Hey everyone, so, me 'n daniel are trying to come up with a name for the series this story's gonna be a part of, and we decided to ask you guys if you had any ideas! So if you have any name ideas, please tell us in the comments! Once we have a number of titles we like, we'll do a poll of sorts for you guys to vote on your favorite ones.
Possible names for the series so far:
The Magic of Souls
Tales of Monsters, Humans, and Fairies
As the weeks passed following the second attempt on the monster Ambassador's life, Artemis's theory concerning the child's possible prophetic capabilities began to look more and more plausible.
This was absolutely no surprise to anyone involved. Artemis often would not even voice a theory of his until he was absolutely – or at least mostly – certain of its validity, and this time was no different. However, even Artemis would reluctantly admit that sometimes his information was lacking, and so, in cases such as this where a theory had yet to be proven, the fairies usually went about gathering what they could find that might prove or disprove it.
They usually never found anything to suggest he might be wrong, despite their doubts, and this time was no different.
Barely a week after the second assassination attempt, there was a third, which the child completely avoided by simply moving the location of a meeting site. When Artemis once again hacked into their call records, he found yet another claim of an "anonymous call" without evidence of such an occurrence. Four days later, the Ambassador quite literally dodged a bullet, ducking under it with hardly a scratch to show for the trouble – almost as if they had known it was coming.
"D'Arvit, this is insane," Holly muttered when she passed this information along barely a day after the most recent assassin's arrest. "Maybe they really do have magic. I mean, how else could they have dodged an actual bullet?"
"Why Holly, are you suggesting that you doubted me until now? I'm wounded, truly I am."
"Oh, hardy-har." No doubt the fairy captain was rolling her eyes on the other end of the line. "You know, Mud Boy, sometimes you being right is really inconvenient. Couldn't you have waited a month or two for another earth-shaking epiphany?"
"Now why would I do that?" Artemis smirked for a moment, enjoying the banter, then frowned when he heard the elf sigh, audibly irritated. "I take it things below ground are not progressing in a satisfactory manner?"
"Of course not. We hardly know a Frond-damned thing about what's going on or who might be behind this, there's a Mud Kid with magic and at least one monster running around on the surface looking for us, and on top of all that, the Council finally got wind of this whole mess and are arguing about whether or not to mind-wipe the monster Ambassador. Nothing is 'progressing in a satisfactory manner.'"
His lips curled downward into a frown. Ah, yes, that would explain Holly's foul attitude. The fairy Council, while excellent at running the day to day life of the People, had a very predictable tendency to panic when things had the potential to go catastrophically wrong, especially when there were humans that weren't the Fowls involved. And panicking Council members tended to do very foolish things – case in point, their current scenario.
"Sometimes I wonder why fairies ever chose a Council as their governing body," he sighed. "Don't they realize that a mind-wipe in this situation would most likely backfire? Frisk has at least one, perhaps two monsters they've already confided in, and possibly others as well – at least one of them could be trustworthy enough to help those memories resurface, and then the mind-wipe would literally be useless. The only way to guarantee such a thing wouldn't happen would be to mind-wipe the monsters as well, and considering the mind-wiping equipment is specifically designed for human central nervous systems, it may not work on the monsters at all."
"I know." She groaned. "The Commander's already gone to try to snap them out of it, but knowing the Council, they might just end up ordering it done anyway."
"If they do, then I'm inviting you all into my emergency end-of-the-world bunker," Foaly put in over his own earpiece. "Might be a bit of a tight fit, but I'm sure you could fit if you suck your stomach in, Mud Boy!"
"Foaly, please, be serious."
"I'm being serious! I don't want to see what'll happen if the Council accidentally declares war on the monsters or something! I'm gonna be in my solid steel bunker, with decades worth of preserved food and Caballine and my old tinfoil hats, and there is nothing either of you can do to stop me."
"Riiiight." Holly's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "At least until Caballine kicks you out so you can go save the world again."
"Or until the Commander threatens your precious paycheck," Artemis added with a smirk.
"Okay, you two are the worst friends a centaur could ever have. No sympathy, none whatsoever!"
"Gee, look at you, using that famous brain of yours."
"Fine! See if I invite you into my bunker again!" The centaur huffed indignantly, and then went silent, audibly sulking as the clicking of keys began to sound.
"Frond, you're such a pain sometimes," Holly muttered, but despite the complaint, she sounded less stressed, even borderline amused.
"One must wonder how someone so immature could be so intelligent," Artemis agreed. "Are you feeling a little better, Holly?"
"Little bit," she admitted. "I'd feel even better if I could scream at the Council for being a bunch of idiots instead, but I guess making fun of Foaly is almost as good a stress-reliever."
There was a grumble from the other line, but otherwise, the centaur continued his silent treatment.
"'Course, I'd feel even better if we could actually figure out how to deal with this mess," the elf sighed. "We won't even know for sure if the Ambassador has magic unless we can get a good scan of them using the MagiScanners, and those things can't get an accurate reading when the fairies using them are shielding. If only there was a way to separate the Ambassador and the monsters for a few minutes..."
One of Foaly's keyboard keys clacked louder than strictly necessary as he groaned and gave up on sulking.
"Holly, did you have to jinx us like that? Now the Ambassador's gonna get kidnapped or something!"
"What with the Ambassador's future vision, I kinda doubt they'd let something like that happen."
At which point, the universe proved Holly wrong and Foaly absolutely correct, for that was the moment Artemis's phone rang.
"Arty, something happened to Frisk!" Beckett's voice blurted when he answered it. "I was talking to them and there was an explosion and their phone cut out and now they're not answering and Myles can't contact them either!"
For the first time in several days, now that all the monster-human interviews were out of the way, Frisk tentatively planned on taking a break from their ambassador duties while Sans and Flowey were off pestering that blogger the skeleton had found for info. And, so far at least, it seemed that the universe was no longer gunning for them because despite having been out in public with a minimal escort (which essentially meant that only Toriel was with them), they had yet to be shot at. No whizzing bullets, no panicking bystanders, and everything was… surprisingly peaceful.
Of course, that didn't mean they could let their guard down, but still. They felt remarkably calm right now, all things considered, and they'd already visited a few places – a bookstore, a restaurant where they'd had a full and very enjoyable meal, and a park – without once getting hit by a projectile or weapon of any sort.
It was something just short of a miracle, a miracle that they were fully intending to take advantage of while they could, and not even the unexpected call on their cell phone could shake them up too much. And when they'd realized who was calling, they'd been able to relax again, because it wasn't a monster or human politician calling them, but Beckett, sounding just as sunnily cheerful as he always had whenever greeting them.
They'd been talking to the Fowl boy for several minutes now, as they walked down a street just south of the library, and so far, at least, the boy hadn't asked any awkward questions, despite the storm of them that had come flooding through the speakers.
"So what kinds of monsters have you met? I know there's gotta be a lot more than the ones living here in Dublin!"
"What kinds of magic can the Queen use? There're lots of different types of monster magic, right?"
"I heard from Juliet that the last time she and Undyne sparred, they accidentally broke a bunch of windows and got kicked out of the gym! I know Juliet's more subtle than that when she wants to be, so how strong is your friend and how did she break so many windows? 'Cause I don't think it was Jules!"
"That Alphys monster from the gala was Undyne's girlfriend, right? What are monster relationships like? Do you know?"
"Why is that flower monster so grumpy?"
That last question had actually startled a sheepish laugh and an apology out of them. "Sorry about Flowey, he's just… like that. For personal reasons. Sorry, but it's not my place to talk about it."
Beckett had taken that in stride and just started launching more enthusiastic questions at them, and before they knew it, they'd been talking to him for almost a full half-hour, the longest they'd ever had a conversation with another human without it being about politics or Resets in any timeline.
Which, of course, meant that it had to end with a very violent bang – a literal one. Not a gunshot, but rather a sudden explosion of noise and fire that came pouring out of a nearby shop.
The crowds around them hardly hesitated – they all, almost as one, screamed and ran. People bumped into each other, bowled other people over, stumbled over their own feet, and all around simply panicked, fear turning the relatively organized street into a swarming mob.
"Frisk?! What happened?!"
Grabbing ahold of Toriel's sleeve so as to avoid getting swept away by the stampede of people, Frisk could barely hear themselves reply over the noise. "There was some sort of explosion in one of the stores! I -" They spotted a crumpled form inside the shop, barely visible past the smoke, and swallowed, throat dry. "There're still people in there! Mom, can you –"
Grim-faced, Toriel quickly walked forward, hands already rising and glowing with white light. Her own considerably cooler flames rose up out of the ash, forming protective rings around the bodies and shoving the ugly red fire away from them.
"Call the firefighters and an ambulance, my child," she ordered. "Fire cannot fight fire forever."
"R-right. Sorry Beckett, I'm –"
*Frisk, look out!
But Chara's warning came too late. Someone grabbed them from behind, a cloth-covered and oddly-smelling hand clapping over their mouth, and then their vision blurred.
The last thing they saw was Toriel's shocked, scared expression, and then everything went black.
Good on you Holly, you jinxed it, Frisk LITERALLY just got kidnapped because of you. A++ job there, you just made everybody's lives more difficult.
I've had a few people ask if Opal Koboi is involved with these assassins somehow. My answer to that is a very definite NO. Opal died in the last book of the Artemis Fowl series, has not come back to life in any way shape or form since then, and at most will only have passing mentions in the fic, so don't worry, the pixie megalomaniac that everyone loves to hate is not behind this! ^.^
And now for more worldbuilding from me 'n daniel, and once again inspired by one of MemorySteel's questions: "So what does thaumic(magical) buildup lead to in your 'verse?"
Alright, magical buildup... In this 'verse, it takes a metric crap ton of magic in order for it to cause odd things to happen. A little spark of the stuff isn't enough to cause much in the way of change, while, on the other hand, a huge concentration of it could cause some very, very interesting side-effects. Also, some things are more receptive to magic in different amounts.
For example, plants in this world are actually incredibly sensitive to magic, and, in areas with a large enough concentration of it, will absorb it just like they would other forms of energy to use as nourishment. As a result, plants tend to show a wider variety of effects caused by magic - magical discoloration, sudden unexpected growth, odd mutations that give them new characteristics such as glowing bits or unique behaviors, amongst other things. On the other hand, animals that were exposed to the same amount of magic wouldn't be nearly as affected by it, and even if they did suffer any side-effects, they would not be permanent ones - for instance, they might become more skittish or violent than normal, until they leave the area and are no longer beset by magic from all sides. It takes considerably more magic to cause any changes that won't revert back to normal once there's less magic around.
The same basic principle goes for humans, as well - most humans, once no longer exposed to large amounts of magic, will not show much in the way of sudden changes or side-effects, and what few they do show are usually emotional ones (sudden agitation, paranoia, etc.) which will usually fade away once they are no longer being exposed to it. However, there are two exceptions to this rule - normal humans exposed to large amounts of magic can risk having those personality affects becoming permanent (in other words, it can change your dominant soul traits) and humans with single-colored souls, or others with the potential to have magic, WILL develop magic of their own if exposed to enough ambient magic in their immediate surroundings - it's something that's pretty much guaranteed. That takes a MASSIVE amount of magic though - we're talking Barrier levels of magic here, something so impossibly powerful that no modern mages could ever hope to equal it.