#🌊 ride with the tide! 🌊 v; pirate

[serpentinebrando]

🔫 (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Your muse sees mine get shot | @mxrvelouscreations

All it took was a split second of distraction. The smallest opening in his guard. A tiny ball of lead flew true, tearing through his shoulder as the skirmish raged around him. He’d been so focused on taking out the two ruffians who’d been harrying Callie that he failed to see another one sneaking around to flank him until it was too late. Stars danced in front of his eyes as his pained cry turned into a snarl of vitriol, and he whipped around to find the coward who had dared to shoot him in the back. Said vagabond was met with the glare of eyes that had gone inky black. His flintlock was still smoking when he dropped it, terrified of the captain’s wrath.

With a snap of Lucien’s fingers, the offending bandit was snapped up by a shadowy tentacle and thrown overboard, as were several other attackers in quick succession. He’d grown tired of this skirmish, and wanted them off his ship. Whether the fuckers lived or not was their problem. They’d sealed their fates when they tried to ambush him and his crew, as well as his precious cargo!

The euphoria of having successfully dealt with them didn’t last long, however. As the haze of battle faded, it was replaced with searing pain and fatigue. Lucien clutched at his bloodied shoulder, grimacing. “Damn it all,” he cursed, “motherfucker ruined my coat!” As if that were thing worth worrying about. “Shit was worth a pretty fuckin’ penny, too. Should’ve kept him alive just to make him pay for the replacement…” He couldn’t meet anyone’s eye, least of all Callie’s; if he did, he would crumble, and he couldn’t let that happen. “Mind the injured!” he barked, quickly surveying the ship and crew. Thankfully, no one had been killed, but being surprised in the middle of the night like that had still taken its toll. “I’ll not have a single man be taken by sepsis on my ship, is that understood? Watch after them like your fuckin’ lives depend on it!” He was met with a resounding ‘Aye, Cap’n!’ as the able bodied helped get the wounded get belowdecks for treatment.

He should join them, he knew, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to let them see him in such a vulnerable state, so he turned to storm into his cabin, followed quickly by his First Mate. Serpent’s bloody fangs, he was fading fast. By the time he reached the door, the spots in his vision had returned, and he was having trouble walking straight. He’d been losing more blood than he thought.

[serpentinebrando]

Send 🌑 to crawl into bed with my muse (Callie: @mxrvelouscreations

Bedtime | @mxrvelouscreations

Lucien had just begun to doze off when he felt someone climb under the covers with him. He wasn’t too startled, at first; usually, if he was joined unannounced at this hour, it was by his lusty First Mate. After the day he’d had, he wasn’t going to complain if the man wanted to hold him down and fuck him senseless. He felt a head rush just thinking about it. This didn’t feel quite right, though. The presence in his bed felt far smaller than his First Mate.

Confused and flustered, Lucien rolled over with a start, cheeks flushing when he found Callie next to him. He didn’t know how to react, so he froze. A not-so-rare moment of vulnerability. She’d become too good at instigating those in him, so pretty and strong willed. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t dreamed of a moment like this on several occasions. “Hello, Princess,” he finally responded, having regained enough of his composure to try his hand at flirting. “You seekin’ pleasure or comfort? I’m happy to provide either one.” If he’d been a bit more logically inclined in that moment, he might have realized that he was risking his job by going along with this. It was quite the compromising position, after all. A young lady should never be alone with a man in such a manner, especially when both were of such nobility.

Lucien didn’t care. She’d joined him of her own free will, and he was curious to find out why. Did she want him as badly as he wanted her, or was she simply lonely? The Captain gave her a coy smirk and gently stroked her cheek, encouraging her to answer him.

[serpentinebrando]

“ something inside you is broken. maybe it always was. “ (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Dark Starters | @mxrvelouscreations

Lucien couldn’t help the baffled laughter that bubbled forth. Was she just realizing that now? “Your highness, you say that like I don’t already know it as fact. I’ve been a very deeply fucked up person for longer than I can reasonably remember, and I don’t need a pampered princess who hasn’t had to commit patricide for the sake of survival to remind me!” The amused grin he wore was sharp, not quite masking the pain and rage in his eyes, and he leered at Callie with obvious malice. She’d cut him harshly, lashing her barbed tongue at old wounds that had never quite healed. If she wasn’t careful, he would strike back, and the Captain of the Shadow was just as deadly with his words as he was with a blade.

“Do me a favor: spare me whatever false sympathy you were about to spew. I’ve done without it for years, and I can continue to do without it for the foreseeable future. You’re my charge, not my confidant. Remember that, and we’ll have no further conflicts.”

[serpentinebrando]

❛ sometimes you scare me. ❜ (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Lyric Starters | @mxrvelouscreations

“Only sometimes? That’s disappointin’. I always thought I was quite fearsome,” Lucien quipped, holding back a laugh. “I suppose I’ll have to work harder to intimidate someone as brave as you.” Teasing and sarcasm came easily to the former prince, but with Callie, it was almost always more playful. She was fun to mess with, as improper as that may be. He was a captain and a privateer; propriety had gone out the porthole long ago.

Even now, as he circled her idly, watching for her reaction, he couldn’t hide the smirk forming on his lips. “What should I do to improve my performance in that department? Wear an eyepatch? Carry a sharpened hook in my off hand?” Emphasizing his query, he gestured loosely with his right hand, index finger bent to look like a hook. The afternoon sunlight shone in eyes of emerald green, highlighting the sparks of mischief dancing there. “What do you think, your highness?”

[serpentinebrando]

" stop lying with those words. " (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Lyric Starters | @mxrvelouscreations

“It ain’t a lie if I believe what I’m sayin’,” the salty captain quipped back, “but very well. What is it that you’d like to hear, your highness?” Honestly, he found it quite amusing that she distrusted him so completely; he’d grown used to that sort of treatment by now. At this particular moment, however, it was inconvenient to have Callie questioning his every word. He’d promised to keep her safe, and he would do his best to honor that deal, but it would be far more difficult to do if she thought he had a hidden agenda.

“Would you rather I be blunt and say that it’s in my best interest to get you where you’re goin’ in one piece?”

[serpentinebrando]

(Designed this sword in Picrew a while back, and I think it really fits Lucien’s vibe. Don’t currently have the link, but the creator of the Picrew is juliasgoodusername.)

[serpentinebrando]

V; pirate - Instead of returning home after making the deal with the serpent and killing his father, Lucien was intercepted by a crew of pirates who thought to hold him for ransom. Angry and eager to spill more wicked blood, Lucien challenged the Captain to a duel, insisting that if he won, the ship and crew would be his to command, and if he lost, they could do whatever they wanted with him. The Captain was ruthless and highly skilled, but his abilities were no match for the frigid fury of the prince. Lucien defeated him handily, watching as the light left his eyes, and thus became the new Captain of the Shadow. Any rebellion or doubt was quickly squashed when he revealed the nature of his familiar, striking terror into the hearts of his crew. They didn’t even question him when he turned them to privateering in service of his brother. He’s since become a legend of the high seas.

V; modern - Takes place in modern day Asheville, NC. Lucien wanted to get away from his father from the moment he found out his mother was divorcing the man, but it wasn’t meant to be. His mother didn’t think it was fair to uproot Cyrus and Luke while they were still in high school and move them down to Oklahoma, so she didn’t fight for custody. They were forced to remain in North Carolina while Kade and Katrina were allowed to leave with her and chase their dreams. Luke was beyond crushed. He did everything in his power to avoid his dad as much as possible, focusing on school, music, track, anything that would keep him out of the house. It worked for a year or two, but once Cyrus had graduated and moved out, Luke suddenly had his father’s full attention, which made it harder for him to sneak in and out of the house undetected. Naturally, they clashed often. Luke’s disdain for his father quickly became flat out hatred. He devoted all of his time and energy to finding ways to escape that house, as school was too easy for him. Posting his songs online in the hopes that some record producer in Nashville would hear them and sign him on, doing favors for football jocks in exchange for cash, lying about his age in order to moonlight as a bartender at a club just outside of Asheville, and even doing certain things in private that he would have regretted had he not received a hefty sum. His desperation and drive paid off. By senior year, he had his own motorcycle, driver’s license, and plans to run off to Nashville to jumpstart his career in country music as soon as he graduated. Luke could see the light at the end of the tunnel! He was so close to freedom he could taste it, and damn, it was so sweet, so enticing…only to be ripped out of reach when his dad caught on and forced him to start working for his construction team after school. No more track. No more music. No more bartending. Only what Garrett called a ‘real job’. Luke predictably went to Cyrus for help, who told him that he couldn’t do much of anything to aid the boy until he turned eighteen.

Frustrated, Luke began acting out. Skipping class, hooking up with anyone who would take him, including several of his father’s employees, drinking to excess, sneaking out to party, all the things that angry teenagers do. He even ran off to the coast with a few friends over Spring Break for an illicit beach bash, which he honestly doesn’t remember much of. A yacht was stolen. There was ton of alcohol involved. Everything went tits up when the cops arrived. He fell overboard, and would have drowned had he not encountered something in the roiling Carolina waters that reminded him of those illustrations on the edges of old maps: a massive sea serpent.

It reached into his mind, demanding to know why it shouldn’t devour him right then and there. Thinking quickly, he made a deal with it: life and power in exchange for a soul equally or more wicked than his own. Luke knew exactly who to sacrifice; the trick was getting back to Asheville to collect him without being arrested for grand theft marine, then dragging his father back to the coast. The serpent made things a little easier by shrinking down and offering to travel with him, insisting that it could survive almost as well on land as it did in the ocean. Its first gift to Luke was water breathing, allowing him to make it back to shore totally undetected beneath the waves. Avoiding the police was easily done, given the skills that he’d developed throughout his youth, and he knew none of his friends would rat him out, but things got far more complicated when he and his new companion accidentally interrupted a brutal murder. The serpent saw an opportunity for a meal and devoured the perpetrator, bestowing its gifts upon Luke far sooner than he’d imagined or intended, and proposed striking up a much more permanent partnership, which he accepted. The pact was sealed in ink, with a large tattoo of the sea serpent coiling its way up his left arm to mark him. He found a motel to sleep off the rest of his hangover in, then set off for Asheville early the next day.

Once home, he split his time between school, music, and vigilanteism, only occasionally showing up for work. He couldn’t bring himself to kill his father. Not yet. Instead, he focused yet again on making a life for himself, using his magic to his advantage. Once he was eighteen, he began bartending again, moving out of his dad’s house shortly afterward. He currently manages a club downtown where he occasionally plays his music, and is still saving up money to move to Nashville. Anyone who commits a truly heinous crime in his vicinity tends to mysteriously go missing, but he’s too charming for anyone to really want to question him.

V; Wizarding World - Lucien was only eight when he fell into the sea while in Raleigh on a family vacation. His muggle/no-maj mother feared the worst, desperately trying to spot her son amongst the waves so that she could throw him a life preserver. Lucien, however, managed to secure his survival in a most peculiar way. Just as his mother was about to call the Coast Guard, a massive sea serpent surfaced with the boy clinging to its back, carefully depositing him on the deck of their yacht. His family rushed to take care of him, asking him how in the blazes he managed to tame something like that! His answer was that he simply talked to it, begging not to drown, and it took pity on him. He later figured out that he could talk to all snakes, not just sea serpents, and through some relentless digging, found out that he was actually a wizard. His father was a descendant of a squib from the infamous Gaunt family, who had been cast out after his lack of magic had been discovered, but managed to evade obliviation by being even more cunning than his ancestors. Of course, because of MACUSA’s strict laws against Muggles/No-Majs intermingling with witches/wizards, when all of this finally came to light, Lucien and his family were forced to run and hide. They split up, with the twins taking off to Oklahoma to fly under the radar, their father and Cyrus fleeing deep into the Blue Ridge Mountains, and their mother taking Lucien all the way to Ireland to find sanctuary because she had dual citizenship. A few years later, Lucien got his letter to Hogwarts.

Naturally, he was sorted into Slytherin, though he didn’t exactly get along with most of his housemates. He was American, for one thing, and didn’t even bother to hide his thick ‘cowboy’ accent. They all assumed he was muggleborn, and didn’t belong in their pureblood house; the fact that he excelled in nearly every class only made him more of a target for some, while others eased up after recognizing his talents. He turned to music to deal with the stress, going so far as to smuggle an enchanted guitar into the school so that he could practice and write songs in the Room Of Requirement all through his last three years. After graduation, his studies eventually payed off, with a disguised record producer catching one of his shows at a local pub and offering him a contract. He took it in a heartbeat, becoming a world renowned rockstar over the course of the next decade, famous for his rebellious flair and Southern charm. He quickly became addicted to the spotlight, which led to other addictions, and by the time he realized it, his career had nearly died, taking his self esteem with it.

The summer of 1995 found him drowning his sorrows in whiskey and butterbeer at the Hogshead Pub, where he heard rumors swirling around about various faculty changes at Hogwarts. Sensing an opportunity, he kept his ears open and tried to sober up; this could be his ticket out of his self-made hell if he played his cards right. Sure enough, he heard that the ghostly History of Magic professor, Mr. Binns, had accidentally been exorcised, and Dumbledore was looking for someone to replace him. Lucien made a note of that, and wrote a letter to the Headmaster the next morning, eloquently offering his services. He’d always been a history nerd, after all, and had his own way of ensuring that learning about it would be fun. Dumbledore hired him after a series of interviews over tea, in which he managed to impress the old man with several hastily but well-constructed lesson plans, never once letting on that he was desperate and flying by the seat of his pants(Dumbledore knew and gave him a chance anyway). He officially joined the faculty that fall, along with Umbridge (whom he loathed with every fiber of his being) and a temporary Care of Magical Creatures instructor to fill in for Hagrid whist he was away. Lucien was usually sober during his lessons, bringing out his guitar and playing historically based rock/country songs in order to keep students engaged. It worked like a charm! Students were receiving higher marks in his class than in any previous History of Magic class, taking inspiration from his performed enthusiasm. Outside of class, however, he was a drunk and a shut-in, rarely engaging with the rest of the staff. On the plus side, Umbridge couldn’t exactly fire him because he’d proven to be an excellent teacher, and he made a point of avoiding her whenever possible. When she became headmistress, however, he was outraged. She had no right to take over the school like that, and with every proclamation she enacted, a little more of Hogwarts’s soul died. He made himself known to his students as someone they could talk to if they were struggling, revealing that he had his own issues that he was working through, too. In a sort of quiet rebellion against Umbridge, he did his best to boost students’ morale with new songs, relying more on his writing than the bottle to relieve stress in his off time. When she was finally ousted, he celebrated with the rest of the school.

He stayed on as the History of Magic professor for several years afterward, playing in concerts around the world and releasing albums during the summer months while teaching and writing songs from fall to spring. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he fought valiantly, saving Snape’s life by issuing commands to Nagini in Parseltongue and confusing the ever loving fuck out of her. After the dust settled, he finally revealed to the man that he, too, was an heir of Salazar Slytherin via the Gaunt family, but had kept it quiet for various reasons. After Hogwarts was rebuilt, he returned the following school year, and has been teaching there ever since, sponsoring a music program alongside Professor Flitwick. He’s mostly managed to stay sober, as well, despite still being an active rockstar.

[serpentinebrando]

“You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here, there be monsters!”

Indie RP blog for Lucien “Luke” Brando, an OC for both fantasy and modern settings. | FC: Hunter Hayes | penned by Jay (she/they, 28) | follows back from @foxytonic | please read rules and about before interacting | 18+ only

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[serpentinebrando]

She was right. He knew she was right, and that both alarmed and infuriated him to no end, but he refused to admit it out loud. As she took a step back, he took one forward, advancing on her and taking her show of fear as a small victory. “Are you suggestin’ that I treat you as some sort of therapist? Unloadin’ all of my woes onto you so that you can make feeble attempts at fixin’ me?” His mountain twang came through even stronger than usual when he was angry, making his words sound harsher yet more rounded. “I don’t need you or anyone else to psychoanalyze me, dammit! And for the record, I don’t hurt people to make myself feel fuckin’ better; I hurt people who cross me and my crew because that’s a necessity out here! You either fight tooth and nail, or you die! It ain’t the fuckin’ bed of roses that you or I grew up with back in our respective castles!”

He hadn’t yet mentioned much of his royal upbringing. Hadn’t seen a need to. But she was dragging things out of him with her needling, and once he started, it was hard to stop. “If you want to paint me as the villain in your pretty little head, that’s fine by me. I ain’t gonna try to stop you. But don’t you dare pretend to understand me or my mind. You don’t know a damn thing about me!” he hissed, finally backing off a little. This argument had already gotten too intense. Gods, he needed a drink…

“ something inside you is broken. maybe it always was. “ (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Dark Starters | @mxrvelouscreations

Lucien couldn’t help the baffled laughter that bubbled forth. Was she just realizing that now? “Your highness, you say that like I don’t already know it as fact. I’ve been a very deeply fucked up person for longer than I can reasonably remember, and I don’t need a pampered princess who hasn’t had to commit patricide for the sake of survival to remind me!” The amused grin he wore was sharp, not quite masking the pain and rage in his eyes, and he leered at Callie with obvious malice. She’d cut him harshly, lashing her barbed tongue at old wounds that had never quite healed. If she wasn’t careful, he would strike back, and the Captain of the Shadow was just as deadly with his words as he was with a blade.

“Do me a favor: spare me whatever false sympathy you were about to spew. I’ve done without it for years, and I can continue to do without it for the foreseeable future. You’re my charge, not my confidant. Remember that, and we’ll have no further conflicts.”

[serpentinebrando]

Her questions made him stop and stare at her for a moment. Had she truly been taking his antics so seriously? Perhaps he had taken the act a bit too far at times, but that surely wasn’t the case here. Was it? “Well, with you,” he answered, smirk faltering a bit, “ninety-nine percent of it is just me makin’ an ass out of myself for the sake of amusement. I was jokin’ earlier. That stuff with the hook…I was tryin’ to be funny.” It was rare for him to flounder like this, but he couldn’t help himself. A mix of guilt and embarrassment had taken hold of him as soon as he finally realized how she’d seen him this entire time. “Shit, ma’am, I didn’t mean any of that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fuckin’ asshole, but I don’t actually want you to fear me.”

Respect? He’d grown so used to having to earn that, and he’d already earned it many times over from the people who mattered. Being liked was a pipe dream that he’d given up on years ago. “Worse? Depends on who I’m dealin’ with. Obviously, my crew respects me, and my siblings back on land, but the more people out here on the open sea who fear me, the less fights I wind up gettin’ into, which makes my job way easier.”

❛ sometimes you scare me. ❜ (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Lyric Starters | @mxrvelouscreations

“Only sometimes? That’s disappointin’. I always thought I was quite fearsome,” Lucien quipped, holding back a laugh. “I suppose I’ll have to work harder to intimidate someone as brave as you.” Teasing and sarcasm came easily to the former prince, but with Callie, it was almost always more playful. She was fun to mess with, as improper as that may be. He was a captain and a privateer; propriety had gone out the porthole long ago.

Even now, as he circled her idly, watching for her reaction, he couldn’t hide the smirk forming on his lips. “What should I do to improve my performance in that department? Wear an eyepatch? Carry a sharpened hook in my off hand?” Emphasizing his query, he gestured loosely with his right hand, index finger bent to look like a hook. The afternoon sunlight shone in eyes of emerald green, highlighting the sparks of mischief dancing there. “What do you think, your highness?”

[serpentinebrando]

“What about you?” he repeated, a little dumbfounded. “I mean, I don’t hate you, or anythin’. Certainly don’t wanna hurt you, since I’m gettin’ paid to deliver you safe and sound. I actually don’t mind your company when you ain’t tryin’ get inside my head. You’re a little uptight, but still a better conversationalist than most of the people aboard this ship.” That was true. Callie had proven to be quite intelligent, which Lucien admired greatly, and she had a quiet honesty about her that charmed him more than he cared to admit. She was his opposite in many ways; the clear skies to his raging storm, the gentle sweetness to his coarse bravado. Perhaps that was why she knew how to cut straight to his core. She was pretty, too, which he somehow only managed to notice when he least expected it, like right now, as she looked up at him with questioning and apologetic eyes.

He sighed and shook his head to clear it, willing the heat in his flushed cheeks to please go the fuck away. “Look,” he added, clearing his throat, “I only really get mad at you when you pry too much, alright. I don’t like havin’ my boundaries pushed. Most people don’t. It’s hard for me to open up the way you sometimes want me to. I got a lotta shit goin’ on up here,” he gestured to his head, “that I really don’t want to talk about yet. With anyone. Not just you. I’m a much more private person than I let on.”

At least she seemed to be listening to him now, which was good. Her understanding of his wish to keep his crew out of harm’s way earned a crooked but genuine smile from the captain. “See? I ain’t all bad,” he teased, a light chuckle bubbling forth.

❛ sometimes you scare me. ❜ (Callie; @mxrvelouscreations

Lyric Starters | @mxrvelouscreations

“Only sometimes? That’s disappointin’. I always thought I was quite fearsome,” Lucien quipped, holding back a laugh. “I suppose I’ll have to work harder to intimidate someone as brave as you.” Teasing and sarcasm came easily to the former prince, but with Callie, it was almost always more playful. She was fun to mess with, as improper as that may be. He was a captain and a privateer; propriety had gone out the porthole long ago.

Even now, as he circled her idly, watching for her reaction, he couldn’t hide the smirk forming on his lips. “What should I do to improve my performance in that department? Wear an eyepatch? Carry a sharpened hook in my off hand?” Emphasizing his query, he gestured loosely with his right hand, index finger bent to look like a hook. The afternoon sunlight shone in eyes of emerald green, highlighting the sparks of mischief dancing there. “What do you think, your highness?”