I changed the cover to the image from the reddit post (what i think Tate would look like) since i think no one on mobile would be able to see it otherwise.
Enjoy.
xxXxx
"Alright, witchlet, time to carve your staff."
"It has to be a sword, Grandpa Dell. I'm not used to normal magic, remember?" Said Tate excitedly.
"I know, i know." Replied Dell with a chuckle as he put a log of palistrom wood on a table. "Now, what should we carve?"
Today, Tate was at his grandparents' house, which is also his mother's house at the moment, to finally carve his very own staff with his grandfather who was now wearing a completed bracelet to fix his arm's stability.
"Hmm." Tate put a hand on his chin. "My palisman should represent me, correct?"
Dell nodded and Tate went back into thought. Soon though, he had an idea. He grabbed a nearby piece of paper and drew what he wanted.
"Is this from this 'anime' you told me about?" Said Dell raising a brow with a bright smile as he stared at the drawing.
Tate flushed in embarrassment upon hearing that. "No! And can you please not talk about that? It's embarrassing."
"Alright, alright." Said Dell cheerfully. "Let's begin carving."
The grandson-grandfather duo quickly began carving...a phoenix.
Sadly before they could finish it, a brown haired baby with pale skin, claws, brown feathered wings and mint green eyes flew towards Dell and slammed into him.
Dell quickly picked up the baby and it giggled happily in his hands, causing a smile to spread across his face.
"Aww, did you come here all on your own?" Asked Dell happily. "Where's your mother?"
Tate softly poked the baby's cheek with a happy smile. "Give it a second."
And not a moment later, Lilith ran into the room panting, clearly in a panic. "GWENEVERE!"
Dell held up his granddaughter up for Lilith to see and she instantly calmed down.
"*sigh* having to balance between preparing to apply for a job at the Bonesborough history museum and taking care of my new daughter is a nightmare." Said Lilith tiredly as she took Gwenevere from Dell. "Will it be okay to even leave her here while I'm at work?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Your mother would be more than happy to babysit her while you're gone." Said Dell happily.
"Especially since you named Gwenevere after her." Added Tate with a sly smile.
"How could i not?" Replied Lilith as she held her daughter up high. "Gwenevere inherited most of grandmother's looks except for what she got from me: the eyes...and part of the curse...at least it doesn't affect her magic."
Lilith flashed an awkward smile at her comment and Dell smiled.
"Well now that my arm is working perfectly again, i can help whenever possible." He said happily as he waved his arm to show that it was working perfectly thanks to Tate's magic gem bracelet. "Tate even made me spares in case of an emergency."
"Well, i just hope someone is happy seeing me suffer." Said Lilith sending Tate a glance.
"Don't worry, I'm savoring every moment."
Suddenly, a nearby crystal ball started ringing and soon displayed the appearance of a familiar blonde.
"Tate! Are you sure this is the right number?"
"I haven't become senile yet, brat. He's in there." Said Mir across the crystal ball.
Tate sighed and left the table to talk to his friend.
"What do you want, Hunter?" Asked Tate calmly as he held the crystal ball. "This isn't a good time."
"Where are you?"
"At my grandparents'." Replied Tate calmly.
"There's an important meeting happening soon. You have to be here." Said Hunter.
"Ugh, is it the one with the coven heads?" Asked Tate tiredly.
"Yes." Confirmed Hunter.
"*sigh* I'll see you there." Said Tate ending the call before turning to his family. "Sorry, gotta go. I'll take the palisman and finish at the castle."
Lilith's gaze switched between Dell and Tate before she asked.
"What about Belos? He takes everyone's palismen." Said Lilith with a frown.
"Don't worry, unlike everyone else, i know how to get around his eyes." said Tate with a smiled as he packed his unfinished palisman.
Lilith nodded in affirmation, Dell smiled and Tate waved to his family as he left the house wearing his silver scout costume.
This would end up being one of the worst and best decisions he's ever made
xxXxx
"C'mon, we're gonna be late!" Said Hunter angrily.
"I'll never understand your weird obsession with this stuff." Replied Tate tiredly.
"Now you understand how i feel about your pet obsession." Said Hunter at the door of the meeting. "Now, be your best."
Hunter opened the door to reveal emperor Belos already prepared and sitting on his chair with Kikimora right beside him.
Hunter walked in and silently stood next to his 'uncle'. Tate followed him, but opted to stand where he'd overlook the scouts around the room.
Soon, the coven heads arrived and Belos made his speech about the day of unity. Tate knew what the day of unity entailed, so seeing Belos not tell a single lie and merely hide his true plans under a veil of vague concepts was truly...unsettling.
As per script, Belos's illness flared up and he had to be taken away to the throne room.
Tate snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Hunter stop Kikimora and directing the same at him.
Tate nodded to his request and headed out, seeing no reason to stay near this entire episode.
So, he decided to go to his room and finish his palisman. But on the way, he found...Steve.
"Tate! How do like you my new shirt?" Asked Steve as he showed off his Steve shirt.
"Pretty good, Steve." Said Tate with a thumbs up. "Hey, now that i look around me, you're the only one here."
"Thanks and the other scouts are on vacation. Same for the coven heads after the meeting. I tried asking one of them about the shirt."
"You tried asking a coven head about your shirt? Man you're determined." Said Tate cheerfully
"You can't be a scout without some determination." Said Steve cheerfully
As the two joked, the walls suddenly shook causing the two to go silent.
"Should we look into that?" Asked Steve in surprise.
"...no. No we shouldn-" Tate couldn't finish the sentence before the walls shook again and a roar was heard.
"C'mon! Let's check it out!" Steve ran towards the source of the sound and Tate followed right after.
Tate tried to stop him, but only verbally as the source of the sound of was the throne room...where Belos was.
Steve opened the door only to be nearly killed by some odd looking sludge fired at him.
It was Belos struggling with his illness and at those times he tended to get violent.
He attacked Steve once more only for Tate to push him out of the way. Although Tate himself didn't get hit, Belos managed to touch his unfinished palisman.
The unfinished palisman glowed and Tate was suddenly able to hear a thousand thoughts, but one overtook them all.
'Keep it away!'
Belos suddenly started violently shaking and spewing black sludge all over the place.
The sight terrified Steve and it did even more so when Belos's mask came off to reveal a monster.
Tate, without another thought, picked Steve up and ran away as the monster roared behind them.
xxXxx
"What was that?!"
"That, Steve, is why we don't investigate mysterious scary noises." Said Tate angrily before sighing.
He thought about the beast, its reaction to his unfinished palisman was odd even for Belos standards.
Then he remembered what that monster truly was as it appeared in Hollow Mind. He remembered its future fate and at that moment he stared at his unfinished palisman and realized what he needed to do.
"Steve, we have to catch that thing." Said Tate calmly. "I know it-"
"I'm in!" Said Steve almost immediately.
Tate paused and silently stared at Steve on disbelief.
"I'm asking you to help me fight the thing that nearly killed you a minute ago." Added Tate calmly.
"I'm 100 percent with you!" Said Steve cheerfully with a thumbs up.
"The thing that is currently possessing the emperor who wouldn't hesitate to kill both of us and you're still with me?"
"Till the end of time." Said Steve further confusing Tate.
"...am i that trustworthy? Or is this situation normal?"
"You've never had any bad intentions before, so the first one." Said Steve giving Tate a thumbs up.
"Huh...maybe i should step up for the position of emperor when Belos bites the dust." Said Tate with a shrug. "Anyway, let's get ready because we're the only ones here to stop that thing."
"Yeah! All hail Tate and Steve!"
xxXxx
RAAAAWWWW*
"Ready, Steve?" Asked Tate as he held his glowing sword behind a wall.
"When you are!" Added Steve with a thumbs up as he got ready behind a wall across from Tate's.
Tate nodded before jumping into the hallway with the cursed Belos.
It roared upon seeing Tate and charged at him. Tate jumped over it and it threw some sludge at him. Tate dodged and the monster dashed at him once more.
"Steve, now!" Ordered Tate before a large net was dropped on the monster.
The monster roared and as it was about to remove the net, Tate pounced on it and poured his magic into the net to keep it trapped.
"Yeah! Woohoo! We did it-" said Steve as he approached Tate and the monster
but as he did he heard constant desperate roars from it, but it didn't sound like a maddened beast. It sounded like screams and pleas.
Steve and got closer silently and finally was able to recognize what the monster fighting Belos was.
"Palismen." Said Steve in horror as he saw the poor palismen plead that Tate not give Belos his unfinished staff...among them he could even see what was his own palisman. He saw Tate pulling something from his cloak that he thought was a sword and immediately tried stopping Tate. "TATE! NO! DON-"
Tate immediately covered Steve's mouth and showed him what he was pulling out; his unfinished palisman.
In the emperor's coven, some knew signals in case of a stealthy mission. Tate and Steve were two of them.
Tate signaled out. 'Do not attack.' And 'be quiet' and 'enemy nearby'
Steve quickly calmed down and watched as Tate pressed the unfinished palisman against the beast.
Through this palisman, Tate and palismen could speak away from Belos's ears.
'You can calm down, i just want to talk.' Said Tate and palismen calmed down a little. 'You can't defeat Belos like this, even now he should be regaining some control. Soon, you won't be able to do this again."
The palismen reluctantly agreed with Tate's claim and he continued.
'I want to help. So, i propose that some of you, and only some, possess this palistrom and become my sword...staff thing. The others are to stay to keep tormenting him. You can't defeat a witch hunter like Philip alone and you know it, neither can i.' Said Tate calmly, surprising the palismen with his knowledge of Belos's true name. 'Now what do you say, partners?'
Although short, Tate's speech was able to convince many palismen to join him. Especially since he knew who Belos was.
The palismen that decided to go migrated from Belos's mind into the unfinished palisman, putting the last touches on their way in.
And with that, the phoenix palisman was born...right as Belos woke up.
xxXxx
"What is going on here?" Asked Belos as he clutched his head.
"My liege, your illness overtook you and...for some reason, it was absorbed into some palistrom i got from my grandparents." Said Tate as he held his red phoenix palisman for Belos to see.
Steve nodded in confirmation.
Belos reached for the sword palisman and it began rumbling upon sensing his presence.
"Stop!" Said Tate and the sword stopped shaking. "Uhh, it seems that i can control it...but i do know that you need palismen for your-"
"Keep it." Said Belos with a sinister smile. "Right now, it's more useful to you than me."
After a few more words, Belos left the room. Tate gestured that it was okay to speak and Steve let out a sigh of relief.
"So what now?" Asked Steve.
"Now...we topple an empire. Are you with me?" Said Tate extending his hand to Steve.
Steve smiled under his mask. "...Till the end of time."
Steve shook Tate's hand with a nod.
"Uh, before anything, is my palisman in there?" Asked Steve in a regretful tone.
Tate listened in onto the voices of the staff and spoke.
"It seems so."
"Can i...speak to-"
"Whenever you feel ready. For now, we have friends to look for."
xxXxx
Since the palisman can reflect its owner like Lilith and her staff that looks high class on the surface while in reality it's a messy nerd.
What better thing to be the staff of someone who once died than tons of dead palismen shoved into one hive mind of a phoenix?
Tell me how i did. Leave a review
Toodles.