Chapter Text
The meeting hall was filled with city council members on the night everything went terribly wrong. The council was concluding a preparatory meeting about defense. Only the highest members and raspberry herself really knew what it was for, but there would be time to tell the rest of the council later
There would be time. To research, to prepare.
Everyone will be fine. Raspberry thought, looking out over their highest ranked council members. London, Human, a follower of the fourth wheel Racoon Deity. A close friend. He had been a secretary at the former government before raspberry took over, moved up for his brilliant mind and diplomatic skills. SPD, or as raspberry affectionately called them, Sleepy, a demon with a surprisingly technically oriented mind. Exiled from their squadron for a reason they refused to name. Raspberry wasn’t pusy though. Sleepy was a strong force and a good confidant. Then there was Ruby. ruby was a little closed off, but had an excellent read on most people. She gave excellent insight, but as much as raspberry appreciated ruby, she would always have a deeper respect for ruby’s sister. Jane. Jane was a dazzling ray of sunshine, which was rather ironic considering both Jane and Ruby were Faye Princesses of the Night. When raspberry met them, jane introduced herself as the Princess of Stars, and Ruby the Princess of Nightmares. Jane held her birth title in little regard, and went by ‘The Fair Lady’ at her estate, Violet Primrose Hall. Ruby gave herself no titles. She let her power speak for itself, preferring to let others decide how seriously to take her. Of course, everyone took her VERY seriously.
They would all be fine. We can prepare.
This group is tight knit. We have each other
Raspberry watched the council meeting conclude, offering little else to the discussion lest she let slip the true severity of the events to come.
As usual jane and raspberry exchanged pleasant words. Raspberry found the topic of conversation inconsequential. She leaned on her desk and intently nodded along to all of jane’s points, laughing as she laughed. Red eyes trained on jane’s dazzling honey brown ones. Raspberry often found the best part of a conversation with jane was just her presence. He would have continued the rather one sided conversation an eternity if she let themself. If there were time.
Jane eventually took her knights and left. Leaving raspberry alone in his meeting hall.
Raspberry was a being of many homes, mostly because he was in control of the small civilization’s money and economy. That being said, none of them really felt like where he belonged.
Sleepy had told raspberry it was weird to sleep in his natural burrow, which he supposed was true, he was far from the years in which he relied on his mother for care. Dragon lords had to be independent by 10, they had to care for the younger fruits in their bushel. Raspberry took great pride in his small tribe.
Raspberry knew he wasn’t like other Dragon lords in the past. Many years ago, the grandmother Matron vine had stood tall in a far desolate corner of the world, stretching past the sky. Raspberry shared their name with her first daughter, her aunt. Raspberry’s mother had been raised to fill the role the first raspberry filled, along with all her sisters after her. Matriarch. A matriarch’s Bushel was the whole tribe and the whole Orchard. Matriarch was responsible for leading the dragon lords, caring, teaching, recording and passing knowledge. Diplomacy.
But there were no more dragon lords. No more Grandmother Matron vine. A young soon to be Matriarch Marion, rather than fight the attack, turned tail and ran. Ran until she could not hear the screams of her dying clan, and sprouted at the opposite corner of the world, at the Convergence. Marion took all that was left of Dragon lord culture and had but only 4 souls to pass it on to, her children.
It was dragon lord culture to commune at the Matron vine, and dragon lord instinct to use one’s mother for shelter and comfort.
But it WAS a hole in the ground. No exaggeration. Raspberry had grown up sleeping in a hole in the ground. So he moved. After all, how could one run a society in a world in which hundreds of other societies had collapsed and simultaneously live in a hole.
He tried living in the old castle ruins. He found them to be haunted, and the ghost wasn’t too pleased to be his roommate. He built shacks, houses, every kind of building under the sun. he had rooms at all of his friend’s houses, but nothing felt like it was truly HIS home.
So raspberry left his place of work and just… flew.
The night air was chilly. Winter was ending soon, which meant he’d probbably have to see his father.
Lady Holly of the winter faye was the most insufferable miserable individual raspberry knew, and she had no interest in having any part in raspberry or her brother’s lives, even after they had found out she was their father. It peeved raspberry that she could be related to such a miserable, selfish person, fairy nobility or not.
Raspberry had a complicated family.
But there were always his friends. Her friends who they loved so much, their friends who he knew would never separate. The five of them were thick as thieves. Raspberry could not rely on Marion, his mother to protect his city because she was a fully sprouted vine. Raspberry could not rely on Holly, her father, to protect their city because she didn’t give a rat’s ass about the overworld. Raspberry hated to rely on her brothers simply because they were youngsters, and his responsibility to keep safe, but raspberry could always rely on London, Sleepy, Ruby and Jane.
So it shocked raspberry when he woke up that next morning to 10 missed calls from jane and ruby and dozens of frantic texts
Darling Jane
-razzy things are happening-
-spd just dumped ruby-
-ohmygod londons in the hospital-
Ruby
-SLEEPY SLASHED LONDON ACROSS THE FACE JESUS CHRIST-
LooneyToon
-In the ER guys-
-sleepy can throw a mean punch.-
Raspberry Immediatley rushed out of bed, warping their form into something presentable and leaping out the nearest window.
Sleepy and ruby had been together almost as long as raspberry had known the pair. A Demon with Sleep Paralysis powers and the Faye Princess of Nightmares were quite the intimidating pair, and they loved each other, from what raspberry could tell, at least.
But sleepy had been irritable lately.
Raspberry brushed it off, they had all been under a LOT of stress. SPD was no exception.
But a breakup?
An attack?
There had to be some kind of reasoning. Something that happened.
Raspberry reached Ruby’s personal house first. Inside she found ruby and jane, sitting on the couch. Ruby’s pet fox curled in her lap
“What happened?” were the first words that left raspberry’s mouth
Jane’s gaze looked hollow. Ruby looked a horrible combination of distraught and angry
“Well, you know. Demons will be demons” Ruby muttered under her breath
Gears turned in raspberry’s head.
That was far from the first time raspberry had heard that, because that was the same reason, or rather, excuse Sleepy gave whenever they did something hurtful
Rearrange the city generator grid without consulting anyone first? ‘I’m a demon, we’re random like that’ raspberry wasn’t even allowed to be irritated about it because the result was the silent treatment for 4 days and ‘demons don’t like to be disrespected. I worked hard on that’
Magically duplicate hundreds of cats for the cat cafe ‘a demon never underdoes anything’ and ‘not my fault they’re all aggressive, demons can’t make nice things’
Rude to children ‘i’m a demon what do you expect’
Rude to disabled people ‘they’re weak. I didn’t mean to trip over them, i’m a DEMON i don’t pay attention for them’
Rude to the elderly ‘demons will be demons’
All those little blips of blatant rudeness, hurtful behavior, sleepy brushed off as genetic, that they all LET sleepy brush off as genetic, because they knew sleepy had come from a horrible place and was getting better.
Getting better, it seems, until somehow they weren’t.
“London’s Hospitalized?” raspberry questioned
“Well” ruby sighed “he tried to stand up for me.”
“What exactly went down?” Raspberry said lowly. Dangerously. The familiar itch to strike someone with lightning tingled under their nailbeds. Power that came from her mother’s side of the family, at the same level her father possessed. Lethal power. She had to remind himself there was probably an explanation. There was a reason. It was wrong to throw a thunderstorm on someone without knowing every side of the story. “what was said. Where. Why.”
“It was- ugh. I don’t even know” ruby sighed. A twinge of her glimmer dropped. Faye magic that kept the faye presentable. Raspberry had never needed to master it, being a shapeshifter, but in that flicker he could see how red and swollen her underyes were. She had been crying.
Raspberry grabbed a seat on the floor and materialized some snacks onto the table
“Hey, girl, I’m on your team here.” raspberry said “girl time?”
Jane and ruby nodded
“Girl time. Then we should probably check up with london” Ruby reached for a cookie. “It all started when…”