It was late at night (or very early in the morning, depending on how you looked at it) when Jesse decided– officially– that they couldn't sleep.

They'd certainly tried. Short of knocking themselves out, they'd counted sheep, gone to the bathroom to make sure they weren't holding anything in, had some warm water...

Nope, nothing worked.

So they just got up, wiggling out from where Maya had claimed them to use as a buffer between her and Gill. (She proceeded to grumble in her sleep and roll back into him, which almost made Jesse coo, except that would've woken them up, and that would've been rude, so they didn't.)

They found themselves meandering around the spire. The blown out part was interesting to peek through, since you could see so much of the area around without having windows (and... some light came in), so they could see things still exploding far below.

Boom Town was very aptly named.

"Neat, huh?"

Jesse jumped and almost fell off the edge of the ledge they were looking over, which meant Magnus's arm had to shoot out and grab them by the collar, hauling them back in so that he was holding onto them and also so they weren't literally leaning over the edge peering down at the town.

"Whoa, there, Tiny. Mevia's gonna put an axe between my eyes if I let you fall from this height."

Jesse turned slightly to meet Magnus's red eyes. They gave a slightly awkward smile when they saw his amused look. His voice was rough and gravelly and scratchy, but he did seem to have a very dry sense of humor.

And also just a slightly violent one.

"She does seem to like me..." For some reason.

Magnus shrugged and sat down, clinging onto a twisted, shattered metal railing that he'd probably left there so he could hold onto it. "Yeah. Good on you for that. She hates most everyone else. Or at least, you end up on the wrong side of the axe a good amount of the time." He jerked his head down at the ground. "I think all those demons that saw her today can confirm that."

Jesse chuckled awkwardly and looked down. "Being the baron of this place must be..." What was the most polite thing they could say? Absolutely terrifying and completely horrendously tiring?

"Chaotic."

The baron nodded, scratching at some stubble growing on his chin. He had a bandage where he seemed to have knicked himself from shaving. "Yeah, but sometimes I get to spit on their heads, so I guess that's neat."

Jesse couldn't help the little face they made at that.

Magnus barked a laugh when he saw the face. "See why Axel likes ya. He's kinda fond of cute shit." He ruffled Jesse's hair so hard they found most of it hanging in their face.

They flipped it back and squinted at him, feeling a bubble of worry in their chest. "So what do you think about me?" they asked him, waiting for him to scowl and roll his eyes.

You know nobody wants you.

Magnus shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. You're cute, I guess, and Axel likes ya. As long as he likes ya, I'm cool with you, Tiny."

"Like you're not kinda short too," Jesse mumbled.

At that, he threw his head back and laughed.


"So we should be at Fortrylle in the next few hours," Jack reported, from where they'd stopped for a brief break.

Bob whinnied and shook himself down, making Jesse squeak as he almost threw them off.

That would've hurt slightly.

"Jesse, look– that's Fortrylle up ahead," Maya said cheerfully, lifting her arm to point.

Jesse was busy scuffling with Bob to avoid falling off, but they lifted their head for a good look.

Fortrylle was already impressive from this far away– Jesse could see it.

It was a chaotic building– yet still more organized than the spire with the middle blown out. A few random floating blocks that Jesse could swear were moving around in an organized way, a sheer cliff that rose quite steeply and dropped off abruptly to an ocean of sharp stone and seething red water had a huge tree-like structure on it.

The branches spread, curling randomly, and Jesse could see buildings attached to the branches. Little clumps of rooms and long structures that didn't touch the ground, and a large 'building' at the very center of the branches.

"How we doing on time, Mevia?" Isa asked her, glancing at the blue-haired woman with a cursory look while Jesse was silently boggled in the background.

"Well, since Axel and Magnus snuck us out using the secret tunnel so we didn't waste time getting harassed at three in the morning," Mevia muttered, making Gill grin at her irritation for being woken that early. "We'll probably get there by mid-afternoon."

"I suggest speeding the itinerary up as much as we can," Petra replied. She sounded tense, Jesse noticed absently.

"Oh?" Isa looked back to her, almost looking regal from her own horse. "Why is that?"

Harper pointed behind them. "Blue," she uttered.

In comical unison, all of them turned simultaneously to look at the sky behind them.

It was a clear, beautiful shade of blue, the clouds like white cotton in the blue expanse. Jesse hadn't realized how much they missed the blue sky until their breath was taken away and they were staring at it.

Lukas swore. "Oh, shit... yeah, let's go," he murmured, already breaking into a quicker pace, calling to the other half-demons to go full demon so they could go full-pace.

"Whoa. That's not good," Aiden muttered, staring at the blue expanse of sky stretching towards them before melding into a rich purple and then magenta and then red and black as always.

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked, blinking. The blue sky was a rare pleasure for them compared to the bloodred sky that usually spread in miles every direction over Cosmos.

Aiden frowned, glancing around at the blue sky. Gill had already shot ahead with Maya (who cussed after him), and the lords were making their way to the branches of Fortrylle tracing the blue sky with a haste that hadn't been there before.

"... I think there used to be a human saying. 'Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.' Basically, if the sky is red in the morning, you're probably fucked if you wanna take a boat out," Aiden said after a moment of thought, surprising Jesse, his brow furrowed. "Generally meaning a storm is going to blow in."

Red eye flickered to Jesse.

"But here, the sky is only ever red. Maybe purple at sunrise. The clouds are always black."

The wind picked up, bringing a smell of ozone so strong Jesse instinctively covered their face. Ozone and the smell of dirt and dust and rain swirled around them.

"A blue sky and white clouds mean a storm's coming."


A/N: Storms are great. When you're indoors. And safe.

Which they're not.

This is somewhat revenge on SilverSilence14 for the little stunt she pulled in Crawlout Through the Fallout on Archive Of Our Own. By the way, great fic, love it, bu h. Also Silver is really cool and awesome. Go check her out :3 But also blame her for the bad things that will happen next chapter.

Possibly after that too.

Yeah, you're getting chaos.

RQTC: Have you written a Fanfiction chapter on a phone?

Yep! Very painfully. Don't love it.

I am a flowerpot. Reviews are the flowers. Flowers make me sneeze and I'm sneezing.

Responses to reviews!

Northern Goshawk: Remember, dolls in Cosmos are like full-on demon/human bodies and look virtually the same as them with the exception of lacking a soul. So the way Magnus is determining it is the fact that the hair is green. / They always are. They're not used to it. / Yeeee / He kinda is xD

Darkbeast Dend: Yep xD / Glad you're enjoying the story!

Toni42: Hehe x3 / (shrugs) / Yeah xD It's cute to write. Unfortunately we're not getting much cuteness after this xD / Nah you're still cuter.

Happygoluckmegami: Hehe, feel you there. / True! But also she's not the fondest of him. They're kinda like Gill and Maya. / She's not the sort of person to care about being a lady xD / Who knows? / Nope. Remember, dolls that are green are that way due to hair color; that's how you distinguish them. / Oof. / Indeed xD

Saran: Ehehe, so does everyone else. / Well, I don't think Magnus has been wooed, he's chill with them. / Indeed. / Hehehehe / The thing is just seeing a color isn't a guarantee that it's a doll. / He's really fun in there lol. / Oh no xD Don't stay up that late xD

TheAmberShadow: Yaaay. / I actually do have to forgo the puns this time my hands are starting to cramp from typing on my phone. I will resume the puns in the following a/n, with gusto and no blowing hot air. / Hehe, she does xD / Yep xD / Nope. / He's doing his best xD

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and enjoy!

x.X. A.L. X.x


Romeo rounded the corner to see Jesse being rocked like a baby by Kaster and Bedivire.

He blinked. The metal dragons absolutely did not make a habit out of doing that.

Jesse looked helplessly at him when they noticed his presence. "They kinda insisted on doing this..."

"... do you find it relaxing?"

Jesse looked at the iron dragons, who were happily nuzzling them while this was happening. They considered the question for a while.

"My everything fell asleep."

"Ah." Romeo sighed and went over to go rescue them.