#“hey guys the ship just sank in the doom sea!”

[akhion]

This is so funny yet fowl at the same time

[azurevi]

on land where we can touch the moon (1/?)

Ok, so this is a really random idea, but it’s basically The Little Mermaid with Azul. And I wish I could excuse myself by saying that I was drunk writing this, but really I was just rushing it because I’ve been sitting on it for far too long. Anyways, enjoy!

Pairing : Azul / genderneutral reader

Characters : Grim, Ace and Deuce

Warnings/Triggers : none

Word count : 3,371

PART2 PART 3

“Isn’t this great,” you made a show of strolling along the railing, the beer in your hand threatening to spill. “The salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face. Perfect day to be at sea!”

“Yes, well-” Jack paused mid-sentence to lean over the side. He sounded as though he was retching. “It is indeed a favourable weather, your royal highness- urk!”

“Now, what did I say about formalities, Jack?”

“You said, and I quote, ‘Call me by my first name, if only for today. It’s a direct order.’”

You went up to soothe his back. When he pulled his head up, his eyes were glossy and cheeks purple. “It’s inappropriate for you to see me in this state, your majesty,”

“So you’re defying my orders now? And on my birthday, no less?”

“That man is all work and no fun,” Ace commented bitterly. He and Deuce were on the opposite side of the ship, holding their respective mugs of beer.

“That’s what makes him the knight commander,” Deuce said.

“A knight commander who’s seasick, huh?”

“Shut up, both of you!“ 

You chortled blatantly, chest light and hair spraying in the wind. 

"Fireball Attack!”

There was a sharp yell, and Grim’s fur was all up in your face before you knew it.

“Hey, hey! Someone’s in a good mood!” You cradled him in your arms. His fur was fluffy and sticking up in the air in all directions.

While you were entertaining your attention-starved familiar, your personal knights had managed to get into yet another fistfight. Jack, the poor commander, was cornered on the edge of the ship, his golden, distinguished pin somehow threatening to slip off in his fingers.

“If I drop my badge, I swear on my wage you’re getting extra morning training and night patrols for the next whole year-!”

He gagged slightly before turning sharply, elbowing Ace in the process. His arm jolted, and the badge escaped his firm pinch, glistening in the air. Time seemed to slow as it made its way downwards, all the while the knights’ mouths grew rounder and rounder.

It plummeted right into the sea, made an insignificant plop and continued sinking quietly, slowly, until the sea muted the screams on deck and the light dwindled.

“We should really stay away, Rory,”

“Quit being a chicken,”

Lovett was falling behind. Rory had insisted that they visit this deeper and lesser known part of the ocean due to a half-hearted dare. And Rory, headstrong that she was, would never back down from a challenge.

“Haven’t you heard? Deep where the light doesn’t reach lives the evil Sea Merchant! A force to be reckoned with! It’s-”

Lovett swivelled swiftly. He was pretty sure something had just swam past from behind.

“Oh, for the love of Poseidon, please don’t eat me for I’m just a standard merman!”

“Will you zip?” Rory was already a few feets ahead. Lovett continued to mumble prayers as he flapped his tail harder.

There was almost no light now, but they could still make out the outlines of rocks and corals. It was uncanny how there was nary a sign of life, not even a lanternfish.

“What’s- what’s the dare anyways?”

“To steal something from the evil Sea Merchant’s collection,”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Lovett gasped. He had yet to notice how they’d swam into a forest of seaweeds. Some clung to their tails as they swam by and tickled their sides.

Something strong and somewhat slimy wrapped around Lovett’s arm. Presuming that it was just another irritating weed, he swung his arm back and forth. It only seemed to grow tighter.

“Great seas, what-” he turned to inspect. “Oh- oh- ten-TENTACLE!”

Rory sprinted around at the scream. “Holy-” she murmured, speechless and shocked to the core. 

Wrapped around Lovett’s elbow was no doubt a tentacle lined with suckers. For a while, it didn’t seem to be moving, but then Lovett was yanked away like lightning.

“Lovett!”

The first thought that came to his mind was that he was going to be eaten. That was until he was met with a frowning face. One under silver messy hair. Then his eyes traveled down the seemingly countless slithering tentacles that stretched out from the man, and he was trembling in fear again.

“Please-! Don’t eat me! I have the least nutritional diet!”

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he squinted at Lovett for an agonizingly long time before finally letting him loose. Lovett squirmed and backed away. The area where he had been held had become swollen red.

“Lovett?” Rory had just gotten into the scene. Lovett didn’t wait a second to break into a run, but Rory caught him by his elbow where it was still hurting.

“We gotta run, Rory-”

‘Huh. What, it’s just Ashengrotto? Have you forgotten about him already?“

Lovett whimpered when Rory advanced on the man. He narrowed his gaze behind a neat pair of glasses. Lovett half expected Rory to be squeezed to death on the spot.

"You’re lurking down here now? How lame. And I see that you still got those hideous fingers of yours,” Rory gestured at his tentacles. “You seriously don’t remember him, Lovett? You have shit memories. Does Azul Ashengrotto from college ring a bell?”

It took Lovett a long, long time to get it. “That’s right, you’re Azul! Man, how you’ve changed- wait, are you the Sea Merchant?”

There was nothing that could rival the bitterness in Azul’s voice. “Pleased to see you again, Lovett,”

“Is it easier to prey on fishes down here? Or are you just that insecure about yourself?” Rory paid no mind to their conversation.

“… It’s none of your business,”

“It actually is. You see, knowing that an ink-blasting octopus lives in the same water as I do is really unnerving-”

“Then make your leave.”

Rory’s smug look faltered. 

“Why should I? You don’t even own this part of the ocean-”

“Oh? Who are these friends of yours, Azul?”

A singsong voice once again interrupted Rory. She turned on her spot, only to find herself face to face with a grinning face.

“Eek-!”

“Oh! If this isn’t Rory~ how kind of you to visit us!”

Lovett backed away quietly. He wasn’t going to stay for anymore of this horror. When two hands slammed onto his shoulders, he shrieked a key higher than any other that’s been sung by opera singers. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” a far more stern and solid voice asked. It was one of those voices you hear in persuading commercials.

It was the Leech brothers, in their long, slender eel forms.

Lovett thought that was it. This was his doom. He was either going to get eaten alive or squeezed to his demise. He should never have agreed to come here. And now he was going to die. He didn’t even get to experience life-

“It’s fine, Jade, Floyd,” Azul said calmly. The hands on Lovett’s shoulders retreated, and Rory rushed towards him hastily and pulled him up and up until they were out of the seaweeds.

“I can’t believe you let them off that easily!” Floyd complained, pouting hard. “We could’ve had some fun with them first, and yet you decided to play good guy?”

Azul didn’t reply. The three of them travelled between rocks and reefs, and while Azul seemed to be in search of something, the twins were merely accompanying.

“I believe he has his reasons,” Jade said, pausing in anticipation. When Azul didn’t soothe his curiosity, he sighed and decided to drop the topic.

Azul rummaged through the swaying weeds and peeked into the slits of the rocks. Nothing seemed to have piqued his interest. Then they swam even further away from where they’d started and reached a sunken ship.

While almost the entirety of the hull had rotten away the structure of the ship still remained intact. Anemones and sponges had claimed the pieces of wood. Tiny shrimps traveled freely between poles and debrises.

Jade and Floyd followed tightly like bodyguards. They were at least mildly worried after the encounter with Rory and Lovett. They could still recall vividly how notorious Rory was and what a relief that they never had to meet again.

If anything, Azul seemed frustrated. His tentacles worked individually, shoving aside inconvenience hastily just like his hands. It was as though he’d lost something priced and valued.

“Let’s split up, alright? Treasure hunt’s no fun if we’re just following one another,” Floyd said as he rounded a corner and out of sight. Jade hesitantly stayed behind as well, leaving Azul to his own.

He’d been here so many times that he’d lost count. There was always something new and from the land somewhere between the ruins. But this time, it seemed to have become just another bland, boring place without any aesthetic value.

That was until something flickered in the corner of his eyes. It was so weak that it would’ve gone unnoticed by, say, Jade and Floyd, but Azul had always been delicate in treasure hunting. Nothing ever slipped his sight.

It looked like a badge. A golden brimmed badge with two crossed swords in the middle, and at the bottom carved two grand words - 'Knight Commander’.

“Oh, what’s that you’ve got there?”

“Ahh!" 

Azul spoke up finally in a long time. The brothers had at some point started following him again.

"Looks like a badge,”

“Bet it sank just a few hours ago. It looks very intact,”

“Yeah,” Azul flipped it between his fingers, eyes tracing in fascination. “It’s not everyday you see something like this,”

His mood seemed to have lightened after this discovery. He was gratified. It’d been a while since he last found anything worthy enough to add to his collection of trinkets from ashore. It put a smile to his face just remembering his towering shelves of tiny valuables. 

Azul owned a secret grotto that even the Leech brothers knew nothing of. He’d made sure that it was known only to him.

It was where he stored all the human objects he’d found undersea. Things like a trident but with four tips or a shallow, handled bowl. There were items as big as a golden pot and others as small as a hairclip. Everywhere he turned they were shimmering and singing about the unknown world outside the water, where mermaids had legs and walked instead of swimming, where they could dance instead of just swaying and flapping tails. Where they could go so many different places - forests and deserts, mountains and caves - many more than what the ocean held.

And they could reach the moon. The ageless, pensive moon that Azul could only wish to caress. But no matter how hard he stretched, it was only in his dreams where the moon would come down in all its glory, close enough to blind his eyes.

He needed to reach it. There was no other way. It was the single entity in the world that knew all the truths and lies, all the corruptions and praises. He had to see it, then he would get the answers - the truth he’d always hungered for. 

Muffled rumbles snapped him out of his intensity. When he looked up from under the grotto, he’d thought he was hallucinating.

The usually azure (and rather bland, may he add) current was now painted with red- no, yellow- purple- it was changing with every muted clap. It might have as well been the end of the world with its bizarreness. However, there was something else stirring in Azul’s heart aside from confusion.

Curiosity. A haste force that was tingling in all his eight tentacles, as if there was no way to rid of the sensation except to swim towards the source.

It was wrong on so many levels. He’d been taught by teachers, friends and his parents that to go beyond the water was basically pleading to be killed. Humans are nothing but greedy, spineless, nasty fish-eaters who are incapable of emotions, that’s what everyone said.

Was that really the case, though? As Azul surveyed his collections, he found it harder by second to believe in the lore. How would they explain all these sparkling and antique cosmetics? How could a world that made so many wonderful things be bad?

And so he pushed aside all doubts that were chaining his limbs and flew towards the surface.

The moment he broke the fabric of water and chill air entered his ears, he was taken back by the sight before him.

A colossal wooden ship was sailing right above. Behind it, lights and fire burnt themselves in the sky then fell into the water dimly. There were singing and whooping aboard where he couldn’t see. The grandness of it all was so deafening that Azul failed to hear the voice of reason in his head as he neared the boat.

There was an opening at the side of the ship. Azul carefully stuck his head up so he wouldn’t be seen. At least not without squinting.

There were about five people dancing and hollering, some holding drinks in their hands while the others blowing into their snarfblats with reddened cheeks. 

“Encore! Encore!” a red-haired guy yelled. Then there was an airy laugh in response. Azul turned sharply towards where it came from.

Azul was… awestruck, to say the least. You were grinning from eye to eye, which were diminished into slits. As you laughed on, Azul felt his chest lighten little by little. It was one of those laughs that pulled you closer and assured you that the world around was but a facade. He could listen to your laugh for the rest of his life and he’d never be distressed again.

“Alright, but can we first reveal the massive unknown that’s been standing here for the past hours? You know I can see it right?” you asked with confidence, and this confidence was just humble enough not to be arrogant.

“As you wish, mademoiselle,” another man with dark blue hair bowed with a flourish, then approached the object in question which was covered with a drape. He was at least tipsy with his wavering and unsteady steps.

“Presenting-!” he hollered before yanking the drape off. Surprisingly it was a golden statue made to resemble you.

You recoiled in mild distaste, but your smile remained. Azul pondered about how you still managed to radiate a cheerfulness despite your negative reaction.

It also occurred to him that it was made in gold. Out of all his collectibles there was rarely even a gold necklace. You must have a reputation for someone to make you such a big deal.

“Well, here’s your birthday present, milady,” the tipsy man was throwing names spontaneously now. The red-haired had to drag him away from the railing several times. You had all resumed singing and dancing. Azul was so captivated by your figure that he didn’t even notice the fireworks dying down.

You and a dark-skinned man were leaning right next him now. What looked like a cat but with flame shaped ears and a devil’s tail started sniffing in the vicinity. Azul was having a hard time staying out of its way and eavesdropping on your conversation.

“You sure you don’t want some?” you raised your mug to his face, which he declined respectfully.

“I’d prefer to stay sober,” he said. “You know, I don’t wish to spoil your birthday, but the king’s being more pressing than ever,”

“Yeah? About what?”

He stared at you for a moment before answering, as if he was trying to look pass your display. 

“About marriage, of course,”

You didn’t answer. Though the corners of your lips were still raised in the aftermath of all the previous hypes, you were obviously unhappy to be there. Azul wished the man would shut up and bring your smile back instead.

“It’s not just the King, your highness. The whole kingdom wants to see you happily settled down with the right person,”

“Jack-” you took a deep, deep breath. “It’s not something that can come quicker just because you’re anxious. I have to find the right person-”

“I understand…” Jack mumbled under his breath. He didn’t look like he understood at all.

“- and they’re out there somewhere. I’m sure. I just haven’t found them yet,” you turned and dangled your arms over the railing. Azul quietly swam under your hands. He could probably touch your fingertips if he stretched hard enough.

“When I see them, it’s gonna hit me. Like bam! Like lightning-”

As if hearing your prayer the sky cracked open with a loud cry and grew darker still. The other men scattered out hurriedly, looking as though they’d never drunk anything.

“Hurricane coming in! Stand fast, secure the rigging!”

It all happened so fast. The wind was so strong that Azul could almost feel himself being blown away. The sky rumbled again and lightning started a rapid fire where it’d striked. He noticed a rock looming just ahead, but no one on board seemed to have noticed it.

He should probably go. It’s the safest under the sea. The sky couldn’t hurt a hair of his. But then he heard your screams of commands, and suddenly he was a brave knight willing to give up his life for the princette.

You weren’t on the ship when he neared. Instead, you were already secured on a piece of log, as well as the other men. He exhaled a relieved sigh, but it didn’t last as he heard cries from the ship.

“Ah! Get away you nasty fire- help!” cried a high-pitched voice.

“Oh no, Grim!” you gasped. Without a second thought, you let loose of the log and rushed towards the burning ship. The broken ship gave you better access as you hopped on, but the moment you’d secured your familiar, the ship roared and you tripped and fell.

“Look out!” Azul yelled out futilely. The ship ran straight into the rock and BOOM, everything was set ablaze. Azul dodged between dropping debrises mindlessly as he roamed around in search of you.

When nothing was found above, he dived back into the water and there you were - sinking into the water, growing darker and darker by second. He was next to you in a blink - thanks to his fast-moving tentacles. 

Your group had already gone out of sight when he emerged again, but to his best luck there was a piece of land just near, and he raced there like he was going to lose his own life if he was too late. It was only when you were pulled up on the dryland that he could soothe his pounding heartbeat.

He was bewildered at the fact that he could breathe on land just as well as he did under water. Aside from the sand that had started sticking to his tentacles the moment they touched, nothing seemed to be out of place.

“Hey,” he’d never rescued a drowning human before. He didn’t even know what drowning was. 

“Are you dead?” he slapped your cheek lightly. Your chest didn’t seem to be heaving, and your lips were as pale as snow.

“Hey-”

“Blergh!” Your head jerked up and suddenly you were coughing up water. Azul squeaked before scurrying over to hide behind a rock.

Your head was drooping back and forth as you held yourself up with wobbly arms. Then you started turning around and locked eyes with Azul’s as he peeked out tentatively.

Oh, it’s bad. This is very bad.

“Who-” you started to stand, and at the same time Azul began to reach for the water stealthily so you wouldn’t notice. He knew he’d be screwed if he was spotted.

“Y/N!” someone cried from far away, and you turned to look. The split second was just enough for him to crawl back into the water and out of sight.

The water washed the sand off him quickly, erasing all the evidence that he’d been out there violating one of the strictest rules under the sea, but despite all, he found himself already missing the crisp air above.

If any, he’d grown more fond of the unknown world that you lived in.

[ruwithmeguys]

Hey it’s the twitter user who just asked for S1&2 arrow reviews. So I just finished rewatching S1 and I’ve been curious about why Oliver went back to Laurel even though he didn’t love her. Did Laurel really understand Oliver? Because I’ve always thought Felicity was the one who understood him

Hithere! WELCOME TO THE REST OF YOUR EXISTENCE.

No,seriously; good luck ever leaving this ship! (Join us, we have all the OTP cookies - hah, I never even used to know what OTP meant)

I’msure there are other people who can answer this better, who won’t do it at workwhen I’m supposed to be, you know, WORKING (I am not a role model). But I wanted to give you a response pronto!

Here we go: Oliver… Laurel… Tommy.

Here’s the thing. There areall kinds of love. Oliver, laurel and Tommy were friends first before any ofthem slept together. The love Oliver had for LL was predicated upon thatfoundation of friendship. They’d been attracted to each other so they decidedto do the natural thing: date.

Now, just because two friendsare attracted to each other, doesn’t make the relationship this amazingshowcase of love or the perfect ship or the forever one and only. Chandler andMonica they aren’t.

They weren’t even Ross andRachel, not even close. And Ross had sex with another women four hours after their ‘break’. What aguy.

Did we see even THIS level of intensity from either side? Nu uh. And I tell you,if I start a show like Arrow and I’m supposed to be sold on their romance because where there’s a hero, there’s always a romance, then I want at LEAST angst.

What I believe - and have beengiven proof from Stephen and from others - is that when Ollie - which wasexactly who he was before the Gambit sank - was with LL, she brought out thegood stuff. But the goodness inside him was coated by his greed, vanity andselfishness. He was a dick who LL thought that simply by being with her, would not be a dick…

Wishful thinking to the tenthdegree. 

She was head over heels and deluded by it (that gif is really creepy - he was sleeping with them both there. Laurel was oblivious. Sara was besotted. Three people and not one understood the other).

But Oliver has felt attractionbefore for many other women and continued to not only feel said attraction, butto act on it; she was just one in the herd. Oblivious to the other sheep. From my count, Oliver slept with Sara, Samantha, Max Fuller’s fiance and, two women he went on a joy ride with whilst dating Laurel. Possibly more. Thedifference being that he and laurel held a history of friendship and care together -that he should have given a shit about - so it deepened the relationship fromsex buddies to boyfriend/girlfriend.

But he still cheated on herbecause it wasn’t this special thing that she thought it was. And he was withoutmuch of an ethics base or conscience back then. I’m pretty sure Oliver knew howmuch of an ass he was; in fact I think he thought he was a worthless pretty boywith mountains of cash, which he used to get his way. Deep down, Oliver was,is, a very good person. But ego, money and pleasure soaked up his view and hemade the worst decisions. Just because he started dating one of his closestfriends, didn’t mean he was going to stop partying and cheating and being said ass.

The fact that LL saw this as agiven is one of her many displays of wilful tunnel vision. She was the star ofher own story and the star doesn’t get treated that way. She was at the top ofOllie’s and Tommy’s and daddy’s and mommy’s priority list: she was a betterdaughter than Sara, Ollie would never chase skirts behind her back - they weregoing to get married and be rich socialites together after all as her originalendgame (S3) was to become a wealthy DA who’s clients were the rich criminalsOliver faces in S1 - Tommy would always be there, and daddy would always beproud.

She had a skewed perception asmany people often do when they’re young, inexperienced, ridiculous and lofty.

She’s allowed to be this way. Oliver was allowed to be a disaster boyfriend.

Your first love is rarely yourlast.

But LL didn’t just see Ollieas her first love: she saw him as her last.

Ollie couldn’t look that farinto the future, as evidenced by how he treated his education, by how hetreated women, by how he played around with Sara, by how he tried hard to bethis constant failure.

So when LL started pushing forfurther commitment - for living together like their other friends and being an‘us’ - Oliver made a run for it and grabbed some TNT along the way. Nothingbreaks up a relationship quite like sleeping with the sibling of yourboy/girlfriend. This way, he could be in a far off land when LL realised hersister wasn’t at college, when one of her friends blab about her, because Sarasaid it herself on the Gambit: she was going to be in so much trouble, whichOliver was counting on.

He wouldn’t have to do any ofthe work.

A real shining example ofboyfriend of the year.

But then the Queen’s Gambitexplodes, Ollie looses Sara and hisfather whilst bobbing around for days at sea and by the time he reaches LianYu… Ollie’s not really there anymore; he’s already altered.

The good in him, the strengthhe didn’t know he had comes out, alongside a heavy coating of self-loathing,violent tendencies and a consideration of turpitude.

There’s a scene that perfectlyencapsulates how Oliver feels for LL in those S1 flashbacks: he’s in the cavewith Shao Fei and he’s staring at her picture. He looks so sad and so guiltyand he says ‘I’m so sorry LL’.

He’s not sorry because heloves and misses her. He’s sorry because he fucked up.

And Oliver had no idea what hehad until he lost it, but it’s made all the worse because he feels like Saradied because of his selfishness. Without that guilt I’m not entirely certainhe’d have been so obsessed with the idea of making it up to her, but yes; ahuge part of wanting to return home was about fixing what he broke. Making upfor his mistakes. Gaining a reprieve from years of suffering.

He’s dangerously close tokilling himself in that first year: sometimes believing you’re at the root ofall evil can help you prioritise. He needed to live to make it up to LL.

He needed to survive.

It’s a defence mechanism. Helatched onto those feelings to keep going. THAT and he isn’t scum: he wanted tobe better. He denied the hope inside him but it was still there, waiting for the right time.

The right person.

Notice he never once tells LLor says to anyone after his return, that he wants to be with her. He’s only ever said that to one woman on the show.Word for word. Not an insinuation: a flat out factoid.

The very few things Oliversays in regards to LL and their former relationship after his return in S1, isthat a) thinking about her helped him survive in that first year, b) that hecouldn’t say he didn’t love her, c) he was genuinely happy that she and Tommywere together, d) he would never ever reveal to her who and what he really iswhich means he’d always be lying to her and finally e) that he was sorry andthat it would never be enough.

Romantic stuff it is not.

Even with that crappy list,there are more holes.

A)   He admits in the S4 and S5 flashbacks that,since he was so changed, he knew the person who he’d become could never returnto LL because he wasn’t the same guy. He said that he kept her picture as areminder of everything he’d done.

Her picture was a source ofshame: his self-inflicted punishment. She would always remind him of hisselfishness. ROMANTIC RIGHT?

B)   Saying that you can’t say you don’t lovesomeone isn’t telling them you do love them. It’s useless after the fact.When Oliver realised he was in love with Felicity he declared it several timesto her even though he thought he couldn’t be with her! The one time Oliver tells LL that he loves her is after her death, in ahallucination in 5.08 where he’s very literally apologising for lying to herand for not being the man she loved. He tells her that they could never have been, because who she loved died and he wasn’t that man.

He couldn’t love her the wayshe’d clearly loved him. He was finally given the chance to gainclosure by telling her ghost what he should have told the woman before shedied. She’d deserved to hear the truth years ago. Case in point, on herdeathbed he could only stare at her when she told him that he’d always be thelove of her life. Loving someone? It is FAR different to being the love oftheir life.

Do you know what being thelove of someone’s life is? It’s being at the source of the most powerful,profound and influential love a lucky person feels in their lifetime. The WHOLEof their lifetime. The person who is the love of someone’s life is the person whothat someone loves the absolute most, the person who changed their lives themost. No other love will come close. Oliver was that for LL. She knew she was not that for him.

C)    Do youknow the most revealing way of being in love with a person who is unavailableto you? Jealousy. Oliver never showed an ounce of it for LL and Tommy. In facthe cheered them on, waving them off with a smile because he was HAPPY for them;as if he was saying, all is well and all is good now. Hot stuff right; it really makes you want to watch thislacklustre rickety canoe progress…

D)    Wantingsomeone in your life means revealing yourself to them. It means sharing thingsyou’re too embarrassed, ashamed or afraid to do otherwise. It takes a lot ofcourage and we know Oliver possesses that trait in spades. And yet, he neverwants her to know his secret - the other half of him - and what plays a big part inthis is her initial reaction to his rage in 1.04. He scares her and she’s not shy in showing just how much. Her back and forth after that fact wouldn’t instil confidence either, never mind that Oliver already knew a relationship between them with the hood in the middle was doomed to failure.

Trust me, ifthe show hadn’t been brave and we’d been forced to watch a relationship thatmade little sense, we’d have gotten a good 12 episodes of LL being afraid ofOliver and overcoming her fear to a manageable basis. THANK CHRIST.

There was never anything to fear with Oliver: Felicity knew that immediately.The hood, the man under it – it didn’t matter. LL didn’t see what was therepast the scary skills and bloody arrows. Under the hood was the man she repeatedly claimed, she knew down to his bones. And yet… she didn’t see him there.

E)   A love powered by guilt is no love at all.There is a difference between the love you have for the people you care for andbeing in love.

Oliver did love LL. But he wasnever in love with her. UntilFelicity, Oliver had never fallen inlove before and it was vastly different to anything he’d felt, thank you WendyMericle.

He even behaves differently once we see it. Falling in love withFelicity made him a better, more hopeful person.

Loving LL in any capacity wasa constant reminder of his ‘sin’.

So when you say that you don’tunderstand why Oliver went back to LL in 1.21… well, wouldn’t you want to beabsolved?

Oliver wanted- desperately needed to hear one thing from all thewomen in his life who have had some sort of emotional sway in it.

Moira Queen: I’m proud of you(who you are and who you’ll become)

Thea Queen: Thank you (forbeing who you are and for doing what you do)

Laurel Lance: I forgive you(so let go of the past, I have: I hope you find happiness)

Sara Lance: It wasn’t yourfault (and what happened gave me purpose)

Shado: you didn’t kill me (amad man trying to hurt you did: let me go)

Felicity Smoak: I love youOliver Queen (I always have and always will be yours)

Being the boyfriend he shouldhave been, being given a chance do it again and do it right – sort of liketurning back the clock – must have felt like a massive relief to Oliver who, inS1, was clueless about what made a relationship work. Relationships based onthe past, don’t last. There’s nothing there to help grow and like the once wiseJohn Diggle once said:

Itisn’t about changing or saving a person: it’s about being with someone who’sthe right fit.

The aim, the goal line whenyou want a relationship with the one you love, is simply to be withthem. To grow with them. Not to makeup for being a jackass in the past. You do that by being a decent person. Not by doing this:

HelloLL, I want to be with you to make up for betraying you! The making of a dream ship, I swear.

If they’d gotten back togetherafter 1.23, the following would have happened:

1.     Oliverwould have been forced to see that they couldn’t hack it as a couple. Friendsand allies yes but not as a couple. It takes complete trust to share your lifewith a person and Oliver has never trusted LL to that degree and there isoodles of proof. He’s admitted to it; in fact he’s alluded to never being ableto do that with anyone other than a certain beautiful IT girl.

2.     Wewould have had to put up with a solid season of a force-fed, lacklustre romanceand then we would have had the dreaded love triangle once Sara showed up whichwould have been so much worse to watch than what actually happened.

3.     OnceLL discovers his secret, and it wouldn’t be because he tells her, he’d break upwith her on the principal that it was the last straw: his last lie to thiswoman who didn’t deserve it and she would vow to prove him otherwise. She’dreach to become BC and they’d have an off again, on again tedious thing thatwould have killed the show in a final, ten episode long, S5.

Tommy’s death led Oliver’s hearttowards the light. 

Tommy wasn’t supposed to die. He was a good guy trapped between opposing forces and in love with a woman who didn’t love him back. When he died, Oliver’s world changed perspective. he saw what should have happened as opposed to what they thought should have happened. 

The love Oliver and Ll thought they had didn’t culminate in this victory the audience probably expected it to be.It was both reborn superfast only to perish in betrayal. Now, LL and Tommy wereover and Tommy had pushed them both away… so why did both LL and Oliver laterfeel like that was exactly what they did? You only feel this, if deep downinside, there’s something wrong, something you haven’t admitted. LL didn’t feelit until after Oliver runs away again,which meant she’d been swept away by another lie once more only to realise, it was another rinse repeat.

Oliver felt it immediately.

Being with LL wasn’t worthbetraying Tommy, wasn’t worth his death. It wasn’t, because his love for herdidn’t match Tommy’s and he flipping knew it. It tainted anything that could have been past the point of noreturn and suddenly Oliver didn’t want to live in the past anymore because whenhe’d tried, he’d screwed things up further and the boy deserved not to want tokill himself so much. The past includes LL, which is why they barely spend timetogether afterwards and it lasts right up to her death.

Because what else do theyhave, except the past?

If their love had been more,then maybe… after time, they could have gotten past this.

It wasn’t.

Oliver didn’t go back to Laurel. He and Laurel tried topick up again right where they left off, withoutfacing what had happened which is what you do when you decide to re-writehistory, which is of course impossible. It’s just another lie. It’s the easyway out.

Let’spretend you never cheated on me!

Goodidea! Let’s also pretend my alter ego doesn’t scare you shitless and that you don’t secretly hate me for Sara!

Awesome!

LL didn’t want to face thefact that the best time in her life was over before it even started because shecouldn’t move on from the loss of it. Oliver didn’t want to face the idea thathe couldn’t fix his mistakes because it meant acknowledging what he’s alwaysbelieved: that everything that happened after the sinking of the Gambit, was because he’d lived as others died.

You know what the best exampleof being in love is on a TV show?

What it does to the character.

There is never one singlemoment where LL and Oliver make each other better. They don’t ever help eachother in any positive way. He gives her one half hearted lie in 1.21 whichflatters her ego and lights up her libido for cardboard sex and puts women everywherewith two brain cells to string together and a modicum of self-respect, to shame.

This is what happens betweentwo people who never got closure. Once the sex is over, the appeal wears offand reality sinks in and it flat lines.

The exact opposite of what happens when Oliver and Felicity sleep together,just in case you’re wondering what a successful TV romance looks like.

Stephen stated something oncewhen he was asked about his favourite moments in S1. He said that he reallyliked the moment where Felicity said, ‘if you’re not leaving, I’m not leaving’.

He said it stayed with Oliverin a profound way because, deep down, Oliver has always craved that. Havingsomeone who he could lace 100% of his trust in and who would never leave, despite the times he screws up- and screws up hedoes.

And stay Felicity does.

Every single time, even when they’re not together.

We know Felicity saw the realhim. He saw her. There was animmediate connection that neither understands at first because it’s too big. 

Patience is required. 

I firmly believe there was no romance in S1; but anyonewho watches S1 – particularly 1.03, 1.12, 1.15, 1.17, 1.21, 1.22 and 1.23 – can’t possiblybe blind to all the tiny details of building of trust, reliance and connectionbetween two people who no one saw coming.

There is no build betweenOliver and LL in the season which is shocking and it makes you question thesanity of her fans: the sole season that includes romance between the two and it’s barely even played with. The writers didn’t even try to do it the justice it supposedly deserved. No matter how many complaints the fandom has about the writers, they are not THAT obtuse. It was deliberate.

Why try when it’s not worth trying for?

Lastly, remember that Oliver wasso fucking lonely in S1, especially after the five years of hell. The kind of lonely you couldn’t possibly understand. There isn’treally a way to measure that.

If you’re thinking about himand Felicity, it’s like imagining the deepening of the ocean.They both have issues the size of Godzilla; the ocean’s depths have to be at least as deep - you don’t want them together in S1.Let him go find empty sex with LL where they don’t face, fix or talk about athing. Where they just let themselves pretend for a while.

It’s easier.

Something you need to rememberabout S1: the first season is always going to be the season of trail and error.You cast your lead character in different scenarios with different people andyou see what works.

A fact for you that you mightneed to hear: roughly when they started filming 1.03, they revealed 1.01 to theexecutives at WB and so on and so forth and… let’s just say they weren’t takenwith the onscreen chemistry for the relationship between O + LL. Or with KC’s portrayal. It’s difficult to work against a constant barrage of bitterness. There are otherfactors but I’m not talking about them.

Now, the template for the show’sromance was supposed to be this epic love between the two, as it is in thecomics. Now, I have ample experience with my favourite stories being translatedonscreen. What works on a page rarely works the same way on tv and the comicbook relationship was terrible anyway; why replicate it?

Just when they were trying tofigure out what to do… Emily does onescene, lights the place up, gives Stephen the most excellent chemistry I’veseen in years to play off and suddenly they have a path to follow.

They started building Olicityin S1. They’ve admitted it, but they wanted to do it subtly and BECAUSE they didit slowly, it was believable. Between 1.01 and 1.05 – they write 5 episodesahead of filming – there’s this constant, in your face message that laurel andOliver are meant to be. Then there’s this shift. They slowly introduce this ‘behindthe scenes’ thing with Felicity and Walter, interjecting her loosely withOliver’s story at just the right moments (the end of 1.08 is a HUGE indicationof where they’re going), before the scene in 1.12.

It isn’t a coincidence thatthe scene discusses trust.

He doesn’t talk about trustwith anyone in the season, excerpt her AND… Helena.

Helena trusted him with herheart and she realised he wasn’t ready, that he was still hoping to save thepast just as he hoped to save her and his ignorance hurt her. So when Felicityshows trust in him and he in turn. Proves she can… well it’s a huge deal.

You’d think trust would pop upbetween him and Laurel given their history. The fact that it didn’t speakswonders. In fact, it’s stunning how far apart the writers keep them in S1; it’salmost unfeeling. The lead up to their love scene felt way too fast for my tastes and thereason for the sex, shallow at best.Filled with lies. Rushed.

Crappy sex. A reunion of the body but not the hearts or minds.

Not thelove scene you show for this supposed great star crossed lovers thing they weresupposed to be: it’s a massive neon sign post so I wouldn’t think about it asanything more than two people who had no idea what was good for them, doing theonly thing they knew how to do. Have sex.

Let’s face it, they both suckat relationships. Tommy, the bachelor, knew so much more. He had their futureplanned: him and LL and the white picket fence deal and LL was so clueless, shethought a rebound with ‘Ollie’ was preferable. Idiot woman.

Don’t put too much stock inseason 1: I actually love the season because you can see the narrative linesthat will propel the show towards where they are now.

You can see the prison storyin it from S7. You can see Felicity’s importance and the trust that leads to theepic romance of the show. You can see LL’s death. You can see Prometheus andSlade. John Diggle’s eventual rejection of OTA. Quentin’s death. Oliver rising as a hero.

But even in S1, it was alwaysgoing to be Oliver and Felicity. Stephen said it and he meant it and the directors/creators and writers have been backing him up since 2013.

Yet you have to make room for error and Oliverhas to be allowed to learn, even when it’s infuriating and he does senselessthings for the wrong reasons. THAT’S why he goes to LL in S1. It was unfinishedbusiness.

Sometimes you have to go back to move forwards.

Hope that helped. There wereabout a hundred different ways I could have answered this but I had to sort ofrush it out because of work and my fanfics so I hope it’s at least coherent.

(NO GIFS ARE MINE)

[pengychan]

Te Rerenga Wairua - Ch. 11

Title: Te Rerenga Wairua Summary: Found by the gods drifting at sea, Maui always assumed he had been thrown in it to drown. When that assumption is challenged, there is only one way to find closure: speaking to his long-departed family. But it’s never a smooth sail to the Underworld, and he’ll need help from a friend - plus a token that fell in the claws of an old enemy long ago. Characters: Maui, Moana, Tamatoa Rating: K Prologue and links to all chapters up so far here.

When he returned to the village whose ship Tamatoa had sunken last, bringing their stolen goods back to them and promising that the monster would never again bother them, Maui was met with celebrations he failed to enjoy and happiness he failed to match.

He accepted their praise, smiled back at them, toasted with them, watched the dances around the fire  and, before long, his smiles were almost genuine. It was good to watch the humans’ relief at having something so important back, at knowing they were finally safe.

But they are not. Tamatoa is still around.

He won’t dare. Not after this.

That’s what you thought last time, too.

Maui did his best to chase away the thought. He laughed, he drank, he boasted, he re-enacted the fight before the adoring crowd; with food in his belly, drink in his veins and praise in his ears, he almost enjoyed himself. Almost, because when he reached out to rip away an imaginary leg he froze, and he could swear he tasted something bitter in his throat. He held nothing in his hands, but for a moment he almost felt the wetness of blood on his fingers, the final twitches of the torn appendage against his palms.

No one noticed, though, because the next moment the chief - well in his cups himself - was speaking, his voice booming. “Thank the Gods you were there!” he called out, and lifted yet another cup. “To Maui, for slaying the monster!”

“TO MAUI!”

I didn’t slay him, Maui wanted to say, but before he could even open his mouth a young boy looked up at him.

“My brother’s spirit can be at peace now that you killed the monster who sank his boat,” he said, solemn-eyed, and any semblance of pride turned into ash in Maui’s mouth.

I did not. I couldn’t do it.

For a moment the confession almost, almost left him. But it felt all the world like he’d admit to a weakness and, after another look at their beaming faces, he decided not to tell the truth. They felt safe at long last, and he didn’t want to take that from them, to watch all that joy turn into fear and loathing yet again. So he said nothing.

Still, a few days later, once the celebrations had ended, he took it upon himself to return to Tamatoa’s island to make absolutely sure he had gotten the message. He didn’t want to do it - didn’t want to even think about that backstabber again - but he had misjudged the effectiveness of his warning once already and humans had paid the price. He wouldn’t take that risk now.

Kill him, then.

No. It won’t be needed.

Still, there was no further warning to be given, because by the time he returned the island was deserted. Tamatoa’s cave was empty, neither him nor his treasure anywhere in sight; that was what convinced Maui that he wasn’t just away for a stroll on the bottom of the ocean. He was just… gone. Even standing on top of the highest cliff in the island, he couldn’t see him anywhere. It was as if–

“If you want my guess, he’s off to Lalotai.”

The voice rang out suddenly, causing Maui to wince. He turned abruptly, hook held high, but he immediately lowered it when he saw the figure before him. Head of a bird, body of a man, tail of a fish; the Manaia in one of their many forms, the messenger between the world of the living and the domain of the spirits.

They would go missing shortly after that day, a few decades before Maui’s doomed attempt at taking the heart of Te Fiti; gone from the world without the living or the dead having the slightest clue of where they may be. But right there and then, they were standing before Maui, who hadn’t heard them coming. Few ever did, until they decided to make their presence known.

“Never asked to hear your guess, but since you already shared it, whatever. I take it you watched us?”

“Yes.”

“You know, there’s this funny game some of us like to play. It’s called ‘minding your own business’. You should give it a go.”

The Manaia shrugged. Despite their bizarre form, that gesture carried a kind of otherworldly elegance. “Can you blame me for keeping an eye on you, after you messed with Hine-nui-te-pō?” he asked, tilting their head on one side. “You almost cost me my job. What point is there for a messenger to the world of spirits if anyone can come and go as they please?”

Maui sighed, shifting his weight a bit awkwardly. “… Right. Well. I won’t be trying to get into the Underworld again, that’s for sure.”

The Manaia chuckled, and their form shifted in that of a sea serpent, covered in fish-like iridescent scales. “That’s what you say now, but It seems to me that you very nearly did. The thieving crab almost sent you in it the traditional way.”

Maui snorted. “Yeah, almost being the key word. He was too slow, he didn’t kill me and here I am. So, you think he went to Lalotai?”

“That was the direction he took. Will you follow him to deal the last blow?”

Maui blinked, taken aback. “What?”

“Is that not the reason why you returned? To finish him?”

“Wha… no, I–” Maui paused and turned to the west - towards Lalotai. He stared for a few moments and then scowled. He glanced down on his chest, where an effigy of himself was left holding onto the sun on its own. “You know what? Never mind why I came here. It doesn’t matter. He’s exactly where he belongs, and well away from humans. That’s all I need to know. We’re done,” he added, and lifted his fishhook. “Chee-hoo!”

He flew towards the sun without pausing to look back once, unaware of the fact the being he was leaving behind would not be seen again by a living or dead soul for a long time to come.

***

“If I get out of here I will never, ever set foot in another cave.”

Moana’s exasperated voice bounced from one wall to the other for a few moments before losing itself into nothingness. There was no other sound, no reply: only complete silence, as it had been since she’d begun exploring the maze. Silence, cave after cave covered in bioluminescent algae, absolutely no treasure, no sounds and most of all not a soul to be found. After wandering for what felt like hours, Moana felt she actually wouldn’t mind terribly meeting a few Ponaturi; fighting for her life would probably be better than feeling like she was moving in a circle in complete nothingness.

Ancestors, maybe she was moving in a circle; there was some sort of magic imbued in that place, and perhaps it was meant to keep her in there, unable to find her way out.

A Wayfinder who can’t wayfind. Now that’s a funny joke.

Moana made an effort to chase away the thought and keep moving. Maui and Tamatoa were somewhere in there - maybe they were lost, too? - and she would have to run into them sooner or later. Possibly sooner, before the sun rose, because if that happened while they were still in there–

A sudden noise severed all further thought, causing Moana to recoil and turn to the cave’s entrance with her spear held tightly in her hand. The sound came again, and now she could tell what it was - massive steps.

Tamatoa!

Moana opened her mouth to call out, but relief disappeared as quickly as it had filled her, leaving only dread behind. Something wasn’t right: she knew what Tamatoa’s steps sounded like, and that was not it. There was also the sound of something being dragged across the stone floor, something huge and heavy, and then a sudden hiss. It made her think of the sound a large fire would make if suddenly extinguished with water, and it made her grip the spear a bit tighter, mind working at full speed.

Whatever was coming her way was big - huge, even - and it would probably outrun her if she tried to flee, just like Tamatoa had when she’d distracted him with a fake heart of Te Fiti. Facing it was the best option she had, especially with a bracelet that could make the size of whatever… thing was lurking ahead irrelevant. She just had to be fast, use it before the creature could get to her, and then she’d actually have the upper hand.

Or at least so she hoped.

There were more steps and, yet again, something sliding across the floor, followed by another hissing, breathy sound. It was close now, so close, just behind the corner, and Moana knew she had to act before it saw her first. She had the element of surprise, and she needed to use it.

Moana flattened herself against the wall near the entrance, and listened. The huge steps were coming closer… closer still… right by her…!

Now!

She leaped out of her hiding place onto the being’s path, and lifted the hand with the bracelet before wasting any time looking. “Iti haere!”

“Wha– hey! HEY! What gives?”

Moana blinked, arm still raised, the spear still in her hand. She lowered both slowly, and tilted her head on one side. “Oh,” she said.

“Oh? Oh? That’s not going to cut it! Turn me back this very inst– hey! Careful where you point that! You could hurt– oh, wait. That’s the point, I wager?”

Moana found herself smiling a bit. “Glad you’ve caught on. What are you doing here, uh… Pirifei?”

The red lizard - who had been a giant red lizard only moments before, but was now no bigger than Tamatoa in his own shrunken state - shot her a seriously annoyed look with gleaming yellow eyes. “It’s Pilifeai, if you don’t mind.”

“Sorry. Pilifeai. I won’t get it wrong again,” she repeated agreeably, but did not lower the spear. “So, what are you doing here?”

A scoff. “Well, what does it look like? I was following you guys.”

Moana raised an eyebrow. “You say that like it’s normal.”

“Well, what else I could do?” Pilifeai protested. “I waited forever for you to come out - all right, so maybe a hour? - and then got bored. I missed out all the fun in the Vault already. I wanted to come in this time and see how you were doing. Not too well, huh? Those two idiots aren’t with you. I take it you’re lost. And look, so am I. We have something in common, who would have guessed? Here’s an idea on how to celebrate this discovery: you turn me back my size right away! Huh? How about that?”

Moana put the spear down, but made no gesture to lift the hand with the bracelet. “You don’t really think that’s going to work, do you?”

Pilifeai sighed. “Not really.I assume you’re worried that I’d turn you into a snack the moment you do?”

“Just a bit, yes.”

“I didn’t try to do you any harm since I began following you! I just want to see what’s going to happen with those two idiots, honest. I have no intention to get involved.”

Moana had to concede that he really hadn’t tried anything, but on the other hand it may simply have been due to the fact she had hardly ever been apart from Maui and Tamatoa until then. “How many reasons do I have to trust you?”

The lizard opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He blinked up at Moana. Moana’s eyebrow went up again. His tongue flickered through the air for a few moments before he finally sighed. The red spikes on his head seemed to go somewhat limp. “Fair enough. You don’t really have any, do you?”

“Nope. As far as I was told, you would have eaten Tamatoa if Maui hadn’t intervened.”

“He didn’t intervene as much as he stumbled in at the wrong moment, but fine,” Pilifeai muttered with a scoff. “Still, I’d like to point out the irony of holding me accountable for trying to eat your buddy, who just happens to have tried to eat you before you were buddies.”

Moana wasn’t sure she would have described Tamatoa as her ‘buddy’, but she found she had nothing to object to the definition either, so in the end she simply shrugged. “He earned my trust.”

Pilifeai grinned up at her. Even smaller, his fangs were still sharp. “I see. What do I have to do to be afforded such luxury?”

Well. Now that was something Moana could work with. “Help me find the way out,” she said, crouching down. “I can’t seem to find it on my own, but we might just find it together. Once I’m back with Maui and Tamatoa, I’ll restore you to your usual size.”

The lizard looked up at her with narrowed eyes. “And how do I know you won’t let them just squash me the moment we find them?”

“You have my word.”

“So my word is not enough, but yours is?”

“It’s all I can give you. On my ancestors, I promise I will restore you to your normal size if you help me find my friends.”

Pilifeai’s snout scrunched up in a grimace. “Ugh, you humans and your ancestors. Did you know that some of them kicked my tail all the way back to Lalotai just for spending some time in a lagoon?”

“Did they?”

“Yes! Humans tried to get me to leave on their own, with some pathetic spears like that one, but of course it was like they were throwing toothpicks at me. When they realized I was just too much for them, they prayed to their ancestors and they ganged up on me. Talk about unfair. Wait, you’re not going to send your ancestors after me, are you?” Pilifeai added, suddenly alarmed. Moana opened her mouth to tell him that of course not, she wasn’t even sure how one could do it, but she stopped herself just on time. Instead, she shrugged.

“If you help me, I won’t call my ancestors on you. And I will restore you to your full size.”

Pilifeai glared at her for a few more moments before letting out a sigh. “And we’re back to the problem of me having to trust your word, aren’t we?”

“Afraid so. Have we got a deal?”

They did.

***

“Found anything?”

Maui’s voice reached Tamatoa from the next cave over, causing him to sigh, eyes wandering across yet another treasure-less room. This one seemed to be used for storing food, and was filled with fruit, coconuts and dried fish - but nothing even vaguely shiny. Not that he was one to shy away from a free meal, but at the moment he had other priorities. So it was a disappointment, if one that could be mitigated by a bite or two.

“Tamatoa?” Maui’s voice came again, and the giant crab turned back to the exit of the room.

“Nope,” he said through a mouthful. “No treasure and no human.”

There was a moment of silence, then Maui peered into the cave. “… Are you eating?”

“Just having a snack.”

“Does this look like the right moment to you?”

“I’m stressed, man. I eat when I’m stressed.”

A groan. “Just get your butt over here and let’s go back looking. I’m not sure how much time we have left before daybreak, but it can’t be much.”

“Is this the part where I point out we’d have more time if you hadn’t decided to make days longer and nights shorter?”

Maui rolled his eyes. “Don’t even start. And I didn’t do it on my own - you helped, remember? You got a pearl in exchange and it’s not like I had to drag you there kicking and screaming.”

Tamatoa’s gaze fell on Maui’s chest, where a tattoo showed him holding onto the sun all by himself. For a moment he almost snapped that it was a wonder he did remember that detail, given how he’d been erased from the narrative, but he found he wasn’t in the mood for another argument. He wanted to find the treasure, find the human, and show himself to those two old hags so shiny he’d blind them. And Maui was right on something: they had little time to do it without the Ponaturi returning to the caves and making everything a lot more complicated.

“Fine, fine,” he finally conceded, stepping away from the pile of food. “But I really hope you have a better plan than just walking around– whoa, hey!” Tamatoa let out a yelp when something gave in beneath him, and one of his legs suddenly sank through the rocky floor, throwing him entirely off balance. He fell with a grunt, causing the cave to shake, and realized his leg was trapped when he tried to lift himself. “Wha…?”

Maui, who had approached quickly, took one look at him before concern gave way to a grin. “Well, looks like the floor gave in. Maybe someone should lay off snacks for a while, huh?”

“Oh, har har,” Tamatoa grumbled, and tried again to pull his leg free - but he’d fallen sideways at an awkward angle, and getting himself in the right position to pull his leg back up through the hole in the rock was trickier than he’d expected.

“Wait, let me help,” Maui said, and moved in so quickly that Tamatoa had no time to retort - not until he’d grabbed his trapped limb, and panic suddenly flared up, causing him to cry out and his bioluminescence to flicker out of control.

“No! Wait! Don’t!”

The panicked screech caused Maui to immediately still and let go. He looked up at him, and confusion gave way to realization after only one moment. He looked away, and reached up to rub the back of his neck. “… I won’t do anything to you. Honest. I’m just gonna help,” he said, still not looking at him.

Tamatoa knew that was true, of course. Deep down he’d known from the start that Maui had no intention to tear off another of his limbs, and that he only meant to help him dislodge it from the hole. Yet, the moment he’d felt Maui grabbing his leg, all rational thinking had gone right out of the window, leaving only mindless terror behind - and now that it was subsiding, Tamatoa actually felt kind of stupid for shrieking like that.

“Ah. Right. I was just– you, huh. Stepped on one of my antennae. Yes. That was it,” Tamatoa mumbled, getting his bioluminescence back under control. There was no possible physical way Maui could have actually stepped on either of his antennae, and of course Maui knew it, but he immediately nodded at his explanation.

“Sure. Sorry about that. Will be more careful,” he said, and grabbed Tamatoa’s leg again, his movements slower. “Okay. On three you throw your weight on the left and I pull, all right?”

“All right.”

“Good. One… two…”

“Wait!”

“What now?”

“… Be gentle.”

“I’m so very happy no one is here to listen to this exchange, Crabcake.”

“Hey, I’m delicate!”

“I’ll pretend not to have heard that. Let’s start this over, okay? One, two… three!”

Tamatoa forced himself to bite back the fear that threatened to resurface as soon as he felt Maui’s grip on his limb tightening, and just did as he was told: he threw his weight to his left and pulled just as Maui did. There was a scraping sound, some stone crumbling and falling down below, and Tamatoa’s leg was free within instants - all in one piece, the plaques covering it hardly even scratched. The joint felt a little sore when he stood and put his full weight on it, but it was hardly even pain. He could take it.

“I’m sure that floor was already brittle when I stepped on it,” Tamatoa muttered after taking a few steps. “Nothing to do with snacks. You know what, it was probably the weight of my shinies that– hey, what are you looking at?”

For a few moments, Maui didn’t reply: he just stayed perched beside the hole, peering into it. When he glanced up, his face was split in a grin. “Come take a look, Crabby. Looks like you hit the jackpot.”

Tamatoa blinked. “I did?” he asked, approaching to take a look. He crouched down, eyestalks moving closer to the hole. “What do you– oooh, I see!” he exclaimed, and grinned. Below them, there was something glowing in the light of the bioluminescent algae: it was treasure, heaps and heaps of it. “Their treasure stash! We found it!”

Maui laughed. “No, you found it,” he said, giving his pincer a light bump with his fist. “Actually, you found a whole part of this place I didn’t think existed. I was sure this had to be the lowest level, but I was wrong. And you know what that means?”

“Yes, that this place is way too big for that bunch of– oh, wait!” Tamatoa exclaimed, antennae perking up. “The human! Moana might be there - that’s what you mean, right? Isn’t it?”

Maui’s grin widened even more. “Jackpot again. Well, looks like we’ve got more caves to look into. Think you can widen the hole enough for both of us to go down, or shall I do it?”

Tamatoa laughed, and lifted his pincers. “If I can?” he said, snapping his claws. “Move aside and watch how it’s done.”

He made a short job of the stone floor: a few well-placed blows were all it took for it to crumble, which proved it was already brittle to begin with. Tamatoa fell through it, but he was perfectly happy to land on top of the pile of treasure. He would also have been perfectly happy to stay in it, really.

“This is it, Maui! This is definitely some of my treasure! I’d recognize that diamond anywhere! I’m sure those hags will be at a loss for words when they see it!”

“That’s great. Think you can stop rolling in it now?”

“Two more minutes!”

“We need to look for Moana.”

“One minute? I’ll just stick all I can to my shell and–”

“We’ll pick it up on our way back. Come on, Crabcake. Moana first and treasure second, remember?”

Right, Tamatoa thought, priorities. With a regretful sigh, he forced himself to get up and walk away from the pile of treasure. “Fine, fine. The human first,” he said, and glanced around. There were a few openings leading to yet more caves and passages in the wall, but some of them were definitely too small for him to fit through… and the human was the one who could shrink him. “So, what now? We split up?”

Maui followed his gaze, and nodded. “Seems like the best plan. You check out the bigger ones. Use a claw or something to mark your way on the wall, because last thing we need is getting separated for good,” he added, throwing the fishhook over his shoulder. “First one to find her yells. We’ll be meeting again here. Questions?”

“Did you like the song?”

Maui looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “You mean the one with that entire section on how I was abandoned, I wasn’t tough enough and you were going to eat me?” he asked, deadpanned. “That song?”

Tamatoa shifted a bit. “… On second thought, don’t answer. I’ll ask the human.”

***

“So, are you going to keep doing that for long?”

“Doing what?”

“Licking the air.”

“Do you want us to get out of here or not, human? I’m working on it.”

“… By licking the air?”

Pilifeai gave an indignant snort. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m smelling my surroundings.”

“With your tongue?”

“We don’t all work like you humans do, thank the Gods,” the lizard said sourly, and flickered his tongue through the air yet again before heaving a sigh. “Still nothing.”

“What smell are you trying to pick up, exactly?”

The lizard shrugged. “The crab’s would be my best bet. He positively reeks of Lalotai, no matter how many baubles he puts on himself and how much he claims he’s better than the rest of us,” he muttered. “Unless he and the demigod got separated as well, if we find him, we find both. At which point we’d all still be lost, but we could work out something together. Would be good if you remembered you promise, by the way. I help you, you turn me back.”

“I won’t forget it,” Moana promised. “So, how did you get in without the Ponaturi noticing you?”

Pilifeai shrugged as she walked through another passage. “I swam. There’s an underwater entrance, too. No idea how they keep it from flooding the whole place since we’re beneath the sea - some kind of magic trick, I guess - but it was a good way to get in. Except that as soon as I stepped into a passage–”

“… You felt like you were falling, and winded up someplace else?”

“Hu-uh,” the lizard mumbled, and shot her a look. “You too, eh?”

“Yes,” Moana admitted, and gave a small smile. “Fell in the same trap. Another common ground, I guess.”

“Hah! True enough,” Pilifeai sniggered. “Oh, and also fish. Do humans still like fish?”

“Oh, very much.”

“That’s another point. I also like sunbathing, but there isn’t much sun to be had in Lalotai.”

Moana frowned. “Why do you live in it, then?”

“Oh, last time I went out humans decided I was bothersome - I supposed I didn’t try too hard to be a good neighbour, to be absolutely fair - and their ancestors sort of chased me back in it. It was one exhausting swim to get them off my tail, let me tell you. I’m not too eager to repeat the experience,” he said, and paused a few moments to let his tongue flicker through the air before moving on and speaking again. “Lalotai is not half bad when you get used to it, you know.”

Moana didn’t think she’d last long enough in it to learn to enjoy it in the first place, but decided not to say as much. “No place like home?” she guessed instead.

“Yes, that’s the gist of it. That sparkly primadonna, though - always complaining about the bad rep Lalotai monsters get and trying to set himself apart. Everyone who heard about him was snickering about it. I can’t for my life begin to guess why in the world he decided to settle there in the first place - he didn’t even grow up there. I don’t think he even likes it.”

“Maybe he wanted to return to the home of his ancestors?” Moana guessed, but she wasn’t too sure herself. For her entire life she had felt the call to the sea, the call to the ways of her forefathers - but, if Pilifeai was telling the truth, that didn’t seem to be the case with Tamatoa.

As she’d half-expected, Pilifeai snorted. “If that was it, it wasn’t a great idea. His ancestors liked it, sure enough, but they weren’t like him. No delusions of grandeur, if you get what I mean - at least not the few I met. I tended to stay out of the way, since I was kind of small myself by the time they were dying out. They’d sooner get algae growing on their shells for blending than trinkets to stand out, and wouldn’t get all offended if someone called them bottom-feeders - that’s what they were. Tamatoa is–”

“Different?”

“A delusional idiot.”

“… I think ‘different’ works just as well.”

Pilifeai laughed. “Hah! You’re tender-hearted, aren’t you? Now I see why he took a shine on you. Just stroke his ego a bit and–” he suddenly trailed off and froze before flickering his tongue in the air yet again, causing Moana to blink.

“What is it? Are you smelling something?”

The lizard looked up at her and bared his fangs in a grin. “I smell idiot crab, that’s what. This way!” he called out, and darted forward, so quick that Moana had to run to keep up. And run she did because really, she’d had enough of that creepy place and she’d feel so, so much better once she found Maui and Tamatoa again.

***

“Human! Hey, babe! Are you there? Just yell or something!”

Tamatoa paused to listen, but he could hear nothing except the fading echo of his own voice through the caves. He let out a sigh, antennae going limp. Just how much further did that maze go? He was beginning to feel that place may turn out to be as big as Lalotai or something. How could the Ponaturi find their way out to the surface every night without half of them getting hopelessly lost? At that rate they were never going to find the human and–

“Maui! Tamatoa!”

That caused Tamatoa to stop in his tracks, eyes widening and antennae perking up again. He hadn’t just imagined that, had he? He opened his mouth to call out again, but he didn’t have to: the next moment he heard the sound of running steps, and right afterwards Moana came running into the cave on those skinny little legs of hers, stopping just short of crashing against one of his pincers. She looked out of breathe but perfectly, wonderfully fine.

“Hey, Maui! It’s the human! I found her!” Tamatoa called out, his voice echoing through the maze before he turned back her. He picked her up with one pincer, bringing her before his eyes to check her over. “All in one piece, babe?”

She laughed, holding onto his claw with both hands. “Pretty sure I am.”

“I think you almost gave Maui a heart attack, you know. Don’t go off like that ever again.”

Another laugh. “Oh, I won’t. I’m so happy to see you.”

Tamatoa blinked. “You are?” he asked, unable to hold back some puzzlement before he caught himself and grinned broadly. “I mean– of course you’re happy to see me! Who wouldn’t be happy to lay their eyes on this magnificence?” he added, lifting her up on top of his head, where she could sit and hold onto the base of his antennae. “You’d have to be blind not to, ri–”

“Hey! HEY! You promised, remember? Turn me back!”

… Huh?

Tamatoa looked down, and it took him a couple of moments to find the source of the angry, squeaky voice - but, once he did, he found himself grinning so wide that his face hurt. “Well well well,” he muttered, taking a step forward and causing the tiny, tiny red lizard to scrambled back in alarm. “Looks like someone just got the bracelet treatment. An improvement, really. You’re almost cute. So cute I could eat–”

Pilifeai’s eyes darted up to Moana. “Er. Human? I think this would be an excellent moment to– no, wait! Stay away!”

“Tamatoa, stop!” Moana called out, causing him to freeze and turn one eyestalk to look at her. “I promised him you wouldn’t hurt him. So don’t.”

What, seriously? Tamatoa frowned, disappointed. “But I didn’t promise anything!”

“Please. He helped me find you.”

“Oh. I thought I had found you?”

“Well, it kinda worked both ways, didn’t it?”

“I could smell your stench twenty caves away,” Pilifeai spoke up, gaining himself a glare from Tamatoa and an unimpressed retort from Moana.

“… Look, I’m trying here, but you’re not helping your cas–”

“Moana!”

“Ooof! Hey! Easy, man!” Tamatoa protested, but Maui - who had somehow landed right on the back of his neck, barely missing the now closed-up wound - paid him absolutely no mind: he just grabbed Moana and held her in a crushing hug.

“Oh, you’re safe! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

She laughed, throwing her arms around his neck. “So I was told. I’m fine, really. Did you–”

“A-hem. Excuse me. Aren’t you forgetting a little detail here?”

Maui let go of Moana and blinked, looking down at the lizard from all the way up the top of Tamatoa’s head. “… Pilifeai?”

“In the scales,” was the dry reply. “I helped your friend find you, but no worries, I don’t want your thanks. I’d just really like her to keep her half of the bargain and turn me back my size.”

Maui tilted his head on one side. “Did you follow us in here?”

“Well…”

“Of course he did. Creep,” Tamatoa muttered, and turned an eyestalk back to Moana. “Are you sure I can’t eat him?”

“Sorry, but no. I promised to turn him back his size as soon as we were out of here.”

“What? Not true! You promised to turn me back as soon as we found your friends!”

Tamatoa frowned. “That doesn’t seem like a good idea. This place is too small for both of us.”

Pilifeai scoffed. “Oh, spare me that crap! The only thing that’s too small is your stupid brai–”

“No, I mean, literally,” Tamatoa cut him off, looking around. “I mean, most of these caves are big enough for me to walk in, but both of us? Would be a tight fit. The human is right, you should wait until we’re out.”

“Oh,” Pilifeai said, and looked around. “… Fair enough. I hadn’t thought about it. So, did you find a way out?”

Tamatoa grinned. “Sure we did! Oh, and we also found their treasure stash, human! You won’t believe how much of my stuff is in it…!”

***

As it turned out, the hairpin wasn’t among the trinkets and gems to be found in the Ponaturi’s treasure stash: Maui had looked through it all, kept an eye on everything Tamatoa was sticking to his shell, and yet he had seen nothing that looked even vaguely like it might be a hairpin. It looked like they’d have to go find the Taniwha next, and hope that they had it.

Because after that, Maui would be all out of ideas and places to look. He said nothing, but of course Moana had to guess, because she put a hand on his arm as they walked. “Don’t worry. We’ve defied worse odds,” she said. “And besides–”

“Oh, look, we’re out now! You can turn me back to normal,” Pilifeai pointed out, cutting her off.

They had just stepped through the opening he and Tamatoa had found earlier, the one leading to a secluded beach. And just on time, too: the sun was not out yet, but the sky was so much lighter than before, dawn just about to break. The Ponaturi were probably returning in their caves already, but even if they found out right away that their stash of treasure was gone they would be unable to exit the caves again until sundown. At least that was a problem they’d managed to avoid.

Beside him, Moana sighed and restored Pilifeai to his normal size. The giant lizard, now once again giant, shook his head as though trying to rid himself of a bad thought. “Finally! Being small is dreadful. How do you manage– ow!”

“Get out of the way, creep! You’re blocking the exit!”

“What happened to your manners, crab?”

“I ate my manners,” was the retort, followed by the snap of a claw. Pilifeai grumbled, but he did move out of the way, and Tamatoa walked out of the opening just as the first rays of sun appeared at the horizon, causing the shiny patches on his shell - now far bigger than before - to sparkle, and him to grin. “That’s so much better. Give me a minute to show off, will you?”

Maui gave a guffawing laugh. “A minute, sure,” he muttered, leaning against the stone cliff and elbowing Moana lightly. “This is going to take a while and will probably involve another song or two. Get comfy,” he said, causing her to blink in confusion.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

“You just watch.”

And they all did watch when Tamatoa walked up to the boulders that were not boulders at all, sometimes that was now made clearer by the light of the dawn. Moana realized what she was looking at after a few moments and let out a small gasp. “Are those…?”

“Yep,” Maui said, and he was about to add he had been surprised too, but before he could say a word Tamatoa spoke up, walking up to the sleeping giant crabs with the most self-satisfied expression he had ever seen on him… and really, that was saying a lot.

“Hey there! Wakey wakey! Want to see something really amazing?” he asked, walking closer. “Just a word of warning, you might feel intimidated by how glorious I am but hey, don’t let it keep you from having a good look, all right? I’m not at my very best yet, but still pretty impressive if I say so myself! So, what do you have to say now?”

No answer.

“Huh. Heavy sleepers, aren’t you? C’mon! Just wake up! You don’t want to miss this!”

Nothing, not the most minute movement - not even the slightest rise and fall to indicate that they were–

Wait, Maui thought. Wait a sec.

The young these days - they will step on the elderly on their deathbed, and then expect an introduction. Have some respect for the dying, will you?

We go back to more important matters and you just go back to dying. Believe me, we won’t interrupt you again.

Realization - well, that was quick - hit Maui like a splash of icy water, and for a few moments he could just be still and stare as Tamatoa reached to knock on the shell of the closest one - Ngaio? - before suddenly taking a step back. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to: realization was plain in his widened eyes, in the pincer frozen in mid-air, in the way his antennae went limp as he took another step back.

“Maui…?” Moana whispered, a hand on her mouth. On his left, Pilifeai frowned in confusion and glanced down at them.

“Wait, I’m lost,” he said. “More giant crabs? Wasn’t he the last one left?”

Maui didn’t reply right away: he just stared at the scene for a few more moments before he turned away, a grim expression on his face. “Well,” he said quietly, “he is now.”

***

[Back to Chapter 10]

[On to Chapter 12]