On the day they returned to the Fowl estate, Frisk had woken up halfway expecting the sky to be gray, overcast, and gloomy, maybe with ominous rumbling on the horizon. It seemed appropriate enough to expect, considering what they had found out only a few days previously.

However, by the time that they and the monsters accompanying them were in a cart riding through the Irish countryside, the sky was clear and almost cloudless, and peacefully quiet without a single grumbling of thunder.

Well, peacefully quiet wasn't exactly accurate, what with who they were sharing the cart with.

"FRIEND FRISK, IS IT NORMAL FOR HUMANS TO NAME THEIR HOUSES?"

Frisk blinked at the taller of the two skelebros directly across from them. Papyrus was leaning forward with a look of avid curiosity on his face, and his posture was forcing a grumbling Flowey (whose pot was practically being cuddled right next to the skeleton's chest) to lean forward as well.

"No, not really."

"THEN WHY IS THIS HUMAN FAMILY'S HOME NAMED FOWL?"

"Well, it's not actually named 'Fowl.' It's like calling your house 'Papyrus's house' or 'Papyrus and Sans's house.'"

"OH, I SEE! IT IS SIMPLY A FANCY WAY OF SAYING WHAT FAMILY LIVES THERE!" The skeleton's sockets scrunched up in confusion as another thought occurred to him. "BUT WHY WOULD THEY BE CALLED 'FOWL?' IT SOUNDS VERY… AUSPICIOUS!"

"That's easy, bro." Sans cracked open an eye socket. "It's 'cause they're suspected of fowl play."

"SANS!"

Frisk stifled a giggle. Next to them, Toriel openly chuckled.

"Aw, there's no need for that, Pap." The shorter skeleton's grin seemed to grow by several teeth. "Gotta get my kicks in somehow."

"Can't you just take a nap or something?" Flowey snapped, glowering at him. "If I have to hear another one of your stupid puns –"

The cart trundled around a bend, and the stone wall and medieval gate of Fowl Manor were suddenly looming over them. Flowey's threat petered out at the sight of it.

"WOWIE!" Papyrus blurted. "THAT IS A VERY LARGE HOUSE!"

"It's almost too large." Sans's sockets were both open now, pupils flickering back into view after the shock of seeing the manor for the first time had rendered them invisible. "I thought you said only four people lived here, kid?"

"Well, there might be a few more people here keeping the house clean," they admitted. "The place is too big for the Fowls to do it themselves."

The horses pulling their cart slowed to a halt at the base of the gate, and the man who'd been steering them scrambled down from the cart, fishing a large key from his pocket and trotting up to unlock a large padlock hanging from the metal bars.

As he did, Frisk took a moment to study the manor. The last time they'd been here, most of their focus had been on the other guests, not on the building itself (though it was hard not to make note of its more impressive or ornate features.) Without so many distractions, though, they could see some of the more subtle details that they'd missed before – some window boxes on the upper stories, the tell-tale blue glint of solar panels on some of the roofs, and small plots of garden along the building's walls, hidden partially in shadow.

When the gate swung open, they also saw something else – or rather someone else. There was a quartet of figures waiting on the steps leading to the front door – a pair of familiar adults with dark hair, and unfamiliar one as tall and clean-shaven as a mountain peak, and one kid, with sunshine-blonde hair.

Beckett didn't wait for them at the door, but instead rushed forward to meet them as soon as they came within shouting distance, face split with a wide, eager grin.

"Hi, Frisk! Hi, Your Majesty!"

"Hi."

"Hello, Beckett," Toriel said warmly. "How have you and your parents been?"

"We've been fine, thanks!" The boy turned his attention fully on Frisk, his smile fading a little. "I heard you got shot. Are you okay?"

"Fine," they assured him quickly. They pulled down the collar of their shirt a little, showing him where the bullet had gone in. "See? I don't even have a scar."

"Oh, good!" He perked up again and held out a hand. "You want help getting down?"

Frisk hesitated, before reluctantly taking his hand to steady themselves as they clambered down, mumbling a soft thank you.

"Not a problem!" He assured them, then turned wide eyes towards the monsters in the cart that he hadn't already greeted. "I've seen you guys somewhere before… um, weren't you on Frisk's blog?"

Papyrus puffed up his chest proudly. "INDEED I WAS! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, and THIS LAZYBONES HERE IS SANS!"

"'Sup." Sans lifted one hand off his lap, hardly bothering to move more than an inch.

"IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU, SMALL HUMAN BECKETT!" Papyrus added. He jumped down from the cart – literally jumped, landing perfectly on his feet – and stuck out one hand for the boy to shake. "ANY FRIEND OF FRISK'S IS A FRIEND OF MINE!"

Apparently the skeleton's enthusiasm was just as contagious for the Fowl boy as it was for Frisk on some days, because his grin just grew even bigger and sunnier, and he accepted the handshake with enthusiasm to rival Undyne's. "Thanks!"

He paused, looking at the grumbling flower held in the crook of Papyrus's other elbow. "And who're you?"

"None of your beeswax, that's who," Flowey grumbled.

"That's Flowey," Frisk said apologetically. "He's, um… really rude. Sorry if he upsets you while he's here, but I didn't want to leave him behind, so..."

"It's fine, it's fine!"

By this point, the adults at the door had reached them – Mr. and Mrs. Fowl, and the huge stranger. As they introduced themselves to the new monsters and exchanged greetings with Toriel, Frisk looked around for the last Fowl that seemed to be missing from the group.

"Where's Myles?"

Beckett made a face. It was an odd face, somewhere between a reaction to biting into a lemon and frustration.

"He's in his laboratory," he complained. "He's been in there for days, working on some stupid new project, and he hasn't come out except for meals! I tried getting him to come out earlier, but I don't think he heard me! I think he doesn't even know what day it is!"

"If it's any consolation," a rumbling, deep voice said, "your older brother often did the same when he still lived here." Frisk started, looking up to find the massive stranger practically looming over them.

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Beckett grumbled. Then, after a moment, he perked up. "I know! I bet he'd come out once he knew you were here, Frisk!"

"W-what?" They blustered.

"He's been really excited about getting to see you again, even if he doesn't show it well!"

"Umm..."

Before they could really fully process this (the only reason that they could think for Myles to be excited to see them again was for the same reason that monsters and now some humans were generally excited to see Mettaton, and they just couldn't wrap their head around the idea of being someone's celebrity), Beckett grabbed their hand and started tugging them towards the manor door. "Come on! Let's go get him!"

"W-wait a second!" Frisk protested. They turned towards the monsters. "Will you guys be fine on your own..?"

"We will be fine, my child," Toriel assured them, affectionately amused by their skittishness. "I hardly think that we will come under attack here."

"But –" Frisk glanced at the skeletons and Flowey.

"Go on, kiddo." Sans waved them away lazily. "Me 'n Pap and Flowey will just go look at the gardens or something."

Translation: Flowey and I will look at the SAVE point. Frisk wanted to relax a bit at that statement – they needed whatever information Sans could find, if not concerning the SAVE point then at least concerning the odd, possibly magical roses – but they couldn't, not just like that.

"Is… that okay?" That was aimed at the two adult Fowls, who had paused in their conversation to listen.

"Of course, Ambassador," Mrs. Fowl assured them. "We'll have Butler show them around." She nodded to the man-mountain.

Frisk hesitated, then nodded, and then let finally Beckett drag them away into the manor.

"Dinner will be at six!" Mrs. Fowl called after them before the door was shut behind them. "Have fun, dear!"


It was kinda funny, how panicked the kiddo got around strangers, Sans mused. Frisk had faced down Flowey multiple times, and faced down Sans himself, when he was actually serious about fighting, twice.

(Well, at least they claimed they had – he had no evidence apart from Flowey's own claims, and the way Chara would flinch whenever they were in control and he took a shortcut to them without warning, and that wasn't enough to be sure.)

And yet, if a total stranger came up to them asking for an autograph, it was like they were being faced with the apocalypse.

"They're a bit shy, aren't they?" The dark-haired human lady asked, laughter in her eyes. Her posture was relaxed and welcoming, without a hint of tension or malicious intent, but, well, who knew if that was true or not.

Careful not to give anything away by changing his posture, Sans focused on her LV, one of the only two of the human's stats he could see without initiating an encounter or a proper CHECK.

Angeline Fowl

LV 1

She'd never killed anybody, then. Good.

"I'VE NEVER SEEN FRISK ACT SHY BEFORE!" Pap scratched his chin with his free hand, looking thoughtfully at the manor door. "I THINK ALPHYS SAID SOMETHING ABOUT HUMANS ACTING NERVOUS OR EMBARRASSED AROUND OTHER HUMANS – SOMETHING ABOUT THEM BEING SOMETHING CALLED A HAJIDERE?"

Sans snorted.

"SANS, WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?"

"No reason, bro."

Papyrus squinted at him suspiciously.

"Now, now, Papyrus," Toriel chided gently. "As amusing as puns are, I'm sure that Sans still finds other things just as amusing."

"Isn't hajidere a Japanese term?" The other dark-haired human's brows furrowed. "I don't think that Japan has allowed many monsters within their borders yet. Where did your friend learn it?"

Sans used the moment between the question and his bro's answer to quickly scan the male human. Non-aggressive posture, mismatched stance – he was putting more weight on one leg than the other. An injury, maybe? And his stats…

Artemis Fowl Sr.

LV 2

He'd had to kill, but only once before. He was still a relatively low threat.

"OH, SHE LEARNED IT FROM A HUMAN THING CALLED ANIME!"

The Fowls started, and the enormous human behind them raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Isn't that some sort of television show?"

Sans focused on him next. Easily almost as tall as Tori, with bulky arm muscles that could've put Aaron's to shame, this human looked like he could one-up Undyne despite his apparent age and heft the mountain he resembled over his head and run a marathon holding it there. There was also several suspicious bulges of something underneath his carefully maintained suit in several places – if he were to hazard a guess, based on the shape and size of the bulges, they were guns.

The human probably didn't need those to cause damage, though – his stance might have been meant to look casual, but there was definitely tension in there, muscles ready to move at a moment's notice. This human was dangerous, and a quick glance at his stats only confirmed it.

Domovoi Butler

LV 7

Yeah, that was far too much blood on his hands for Sans to feel comfortable with this human being near his brother or Tori, but he couldn't do much about it now. He'd just have to keep an eye on him.

"Hey, are we just going to stand around here chatting, or are we actually doing something?" Flowey growled.

"NOW NOW, FLOWEY," Pap scolded, "WHAT DID FRISK SAY ABOUT BEING RUDE?"

The flower grumbled, hunching up in his pot. "But I'm bored." He complained. "And I've been stuck underground for ages. I wanna actually see stuff. Like those flowers Frisk talked about! I've never seen orange roses before!"

Butler's eyes narrowed a fraction before his face settled back into an impassive look that wouldn't have looked amiss on a statue. It was barely noticeable, but Sans noted it all the same.

Why's he so on edge about it? Flowey doesn't exactly look dangerous, and as far as he knows, we're just looking at flowers.

That expression had meant something, though, and if he were to guess, it either meant that Butler had taken offense to Flowey's comment somehow, or he had seen it as a threat.

Huh. Guess I'll have to figure out which one it is for myself .

"Maybe we should get the little weed out of here so you guys can, y'know, talk." He suggested impassively. "He's not exactly easy on the ears."

"Hey, for your information, trashbag –"

"See?"

Butler's brow furrowed a little, but he nodded. "Might as well. I won't be able to show you around the entirety of the grounds, but I can show you some of them, and we can stop at the roses on the way."

Sans made a lazy gesture at him. "Lead the way, then, pal."

Threatening human or no, I'm not passing up this chance. Let's see what those roses might shed some light on.


Magicae est Potestas now has a TVTropes page, made and edited by me and daniel! Feel free to check it out! Here's the URL (hopefully it'll turn up for you guys): /Fanfic/MagicaeEstPotestas

Also, we're still looking for other tropes that match things that have happened so far, so feel free to look for some yourselves! If you find one that really seems to fit, feel free to tell us so we can post it with the others we've already found!

Sorry about not posting this earlier – I was busy most of last week, and as a result, though I did know what I wanted to write, I never got around to it. I'll try not to let that happen again!

And wait a second, we have a Sans POV? Whaaaaat? Heh. Anyway, I hope I managed to keep him relatively in character.

The whole "Sans seeing peoples' LV" thing is a head-canon of mine, by the way. Originally I thought about making him be able to see peoples' souls without initiating an encounter like I've seen some fanfics do, but that would be too OP, so instead he can see people's LV.

On peoples' LVs: Artemis Sr. has an LV of 2 because, even though he never actively tried to kill anybody, even while he was still a criminal, he was bound to have had to lethally defend himself or his family against an attack eventually. It just makes sense. Butler's LV of 7 is because, before he was a bodyguard for Artemis, he worked as a mercenary. He was bound to have killed a heck of a lot of people, and he's pretty numb to death of non-family by now, but at the same time, he tries not to kill if he can help it, so his LV isn't as high as it could be.

"Hajidere" is a term used in anime to describe a character who acts very nervous or embarrassed around their crush. Considering who he's friends with, Papyrus (and Sans too for that matter) was bound to hear some anime terms like this at some point, which is why it was him that brought it up. And no, Frisk doesn't have a crush on Beckett. That being said, I have joked with my sister about shipping Frisk and the Fowl twins… :3

And now for this week's worldbuilding note (which is really freaking long): this one's about the 7 wizards/mages/shamans that fought against the monsters and made the Barrier!

Firstly, on human magic – human magic is very, very different from monster and fairy magic (I'll probably go over the differences in another note later on in the fic). Basically, while fairies and monsters have a higher variation of abilities that every individual can use (normal monster magic can appear pretty much in any form, and fairies have basic abilities that most have such as healing, mesmer, shielding, gift of tongues, etc.) humans can only have one or two magical abilities per individual. Basically, human mages have very specific-to-them superpowers. However, these abilities can be OP as heck.

So, moving onto the wizards – each of the wizards had one dominant soul trait, kinda like the human souls used to break the Barrier in modern times. Their soul colors and magic are as follows:

-The Red Wizard: Time magic. They were capable of traveling back in time to certain events marked by their magic, and then altering the following events paradox-free, while still remembering what never happened. In other words, they could create and use SAVE points.

-The Green Wizard: Magical shields and barriers. Basically a tank without offensive capabilities, and able of deflecting even the strongest of magical attacks, though not without using up a lot of energy. Theoretically, they could crush people with their shields, but probably wouldn't want to – that would be gross.

-The Purple Wizard: They could control humans and monsters a la puppeteer style, using magical strings, not always visible ones either, to force them to move against their will.

-The Yellow Wizard: Could redirect magical energy and magical attacks that were launched at them. If a fireball was thrown at them, they could absorb it and then return it to where it came from at full strength. Basically, their power was a manifestation of "an eye for an eye."

-The Dark Blue Wizard: Power over gravity, like what dark blue magic does, but super over-powered. They had enough power to lift entire armies of monsters or humans off the ground at once, though it would leave them exhausted, and it required massive amounts of concentration – wave a hand in front of their face at the wrong time, and all the floating people would crash back to earth.

-The Light Blue Wizard: Had a killer combination of teleportation and crazy good magical eyesight. They could see things from miles away, and zoom their vision in like a camera's zoom if they needed to. Could teleport a couple hundred people at once. Favorite way to use their teleportation was mainly for hand-to-hand combat, though – they'd teleport behind monsters with a knife, stab them, then teleport away to repeat it all over.

-The Orange Wizard: Could summon a skin-covering armor that enhanced their strength to epic proportions – think Hulk-like strength. Not very fast, but incredibly strong, though without that magic armor, they only had ordinary human strength.

Been considering drawing pics of the 7 wizards - I'll let you guys know when I have!