Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 5 of Into The Veesha-verse
Stats:
Published:
2023-07-29
Completed:
2023-08-15
Words:
3,894
Chapters:
3/3
Comments:
85
Kudos:
172
Bookmarks:
13
Hits:
1,961

The Isles According to Luz

Summary:

With Belos gone and the Isles at peace, Vee has finally worked up the courage to return to the Demon Realm. She won't be traveling alone, though, as Masha will be tagging along. Vee finally has the chance to show her partner where she came from. There's just one small issue: Vee knows pretty much nothing about living a normal life on the Isles. So, she enlists Luz to show both her and Masha the ins and outs of life on the BI.

Except, this is Luz "I died and came back to life" Noceda we're talking about. She hasn't exactly had a normal life either.

Titan help them all.

Notes:

This work was inspired by a comment from the incredibly talented Turai. Check out her work, as she has a lot of great TOH fics!

Chapter 1: Welcome Aboard Air Stringbean

Chapter Text

“Welcome to the Boiling Isles! Watch your step!” The Collector’s voice greeted the couple as they approached the portal door. Masha gave Vee’s hand a comforting squeeze as the two of them stepped through the link between realms. They knew the basilisk’s history with the Demon Realm was rocky, to say the least, but that was in the past, though. Vee had previously said that she “wasn’t against” the idea of eventually returning, and today was the day that she would step back on Demon Realm soil for the first time in nearly a year.

She had said that her main hang-ups were with one particular individual: Belos. Sure, Hunter had served as the Emperor’s right hand for years, so she initially had some… issues with the ex-Golden Guard. In time, though, they had formed a bond thanks to their shared disdain for the 400+ year-old excuse of a human.

Now, though, Be-loser was nothing more than a stain on the ground. When Vee learned this fact, she  immediately cracked open a bottle of apple cider, chugged it, and then smashed it on the ground while screaming “Frick yeah! Rest in piss!” (She couldn’t bring herself to swear, even though he probably undoubtedly deserved it.)

After the three-month anniversary of Belos getting stomped out, Vee had finally mustered up the courage to return back to the Demon Realm. Better late than never, she supposed. Plus, Masha had been begging her to show them where she came from. They apparently found the concept of living on a giant decaying carcass in a world of magic and witchcraft “metal as hell.” After the promise of a metal concert and some batted eyelashes, Vee eventually gave into her partner’s request.

And that was what led to the two of them coming through the portal, hand in hand. As Vee’s shoes touched down on red grass, she felt a shiver go down her spine. She wouldn’t let her fear show, though. Belos is gone. He can’t hurt you anymore, she reminded herself.

“So, this is the Boiling Isles. What do you think?” Vee hoped Masha couldn’t hear the nervousness in her voice.

The enby’s head spun round as they took in everything they could. To their left was the Boiling Sea, the waters lapping against the cliff the Owl House rested on. As if on cue, a baby selkidomus leapt from the water, the sun reflecting off its scales. Directly in front of the couple stood a forest of red trees. Tiny bird-like creatures flitted from branch to branch, while other critters roamed the forest floor. Finally, to the right of the duo was a dirt and cobblestone path that lead from the Owl House to Bonesborough proper.

“This place is awesome!” Masha exclaimed. “Screw Earth, I want to live here for the rest of my life!”

Vee laughed at the goth’s enthusiasm. “Are you sure about that? What about all the demons that might try to eat you?”

“Then I’ll just have you scare them away like the big strong basilisk that you are,” Masha replied.

“Mash,” Vee blushed furiously at the comment. She then dropped her human form, returning to her natural state. “Does this look big and strong to you?” she asked, waving her noodle arms for emphasis.

Masha tapped a finger on their chin. “Hmm… I guess not. Let me rephrase, then. If anyone’s bothering me then you’ll stare at them with your big puppy dog eyes and they’ll die from the cuteness. How’s that sound?”

Vee somehow blushed harder, if that was even possible, with her face tinting a bright red. “Mash, stop it!”

The enby laughed at the basilisk’s flustered state. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop… for now.”

“Thank you,” Vee replied as she composed herself. “So, you ready to head to Bonesborough and see your first Demon Realm big city?”

“I was born ready,” Masha said with a smirk.

As the two entered the city limits, Vee was struck by a realization: she didn’t know anything about Bonesborough, and while Masha was an excellent tour guide (and partner), they didn’t know anything about the city either. If this tour of the Isles was going to be successful, they needed someone who knew the streets like the back of their hand, and Vee knew just who to ask.

Pulling out her phone and opening her texts, Vee shot a quick message to Luz.

Conversation with: 😈Hermanita😈

Vee: yo can you give Mash and I a tour of the Isles?
Vee: I promised Mash I'd do it
Vee: but like, I don't know anything
Hermanita: lol sure ok i'm down
Hermanita: where u wanna meet up???
Vee: I don't know where anything is
Hermanita: oh right
Vee: yeah lol
Hermanita: ok go to the Bonesborough Public Library. the giant church looking thing in the center of town.
Hermanita: can't miss it.
Vee: dope Vee: thank u Luz
Hermanita: no prob.
Hermanita: I'll be outside the BPL in 10 min
Vee: awesome.
Hermanita: swag

Putting her phone away, Vee updated Masha on the situation at hand. “Alright, I asked Luz if she could show us around town and she said yeah. We’re supposed to meet her at the public library in the middle of town and she’s supposed to be there in 10 minutes.”

“Cool,” Masha said. “Sounds like a good plan. Let’s go.”

As the couple made their way to the heart of Bonesborough, they saw firsthand all the damage that Belos had done to the Isles alongside how the people were rebuilding. While the residential sections looked relatively damage free, the commercial district looked to have taken the brunt of Belos’ rampage. Wading their way through the crowd, Vee and Masha locked arms so as to not lose each other. The majority of the district had been relegated to using open-air stalls to conduct business, with the brick-and-mortar stores having been reduced to rubble. Forcing their way through the crowds, merchants hawked their products or services to anyone who passed by within earshot.

“Need someone to disappear? No questions asked and guaranteed results!” one yelled.

“We’ve got the best selection of teeth on the market!” another claimed. “Buy ‘em before they’re gone!”

“Not dogs! Get your not dogs here! Freshly killed and grilled!” a third boasted.

Eventually, the two emerged from the other end of the market. Masha swatted at a fairy with an open palm, knocking it out of the sky. The annoying little bugger had been following them for the past few minutes and kept demanding their skin. Gross (but also metal). After wiping the fairy blood off on their pant leg, Masha combed their hair back with their fingers to get it out of their eyes.

Looking around, they spotted an absolutely ginormous building that looked like someone had taken one of the church’s from Gravesfield and set it down smack in the middle of Bonesborough. Yup, this had to be the public library.

Lightly poking Vee’s shoulder to get her attention, Masha motioned towards the building. “I think I found the library,” they remarked.

The two walked over to the large stone steps that led to the entrance of the BPL. As they did so, though, a shadow suddenly covered them. Turning to see what the cause was, none other than Luz Noceda was descending from the sky, riding Stringbean.

Touching down, Luz gave a salute to the couple.

“Hello, earthlings. My name is Luz, and I’ll be your captain and tour guide this morning. Welcome aboard Air Stringbean.”

Chapter 2: The Many Near-Death Experiences of Luz Noceda

Notes:

Titan, I love writing crack fics.

Chapter Text

“And here is our first stop: the University of Wild Magic,” Luz announced as the trio of herself, Vee, and Masha dismounted Stringbean.

Before the group stood the largest tree-house that Masha had ever seen. Craning their neck, they could just barely see the tree’s canopy, which was a mix of purple and pink leaves. Everywhere they looked, witches and demons of all ages were walking from platform to platform, while others were either listening to or giving a lecture. Surprisingly, none of the students appeared to be asleep in class, which Masha guessed was a testament to how engaging the teachers lessons were. Masha wished their teachers were that good. Mr. Fitzhenry’s lectures back at Gravesfield High were absolute torture.

“There normally wouldn’t be so many younger students here,” Luz explained, “but Hexside is still out of commission after everything that happened, so UWM is pulling double duty for the time being.”

“This place is huge!” Vee commented. “How many rooms are there?”

Luz paused to recall what exactly Mason had said during her most recent meeting with the former Coven head. “Last I heard, we had about forty or so classrooms, depending on how many courses are offered and how large the class sizes are. For the bigger classes, we have to combine multiple classrooms into one to accommodate all the students. Heck, we had to combine four classrooms just so we could hold everyone who had signed up for the History of Glyphs course. Obviously, it was so popular because it was being taught by yours truly, of course.” Luz finished her last statement with a cheeky grin.

“And how many students are in a normal class?” Vee asked as a follow-up.

“We typically have about seventy-five to a hundred students per,” Luz answered, wavering her hand in a so-so motion.

After doing the math in her head, Vee’s jaw plummeted to the bottom of the pits of Tartarus. “Are you telling me that your one class has four hundred students attending all at once?!” How Luz could survive that, she had no idea.

“Four hundred? Goodness me, no. I only have three hundred eighty-seven,” Luz corrected.

“That -  that’s still insane!“ Vee sputtered out. “How? Just… how?!”

“Coffee,” Luz replied flatly. “Lots of coffee.”

Vee slowly processed everything she had just learned, before coming to a conclusion. If this was how Luz acted normally, she didn’t want to see Luz right after she had consumed some unholy amount of coffee. “Nope, no, nuh uh, I don’t want to think about that anymore. Let’s just go to the next stop. Where’s Stringbean? Fly us to somewhere else.”

Vee was busy staring blankly into the abyss, her sister’s chatter going in one ear and out the other, when a sudden stop drew her attention.

“Ooh, that’s the spot!” Luz squealed.

Blinking rapidly, Vee looked around. They were now hovering above the market, and nothing looked like “the spot”, whatever that was.

“What spot are we looking for exactly? You wanna help me out here?” Masha asked, similarly confused as to the sudden stop.

“You see that little cliff right there?” Luz pointed at a patch of land that had rolling hills of red grass that suddenly dropped off to the market below. The fall had to be at least thirty feet.

“Yeah,” Masha answered. “What’s so special about it?”

“What’s so special about it?” Luz replied. “Why, that’s where I first saw the wonders of the Boiling Isles, and it’s also the first time I nearly died! A fairy tried to steal my skin!” The girl smiled as if she was talking about her favorite band, and not about her first near-death experience.

Masha and Vee both hoped this wasn’t going to be a repeat occurrence, but they were sorely mistaken.

“You are a strange girl, Luz Noceda,” Masha said.

“Thanks!” Luz responded chipperly.

For the second time that day, the group landed in front of a school. This one, though, was in far worse shape than the other. Even before they had stepped through the front doors, Masha could tell that this place had definitely seen better days. The graffiti covering the outer walls and the smashed in and/or boarded up windows didn’t exactly instill confidence.

“Welcome to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics,” Luz said. “It, uh, usually looks a lot more… private school-y.”

Luz ascended the steps to the entrance and opened one of the large wooden doors, ushering the others inside before entering herself.

“Hold on one sec, I wanna try something.” Luz said, bringing the other two to a halt before they could get too far ahead of her. She cupped her hands to her mouth, forming an impromptu megaphone.

“JUANITO!” she called out. Masha and Vee shared the same confused expression. Who was this ‘Juanito’ character? Was someone living in Hexside? Luz’s hands fell to her side as she waited patiently. She silently counted the seconds until he arrived. One apple blood, two apple blood, three apple blood, four – ah, there he is! Luz’s locker came running, leaving a path of destruction in the halls as he answered his assigned’s call.

“Hola, Juanito. ¿Cómo estás, niño?” Luz greeted her locker, giving him a few affectionate scratches. He lolled his tongue out, all nine of her textbooks somehow undamaged through all the chaos. Luz grabbed the one at the top of the pile, Bard Magic for the Tone Deaf, and gingerly flipped through the pages.

Vee could barely supress her giggles. “You named your locker ‘Juanito’?“ she asked in disbelief. Juanito growled at the comment, but Luz gave him a few extra scratches to calm him down.

“Juanito is a very respectable name, I will have you know,” Luz fired back, closing her book and setting it back on the pile. Juanito quickly swallowed the books back up.

“I mean, at least she didn’t name him Billiam Squilliam IV or something,” Masha added, coming to Luz’s defense. Juanito shook ferociously at that name, indicating his displeasure for it.

Far off down the hallway, other lockers peeked out from around the corner, a few calling out to their brethren to return. Noticing this, Luz gave her own locker a goodbye pet before sending him off. “Go be with your friends, Juanito!” With the parting message, Juanito the Locker ran off to be with his fellow lockers once more.

Looking around the commons, Luz spotted a very familiar room. Without warning, she sprinted in the direction of her target. Masha and Vee both shared a glance before shrugging and running after their tour guide. Once they finally caught up to her, they both noticed how the tiles on the floor were exceptionally sticky here when compared to everywhere else, and they also appeared to be slightly purple

Entering the room, Masha and Vee found Luz staring longingly at a table covered in dried chunks of abomination goop.

“What’s so special about this room?” Masha asked.

“This is where Amity tried to have me dissected,” Luz answered, before sighing. “Oh, the silly adventures we got up to back before everything went down the toilet.”

If Vee wasn’t already dead inside, she would have probably tried to drain the lavender-haired Blight of all her magic because of what she nearly did to her sister. But she was dead inside, so she simply responded with a, “Wow, that’s crazy,” in the most monotonous tone she could manage.

Not wanting to deal with this madness any more, Vee silently shuffled out of the room and began repeatedly banging her head against the nearest wall.

Titan, give me the strength to not go mental.

“Oh, and that’s the bridge that Aunt Lilith threw me off! We’re cool now, though,” Luz said as they passed over the remains of the Emperor’s castle.

Vee didn’t have the energy to even make some remark about how utterly insane that statement was, so she simply facepalmed.

Chapter 3: The Singular Actual-Death Experience of Luz Noceda

Notes:

In the time between this chapter and the last, I set up a Twitter account for talking about TOH. If you want to chat, ask me questions, dive into my brain during the fic writing process, get snippets of upcoming chapters, whatever, then find me at @_MemoryOverload. (Note the "_", as someone already took MemoryOverload.)

With that out of the way, enjoy the final chapter of The Isles According to Luz.

EDIT: Small changes to dialogue to make stuff more clear.

Chapter Text

Vee was legitimately surprised when the next few tour stops weren’t accompanied by her sister talking about how she nearly beefed it in one way or another. The stops at the police precinct-turned-hopsital in Latissa and the Supernatural Museum of History were rather uneventful. That was, until they landed at the former residence of the Blight family.

The old Blight Manor, which had been claimed by Edric and Emira after Odalia’s “disappearance” and Alador moving in with Darius, had a certain je ne sais qoui about it. Maybe it was the multiple cat-shaped abominations that roamed the halls, begging anyone within earshot for pets or treats. Vee thought they were oddly cute, and she had to admit that she found herself squishing their faces or booping their goopy little noses on more than one occasion during the visit. The twins were pretty alright, too, she guessed. They had split the manor straight down the middle (No, really, there was a solid black line bisecting the building, even on the outside.), with the left half going to Ed and the right going to Em.

Edric’s half had been turned into an animal sanctuary for all sorts of mystical creatures, and they were all apparently his pets. Bats, opossums, baby giraffes, the works. Vee was pretty sure she even saw one of those talking rats from the coffee shop. How that had gotten here, she had nary a clue. Emira’s half, on the other hand, had been repurposed into a free healing clinic, offering assistance to anyone in need. Viney was apparently a regular at the manor, coming in when one of Ed’s pets got hurt to help diagnose the injury. Based on the way Viney looked at Emira, though, Vee was pretty sure that some of the visits weren’t because of a pet in distress. Given, Vee was guilty of looking at Masha the exact same way. It wasn’t her fault that they were so pretty!

The final stop on the tour where Vee totally wasn’t concerned for Luz’s mental health was when they visited a large tree with pink leaves. It was kind of like the one at UWM, but just shrunk down a lot. The tree overlooked a massive cliff that dropped off into the Boiling Sea. Looking closer, Vee could see that dozens of hearts had been carved into the bark of the tree, most of them being filled with names or initials of the lovebirds who had left their mark. As the trio dismounted Stringbean, Luz took a deep breath, taking in the familiar scents of the final resting place of Grometheus the Fear Bringer.

“This is the Grom Tree,” she explained. “It’s where Amity and I had this totally anime dance battle thing that blew up Grom and saved the Isles from never-ending nightmares.” She couldn’t stop herself from blushing when she thought about how cute Amity looked in that dress.

“So, did you and Amity add your names to the tree?” Masha asked, motioning to the numerous carvings.

“Yeah,” Luz responded with a grin. “We weren’t the first, though. A few couples had already beat us to the punch when we added our names. Let me see if I can remember where we put ours.” If she recalled correctly, they had added their heart into the tree just below a giant knot. After a few seconds of searching, she spotted the drawing they had made.

Luz remembered the moment vividly. It was just after she and Amity had tied the abomination balloon around those flowers on the day of the Bonesborough Brawl. They didn’t have any knives or anything relatively sharp on their persons, so they resorted to painting on the tree with abomination goop. Luz was actually a little shocked that the heart inscribed with LN + AB was still visible after all this time.

Masha stared at the tree inquisitively. “Hmm. I think something’s missing from the tree.” They looked over at Vee and hoped she was picking up their psychic message.

Luckily, Vee received that message. “Yeah, I agree,” she said, a cheeky grin spreading across her face.

Together, the two approached the tree. Reaching into their purse, Masha withdrew a pocketknife. “Do you wanna start it or should I?” they asked their Schatz.

“Go ahead,” Vee replied.

Nodding, Masha began carefully carving out half of a heart, making sure to get the shape perfect. Once they were satisfied with their work, they then cut a small M into the wood on the left side of the heart. They then handed the knife over to Vee, who finished out the heart and added a V on the other side. To finalize their contribution to the tree, the two both held the knife, Vee wrapping her hand around Masha’s, slicing a small plus sign into the wood between the M and the V. Not wanting to let the heartfelt moment go to waste, Vee snuck a quick kiss in, planting it on Masha’s cheek.

Returning the knife to their purse, Masha stepped back and placed their hands on their hips. “There we go. That looks much better.”

As the couple admired the new addition to the tree, a gust of wind blew a crumpled up piece of lavender paper into Luz’s foot, drawing a groan from the girl. “Come on, people. Littering isn’t cool.” Reaching down, she picked up the scrap and couldn’t help but feel like she recognized it from somewhere. Unraveling it and smoothing the crinkles out, she was met with her own name, written in a very familiar handwriting. Once Luz finally connected the dots, she gasped and facepalmed.

“Oh my Titan!” she yelled.

“What is it?” Masha asked.

“Amity wanted to ask me out to Grom.” Luz shook her head, amazed at her obliviousness back then. “Great job, Noceda,” she muttered sarcastically.

Vee chuckled at her sister’s plight. “So, let me get this straight. You had an entire power of love dance thing with Amity that blew up Grom, but you thought you were ‘just friends’ or something? If that doesn’t scream ‘Oh my Titan, I am infatuated with you,’ then I don’t know what does. How did you not know that she was stupidly in love with you?”

“Looking back, I have no idea. Man, I really was oblivious,” the flustered human responded.

Vee let out a sigh. “Well, at least you didn’t die.”

“Eh, not until I fought against Belos at the end,” Luz countered.

“What.” Vee’s face fell once she figured out what Luz had just implied.

“Yeah, I croaked, kicked the bucket, bought the farm, whatever euphemism you want to use. At least the weird moss stuff wasn’t painful. That would’ve sucked. Talking with King’s dad was nice, though. Plus, I got my own super cool magical girl transformation sequence,” Luz explained excitedly, as if she wasn’t discussing her own passing.

“Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Timeout. Are you telling me that you actually died?!” Vee was taken aback that Luz didn’t tell her that crucial piece of information when she was recounting what had happened.

Luz laughed nervously. “I kinda might have forgotten to tell you that part? You know, silly old me, always forgetting important stuff.”

“How do you forget to mention that you died and then got resurrected?!” Vee was astounded at her sister’s apparent memory loss. “You just told us that Belos hit you with his moss stuff and then you got Titan powers. The whole ‘dying and coming back’ part seems pretty important to me!” Vee groaned. Titan, my sister is a madwoman.

“Wait, so you basically pulled a Jesus?” Masha asked, wanting to make sure they understood what went down when Luz met King’s pops.

“Eh, not really… I mean… Well… Sure, I pulled a Jesus,” Luz forced out.

In the span of a few seconds, Vee had completely lost track of the conversation. “Wait, what’s a Jesus?”

Series this work belongs to: