#7.5k words

[rainbow-nijisaki]

It's Composer posting hours

[airenyah]

@secriden you don't know the feeling of getting these tags into my notifs after feeling like i've been the sole public defender of dunk's acting for the past year and a half (and that's only counting the time i started being more vocal about it online, i've been defending him in my mind since 2022 actually)

truly TRULY love the energy you bring!!!!! join me!!!!!

DUNK IS A GOOD FUCKING ACTOR AND HAS BEEN FROM THE START. EVERYONE WAS JUST UNNECESSARILY MEAN

[randlemartin]

As far as Johnny’s concerned, he should be heading in the opposite direction: towards the States, not deeper into the heartlands of the continent. Clearly, however, someone higher up has a different idea, deciding his time is better spent crowding into the back of a DUKW, watching scores of surrendered Krauts march by.

chapter 8. the beginning of hot austrian summer 1945

[reallypleasanttree]

For Wedding Plans, Happy reunion, Obanai and Giyuu! 🥰

“Ah, so it’s like a reunion?” Kanae asked and clapped her hands together. Ignorance was bliss or so they said. 

“Yeah,” Giyuu confirmed, “you could say that.” 

The connotation of a reunion was usually between people who liked each other. This was not the case. The hairs of Obanai’s forearms rose. Then there was the other half he couldn’t even begin to explain. In their prior life, Giyuu was the same way. Pretentious, distant, and arrogant. His right eye twitched. He turned his attention to the younger Kocho sister. Shinobu was grinning ear to ear as she watched the two. She knew about their past lives then she knew about the animosity between the three hashira. What was she playing at?  “I wasn’t expecting you, Obanai, but it’s great to see you,” Shinobu said. She slipped off her flats. “It’s been a long time. I was so happy to hear that you and Mitsuri finally got together.” Mitsuri must have told her that he knew. Then did Mitsuri know about Shinobu dating Giyuu? Her purple eyes flashed clearly amused by the events about to unfold.

[the-kr8tor]

Chapter 15 mood board

Am I using my writing break to look at memes? Yes I am.

We're almost there! Just a few more scenes left ❤️

[padfootastic]

exam szn is coming up which obviously means ore distractions, as everyone knows. so what better than to come back to tumblr lol so many tag games etc piling up that i wanna dooooooo

so. let’s have a lil snippet time!

thanks for the tag @in-flvx 💜 this one’s from a wip that was supposed to have been finished & posted for jilypad week but,,,,here we are,,,,,

“Sirius!” Lily exclaims. “We were looking for you.”

“Oh?” He presses a quick kiss to her cheek before bending down to pick Harry up, who immediately cuddles into his arms with a tired sigh. Poor baby, must’ve been exhausted by all the excitement at the beach.

“Yeah, regarding tonight—“ Sirius gulped quietly at the way she said that “—Your room is a bit…messy, I’m sorry. We were reorganising and well, y’know how it goes…”

She shrugs apologetically but all Sirius can think about is how she called it ‘his room’. Not the guest room, not the spare, but his room. Sirius’. He once again pushes past the mushy feelings that rise in him at that little distinction.

“Oh, it’s—it’s fine, I can just take the couch, no problem.” Even if his feet tend to hang off the end, and the edges are a bit lumpy, it’s fine. He resolutely doesn’t think about his comfortable Alaskan King at home.

“Of course you can’t!” Lily scowls at him. “We’re not gonna put you in a couch in your own house, Sirius.”

There it was again, the reference to him belonging here. It was a bit presumptuous, slightly possessive but Sirius was a dog at heart, he was never going to turn down ownership.

“Er—the nursery, then?” he asks, confused.

“What, crammed up in Harry’s crib beside him?” she says with a scoff, “Don’t be silly.”

Sirius blinks. “Where am I sleeping then?”

“With us, of course.” He jumps at the voice booming from behind him, clutching Harry tighter to his chest, whirling around to find James munching on a carrot.

“Where did you come from?” Sirius mutters under his breath before straightening up and saying, louder, “And what do you mean with you?”

“Well, like Lily said,” and here he sends a meaningful, entirely undecipherable, look towards his wife who…blushes? “Your room’s temporarily indisposed, the couch isn’t even an option—don’t give me that look, you barely fit on the thing—and the floor is gonna mess up your back worse than it is.”

“Oi!”

“So, our room it is.”

Right. Of course. Because that’s the obvious conclusions. How could he say no?

(Again, he can’t so he doesn’t)

It’s twenty minutes later, after Harry’s been put to bed, thoroughly kissed by his parents and godfather, after James is done with his nighttime turmeric milk and Lily’s put her hair up into braids and Sirius has taken out all his rings and chains and bracelets—that’s when he’s stumped by yet another problem.

How, exactly, are they going to sleep in one bed?

“We’re just going to expand it a little, Pads, don’t worry,” James says, supremely unconcerned.

He goggles at that, staring at the casual wand work. A part of him wonders why this is the extent of magic they’re using to solve this problem—James can conjure a bed Silenced, with his eyes closed—but promptly decides to not dwell on that for everyone’s sake.

[starrysmiling]

[fic] impressions, memories, and all else that is engraved within the heart

"We didn't know each other for very long, but he left a lasting impression."

G-rated | 7.5k words | posted 30/12/2024 | for ephemer week!

ephemer & player | major cameos: skuld, brain, lauriam

missing scenes, 5+1, features keykid shenanigans!

read here

[wisteriagoesvroom]

uhhhh does anyone want a tag when the lando gets railed in a dress by ojp fic goes up? (feel free to dm or comment if so)

i talked about it here before and it only took me like 7 months to write it but. we ball

[pfhwrittes]

[landfilloftrash]

Blood in the Water (part 1 )

***

The blood pounded through her head like a gong. It raced like an exhausted hound, hurt like a bell rung far too many times; it was painful to think or consider anything outside of her radius of boiling rage and desire to destroy.

Calypso yielded. And the image of Abaddon yielding in their fight in her Church, and in that wasteland, that place that could become their world, with the same wide-eyed grimace— a tired, bloodied countenance was such a clear resemblance in her mind that her grip quite nearly faltered on her weapon. It was clearly the same for the vulture himself as he paused in his own attack like someone had frozen time, and then lowered his own weapons of choice and backed-off slowly. 

The silence was so incredibly loud.

But in that silence, they all turned to look towards her.

She did not want to be merciful. It wanted to be kind. She wanted this woman to face retribution for the severity of what she did to its friends. It didn’t want to kill her. She wanted her to learn from this experience of foul deeds and turn a new leaf for the better.

Enososin looked at the bleeding and dying face of a Goddess, brought low by Hades and her crew, and chose the best mercy it could provide; Not personally removing Calypso̸̜͒’s head from her shoulders like Eno’s heart screamed for.

The Blood Cleric was not in the right headspace to condemn anyone; so it bowed towards the crew, and let them choose Calypso’s fate. That was truly as much mercy she could personally provide right now without breaking friend and foes’ eardrums in the process. 

She would face the consequences of whatever choice that would be made. 

But not right now. 

Not like this.

Instead, she marched into the still pouring, but lessening, rain— the dark of the night deepened by the lack of stars burning high over head— with her head held high; determinedly as she made her way to the treeline, and once underneath the trees’ cover of the slowly stopping rain, she removed the hat that sparked the timber of her ember’d heart into a raging inferno—

And just like that, the forest fire was once more banked into a simple campfire; it was manageable again.

She stood there, almost blankly staring into the stormy seas, lightly holding the hat near its chest. Calming, ever so slowly; a tempest could be brewed in a moment, but the settling of the seas— that powerful force— took a mite longer with its size. Ever so briefly though, she felt a feeling of flowing relief at the mere sight of the Red Dragon in her disguised form as the Ad Astra on the seas in the cove. It was about to start moving towards Her, before reality truly hit her.

The cleric should be far more invested in what happened to that woman right now, instead of listlessly standing outside trying to assemble coherent thoughts. She should be amongst them advocating for Calyp̵͇̓̿͜s̴̞͛o̸̜͒’s yielding and, in turn, her right to be spared. Because C̵̥̾̆͜ȁ̴̢̫̋l̶̳̥̚͝ÿ̴̫͖́p̵͇̓̿͜s̴̞͛o̸̜͒  was being judged by her cohorts right now; it was being decided whether or not they were going to kill a Goddess, for brainwashing Kallstrom and Ulysses, for making them fight and hurt each other to get their mental states back to rights, and then turning one of the crew into her dinner.

God.

Oh, God.

She barely refrained from bursting into frazzled tears at the mere thought.

Even for that small amount of time for her, maybe six to ten minutes in total— not nearly as long as it felt in that stretch of time that made every second tick by like hours— Abaddon was dead a mere fifteen feet in front of her. 

No, not even just dead, because that was far too kind a word– vivisected– gutted open like a damned fish— cooked like a common meat, and presented perversely on a plate by a lying Goddess with too damn little to do other than torment whomever it was on her island.

Claim her too soft, too much of a bleeding heart, claim it too trusting, too naïve, too stubborn, claim her anything of the sort— but she had made a promise to him. A promise, to Abaddon, someone it truly wished to be able to call a friend, to protect him from whatever would come his way and hurt him. 

And she had been staring at his body cooked to eat.

She wanted to start screaming. Scream until its throat bled and scream some more. She wanted to fall to her knees in relief and praise God and every god that would listen to a blood clerics' prayers. It wanted to start sobbing until her eyes fell out of her skull. Instead she leaned heavily against the tree next to her.

Her head hurt.

After a couple more seconds of letting her mind fray, she drew the barest scraps of will that she had to assemble coherent thoughts once more– which finally got her moving enough to put her hat once more into its robes before once more hugging herself in a self soothing way.

She was barely even scratched— that beam of magical energy directed at it doing more to rile her rather than truly hurt— but gods. She felt like it had been through a rigorous bout with the entirety of her former class against her; mental energies scattered like mice at the sound of a prowling housecat, and her physical body trembling with energy itching to be used in a destructive manner.

It purposefully closed her eyes and clutched at her crucifix settled on her breastbone beneath its layers.

‘Thank God,’ was a simple refrain, and it was repeated on loop in her head. ‘Thank God, thank God, thank God.’

As she reopened her eyes she breathed out slowly. Everything was ok. It was ok. Everyone was alive. No need to have any sort of breakdown. It was alright.

“Hgh,” it complained to the open sea and sky.

Before much could be done or said to either of the mirrors; A flash of something different entered her periphery as she stood there, and caught its attention— turning its head questioningly in apprehension. 

A tall, paleish-dark, robed, prosthetic limbed bearded vulture of an Aarakocran had exited the cave looking vaguely thoughtful, and she felt her chest tighten in relief.

Abaddon.

All thoughts were tossed out into the sea as she hiked up her robe a smidgen, and sprinted over at full tilt— tackling him full force into as gentle a hug as she could manage with all that was happening, using her wings to catch them both to stop them from crashing into the earth.

Thank God. “AGHK,” she heard squawked out from within its grip, “MY ʙᴏɴᴇs. ᵀᴴᴱʸ’ᴿᴱ ᴿᴱᶠᴼᴿᴹᴵᴺᴳ.”

Oh shit. It let go like she had been burnt and raised its hands in apology, backing up ever so slightly to give the poor man some room, “Sorry! Sorry!”

Good job Eno, just– absolutely destroy the man’s rib cage. And spine. Perhaps the scapula for good measure?? Not like he needs them anyways, by the heavens. She sighed in amused resignation as she continued her tiny internal tirade. Not everyone can withstand the full force of that sort of affection like your father can, their bones will crack; you have to remember that.

He exhaled and rubbed at his chest, eyeing her with incredulous amusement. “Good lord, woman.”

Enososin gently waved its hands in a slight jazz hands movement as she continued to display her apologies for a couple more seconds, despite its smile at the fact he didn’t seem to hold it against it.

Letting its hands fall to her side was a mistake however, seeing as it felt the extreme need to fidget with something, and her robe and cloak were the only things within grabbing range; she was very aware that the movement made it look like a scolded school child, so it simply bore the rising urge with a sense of discomfort as she waited for the other man to set the tone for the conversation.

“I am going to go rest, somewhere;” Abaddon continued after a moment, peering around the island’s beach and off into the trees. “I highly doubt there are any more possessive goddesses on this island?”

If there was, Enososin was simply going to deign this island cursed for any who decide to step foot on these sands. That was simply too much for one island. Save some for the rest of your fellow landmasses. 

But that wasn’t the reason her voice was stuck in its throat for a second longer than it had.

Taking a brief second longer to viciously pull her voice back from the depths, it gestured amicably towards the Red Dragon, resting in the bay. “I would recommend getting on board, at the very least.”

Abaddon took a moment, head shifting ever so slightly as he peered at the ship with consideration. “In honesty,” he clacked, with an amused eye flick back towards her, “despite the current… dislike, I have for this place, being on land is quite nice.” She chuckled in acknowledgment and nodded in agreement. As much as it was discontented with the island, and missed the now comforting onomatopoeic boards that spoke to Her crew in the only way She could, it was very nice to have firm ground that reminded her that it was not all tossing waves under her claws. “That is– That is honestly fair.”

“Besides,” he waved off, “your ship does not enjoy my presence.”

A small chitter in disagreement. “I don’t think she enjoys….” 

She paused ever so briefly as it tactfully tried not to say, ‘people of factions that have probably frequently gone against Her and tried to destroy Her on many occasions. Especially considering Her reaction to the naval officers and the decorations Kallstrom strung up.’ 

“...Many presences.” She finished succinctly.

“Me and Kallstrom.”

She hissed out another quiet laugh. “To not to put too fine a point on it, in regards to our current company but… regardless…”

The silence settled once more like a soft blanket within the night. It was broken again by Abaddon reaching over and patting her on the shoulder and letting it lay there for a moment. “Get some rest.”

The cheek of this man. She grumbled softly. “You first.”

“No– I’m ol– I’m the eldest,” he gestured with his removed hand, pointing like he was giving a lecture, “I have to keep watch.” Closing her eyes for a brief moment to refrain from either giving him an absolutely incredulous look or start giggling uncontrollably, Enososin had to truly gape at the gall of the man to use the ‘I’m the eldest’ card. Of all things. Saying that while there was a vampire, and a sentient ship with the soul of a dragon was such a bold-faced statement that she couldn’t help it. The sheer cheek involved in the statement nearly had her in a giggling fit by itself.

“You went through more than us today,” she asserted as it reopened its eyes with a more serious set to her face, feathers fluttering slightly as she shook off the remnants of the hysteria threatening to overflow, “I think you need rest first.”

“All I did was die,” he protested, “I got plenty of rest.”

Her voice was a little shaky as she gave him a slightly incredulous look. Surely, he saw the dichotomy of those two statements, at least from its point of view? “My point exactly.” 

“It wasn’t that bad actually,” he started, and then backtracked with a small shake of his head. “I mean. The whole being murdered part wasn’t all that great,” he joked, a couple of raised blinks and tilt of the head belying the severity of it. 

(“That was.. The most pain I’ve felt in a long time..”)

“But, the underworld was nicer than I expected. Everyone expects eternal flaming damnation but no, it was…” he paused, the introspection back in full force, “cold… dark… And.. spacious. Like a cavern, but without..” He squinted in deliberation. “Echo? ..Hard to describe.” “Without the acoustics,” she quietly joked.

“Yes,” he mused, a small look of amusement stealing across his face before he continued quite seriously. “I remember facing judgment, and then I was going to go somewhere… I can’t remember where… Right as they were about to pass their final decision, I got pulled back.”

“Mm,” she hummed, tapping her claws on her beak gently in thought— connecting the two timelines together in her mind. That made sense. He was gone for far longer than the others, and with how much time had passed between the initial claim, and… and their refinding of him, it would track that a judgment would have been able to be called.

It wasn’t going to ask. He said he didn’t remember, then he didn't remember. Besides, this sounded more like a court hearing to decide where the soul went rather than the actual true afterlife; a familiar system, at the very least.

But she couldn’t deny that she was curious as to what judgment had been about to be made.

He sighed again, once more looking quietly thoughtful. And maybe even a bit wry as he hummed, “I suppose I owe Hades a thank you.”

Oh yes, that did remind her; someone should tell him. “That– yes, him and Soleil, actually.” The silence that fell was brief, but it was thick in the disbelief that was directed at her in a singular look. “You’re telling me that she, the one who has threatened me from day fucking one, was the one who wanted me back?” She nodded; minutely but earnestly. 

“I came back– inside..” its eyes flicked upwards towards the heavens, having spotted them pop back into existence earlier, but not having the wherewithal to truly see them. They were also fine; back where they belonged. “When the stars went out, all at once.”

The man blinked down at her in surprise and turned his own gaze to the stars for a moment, as if expecting them to nod in agreement– and with how stars were, it wouldn’t doubt the contrariness of them to do just that, for some inexplicable reason. 

“Hhuh…” he breathed, head tilting in curiosity, clearly working something through. “How strange.”

Eno patiently waited a few moments for him to collect his thoughts before prompting. “How so?” she hoo’d at him in interest.

“Well,” he began, another look of amusement crossing his face and tone, but a touch more grim within the gallows of it, “I wonder if she did it for you or for me.”

. . . Ah. 

(Soleil’s eyes on her as it excused itself from the cave, mind a jumble of horror and sorrow; refusing to let the Goddess see that.)

It had not thought.. 

Truly, the thought had never really crossed its mind that it might’ve been for her. In its own mind, it was a bit difficult to think of anyone trying to do that for her— the revivification of an entire person, someone the others clearly didn’t put full trust into. Something she completely understood, but didn’t choose to subscribe to. 

But… 

It was out of her mouth before her brain had a moment to catch up to it all.

“Can it not be both?” Another silence. Even shorter than the last but no less thick with the refusal to suspend disbelief at her quietly prodding tone. “It is almost never both. Don’t tell me you’re that naïve.”

She let out a bit of a strangled laugh at the question, but let it taper off gently. It was either that or cry, to be honest, and laughter was far easier in her experiences. Ohh, how many times was she going to hear that in her life? It had encountered the phrase at least twice today, and it was not interested in counting the times it had been quietly hurt by the refusal of her fellows to see the world as something to make kinder. 

“I’m not–” she chuckled into the break, shaking her head a bit ruefully, “‘that naïve’, as you say, but I am that hopeful.” It tucked its hands into her robes and gripped at its arms, digging her claws through feathers, hiding the gesture within the fabric as she continued softly. “I think there’s… I think there’s enough of a difference between the two, that I can make that assertion.”

That being said, Enososin let her head wander, because she would be lying if it didn't say that the thought hadn’t crossed her own mind. The cleric was aware that it did possess naïvete, but that often tied in well with encountering new situations; it learned as it went, and it did actually learn the stakes of it all rather quickly, even if it was blindsiding. Being naïve was about not having that wisdom, knowledge, or experience; walking into things blind. Some people kept themselves that way. Hope, on the other hand, was the opposite face, but the same coin; it was having that knowledge and experience to know something was horrible, and walking in anyways. Hope was a damnable thing, something with teeth and claws that snarled and refused being kicked down for long. 

It was a dandelion growing from between bricks in a wall.

“..Why aren’t you the captain?”

She burst out in a startled trill of laughter– it felt far more genuine this time, easing her chest as it bubbled out. It was such a hard left from the conversation at hand, but she could see the etchings of the directions his thoughts took as she giggled a bit. “Uhm,” she chirped intelligently, “As much as I would, maybe? Take the wheel— especially if asked of me, I — would rather not step on anyone’s toes in regards to… specifically taking authority.”

Her eyes instinctively flickered to the cave behind Abaddon with apprehension. She didn’t believe that either of the Naval Admirals would do anything to harm her if she decided to take up the actual mantle, but it was far easier in the long run for her to advise and caution from beside someone than taking charge and inciting possible reasons for severe discontent. 

Eno would honestly prefer if they all had an equal say in what they as a crew were to do, and not just rely on a singular person to command. Rubbed her the wrong way. Which was exactly why she could never be a part of any military.

“I am a priest. Not a–” she gestured a bit insouciantly, “not a naval captain.”

“Neither is Ulysses,” the cultist countered, “yet he still drives the ship well all the same.”

“I do remember him mentioning he was an actual captain at one point,” she gently mused conversely.

Abaddon shook his head. “Becoming a captain is of no ceremony, truly, it doesn’t matter what..” he paused momentarily and considered, before gesturing flippantly, “It doesn’t matter what faction you lie under. What matters is that you can.. lead folk. And despite Gaura’s efforts, you’re the one keeping us all alive and in line.”

My ability to keep the peace between people truly not so different from one another didn’t stop you from being killed, dearheart.

There was a momentary flash of something on his face, too fast for her to truly register or recognize, before he continued resolutely. “Do you see what it is you are holding on your back?”

With a couple surprised blinks at the turn in questioning, she instinctively turned her head to look behind her back, despite knowing exactly what was attached to the place in between her wings.

What she knew to warm her hands like a cup of sunshine, and gleamed in the night with its swirls and designs, was a hammer that belonged to a man she trusted more than life itself.

“That is the hammer of Saint Rollo,” he asserted, “That thing has killed hundreds of my fellows. And even more vampires.”

Papa…

The fact that she didn’t have to censor its own thoughts about the fact that man was absolutely her Father did funny things to the small child that lived in her heart. Presently, she hoped he was safe; sound. Cared for. She’d also pray for happiness, but even she knew when it was pressing its luck in certain departments, so she’d settle for being content at the very least. But even all of that didn’t set aside the ever-present worry for him that had only ever gotten stronger as it got older. 

Especially as of late. 

But firstly, it had faith, and it knew that its father could damn well handle himself if put into any sort of tight spot. Letting its hand slide through its tucked wings and gently gripping the hammer in assurance had a small inaudible chime zip through her before settling once more into a soft little hum. For a weapon, it certainly had a warm tone in her hold, making her eyes crinkle a little in delight; contrary usage of terms always did. 

It might also be the hysteria from the entire day speaking, but she thought it rather funny that upon being presented with a bloodied fact about the actions of the Father, her first thoughts turned to hoping her papa was safe and well. 

“That weapon has never belonged to someone on the sideline,” Abaddon continued, pulling her from its fondness, “It never belonged to someone who isn’t capable of wielding it. And in order to be capable you have to be responsible.” “You are both of those things.”

“..I damn well try to be.” She exhaled quietly. 

Being responsible wasn’t the hard part; it was balancing responsibility with her morals that truly made her stumble. After all, what would she do if she was eventually forced to deal with someone unwilling to talk, and dead set on hurting those she swore in its heart to protect? Someone that even on death’s door would be willing to get themselves killed to take the world down with them? 

Those sorts of questions had often dogged her tail feathers, simply by being a question that she might have to deal with as a blood cleric, but now their fangs were far sharper in the light of recent events.

She never had been as fond of wolves as much as her fellows.

Abaddon’s next words echoed her quietness. “..You do well.”

It decided that arguing that point was rather moot, since he seemed convinced of it in his words. Or at least acted like it. Either way, it knew when to concede as she lost an argument. “..Next time..” it muttered, shaking its head before looking him in the eye, pointedly. “Go with a buddy, would you?”

“I was simply scouting for food,” he complained, tilting his head at her. “Buddy system.” “Buddy system is a great way to have betrayal.” He countered wryly.

“It is also a good way for someone to report back,” she emphasized with a pointed clack, “whether you are hurt or incapacitated.”

He made a small noise of discontented disagreement, but nothing aloud. 

She just continued looking at him.

And then he huffed. “Fine. Maybe. We’ll see.”

A smile stole her eyes as it breathed out in a chirr. “I very much appreciate it.”

It sighed out another breath to try and exercise the remaining anxieties out of its system. But they remained, stubborn as herself, and it gave in to the urge to ask one more pertinent question lingering on her tongue. “Other than that… you are.. Alright?”

There was a considering pause. The conversation had been full of them, but this one felt heavier to her. He reached and felt at the new, bright streak of feathers on his chest. “...I don’t know,” he confessed, “But… my heart doesn’t ache.”

“Oh,” she quietly hoo’d in surprise. Eno remembered him mentioning that the arm he wore was connected to his heart in a way to be able to use magic. It was quite fascinating, to be honest. To learn that it had been putting undue stress on the organ shouldn’t have been the surprise it was, to be honest, but it still blind sided her; just a smidgen. “That is a bonus then.”

A bonus from an entire resurrection of body and soul could not provide everything, however. “But.. if you.. Do need anything..” she looked up from the white streak, “Don’t wait until it gets worse. Ok?”

“If I were to do that.. If I were to wait…” he looked away. 

“Things would go wrong.”

The dread that statement brought her did nothing to ease the need to toss a medkit at him. Miss Mara, the insane amount of mother henning you have instilled into me. Stamping on the pressing desire to wrap the entire crew in multiple shielded layerings, she tilted her head in acknowledgement as it worked around the need to mother hen as best it could. “Then we’ll keep an eye on it.”

He groaned– the sass that had been missing for most of the conversation returning with blazing force, rolling both eyes and head as he snapped; “Stop fussing over me!”

“I’m allowed to fuss!” she laughed, nearly indignantly at the presumption she wouldn’t.

“Go!” he pointed before gesturing dramatically to the cave, “To your crew! I am fine. I promise.”

Enososin could only outwardly roll her head in mimicry of rolling her eyes in response to his drama, but internally she conceded the fact that it had been quite pushy, he was a grown adult who had been dealing with it for most of his life, and it would be for the best to back off. 

It was simply a matter of trust. 

“Alright,” she sighed, verbally giving ground with an amused dip of her head.

Before it completely walked off, it gently grabbed one of Abaddon’s hands and squeezed gently— passing him as she did, so it was only a brief press—but before she was able to drop it and give the man his space, he gave it a squeeze back. She could only smile to the ground as she headed back to the cave.

He hadn’t needed to do that. That had been kind.

As she once more approached the cavern she caught the tail ends of Kallstrom describing some sort of bomb– she couldn’t quite tell from the ricochetting echo, messing with each other— and instead ran into Ulysses at the entrance.

Straight into an extremely disgruntled Ulysses, nonetheless. “Kallstrom is making lewd remarks about the bullet in my gut.”

The what. “The what?”

“Oh—!” He seemed genuinely surprised at her startled question as he backed up back into the cave with her; “Were you not told that he shot me?”

She turned her head towards an unphased Kallstrom— or more accurately, a very well masked Navy Admiral. “You shot him??”

“Uhm,” without giving the tiefling much time to respond for himself, Ulysses seemed very intent on clearing up the situation, “Well, yes he did, back when I got fried to a crisp.”

“Ok wait–” She sputtered. Fried to a crisp. Right. Yes. Before their.. It wasn’t even fair to call it a fight, but their ‘fight’ with the Goddess, she had healed the group of a series of injuries. Including but not limited to a rather severe pattern of burns upon a few of them. “Yes I saw that— I saw that part— I didn’t— It did not process that you got shot in the gut??”

“I also had not processed that I had been shot in the gut,” he commisserated, while the rest of the cave was seized by a fit of giggling.

What. “How do you not process you getting shot in the gut?”

“Well,” he gestured, to himself and his singed clothing, “I was more processing that I got turned into a human marshmallow.”

“It was also given by a good shot,” chimed the very smug tiefling. Suddenly everyone’s voices started clamoring for attention; All noises were quickly becoming overlapping as the cave echoed and caused several different versions of conversations around it to enter its ear.

“Oookay,” she soothed, smoothing her clothes for a brief moment and peered at Ulysses critically; “Is it—?” She looked around his back at his shirt and vest. No hole.

That’s a problem. It tried not to say as much. “Okay.” Ulysses seemed to catch the tone of her voice pretty well, however, because he quickly fell into a ramble; “I was not sure if your magic would just automatically remove the bullet–?”

“That’s not how that works,” she cut off with slight distress.

Kallstrom spun with a victorious light in his eyes towards Ulysses; teeth bared in a semblance of a grin. “I FUCKING TOLD YOU!”

“I don’t know??” Ulysses cried, both to her, the laughing admiral, and the distressed party members, “I don’t know about healing magic, Eno, I’m not the cleric!”

Janglin made a silly show of mimicking Ulysses with one of his many voices. “I don’t know how this magic stuff works!?”

“That’s– It’s fine, I’m just–?” Honestly she couldn’t fault him, but even she felt like this would be more of an unspoken knowledge? Magic wasn’t a cure-all, after all. Nonetheless, she went for reassurance. “Ok; here’s the quick rundown on how healing magic works. It heals the wounds– whatever it may be— but it does not remove-? If you have a projectile in there it does not remove that; I know this because I have personal experience with this!”

Getting pieces of glass lodged in one’s sides, feet, and hands and then using the little healing magic you and the frightened peers know so no one would notice ended up with crying in pain for the next couple of weeks. Not healthy in the slightest.

“So you healed the wound around the bullet?”

“Yes! You have a bullet in your gut now.” Her voice got higher pitched as she considered her options. “Do you want me to remove that??”

“Don’t worry,” Kallstrom chimed in showmanly, tail swishing in clear amusement, “you’re undead!; you can’t get lead poisoning!”

“This is true?” she hedged, but at the sight of Ulysses ears flattening she quickly continued with her questioning, “But? Would you– for the sake— do you want that out?”

“Kallstrom,” he lamented, distress mounting, “I would rather not have a bullet in my gut?! I feel like that would cause problems later on down the line?”

“Thinkin’ ‘bout the long term here guys!” Janglin chimed with an unrecognizable nervous man’s voice as a series of feminine giggles were attempted to be stifled. 

“I have plenty of bullets in me!” Kallstrom protested. As if that was literally any better.

Dear God in Heaven. “Do you want those out???”

“Well,” Ulysses continued, locked into banter with the admiral, “that is because you are a freak, Kallstrom.”

“No, I've been shot about–?” His head tilted ever so slightly sideways as he looked to the ceiling in remembrance for a brief second; “Sixteen times! I’m fine.”

“I don’t think I’ve been shot before and I don’t think I’m about to start now.” Soleil hummed, her eyebrows raised ever so slightly at the back and forth between the two men.

“Would you like to?” came the weirdly earnest, but quiet question from Kallstrom as voices bounced off each other.

“No thank you.” Soleil replied, voice nor face showing an ounce of perturbation. Eno didn’t know if that was because the woman found him quite interesting (obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t still be standing here) or was very good at masking it. Probably a bit of both.

But with all of that came a very quiet realization as she muttered to itself. “Oh. Is part of his insanity lead poisoning?”

“That could possibly be it, that would explain it.” Ulysses muttered back as she heard Soleil stifle a snorted laugh. “Would explain a lot, actually,” Janglin nodded. This cave’s acoustics were a lot more powerful than she realized. 

“I assure you I have no such thing as lead poisoning,” Kallstrom confirmed the power of the echo with a wave of his hand. Then he pointed in consideration to his last comment. “Now. Addiction to opium; That one we cannot rule out.”

“Either way,” Ulysses shook his head over a chorus of aborted laughter, “I think you need help in some way shape or form.”

“Tell that to my therapist,”  Kallstrom snorted derisively.

“You have a therapist???”

“One,” it chimed, trying to drag the conversation back to the original topic as another uncontained combination of a snort and a laugh came from Janglin, “do either of you want the bullets out of your guts? Two—” “Yes I would like the bullet out of my gut!!” Ulysses crowed, spinning on heel to once more face her.

“Ok–!” it laughed at the immediate response. Gods, it was always the silly ones.

“Are you sure?” Kallstrom asked, sidling closer; the sharpness of his grin belying the concerned tone, “It’s a permanent memento!” “I would not like to have any metal balls inside of me.”

There was a brief, extraordinarily poignant silence as Kallstrom’s mouth started twitching violently. “Heh hheh. Heh, heheh, hrhehhaeheh.” 

“No— no,” Ulysses denied to the sound of Kallstrom’s continued laughing, that in less than a moment had descended into mad cackles, joined by a familiar bloodhunter’s chortles, “you’ve been around Pepper for far too long.”

“The five days we’ve been together have not been long enough for that,” she chirruped in amusement. 'More than likely the Navy, or he simply had that sense of humor', it thought.

“That’s what she said! That’s what she said!” Janglin cawed in delighted laughter.

“I was like this long before Pepper, boy,” Kallstrom grinned derisively. He tilted his head and struck a slightly contrapposto pose as he crossed his arms in amusement; “I grew up in the Navy! You think I’m not a damn sailor~?”

“No wonder you’re so fruity,” Pepper teased, chuckling behind their hand with a twinkle of mischief in their eyes.

Kallstrom looked over towards Pepper, looking vaguely amused as he was resigned about what he was about to say next. “I’ve seen a man thirst over an octopus,” he deadpanned.

“That. Was not something we needed to know.” Ulysses’ ears tilted downwards as his face morphed into one of disgusted appallment.

A brief moment of consideration. “Not the worst thing to thirst over.” 

“Pepper!”

“No, definitely not the worst choice in the sea, to be honest,” it nodded in agreement.  “Eno!!” She heard Kallstrom mutter to himself as everyone began to agree with the man’s choice of sea-lust; “I think he got married to that octopus.”

Soleil chimed in helpfully; “They are very good conversationalists!” 

“Oh, good heavens.”

“I think he died a year later.”

“Well, at least he died doing something he loved,” Pepper muttered with an amused eyebrow raised back.

“I’m going back to the ship.”

Ulysses, upon this solid declaration, turned upon booted heel and started to speed walk straight out of the cave. There was a brief murmur of conversation as they all collectively watched him march directly into the ocean, ignoring any sort of attempt at floating or trying to swim, and disappearing without a bubble beneath the waves.

“I don’t think that’s going to help with the bullet problem he has,” Soleil mused, her fins twitching. 

“It wasn’t that serious,” Pepper agreed with mirth. 

“I assure you all! He’ll be fine,” Kallstrom waved off. “Vampires are notoriously hardy. Despite poignant weaknesses.”

‘Thank you, Sunshine, for shedding some light on that’, it teased within, and light-heartedly sighed outward. 

“I do think he’s got the correct idea though,” Pepper gestured. “It is rather late. And it has been… quite a day.”

“A day! A day! A hurting day!” came an amalgamation of voices from their resident sun parakeet Kenku— who upon her closer inspection, looked rather rough despite staying near the back in the brief bashing.

“Oh dear,” she murmured, and let the dregs of magic still held in her chest spread out of her hands as she began to heal the group with special attention to the man’s bleeding leg. “Do remind me to teach you a healing spell or two, won’t you Janglin?”

He beamed up at her with a nod and quick push and pull of his accordion. At least someone was absolutely unbothered by the events of today.

“I am rather tired,” Soleil mumbled, sounding a cross between simply exhausted and done with the shenanigans of today. 

“Well, then at the risk of sounding quite demanding;” it sighed, unfolding herself from its crouched position by Janglin, “may we please leave this damnable cave.”

Kallstrom eyed her from beside Janglin and nodded; sauntering out with an eye out on the waves— paving the way for the meandering lot of them to tiredly pad along to.

Letting herself get pulled along to the gravitational pull of the crew, it let itself turn off a few brain functions. Ough. It rubbed its face a bit tiredly. Her head still bothered it. But was it the emotions of today or was it something else?

Realizing they were coming to a stop, she pulled her attention back to the conversation at hand, and realized she’d missed a couple things.

“..think you can just get me to go in there with you, you are incredibly incorrect,” Kallstrom hissed.

“A shame,” Soleil shrugged with aplomb, part way into the water and clearly no threat taken from his fiery tone, “I hadn’t realized you were too scared to be beaten by a pirate.”

His eye very visibly twitched. Ah. She meant to provoke him into a race, by the way he was suddenly shucking off his coat and weapons; things that would drag him down. Well, it would be entertaining to see.

“Well,” he bared his teeth in another mimicry of a smile, “I would never turn down the opportunity to knock you pirates down a peg leg or two.”

“Would you like me to give those back to you on the ship?” Eno questioned, gesturing at the man’s affects as he began to approach the water.

“Yes, yes, of course,” the man absentmindedly agreed; he was lost in the challenge already. “Don’t lose them.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” it mused and backed off as the sea rushed to meet boot and feather alike.

“Squire!” Kallstrom barked, marching calf deep into the sea foam to stand alongside Soleil, “Give us our mark.”

Janglin looked around–  realized he was the squire, and then looked back up towards her, feathers flattened in confusion.

“He means for you to give them the countdown and then ‘go’,” she whispered, causing Pepper’s hand to fly to their mouth in an attempt to smother a laugh.

Janglin nodded with slight hesitancy and began counting. “One, two, three, four, five..”

Oh dear. Both Soleil and Kallstrom turned their heads towards Janglin in anticipation. Eno couldn’t refrain a small chuckle and quickly bent back down towards Janglin as he continued counting. “Janglin, I think he meant for you to say ‘go’ after three. Say it after ten instead.” 

Janglin’s eyes widened in understanding and he nodded in determination– for what reason, she didn’t know, but she let the fired up Kenku take the lead; “..nine, ten; GO!”

And both tiefling and sea elf dove into the froth of the water with breakneck speed.

“Go Sol!” Pepper cheered.

For the first 30 yards there was a clear lead— Sol only very briefly holding that until Kallstrom had gotten his momentum; the next 50 were absolutely astounding as Kallstrom fiercely kept up with Soleil’s natural grace in the sea.

What happened next was equally if not more astonishing as the tiefling began to speed up. How? Well, Kallstrom let out something that was simultaneously a war cry and a scream she could only guess at classifying, before fire burst from his feet and hair— propelling him forward those last few dozen feet ahead of Soleil like a cannonball launched from a ship— and then slammed into the side of the ship with an audible thud, even to normal ears, if Pepper’s startled lean back was anything to go by.

He then started clambering up the side of the ship like the sirens had only a day prior with a clearly bewildered and fascinated Soleil swimming closely on his heels.

With its hand over her mouth Enososin continued to be and more baffled by this odd tiefling. The heavy pull at the corners of its mouth told her that she’d like to continue seeing the insanity in action, though.

“That!” she laughed, “Was not something tieflings normally do.”

Pepper just looked up at her briefly with a wild look in their eye. “Absolutely not.”

“Think we should join them now?”

“Well,” Pepper shrugged, gesturing in disbelief at Kallstrom flopped up on the ship, “we have our winner! I don’t see why not!”

The owlin laughed and then realized something as it turned its head down to Janglin. “Do you need assistance, by the by, Janglin?”

“Oh!” Pepper realized, turning to the Kenku, “That’s right. Eno’s got a hold on those weapons right now. But I could carry you if you need a wing or four.”

Janglin looked between them both and signed a <<Thank you>> and then shook his head. With a cry of a word, the cloak he wore shifted into wings and lifted himself up into the air with a playfully twist. “Ah!” Eno mused, clipping the weapons to herself as to not drop them; “He’s got it covered then.”

“Should’ve guessed,” Pepper grinned, spreading their own wings and flapping up to hover beneath the Kenku, “Bards always have something up their sleeve.”

“Indeed,” she hummed, unfurling her wings with a small pop in her back muscles, “Now, I apologize to cut and run, but I have some weapons to return.”

With an easy push with her wings, she quickly zipped across the short oceanic distance between the beach and the ship, leaving the mothkin and Kenku trailing after her draft, and paused by a tired looking Soleil; still in the water.

“Would you like a hand up, my dear?”

Soleil looked up at her with a glassy sheen to her eyes and reached up with grabby hands; “Yes, please.”

Enososin could only chuckle in fondness a little bit. Going up to gain some momentum, she tilted herself downwards as she came back for Sol. Grabbing Soleil’s forearms, she tugged her full force out of the water with a small, ‘alley-oop!’’ before catching her in the air, arms wrapped securely around her, and held her as she flew a bit upwards and onto the deck of the ship. 

After setting Soleil down with a gentle slide, she peered at the rapidly drying Admiral and back at the incredibly amused Soleil. Nothing about the woman’s sleepy expression had changed, but her tail was swishing in wide, slow sweeps; restrained.

“Good race,” Soleil congratulated, brushing herself off, “Didn’t think you’d win, to be honest.” “Never..” he panted, “Challenge.. A Naval man… to something… he will not lose.”

“I’m honestly surprised you beat me,” Soleil hummed in place of simply ignoring his exhaustion, her tail swishing tiredly. “Even tired I usually can outswim a landlubber. Good job.”

“Landlubbing indeed,” he laughed out, “I have a preference of the sea to land.”

“No,” Soleil drew out, “I couldn’t tell.”

A short bark of laughter emerged from the slightly slumped man, and then the tiefling pushed himself off his knees with a swish of his own tail as he brought himself back to military-perfect attention; slicking his hair back into a vaguely tamed form of what it normally was. After she was sure he wouldn’t take her approaching as a sneak attack, it drifted over to him, unclipping the weapon belts off of her to return to Kallstrom. His eyes glinted as he snatched him back, and then a brief nod to her. 

‘Well, at least he wasn’t shooting her head off about it’, she chuffed a laugh at the thought and gave a small bow back.

Pepper landed on the deck with Janglin a brief couple seconds later, both bemused and checking on a water-logged Ulysses who loudly questioned the events that had just taken place. 

Letting herself drift slightly away from the main group, chattering and gently bantering— if definitely not quietly— and it was simply pleased to watch over them. The twisting knot of anxiety being lessened by the hundreds of thousands of stars above, once again twinkling merrily in the ink of the shifting sky; lighting up her world as one of the crew said something particularly egregious.

Tonight, Eno wouldn’t be able to go through the pantheons as it normally would in prayers, so she simply dipped her head and held her crucifix tenderly as it murmured small thanks for the time she’d been incapacitated and made it back onboard The Red Dragon.

There was another that she had enough energy to remember and sent a gentle thought in that direction as she reached into her pocket instead. ‘Thank you, Hades.’ She mentally whispered.

Prologue; One - Two - Three - Four

High Seas; It Begins - Something's Wrong- Blood in the Water pt. 1 (here!) - Blood in the Water pt. 2

[hertwood]

instead of a end of day total word count i'll give you something better

[romanaxe]

Quick little Freely We Serve update:

I'm still working on it! I normally post about a chapter a week, but this one's nearly double the length of a normal chapter and I'm not even halfway done writing it ^-^'

Please be patient with me lol

[airenyah]

You know, my day started really shitty and the weather is all gloomy, so I put all my hopes on a JD show in GMMTV p2. I was cautiously optimistic. So as soon as I got home, I checked Twitter and the first post I saw was Joong and Dunk kissing next a car. And I was like OMG!!!!! So I watched the trailer, and I actually squealed, because the concept is amazing and they are with FirstKhao (who GMMTV loves), so the script will also be great, and I feel like my whole day is made. (I actually had a stray thought about this leading up to part2, like if JD and FK get a series together, JD will finally be in a quality production. Maybe I should invest in lottery tickets 😂). I finally completely understood the etymology of the word 'fan', because I'm the "unfollow me right now" meme. I'm an adult with an actual job and I still squealed and flailed like Ongsa because JoongDunk finally get a chance to shine.

But, that's not everything. Because then I logged into Tumblr and I saw that you posted an essay about Dunk to my ask from last week, and now I'm close to tears with how overjoyed I am. Thank you very much for taking the time and writing this manifesto that I'll use as a guide to better understand performances in the future. I love you too, you made this day way better than it already was 💜

P. S. As for the DMs, maybe when I'm less shy 😅

anonnnnnn i'm sorry it took me so long to reply to your last ask!! but yeah, i think you see why and i'm glad it made your day even better 💗💗💗

edit bc i forgot to mention: take your time about dming me, the links won't run away 😌���

re: "I finally completely understood the etymology of the word 'fan', because I'm the "unfollow me right now" meme." I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING I LITERALLY MADE THIS POST THIS AFTERNOON:

so yeah, me too. me too. i too am that meme. i was already close to posting it hahahaha

as for the new JD show....

ok ok ok so i lucked out completely bc usually tuesday is my uni day but this week i don't have classes, so i was able to watch the entire stream live. and i was already mentally prepared for no JD bl again?? first of all because as i explain in my manifesto, i do want to see them in more solo projects (esp dunk bc out of all the series he's had or will have a major role in 3/4 are with joong which... as a fan i'm absolutely not complaining about but from an acting perspective it would be good for him to branch out)

and second of all, because i'd been talking and speculating with @moonkhao and a couple of days ago joong tweeted something about "this year i will get to play with that phi"?? and @moonkhao mentioned that win had recently followed joong and how it seemed like the two of them were gonna be in a series and we were all like "oh it's gonna be a het show for sure" (HA HA LOOK AT US NOW @moonkhao 🤡🤡🤡🤡) (ive never been more happy to be wrong tho fjkdfkkjdsg)

anyway so i went into the stream fully prepared for them to be in solo het-projects, right?? and when the trailer came on, in the very first shot it's joong and khao, right? but i totally didn't notice joong at first, bc i was too distracted by khao and the fact that first appeared right after and i was all "oh that's gotta be the rumored p'jojo FK mafia show"

and then joong appeared and i finally saw him and i went JOONG??????????

my eyes went big and my jaw dropped on the ground and my head was spinning with thoughts all "is joong gonna be just a side character in this?? or will dunk be there too?? holy shit what is happening????"

AND THEN DUNK CAME ON AND BY THIS POINT, IN ADDITION TO SITTING THERE WITH MY EYES AND MY MOUTH WIDE OPEN I ENDED UP SLAPPING MY HANDS ON MY MOUTH TRYING NOT TO SCREAM AND I WATCHED THE REST OF THE TRAILER AS WELL AS THE PRESENTATION/INTERVIEW AFTERWARDS LIKE THAT

i was literally shaking oh my god dfjkjdfkjdfkjdfjkdsjk

anyway. i'm not gonna be normal about this thanks

[dabisbratz]

s’a long weekend so the sho fic will definitely be out !!

[hballegro]

chapter 8. the biggie. part 1.

it is now i reveal a terrible secret to you all;

you can ctrl+f this chapter and compare it to If-- by Rudyard Kipling. and you will find that every god damn word in that stupid poem appears at least once. there are also a few paraphrased lines in there that you might notice.

WHY???

[i am very bad when it comes to gaging ppl's knowledge of poems i think everyone already knows, so yeah, the poem they're sharing is If- by Rudyard Kipling. easy for me to recognize personally because my mom memorized it all in school and would say it to me sometimes]

this process included me writing the whole thing out by hand, ctrl + f for all of the words, highlighting the ones that i had yet to use, and then keeping the list next to me while editing the first draft

and if you didnt notice this fact at all. that means i did a GOOD JOB!! cause its SUPPOSED TO BLEND IN SEAMLESSLY!!

yknow. its the moment hawkeye fell head-over-heels. and bj too, maybe. so ofc i had to include it in the chapter where they finally Kiss. they havent worked it all out yet yeah but. cmon. i cant just not. my options were to either have one of them reference it directly [im bad at that, and would be ham-fisted], or do this insane strat. and i picked the worst option. fuckin Knaves i hate you rudyard kipling for this and other reasons

also; shouted out in the ao3 endnotes but ill do it here to all sneaky-like, shout out to serpercival for both motivating me to put trapper in this chapter via loving the guy a lot and for letting me use their marvelous brain to pick out some subtle nods to Trapper John MD. i dont wanna @ people but hehe i can still link their page >:]

anyway: the painting peg talks abt being erin's favourite is California Spring, as she says, and here it is

folks i can finally use this meme i made back before i even finished chapter 4

shoutout to this video for being great to have in the bg underneath my sad love music to really set the scene. Loon moment

if you liked how papa Daniel Pierce acted in this, good! hes based off my childhood best friend's mom! she was very intimidating and always had this serious look on her face but the very first time i went over to their house she went 'psst. [best friend]. hball. come over here my husband is gonna come up the stairs and you should jump out and scare him' within the first 20 minutes!!

so basically hes stern/serious/intimidating [formal letters, the kind of man to not want to worry his son, idk just feels right] but goofy as shit and its all a facade [had hawkeye so he gotta be a lil silly, dinner table talk in Sons and Bowlers]

if you liked how i described hawkeye's childhood home GOOD!! i was describing my grandmother's house the whole time and you didnt even know. that ugly sofa is a thing my grandpa did. get pranked. always draw on experience when possible folks

i plan to have the next chapter out two days from now. THREE at the LATEST. and tomorrow i plan to publish the next Operating in Limbo chapter ~sometime~ before midnight [my time. central time.], or like 1am at the latest since i can stay up late tomorrow. unless the Troubles.

reward for scrolling this far; my saga of proto-names being shit like 'ooga booga' continues in the form of this being the working title for the Big Conversation chapter;

[emcapi-gaming]

this fic has been a WIP for - *checks creation date* TWO AND A HALF YEARS