Chapter Text
I know you’re here to escape the pain that was the ending of It: Chapter 2 . I mean, it’s all that I’ve been trying to do ever since the movie came out, and I think that I’m close to replacing that ending with the fanon ending where everyone is alive and happy (including you Stan).
Besides, you’ve already read the tags so you know exactly what’s going to happen here. Richie and Eddie will fall in love after some angst. You already know the entire cast, unless you’re not a fan of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Which if you’re not, what is wrong with you? It’s got faeries, romance, terrible actors who don’t have the self-awareness to comprehend their own inadequacies. But I’m sure you’ll be able to catch on as we go.
Here enters the first player in this faerie tale; Richie. You already know what he looks like, but there are some key differences you need in order to understand this story. In addition to being a prince, Richie is a sylph. So take your human!Richie, give him long elf ears and a pair of dragonfly wings coming from his shoulder blades, dressed in medieval tunics and trousers, usually in greens and browns. Because those two colors were the colors of the Gloaming Court, a faerie court that ruled over a large forest that only the bravest or most foolish humans dared to enter. And Richie is the prince of this faerie court, the son of King Oberon.
Today, Richie waited at the edge of the Gloaming Forest at the top of a tree that only a flying faerie could reach. But he wasn’t anywhere near the human settlements on the edge of his father’s land. Rather, he looked out at the calm expanse of the ocean. For that day was the Midsummer Solstice, an important holiday for faerie-kind. A celebration of the magic the Earth and the Sun gave to their children, of life and love. All of that interested Richie, though mostly the celebrating part. He couldn’t really remember exactly why they would celebrate this holiday, despite the efforts of several dozen tutors in his life. Rather, this year Oberon had invited the neighboring Seelie Court to celebrate with them.
The Seelie Court rules over the ocean as the Gloaming Court rules over the forest. While Richie’s court had creatures such as elves, sylphs, salamanders, and pixies, the Seelie Court was home to merfolk, undines, kelpies, sirens, and other aquatic faeries. Though Richie was only really interested in the royal family; the mermaid Seelie queen, Titania and her two children, a princess and a prince, who were said to be the most two beautiful children in all of the Seelie kingdom. Richie has heard that every siren is jealous of the princess, and that every female in the Seelie court fell ill with a broken heart for a month after the prince announced that he was only interested in men.
So, eternally horny Richie was mostly interested in the princess and prince.
“Careful,” a voice Richie was all too familiar with said. “You could fall and break your neck from this height.”
“Maybe that’s the goal,” Richie said as he flutters his wings.
Robin Goodfellow, the Puck of the Gloaming Court, stood on a branch that shouldn’t be able to support his weight. Robin was the right-hand man of Oberon, as every Puck has served the Gloaming Monarch as long as the Gloaming Court has existed. First and foremost, the Puck is a prankster or jester, bringing joy and embarrassment to the Gloaming Court. I strongly recommend that the second most powerful person in any government not be a joker, but it works with the fae, so they’re free to continue as they will.
“My father forbade me from being in the party that greets the Seelie Court,” Richie said.
“For good reason,” Robin replied.
“Name one reason why I shouldn’t be down there?”
“You’re entire life.”
Richie shrugs and looks back at the sea. “Fair enough.”
Far below the two faeries, the entourage led by King Oberon broke out of the tree line and walked onto the beach. Richie could barely make out his father from this height, with Robin walking right behind him.
“Okay, how are you able to do that?” Richie asks.
“Practice. Or a spell that tethers me to Oberon so my body will mirror everything he does.”
Richie briefly contemplated flying down to his father and doing whatever it took to get Oberon to dance so Robin’s body would do it as well. But not only would Oberon punish Richie for that, Robin would get back into his body and end the spell long before Richie got down there.
“Besides,” Robin said, “you’re going to be far more interesting to be with than the courtiers Oberon brought with him.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“It was.”
“Quiet, I think they’re coming.”
Richie and Robin looked at the water as it crashed against the beach, the waves at first hiding the heads of the Seelie faeries. Some of them looked humanoid, except for the runes tattooed all over their body, and the long fish tails that shifted into two legs when they left the water. The blue-green horse bodies of the kelpies, the blue skinned undines, even a cecaelia with eight inky black tentacles crawled across the beach.
Richie knew that the tall faerie at the front of the entourage had to be queen Titania. He could feel her queenly presence even from the top of the tree. Anyone could really, because beings as ancient and as powerful as Titania radiate magic that even those of us who have no magical ability could feel it.
And then of course, the two figures behind Titania had to be the Seelie Princess and Prince. And thus enters the second player in our little drama; Eddie, the Seelie Prince. He, like his mother Titania and sister Maeve, was merfolk. Merfolk tattoo magic runes on their skin as spell books aren’t the best option for them. Merfolk don’t wear much clothing as it tends to make swimming that difficult. I mean, that’s why skinning dipping is popular. They tended to wear silver necklaces and bracelets, sometimes even breastplates, though I don’t recommend using silver as actual armor. It’s expensive and you can get better materials for much cheaper. And the merfolk tended to wear medium length skirts whenever they ventured outside of the water to keep things safe for children. The latter is the only thing that Eddie currently wears. Every single one of his magic runes and carved muscles on display for anyone to view. If Richie had been anywhere close to the Seelie Prince, he wouldn’t be able to say a coherent sentence for at least a full minute.
King Oberon greeted Queen Titania like an old friend, then turned his attention to her two children. “Princess Maeve, Prince Eddie, it is an honor to welcome you to my court.”
Maeve dipped her golden-blonde head in a bow. “It is a pleasure to be here for the Solstice.”
Eddie bowed. “I look forward to the celebration,” he blatantly lied. Eddie has never been a huge fan of having two-dimensional movement, and his legs are always itchy. But he had promised his mother to behave tonight. After Titania had politely threatened him.
“I have much to show you,” Oberon said, “Much to show your entire court.” As Oberon led the Seelie Court guests through his forest, Eddie wished that the day would end and he would get back to his underwater life.