the next.
In these situations, the answer was just to go along with whatever the other person said, because arguing would do absolutely nothing except make the flowers laugh at them. And also because there would be so many deleted messages it would trigger a headache.
“Yeah, I started stream,” Scott said.
They walked for a little bit, exchanging meaningless pleasantries and small talk until they reached the No-Man’s-Land in between the kingdoms.
There, they met the rest of the Blue Kingdom– and the circus members.
“I’m Ser Tibultt, also known as Tibby,” Tibby introduced.
“Hello, Ser Tibultt, Tibby,” Mae nodded.
A sheep-hybrid interjected, “Uh, I’m Ba-ah-ah-x!”
“And I’m Rusty,” Rusty said in the back.
“Together we are the traveling entertainers of the circus!” Tibby announced. “Tickets are two gold, our show starts in…” she pulled out a pocket watch. “Ten minutes!”
OOO cameo
rustycourage spotted???
I wonder what the circus is going to be like
“Oh, well, that’s nice,” Owain replied. “I’m Owain, do not be fooled by my red garments, I am a loyal knight of the Blue Kingdom.”
“Yes, all of us hail from the- the Blue Kingdom!” Mae exclaimed.
Scott glanced at them. “Hi, I’m Scott, one of the kingdom’s mages.”
Bax smiled. “That’s nice, you see, I am a mage as well!”
Graecie waved cheerfully. “I am Graecie, also a knight of the Blue Kingdom!”
“And I am Maezes, a rogue, and queen of the Blue Kingdom!” Mae declared, striking a slight pose.
“Huzzah!” everyone cheered.
Scott wasn’t paying attention to what was happening.
There was something glowing in the forest to the left.
investigate!!!
“Anyways, we also have refreshments outside the tent, uhm, you’re free to check the tent out now if you want!” Tibby smiled. “Have a nice day- well, evening!”
The circus troupe walked off and Mae turned to Scott. “D’you think we should wake Nom up, get him to come?”
“You go do that, I saw… something,” Scott answered unconvincingly. Mae squinted at him, but left him alone to go into the forest.
Scott walked forward, following the slightly glowing orange light. Eventually, he reached a tree.
It didn’t look like the kinds he’d seen before– more so like the ones in the Forgotten Kingdom, grey, cracked, and old.
guys its a pale oak tree
[another creaking king plot!] Message was deleted by a moderator
The orange stuff looked like resin flowing from the tree, and when he gently prodded it with a finger, it came away sticky. Definitely resin, but this had to be a rare sort of tree, otherwise how would he have not learned of it?
Of course, he didn’t know everything, but he knew a fair bit. The flowers called it a pale oak tree?
How is it growing outside of the pale oak garden??
we all know you dont need to feign confusion
[go watch cam’s pov he has lore on that] Message was deleted by a moderator
kk ill do that
The flowers definitely knew something, but what was it?
He just took a sample of the strange sap and left for the circus.
~~~
As Rusty dodged both Shan and Cherri’s attacks, Scott smiled slightly.
Though the circus hadn’t had as much… violence back when he was a kid, the fireworks and tricks were certainly similar.
Well, now they were just fighting each other, though.
“You’re supposed to be fighting Rusty the Courageous, not each other,” Tibby called.
L imagine
the beef never stops!
Finally, the act ended, and they headed back to the stands.
Cam arrived during the intermission, while Scott quietly reminisced about how he used to do this. His parents often took him to the traveling circus troupe and let him see their acts.
He’d really loved that time.
This felt so similar…
But not quite.
After all, his parents weren’t here. Because he failed them.
ANGSTTTT
Scott leaned back in his seat as he thought about the harvest that morning. Had he given them enough magic? He was in charge of the food production because he had the right sort of magic for it, not because he was particularly good at farming.
They did tend to grow faster under his care, which was good, considering how much food the kingdom burned through each day. He probably needed to give the cows food too…
Cam turned into a frog up on stage, and some chaos happened that he didn’t notice.
please go closer i wanna see
He’s tuning us out, guys
SCOTTTT
The knights often needed a lot of steak, didn’t they? They loved their meat. Scott himself preferred vegetarian options, but sometimes snacked on some animal foods.
As Apo volunteered, he wasn’t listening.
Maybe if he had been, he would have noticed something shift in his mind.
Was it from the circus’s magic?
Or something much less benign?
He slept.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“WHY AM I A MAGE?!?!” Graecie’s distinctive voice screamed. Scott jolted awake and ended up staring into his own green eyes.
“HUH?” he gaped. “Why am I looking at me?”
“Better question, why am I you?” Graecie retorted, staring at him. “And why are you Nom?”
Scott instantly looked down on himself, seeing the familiar armor of a certain knight. “WHAT?!”
People ran around, screaming, but all with the wrong voices. Cherri stumbled in Owain’s lumbering gait, while Owain’s helmet had Shan’s voice coming out of it. Kitty sounded like Nom, while Scott and Graecie didn’t need to be mentioned.
He could barely hear over the yelling and general chaos.
It felt absolutely weird to be staring into his face, moving without his command.
The great Bannerfall swap!
omg flowersmith hes in noms body
hush
Is it a shuffle or a swap, bc if Scott’s in Nom why is Graecie in Scott?
That sounded wrong
HES GAY
The voices weren’t exactly helping either. In fact, they were being loud and giving Scott even more of a headache than all the people running about were.
Apo was Sausage, Cherri was Mae, Cam was Graecie, Sausage was Katie, everyone was in the wrong bodies– except, so conveniently, the circus troupe.
Speaking of whom, Sausage(or Katie’s body?) walked up to Scott, leaned in, and whispered, “I’m the better sibling.”
He then bounded away.
Scott got the feeling that this would be happening a lot.
KILL HIM
COMMIT MURDER
guys is this smth nom would do
HOMICIDE
DEFEND NOMS HONOR
No, I’m not going to commit a homicide, Scott irritably thought.
He was really annoying, maybe he should just…
[has the new bloodlust srsly not kicked in yet] Message was deleted by a moderator
Thats a shame
YES MURDER
“No,” he told them firmly, under his breath. “We’re not doing any murder.”
MURDER
“You see, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation!” Tibby announced, looking a bit panicked. “There are a lot of tensions between your kingdoms, right? What better way to ease them than by spending a day in each others’ shoes?”
“I think we were perfectly fine with the tensions we already had,” Nom called down.
Scott nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think so too.”
“Please, calm down,” Bax bleated. “This is an easy fix! We just need a few simple spell components.”
“How about,” Owain started. “We go into our souls’ kingdoms, and discuss what we’re going to do there.”
“Sure, yeah, let’s go outside,” Scott said.
They began to flood out of the tent, going to the right of the entrance.
Kill?
He ignored them until Sausage came bouncing over again.
“Mommy and Daddy liked me more than you, Mommy and Daddy liked me more than you,” he sang.
Steeling himself, Scott ignored him. He wouldn’t lose his temper that easily, especially in front of the other Blue Kingdom memb-
A quick attack-
“Mommy and Daddy liked me more than you~”
He drew a convenient diamond sword from its sheath and slashed Sausage’s throat cleanly.
YESS
BLOOOOD
On the spur of the moment, Scott also slammed the sword through Sausage’s chest.
The feeling of death echoed through most people’s minds.
Sausage Mythical was slain by Scott Springwell
A few shocked gasps sounded around him, but Scott was too busy sorting through his thoughts to notice who said them. What had he just done?
And how in the world had he managed to aim so precisely?
MURDER
KILLS
YAYAYYAYAY
he deserved it ngl
BE A BADASS SCOTT
[thank the creaking king for this blessing of violence] Message was deleted by a moderator
WHOOOOOO
He’d barely even touched a sword before! And now he was somehow wielding it with perfect precision?!
“Oh,” Mae whispered. “Oh goodness.”
our kid’s first kill *sniffles* i feel so proud
He’s an orphan don’t make jokes like that
YESSS
Owain was too preoccupied with how. “How did you know?! Also, you make a good knight,” he added as an afterthought.
Scott shrugged, trying to keep his inner conflict to himself. “To be fair, he ran up saying, ‘Mum and dad liked me more than you, mum and dad liked me more than you’. Feels like something Nom would have killed him for, at least.”
“Ah, well, that doesn’t seem like Nom’s fighting style, but alright,” Owain commented under his breath. “Anyways-” he turned to Bax. “What do you need to solve this?”
“Uh- maybe something… hard and shiny?” she suggested. “And- no, a bit bigger than that,” she said to a diamond that Graecie handed her.
Do a block!
diamond or gold??
“Well then, to the kingdom’s treasury!” Mae declared, still in Cam’s body.
Shan tapped on her– or technically Owain’s –helmet. “What if I took this off?”
Owain hastily grabbed her and dragged her to the side. “Please, don’t take that off,” he begged. “Please, please, don’t.”
WE WANNA SEE THE LION’S FACE
“Mmm, but what if I did~” Shan laughed.
Scott tuned them out as he started walking, turning over what he had just done in his head. Death wasn’t permanent by any means– at least, here it wasn’t. If you died in combat or to something like falling off a cliff, you would just “respawn”.
But to sickness and old age, it seemed death was permanent. Or, presumably. Otherwise, how would he have failed his father?
Then… how did the previous citizens of Bannerfall die, if it was in combat?
he found the plot hole everyone
I think its something to do with the gods?
Then why is 4C still alive? I thought he pissed them off
[not the mage goddess just rogue] Message was deleted by a moderator
MOD: Reminder that there are no spoilers for secret lore until the person says so!
There was still blood dripping from his sword.
He wiped it off carefully and watched it dissipate into dust as it fell.
My hc is that the gods have less people to respawn but the more people the harder
It’s a headcanon, so not a spoiler!
Respawns are on bc theres less people to respawn?
What even was a headcanon?
Kitty- no, Nom now? Popped his head out from the gates, waving a diamond block. “I got something shiny!”
Bax accepted the block. “Ohh, that was rather quick!”
“So what’s next?” Scott asked, catching up.
“Perhaaps… a potion?” Bax suggested, sounding a bit uncertain. “Any will do.”
“Okay, we’ve got one potion at the castle, I’ll go grab that,” Scott said. He left before anyone could object or volunteer themselves.
Mostly, he left because he was slightly scared he was going to snap on the other Blue Kingdom members.
He wasn’t violent.
He was.
Was he?
He had tried to hold back on Sausage– was this just a thing about being a knight?
poor blorbo has no idea
Angsttt
Pull those lifer skills on them!
hey the fourth wall is a thing
[FUCK THE FOURTH WALL I’M LOOKING AT YOU READERS] This message was deleted by a moderator
violence! violence!
Scott leapt a bit farther than before, too, so it was probably just the body. And he ran faster.
Yeah, his sudden skill in murder was just because he was in the wrong body.
Right.
Ignoring the fact that what he had pulled definitely wasn’t Nom’s style. Even Owain had commented on that.
Pressing the button to the treasury, the door swung open automatically, and he slipped in. It took a few seconds, but he found the instant health potion and was leaving the castle when Shan passed by.
“Hi Sha-” Scott started, but then he realized.
Wasn’t Bek the one currently in Shan’s body?
“Beeeek?” he asked, beginning to sprint after her. Bek quickened her pace. “Bek, I know it's you. Get out of our castle.”
“Noit’smeShan,” Bek quickly said, running faster and slamming the door to the treasury behind her.
Scott sighed and came in after her to find her rummaging through the chests. “Bek, can I help you right now?”
KILL
INTRUDER
a very small murder wouldn’t hurt
Rubbing the side of his head, Scott listened to what Bek had to say. “No, no, no, I’m fine!” she assured.
“Bek!” he exclaimed.
“I didn’t take anything!”
Scott checked.
He took the stuff just in case anybody came back later and tried to take it like Bek.
It was a shame she hadn’t taken anything, then Scott would have had an excuse to kill her.
“I just realized, this is so unfair,” Bek complained. “Cause the knights are all about their body, but the mages are like learnt, and I can’t use this staff.” She produced a staff, obviously Shan’s, from her inventory.
4C’s slime puddle of sleeping 4C slowly drew itself up into a humanoid shape, finally pinging everyone by announcing his wakefulness. “Uh-”
“You missed a lot,” Scott informed him, leaving.
An Irish goodbye, just like Nom.
“Nom? Nom you sound REALLY DIFFERENT?!?!” 4C yelped.
He didn’t reply.
4C trailed after him, where Scott collided with a fleeing Kitty- no, Nom? Running from Mae, who was screaming, “WE KILL NOMINALGRAVY!”
She finally managed to deal a fatal blow, allowing Kitty’s body to disintegrate into dust. “Success! SUCCESS! I KILLED NOMINALGRAVY!!!”
“What makes it crazier is that you’re a mage right now, which means you’re probably half limp noodle,” Scott commented.
Mae gasped, “We kill Nominalgravy- I killed Nominalgravy-”
4C stared at them. “It seems I have been asleep for something very…”
“Weird?” Shan asked.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” 4C hysterically laughed. “I DON’T KNOW.”
Mae yelped shortly as an arrow protruded from her neck, sending her into dust.
Maezes was slain by Nominal Gravy-Brr
SHE KILLED NOMINALGRAVY
mae finally did it!! :D
ALL HAIL NOM’S MURDERER
SUCCESSSS!!!!!!!
“I deserved that!” Mae’s voice echoed.
Sausage in Katie’s body appeared magically(he actually just walked up) and decided to start talking peacefully, until he started chanting, “My mommy liked me more than you, my mommy liked me more than you–”
What an annoyance.
MURDERRRRR
For once, Scott agreed with Chat, and lunged at Sausage, chasing him out the castle and to the front.
“Can I be a rogue, I wanna steal from people–” he yelped as Scott slashed him across the back, meeting a little resistance from his armor but generally landing the hit. “Ow!”
Scott jumped down, dodging Sausage’s next hit and parrying the one after that, before leaping forward and landing blow after blow, slash after slash, evading his flailing shield and not getting hit once.
“Two mages as knights,” Scott sighed. “But what I’m learning is–”
He launched a flurry of attacks which succeeded.
“One of us is considerably better than the other,” he finished over Sausage’s dust.
Sausage Mythical was slain by Scott Springwell
…You know, the whole murder thing was starting to get pretty fun. Either Nom had better training than Katie, or there really was something wrong with Scott.
He was starting to not mind, though.
This was so easy.
And genuinely made him a bit happier, to know he was better.
It was beautiful.
This bloodshed thing was a lot more interesting than he had originally thought it would be.