interesting bug facts

college AU(?) minoade

"You know you're not being subtle, right?" asks Mythra.

"What?" says Minoth. It's one thing to be accused of posturing or embellishing when he's actually doing something, and quite another when he's simply sitting here, nursing a cup of tea.

Mythra says flatly, "Your manuscript. How many times have you written the hero to be Addam?"

"What?" Minoth says again. This is him bullshitting to cover something up.

Mythra, sat in front of Minoth's laptop, rolls her eyes. "Seriously, I can't be the first one to bring this up. Don't you show all your friends your manuscripts?" Minoth doesn't reply and Mythra carries on speaking, blissfully ignorant of Minoth's inner turmoil. "Haze is a genius at figuring out plot twists and how love triangles in films end, too, so she must've pointed it out! And Addam himself! He if anyone should notice that the hero's literally always based on him."

Finally Minoth comes up with a comeback.

"Actually, Addam doesn't read my manuscripts."

"That's even worse, dude."

Alvis the seer (not clickbait!!1): xc2 countryside AU

A neat silver car slows down next to them. The window rolls down and the person inside, also neatly dressed and with silver hair - which, contrarily, sticks up every which way - smiles and says, "Hello there." Then rolls up the window again and drives off quickly enough that Nia doesn't even get her question out before the person's gone.

"Uh," says Rex eloquently.

"Was that..." says Pyra, wide-eyed, glancing at Mythra, who also looks like she's seen some supernatural occurrence.

"Cousin Alvis? I think so," says Mythra.

"Huh? So what's the big deal?"

"We've never seen Alvis in real life before!"

"What?" says Rex. "Then how'd you know that was your cousin?"

Mythra looks at Pyra. Pyra looks at Mythra.

"Dad hate-watches Alvis's TV show," Mythra says finally.

Huh. "So Alvis is an actor?"

"Eh... no," says Pyra.

"So a TV host, then," Nia concludes. "Weird. Grandda loves game shows, and I've never seen any host who looked like that."

Pyra and Mythra look at each other again.

"Alvis is a..." Mythra begins to say, then pauses. Grimaces. Then she drags her hands down her face and exclaims, "No, I'm not gonna let dad's opinions affect me! It's not a stupid job at all!"

"Alvis is a seer," says Pyra. "And Alvis, um... "

"Predicted dad and mom's divorce," says Mythra. "Like, down to the date and everything. So Klaus had a huge fight with Alvis and that's why we've literally never met."

They all stare after the car.

"So," says Nia. "Why is Alvis then... here?"

bug-catcher 101: xc2 countryside AU

Nia's grandda and Rex's grandpa and Rex's grandpa Addam's old war buddy or whatever he was (he was a cowboy, that was what he was) have started getting together and sitting on Addam's porch in the evenings and drinking tea and playing cards and they all flirt with Addam's wife in that gentleman-like way old men do to flatter ladies into forgiving them for forgetting to put away the dishes, and she teases them back and then joins them for a round.

Anyway, Nia tagged along because Dromarch asks every time and Nia actually had plans for tonight, but they were cancelled, so now she really has nothing to do. So why not.

"How are there so many bloody bugs in the entire world," Nia snarls, swatting away another three flies that are trying their absolute hardest to land directly on her nose.

Cole, old annoying coot that he is, barks a laugh at her. "Don't like bugs, do you?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Nia drawls, glaring at him.

He holds up his hands, disarming. "Pardon me. Would some interesting bug facts help?"

Nia squints at him. "What facts do you even have?"

Then Cole, quick as anything, snatches a bug right out of the air. Nia's mouth drops open (for a second only. Then she immediately closes it so a fly won't divebomb her mouth) and Cole holds out his hand, where the bug is now crawling around. And actually, it's a moth. "Blue-bordered Carpet," Cole says. "The moth is named for the blue - well I suppose it is more gray - color at the edge of the forewings."

"Huh," says Nia, at a loss for anything else. "It's kind of cute."

The moth flies away, but Cole just points at one of the support pillars for Addam's porch. The paint is chipped and gnarly enough to look like bark, and on it are, of course, more bugs. Cole points at another moth, with a blue marking like an eye on each wing. "Eyed Hawk-moth," Cole says. "The caterpillars feed on apple trees."

Nia points at another moth. "What about that one? With orange and black."

Cole knows the name of that one too, a‍nd the next one after that. Well, either he's very imaginative at coming up with bug names or he seriously knows a lot about insects. Actually, this reminds Nia of listening to grandda explain all the flowers in their garden. He's meticulous as hell and seems to know about every single stray weed or grass that appears there.

father who art in heaven "can we make s'mores?": xc2 countryside AU

"Hey dad," Mythra calls out, looking skywards, which means up at the ceiling. "Can we take out the grill?"

Pyra and Mythra listen intently for an answer.

But there is nothing. Perhaps dad is busy, or asleep.

"Well, I'm going to take that as a yes," decides Mythra.

Pyra thinks about protesting. Then she thinks about roasting marshmallows with her friends. "Okay."