Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Waking up, the first thing he felt was cold. No, that was wrong. The first thing he was feeling was actually quite warm, and comforting, but that seemed wrong. Taking a slow breath in it was difficult, wrapped up as he was. But he felt so comfortable, and while it was… a little disconcerting, he had a feeling that comfort was foreign to him. Just laying there and listening to his surroundings he sensed really nothing except for the beating of his own heart. The constant thumping sound was also soothing in a weird way. Slowly blinking his eyes, he was finally able to actually take in his surroundings visually. However the only thing that he could actually see was that everything was… green? Green with a faded light behind it it seemed. That was nice actually, and while breathing was a little difficult with how wrapped up he felt, that didn’t seem like such an important thing right now. 

In fact maybe he could just… 

Close his eyes for a bit again… 

Enjoy this while it lasted… 

A while later, he didn’t know how long, he woke up spasming and jolting, feeling a spike of fear in his heart as a nightmare he already couldn’t remember left its dredges in his mind. He had to… He had to move, he had to get out of here, get out, get out get out get out GET OUT GET OUT-

Where was he? 

What was covering him? 

Why couldn’t he move? 

WHY COULDN’T HE MOVE?

Struggling he soon found that he in fact could move his arms slowly, the limbs feeling stiff and heavy at the same time, as though he’d been… carrying something? No, not quite, they felt almost… numb. He was beginning to panic, breathing coming fast as he struggled against his body trying to fight his way out.

He started to try and squirm to get out of this little pocket of warmth he found himself in. What had started out feeling secure and safe now felt like a prison, a verdant smothering prison that he had to GET OUT OF.

Purple hands started ripping and tearing away the green. Those must be his, that was new, or was it old? He didn’t have time to think about it, he didn’t have time to think about anything he simply had to get out. Once he broke into air, he took a deep breath, before coughing hard as his nose and throat were assaulted with the most floral aromas he’d ever smelled… at least he thought so. Maybe? he didn’t know, he didn’t know anything, and thinking? If he tried thinking about it he felt a pain in his head, maybe best to just focus on what was actually going on around him for now. Think later, focus on the now, the present.

 Trying to gasp for air through his mouth to give his nose a break until he was more used to it, he felt himself trembling as his limbs began to slowly wake up from their numb state. It was around now that to his left he heard something and whipped his head in that direction. 

MISTAKE.

His head throbbed with pain and he felt nausea build in his gut, his eyesight going dark for a second as he wobbled in place. Taking more deep breaths his vision returned in a moment, and found himself watching as another purple hand burst out of what looked like a green mound covered in some lavender, teal, and blue flowers. Following the hand was a horned figure, gasping for air much like he had been, and whipping his own head around, before bright red eyes met his.

The two of them sat there, staring for a minute while panting. He watched as the other figure wobbled in place a bit, a sickly look coming over his face as the repercussions of moving your head too quickly after whatever was happening affected him as well. Looking down at his own apparent mound, had they been buried? In plants? He saw bright red and dark purple flowers growing around him, as well as a few matching sprigs of lavender, a few having been torn in his rapid escape. Clenching and unclenching his fists he reached up and felt along his head, noticing that he had horns like the other person in this place. He grit his teeth(sharp?) and tried to get out of the plants he was trapped in, but just succeeded in flopping right back inside with a loud groan, his entire body aching now that the numbness was gone. He swore he heard a high pitched giggle, but it was swiftly followed with a groan similar to his own. He wanted to call out something in reply but it got choked up in his throat. Words tasted weird in his mouth, his tongue feeling heavy as he almost nicked it with his fangs. He was pretty sure it came out sounding like a gurgle, and his mouth tasted like it was coated in saw dust, despite not being dry at all. He was just learning all sorts of things about himself today it seemed. Fangs, purple skin, and a set of horns that felt as though they curled around his head, which all in all made him think that the other figure he saw looked a hell of a lot like him. Strange.

With a loud groan he tried sitting up again, fighting against his body’s exhaustion to take a look around and find the other purple person in the room with him. It took a lot, his entire being seeming to fight against him in simply trying to sit up. Finally he was somewhat vertical, zeroing in on the other mound in the room. He saw their feet sticking out of the top, as if they’d tried to wiggle out that way before giving up. “E-” He immediately started to cough, his throat protesting any form of communication due to lack of use, though not lack of moisture it seemed, thanks to whatever was going on in his… plant cocoon? He had a vague feeling of deja vu and shook his head, only to groan once more at the motion. He felt like he had a massive hangover, and every single movement just caused pins and needles of pain across his body and nausea to roil in his stomach. Whatever was happening here he was not a huge fan at all. Even moving his arms to hold his head felt like a ridiculous task.

Noises from the other veggie lump brought his attention up once more as the other purple being finally managed to perch on the lip of the grass, showing off that they were completely in the buff. Now that he thought about it it appeared that he was in a similar state, which… okay they were definitely way too similar. The only thing his brain offered him as an explanation was “family”, so perhaps that was right… no, no that seemed wrong, but it was the only explanation he had… He was also pretty sure this other person was doing better at the whole “getting out of here” thing which he felt like was something he could not allow. Fighting through the pain shooting through him he started pushing himself up and out of his cocoon, hands on the sides as he struggled. His body felt like it was screaming at him to stop, sharp pains shooting all through his muscles down to his very bones in protest but he didn’t care. He was doing it, he was getting out of the word plant pod he had escaped from, he was… 

Falling. 

He was falling arse over teakettle and landing flat on his back knocking the wind out of himself in the process, making all of the pain almost a thousand times worse as he gasped out. Again he heard giggling from close by. Flipping off the one laughing at his misery, hissing at the pain surrounding his hands, he tried to sit up again. This was a mistake, he groaned as the feeling around his whole body started getting actually worse. Maybe he should just… Lay here for a while on the soft grass, it was nice actually, warm… Hearing a noise that was like a squawk and a yelp he turned his head only to get slammed with another purple body. Seemed that his double tried to follow after him and now they were a pile of painful limbs on the ground. 

Growling lowly he glared at the other, who looked to be a little confused and discombobulated, blinking rapidly before growling back in reply, though his seemed more of a reaction than a threat. They struggled apart from each other, each ending up flat on their backs gasping and panting for air. He felt a little vindictive pleasure that it was just as much effort for the other as it was for him. A very petty feeling caused him to smack the other tiefling’s chest with the back of his hand, though all that did was give him an equal smack to his own, causing a bloom of pain again. His whole body felt as though tiny needles were shooting through him from everywhere, from his horns to his tail, top layer of skin all the way to deep in his bones. Actually wait, backup a tick, he had a tail, which was making itself known as it started to twitch and move along the grass. It was also in pain it seemed, and his double hissed when it smacked against his thigh. Seemed the two tieflings were at an impasse, both in pain and neither wanting to move. Trying to speak just ended with him choking on his words, and any form of movement shot the needling pain through his body. With how the other was reacting it seemed to be the same for them as well. Snarling at the ceiling above him, he tried to just sit up, but that proved far too much effort and he just ended up groaning and laying back down. His attempt at getting up was hindered more when the other just started smacking at his chest again, making low grumbles of his own as if trying to stop him. Huffing and finally giving up he laid there, feeling the other squirm closer and… what the fuck? Wrinkling his nose he tried to push the other off of him, but just succeeded in getting tangled up, limbs and tail both and… was the bastard purring?

The efforts of all the movement he’d spent caught up with him as he laid there being… cuddled for lack of a better word, by someone who seemed to look similar to him. Laying there with no option he decided that maybe it was best to try and gather his thoughts, as scattered as they were right now. 

First, he’d woken up in a weird pod, surrounded by plants.

Second, the only other creature that seemed to be around was someone who, as far as he could tell, looked just like him. 

Third, every time he tried to speak it felt like something was stopping him, stuffing his mouth so that words were impossible. 

Closing his eyes he took another deep breath, ignoring the fact his body’s natural reaction to the purring was to purr right back. It was oddly comforting in a way. Soon the purring started to stutter just slightly, still present but sporadic amongst the calm, even breathing of the tiefling beside him. He opened his eyes once, staring above him at a ceiling covered in what looked like a type of luminescent moss, probably the source of the light that was shining through his grass cocoon. It wasn’t so bright as to cause discomfort, but it made it possible to see the room. 

He had no idea where he was, and as his eyelids drooped all he could think of now was that he just felt so tired… honestly just purely exhausted. Trying to move as much as he did in such a short amount of time? Bad idea… Terrible truly. He was stupid and impulsive to even try, and why should he have even cared about trying to “beat” the other tiefling at all? It was ridiculous, all that it caused was pain and anger and now he was flat on his back barely feet away from where he started, being held against his will. Despite what his tail was doing wrapping around the other’s in a weird instinctual display of comfort. He felt himself slowly fading, the sound of purring next to him and the heartbeats he felt thrumming through both his and his unlikely companions chests creating a soothing melody that helped him drift off. His last thought before sleep was a simple one, one that really should have occurred earlier. Who was this strange other person, and on that note, who was he?

Chapter Text

Waking up was the hardest part of this whole endeavor. Everytime he did he kept trying to recall the most important things, dreams that danced in his head tauntingly. Dreams that held the answers to all of his questions, but they slid through his mind like sand through his fingers. Not that he knows what sand through his fingers is really like other than a vague concept. Opening his eyes he saw the bright forever open sky of strange swirling stars that surrounded the floating garden he had woken up in. There was a sound of grumbling off to the side, he turned to look at his only companion on this floating vegetation. Having found a pool of water a bit ago the two tieflings had noticed that they did indeed look identical to each other. Same horns, same eyes, same bare lavender skin and bright purple curls of hair. Though there were now some obvious differences between the two. As they had lived here the past few… days, weeks? Who even knew at this point really, he had found the mess of curls around his horns to be ridiculous to manage and had on a whim decided to chop it off to his shoulders when he was first given the opportunity. He had also taken to braiding any flowers that he found around them around his horns and into his hair, being sure to grab one of every new kind that they came across. Meanwhile his grumpy double had fashioned himself a comb out of some dried branches of a small tree, using that to keep his own curls in line. At some point during one of their rests, he’d taken hold of the tense tiefling’s hair and braided it to keep the hair more manageable, if he insisted on keeping it. It had been a familiar process, and honestly a little grounding in a sense. It felt like something he’d done many many times, natural to his dexterous fingers that had long stopped being stiff. After the first few times of doing so without asking, they’d reached a point where at the end of the night while they set their meager camp he’d end up with the other tief plopped down in front of him, awkwardly keeping his eyes averted as he asked for help. It just endeared him more to his grumpy companion, feeling like it was a fantastic way to connect and allow the two of them to get used to each other. They’d taken to wordlessly asking for help when they needed it, showing affection or irritation with their own little language of chirps purring and growls. Then again, all of their communication was wordless it seemed. Having tried time and time again to try and say something, anything, all that came out of either of their mouths was one word.

“Empty.”

Shaking his head he snapped out of his thoughts, now seeing his sole friend standing up, calling out to him using said one word to get his attention. He grinned seeing the man wearing his makeshift long skirt of grass and large leaves. He felt proud of that, after all he’d made it. Along with his own shorter skirt, which if you asked him he looked damn good in it. Honestly they both looked damn good either way, but for some reason his companion had acted awkward the entire time they’d walked around in the nude. But if he knew anything about himself he was an accommodating person and so he’d spent a good few days using vines grass and leaves to create some modicum of coverage. A low growl from the other coupled by an eye roll and jerk of his head spoke volumes. ‘We don’t have time for this, let’s get going.’ He gave his own eye roll paired with a flip of the bird and sticking out his forked tongue. ‘Fuck you’.

He got up and stretched, feeling his tail whip around a bit before walking back over to his double, grabbing the large stick he’d been using as a weapon for the past few… however. It was this stick he’d sharpened one side of to create something to slice through both his hair and the masses of vegetation that plagued their floating place. There was no way to tell day and night here, it all just stayed the same other than the plants growing. If they were tired, they slept, if they were hungry, they found some mushrooms or plants. So far he’d only been poisoned once and his double had figured out a way to fix that. Same as how when trying to cut through a big mass of plants, he’d cut himself and caused ice to appear on the branch he’d hurt himself with. That ended up helping the two of them a few times now, though they weren’t really in any danger it seemed. So far the most harmful things were poisonous plants that they shouldn’t eat (bright red mushrooms were a no no), and there was no way off this floating cabbage patch. Well, that wasn’t necessarily true. If they wanted to, they could float, which was a lot of fun! Sometimes he just floated along relaxing in the air, and it helped him stretch out his stiff limbs in the beginning. He only moved just a little quicker when floating than when walking anyway, so he was perfectly content to use the strange floatyness to just practice some ridiculous air flips and even juggling his and his companions sticks when the whim touched him. He’d have been happy just floating everywhere, however his double was much faster than him, and was impatient in waiting for him to catch up when they were flying around. 

Which, honestly, quite rude! 

It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t able to speed up when floating around like his braided brother, and he really shouldn’t be made fun of, as much as you can make fun of someone without actually talking. The point was, they had both decided that it was safer with the boring non-danger they knew. The temptation was there for course, but the idea of floating off into who knows where with no direction and possibly no way to return to this little oasis in empty space was far too much for either of them. At least he was pretty sure that was what was decided.

Either way, here they were again, walking barefoot through grass and roots as they continued trying to find something, anything in this strange place that could give a clue as to what to do next. The plant life was amazing and beautiful truly, and honestly it just brightened him up so he wasn’t too frustrated about the whole being totally and utterly lost thing. He’d taken to thinking about his dreams, when they were on these long walks through the jungle. He hated waking up because those dreams were always bright and full of color. Loud laughter mixed with a joy that filled his chest, love bursting forth for… someone. Not just one person either, there were a good amount of people, people who were so important… It kept happening, they were so close yet so far away, and any time he felt like he could just… 

Tripping over a root and falling against the other tiefling earned him a snarl and light smack to the shoulder. He looked up just in time to witness the angry tiefling to lose balance as he’d turned around, heel catching against something and he fell right on his ass backwards, luckily not in a way that hurt his tail though. “Empty!” He was glared up at by the other, watching as his cheeks flushed and tail whipped around in obvious embarrassment mixed with irritation. He couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled up, nor the grin on his own face as he helped the poor fool back onto his feet. Ah, that was something. He really should name his poor friend honestly, at least until they could both actually articulate. Thinking about it he decided that Fool may be the best he could think of at the moment, and honestly it fit quite well. The poor bastard was leading them in circles around the whole floating island, and obviously had no fucking clue where they were or how to even actually get anywhere. He acted so confident only to be proved wrong quickly as they walked, growling and snarling as he giggled and snickered at his ineptitude. They’d had a good amount of fist fights together, in which Fool was always the winner and so continued acting as the leader. Really he was just… ridiculous in total. Oh yeah, he was calling him Fool from now on.

He didn’t feel guilty for giving him a name, and if Fool wanted to take on an actual name later, well he could do that and then tell him what it was. Besides, he had a feeling that Fool was using their shared only word as his own name, which would explain how he was choosing to use it. Empty. The only thing they could say, and honestly he hated it. It made him feel… well empty honestly, and was the reason he avoided talking at all. Maybe if he actually tried he could fix it but just saying the word made him uncomfortable. Though when Fool spoke it, it wasn’t actually that bad… actually, it felt familiar, now that he thought about it. Following Fool again as they kept walking he was thinking about it now, wondering why he was okay with Fool saying the word but not speaking it. Maybe...

“Empty…” He spoke out loud for the first time in a few days, but this time… this time he put thought behind it. “Em… pty…”

That was closer, that… 

He couldn’t quite get there it seemed. However, if he was calling the other Fool, it followed that he should take the name being offered.

He grinned to himself and shook his head, clapping the other tiefling on the back as they walked. He thought back to his dreams, thinking about it all. He knew who they were… the people in his dreams. He had given them all names, names he needed to remember. Looking at the flowers bursting around him he thought about it… Fool didn’t seem to feel any which way, but to Empty, as he was dubbed for now, flowers made him think of someone very very important. Someone he knew who was gone a lot, but stayed around a lot more. Someone who…

He sighed softly, feeling his face fall into a pout as he just couldn’t get his fuzzy brain to pull up anything. He knew it was close, just at the tip of his tongue even at this point. Maybe soon those dreams would form into something he could remember. Empty stretched up and moved his fingers to run through his hair, scratching around his scalp and making a face. He was in such a desperate need for a bath. He would just kill for a beautiful hot spring with some fancy smelling oils and soaps. For now he was making do with the flowers he had decorating his head to try and cover any smells, something he kept trying to do for Fool as well. He reached into his hair, pulling free a small dried clover that he’d found outside of his… waking place. He’d found it by chance, and felt the urge to keep it close because it was… important. It was important because…

Why was this clover important? It wasn’t nearly as beautiful as any of he flowers, but the idea of throwing it away brought a sharp pain to his chest. He twirled the stem between his fingers as he bit his lip, ignoring the fact his fangs nicked it and brought up some blood. What he wouldn’t give for some form of lip balm, or really any form of make up really…

He stared at his clover, trying to figure out exactly what it was… Taking in a deep breath he hummed softly to himself as he tried to figure out what it was he was trying to remember… Was it connected to a place or to a person? Partially closing his eyes he tried to picture it in his mind’s eye. He was holding a clover, this clover, and he... he gave it to someone.

He had seen it and decided it was perfect for someone important.

Someone who he… loved.

He had someone who he loved out there, someone he’d given this clover to.

He loved them.

Love?

Love!

He stopped dead in place, staring unseeing at his clover as his mind felt like it was struck. Which followed along very well with his Love, his sad angel who couldn’t handle being around people for too long before having to scurry away to do her business. Who would stare out at the sky waiting for storm clouds to whisk her away. He could see her, dark hair with white at the bottom, mismatched eyes staring into his eyes, could hear her voice gently talking to him. He could picture her in her awkward way, the monochrome beauty in a rainbow of colors. He remembered laughter and deadpan jokes, he remembered her. He remembered her and her warm hugs, he remembered her fearsome fighting style, he remembered her awkward sweet smile every time he worked with her long hair. He remembered her and he missed her .

“Empty?”

He only just noticed that the entire world around him was blurry, his face feeling uncomfortably wet as he looked up. When had he started sitting down on the floor? His companion was looking almost scared, definitely awkward, hand reached out to him in an aborted half motion, the meekest attempt at comfort it seemed. Tears were streaming down his face as he looked up at the other tiefling, but all he kept thinking of was his Love, who he’d given this clover to so long ago. He opened his mouth, lips trembling as his body started to catch up with his emotions. Fool looked as if he’d been hit in the gut, frantically looking him over as if that would solve this problem. It almost was enough to make him laugh, but all that was rushing through his head was how much he wanted his Love to be here, where was she? Why was he stuck on this strange place with Fool and himself the only living things? And it wasn’t just Love, there were others, others he still couldn’t remember but he wanted them. He wanted his family and instead he was lost and had no idea what to do other than follow Fool.

“E-emp… Em…” Fool was looking frustrated and concerned, a strange mix, and oh wasn’t that just sad? The poor bastard was so emotionally constipated he couldn’t just offer comfort. Well luckily he had no such qualms and grabbed the man by his wrist, yanking him down into a hug, still holding his clover. He was treated with a low growl but Fool didn’t fight against him, simply looking at Empty and glancing at the clover still held delicately in his hand. He gave a low chirp with a raised eyebrow, awkwardly moving to try and return the hug, a little stiff and definitely not something it seemed he was used to, but bless him he was trying and Empty was really on the edge right now.

Holding up the clover, trying to take in enough of a breath, he felt his mouth move in a strange way, but it just seemed to fit what he needed. “L-lo… Lo-ove…” And with that he broke.

Chapter Text

Waking up always came with a mental checklist. Or at least it had when he’d spoken aloud his worries to his friends and they told him of a way they all kept track of themselves in Rumblecusp back when dealing with some wanna-be volcano god named Avocado. Sitting up and taking a breath the purple tiefling sighed softly. “My name is Kingsley Tealeaf. I’m of the Mighty Nein. I had a brother named Mollymauk, he once had this body. I… don’t remember anything more than meeting my friends… So I’m just me.” Kingsley stretched out after that, laying back down on his hammock as he stared at the ceiling. He’d had a nightmare again, about screaming and chains and flesh… always nasty those ones. But it had slowly morphed after a time, the screaming fading and the flesh rotting and changing into a verdant landscape, much like Caduceus’ magic tended to do. He had a feeling that was his earliest true memory, since waking from a dream that didn’t feel like his own. 

Using his tail he set his hammock to rocking, thinking about his friends. Well they called themselves his friends really, and while yes he had strangely fond feelings for each of them, he still felt… odd about the whole thing. Kingsley knew they had all been disappointed when he started talking after waking up, when Jester had used that fancy cleric magic on him and ripped him whole from the vague fuzzy feelings he had been wrapped in. They weren’t disappointed in him mind, and they all made sure to explain that any time it came up. They all just missed his brother. And from the stories they told of the mad lad they were right to be sad that he was gone. Mollymauk Tealeaf seemed to have been a full experience to get to know, and they tried not to overly romanticize him either. Scribbles was always the first to tell Kingsley how much of an absolute dick Molly was, a trait they apparently shared, and the legend of the Horrible Hospital Heist was retold a good amount of times already, from multiple viewpoints. He remembered Hot Boi mentioning how his country’s whole weird reincarnation thing worked, stating how it was possible that one day he’d wake up with memories of another life in his head. According to his friends, whether that ever happened or not, he’d get to choose to be whoever he wanted to be and they’d all support him. Unless he decided to be Lucien, then they might have problems.

 As his hammock slowly came to a stop he pressed his palms into his eyes  hard enough to see spots, taking another deep breath then exhaling harshly before jumping up with a grin. Enough of that melancholy, he knew his place with his friends, he knew that while they missed Molly they also loved him, and he knew that if he didn’t get started on his job now then the Captain would get pissed at him and chew his arse out in front of the crew, especially after they picked up his… dad? Dad, close enough to be at the very least. Looking around he was relieved to see he wasn’t the last one up thankfully, giving an almost feral grin as he saw the perfect target to hide the fact that he’d slept in late. 

“MARIUS!” Quick as his whip Kingsley slapped the man’s stomach with the spade of his tail before scurrying out of there with a giggle, enjoying the loud high pitched yelp followed by sailor worthy cursing from his hammock. “YOU’RE SLACKING MARIUS!” Kingsley turned a sharp corner, trying to get to his post before he was caught. However fate had other plans as he almost ran directly into his captain, his ears and tail drooping as he glanced up at the Half-orc. Fjord gave him a blank look followed by a slow raise of his eyebrow, crossing his arms as he casually tilted his head. “You were saying, Tealeaf?” “Erm… Nightmares are a right bitch?”

Fjord snorted and shook his head, breaking his stern persona as he grabbed Kingsley by the shoulder and pulled him into a slight hug. “Alright, sure. But honestly Kingsley you’re the one that wants to learn all of this, that means being awake and actually doing the work. You can’t become a captain if you don’t know anything.” Kingsley huffed, feeling his face flush as he returned the side hug awkwardly. “I know I know, I’m the one asking for this. I’m honestly doing my best Captain. And I wasn’t wrong Marius was still sleeping too.” Fjord sighed and rubbed his temple. “Fucking Marius, look all joking aside, Marius actually is a fantastic example of the fact that anyone can learn to work on the crew. Man hadn’t gone even a mile out to sea before we got hold of him.”

“Against his will.”

“Against his will. But that didn’t stop him from learning. Tell you what, shadow over Orly for the next few weeks alright? Maybe even a few months honestly. I think you’ve got the cannon’s handled alright now, and learning to navigate with the stars is an important thing.” Fjord had already started leading him above deck, Kingsley starting to perk up a bit at the idea of learning from the tortle who ran the ship when Fjord, Jester, and himself were off fucking around with the rest of the Nein. Taking a deep breath of the sea air Kingsley nodded his head, adjusting his black coat as he followed along with his Captain. 

Learning to navigate using the sun and stars was an interesting experience, and if he had to admit it he really didn’t mind the work he had to do. It was actually a lot of fun using the tools Orly offered him and figuring out how to read a compass and sextant, which had a very misleading name. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed about what that little doohickey actually did. Kingsley focused hard on learning how to copy Orly, intent on doing well with this. It had happened quite a few times now that he had heard the Nein joking about Lucien’s lack of navigation skill when they had had to travel with the bastard, and if this was one way he could prove to be different than that man, he’d take it. 

Orly was a kind teacher, but stern in a way that made him feel guilty any time he tuned out and got distracted from the lessons. He took no shit either, keeping Kingsley on his toes with crass jokes and the odd discordant bagpipe solo that he did when catching anyone dilly-dallying around on deck. Even initially when Kingsley started on as essentially a cabin boy for the crew for those first long months, Orly had kept him on his toes. The salty bard had seemed to pick up on the fact that Jester and Fjord happened to let him get away with a lot more than he really should have for the most part. Even now they still seemed to treat him like he could disappear on them at any moment, which definitely made him feel a little guilty about his future plans once he actually learned all he could from this crew. He couldn’t get away with anything on this ship without judgmental and almost grandfatherly Tortle stares when he fucked around.

After a few hours of lessons, Kingsley was called away by Jester asking for his assistance. She had large swathes of deep green cloth surrounding her, held in place by what looked like a few crates that had cannonballs inside to make them heavy enough, holding her paintbrush in hand as she looked them over. “Kiiiiing! I need some help with this stuff. So like, painting outfits is like a totally different experience than actually like making an outfit, but I wanna try because like how cool would that be you know? So I was thiiiinking that I could make some like leetle matching outfits for yooooou and meeee and Fjooooord and like if they turn out okay? I could maybe make more? But like it’s not the FIRST time I’ve ever made any kinda clothes cause like I totally made some awesome cloaks for traveller-con3000 totally! But like a cloak is SO DIFFERENT from a shirt or like paaaants or a skiiirt… So like can you help me out?” Jester swung her brush around as she made grand sweeping statements, a few little splats of the vibrant green landing on the deck next to her. Kingsley glanced up toward where Fjord was standing, only to see the guy whistling and pointedly NOT looking over at them. 

Well, apparently his little Joy Buzzer had it in her head that he could help with this sort of thing. A part of him felt like it was probably a Molly thing that she was hoping he happened to have. He felt a little upset at that, knowing that he was probably going to disappoint her which would just lead to him feeling like he wasn’t good enough as he was AGAIN, but looking at Jester’s hopeful face however… He accepted his fate and just plopped right down next to her, all smiles. “I got like, half of that? Slow down a tick and actually give me something to work with here Joy Buzzer.” Knocking horns with her lightly he got to work trying to figure out what it was she was trying to do here. 

Designing outfits was one thing, he knew she was really good at that, exhibit A being his current outfit, exhibit B being her own, but actually trying to create the outfits themselves? That required measurements and knowing how to sew and things that Kingsley honestly didn’t really know? Luckily for him after a bit it became obvious that all Jester really needed was a sounding board that expressed interest in what she was doing. She seemed incredibly competent in her sketching and estimation of sizes of not only herself but of the Captain, and himself, as well as their other friends as obviously with matching outfits she just had to make them for all of the Mighty Nein because, “Honestly Kingsley it would just be STOOPID if I didn’t just make one for everyone because like how would Yasha and Beau feel if it was only for us? You know Veth will want Luc to have like a cute little matching overalls too and Oh my GOD don’t you think Essek and Caleb would love matching coats?” He actually felt proud of the fact that she remembered to keep his matching outfit(ridiculously endearing) just in his taste. The perfect mixture of subtle and gaudy, with gold and silver trim but the steady green color that she insisted had to be the base color for everyone. 

She asked him to help sew a few items, and he found the motion familiar despite pricking him a few times on the needle. Apparently Molly must have been good at this, which if that gods awful coat was any indication had to be the case. He kept the thing, knowing the sentimental value it had to his friends. Despite how many times he had wanted to just throw it into the ocean on days with especially dark thoughts on who he was and who he had been, he could never quite bring himself to do it. So it sat at the bottom of his bag, folded up and only taken out every few months or so to bring to Joy Buzzer for some Mending. She always looked melancholy when she did, and so he tried not to take it out too often. He hated it when they were having a grand ol’ time and suddenly he said or did something that brought the same sadness to any of his friends’ faces. 

Sucking at his pricked finger he figured today was just a Mollymauk day for him and there was no escaping it. It happened at times, and this wasn’t a really bad one luckily, better than a Lucien day at the very least. He needed to stop that thought process before it became one though, he never had fun on Lucien days. However Molly days, those were 50/50 on being good or bad. So far it seemed on the verge of bad if he kept trying to think of all the ways his friends wished he was his brother, but if he flipped how he thought of it… 

The things he was able to do that he got from Molly were actually entertaining at the very least. He had abnormally good balance when up high in the rigging that he was certain came from some circus nonsense, and he could juggle a lot of strange things. Or at least he had the muscle memory of juggling, the actual catching of said objects was difficult at times if he wasn’t paying enough attention. He also could apparently sew pretty decently, even if he kept pricking his fingers with the needle. These were all good things. According to the Magic Man he could bullshit with the best of them, and that was a positive according to the Nein. These were all good things that he really didn’t mind taking on and making his own. Well maybe not the sewing, but he’d always be willing to help Jester at least, if only to get that beaming smile out of his fellow tief. 

Though he didn’t think anything could beat how excited she had been when he’d decided to view her as an adopted sister. That one hadn’t even been his decision actually, the minute he’d met Marion Lavorre the woman had all but taken him under her wing, trying to help and explain all things about being a tiefling that he would never have known otherwise. Since then Jester loved to call him her brother at any chance, and had taken to being “like the best big sister ever TOTALLY, other than Beau, who’s also pretty great”. He stopped his sewing as he remembered one big conversation he and the woman who told him he could call her Mama had just a few months ago last they were in Nicodranas.

“Darling, your name and who you are is yours to decide. My little Sapphire chose her own name years ago, you have simply done the same. Kingsley Tealeaf is the man you want to be, and so Kingsley is who you are. No one can take that from you, not even yourself.”

“King? You okay?”

He looked up and saw Jester looking at him a little concerned and he smiled, truly. “Aye, I’m alright, stuck in my head a little bit today I think.” Jester nodded her head sagely in understanding. “Ah, the nightmares again huh?” Kingsley chuckled a little, looking back at his sewing as he continued. “Ah, something like that, yeah.” “Well like don’t worry about that Kingsley, you know you can always talk to me about them right? Or even Fjord would be helpful, after all you know he still has nightmares some nights about everything that’s happened. And like, really bad dreams happen to people all the time, and like I’m pretty sure that all of us have bad days or nights or whatever. Oh but like not me though. I’m always aaaaall gooooood, you know?” Jester shot him some finger guns with a grin that didn’t really meet her eyes. 

He’d learned by now of course that Jester tried to hide fear and sadness when she could, her true friends understood her though. And she knew this, but still continued trying to keep up her happy mask. He reached over and ruffled her hair between her horns, earning an affronted gasp. “Oh OBVIOUSLY of course, you’re just shitting sunshine and rainbows no matter what happens hmm?” She smacked his hand away from her head with a pout, Sprinkle from somewhere in her hood giving a small hiss as he leaned back with a giggle. “Don’t blame me, ain’t this what siblings do? Help each other while giving shit?” He shook his hand a little as the smack actually had hurt, but it was totally worth it as he watched her try and fix her hair again. “Not everyone can be a bundle of Joy and Happiness darling. And honestly my dreams last night weren’t really a problem, you know? They’ve been pretty much the same for a while now actually… They keep ending in the same place, in a place covered in flowers and plants all over, with a bright, strange and starry sky above.”

Jester frowned at that, tilting her head. “Mmmm, that sounds a lot like…” She bit her lip, setting down her shears before moving to sit on her knees in a more comfortable position. “Alright well, do you think these dreams mean anything?” Kingsley held back a sigh, getting himself settled as he brushed his bangs out of his eyes. He knew if he’d talked about this is would end up a whole thing, but he really wanted to get out of this funk he was in and maybe his little cleric of chaos could help? “As far as I know? ...Maybe?” He scratched his chin a bit. “I mean they’re all different for a bit, then they change. I’m walking around a city of… bleeeeech. Then it gets a little… weird? then the flesh and gross bits just… turn to ash and grey before…” He held his hand up, fingers pinched together, before spreading them out, making a popping sound as he did. “Suddenly flowers, and grass, and plants, and all sorts of naturey shit just bursts into life around me. And I walk around that for a while, before seeing… these... flowers? That seem important? But before I can do anything.” He snapped the fingers of his other hand in front of Jester’s face, causing her to start a bit and raise her eyebrows. “I wake up, and I can’t remember why the flowers are important.” He shrugged his shoulders, then leaned back on his hands as Jester pursed her lips and held her hands in front of her mouth, squinting. “Hmmm… okay okay okay, so this sounds like it’s definitely about Cognouza, which I mean I still have nightmares of that place so like, same. Buuuut maybe there’s something to it? Sometimes dreams can actually mean something you know? Like with Caduceus and Fjord with the Wildmother, or Yasha with her Stormlord. Hey do you think it might be a god or something?” She perked up, looking at Kingsley with ears twitching and tail swishing.

Kingsley hummed lowly to himself and thought about it, biting at his thumbnail as he went back over his dream in his head, or at least what he remembered from it. “Mmmmaaaaaybeeee? Maybe.” Looking at Jester and glancing at her sometimes talking weasel he tilted his head. “But if it was, which one?” Jester bit her lip smoothing out her skirt and fussing with the still frilly ends at the bottom. “Weeell… Could be the Wildmother… ooor… Maybe the Moonweaver?” Her voice dwindled slowly as she talked, both tieflings’ ears drooping as she spoke. The Moonweaver was who Mollymauk had followed, and while Kinglsey genuinely liked some of her deal, he wasn’t really one to worship her since he woke up. In fact he found himself at times praying to either Melora or Kord depending on the day, which if he was honest was mainly due to his Captain and Angel. He’d also heard about how the Moonweaver had nearly given the Traveller a one way ticket back to where he came from if it hadn’t been for the bright Joy Buzzer in front of him pleading for him. Sighing he felt his whole body slump forward somewhat into himself. 

“Okay okay okay, well, it might not be her! But like, maybe we need to check it out or something? Like… Oh! Essek and Caleb are totally still on their nerdy wizard date up in Aeor, maybe we can ask them if there’s anything going on up there about Cognouza? It might be the Wildmother trying to tell us we need to double check everything you know?” Jester was trying to make him feel better, and that was honestly sweet. Thinking it over he deeply debated just ignoring everything and trying to pretend it wasn’t happening, however staring into the face of Jester with that hopeful look in her eye as she tried to do her best… “Alright, alright yeah let’s ask the Magic Men their opinions on it all. Maybe there’s something going on that they can tell us… couldn’t hurt.”

Jester clapped her hands together a few times, the final time causing bright pink and vibrant green glittering dust to poof out as she spread her fingers. “HEYYO ESSEK! How’re you and Caaaaaayleb, quick question!” Kingsley scrambled to count on his fingers her word count, unable to stop a giggle at her special brand of chaos.

Chapter Text

“Alright so I’m down to a few final theories! So far the one I’m leaning towards is, we’re a set of twins from a shady ass crime family, I ran away to join the circus and you took your position as the evil twin and trained to take over the family business, and you fucked over the wrong bastard and they went after both of us and somehow dragged our asses to another PLANE.” 

Taking a slow deep breath in, he turned to look at his travelling companion. “And what exactly makes me the evil twin in this scenario?” “Isn’t it obvious Fool, you’re the shadiest fuck I’ve ever met! And believe me I’ve met a few!” His fellow tiefling gave him a wide toothy grin, poking him in the nose as Fool scowled, smacking his hand away. He sighed and rolled his shoulder, stretching out the muscles there, staring off into the middle distance. “You know I fucking hate that I can’t even deny that…” 

Fool felt bitter about the whole thing. After his companion had that… moment of emotions? Everything had started falling into place for him, or at least enough of it. Once he was able to breathe without sobbing he had started trying to press the clover into Fool’s hand, repeating the word Love over and over. He had taken the damn clover before the damn fragile thing could break down again and kept it safe as the other tiefling suddenly sprinted around, grabbing all sorts of flowers and slowly had started talking more and more, saying other random words with some difficulty. At one point he’d started calling him “Fool” and all Fool could do was repeat the same damn word “Empty”, which the other had taken in stride as his own name for a time. Fool just kept growing more frustrated with himself as he witnessed the other tiefling start to become an actual functioning person before his eyes in a matter of days. It was maybe three or four weeks later that he’d turned to Fool with tears in his eyes and a bright grin.

“Mollymauk Tealeaf, I’m Mollymauk Tealeaf, Molly to my friends.”

And so no longer Empty, Molly had begun chattering non-stop about memories he had gotten, all of them interesting and wild and… good? He had memories of being in a circus with his Love, who he remembered was named Yasha, he remembered Bo, Mona and Yuli, Toya, and Orna, he remembered Gustav and Desmond. He had vague memories of some Lizardfolk who was he called “shady as fuck”. He remembered people not in his circus also, those he’d labeled in those first few days of memories. Magician, Joy, Sea, Rumor, and Tinker. Caleb, Jester, Fjord, Beau (No no, different Beau, she was a girl, and a trash person, Moonweaver love her), and Nott. He remembered his cards, and his coat, he remembered his tattoos, which made him right pissed that they were gone. He remembered and learned and figured out how to speak in full sentences, in both Common and Infernal.

Meanwhile Fool had taken it as a personal challenge to try and get his own power of speech back. He fought his own mouth, forcing himself to try and reply, despite sometimes actually feeling damaging pain when he did. Molly at first found it hilarious, until he started realizing exactly how much it was hurting. He started helping Fool through it, getting him to figure out how to actually speak. As he did he couldn’t help but notice…  he still couldn’t remember… anything. He still didn’t know who he was, or anything about his past at all. He felt distinctly uncomfortable trying to think back himself, any time he tried to focus on anything like Molly suggested, he just felt… wrong. Like something oily spreading in his mind, and it honestly scared him to try and remember anything from the past. His nightmares seemed to be the worst when he spent too much time trying to remember as well, bright red eyes and screaming and flesh and bones and chains and-

He felt a light smack to his cheek, jolting him out of his mind as he blinked, seeing Molly there, trying to give a reassuring smile. “Got too lost in that big brain of yours again brother, we’re still figuring it all out aye?” Fool took a breath and shook his head, rubbing at his temple. “Mm, right, right… If I knew we could find our way back to this fucking floating topiary I’d say-” “-Say that we should just book it out of here and float around fuck knows where trying to find an exit. I’ve already told you I’m all for that plan. You’re the one saying it wouldn’t end well.” Fool huffed, waving him off and away, watching as the other man giggled and almost bounced away, going back to looking around to try and find another damn “strange flower” he was planning on giving to his Yasha someday. Fool’s small smile dropped as he watched, rubbing a spot on his chest that ached once in a while.

It felt so unfair, that Molly was able to find all of these memories of people who cared for him, memories that he hadn’t even seemed to want until he got them. And what made it all worse was that Molly had no memories of him. He was simply Fool, with no memories and a sore attitude, someone Mollymauk had just met who looked a lot like him. Molly had taken to calling him brother, and every strange story that he had created about their pasts reflected that… Fool felt like that was most likely not the case, in fact he had taken to believing that the two of them were some form of failed clone experiment, which he felt would explain why only Molly got any memories, and why he was… well, Empty. Molly was only getting pieces of a story, pieces that involved ridiculous people and ridiculous circumstances. He’d heard so many strange tales now, but he had no idea if he was being serious or not.

Fool growled at himself and stabbed his makeshift sword into the ground. He hated feeling weak, or stupid, or fucking useless. Every time he felt like they were making headway in figuring anything out, his mind would either draw a full blank, or something would happen to make him physically ill. Every time he tried to focus on his past and try to remember anything about himself, his mind would start swimming and cause him to fall with a migraine. Meanwhile Molly just… would suddenly remember something, out of nowhere. 

“-Desmond realized that it was a horrible idea to try to teach me to play a little on his violin.”

“Toya and I used to take turns braiding Yasha’s hair...”

“-then I told him that it was just a fruit salad and that’s how I learned green skin turns burgundy .”

“-and she gave me a vial of acid for this plain piece of paper!”

“-so Beau and I were laying there, high as fuck watching these fish swim around.”

“-I couldn’t get the smell of eggs out of my trousers for a week!”

Fool dug his nails into his own shoulders, shaking his head to try and get back in the here and now. He needed to stop dwelling on this, it was just making him feel worse about it all. He gave a full body shake to try and somehow get the weird oily feeling off of him again as he decided to stretch out before practicing with his makeshift sword. Once his muscles were nice and limber he nicked himself with his sword, causing a bright light to radiate off of it before moving on to attack one of the large structures of plants they were close to. 

After a few hours Molly must have noticed something was wrong, because it was then that Fool found himself meeting another wooden sword mid swing. He was so startled he actually stumbled back for a second, blinking out of his mental state and seeing a worried mirrored face looking at him. “Alright Fool, you’ve been in a mood for a while now. Is this about you not remembering anything?” Fool grit his teeth so hard it was a surprise they didn’t crack. “No.” He grumbled, stabbing back into the ground and crouching down behind his sword, keeping both hands on the makeshift hilt. He wished he’d opted for bangs to hide behind as Molly just gave him a knowing look, causing him to simply break eye contact and stare at the backs of his hands. “Uh huh, that’s a loada shite if I’ve ever heard it.” Fool scowled as Molly crouched down as well. “Fool… Maybe it’s best to leave that past behind?”

The incredulous look on his face must have been obvious because Molly plopped down onto his ass, setting his sword across his lap and gesturing for Fool to join him. “Look, I’ve been thinking about it, and…” Mollymauk looked awkward now, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, the thing is that I’m only able to remember barely anything really, just the circus, and my friends… But I can’t remember anything before the circus… and I don’t right well think I want to.” Fool felt his ears droop and tail twitch around agitatedly. “...So you believe whatever happened before...?” “I think anything before that must have been right horrible if even trying to think of it makes both of us physically ill. Kinda supporting my ‘heirs to evil secret family’ theory honestly.” Fool snorted, shaking his head. “So what do you suggest then, I just give up remembering and…” “And look to the future instead, we need to get out o’ this place first, then we can find my friends. It’s been a while but… well honestly I still don’t remember how exactly it is I ended up away from them, it’s all a bit of a haze after Hupperdook.” Fool snorted a little, moving to sit down himself. His sword stayed standing up between the two of them, making it so Molly looked to be almost cut in half on either side. He could only assume he looked the same. “You really think we should just… forget about whatever the past was? That all those years should just…” Molly scratched his nose, shrugging. “I mean, I think I already did that to be frank. I reinvented myself in the carnival, got a bunch of tattoos… which might I add what the fuck , I lost all of that hard work with whatever magic this shit was! Do you have any idea how EXPENSIVE a good tattoo is when you’re travelling in a carnival? Quite a pretty penny!” He huffed, holding out his arm and twisting it this way and that. “Ridiculous! And my piercings! Jewelry! My damn coat ! I worked hard on that motherfucker.” He huffed, flicking some dirt out from under his fingernails, causing Fool to snort and smile. 

“Alright… You know what, you might be onto something there Mollymauk… Every time I’ve tried thinking of anything…” Fool felt his nose scrunch up as he thought of the oily feeling of something in his mind, his body giving a full shudder as if in utter rejection. “Mm, no… So maybe we should both be seeing this all as a sort of… new start?” Molly hummed lowly and Fool felt him nudge at his foot with his own. “I mean, that’s what it feels like to me. We’re on a floating hunk of plants and life, no idea where we’re going or what we’re doing, and we’re stuck here until otherwise. If the past feels like shite, why should either of us care about that?” He grinned, leaning back on his hands. “We can just leave the past in the past, focus on the now and the future! It’d be less of a headache aye?” He cocked his head, raising his brow at Fool in a strange knowing fashion. Fool shook his head with a smile, finally sitting down himself and leaning back as well. “Aye…” He took a deep breath and sighed, looking up and out into the Astral Sea. “Unsure if I can actually do that, but… May as well try it out…” 

He probably would be happier if he just followed along with Molly’s point of view, but he honestly doubted it would work. He was too curious for his own good it seemed, however he would at least try to go along with it for a while. Fool took in a slow deep breath, exhaling just as slowly as he tried to will himself to just let go of whatever past he couldn’t remember. It would still live in the back of his head he was sure, but if he just focused on the here and now, maybe that would make his mood improve. It was about now that he noticed something odd about the structure that was sitting behind Mollymauk. Blinking somewhat he squinted his eyes, thinking maybe his eyes were playing a trick on him. Molly tilted his head looking confused and curious. “You alright there Fool?” Fool looked down at Molly, then back up behind him and pointed. “Does that look like a dick to you?”

Fool watched as Molly’s nose scrunched up before he turned around to see the large tower like structure he was pointing at. “It’s a tower Fool, I mean it’s got like the base idea I suppose but like an actual- Oh! ” Fool snorted as Molly finally saw what it was he did, painted under the plants growing over it, there was a giant phallus painted on what looked like the weird stone and mulch mixture that was under a lot of the plants around them. Molly jumped up, floating up into the air and swirling around the strange artwork, before letting out a whooping shout. “THAT BEAUTIFUL CANDY LOVING LASS! FOOL! FOOL THIS IS JESTER’S WORK!” He came swooping down, grinning like a mad man and grabbing his shoulders. “They were here! Those ridiculous bastards! I don’t know how, I don’t know why, I don’t know when, but they were here!” Fool blinked a bit, taking in the information that was being screamed at him. “Uh, your… your friends you mean? They were here?” “Yes! They must’ve been! At least, Jester was for sure, this is abso-fucking-lutely her work! I’d recognize it anywhere, she’d tag dicks everywhere she can reach and this place? She of course couldn’t help herself!” 

Fool looked back up at the tower, tilting his head as he took it in. “Well, if your friends were here before… Maybe there are other clues around that we missed before?” Molly’s face fell a little at that, looking back over at the painting. “Mmm… The plants are covering over the paint, they were probably here before they bloomed…” Fool hummed, floating up and quickly looking over the design himself. He put his hand on the design and felt the same oily feeling in his mind for a split second, a flash of red appearing behind his eyes, before he backed away, shuddering. Molly was right, the plants were growing over the design, the flowers that bloomed along seeming to take on the same shape as the paint underneath, which was the reason Fool was able to notice it it looked like. The painting was surprisingly realistic considering the size, which caused a bit of a blush to appear on his cheeks. He shook his hand off and looked over the tower again, before turning and facing Molly as he followed up. “You’re right, even if your friends were here, which it looks like they were.” He soothed before Molly could argue. “They probably left a while ago. I mean we’ve been awake and around for… Gods I’d put it at over a year now aye?” Molly sniffed a bit, shrugging his shoulders. Floating as they were, the updated outfits Molly had made the two of them hung on quite stylishly considering they were still made from moss leaves and vines. “I… Suppose…” Molly looked disheartened now, running his hands through his hair nervously readjusting his flower crown he’d made. Fool sighed and looked up at the tower again. 

“... Well, I think it’s obvious what we have to do.” Molly looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “We need to find a way out of this place and get you back to them.”

Chapter Text

“Alright, Molly, this is the dumbest thing ever.”

“Cannot confirm nor deny! But, have to admit, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Fool gave him a withering stare as Molly just grinned back. 

They had finally left their leafy prison about a week ago, having created some knapsacks(Molly) and filled them with provisions(Fool). They’d tied their waists together with vines and given each other about 30 feet of slack between them, wanting to make sure they would stay together as they floated around the Astral Sea. After months of searching for some sort of clue as to where his friends could have gone, the only thing the two tieflings had found was a large cheese wheel sized gem that was obviously some sort of magic. Fool now had it strapped to his back, insisting that something that magical had to be important in a way, and potentially be a way to get them the fuck out of there. Once they’d decided they had done everything they could, Fool had finally agreed that their best decision was to finally leave, but only after another month of preparing to go, which included the two of them learning how to turn what plants they had into some sort of clothing like material for them to actually wear that could possibly offer some sort of protection. Unfortunately they were very bulky and hard to really move in, though every time Molly tried to explain that he was just met with a long stare from Fool. Bastard was right but it was just a bit ridiculous. Molly had been sure to try and leave behind enough of a sign of them being there in case his friends ever showed up on the floating-plant-land, having set up quite a nice surprise for them around Jester’s dick tower.

Mollymauk was honestly excited about finally leaving, he’d gotten most of his memories back by now, which he found hilarious as he had eventually remembered how he had apparently wanted no memories of his past. He and Fool had had a few nice long talks about memories and who they are and who they were. Molly wasn’t sure exactly what the truth behind everything was, but he had a feeling it had to do with who he had been before he was Mollymauk Tealeaf, whoever that tabaxi woman had thought he was. He still remembered nothing from that time, only having the memories from the circus and Nein, and he was incredibly relieved about it. 

He was pretty sure that there was some bullshittery involved in this, but he’d already decided to just ignore that. 

Fool was Fool, he was Molly, neither of them wanted anything to do with who they were before that. 

In fact he was sure if he hadn’t remembered Yasha, he’d have been happy being… 

Okay well no he would not have liked being Empty, he’d have made a new name for himself eventually, just like the first time. 

He’d already asked Fool if he wanted a different name, having admitted to calling him that based on his old Tarot deck, where he’d drawn the Fool to look like himself. When he’d drawn it it had felt incredibly fitting at the time, but now he realized this might not be the best thing to name someone after. However when he brought it up, the tiefling had simply given him a weird look before shrugging and admitting he had already gotten used to it. Liked it even! They’d learned a lot about each other in the time they’d spent on the floating jungle. The two brothers found that while they were very similar in some ways, they could be totally different in others.

For starters, when Molly saw a strange figure in the distance he’d headed straight for it, while Fool had tried to talk him out of it. 

But alas he was a curious little thing and soon enough the two of them had flown closer to the figure, and low and behold was it a STUPID idea! 

Bonkers!

Ridiculous! 

Honestly, neither of them should have continued when they had first noticed the strange fleshy lump, but nooooo. 

The two tieflings, lead by Fool hilariously as he was much faster, flew over to what had caught Molly’s interest. Before them, wrapped up in chains, was a giant beast of a monster. Fool had stopped and grabbed Molly as he had floated past, trying to pull him back at first. It was pretty quick that they both had noticed the thing wasn’t able to move at all from its place. There was some sort of giant metal band around its eyes, eye? and large cuffs pinning it to the… ground? Strange. There were two doors sitting in front of it, floating in the middle of space, with one on top of the other about 30 feet apart. There were also two levers sitting by it, with the chains coming from the beast’s two massive hands and from it’s ridiculously large mouth seeming to connect to them. The entire thing was honestly completely and utterly ridiculous.

“Molly… We’re not fucking with the giant monster that’s chained up in the thrice gods damned astral sea .” Fool had wide eyes, looking genuinely freaked out as he tried leaning over and looking behind the beast. “I CAN’T EVEN SEE THE FUCKING END OF IT!” He yanked on the rope between them, trying to float farther away from the entire mess. Molly just huffed and waved him off, smacking at his hand a little and using his tail to tap Fool’s arm. “Noooo no no no, I won’t fuck with that thing, obviously! That’d just be, ha, haha, that’s a right bloody death wish idn’t it? Naaaah, I want to see what’s behind that door !” He grinned and tried to float closer to the bottom door, only to feel himself come to a halt with a tug around his waist. Molly huffed, very annoyed at the fact Fool seemed to be so much faster and stronger than him, especially when floating around in space. It was ridiculous honestly. “Come on Fool! It’s a magical door! Floating! In the middle of nowhere! You’re not the least be curious about it?” Molly grinned at him, trying to tug the two of them closer to the door. Fool scowled at him, but his eyes kept shifting back to the giant beast and the door Molly had pointed out. “Come oooon, I know you want to know~ It’s written all over your face!” Honestly it was, with the pained way the other tiefling seemed to be staring at the door after a few seconds. 

Molly felt quite amused as he watched Fool look from the giant monstrosity to the door and back. If he could compare it to anything it was like any time Caleb had found something potentially magical. Actually Fool acted a lot like his dirty wizard in some cases he’d noticed, constantly curious and wanting to know all he could about certain things, though he was missing the self-doubt and self-deprecation. “... Alright! Alright fine. Fine! We’ll go through the shifty fucking door floating in the Astral Sea and see what the fuck it is.” Fool bit his lip, before glaring and pointing at Molly. “But if we see anything that can kill us we’re high tailing the fuck out of there got it? Now… we’re doing the lower door then aye?” Molly fist pumped into the air in victory before the two of them started floating down, keeping a wide berth away from the crazy looking monster. He started giggling when they got to the door, causing Fool to shoot him a look, before matching his grin. They counted to three together before opening the door and diving through, only to end up as a pile of limbs on the ground as gravity caught them in the most stomach twirling way possible. Molly groaned as Fool’s elbow ended up in his gut while he knew his knee must have caught Fool in the groin considering the wheezing huffs happening on his side.

Poor bastard.

After a minute to catch themselves Molly squirmed out of their pile and hopped up, feeling heavy in a weird way after all of the floating around they’d been doing for… fuck however long it was that they had actually been in that crazy plane. At least over a year at this point right? Looking around the room he noted how it was covered in what looked like gemstones of all types and colors. “Oh… Oh yes this’ll do…” And he was off, poking and prodding at every single gem he could see, trying to just wiggle them out of their places if he could, using his stick in a sad attempt to pop out some of the shiniest ones. Fool had finally gotten up himself and was investigating around the room himself, seeming to be just as enamored as he was about the whole thing. Molly spent a good few minutes collecting a few of the gems that he could manage to dislodge, giggling to himself as he added them to his bag. He just knew Nott would be so jealous of him, probably would try to nab some of them from him when he saw the little green one. But he was for sure going to give some to Jester and Yasha, maybe as an apology for up and disappearing on them? He still wasn’t sure how that had exactly happened, remembering dropping the bird off with those gnomes then… it was unclear. But something happened, and he had been missing for a while with Fool, so he had to apologize. Leaving was Yasha’s thing, not his, and Yasha always came back after a few days, sometimes weeks, maybe a month or two at the most, but not ever over a year. Ah well, it’ll be a fun story, especially introducing his twin Fool. He’d also like to find out what exactly happened to all his tattoos, since there had to be some sort of magic bullshittery there. 

Mind, he was ecstatic that those creepy red eyes were totally gone now, so really he had free reign for whole new tattoos. But he’d been real partial to some of those designs back when he got them! 

Shaking his head he tried to get out of that thought process and focused on getting a nice shiny red gem out from the wall, working to pop it out then traipsing over to Fool. “Here you are! I could just hear this one calling out to ya.” He did a little high pitched silly voice as he wiggled the gem in his hand, trying to get the other tiefling to take it. “Fool, Fool come here and look how shiny I am!” Fool chuckled and shook his head, but accepted the gift with a roll of his eyes. “Alright, sure, I’ll take this ONE stone. Now, leave me alone, I’m trying ta figure out what this place is. We might be back on Exandria.” Molly felt surprised at that, though hindsight he really shouldn’t be. “You think so? Who would put a door in a cave that leads into the Astral Sea?” Fool huffed, lip curling a little. “Honestly? Probably some smart arse of a mage. Aren’t they just the type to chain up a fucking… THAT !” “Wouldn’t know! But that sounds about right.” 

This wasn’t the first time Fool had complained about mages. Even without actual memories, seemed he had a few grudges. Unfortunately this just constantly confirmed to Molly what he’d been thinking for a while. He wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up though, Fool had been acting much happier after their last conversation about the past and the truth behind it. Even when Molly got most of what he remembered back, Fool seemed to have finally let go of his desire of getting his own. Molly felt like he had almost an obligation to allow Fool to become his own person, despite anything that might be in their shared past. Maybe after a bit more time they’d talk more about it, the ghost nipping at their heels...

But until then, Mollymauk and Fool Tealeaf would just continue on as they were. 

Two tieflings figuring shit out as they went, possibly trying to find his friends wherever those fucks went. That sounded much better to Molly.

“Well, whoever it was, we need to thank them for giving us a way outta there hmm?” Molly hummed to himself as he imagined how some of his new gems would look as jewelry, trying to picture them around his horns or fingers, maybe even tail. Maybe he should try getting some interesting piercings this time around? Fresh canvas and endless possibilities there. He looked over at Fool who had wandered further into the caves without answering him. “... So that’s a no on the thanking them thing then?” “Shhhh, do you hear that?” Fool held up a finger, tail coiling as he looked focused. Molly stopped talking and looked around quietly trying to hear what Fool must have.

Molly walked over to his companion, trying to listen in on what he was talking about. After about a minute he huffed and smacked Fool in the ass with his tail. “I don’t hear shite.” Fool jumped and scowled, punching Molly in the arm. Ow, actual damage there. “I know! That’s the weird part! Shouldn’t there be something that we can hear? Even on that island there was always some sort of noise.” Fool looked a little freaked out if Molly was being honest. So, after rubbing out the dead arm he’d been blessed with, he wrapped said arm around Fool’s shoulders and shook him lightly. “Calm down! We’ll be fine, let’s continue exploring a bit, and worst that happens we can just turn tail and flee back to the endless starry sea. Right into the giant toothy maw of the beastie waiting for us!” Fool made a disgusted face at that, matching Molly’s own thoughts on the subject. “Oh thank fuck seems we’re on the same page about that !” “Mmm, we can stick it out here for a while, after a few years on that island we can wait like… A week or two.” Fool started walking farther into the tunnel they were in now, Molly following right behind him. 

“Hmm, should we light up?” He was answered with Fool just slicing his arm with his makeshift sword, causing it to flare up with fire, looking back at Molly with a raised eyebrow. 

Molly narrowed his eyes and sliced the palm of his hand to light his own up with his recent go to of radiant light.

Even with blank canvases of skin, Fool seemed intent on marking his own up with cuts and scars to use their weird blood powers, even when it really was not needed. Molly himself had tried to stick to the palms of his hands for now, at least until he had an idea of what new tattoos to get when he was able. They walked along together, Molly stopping once in a while to dig at some of the gems as Fool looked on fondly exasperated. 

At least he chose to see it as fond.

Either way, he was collecting what he found and was sure to separate out a cut for Fool for when he finally admitted that this was a great thing to do. He picked out the ones that looked like rubies and emeralds the most, and once in a while he found some pretty realistic looking diamonds. He couldn’t be sure if that’s what they all actually were, but either way, he was taking what he could see. Fool would thank him later, he just knew it.

Well, maybe he would.

Probably.

The two of them walked along the cave, their footsteps the only sounds echoing around as they did.

And they walked.

And walked.

Soon Molly started whistling, only for Fool to smack at him with a “Shh!”.

Molly waited a minute before smacking Fool in the back with his tail.

Fool responded in kind by smacking Molly’s shoulder with his.

After barely five minutes the tieflings were having a full on tail slap war as they walked along, Molly giggling as Fool grinned, apparently being just as BORED as Molly had been with the quiet walking.

So really it wasn’t only his fault that they missed the owl.

Chapter Text

“Alright, so it wasn’t my BRIGHTEST idea!” “Mr. Tealeaf, you jumped from the crows nest trying for that dive, it’s a miracle you didn’t get more hurt than this.”

Kingsley hissed as one of the new crew members they had picked up yanked his head by his horn to wrap bandages around his head. “Watch it! Those things are connected directly to my skull ya bastard!” He winced as the bandage was tightened just a bit, scowling as he had to just sit there. The other person tending to him didn’t respond, simply maneuvering him with a certain amount of skill as they wrapped the bandage securely, and by the feel of it pumping some form of healing into him. “You know, Joy Buzzer has a much better bedside manner than this.” He sniffed, waiting for a response but got none. Once he was done being tended to, the other crewmember simply packed up their healing kit and walked away. 

Kingsley pouted somewhat as he was left alone sitting on the deck of the ship, rubbing the side of his face where he’d hit the deck after failing spectacularly at that dive. He’d been trying to impress some of the new crew they had picked up while docked for a bit in Port Damali, Fjord and Jester apparently having some sort of business they intended on dealing with. When asked if he wanted to come with he’d declined, thinking the two love birds should have some time to themselves. He’d been third wheeling between them quite a lot lately he felt, acting like a weird mixture between a younger brother and potentially their kid at some points. Yeah he needed to let the love birds take some time for themselves once in a while and not have to deal with his shit.

Plus he’d wanted to make it clear what the pecking order was to the newbies. 

Boy was it clear now! 

He was the butt of the joke, and had no one to blame but himself really.

He supposed he was lucky one of the wayward souls had some sort of healing. They had acted like kind of an ass, but he deserved it really. Orly clapped a hand on his shoulder and he winced, looking up at the Tortle who had apparently also been witness to his humiliation. “Mmm-made a right mmess of that one… didn’t ya?” The navigator chuckled as Kingsley felt his face flush, his tail waving around behind him as he waved off the hand, getting up and stretching out. He felt more foolish than anything, especially since the crew were definitely going to tell the Captain about this. Kingsley covered his face with both hands and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly and grinning sheepishly. “I was just trying to make an impression.” “W-well, you did, riiiight on th-the deck.” Orly laughed as he pointed at where one of Kingsley’s horns had gauged into the deck. Kingsley winced and felt his ears pin back to his head. “Aw fuck… Jessie’s gonna make fun of me for that for sure.”

“Gonna make fun of what King?” Kingsley turned around to face Jester, who had just gotten back on the ship. Kingsley winced before grinning awkwardly and waving. “Uh, nothing! Nothing at all Joy Buzzer.” He could just feel her eyes scanning him before she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Kingsley. What did you dooo ?” Kingsley tried to remove the bandage quickly. This resulted in his fingers scrabbling at it as couldn’t get a grip at it, dang half-elf was surprisingly good at this, and gave up sighing. “I… Made a right fool of myself is what I did.” The bandage wasn’t going to come off, and he was already feeling ridiculous. Luckily he could still make up something to explain it. However, before he could… 

“The lad jummped offa th’crows nest. Tryin’ to immmpress the new hires…” Kingsley looked at Orly with betrayal, hand to his chest. “Landed face first… into the deck!” Kingsley groaned, feeling his ears droop as his tail wrapped around his waist. “I mean… Well… You see…” He floundered for a few seconds, hands scrabbling in the air before he just slumped down. “Yeah.”

He blushed hard as Jester laughed, clapping her hands. 

“Oh Kingsley noooo you didn’t !” 

“Aye, I did…” He sighed, smiling as he accepted Jester’s laughter, rubbing around on his head where he’d hit the deck. “Oh Kingsley, do you need me to heal you?” He sighed and waved his hand, shaking his head. “No, no. One of the newbies got me taken care of.” He gestured to the bandages and shrugged. “Only one who wasn’t dyin’ laughing at my misfortune, honestly looks worse than it really is, promise. Honestly it wasn’t really that bad!” Kingsley walked over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

 “Anyway, enough about that nonsense! What were you and the Captain up to on land?” Jester grinned at him and wiggled in place a little. “OH. MY. GOD! Kingsley. KINGSLEY! So first we took Vandran to go prove he’s like totally not dead, which I mean we weren’t sure if we should do that or not but remember we all totally killed like most of Avantica’s STEWPID crew, so really he should be totally safe now, and he has a ship again!” Jester huffed and pouted, crossing her arms as she moved away from him to start pacing. “Buuuut he didn’t want to be a captain anymore? Which I mean we knew that, technically, but still I actually thought that he was gonna be all ‘Oh wow Fjord you and your super cute girlfriend have like totally made me want to captain again and be on the sea because of your awesome ship and crew!’” Jester’s voice went high pitched as she moved her hand as if it was a mouth talking. “Buuuut, instead! Now he has a job at the port! Which, like, super cool? Aaaaand has a whole new crew that like, answer to him as a SPONSOR on land! So he gets to retire kinda and AND!” 

She slapped her hands onto her knees grinning, twisting around to directly face him quickly and baring her fangs in her smile. “Fjord and I found out where Sabian is! We’re totally gonna get that ASSHOLE and make him pay, he won’t even know what’s coming! Ah, but, we also still have to figure out how to like, stop Uk’otoa-”

“Uk’otoa~” 

“Uk’otoa~ But no seriously we need to figure out how to stop that shit because our boat keeps getting attacked and I’m honestly sick of it. Aren’t you sick of it?” 

Kingsley hummed to himself a little, shrugging as he scratched under his chin, feeling a little bit of stubble that he’d missed when shaving. “I mean, honestly this is just normal to me? Are you saying other sailors don’t have to deal with their Captain’s undead cult of fish monsters from his ex-patron trying to skewer them?”

Jester blew a raspberry and waved her hands at him. “Well you don’t know, listen, it just sucks so we’re not going to do that anymore! But first we want to stop by Nicodranas and say hi to Mama and Veth’s family!” Jester perked right up, her tail even raising as it waved around behind her excitedly. “She’s been getting ready for this idea she has for a Summer camp and- OH MY GOD ! Kingsley! KINGSLEY ! I have to finish those outfits! They can totally be councilor unifoooorms!”

Kingsley blinked a bit, having been cleaning his ear at her screaming. “Wouldn’t Buttons want them to be like, yellow?” 

Jester stared at him for a second before groaning. 

“UUUUGH, you’re so right! You’re so right ! Okay, well, I’ll just keep making those just for us then. Oh! We can wear them for our Mighty Nein Vacation in Rumblecusp!” Kingsley laughed as Jester went off, shaking his head a little fondly as he played off of her excitement for a little bit. The two tieflings talking about what a great time the whole group would have during their week long Rumblecusp visit at some point this summer, whenever Caleb and Essek returned from Aeor, Beau got time off from the Soul, and if Caduceus was available.

“Alright, but really we’re going back to Nicodranas soon?” Kingsley asked, sitting down on the desk in the Captain’s quarters and picking under his claws with his dagger. Jester nodded as she dug out a box of pastries she’d bought on land, handing Kingsley some sort of weird tropical fruity confection. 

“Ya ya ya, we’re gonna head out when Fjord comes back from shopping!” Kingsley nearly choked on his pastry, looking at his little blue friend like she’d sprouted an extra pair of horns. “Captain went shopping?” Jester giggled and grinned at him, winking. “I know right? He told me to go back to the ship cause he just needed to grab a few quick things and he really really wants to leave before noon. So I just stopped at the bakery first to grab a bunch of snacks before coming back!” 

Kingsley nodded his head, finishing his weird tart and a little spicy food before wiping the little bit of powder from the confection onto his pants and lending back, tail coiling around and almost knocking over an ink well. “Understandable, baked goods are a vital part of any voyage. Obviously.” 

“Obviously!”

“Oh yes obviously.”

“Fjord!” Jester turned to the door excitedly, seeing the ship’s captain standing in the doorway, leaning on the door jam with a fond look on his face directed to his partner. Jester traipsed over and gave him a big hug, Kingsley smiling at the sweet affection the two shared. “Ahoy Captain! Heard you went on little spree?” “Hmm, yes, and, forgive me if I’m wrong Kingsley, but I heard you made quite an impact with our new hires! One of them mentioned something about having to heal you?” 

Fjord rose an eyebrow at him, causing Kingsley to give a high pitched nervous giggle, tail wrapping around his waist. “In my defense, I totally thought I would hit the water and not the deck.” Fjord snorted and shook his head, looking up at the ceiling, or more likely giving a silent prayer to the Wildmother. “Kingsley… how… I don’t… Why would…” He used the hand not still hugging Jester to rub his face as he chuckled softly. “Well, you’re going to go thank them for healing you before we depart.” 

“Okay okay okay, I’ll be sure to do that. What’re they even doing here?” Kingsley kicked the heels of his boots against the bottom of the desk, feeling a little bad that he had been so petulant when they were actually healing him that he’d forgotten to actually thank them. Fjord and Jester had at some point moved to be sitting next to each other on the bed, cuddled up together as Jester excitedly took hold of the new sketchbook Fjord handed her, as her old one of the past few years had given up it’s last page a week prior while they were still out sailing. “Hmm? Oh yes, they’re our new cook!” 

“New cook? Don’t we have Devlin for that?” Kingsley liked Devlin, she always slipped him some extra fruit with his portion of the meals in return for some of his rosé. He had a good thing going there!

“Devlin is done with the sea for a while, she wanted to stay in town for a while, honestly I think the last time the old sea snake’s-” “Snea Snake~” Jester piped up from her drawing. “That was one time - mph, ahem. Anyway I think the last attack was just a bit much for her finally is all. So now we have Noctua. They came as a recommended adventurer, and most importantly, is fully willing and able to fight off monstrous water… fish… monster… things!” Kingsley hummed softly to himself and leaned back on the desk. “Alright, so I’ll head to the galley, be my charming self, and be sure to thank them for healing my sorry arse after that horrible display of hubris.” Jester giggled and shook her head. “Kiiiing, be nice! It’s like, super hard getting people to join our crew these days! Word’s seriously getting around about evil fish people attacking the Nein Heroez like, all the time. I mean our original crew is super cool about it because like, we’ve been through so much! But this ship is like so big you know? We need more people, and the others aren’t around to help out so we can’t just do it all ourselves like before. The Ball-Eater was smaller than this, and before that the Mistake was WAYY smaller!” Jester giggled a little and elbowed her boyfriend. “Fjord, Fjord remember when we all thought the Mistake was so big??” 

“Yyyyup, remember that well. Goodness, it’s been almost… four years since that catastrophe…” Fjord looked both thoughtful, and a little haunted. 

Honestly Kingsley couldn’t resist.

“You mean when you killed almost everyone on the ship, kidnapped Marius, and Jester lodged an axe in the back of Galan’s head?”

The silence to that question was actually palpable.

“You know he still looks terrified anytime Jester holds a weapon.”

“...”

“...”

“... Just saying he still has the scar-”

“OKAY! WELL, lovely talk and all but I think it’s time for you to give that apology. Off you go now, shoo shoo!” Fjord got up and started actually shooing Kingsley out of the room. He totally knew he deserved it but seeing Jester awkwardly giggling about that was hilarious, and especially reminding them how horribly their first time at sea with the Mighty Nein started. He ran out of the room and laughed when Fjord actually closed the door, before heading back up to the deck. Poking his head out onto it he looked around, seeing if he could spot the new cook without having to actually look for them. A quick cursory look revealed nothing unfortunately, the half-elf seeming to be missing in action up on deck. Adjusting his coat and mussing with his hair, Kingsley took a breath and walked out onto the deck as if everything was totally normal. After a little bit of schmoozing with the crew he learned that they were already in the galley apparently, getting everything set up for the journey.

The galley was a pretty small room, it could fit maybe two people comfortably. That was as long as the ship was calm enough that the free hanging iron pot in the center didn’t swing around to potentially hit anyone. Kingsley peeked into the room, and boy was it different than what he was used to. He never really paid attention to how Devlin set everything up in the room, honestly he never really thought about the fact that someone actually had to do that but it really made sense he supposed. Barrels were all sitting out free reign, sliding a little across the floor as the ship moved just bobbing in the waves anchored down. There were little crates all piled up in the middle of the room and all of the fires were cold and cleared out of all coal and embers. And there, walking out from behind two barrels on top of each other that fully blocked them from sight originally came the same person who’d healed and bandaged his head taking items out of their pack, including an extra pot and some cooking utensils that seemed to have seen some wear and tear in their time. 

The half-elf, or rather half-drow it seemed, now that Kingsley was actually paying attention he noted that their skin tone was a sort of cool blue with a warm undertone, was intent on their work. They had long pale blue hair pulled back into a loose braid down their back, a very androgynous face, on their nose was a pair of what looked like slightly dark tinted glasses, and they were wearing what looked like heavy chainmail that jingled more than Jester’s jewelry as they moved around. They had on an amulet with some sort of symbol hanging on it that he didn’t really recognize, on their back was a large intense looking shield and nasty looking war hammer, while at their hip hung a great club. The Captain was definitely not kidding about this person being good in a fight it seemed. Kingsley stood there watching as they worked around the room for a good minute before they turned and looked at him. The two of them stared at each other for another minute before the cook set down the barrel they were holding, funny enough the same one they had been hidden behind, and leaned against it. “Can I help you Mr. Tealeaf?”

Kingsley gave a cough before grinning. “Ah, no no, though I realized I really should thank you for your help earlier! I’m honestly usually better about letting things like that roll off my back but… Well, I honestly thought I could make that.” He watched as the cook continued with their work, he really should try and remember their name, hadn’t Fjord said it earlier? 

“Well, you’re welcome for it.” They continued situating the different barrels in the room. “For the record, if you had actually made that jump it would have been pretty cool.” Kingsley perked up a little. “Exactly! Honestly my boot just got caught on the crow’s nest, it could have happened to anyone.” He felt mildly relieved that he apparently hadn’t ruined any chance of having at least an amicable relationship with this crew member, it wouldn’t be the first time someone hated him on the crew, but it was just so much nicer dealing with people who at least tolerated him. “Need any help with that?”

“Hmm? Oh, actually yes. Could you get some of these to the top shelves?” Kingsley walked in, grabbing some of the smaller crates they had indicated, helping lift them up and into the shelves. He wasn’t the tallest tiefling to be fair, but he was a good ¾ foot taller than the cook, so this was much easier for him than them it seemed. “Up here aye?” They nodded and went back to securing the now two cast iron pots. “Mm, yes. Thank you for that Mr. Tealeaf.” Kingsley snorted and shook his head. “Ah, Mr. Tealeaf was my brother, please call me Kingsley, or Pirate King.” He finished putting up the little crates that seemed to be filled with spices and bowed with a flourish. The cook simply walked past him and continued their work. “Mm, Kingsley it is then. And you can call me Noctua.” “Noctua then. Nice to put a name to the face~” Kingsley grinned, leaning a little closer. Noctua simply leaned away before walking around him. “Mmm, no. Anyway was that all you wanted? I still have a bit to do before we set off.” Kingsley pouted for a second before waving it off. “Yes yes, just wanted to clear the air was all. Welcome to the Nein Heroez!” He went to leave the room again before stopping, seeing how much they still had to do before the ship set off. He took a few seconds to decide, before turning back to the half-drow who was currently trying to secure another barrel.

“Are you sure you don’t need anymore help in here? I’m good at following instructions.” As much as he hated doing extra work, he just felt so bloody guilty if he didn’t at least offer to help people out when they were struggling. They looked at him for a second, before sighing and beckoning him over. “It’ll be faster with help, come here.” They moved over so that the two of them could be comfortable in the room as they handed Kingsley a few tools. “I need to secure everything and make sure that the floor is fully covered with no wood peeking through, last thing we need is a stray ember causing fire at sea. If you could deal with securing the barrels, I can handle the metal on the floor.” Kingsley gave a salute and started on helping how he could.

It took almost half an hour to actually get everything situated, ending with all the barrels and crates secure, the floor fully covered, and Kingsley nursing a few banged up fingers that had gotten squished at different intervals. Once they were finished the cook noticed his belly aching and healed them, their holy symbol glowing blue for a second before fading. 

“Ah, thanks for that. Well, if that’s all, I should go check in with the Captain, tell him that we’re all… savvy?” Did he use that right? He felt like he used it right.

“Mm, yes. Though I should apologize for manhandling you earlier. I’m used to healing my siblings so…” They shrugged as they took out a tinderbox and started to set fire to the coals under the hanging pots. “Consider us even, now leave. Even if tieflings are resistant to fire, getting knocked by this would smart.” “Already gone!” He quickly left the room, grinning to himself. Maybe he could get those extra fruits again after all.

Heading back up on deck he saw Fjord and Jester up and talking to Orly, looking both incredibly concerned, which was a bit odd? Sidling up next to Jester he tuned into the conversation.

“-never contacts us normally, I mean I try to message him sometimes but it’s super rare that he contacts me and he sounded a little weird?”

“mmm, well, it’ll take… a little while for us to… get there Jester, mmm about two weeks? Mmmmaybe less, if’n you and sommmme other crew m-memm-mbers use sommmme m-mmmagic.” Orly was holding their map of the Menagerie Coast, tapping his claw onto it. Squinting Kingsley tried to remember which part was on that area of the map, but couldn’t make out the letters at all.

“Well, that’s the best we can do. Jester, maybe you should message him back and tell him? Boy do I miss having Caleb around, or even Essek.” Fjord sighed, running his hand through his hair. Kingsley thought he should get it cut soon, personally, but maybe Jester liked something to grab?

“Mmm, okay, I’ll send to Yussa first, then actually maybe I should also send to Essek? We should ask them if maybe they could come by? Cause we really might need their help you know? Aaaaand I need to talk to him anyway to find out if they found out something- Oh hi King! Something about what’s happening with the Cognouza ward?” Kingsley gave a small wave, piecing a little together now. So the golden magician they’d met before apparently needed help? He felt a little touched that apparently their other magicians up in the north were still trying to help out with his weird dreams. He wasn’t sure they were really nightmares anymore, since half the time they seemed… peaceful even. 

“That’d probably be best, but maybe… Mm, no yeah, that works fine. First Yussa, then our wizards.” Fjord nodded his head, lifting up his hands for Jester.

“Ahem. Heyyo, we can get there in two weeks by sea, but! I’ll ask Caleb if he could come and teleport us there… We… will… come!” Fjord gave her a thumbs up, watching her face as she listened for an answer. Jester bit her lip, looking a little confused before looking at Kingsley. “... Oookay, that’s… hmm… Okay so, Yussa messaged me earlier and basically said that he needs help cause last time he was in the Happy Fun Ball his friend said that she saw some like… people? This time he asked if you were still with us King, so… Man that was super weird? Should I message him again or contact Essek?” She looked from him to Fjord, looking confused. Fjord scratched at his beard and hummed. “Do you have the spells for two?” 

“Well like yeah, as long as we don’t get like ATTACKED or something?” 

The two shared a look quickly, before Fjord again held up his hands. 

“Okay. Essek first then Yussa again. ESSEK! How’s your date? Are you finished up there soon? Yussa needs help with something and we’re like TWO WEEKS away! Also, Cognouza? Love you!” She giggled a little, grinning as she shifted in place a little. “Aww. They’re doing okay, but they’re both tapped out of big spells today cause of ‘problems’. They can come by tomorrow, and haven’t found out anything about your dreams King, sorry…” 

Kingsley waved his hand. “Ah, it’s fine, barely think of them anymore!” Lie. “So we should start out, and the wizards will pop on over when they can! Think Yussa really needs help that quickly though? Doesn’t time get all…” He wiggled his fingers around. “Wonky? In that little ball?”

“Well, yes. It’s… slower? Slower inside. One hour in there is a day out here.” 

Kingsley snapped and pointed at Fjord. “Aye! So that means whatever is happening in there, we have time!” He looked at Jester, grinning. “We can give the wizards a few days to wrap up their trip, it takes forever for them to make it up there in the first place. When they’re ready they pop over, grab us, and we take the fancy magic circle back to Yussa! Problem solved.”

Jester hummed, puffing her cheeks out a little as she thought about it. “... Okay okay okay, you’re riiiight. I’ll message… Caleb this time, and tell him not to rush leaving Aeor. Oh, I’ll message Veth too and have her check in with Yussa! And I’ll message Beau so that she can get time off to help too! Can’t be too careful with the Happy Fun Ball!” “You just went from worried about using two messages to using… Nope we’re doing this okay. This is why we hired more people accustomed to fighting.” Fjord sighed fondly as he once again raised his hands for counting, wincing as Jester smacked his arm.

“Caaaaayleb! So no need to rush, take your time! You know where to find us, so enjoy your date! We’ll… be waiting for… you guys!” She stood there for a second before grinning. “They’ll take like three or four days to wrap up, apparently they were almost finished exploring where they were anyway so that’s good to know! Also they might bring some other people? I thought they were alone… Anyway, Veth next! Heeey, Yussa’s dealing with something super shady in the Happy Fun Ball, we’re gonna be there in like three days but… check... on... him…  r...please? Think that made it thro- oh!” She tilted her head, making a face. Sighing she rolled her eyes. “She did that stooopid caveperson talk again. I think she was trying to say that she would check on him and that she couldn’t wait to see us and I think maybe that Luc said Hi.” 

Jester huffed somewhat, shaking out her hands before casting again. “Can you and Yasha take some time off in like two days to go check on Yussa? We’ll be there soon but he… needs… help?” 

“This is just... so much magic you’re using.”

“SHHHH” Jester smacked at Fjord’s arm again, listening intently. “Okay! She and Yasha can get there tomorrow! Apparently they’ve been a little bored lately anyway so like this worked out!”

Kingsley chuckled, debating on bringing up Caduceus or not, but deciding against it seeing as Jester might need her spells for later. He clapped his hands together with a grin. “Well! That’s all settled then aye? We should start setting off for Nicodranas then?” Part of him wanted to stay on the ship once the wizards popped in, but another part told him this was a full Mighty Nein adventure, and whether he liked it or not, which he did, he was a part of this crazy found family.

“Mm, quite right. All hands on deck! We’re shipping out in ten minutes so if anyone’s missing, best go find them and drag them back!” Fjord called out and started walking across the deck, calling out to different crew members both old and new.

Kingsley glanced at Orly, who nodded his head and gestured for him to follow to the steering. Kingsley grinned and scampered after him, fully excited as it was officially the first time he was allowed to steer the ship out of port. Orly had promised it was going to be his turn this time, and he was positive he would do a good job.

Mostly.

Well they were about to find out weren’t they?

Chapter Text

“Okay… Let’s review. The magical door floating in the middle of the Astral Sea, sitting in front of an impossibly large creature lead to a cave full of gemstones.”

“Gorgeous gems! I’m turning at least half of these into jewelry.”

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The cave itself had to have been miles long, so less of a cave and more of a tunnel really. It had wound all around, at some points going up or down at sharp angles, and yet the two tieflings had continued walking. Fool had thought for a moment that he saw something following them, but when he’d turned to look he saw nothing out of the ordinary, for a tunnel at least. Eventually the Tealeaves had started talking to each other again while walking, taking wild guesses as to where they were and where it was leading. They’d about convinced each other that the tunnel was to Xhorhas when they came upon a strange wooden door...

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“And walking along the cave full of gemstones, it lead to a… doorway? That came out of a tree… In the middle of a forest.”

“Honestly it was a beautiful garden.”

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To be fair it really was a nice forest, totally different than the plant land they had gotten used to and felt a lot more cared for in a weird way. Molly had stopped to grab a bunch of flowers that he saw all around, weaving them into his hair to match all the others. Fool however did not have a fun time.

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“Sorry I was distracted by the electrocuting fireflies that came at us the second we stepped in and made us drop our fucking blades. So we were stuck there for a bit.”

“Like, 2 hours?”

“Two hours! Running through another plant filled area, this time with crazy magical frogs?”

“So many magic frogs.”

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Now whether they actually were magic or not? Fool had no idea, but they seemed weirdly perceptive, and he didn’t trust it at the fuck all. However even trying to activate his sword caused intense pain as the weird little mites floating around zeroed in on him when he did. Molly laughed at him for it, so he obviously shoved the bastard in the giant pool of water. Molly mentioned a huge hole in the lake and the two decided to look around for another exit. While searching Fool was able to skewer about six frogs, showing them off to Molly with a simple comment of “Dinner”. Molly had given him the oddest look at that, taking a minute before agreeing. Of course, Molly was the one who found the exit.

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“Until we find another crazy doorway that was hiding behind the waterfall?”

“I’m telling you caves behind waterfalls are just a thing!”

“...And we just run through that because of course we do!”

“Of course!”

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Molly had been sure as shit when trying to lead Fool to the waterfall, spewing off about how once he’d found a cave with a dead body in it and how interesting that was. Low and behold he was right though, as they found a weird red door just casually sitting there. The door was partially open and honestly he didn’t know why he’d expect Molly to stay back and look for something else. He followed right after dutifully and was relieved to find no danger.

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“Which lead us to some fancy mage’s study! Totally stripped bare with a few locked up books we both agreed not to bother with.”

“Honestly, I can barely even read! Why bother with locked books?”

“So we hunker down, ready to finally relax and end up…”

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Fool could never recall sleeping indoors before. He knew he probably had, on some base level that he wasn’t really remembering, but sleeping inside for the first time with Molly felt like a fun novelty thing. They set up a campfire in the middle of the room, trying to keep the smoke to a minimum for heating up some tea the two had taken to making out of the flowers they had. Really it was just they were both sick of bland water after two years and just needed some sort of flavor. An experiment at making some sort of alcohol failed miserably and they had agreed to just wait until they found civilization to get some. Using the heat they also cooked up the frogs, along with some of the mushrooms that they still had from before. That was when things got… weird. The fire started to change different colors, it was interesting, and Fool found himself staring for what felt like hours, before snapping his head up hearing a loud bang and seeing Molly tripping arse over tea kettle over the desk, giggling the whole while before looking back at him. Fool would swear that Molly’s usually red eyes were now some strange neon color, and he definitely wasn’t purple anymore. He could taste it, he was definitely more paisley now. Wait what? He tried to ask Molly what was happening either once or ten times and all he heard in response was a gleeful. “Fucking FROGS !”

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“Come now, admit it, that was fun! Honestly at least there wasn’t any horrible side effects.”

“After THAT mess we are finally able to sleep there for the night because by then we’d been traveling for almost a whole day. And when we wake up the next day, while we’re poking around…... what do you do?”

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They finally bedded down after a good few hours of just wandering around and talking to each other. Fool was pretty sure he stared at the fire way more than he should have in any case. When he woke up cuddled up together with his brother he would deny the memory of being the one to ask for it until his last breath. Molly and him had found a few different exits to the room but didn’t want to leave just yet, wanting to know all their options before carrying on their way. Molly was fascinated with the stained glass showing what Fool could only assume was the Astral sea, and maybe a few other planes as well. Of course it was when they were both looking it over that Molly reached up...

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“...Touch the window”

“You touch the bloody window!”

Fool rubbed his face groaning, feeling his talons almost catch on his cheeks as he dragged them down. After all of that, the two of them had been trapped in this new chamber for almost six hours now. When they had first landed here, they were met with a walking automated abomination that nearly got the two of them killed. It was terrifying and honestly should have killed them, but purely through amazing luck and some teamwork he actually hadn’t thought they were capable of, the Tealeaf brothers were able to cut it down. Only doing so by using up almost all of both of their abilities.

If that wasn’t bad enough, after resting for an hour or so, they both finally felt well enough to try and investigate the whole room. So far all they had found were three strange altar-ish looking things that neither tiefling had a clue how to use. They had tried bleeding on them, which did nothing, and tried stumbling through activation phrases, potentially. It was ridiculous, there were no doors, no windows, they couldn’t fly around here like the astral sea, and any help the strange golem would have been, disappeared when the two of them had utterly destroyed it in a fearful frenzy to ensure it couldn’t get back up again. They had absolutely no way out of the room. They were stuck.

Fool knew that Molly probably felt horrible about the whole thing, but honestly it was infuriating! At least they had gotten more rations, Molly having picked some weird fruits from the garden. They would stay alive for a little while before starving at least, but it seemed they were truly trapped. Molly’s tail was wrapped around his own leg, looking sheepish as he crawled around on all fours along the walls. “How was I supposed to know that touching a bloody WINDOW would trap us with a death machine!? Fuck do I miss our wizard, he’d be able to find whatever magic bullshite causes this place to work!” This wasn’t the first time he’d commented on the fact one of his friends would be useful. At this point Fool felt like if he ever actually met any one of them he’d be disappointed if they weren’t exactly how Molly had described. Molly soon made a noise of interest and picked at something by the wall, before lifting his hand and revealing a single gold piece that had been jammed in a groove. “Well hello there… that’s interesting!”

Fool looked over and walked closer, taking the coin, a disgruntled “Hey!” coming from Molly as he looked it over. Despite his memory being… strange? Non-existent on personal matters at the very least. He was able to tell that this gold piece was definitely different than whatever was in his mind. It seemed… much older. “Huh… that is interesting… This whole place might be much older than we thought…”

Something about that clicked for him. He couldn’t place exactly what, but it was something… Looking back down the two hallways, he had a crazy idea that just might work.

“Molly, have you used that dark spell yet? The one that makes it impossible to see?” Fool looked at his companion, who was sitting on the ground now with his tail twitching. Molly just stared at him for a second before holding out his hand, earning an eye roll before Fool actually returned the coin. “Not today. Not really ever now that I think about it. Just that one time we were fucking around back on the floating flower land… There a reason?” Fool looked down the hallway at the alters again. “... I have a theory. It’s a crazy theory, but… it just might work?” He nudged the other tiefling with his foot and gestured to the right hallway, facing away from the altar in the center of the large room. “Look, I’ll go down this way, you go down the other, we count to three and both cast it at the same time. Worst that happens is we use a useless spell and are still in the same place.”

Molly looked at him, then got up, stretching lazily before scratching his chest. “Alright. We’ll try it! Who knows, it just might work aye?” He grinned before brushing off his knees, wincing a little but racing down the hall that Fool pointed out to him. Fool looked at the pieces of the golem they had destroyed in the center of the room and shuddered, turning and racing down the other hallway, the soft sound of the two tieflings’ bare footsteps the only noise echoing around the chamber. Once he reached the altar he waited and listened, hearing Molly’s footsteps stop as well. “Alright! Count of three aye?” “Aye!”

“One…” Fool reached out to the orb, focusing.

“Two…” He took a deep breath and reached deep inside for the magic he knew was there.

“Three!” He released the energy and his eyes met black.

…

…

… And then it subsided.

Well if he was honest, it was more like watching water go down a drain, the orb slowly pulling in the entire effect he’d centered on it, before the whole thing lit up and light shot down the odd path under his feet, flowing directly to the altar in the center of the room. He heard a whooping call from Molly on the other side, and grinned. At the very least he was partially right. Racing out of the hallway he saw Molly have the same idea as they both went right to the altar, picking up their things that they had dropped at the base of it.

“Now… Do we touch it?” Molly looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Fool shrugged, then nodded his head. “Honestly? It was my best guess. Yes yes I know I literally just yelled at you about it.” Fool flushed as Molly gave him a knowing look.

“As long as we’re on the same page. So we’re both going to be idiots and touch the glowing magic orb at the same time aye?”

“Count of three again?”

“Worked last time. Nothing better for us to do.”

Fool and Molly each reached to the orb, looking into each other’s eyes.

“One… Two… Three!”

At the same time the two Tealeafs touched the orb, and all Fool could feel was the same strange pull he’d felt when walking through the doors of this crazy place.

They somehow ended up as a pile of limbs in a bright room. Why was this a constant with the two of them, Fool couldn’t help but wonder. He groaned and had to close his eyes as Molly nearly smacked him in the face with his hand, meanwhile he felt something twisting his tail and something else hurting his back.

“Fucking- get off!” He shoved at his brother.

“You get off! You’re on my tail!” He felt Molly squirm and move, the thing digging into his back seeming to be Molly’s tail.

“ You’re on my tail!” He tried to maneuver said tail out from under Molly’s… knee? Then he felt the hand on his face move to try and shove at his horns, causing him to yelp as it tugged at a tangle around the base.

“Fucking hell Fool my hand’s stuck in your hair!” 

“I noticed! Get the fuck off Molly!”

“Molly?”

It was the voice of a woman that caused both tieflings to pause, actually taking in the room around them. And it seemed they weren’t alone either. Standing before them were five, no make that six people. There were two humans, one wearing far too much blue, the other standing like a testament to monochrome, two elves… no one was a half-elf wearing leather armor and glasses, while the elf was dressed in what looked like pure gold turned into a robe, there was a goblin dressed in very nice and dapper clothes, and a halfling with a very shiny face tattoo and wearing a bright yellow dress covered in miscellaneous buttons… while holding a very dangerous looking crossbow. The humans and halfling were staring at the two of them like they’d seen something… well traumatic would be a good word, while the elvish folk and the goblin just looked curious. Fool hissed when Molly finally tugged his hand free, looking at him to make a biting comment, only to see the other staring back at one of the humans.

Thinking back about the people he talked about near constantly, he looked back at the two humans, then at Molly again.

“Oi, these them? Those friends of yours?”

Molly did say Nott was a goblin, but he’d been under the impression it was a female goblin.

Then again maybe this was a female goblin?

Would he know the difference?

What he did know, was he really didn’t like how the other human was looking at either of them. He didn’t remember anything, but he could just tell that she was getting ready to fight, those clenched fists and jaw telling enough. He kept hold of his sword, leaning into Molly a little. Fighty, blue, possibly hated him, that was probably Beau. Which made the white haired beauty standing next to her Molly’s precious Yasha. He could have sworn Molly had said she had black hair... But she looked like she was about to burst into tears, staring between the two of them. 

He figured that they must look a sight honestly. Neither had been able to get an actual shave and they had gross patchy beards that were making a valiant attempt to exist without any form of grooming beyond slicing off what they could when it was long enough. The lake and waterfall had gotten rid of a decent amount of grime luckily, but they both could do with an actual bath. Throw in their whole, skirts and bags made of leaves and Molly being covered in flowers and gems… No wonder they were getting some looks.

Fool kept an eye on everyone, not sure how to handle everything going on. The half-elf leaned over to whisper something to the gold elf, earning a hushed whisper back as he seemed to defer to the humans. Fool glanced at Molly, tensing up when he saw him tearing up and about to cry. He hated when Molly cried, he didn’t know how to handle crying.

“Been a long time love, sorry for disappearing for a while. You would not believe the shite I’ve been through.”

Chapter Text

Molly felt like his chest was going to explode. 

He hadn’t even known how much he’d actually MISSED his friends until he saw his closest one standing right in front of him. While the circus had been a great sort-of family for a time, he also knew that they really weren’t that close to each other. One of them was an actual devil that was murdering people after all, including poor Toya. He still had no idea how Kylrie had fooled them all so long, and while he had originally believed that maybe he just lost control… Time away from it all and thinking back on it for the time he and Fool had been around had gotten him realizing that Kylrie had probably just been using them the whole time.

Yes the circus definitely had a lot of problems, but when he started traveling with the Mighty Nein? Well they were a group of idiots, true, and much less professional, totally had no idea what they were doing at any point! But they also had all agreed to care for each other in a way that was actually quite different from the circus. Back in Hupperdook when those gnome punks had been so rude to him and Jester, the whole party worked together to get back at them. The circus? Sure some of them might have tried to help, but usually it was ‘Keep your head down, they can deal with it.’ Nothing drilled that in more than when the guards had come after the circus, Gustav had tried to help keep Molly and Yasha out of it, yes, but the others? They all hightailed it out of there to save their own skin.

He sniffed somewhat and glanced next to Yasha, seeing Beau standing there looking… well suspicious was the best word he could use. Suspicious and angry it seemed? Honestly that was just normal Beau really, though she looked… different. So did Yasha, then again so did he really. But how many lavender tieflings could there be?

Okay poor question seeing as he was sitting next to one.

“I know I don’t exactly look my best but is that any reason to look at me like you’ve taken some of that Skein again?” He grinned, leaning forward as his tail twitched around nervously. Fool was staying close to him, looking around at everyone confused and mistrusting. Molly let his tail wrap around Fool’s and took hold of his hand to try and help calm him down. He couldn’t help but squirm as eyes far too perceptive stared at him, watching Beau’s jaw working as she put a hand on Yasha’s arm. It looked like something had to have happened since he left, she seemed to be stopping Yasha from coming over. If he had to take a guess it was from a protective stand point, which honestly fair he supposed, after all he had no memory of exactly how he left. She looked like she’d recognized something at least, eyes looking over him and his brother.

“... So you’re saying you’re Molly?” Beau stepped forward, seeming defensive of Yasha. Yeah that was definitely new. How long had he been gone...? Shite, almost as long as he’d been alive before whatever happened… He looked at Yasha, trying to imply as much as he could ‘Really? That one, you had to pick that one?’ before at least adjusting his seating position, keeping his tail twined with Fool’s to try and help calm him down. “Aye, last I checked? You still call yourself Beau?” He eyed the way fancier outfit she was wearing, wrinkling his nose at it. “What in the Nine Hells are you even wearing? Trying to pass off in a fancy party or something?” He leaned back, nudging at Fool. “Same bitch downed everyone’s left over drinks in Zadash, looks all fancy now. Too good for the little people now are you?” 

Beau glared at him, Yasha looking to be stifling a laugh. 

“God, fucking. Stop being an asshole for like ten minutes! Who the fuck is that then? If you’re Molly?”

Molly glanced over and knocked their horns together lightly. “This? Oh yeah, found myself a brother! This is Fool, Fool Tealeaf. Say hello Fool.”

Fool wrinkled his nose, glaring at Molly before glancing over at the others.

“Hey now, be pleasant! I’ve told you about Beau and Yash before. No fucking clue who these others are but none of that salty bullshite.” He tugged on Fool’s braid, earning a smack to the shoulder as he giggled.

“Fuck off, the blue one looks like she wants to kill us and the halfling has had her crossbow trained on your or my skull since we got here. I’ll be friendly when they prove to be friends. Til then, shut it Molly.” Fool grumbled lowly, holding his wooden sword in front of himself, well both of them really. He kept looking between Molly’s friends and the other people in the room, as if expecting an attack from them at any point. Molly felt bad since he knew neither of them would actually be up for a fight after that golem.

“Ah, ignore him! He’s just grumpy cause we almost died to a crazy anti-magic golem, and he wasn’t a fan of the drug frogs.”

Molly tried to keep an easy going smile, but he was starting to feel nervous. Something was niggling at the back of his mind now, something he felt he was missing that was important. But he just needed to convince them about who he was, and get the time needed to ease them into knowing Fool. He was a bit of a prickly bastard but he had a good heart! Beau moved farther back and away from them, taking Yasha with her and the halfling followed after them. The three huddled together, talking very quietly to each other. Molly wondered who the halfling was and tilted his head, curious somewhat as he felt Fool tense. He glanced at Fool who was staring, completely focused on the group. “Hmm? What is it?”

“They’re… talking about us. They don’t know to believe you, or… something about Lucien? Who’s Lucien? They’re wondering how we got in the… ball? This is confusing.” Molly wondered when Fool had learned that little trick, probably when trying to listen to his rambling stories… Fool looked really uncomfortable now, frowning and glancing between the trio and Molly, and of course he did. Molly had already assumed that whoever Lucien was… Well, Fool was more likely to be him than Molly himself. However, they’d already spent enough time together that whoever Lucien had been, whatever his plans and past… well he was gone now. And whatever remained of that poor soul was now his unfortunate brother, with all his insecurities and violent tendencies. 

He’d tried working with Fool on it, getting him to relax and enjoy the little things. Getting him out of his head when he spiraled and teaching him the simple lessons he’d learned from the circus. For a while Fool really didn’t like how much alike they had looked, and honestly Molly felt the same way. Now that they’d been traveling for the years they were… wherever, they had become less similar in body at least. This honestly suited the two of them just fine as it definitely helped them pass for more like twins and less like the same person. Molly was more lithe, focusing on being fast and flexible, and had spent a lot of the time floating around rather than letting gravity handle any lifting. Fool had worked on strength, wanting to be able to hit hard rather than fast, and had taken to working on his endurance. Molly was also damn positive that Fool was smarter than him in some ways, he’d been the one who had wanted to look at those locked books after all, and only set them aside after they ate the frogs.

He hummed a little bit, glancing over at his friends and the halfling. Something must have happened with Lucien sometime between him waking up and his missing memories after Hupperdook. He wasn’t happy about what that could mean, but he had a brother to worry about right now.

“Lucien is a fucking arsehole. Died alone and forgotten in the dirt. Don’t worry about him, he was no one special. Alright?” Molly nudged Fool, getting the other to look at him, not caring about the volume of his voice. “Hey, hey now. Look at me. I’m Mollymauk Tealeaf. You’re Fool Tealeaf. We’re brothers, been together most of our lives that we can remember! Aye?” “...Aye.” “Fool and Mollymauk Tealeaf. Forget Lucien, bad business there, whatever he might have been? Whatever was going on with that arse? He’s gone. Alright?” Molly looked into the other’s face, searching for if this was meaning anything to him. They’d had similar conversations a few times now, but Molly was really hoping this would stick. He never liked thinking about whoever it was that was buried, and all he could do was try and convince Fool to follow in the path of leaving him behind. Hopefully Fool continued to believe him, and as of now… it looked like he did.

Molly decided to glance at the other people in the room, a bored looking elf dressed in the most amazing golden robe, a goblin dressed better than some of the hoity toits in Zadash, and a half-elf who looked like the only one who’d fit in at a pub. Probably some sort of guard, considering she’d stayed between the elf and the two tieflings since their appearance. The golden elf looked to be the exact sort of person who could do with a little less if he was of mind, but with the bodyguard and goblin right there… He looked around the room now, noticing now the whole room they were sitting in. If he had to guess, this had to be the elf’s place, it looked like he was some sort of mage if he had to guess. He made a note to keep Fool away from him for a time while they got their bearings, scratching at the hair on his chin a bit. He now understood why Caleb was willing to let Yasha shave him with a bloody great sword, having a beard was itchy, and annoying in his opinion. Maybe if he was able to properly maintain it and treat it with the same care he used to give his actual hair and the rest of himself, he might look pretty dashing, but as a free form mess he couldn’t even see in the mirror? Just by judging hoe Fool looked with his own, he needed a shaving kit as fast as possible, or just time with his charm to take care of it.

He was also starting to very much wonder who the halfling was, she must be close to Yasha and Beau considering they were the ones talking. Maybe a friend they’d picked up after Hupperdook? Looking her over she seemed… Familiar in the vaguest of ways. She kept looking back at him skeptically, sometimes making eye contact and quickly looking away. After some time of just sitting there, and after making sure Fool was relaxed, he got up, walking lightly on his feet to get closer and lean into the conversation.

“-st saying, we have to be careful if this is a trick! There’s two of them! We have no idea what this could mean, and if it turns out to be return of Cognouza that would seriously suck ass!”

“But Beau, what if it really is him? What if… What if he’s back! He remembered the drugs Beau!”

“I mean, you know I miss Molly too, and well… Lucien didn’t remember anything about Molly, so it could be? If it’s not we can just kill both of them-”

“You know it’s rude to talk about people!” Molly grinned as the three women jumped, but jumped back himself with his hands up as Beau and the halfling held out their weapons at the ready. “JEEZ, fuck don’t just! Sneak up on people what the fuck!” Beau didn’t put down her staff though, in fact she seemed one wrong word away from going at him.

“Pardon me for being a bit curious! I’d like a little input on whether or not I am who I say I am. And, honestly Beau I can understand wanting to put me back in the dirt, you never really liked me, but what’d I ever do to you Miss?” He looked at the halfling with a twitchy finger, who looked a little struck by his words for some reason. “I’ve never seen you before! Bit rude to callously talk about killing me and mine when all we’ve done is sit on our arses after being teleported by Bahamut knows what from who even knows where! We’ve had a serious fucking time this past day alone! And that’s not to mention the few years before that!” He glanced at Yasha, not wanting to take his eyes off of… was that Nott’s new crossbow? Time for that later. “I get being cautious, but I have no idea what’s going on, how about actually fucking talking to me! I’m open to a discussion, bring in Jester with her damned truth spell! Not the first time this group forced me to talk against my will and better judgement. I understand I’ve been gone I don’t even know how long, but just talk to me . Fucking shite…”

At some point while he was talking both Beau and the halfling with Nott’s crossbow looked guilty, slowly moving their weapons from a “ready to kick ass” position as Yasha looked to be an inch away from breaking down. He felt guilty over that, but he was a little pissed now. Actual years he spent trying to get back to these assholes, and when he sees them at least one of them is ready to knock his head off? Maybe if it had been Jester who was there it would have been better… 

He felt something grab his tail and turned around, seeing Fool grabbing him as he stared at the other trio in the room, seeming to be looking at the weapons hanging off of the female half-elf. Which to be fair they were some pretty gnarly looking weapons, a great club covered in spikes with some interesting designs across it, and a halberd that looked just as nasty to be hit with. Right, neither of them should really be alone with people that could attack them. Wrapping his tail around Fool’s wrist he looked back at Beau and Yasha, not sparing a glance at the halfling. “... Well? Ask your bloody questions so we can get the fuck over this and have a proper reunion! I’ve been wanting to find you arseholes for years now and this is really just making me wonder why I bothered.”

Looking at each other for a moment, then looking to the gold elf and his companions, Beau called out. “Uh, hey Yussa? There a chance we can like… Do this alone? Also could you maybe Send to Caleb and tell him to get Jessie and bring her over?” The elf gave Beau the most withering of stares, but she just grinned awkwardly giving him some finger guns. 

Molly was fully expecting him to tell her to fuck right off but was incredibly surprised when he just sighed. “Yes yes Beauregard, down the hall second to the left there’s a sitting room I hardly use. I honestly would love to find out how these two wound up in the folding halls myself. I’ll admit a few weeks ago Miss Merlidith mentioned seeing someone wandering around inside and I waved her off. My mistake.” The half-elf rolled her eyes and gave the elf a withering look when he wasn’t watching her.

“Alright, Yasha you go ahead… Molly , you and… Fool walk after her, Veth and I will walk behind. Thanks Yussa, we just… need to figure this out...”

Molly bowed obligingly, wrapping an arm around Fool’s shoulder to start their way following after Yasha. Fool was looking at him dubiously, trying to portray a laid back style now. “Once we find my friends we’ll be fine, you said. I bet they miss me, you said. We’ll be welcomed with open arms, you said.” “Absence makes the heart forget how much fucking arseholes people are, gimme a break. I fucking told you they were a group of pricks.”

“We can hear you.”

“Good! Feel bad! Talked you fuckers up and this is the thanks I get.”

They walked out of the weird lab they had been standing in and went down the hall that Yussa, as he was being called, told them to go. Yasha opened the door and waited for the two tieflings to walk by, looking mildly uncomfortable the whole while, still seeming on the verge of tears.

“Thank you Love, you’re doing marvelous with all this.” Molly smiled at her, trying to let her know in some way that he wasn’t holding any of this against her. She smiled back a little shakily, before taking a deep breath. Fool plopped himself down on the couch in the room, scooting over for Molly to lounge next to him, a frown on his face as he stared intently at the halfling, and Beau. Molly elbowed him to try and get the sour look off his face, grinning falsely at them as the two ladies walked in followed by Yasha closing the door. 

“Alright, so how do you wa-” 

Suddenly faster than either he or Fool could react Beau was slamming her fists and elbows into his sternum and temple, causing him to wheeze and reel back. 

He felt sick as a wave hit him almost similar to Jester’s fucking truth spell, only this one included being physically injured.

Where the fuck had Beau learned THAT?

By the time he could see again he saw Fool up, but being held at sword point by Yasha, a crossbow bolt imbedded deep in his side and looking like he was about to fall over, blood pooling under him as he frantically looked between all three women and Molly, eyes looking wild and crazed as more blood leaked from between his lips.

Fuck this was not the time for this, he needed to de-escalate this and now. “F-Fool! Come here come… fuck.. WHAT THE FUCK BEAU?!” He rubbed at his temple where he felt dull thumping, his heart beat? He used his other hand to reach out to Fool, honestly scared from how pale he was looking as he wobbled where he was standing, almost falling into Yasha’s blade. The other tiefling focused on him, letting out a weak noise as swayed in place, holding the crossbow bolt with one hand. “Fool, Fool! Don’t you fecking dare! Just, come here, come over, these fuckers are trigger happy. Fuck…” He heard the halfling talking but couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, head still swimming from pain as he focused on getting his brother to his side and safe, away from Yasha who was looking upset and disturbed. 

Yasha looked over at him, her face falling seeing him. He watched as Yasha put down the sword completely and grabbed Fool’s shoulders, who looked like he was about to bolt, before a crackle of what looked like lightning skittered out from Yasha and through Fool. Molly thought she’d attacked him again and made a wounded noise, but it cut itself off as he watched Yasha pull the bolt out of his brother, and the wound slowly close behind it. The lightning had a slow radiate quality to it, making him think of her little lay on hands that she used to do. He slowly relaxed as he watched his charm speak soothing and softly to Fool, who was starting to look less rabid, thank fuck.

“Look, fuck, I’m sorry. That was… fuck, that was shitty. That was real shitty okay I didn’t... No yeah okay that was on me fuck.” Beau had her hands up, looking between Fool and Yasha, and Molly. At least she actually looked guilty, that was something he supposed. 

“What the fuck Beau!”

“I didn’t know he’d come at me! I mean it makes fucking sense now that I’m thinking about it but like, look man I can punch people into telling the truth and Jester’s not around and Caduceus never has that spell so I figured I could just do it quickly but fucking hells I didn’t expect… Fuck!”

At least Molly knew for sure this was Beau, because only she could be this much of a disaster when it came to something like this. 

“Why the fuck does that halfling have Nott’s crossbow huh? Fucking hell… Fool? Fool come here I’m… well I’m doing shitty actually, but it’ll… I’ll protect you if I can alright?” 

He really couldn’t lie could he? 

Every time he tried it felt like those first few weeks with the plants all over again, which had been like his first few weeks alive in general. Words being hard and finding the right ones in order to actually talk.

Yasha led Fool over back to him, the other tiefling still shaky somewhat, but curling in close to him back on the couch. So many near death experiences and strange interactions were seriously getting to him it looked like, reverting his brother back to how he had behaved initially. Defensive and pissy but scared. It would have been hilarious if Molly wasn’t facing down a psycho halfling, his best friend, and the one member of the group who he had already been damn sure hated him. Fool hated cuddles normally. The halfling was giving the two of them a look, not that he really cared to parse out what it meant. Right now he was completely focused on Beau, who had the sense to at least look a little guilty.

“Erm, right. Okay so we’ll ask questions, just answer and… Fuck this is so weird. Okay, how did you get in the Happy Fun Ball?”

“I have no idea what any of that means.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

“Right shit. Uhhh, okay so before you landed in that room, where were you?”

“Fighting a golem that tried to kill us and nearly succeeded, especially with Fool here. Destroyed it and then we were stuck in a room for a while til we used our last magic to get the fuck out of there.”

Beau shared a look with Yasha. “Oh shit do you think?” “I mean, probably? We told Yussa it was there…” Beau winced, before shaking her head. “Alright, what about before that?” “Well we were in this weird sitting room with a few chained up books? Spent the night there to relax, ate some roasted frogs that made us high.”

“Frogs that made you high?”

“Aye, Fool caught ‘em in the fancy garden place. Gorgeous flowers.”

 “He’s sounds like Molly.” The halfling spoke up.

“Okay who are you? How do you know me? No, you know what? How about this. Last thing I remember from being with the Mighty Nein, we had just dropped off the bird child in Hupperdook after getting those gnomes out of jail for Fjord. Next thing I know I’m busting my arse out of a bundle of plants next to this one, both of us covered in flowers and left on our own to figure out the fuck was happening.” He reached behind his horn and pulled out his clover, keeping it safe in his hands as he held it out to Yasha. “I found this. Few months of wandering around like idiots and suddenly I remember everything about myself. I remember the carnival, I remember my charm and my act, and I remember a group of mostly well meaning arseholes who enjoyed being heroes for a few days before we decided that crime with The Gentleman was a better gig for us to avoid that stupid war. I remembered Caleb, and Jester, Fjord, Nott, and you Beau. I remembered our stupid fucking group, and so I told Fool about it. Fool here though, he doesn’t remember anything. He’s like I was the first time around. We figured we’re brothers then, and he liked the name I’d been calling him. So Fool he is.”

Fool coughed once, spitting out a glob of blood from his mouth and glaring at the halfling. 

“So we were on this giant fucking floating plant land for… two years? Two years give or take! Had to well… make these.” He tugged at the “armor” he was wearing, and at his bag. He held up his sharp stick, spinning it like he used to his old scimitars. “Practiced with each other for a while, then when we had everything we could, and looked all over for anything we could find, we decided to leave. Floated through the Astral sea for about two days straight before we saw this… Fucking huge monster, had to have been, miles upon miles long! Huge fangs and maw, giant claws for hands. We… We avoided it and saw two strange doors floating around by it. Went through one and ended up in a cave full of gemstones. Oh.” He opened his bag and dumped it upside down, spilling all of the gems he’d gotten out of the bag, which looking at the total was a FUCKING lot! “I have no idea if these are real but I’m totally turning these into something AMAZING first chance I get. Probably selling a few because I need new clothes. We, we need new clothes.” Fool was giving him a look again. “Anyway, walked through that tunnel til we got to the garden, and I told you what happened there already.”

“Hold the fuck up, you got into the caves… From the Astral Sea ?”

“Aye, told you, two doors in front of this big ol’ beastie. Was gonna bullshit and say we fought it but it was all chained up so…” Molly shrugged, tapping his tail against Fool’s thigh somewhat as he looked at them.

Molly watched as the three of the looked at each other, seeming to come to some sort of agreement before the halfling waved her hand in the air and- 

“Nott! Bloody hell that makes so much more sense. The hell’re you hiding for? There was another goblin right there in the other room.” Molly felt himself relax more seeing a familiar face. Honesty he really shouldn’t since she was just as dangerous, but now it totally made sense, and he really should have guessed it earlier. “Should have done that earlier, little shit. Mister Caleb should be somewhere around than aye? Actually where is everyone? And who was that elf outside?”

“Oh my god Molly shut up for like two minutes. Wait actually no look uh… fuck… I don’t even know how to process this oh my god. You’re… but like Kingsley… fuck. FUCK.” Beau was pacing back and forth in front of him now. “Just, holy shit. Okay uh… Fuck. How do we even begin… Molly, what is the exact last thing you remember before Cognouza?”

“Bless you!”

“Fuck, I mean the… the floaty plant land thing, what do you remember before that?”

“I told you! Hupperdook! We got absolutely hammered during the drinking contest, I pulled the alcohol out of you with a new power I figured out, that actually came in handy quite a few times, then we woke up with our coin purses missing. Went looking for ‘em and found these little... gnome kids- Oh, back up, first we scared the fuck out of those little shite eating arseholes, then found the kids. Their story touched Fjord, big softy, and we agreed to help them out. Apparently. Fought a crazy magical machine that nearly made mincemeat of us, Mister Caleb especially, and we got the parents out and dropped off the bird with them. Started on our way to Shadycreek… and that’s it. Went to sleep and next thing I know, I’m back to square one, but this time with this guy next to me.”

“Fuck off, I got out first.” Fool was always insistent on this, Molly bet that he also viewed himself as the “older brother” due to it. Despite the fact that Molly had more life experience at the time.

“By literally 3 seconds, and you fell flat on your arse.”

Fool scowled at him and punched him in the arm.

“Anyway, no idea what happened after that…”

Yasha moved to the couch and sat down on Molly’s other side, tentatively reaching out and brushing some of his flower laden hair out of his face, before grabbing him and pulling him into one of the strongest hugs he’d ever felt. Yasha had been incredibly strong before, yes, but now he felt like her muscles had gotten even bigger. Molly felt his breath shudder before hugging her back just as tightly, tears beginning to fall as his closest, and honestly oldest friend held him.

“Molly… so much happened after that night… Do… Does the name Lorenzo mean anything?”

Molly was about to automatically say no, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He raised a hand to rub there delicately, feeling a little confused by this. “I… I didn’t think so? But that was new...” He looked up, about to ask when he saw Yasha looking severely upset. He looked over at Beau and Nott, only to see Beau looking pale and stuck, while Nott looked like she did after he’d caught her going through Fjord’s things, guilty? That wasn’t good...

“... What happened that I don’t remember girls?”

Yasha let out a long breath of air, before looking between Fool and Molly. “... Molly… Are you wondering where your tattoos are?”

“Fuck hell, yes? I’ve been trying to figure that one out for ages! I mean those freaky fecking eyes are gone so I count that as a blessing! But I liked those others, cost me...”

Molly stopped for a minute. This was something he might not want to know. The truth was often hard and upsetting, and usually just hurt those who searched for it. He liked his bullshit, always had, he never wanted to know about Lucien and his weird shite before… But this wasn’t about Lucien, this was about him. “Do you know something about it love?”

Yasha looked at Beau, then Nott, seeming to be trying to gather strength. Before she even started talking, he had a deep sinking feeling that he knew what happened.

“Molly… That night, after Hupperdook… Jester Fjord and I got captured by a group of slavers from Shadycreek Run… And, while you were trying to free us-” Her voice choked up, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to take another breathe. Beau came up next to them, setting her hand securely on Yasha’s shoulder and squeezing, before looking in Molly’s eyes with a haunted expression.

“You died Molly… You died and we couldn’t bring you back.”

Molly felt his breath leave him all at once, a cold sweat trickling down his back now. He could see in his mind’s eye, the empty beddings, the confusion, the dwarf woman, their frantic ride, their lost horses, the firbolg child and woman, Caleb and his unsure planning, Beau and him sharing their greatest lies, and the battle…

… the ice frosting over the ground...

… the carts put to a stop...

… Beau, about to be hit…

… the glaive…

…

“Respect.”

…

…

…

…

…

“-ly?”

“...Molly-”

“Mollymauk!”

He gasped in harshly, the darkness behind his eyes fading as he saw not only Yasha, but Fool, Beau, and… Nott was the halfling again? All of them were around him, he was on the ground.

How did he end up on the ground?

He tried to sit up only for Fool to push him back down roughly. “Ah ah! Never a good idea remember? How many fucking times have we done this, you’ll just get nauseous and black out again! Stay focused, keep your eyes on me alright? Try breathing normally for a minute first. Idiot.”

Breathing, right. He could do that. He shouldn’t be able to do that since he died but he could do it now. “I died… That’s uh… I mean I suppose I knew I did it once before...”

“Probably could have done that better… Look man you missed a lot okay?”

“Apparently.”

“Just… fuck look I don’t want you to have it all come at you at once! But I don’t really have a lot of time now, and I also need to make sure you’re prepared because if you’re not that it’ll be really-”

“Beau! Yussa told us you were in here! Is what he said true? Is it? Did you find- Oh!”

Molly, recognizing that excitable accent and missing it deep in his heart, sat up enough to look at the door and saw Jester, older than he last remembered with her horns curling beautifully, dressed like how he imagined a seafarer would. It matched very well with Fjord, who was standing in the doorway, dressed up dashingly though still with his same armor he’d always had, but now sporting a handsome beard and two large and whole tusks, standing straighter and with more confidence, with a strange symbol on what looked to be some sort of cloak or cape. With him was… Well it was a red haired, gorgeous, pale, human man but there was no fucking way that was his dirt wizard. He was dressed in very nice, expensive, and clean looking travel clothes, with a delicate purple coat over it, long flowing hair pulled back with a clean shaven face, a few more wrinkles than he remembered, and a shocked and almost tender expression. He looked so… CLEAN! More so than ever . Flicking his eyes behind Caleb, for he supposed it must be Caleb, was one of the most attractive elves he’d ever seen, and a drow at that! He’d only ever met one drow, who they had tried to let leave with that strange glowing box before he’d been brutally murdered by crownsguard. With lovely white curls, deep plum skin that appeared to be speckled in stars, and the most skeptical put on face he’d ever had the pleasure of watching morph into surprise and disbelief as their eyes met. But that wasn’t even the most shocking thing, for standing front and center with Jester.

Was himself.

No, not himself, his clothes and hair… even his jewelry, they were all off.

But it was definitely his body.

His body, covered in his tattoos, though the red eyes were gone and in each of their places it looked to be teal colored flowers blooming.

“What the fuck” was spoken by three similar but different voices.

“... Fuck. This was what I… Shit… Okay so, yeah this could have gone better, uh… Molly, meet your younger brother, Kingsley Tealeaf.”

Chapter Text

Kingsley went into this with an open mind.

He had been warned.

He had been gently talked to by everyone before they got here.

Everyone said essentially the same thing. 

No one knew what to expect.

So when he was faced with not one, but two tieflings that looked somewhat like how he would, with paler skin, darker hair, no tattoos covering them, and horns free of piercings… He honestly wasn’t quite sure how he felt.

Apparently the other two weren’t sure what to make of him either, as they simply stared at him, one with confusion, the other with some form of recognition.

“Tealeaf?” The one sitting on the floor looked up at Scribbles, looking a little shell shocked if he was being honest. He felt his tail whipping around nervously as he tried to take in what was happening.

“Yeah, he uh, well… Fuck.” Beau appeared to be struggling somewhat with something, trying to find the right words. “Look, so… after you… died, well Lucien… he came back, and… long story short, shit happened and we had to kill him. But then we tried to… well tried to bring you back and… Well we got Kingsley, which was totally okay and we love him just the same!” She was looking at Kingsley, and he’d be lying if he said his heart didn’t warm with her obviously trying to make him still feel like part of the group. He also took that to mean it was his turn to say something.

With a slight cough he stepped forward, putting on a smile that even he could tell wasn’t hiding anything. “Well, can’t say I was expecting to uh… Shite this is a lot.” He looked away and fiddled with a ring on his finger, before looking up and shifting his focus between the two tieflings. “Well, I’m Kingsley, Kingsley Tealeaf. I’ve been calling you a brother, of sorts. You’re… a lot to live up to! Fuck which of you is supposed to be Mollymauk then? I didn’t know there’d be two of you.”

The one standing pointed to the one who was sitting on the floor, staring at him. “That one is Mollymauk, I’m called Fool. Suppose that makes me your “brother” as well then hmm?”

Mollymauk stood up about then, looking pale and shaky before brushing off his… skirt. What in the world were they wearing?

“Right! Sure! Why not! Three’s better than two anyway, honestly this is a plus! Little pissed ya took my tattoos though, I paid a lot of gold for those!” If King’s grin was anything like Mollymauk’s, then everyone in this room must know how uncomfortable he really was meeting his supposedly dead brother who used to inhabit his body. Yeah, that wasn’t weird at all!

“... This is fucking weird.” Fool, as he asked to be called, scoffed, holding a sharpened stick tightly with one hand.

“Yes.” Molly chuckled, or well it was more of a very nervous giggle.

“Oh completely.”

The three Tealeafs were all looking between each other, surrounded by Mollymauk and Kingsley’s friends… well were they even really his friends now? 

No, stop that. 

Now wasn’t the time, and besides Beau of all people was trying to make sure he knew he was still one of them, it’d just be rude to question her. 

Kingsley chewed on his lip, before remembering something important and taking his pack off his back, feeling happy that he’d chosen to take it with them. A quick dig inside and he found what he was looking for, pulling out the fully mended insane coat that belonged to Molly.

And the look in Molly’s eyes, awestruck and almost reverent, was definitely worth it. “You... you kept it?”

Kingsley felt awkward as he looked from the coat to it’s rightful owner. “I mean… it was yours. They um… well they tried to give it to me, when I first… first woke up. Well actually Joy Buzzer made one similar to it first, no idea where that one went, but this is… this one is the original. Buttons had it on her for a while, then it was mended and I’ve been just… saving it, sentimentality and all that. I think you should have it back though. Way too loud for me personally, definitely did not get your ah… unique sense of fashion.” He handed it to Molly, who tore off his strange plant-like shirt that he was wearing and put on the coat, smoothing it down and almost melting into it. Looking at Mollymauk, hair covered in flowers and his coat… Yeah, he could understand it fitting Mollymauk, which was incredibly strange considering he looked so much like… himself. Weird.

“Loving those names, but who are you talking about?”

“Ah, Buttons is Veth, and Joy Buzzer is what I call Jester.”

Kingsley heard Jester make a whimpering noise behind him and remembered they had an audience in a good amount of the original Nein right now, and most likely they all wanted to welcome their long lost member back.

“Mm, right, and Veth is…?”

Veth raised her hand and waved it, changing to look like the goblin form he’d seen about two times in the past few years, before she changed back to normal. “Ah, right, that’s me. I-I’m uh, well I was Nott, but I’m actually a halfling! Always had been, before… I was cursed actually, to be a goblin? And everyone helped me break it...” Mollymauk and Fool were staring at her, which was honestly valid. “I’m also married, had always been married, and have a son… he’s eight now?” Kingsley tried to hold in a snicker and had to cough, looking off to the side. Mollymauk blinked a few times before pointing to her. “Right, you can explain all of that , later, when we have something to drink, and after both Fool and I get a chance to get some actual clothes, and a real bath, and a lot of alcohol and maybe a shave, gods, do I need a bath!” Now Kingsley could see where his rambling nature came from it seemed… “Now then… I spent a long… Long fucking time looking for you arseholes, any chance we can have an actual reunion for like five minutes? Without one of you fuckers trying to kill me and mine? Please ?”

Jester took that moment to run forward and tackled Molly back to the ground, crying as she did with a shout of “Molly!”

With that damn broken the Captain and Caleb both ran forward as well, making their greetings to Fool and welcoming Mollymauk with open arms. Kingsley took a step back for a moment, trying to gauge exactly how he was feeling about everything right now.

Looking at the group, he felt both like an outsider and part of it. Like usual. Here he was, the person that his friends had actually wanted when Kingsley had come into existence. He finally was meeting the person who all of his friends had told him about. The one who set most of them on their paths to becoming better. The one who they fought a demi-god to try and get back. It was…

It was anti-climatic if he was honest with himself.

He wasn’t… upset? Or happy.

It was just… a fact.

Mollymauk Tealeaf had returned on his own, Kingsley Tealeaf was still around, and in fact he got a new brother in Fool Tealeaf as well. Which… was a thing.

How was he supposed to be reacting to this?

Kingsley stood back, next to the drow wizard as he watched their friends with his brothers. Gosh two of them… Each one seemed to be talking almost at once, but he could hear some of them actually talking him up? That was… also something. He looked at Essek, who seemed… well he looked nervous more than anything really. “You alright there Lilypad?”

Essek looked back at him, the subtle twitch of the ear the only thing showing his displeasure at the nickname. “Hmm, I feel I should be asking you that. This must be… a lot.” Kingsley took a slow breath, watching as Jester seemed to be trying to cram years worth of adventures into as little words possible. “Mmm, it’s… odd more than anything. Haven’t had a chance to really process it all yet I don’t think. Maybe get back to me after I get to know them. The group seems happy though, so I can’t really dislike that, can I?” “Hmm, being jealous… would be understandable in this circumstance, I would think.” Kingsley looked at him, raising an eyebrow. Essek’s ears twitched a little and he raised an eyebrow back. “I have a younger brother, there were many times when we became jealous of each other for silly reasons that meant nothing in hindsight. So feeling jealous of your friends connecting more with your brother than yourself… It’s understandable.” 

Kingsley thought that over, trying to look in himself. He supposed he was jealous, in a sense. If he thought about it, he had always been jealous of the brother he never met. Maybe now that he could actually get to know him… He’d always been told both the good and bad about Molly, but actually talking to him… This could be good actually… “I’ll be okay, I think. Wasn’t expecting the second one though.”

The one who called himself Fool was becoming obviously overwhelmed by all of the attention surrounding him. Kingsley made a choice and beckoned him over as Jester pulled out her… Molly’s tarot cards. Fool gave a relieved look and scurried over with his tail literally between his legs, taking the moment that the cards had given as a distraction to escape.

“Mm, probably should leave them to their reunion aye? Lets you and I have a chance to talk. Lilypad, this is Fool, apparently another Tealeaf.” Kingsley clicked his tongue a little looking at the sorry state his new previously unknown brother had found himself in. “You sir, you are in need of a good bath, and a shave. Though… honestly if you groomed that up… How do you think I’d look with a beard?” He looked at Essek with a grin, who simply rolled his eyes and waved his hand. Fool looked more than a little freaked out as all of the sweat dirt and grime on him simply shed away from his skin. It was entertaining watching a full body shiver that ended at the tip of his tail and reminded him of how he felt when he dove into the ocean when it was colder than he expected. Before the other tiefling could get aggressive toward the drow, Kingsley got between them. “Woah now, calm down there. Just a little prestidigitation among friends! Don’t want you trying to attack our floaty hot boi now.”

“Hot… Boi?” Fool looked over King’s shoulder, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Essek, seeming to give him a once over. Kingsley didn’t have to look to know that Essek was probably flustered over his assigned group nickname, hearing that prim little cough the drow often did when caught off guard. “Ah, I did not choose the nickname, it was… bequeathed.”

“Hmm… interesting.” Fool scratched at his chin, before looking at Kingsley. “You said something about a shave? I’ve been dying to get this shite off my face. Much prefer to be… clean.” Kingsley was learning all sorts of things about his own face while watching this one's reactions. He must look damn adorable when disgruntled.

“Hmm, your loss I suppose, could just trim it up and check how it looks at least though?”

“I’m not playing dress up for a man I don’t know, brother or not. You want to see how you look, grow it yourself. Can you at least get me a change of clothes? Looks like you didn’t inherit Molly’s garish outfit preferences. Shirt, pants, please .” 

Kingsley laughed out loud and dug through his pack once again, grabbing his spare clothing before looking him over. Holy Wildmother this one was ripped, toned muscles almost bulging. He was actually jealous. “Might be a tight fit for you friend, but luckily I like mine a little loose, so who knows?” Fool was already stripping off his strange planty attire, showing off skin that was clear of any tattoos but full of little nicks and scars that he must have acquired in the past few years. Kingsley heard Essek make a noise in the background and turned to look at the drow, who was now pointedly looking away and walking more into the room. “I believe I’ll introduce myself to Mollymauk now. Perhaps you both can wait out with our companions for the evening and explain some of what is happening hmm?”

Kingsley rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Fool’s shoulders, fuck, yeah, he was jacked, and started leading him out to where they’d dropped off the tag-a-longs on the trip. “So, the half-orc is Fjord, blue one is Jes-”

“I know who most of them are, at least by their descriptions. And I can assume that the halfling at least used to be the Goblin Nott. I never heard about a drow though?”

“Ah, Lilypad back there is “Essek of Den Nein”, as he prefers to be called now. Used to be a much more pretentious name before, well, he had a bit of falling out with his whole country. Technically he’s legally dead to them, it’s quite a tale, but for later. And the spitfire halfling is actually called Veth Brenatto. I call her Buttons affectionately, honestly she’s the best. You’ll meet the rest of the extended family soon enough, it’ll be great! And let me tell ya, if you’re treated anything like me you just went from one brother to dozens of family members, it’s a bit overwhelming really.” 

Fool hummed softly, as if to confirm to Kingsley that he was listening as he adjusted the shirt he had put on to fit him properly. The good news was that it did indeed fit, though a tad tight. “And the people we’re walking towards?” “Ah, see that’s a problem, I know Yussa, and Wensforth, that’s the elf wizard and goblin respectively” Fool seemed to tense at the word “wizard” and Kingsley felt that was something to also unpack later. 

“And with them are… Honestly I only know one name and it’s because they’re our ship’s cook.”

“The cook?”

“Aye, their siblings are here too apparently, though they all left to explore Nicodranas together, honestly it’s a small world.” Kingsley had thought so at least. But that really didn’t matter, right now he was getting to know a brother he didn’t know he had, and first thing first was getting out his flask and handing it over. “Would you care for a light Rosé? The flask is never ending.” He shook it a little, grinning when Fool gave him a skeptical look before taking it and tipping his head back, getting almost 5 gulps down before coughing and looking incredulously at the tiny platinum thing. 

“Holy shit.”

“I know right? You thought I was bullshitt'n you didn’t ya?”

“I mean honestly, yes.”

Kingsley giggled and tried to get back his flask, only for Fool to keep it out of his reach as he took a few more swigs like a man dying of thirst. “Hey now, poor form! That’s mine you know.”

“You said it’s never ending.”

“It is, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving it to you!”

“Didn’t say you were, but I’m not done!”

It was as easy as chatting and messing with Jester, or more like Beau really if he was to compare it with anyone. Kingsley tried to reach around to take back his flask as Fool kept it away, seemingly determined to get as shitfaced as possible in the least amount of time while walking the short distance to where Goldie and others were. He figured a quick introduction would be alright, but something told him that meeting a very powerful wizard while drunk was probably not the best thing for Fool to be doing. Then again it could be hilarious. 

Decisions decisions…

Kingsley was only just barely able to grab the flask away from the other tiefling as they walked into the room, darting away and behind one of the couches to avoid the now flushed Fool who gave a lazy swipe at him. “Arsehole!” “You can have more later, sheesh!” Glancing over he noticed that Yussa was staring at the two of them, one eyebrow carefully raised with his arms crossed over his chest. Right, they needed to do the whole introduction thing. Whoops.

In his distraction Fool had come up to him, also seemingly to have noticed the staring elf, and stuck close to his side. Well that’s nice, seemed he was trusted somewhat at least. Coughing awkwardly he grinned at Yussa and gestured to his new brother. “Right, so, apparently I have two brothers! Neither of them are Lucien, which is great. Ahem… Fool, this is Yussa Errenis, master of the Tidepeak, local mage of Nicodranas.” 

At the word mage Fool looked even more distrustful, hands flexing as if wanting something. Right he’d left his sharp stick in the other room when he’d changed clothes. Actually, poor fella probably needed a new weapon after all that. Him and Molly both really. “Yussa, this is Fool Tealeaf, came a package deal with Molly, we’re… still sketchy on those details actually.”

At a glance Fool simply shrugged his shoulder, but Kingsley could clearly see his jaw tense as he looked to be clenching his teeth, face still flushed from the alcohol. Well that was probably something to be concerned about, isn't there a saying about drunken Fools? Kingsley glanced between Yussa and Fool before coughing. “Um, well Scribbles could probably explain more about… all of this so I think I’m gonna take my brother out for a good bath while we wait for that whole reunion to finish in the other room. Um… So we could just…”

“Wensforth is getting together some tea and food to eat while we all have a discussion. It would be best if you wait until after for your… baths. Please, sit. Make yourselves… comfortable.” Yussa eyed the two tieflings, making Kingsley a little uncomfortable honestly as he felt like he was being overly perceived, something he hated.

Kingsley elected to take him up on the offer o stay though, and hopped over from behind the couch, plopping right down as if he belonged there. Commit to the bit and all that after all. He already had a reputation with this wizard for being flippant and honestly there was no reason to change that, considering how many times the Mighty Nein had helped him out before and after his joining them. It was hilarious how he still tried to act all powerful and wise but kept poking things that shouldn’t be poked.

Fool it seemed was more cautious, walking slowly around the couch and sitting down where Kingsley’s feet lay, shoving them off unceremoniously before plopping down and sinking into the corner, slouched and closed off as he didn’t take his eyes off of the elf. He was a prickly little shite it seemed, though honestly Kingsley couldn’t imagine he’d have had a great reaction to being suddenly shoved into this situation either. Actually now that they were sitting down… Fool wasn’t looking too good, a few of his cuts looked to be open, bleeding just a little into the shirt he was borrowing, and he was breathing a tad erratically, like how Kingsley did when he got injured badly and definitely needed healing. It also had a weird wet quality to it, one that sounded really bad if he was being honest with himself. Digging in his bag he pulled out one of his potions, glancing Fool over before shoving it into his hands. “You look bout to keel over, and not from the booze. What happened to you anyway?”

Fool looked at the potion, sniffing at it before chugging it down. Kingsley grinned a little at the face he made, before watching him slowly relax into the couch, seeming to look much better. “Fucking halfling shot me after Beau punched Molly… it was a bit of a mess, pretty sure the fucking bolt punched through one of my lungs actually…”

Well, that explained the watery breathing. And why he’d tried to drink so much, with enough alcohol the pain would have been numbed. But according to Fjord, and Jester, and Orly too come to think of it, that wasn’t actually a good thing. He subtly tried to put his flask away without his brother seeing, however when he looked up he saw the other staring right at him, giving a slowly raised eyebrow that very much reminded him of when Lilypad caught him doing something stupid. Well that was definitely a bust then. He crossed his arms and matched him eyebrow for eyebrow, trying to get across a “yeah, what about it?” attitude, and feeling at least mildly successful when Fool’s second eyebrow joined in. 

Yussa moved and sat down in his usual chair, looking between the two tieflings as he did so, Kingsley catching the amused look on his face from his peripheral. At least someone was finding them entertaining then, whether that was good or not. Kingsley allowed his tail to wrap itself up with Fool’s while they sat waiting for food or the Nein, whichever arrived first. He felt like he should be talking to Fool a bit, getting to know him, but having an audience for that was awkward as fuck.

Apparently Yussa had no such reservations as the man gave a soft cough to gain their attention, both tieflings looking to him as one. “Well, as much as waiting for Beauregard to explain would work, I would much rather hear from the source. How in Exandria did you manage to find your way into the Folding Halls of Halas?”

Fool scowled somewhat, before taking a breath and slowly explaining how he and Molly had wound up where they were. Kingsley had only ever entered the Happy Fun Ball once before, when almost the whole group, minus Veth, but plus Yussa and his then new assistant had all gone in about a year or two previously. They decided to go after Caleb and Essek’s return from their first Aeor trip but before Caleb was due to start his teaching gig. It had been a fun two days, but when they returned it seemed everyone got hit hard with how much time they had actually been gone, Caleb needing Essek’s help in frantically getting ready for class the next day, Beau having mountains of paperwork waiting… it was a mess and really drove home that they really had all moved on to separate but adjacent lives.

Wait, he should be paying attention to this.

Tuning back in Fool was talking about how he and Molly stumbled onto a floating door in the Astral Sea. At some point Wensforth had walked in with a little rolling tea cart, some nice Nicodranas style tea cakes and such sitting on it as he served tea to the three  people still in the room. Snatching a good handful of them he watched the hallway as he waited for his friends to come in.