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Chapter Text

Every year, without fail, the kingdom of Hermitopia would celebrate the god of chaos with a festival, while most feared the god the citizens of Hermitiopia would thank the god, Xelqua, for defending the kingdom a thousand years ago in the ancient wars, and this time, it was Scar’s turn to kick off the festival.

Scar was young, well young in the terms of immortals, he was only forty years old, and had been technically dead for twenty of those years, due to being a vampire and all. He was the youngest prince of Hermitopia, and still technically a fledgling all things considered. Vampires spent their first half a century as fledglings before maturing into full grown vampires. As a result fledglings never left the den, but Scar was an exception, being the youngest prince meant he had to usher in the festival of the chaos god, and watcher, Xelqua, as tradition stated. 

As Scar was being wheeled onto the stage, in the fanciest wheelchair that money could buy, he noticed a figure with large brightly colored wings sitting on the raised palm of the statue of the kingdom’s founder and previous king. Xelqua’s bright, almost glowing wings standing out against the dim early evening light.

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Grian was not typically one to make an appearance at his own festival, but considering this was the thousandth festival of Xelqua, he figured he might as well make an appearance and partake the festivities, but he’d make one appearance in the form most people knew, before slipping into his mortal form.

Grian made eye contact with the prince running the whole thing, Scar, his name was, Grian raised and waved. Just like that the gathering of people had begun to spread out, heading to various stalls and games to enjoy the festival. Grian flew down into an alleyway, changing into his mortal form, six wings became two brightly colored parrot wings, his eight foot turned into a smaller, five foot six one, and his bright purple eyes turned into a more natural grayish brown. 

Grian walked out into the streets, almost immediately running into one of the many princes of the kingdom, Mumbo.

“Whoops! Sorry about that!” The prince said with a smile.

“I’m sorry too…” Grian paused for a minute, unsure of the modern dialect, “your majesty” he guessed.

“No need for manors,” Mumbo replied with a laugh, “it’s a festival! It’s a bit old fashioned to be so formal.”

“Of course,” Grian replied, “I hope you enjoy the festival!” He added quickly, before running off to see what kind of games his festival had to offer.

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Scar was wheeled around the festival by his sire and king Xisuma, who seemed to be a bit frazzled by the appearance of Xelqua at the opening ceremony, after all, that had only happened once in the entire history of the kingdom, at the first festival of Xelqua, and now it's happened again.

Scar was excited, the first festival that he hosted just happened to be the one that Xelqua appeared at. Hopefully that meant that the kingdom’s protector still protected the kingdom, right?

A younger looking man with brightly colored parrot wings and dirty blonde hair ran by, stopping for a moment to bow to Xisuma and Scar, before getting back up, and running into the crowd, “hey wait!” Scar called out to the man, who hurriedly turned around to face the prince, tripping and falling in the process, like he wasn’t used to his own feet.

“Are you ok young man?” Xisuma asked, turning around holding out a hand to help the man up.

“I’m fine, thank you your highness,” the avian said, taking Xisuma’s hand. Turning to Scar, bowing once more, this one a bit deeper, as he currently wasn’t in the rush he had been in before, “what do you need?”

“I couldn’t help but notice you don't appear to be from around here,” Scar said, turning his wheelchair to face the young avian, “and I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me for a bit?”

“Really?” The avian said, his voice lighting up in excitement.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Scar?” Xisuma asked.

“It’ll be fine,” Scar answered with a grin.

“If you say so,” Xisuma sighed, “what’s your name,” he added, turning to the avian.

“My name is Grian,” Grian replied with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, Grian,” Scar said, holding out a hand for Grian to shake, which the Avian happily took.

“So what do you recommend we do first?” Grian asked.

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Grian and Scar had played most of the games that Scar could in his wheelchair, most of the games were rigged, but due to Grian’s enhanced skills the two had been able to win a few prizes, most of them being wood carvings, or free food, most of which Grian would give to Scar or Xisuma, as most human food tasted terrible unless it was offered up to him.

“You sure you don’t want the roll?” Scar asked, “you haven’t eaten anything!” 

“I’m sure,” Grian replied, “I had a large dinner,” the lie left his tongue easily.

“C’mon, you should eat something at least,” Xisuma added.

“…ok,” Grian replied, taking the bun and eating it as quickly as possible, the nasty taste lingering on his tongue.

“You inhaled that! guess you were hungry after all!” Scar grinned. 

“Sure,” Grian replied, as Xisuma shot him a suspicious stare, as he had been basically the entire time, so nothing out of the ordinary.

“I better head out, it’s starting to get light out, and I’d rather not get stuck in traffic trying to get back to my hometown,” Grian said.

“If you ever come back here to visit, let me know! I had a lot of fun!” Scar said with a smile.

“Goodbye,” Xisuma replied, as Grian bowed one last time, before heading off. 

Slipping into an alleyway Grian turned invisible, and began flying to his temple, eager to eat the offerings that had been left for him, that was his favorite part of the festival, which Grian didn’t really have anything else to compare it to, considering he didn’t often attend the festival, but still, people knew the offerings he preferred, so he would have a feast in the coming morning.

Chapter Text

Grian wasn’t typically one to get attached to mortals, well, mortals wasn’t really the word now is it, since the person he was thinking about wasn’t a mortal, but instead a vampire prince. But that’s not the point, the point is Grian got attached to someone, who could still technically die, which, not great, the last time that had happened ended in the downfall and death of his friends. So, Grian had decided long ago to isolate himself from the affairs of mortals, only making the rare appearance to defend the one kingdom that still respected and worshiped him.

If Grian hadn’t gone to the festival this wouldn’t have happened, but no, no! He just had to make an appearance, and become friends with the prince running the whole thing! This could only end poorly. Despite that, Grian was packing his bags, preparing to travel to the mortal realm below to stay for a while, just so he could see Scar.

It had been a few days since the festival had concluded, and Grian had enough offerings from said festival to last in the human realm for a while. Technically, Grian could eat human food, but unless it was offered to him it would taste like dirt. He couldn’t understand why humans could stand anything that tasted so earthly, though he supposed they didn’t have the point of reference of godly food, since eating it would only end in pain in the best of scenarios, and death in the worst of scenarios. 

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Scar was currently lost in his instincts, he had been out of the nest longer than any fledgling should, due to the long standing tradition of the youngest prince being in charge of the yearly festival of Xelqua, it was safe to say that unless something big came up, Scar would be stuck in the nest for the next few months, not that he cared in his current state.

A familiar scent wafted in Scars direction.

Sire!

Scar made an excited trilling noise, he was hungry! And sire being here normally meant food!

“Ok Scar, im here,” Xisuma said, sitting down on the bed next to scar.

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Xisuma was an old vampire, he was one of the oldest one in the world to his knowledge, having been turned just after the ancient wars a thousand years ago, Xisuma didn’t live through the wars, instead being born twenty years after, and being turned another thirty years after that. Back when he had just grown out of his fledgling phase he had run into a young avian boy named Grian when he was out with his sire.

So imagine Xisuma’s surprise when he ran into the same avian just under nine hundred years later. Xisuma was immediately suspicious, considering that this Grian didn’t seem to recognize him, which if it was the same avian wouldn’t be strange considering you can meet a lot of people in nine hundred years. What was worrying was that there weren't a lot of creatures that could live that long. Sure there were gods, vampires, and the odd vex or allay hybrid, but not much else that wasn’t outwardly hostile.

So Xisuma had a lot of research to do. Once Scar was asleep, Xisuma got up, leaving the den and heading to the castle library. It pained Xisuma to leave his youngest fledgling alone, but Xisuma knew he was safe in the nest, and that Mumbo and Etho would be home soon.

For now though, Xisuma needed to do research on immortal creatures.

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Grian walked around the city, trying to figure out what to do, he could go to a tavern to cause some trouble for the barkeep, an old trick, but a good one. As Grian was considering that option he laid eyes on the castle. He knew exactly what to do. Time for some breaking and entering.

Grian could use his true form to enter the castle without issue, but where’s the fun in that, instead, he remained in his mortal form, simply flying over the castle wall. When the guards predictably shot at Grian, he simply replied, by catching the arrows and throwing them to the ground, likely freaking out the castle guards to no end. As Grian landed in the castle’s courtyard, he knew this was going to be fun.

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Xisuma was not expected to be pulled out of his studies by the captain of the royal guard, False, bursting into the castle’s library with the news that someone was breaking into the castle in broad daylight.

Hopping to his feet Xisuma ran to the armory, hurriedly grabbing his sword and pulling on his armor, stepping out into the hallway he did not expect to see just the man he was looking for information on to be running through the hallway, cackling like a maniac as he ran down the hallway, evading the guards with ease. Without thinking Xisuma stuck his foot out, tripping the culprit in the process, sending him stumbling to the ground with a quiet “oomph” 

“Grian,” Xisuma said, his voice calm as ever.

“Hey X-eye-sooma” Grian chirped in response, happy as ever as he hopped to his feet. 

“Breaking and entering wasn’t enough, you just had to call the literal king of the country a nickname?” Xisuma sighed.

Grian grinned for a minute, before turning around, and pushing through the wall of guards with ease. Yeah, there was no way that he was a normal avian. 

“Guards capture the intruder alive,” Xisuma yelled out, “and protect the nest, we can’t risk Scar’s safety.”

The guards ran off to do just that, Xisuma followed the group heading to the nest to make sure Scar was alright, and that one of his coven-siblings was with him. Scar, being a vampire fledgling, and a disabled one at that, made him vulnerable, so if that was who Grian was after Scar likely wouldn’t be able to protect himself. 

As Xisuma was running through the halls he was not expecting to see Grian charging at him through one of the halls and through an open door to a ballroom, suddenly without warning the colors drained from Grian’s wings, as two more pairs grew from his back and he grew in size.

Of course.

The person who Scar had made friends with.

The person who Xisuma met nine hundred years ago.

The person who broke into the castle, and gave his guards the run around, wasn’t a person at all, but instead the patron god of Hermitopia.

Grian was Xelqua. 

Chapter Text

Grian was having a fun chase, as he burst through to the ballroom he heard the footsteps stop he paused, looking around, before noticing that his mortal form had melted away into, well, Grian wouldn’t call it his true form, as that would melt the brains of everyone around, but it was a more godly form. 

“Crud,” Grian groaned.

“Xelqua?” Xisuma said, his voice cautious.

“That’s so formal,” Grian groaned, “my name is Grian.”

“Right, Grian, I have one question,” Xisuma said, “why break into the castle?”

“I thought it would be funny.”

“I’m not sure what I expected,” Xisuma sighed. 

“I also wanted to see Scar again,” Grian added quietly.

“Oh, uh,” Xisuma said.

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To say Xisuma had zero clue what to do would be one hell of an understatement. The patron and protector god of Hermitopia not only broke into the castle for the fun of it, but also was friends with Scar. Because of course the random guy his youngest had met at the festival just happened to be the god that the festival was celebrating.

Xelqua this was a mess— could Xisuma even say that? Xelqua was literally standing right in front of him!

“Well, uh, you can’t see Scar right now, for reasons that are difficult to explain, but you can use one of the spare rooms in the castle until Scar is able to see you,” Xisuma said cautiously, fearing the wrath of an all powerful chaos god.

“Ok!” Xelqua (Grian?) replied.

“Alright, well follow me I guess,” Xisuma said. Yeah this was going to be a disaster.

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It had been a few weeks and Grian was starting to get restless staying in one place for so long, and he’s pretty sure that Xisuma could tell, since Grian was almost daily screwing with the castle staff. Placing a bucket of water over the door to the maids’ quarters. Setting one of the kitchens on fire, twice. To be fair, that second time was an accident. Calling on one of his godly friends to cause the castle gardens to be overgrown basically overnight. Filling one of the armories with chicken eggs and feathers (“it wasn’t me it was the man in the chicken costume!”)

To put it simply, Grian was bored, he wanted to see his friend, but chaos gods aren’t really known to stay in place for long without causing problems.

But finally, at long last, Scar was out of whatever instinct filled stupor he was in, and the two could see eachother again!

“So, you’re Xelqua?” Scar said, sounding a bit surprised, but more excited than anything. 

“Yep!” Grian replied.

“Oh you two are going to be a menace,” Mumbo groaned, he was in charge of supervising the two, well as much as you could supervise a god and his friend, since Xisuma had to leave for some urgent business regarding the bordering kingdom.

“Yep!” Grian said with a grin, “what do you wanna do first?”

“You two are not doing anything after the messes that Grian has made,” Mumbo declared.

“Oh what did you do?” Scar said, sounding downright giddy.

“I set one of the kitchens on fire,” Grian replied.

“ Twice,” Mumbo added. 

“The second time was an accident!” Grian retorted, “how was I supposed to know that making bread was that hard?”

“How old are you?” Mumbo sighed, as Grian sputtered for a response, as Scar was doubled over with laughter, well, as much as he could in a wheelchair.

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The first thing that the three ended up doing was getting lunch at the local tavern. Xisuma would probably be upset with Mumbo for letting Scar out of the castle without his permission, but man were Scar and Grian convincing.

So here Mumbo was, trying to keep a vampire prince and a literal chaos god in line, enough so they wouldn’t be kicked out of the tavern, which is predictably a lot easier said than done. 

Especially when Grian ordered wine, proceeded to spit it out claiming to be the “devil’s juice” before demanding a cup full of water and grapes, and paying eight gold pieces for it. Mumbo knew, he knew what he was getting into when being told to basically babysit a god and his vampire friend, but nothing, not one thing could prepare him for actually dealing with it. And if Mumbo actually found Grian’s shenanigans at least a bit funny, that was his secret.

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Scar was having an amazing time, he and Grian were clearly making life harder for Mumbo, but that's besides the point, he and Grian were having a great time. Grian at one point gave Scar a piggyback ride, which was short lived as Mumbo was reasonably concerned.

“SCAR PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON,” Grian yelled at one point, as Scar took off his shirt to throw it at Grian, who had made a joking comment about dedicating his life to Scar after he beat Grian in a game of charades. 

“You just can’t handle my hotness,” Scar replied with a grin.

Note that all of this was in a public area, and you get why Mumbo was way out of his depth.

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When Xisuma had returned from his travels he was not expecting, nor prepared for the mess that Grian and Scar had made around town. He had a lot of clean up to do. Hopefully he could get Grian and Mumbo to help with the cleanup.