TW: SWEARING, YELLING, ALCOHOL, RACISM
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Welcome warmth floods my face and greets me with smells of hot potatoes and... flowers? There was so much in the room I couldn't work out where to look first. All sorts of creatures sat at wooden tables drinking from mismatched glasses or wooden mugs and pints of alcohol.
"Hey, shut the door!" I flinch and spot a foxling giving me a hard stare. I double take unsure that I had actually seen a Foxling in person. He glares at me when he sees me staring. Mumble an apology, I close the door in a daze.
I catch a glimpse of the walls, beams laden with all kinds of vines. I follow them with my eyes to the roof and find Azalea flowers blooming on vines alongside dozens of Glow Berries. In the centre of the roof is a giant Glowstone contraption of cogs and wooden rods bearing candles that have turned bubbly with melted wax. But a contraption of that calibre could only be built by- I spin and notice a room coming off the main one I stood in.
Piglin brutes and Blazbornes chuckle heartily as they lounge on chairs and tables made of crimson wood or blackstone. My heart skips a beat when I notice a small lava pool in which several of the Blazebornes were sitting.
I spin around again and spot Starbornes cheering with Arachnids as their friends tangle head to head in an arm-wrestling match. Further back in the room Phantoms and Felines debate something incoherent. Even Foxlings and Bunnies seem to be getting along in this place. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Where am I?
I look around again hoping to see another Elytrian or a tank where Niki would be. But there's nobody. I press a hand to my forehead feeling dizzy. Of course, no Elytrian would be here, they wouldn't be caught dead in this place.
A melting pot of cultures, ideas, politics and races? What could be worse? If my father knew about this... I don't even want to think of what would happen.
"Excuse me miss," I jump and back into somebody but lurch back forward when I realise that I didn't bump into someone solid.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" I exclaim and turn to see exactly what I had expected. The Slimecian's body slowly turned from green back to a human skin tone repairing itself after I had disturbed its form. The white shirt he was wearing was stained green in the spot I must have bumped him. It was common for Slimecians to present themselves as human-like, this man seemed no different.
"No no I'm sorry, I scared you after all," he chuckles and pushed his wonky glasses back onto his forehead. I can't help but wonder if he actually needs them. I smile awkwardly not knowing what to say.
"I'm Charlie," he sticks a hand out to me. A handshake, something rather strange to me but I suppose it must be common in Slimecian culture. I hadn't really read about Slimecians as much as I had about other races. They were such a malleable group, many of the books I had read questioned if they had a culture at all.
"Aster," I follow suit and shake his hand, but I must hold it too tight because a string of slime follows me as I pull my hand back.
"Don't worry about it man," he laughs again, I must have pulled another worried face. He uses his index finger to wind up the sticky solution.
"Say, I've never seen you around here before... Oh crap your cloak!"
"Wha-?" I spin around and notice the back of my cloak was totally covered in slime. I choke back my gag. How is this normal for these people?
"Here let me..." Charlie is quick to unclip the front of my cloak. My heart seems to leap into my throat once I realise that he's going to take it off.
"Wait stop-"
It's too late. Charlie takes the cloak from my shoulders revealing my wings. I swear my brace weighs four times more than usual and my feathers sweep the wooden floor as they droop. Charlie flipped from open and friendly to fumbling and cautious in an instant.
The music from the fiddle stops.
My eyes dart around the room and I know I've fucked up big time. People carry on with their conversations, but now it's much quieter and their eyes flick to me every now and again. It would be really great if the floor could hurry up and swallow me.
"Sorry... I just thought..." Charlie mutters and avoids eye contact not knowing how to speak to me anymore. My mind races and I know he was only trying to help me but he probably thinks that I'm some pompous ass who will yell at him for something.
"No it's ok Charlie, really, I would've had to take that off at some point," my palms feel sweaty in my pant pockets as Charlie finally makes eye contact with me. He seemed speechless, it didn't help that I had no idea what to say to ease the tension.
"Aster?"
A voice makes my head flick up over Charlie's shoulder. In the middle of the room, I finally find the source of all the alcohol. A rectangular bar comes off a wall lined with shelves of cups and barrels of drinks. At the bar, I notice a familiar tiny blue and black-cloaked Inchling standing on the shoulder of an equally as familiar phantom.
Charlie gives me back my cloak and I stutter another apology before skittering over to Sneeg and Wilbur as fast as my legs would carry me.
"Fucking shit Aster, I knew Niki said you were coming but I didn't expect an entry like that." Sneeg chuckles and I know he's tipsy as he nearly misses the jump between mine and Wilbur's shoulders, a distance he can clear easily. He lands wobbly and grips my shoulder with a light blue hand to pull himself up to a sitting position.
"You made quite the impact, the fuck were you thinking?" Wilbur shakes his head and I feel the tips of my ears heat up with embarrassment. I'm about to clap back when I notice the dishtowel he's using to clean a used glass.
"You're a bartender?!" I slap a hand over my mouth when my words fall out a little too loudly. Sneeg falls apart laughing as my ears and cheeks grow hotter. I really need to just stop.
"Well I gotta go somewhere at night," Wilbur rolls his eyes and tries to brush me off but I don't plan on letting him go that easily.
"I thought you went to the Capital!" I whisper shout refusing to embarrass myself further.
"I don't know if you noticed, but the Capital kind of sucks," he shrugs. Wilbur turns away as a Bunny behind the bar calls him over to do something else.
"Those fucking Elytrians..." my ears pick up and I pretend not to listen to the group of men further along the bar. An Inchling, Foxling and Feline scowl and shoot me looks as they rage about the water problem; an all too familiar topic of conversation for me.
"...They won't give us a drop..." I hear one of them say. They go on with the usual arguments. That we're scum who don't care about anybody else, we're elitists, we're battle-hungry... Now they aren't entirely wrong about that stuff, but they are wrong about the water.
Nobody would believe us, we've never given them a reason to trust us, but we are running out of water. Father said the other night at dinner, with a usual long face, that they'll be enacting water rationing soon. We have a duty to the Merlings, they need us, the lagoons and the Anahita river to survive.
"Don't tell me you plan on standing here all night," Sneeg groans and leans on my neck. I roll my eyes, what a fucking stupid question.
"These people don't exactly like me Sneeg," I grit.
"Come on," he slurs dragging out all of his vowels. "You gotta join the fun somehow!"
It takes everything in me not to roll my eyes again. I couldn't speak to these people, I'm sure they're nice, but they won't be friendly with me like they will with other races. I glance around the hazily lit room and lock eyes on the one thing I had hoped to avoid.
Avains. I had nothing against them, but they would certainly loathe me. My thoughts are confirmed when one of them catches me looking. She growls at me with her eyes and I'm quick to stare at the back of my hands on the bar. Elytrians are dicks at the best of times, but when they mix with Avains things go sour fast. Even the mention of Avains repulses some of us. The displeased utter of the race mixed with thousands of years of prejudices that nobody remembers the origins of.
"Disrespectful cocks," I remember my father grumbling under his breath when one of the councilmen had mentioned it at a meeting. He seethed all afternoon.
I couldn't help but notice the twinge of my wing under its brace. The Avians will hate me especially. An Elytrian girl, born in one of the highest estates, of royal blood, with the biggest wings in the whole country, who can't even fly. They definitely think I'm a prick.
"You've gotta be brave or whatever," Wilbur says floating past us with freshly tapped beer. I feel Sneeg perk up on my shoulder as he spots the massive glasses.
"I'll be right back," he says with a tone that suggests the usual mischievous thoughts were turning like cogs in his brain. I watch his little feet speed him across the bar and he disappears behind a bumblebee's arm.
The bumblebee jumps in surprise at first but is quick to smile and move out of Sneeg's way. I take a moment to observe the lad. He seemed like a usual bumblebee, at least according to the ones I knew from books, a mostly human appearance topped with antenna and silver wings that sparkled under the glow of lanterns and yellow Glow Berries. He was a brunet with a big smile that almost made me want to go over and smile with them. Almost.
"Alright, spit it out," Wilbur slides back over cleaning a new glass. How is he so fast? I shake my head suddenly feeling what seem like little pinpricks on my wings.
"I feel like everyone's staring at me," I mutter back to him. He scoffs like it's the most obvious thing in the world and he's probably right.
"No shit featherface, Elytrians are usually assholes," Wilbur crinkles up his nose as he thinks about it.
"Gee thanks-"
"But," he interrupts me sticking a long translucent finger in the centre of my vision. "You're here now, so why not prove them wrong?"
I sigh and try to shove his hand out of my face. His smirk grows when my hand passes straight through his. I can't help but chuckle a little at my own stupidity.
"Alright!" I jump a little as a glass full to the brim of some golden liquid lands on the table without a person attached to it. I look over my shoulder for somebody feeling even more confused when there's nobody there.
"Down here fuckwit," Sneeg slaps my hands whipping me around again. I scowl at him and poise my fingers for a flick. He yelps and jumps out of the way as I let my finger fly, landing on the rim of the glass.
"I'm doing you a favour! Now drink up!" he hops off the glass and shoves it into my hand with ease. I eye him feeling confused.
"I'm not allowed alcohol, I'm underage Sneeg," I remind him. Sometimes I wonder if he knew my age at all despite living with me for the past few years. Sneeg guffaws like Amélie does when Joshua tells shitty jokes, only I know Sneeg isn't laughing to compensate for a stifling lack of humour.
"Do you see any fucking authority around here?" he gestures to the rowdy barroom with his arms spread wide. A devilish grin coats his face as he leaps onto my shoulder and whispers in my ear.
"Come on Star, you know you wanna," he falls apart in cackles after that. I eye the condensating drink in my hands, the icy liquid chills the tiny bones in my fingers and sticks to my fleshy palms. I look up hoping that Wilbur would be the angel on my other shoulder but he's long gone serving someone else further down.
I heave a deep breath to stop my racing thoughts.
"Fuck it."
I take a fat gulp of the bitter drink and know immediately that it's not any sort of light beer. Sneeg laughs as my glass thuds on the bar again.
"Fucking shit! That's rum!" I recognise the smell of it once it's floating around in my mouth.
"YEAH LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!" Sneeg cheers and sticks his whole face into my drink. I laugh properly for the first time in ages when I see his black hair stuck dripping with alcohol to his face. He bitches as he tries to detach his tight curls from his stubble.
"Come on there's somebody who I want you to meet... Make that two somebodies."
"What-"
Sneeg drags me by my ear, literally, to the Nether end of the pub. I get a few dirty looks from some Piglins as Sneeg forces me to a table where a Blazeborn and Starborne sit. The Blazeborne eyes me from his pool of lava situated at chair height, blaze roads floating around him. I notice his buzzed hair and the dark sunglasses he had pushed onto his head revealing bright yellow eyes.
The Starborne seemed more friendly and at least smiled to my relief. He had purple hair that seemed to be full to the brim with the glittery powder that Starbornes perspire at night. A product of their affinity to the cosmos, from what I remember in my books. He dressed well too, an interesting galactic print on his tee-shirt tucked under a denim jacket that had tiny white stars printed onto the fabric.
"Jack, Scott, this is Aster," Sneeg introduces us with a bright grin. I wave awkwardly to them and Scott, the Starborne, pulls out a seat for me that thankfully wasn't dipped in magma.
Sneeg carries the conversation, and drinks orders, as I slowly warm up to the two of them. Jack like most Blazebornes was a blacksmith in Cornucopian nether territory whilst Scott was a librarian of sorts.
"More of a collector," Scott said smiling and sipping from the strange black vodka mix in his cup. Jack, with a wink, insisted that his blacksmith was the best there was.
Maybe it was the liquid courage that Sneeg kept feeding me, but soon I joined in on the conversation. I was glad that they didn't poke me for stuff about Alifero, it was the last thing I wanted on my mind. I was even more glad when the prickling feeling of eyes on my wings faded to a dull tickle. I stare down at my empty pint, which drink was this again? I wave my own thoughts off and keep talking with the boys.
Much to Sneeg's delight, we move to the bar so he and Jack can do shots. I force my steps straight and stop from tripping on thin air. Clearly, I am a lightweight. I send up a little prayer to no god in particular and hope that my brace doesn't trip me up. The weight of the brace mixed with the hard alcohol made me feel like I'm walking at an angle. Lopsided if you will.
The barstools are all taken and I make myself keep standing so as not to look like even more of a prick by taking a seat off Scott or Jack.
"You're going down buddy boy!" Sneeg rumbles eyeing his doll-sized shot cups. Wilbur floats near me and Scott with a grin as we debate what we should put in their glasses.
"No way, you and your pint-sized asscrack are going down," Jack growls with a wild look. For some reason, asscrack tips me over more than it should. It's just my luck that I fall back into someone.
My gut twists when I notice who it is. An Avain with black and white feathered wings like a warbler bird whirls around with a scowl on her face. Her wild, black and white split curls were barely tamed by the pigtail braids she'd put them into.
"Watch it Elytrian," she spits out my name like it's a sin. I need to stop bumping into people.
"Sorry," I mumble and stumble back into Scott. At the very least I would have expected him not to shove me away, but I'm surprised when he grabs my shoulders to keep my tipsy body steady.
"Chill out Beau," Wilbur intervenes. She's still eyeing me when she turns to clap back at him, but something makes her double take. I bet a million dollars I know exactly what she's spotted.
"What's wrong with your wing?" The words don't come out of her mouth. I nearly leap out of my skin when the bumblebee from earlier appears on my left. The boy takes a quick step away from me looking a lot more timid now that I had made eye contact with him. Instinctively, my wing tucks closer to my back and glues itself there, a habit I had developed as a child to try and hide my disability from the adults. Fuck knows it was a shit plan that failed every time.
Liquid courage pushes the words off my tongue.
"I was born this way," I try to cover up my frazzled appearance and adrenaline-shaken fingers with a nonchalant shrug. I'm far too drunk to tell if it worked. I'm also far too drunk to cover up the shameful expression that much cross my face.
I hear Jack and Sneeg cheer and holler behind Scott who's still thankfully holding me upright. They must have finished their shots. When I focus back on the Avian, Beau, I'm more than shocked to see something that looked a lot like sympathy cross her features.
The "I'm sorry" threw me off even more.
"I- It's ok," I stutter out trying to regain some more composure. I take a moment to fix my eyes back onto her and feel a smirk grow on my face when I've got a better answer.
"You shouldn't be sorry, it's the shitheads back home that should be," I snarl to cover up how my nerves make my stomach leap around my body and my hands quiver.
"YEAH YOU GET EM!" Sneeg roars by my elbow and slides an untouched shot down the bar. I take it and force the vile shit down my throat grateful for the distraction. Sneeg better have one hell of a hangover cure ready for me tomorrow.
I can't stop myself from glancing back at the girl, whose eyes were now darting up and down as she looked over my wing. She adjusted the flight goggles on her head and coughed awkwardly into her fist when she caught me watching her.
"I'm not oblivious to what it's like ya know," she says shifting uncomfortably making the beer in her hand slosh in its glass. "With Elytrians and all that cultural shit about having big wings, well I mean you've got some of those, but well... yeah..." she trails off not knowing how to finish without somehow offending me. The truth was there was no way she could offend me, not in any way I hadn't been before.
"Yeah her!" I whirl around and see the bumblebee dragging people behind him. The bee giggles unsteadily as he leads his friends toward us. "She's hilarious trust me," he says to a person behind him.
Oh boy.
"Scott, can you grab me some rum?" I ask turning to look him in the eye. I don't miss his reluctance, I had long lost track of what drink I was on, and I have a feeling he knew that too, but he turns to Wilbur anyway.
I hear someone scoff from behind me.
"Why the fuck is there a fucking Elytrian here," the lilt in the boy's voice told me he was Querencian; an angry flick of feathers said Avian. Scott hands me my rum and I turn taking a sip.
"To party," I answer and proceed to nearly spit out my drink when I see Avian's company.
An Enderian stands between the bumblebee and the Avian clutching an untouched drink between his palms. He looked stiff and uncertain like I'd assume most high-and-mighty Enderians would in this place, but there was a way in how he leaned closely to the bumblebee that suggested he was more than accustomed to the rabble.
The golden embellishments, buttons, embroidery, chains, and whatever else were threaded to his suit and waistcoat glinted under the warm lanturn-light. The suit was a luxurious purple, and his shirt was clearly made of silk, I was focused on the flamboyance of it all, I thought I remembered Enderians dressing reservedly.
I must pull a face in his direction because he returns the look with a shrug knowing all too well what was running through my mind. I nearly leap out of my skin when Beau slings an arm around my shoulders.
"She ain't half bad Tommy," I stare at her, the level of alcohol in my system preventing me from controlling the thoughts that were so visible on my face. Why the fuck was she defending me? Elytrians are such assholes to Avians. Was she wasted too?
"Don't be soft," Tommy rolls his eyes and his red and white wings fluff fiercely. It was clear what he was thinking, I was in his space and he wanted me out. Honestly, what was new?
"She wouldn't be here if she was like the other Elytrians," Beau points out. I feel my wing twinge.
"She could be conspiring to tear the Pube down!" I have to slap a hand over my mouth to stop myself from actually spitting out my rum.
"I'm sorry what?" I ask regaining my posture. Of course, Tommy ignores me and continues fuming.
"Honestly we should throw her out right now," he folds his arms over his chest and pouts like a child who hasn't gotten their way.
"Nice to meet you too asshole," I scoff and then scold myself immediately knowing better. Tommy opens his mouth to throw an even bigger tantrum but a small pat on my shoulder and a slurred "woah" tells me someone else is joining the party.
"Everybody, chill, and let's all calm the fuck down."
I know my brain is really far behind me when I only register Sneeg's presence after he's spoken. I feel my face split into a slippery, drunken smile.
"SNEEG!" I yell.
"ASTER!" he yells back.
And then we laugh. A lot. I'm not quite sure why but we find it rioting. I laugh harder when he slips and falls into my rum. He emerges spluttering in the golden liquid before pointing at my face and laughing some more. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Wilbur chuckling too. He walks over and I slide him the half-finished rum so he can fish Sneeg out.
"Wha- What the fuck are you two doing with an Elytrian?!" Tommy splutters like a drowned machine. I wipe the tears from my eyes and focus back just in time for Sneeg to shout "I LITERALLY LIVE IN HER DOLLHOUSE!" which makes me laugh more.
"That reminds me, you owe me a new dining set," he says drying himself off with a napkin Wilbur must have sourced. I roll my eyes, this wasn't the first time he'd brought it up.
"You're too picky," I wave him off, my hand falling floppily onto the table. I try to right myself but only end up stumbling again. This time it's Wilbur who catches me as he phases through the bar.
"I think it's time to get you home featherface," he says but my hazy brain was not going for it.
"Suck my dick! I want another drink," I stomp away not knowing where exactly I'm going until I spot an empty seat at the bar. I don't register how exactly but soon there's another short, fat glass of rum in front of me.
There's no way I'm fucking going home. My mind flicks haphazardly through images of Father and Amélie back home. Miserable dinners, Father hunched over his desk, disapproving looks, scolding stares, dismissions, scoffs, I could go on but the Enderian is suddenly talking to me. Where did he come from?
"You're from the Craftier family," he says taking the empty seat on my left. Still feeling foul, I give him a cold shoulder.
"What about it?"
"I never knew they had more than one daughter." Ah, so he's met Amélie. She probably went to some meeting with his family and my father. No doubt he's learning all the political shit that she is too.
"That's because my family only has one daughter," I want to spit, my warm alcohol buzz feeling far away as I clench my cold glass.
"W-what?"
"Amélie is... how do I put this?... Everything and more to my family. She's fucking perfect and engaged to the hottest guy alive, she can fly - wow shocker - and graduated earlier than her cohort at the academy and she's also all that shit that made her mommy's little girl," my rant is more than a little slurred and far less than coherent. But the look on Ranboo's face tells me he's understood more than enough.
"What do you mean about flying?" he asks. Angrily, I grab my wing and rip it in front of me, brace on full display.
"How the fuck am I meant to fly without identical wings genius?" I let my wing go and take a long sip of my drink as I fluff out my feathers.
"How many drinks have you had?"
"What is this? Twenty questions?"
"Won't you get in trouble?"
"What does it matter? I'm not fucking going home," my fury bubbles as he keeps pressing questions at me. I can't tell if he's doing it on purpose or if I'm even in control of what I'm saying anymore. My hand starts to cramp from gripping my drink so hard and my mouth was dry from so many bitter drinks. I grit my teeth.
"You have to," Ranboo says and I feel something snap.
Nothing in me wanted to go home. At least not for tonight. I let my drunken half take over.
"I'm not fucking going home," before he can stop me I've climbed on top of the bar and I'm shouting over the masses of clinking drinks, fiddle music, and loud chatter. I don't know when the music started again but I was glad that it had.
"EXCUSE ME ROOM OF MISFITS AND OUTCASTS!"
From behind me, I hear a "fucking god" followed by minuscule cackles. Through the fog, I could tell that the room had gone quiet to watch the drunken moron shouting from the bar. Alcohol was well and truly in control.
"I THINK THAT YOU ARE ALL FUCKING AWESOME!" someone in the back whistles and their friends cheer too. I raise my glass towards them and some more people join in. I walk along the bar like it's a tightrope to get a better view of the room.
"I would also like to sincerely apologise for THE FUCKING PRICKS WHO FORCE US TO HIDE DOWN HERE SO WE CAN ACTUALLY HAVE A GOOD TIME!"
The shouts and hollers of agreement only serve to fuel me, and by god are there a lot of them. I nearly stumble but by some miracle stay standing.
"AND FINALLY..." I pause to hold some suspense.
"NEXT ROUND'S ON ME!" the room erupts into cheers and some blurry faces help me down from the bar.
"That was fucking awesome," Sneeg says, I don't know when he ended up on my shoulder. I lift my middle finger for him to high-five as the room fills with the sound of a fiddle and a drum. A few people knew the song and started singing along or banging on the tables to join in.
The room dissolved into wild dancing, drinking, and singing. I join in swapping between partners like most Merlings go through jewellery. It didn't matter who I was with as long as they knew how to laugh.
I let the night dissolve around me in a blur of drunken disaster feeling more alive than I'd felt in a long time.