#I had a Serena but I never finished it

[11cleyvaart]

"I'll always be less than zero"

Don't get me started on poor Clemont losing when he should have won at least once against Ash's gym battle.

[cheswirls]

looking @ old fic i started when i was 14/15 is so funny bc im realizing once again why i never mark fics as abandoned even if its been literal years since i've touched them. specifically i was checking docs for stuff i started and either did or didn't post to ffn.

and its like. nothing is bad??? like i can see where my outside-the-box ideal of fic writing comes from. not just fics but writing in general, i'm p sure. even if it's a total cliche plot setup, there are details on each that rly make it stand out like oh yeahhhhhh i did have this great idea once upon a time.

funny too bc was it executed well in prose??? no absolutely not i wrote like shit when i was 15. would i revive an idea one day and revise it to be less cliche or cringy while still keeping the stand-out elements??? yea maybe. i might. everything i'm currently working on that i started from 2021 up to now still holds my supreme interest, but like i'm not gonna say never.

esp since i write fic first and foremost for my own need and specifically what i like to read, it makes it impossible to consider an idea i've thought extensively about "not worth writing anymore". anyway not making this too long i jus found everything interesting to consider

[mapileonxputellas]

Beckham II: 1 New Beginning

Please find instagram aesthetic here.

Post here explains how I've wrote it, I think it's quite simple.

This is the first part of my new series and I hope you enjoy xx (3k words)

“Do you ever think about how crazy it is that you’re an icon in Barcelona and yet your dad played for Real Madrid?”

“I try not to think about that. I think that bothers him more than me.”

“Does he have any Barcelona shirts?”

“Of course he does.”

…..

“David, how does it feel watching your daughter play for Barcelona?”

“It’s the best feeling in the world. I’m guessing you were expecting some kind of rivalry but I’ll always support my daughter.”

…..

Barcelona, February 2023.

One down, nine to go.

It was like clockwork in your brain. Training would finish, everyone else would rush to get back into the training room and get back to their everyday life. Yet here you were, on your own, just how you like it. You and the ball. Free kick after free kick after free kick. Ten in total, all from different areas, all with different aims but each one just as equally important in your brain.

Barcelona was a dream. You were here with the best players in the world but you hated letting anyone down. Every little mistake was over-analysed, picked at all because of who you were. At the weekend it was a wonder save which stopped one nestling in the top corner but that didn’t matter. It hadn’t gone in and therefore didn’t meet your expectations.

The expectations you put on yourself, multiplied by that moment four years ago.

You loved your father but many people probably didn’t understand that there wasn’t a gene for taking good free kicks.

Unbeknownst to you, all of this was about to change. “You’ve got a visitor.”

“If it’s another journalist, tell them I’m not interested.”

You couldn’t be bothered with whatever reply the press officer would tell you. It was the same every day. Someone wanted to speak to you, you said no. They came back the next day.

You’d think they’d get bored after four years of consistent turn aways but that was never the case. You did the press conferences, the interviews after games but a sit-down full-length interview was not something you felt like you could ever handle.

So you carried on, resetting the ball in the correct spot. Back to just you and the ball.

For February it was a sunny afternoon in Barcelona, the sun was still shining for the mid-afternoon with minimal wind. Perfect conditions to practice and as your teammates had pointed out you hadn’t needed any more persuasion to get that training vest on, your tattoos on full show. Along with football they were your biggest passion, your phone was full of tattoo inspiration and little doodles you did when you were bored, they were a big part of you and maybe the image you wanted to create for yourself.

You took inspiration from everything, football, the environment, your father. Growing up many would say you were already a carbon copy of him but the tattoos were the icing on the cake. Your mother may not have been as happy about them but they promised to accept all your passions and that included turning up every few months with a new collection of tattoos to show off.

…..

“Maria, is she copying you?”

“You’ll have to ask her. No of course not, I would say we take great inspiration from each other. We’ve got a few matching ones, I’ve done a few on her and she’s done the same to me. That’s kind of what started our friendship.”

“You both have ‘looks can be deceiving’ on your necks, is that true for her?”

“Depends on what you think of her. Maybe some find her scary but you have to find out if that’s true yourself.”

…..

You could hear someone approaching you, watching as you took the next kick nestling it into the bottom corner underneath the imaginary wall.

“Y/N, have you got five minutes?” The unmistakable voice of Sarina. Many people would love Serena Weigman to turn up at their training session, not you. Not now.

Shit. You almost didn’t want to turn around. Maybe if you stayed facing the other way she would leave. Leave you be in the bubble you’d created for yourself, nothing good could come out of this conversation.

But of course the Dutch woman wasn’t going to leave that easily, edging closer to you. “I only want to talk.”

“I gave you my answer a year ago.”

“Lots can change in a year. Five minutes. If you still want me to leave after, I’ll leave.”

Maybe it was worth hearing what she had to say. Nothing could change your mind anyway, you’d hear whatever she had to say and then she could leave.

You knew what she was here for and it didn’t surprise you what came out of her mouth next. “I want you back, I name my squad next week and I want you ready to play for us at the World Cup.”

“And I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“The fans are not that accepting, the players don’t deserve to be drawn into that drama because of me.”

“There’s always drama in football.” Maybe she had a point but off the back of the Euro’s success the lionesses have had nothing but positivity from the media and public. “We’ve lost Beth, we’ve lost Fran and I think the players would welcome your experience in that position. It’s your decision but I know deep down you want to prove people wrong and I want to give you that opportunity.”

“Some would say I don’t deserve that.”

“It will be different this time.”

“How?”

“It’s been four years, everything’s changed. We protect you guys, you have support systems in place, we have support systems. It’s not individuals anymore, it’s a team.”

“I made that decision to protect myself.” Almost four years ago you’d sent that letter, asking not to be selected for international duty again. They had no choice but to accept it and when Serena came into the role she approached you but you told her a tournament on home soil was not something you could mentally cope with. Not yet. “Why would now be different?”

“I’ve watched every game you’ve played in the last 18 months. I know you may not see a difference in yourself but I do, the interview after you lost to Lyon showed your spirit, your drive. I need players like you, it won’t be easy but I don’t want something that happened four years ago to stop you showing the world how talented you are.”

You were conflicted. Of course you’d love nothing more than to prove all those who bashed you before wrong, to make a difference on the world stage after winning every trophy you could with Barcelona. On the other hand it was just opening a can of worms you’d hidden all those years ago. Although you were only in Spain it felt like a different world, you turned your comments off on social media and they never came back on. Interviews were a no-go and your former friends were now distant acquaintances.

“Can I think about?”

“Of course you can. Like I said, the squad goes out on Tuesday so I need an answer by Monday. Any questions, I’m coming to the match on Sunday, maybe I can speak to you after?”

“Thank you.” With a soft squeeze to your shoulder she was off, except now you couldn’t focus knowing you were about to make a decision which would change everything.

…..

“You seem distracted.”

In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best idea to accept the dinner invite from Maria and Ingrid but you knew your best friends wouldn’t take no for an answer. The three of you along with Frido were sat at their dinner table, tucking into the tapas you’d ordered from your favourite restaurant and it wasn’t lost on any of them how your mind was elsewhere. Casually picking through your food was a total opposite to the way you usually devoured this.

“Y/N?”

You’d been debating on the way whether to speak to someone about it.

Maybe your dad? He’d gone through something similar but he was in Miami and would only just be getting up.

Your mum? She was the most rational option but she would never understand that pride of pulling on your national shirt.

Your therapist seemed the best option but the earliest session she had for non-emergencies was tomorrow.

“Y/N!” In your own little world you’d even forgot to answer their questions. “Are you alright?”

It could help speaking to them, couldn’t it? “I had a visitor after training. Sarina Weigman.”

“Shit man, I thought you said no.” Maria Leon was your best friend from the moment you stepped foot in that training room, you bonded over everything from tattoos to food. You’d been her wingman in getting with Ingrid and had a mutual understanding of each other’s situations with your respective national teams even if the circumstances were very different.

“She wants me back but I don’t know, this feels different from last year.” If Bonnie, your 5-year-old beagle, adopted 3 years ago to signify a new chapter in your life, wasn’t by your feet they would definitely be anxiously tapping the floor right now.

“They probably feel your absence more because they’ve lost other players.” Frido added some context. “Not that you wouldn’t have always walked into that team but now you definitely would. You’d be their main player.”

“I can see you’re considering it.” Ingrid pointed out. “When she came last year I could see you were like, definitely no, now you haven’t turned it down immediately.”

“There’s no right or way wrong to feel,” Maria tried to comfort me. “Only you can decide if you want to go back there.”

“I miss it.”

“Of course you do.” Ingrid agreed. “You wouldn’t watch all their games if you didn’t.”

“It’s just the fact that I’m comfortable here, I have been for so long and now I’m going to throw myself back into four years ago.” Four years ago when you’d been forced to move away from your club at the time in Chelsea and accept the fact that one mistake had changed everything. “Plus the media attention, no-one wants that in the lead up to the world cup.”

“They were your friends, I’m sure they’d understand.” Frido tried to make you see that side of things. “Shit happens in football but what happened to you when completely over the top of that.”

“I isolated them.” Of course you had friends in the squad at the time, in fact best friends. But as soon as you made the move to America you slowly distanced yourself from them as they did to you. You hated letting them down and completely understood that being associated to you meant unnecessary exposure where perhaps they would not want it.

“So you’ll make friends again.”

You’d changed as well, grown into a completely different person in that time. Your appearance and attitude on the pitch were a distinct opposite to the crippling shyness you had yet to shake off. “Maybe.”

“You will,” Maria assured you. “Plus I think Bonnie told me she wanted a sleepover with me.”

“Oh did she?”

“I’m not swaying you either way but if that’s what you want, I’ll support you all the way.”

“We all will.” Frido added wrapping her arms around you to bring you into her side. “We love you.”

“Thank you, I love you all too.”

“Speak to your dad, maybe even your mum. I’m sure they’d want to help.”

One of the funniest moments in your life had to be watching your teammates introduce themselves to your parents when they came out to watch your first match in the Blaugrana. Watching their nerves dissipate when they realised how down to earth, especially your mother was, when it came to their children. Of course their name brought so much extra attention to you but you couldn’t have asked for a better upbringing.

Maybe it was their words that made you do it but subconsciously you knew the best thing to do was to ring them. So as you got into bed that night, once you got back, Bonnie at your feet watching, you rang the number you’d had memorised for years.

“Hi baby.” His voice almost brought tears to your eyes. Although you tried to be as independent as possible, wanting to be your own person, you sometimes wished you could just go back to spending every night in his arms.

“Hi dad.”

“What’s wrong?” You hated how easily he could read you, how those two words were enough for him to know something was wrong.

“It’s nothing.”

“You know you can tell me anything.”

“I know dad.” Out with it. “Sarina Weigman came to visit me today, she wants me to go and join them in the next international break.”

“And what do you want?”

“I think I want to.”

“You think?”

“I just know that if I do I’m just going to be brought back to that moment.”

“Then you’ll go back to a moment where the referees made a terrible decision. Football fans are fickle you know that as much as I do but you’ve watched it back enough to know that nine times out of ten nothing happens. The commentator did you no favours, Phil didn’t stand by you as he should have and the media hung you out to dry.”

“I know.”

“But as awful as it was it made you the person you are today and your stronger now then you’ve ever been before. If you want to go back then you’ll make it work. I know you will.”

“Thanks dad, now how is…”

,,,,,

“How many times have you watched that tackle back?”

“Over a thousand times.”

“Do you think you should have been sent off?”

“Of course not.”

……

You loved Barcelona, from the moment you stepped through those doors 3 years ago you’d been welcomed in and never looked back. In 2019 you moved to America but your year out there was plagued with depression and homesickness resulting in a lack of game time, when Barcelona came calling it was a difficult decision with your family ties but they had a project, they had a good set up and you knew the onus wouldn’t just be on you. The first six months were still tough, working out Spanish football to both play with your teammates and counter the opposition but by the end of the season you felt at home for the first time in 2 years.

Your role this year had been heightened by the loss of one of your midfield partners in Alexia, but you were adaptable and that’s probably how you found yourself 4-0 up, having just scored a second goal in the second half.

“It’s almost like you’re trying to impress someone.” Mapi whispered giving you a half hug as you walked back into your own half.

“Shut up.”

“I bet she’s panicking that you might turn it down now.”

“She’s got other players Maria.”

“But none of them are you.”

The match stayed at 4-0, some of the youngsters coming on to see the game out.

You’d never been in a team like this, of course you had little arguments and there were small groups within the team, but everyone worked so hard for each other. And with that came the protectiveness, when you joined you were only 21, now 24 and the older ones took you under their wings. You’d been daunted a lot at the fact of playing fellow English players in the Champions League but they’d been your shield for those moments.

It blew your mind when the younger age groups joined you and they speak about that moment. Most of them staying up late to watch it making you feel old. But that meant they came to you for advice a lot of the time. Maybe this time though it was time to get advice from them.

“Hey little one.” Maria Perez was the first one you spotted in the changing room. “You played really well today.”

“Thank you.”

“How are you feeling about being called up?” It was only yesterday that the Spanish squad had been leaked and she was once again in it.

“Excited, another opportunity to prove myself.”

“I like that you see it that way.”

“Everyone should, it’s no different to playing here, as long as you be yourself you can never be disappointed.”

…….

@jillsmithjournalist: Serena Weigman is present at the Barcelona match. No current England players are playing however star player Y/N Beckham scored twice. Beckham has not played for England since she withdrew from selection in August 2019 amid public backlash and a rumoured feud with England manager Phil Neville. Could a return be on the cards?

@newlionesses_x: Surely she can’t just pick and choose when to come back.

@wslfan: Fine without her last year

@england123: Liability for England

@barcelonafan: All you hating on Beckham are crazy, one of the best players in the world and you don’t want her back because of something that happened 4 years ago, grow up. Could tell she struggled when she joined us but this past year she’s been exceptional, people change, mistakes happen (even though she should never have been sent off in the first place)

…..

You’ve known your decision for a long time but you still delayed giving it as long as possible before you could wait no longer. You could see she was the only one left in the hospitality area as you entered, the table she had chose overlooking the pitch you’d just performed on.

This was what you wanted and now it felt only right to give yourself that opportunity again.

“I’ll do it.”

[storywriter007]

(Part 2) Part 1 - You're Not Her - Percy Jackson x Fem!Reader

summary: in which y/n realizes this relationship is no longer worth fighting for

warnings: cursing, character death, toxic relationship, throwing things

genre: angst

word count: 1.1k

-> heroes of olympus masterlist

✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒

y/n laughed as a smidge of vanilla ice cream was put on percy's nose.

"not funny y/n." he said, irritated, wiping it off.

"sorry, won't happen again." she said back, shocked at the mood change. "wanna go for a swim?" she asked, trying to change the topic.

"no, i want to stay dry." he said, plainly.

"do you want to do anything?" y/n laughed.

he looked at her with his sea green eyes.

"what do you think." he said.

"alright per-sassy-eus." she shrugged.

they stared the the lake in silence until a little girl came running.

"y/n! y/n!" she shouted, running towards her.

y/n wrapped her arms around the seven-year old.

"hey serena! what's up?" she asked, smiling.

"me and lily and kayla and a bunch of other girls are making friendship bracelets!" serena said excitedly. "c'mon! hi percy!"

"hey serena." he smiled. "i like your bracelet."

"i have two of them, they are matching!" she grinned. "you can have one."

she slid the blue one off her wrist and gave it to percy.

"now we're best friends!" serena said, returning to y/n and tugging on her hand.

y/n looked at percy.

"percy, i'm gonna go." she smiled, kissing him on the cheek.

"yeah, ok." he shrugged.

"love you." y/n said.

"mhm."

✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒

y/n got to the arts and crafts table and sat down next to her good friend, olivia.

"they got you too?" liv laughed.

"yeah." y/n smiled.

"y/n! why didn't percy say love you back?" serena asked.

y/n felt hurt, but she couldn't show that, not to this little girl. olivia stared at her, waiting for the response.

"he's just a little shy now-a-days." y/n chuckled.

"but he's your boyfriend!" serena's friend, lily spoke up.

"boyfriends can be shy." y/n explained, wondering whether she was lying to the kids or herself.

"but he always say i love you to annabeth!" serena's other friend, kayla added.

"i guess he's just a little more reserved after what happened with annabeth. that changes people." y/n smiled.

"he's still my hero though!" serena smiled.

"him and jason are my heroes!" lily added.

"kayla, who's your hero?" they asked.

"my hero is reyna!" she said confidently.

y/n chuckled.

✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒

y/n and olivia sat on y/n's bed in her cabin.

"what were the girls going on about today?" liv asked.

"percy, and they were right, and they had good points." y/n sighed, tired of hiding it. "we've been dating for almost a year now, and he's just so negative."

"what do you mean?" liv continued.

"i mean he always gets mad at me, he never wants to do anything with me, and it feels like i'm just someone to look at when he's bored." y/n explained. "i get it, things are different for him after annabeth died."

olivia nodded, placing her hand on y/n's for comfort.

"they'd been friends forever, they went through hell together, they'd been in love, and he couldn't save her at the battle. but it's been three years, and he confessed to me. he said, 'i know you've like me for a while and i think i do too.' i remember the day liv." y/n continued. "and things have changed for me too. piper and hazel are always casting me dirty glances, jason and leo and frank avoid me if i'm in anywhere near ten feet to them. i've been slut-shamed, compared, and bullied because i'm dating him."

y/n began to feel tears well up.

"i just want him to talk to me and hang out with me without feeling like he's being forced to do it." she finished.

"y/n, i think this is something you have to tell percy." olivia responded. "you can't keep going like this, it's going to kill you."

"i don't want to hurt him and what if he just freaks out on me? i care about him." y/n countered.

"just talk to him." olivia encouraged. "he's a good man, he'll understand."

✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒✧.⭒

"you're not understanding me!" y/n said, sadness filling her voice. "i-i'm not telling you to get over what happened, i'm trying to tell you that you can talk to me! i'm trying to help you percy!"

"help me! help me! you want to help me by bringing up her name?" he screamed.

gods, he was scary.

"i'm trying to tell you that it feels like you don't even like me, much less love me! it's like i'm a burden to you!" y/n shouted back. "and i understand you're hurting, but why am i a victim of your grief?"

"fine!" he said, throwing a candle across his cabin. "i'm sorry that my girlfriend, who i loved for longer than i've ever known you, is dead and that it makes me upset!"

y/n ducked, avoiding the glass shards. fear ran through her bones.

"and i'm sorry you have to go through that, but it sucks for me too! piper and hazel give me these glares, like they hate every vein in my body. leo, jason, and frank run from me like i'm a disease! and i've told you and you don't do shit to stop it, you encourage it if anything!" y/n yelled.

"they've got every fucking reason too!" he yelled, throwing a picture frame of us across the room.

"what's the reason! tell me, what's the reason!" y/n shouted.

"because you're not annabeth!" he yelled, with every bone in his body as tear welled up in his eyes. "you're not her, she would've never done whatever shit you're doing."

y/n stood still for a minute as the words replayed in her head.

you're not her, you're not her, you're not her.

tears filled y/n's eyes.

it's like percy finally understood the gravity of the situation as he looked around in shame.

"y/n, i didn't mean that-"

"no, no, percy, you did. you really did, because otherwise, you wouldn't have said it. and you wouldn't have followed every action to prove it." y/n chuckled. "i'm sorry i'm not annabeth."

percy took a couple of steps forward, but stopped instantly when y/n backed up defensively. y/n pointed to the glass shards around the room. they stood in silence.

"you're a bad man, percy. throwing shit and telling me i'll never be enough. i wish every little girl and boy could see their so-called camp hero right now. i wish they could see what a fucking monster he is." y/n said, her voice now low and quiet.

she turned around, and walked out of his cabin.

“y/n, can’t we talk about this?” he shouted out.

“oh i tried talking to you percy.” she chuckled. “but, you can always go down to annabeth’s gravestone and talk to her."

[bvidzsoo]

Lullaby of the seas

Author: bvidzsoo

Warning: violence, blood, mentions of eating humans but nothing graphic

Pairing: Choi Jongho x female reader

Word count: 15,2k

Summary: Choi Jongho could be described as a dreamer; he loved folklore and fairytales. His father was a sailor and often brought his son out on the sea with himself, thus they lived off of selling fish and pearls. Jongho was well raised and always kind, a very hard-working son, therefore it came as no surprise that he accepted the job offer of a mysterious pirate when his father's house got destroyed by a storm. Jongho was quiet and didn’t bother others, did his job very well and secretly fantasized about meeting a mermaid one day. There was one tiny problem, the seas they sailed had no mermaids in them, only vicious sirens out for the blood of unassuming pirates and sailors. (Reader is called Sunmi in the following oneshots.)

A/N: Second part of the series is up, lovelies! It's like the Flash possessed me or something by how quickly I finished this part lol; I'll try to post San's part before I go on vacation, but no promises. I hope I did alright with this part, and don't be shy, leave feedback, let me know your thoughts! Enjoy now!

Taglist: @pingyu-in-wonderland @marievllr-abg @lelaleleb @loveforred @horanghae8 @jeonghanscarat7 @orshii @mundayoonimnida @m3tavita @silentcry329

Series Masterlist ↭ Previous Part

               I sat on a rock, close by the shore, watching the waves crash against the beach, occasionally washing up pearls and seashells. The light breeze was slowly picking up into a more powerful wind, blowing my wet long, black hair in my face. The sun was setting in an hour, the air not as warm as it was throughout the day, and I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I exhaled. This was my home. The sea. The ocean. The water. I have never touched land, or walked on it, as I lacked legs, as humans called them, to be able to do so. Instead of legs, I had a long-scaled tail, sturdy and strong. The black scales traveled up my stomach in an uneven pattern and covered my breasts scarcely, creating the illusion that they were molded into my skin. Despite sitting out in the sun quite often, I was rather pale, the only color on my face being my red lips which hid my sharp teeth, perfect for hunting. Despite popular beliefs, folklore was the one responsible for twisting the truth about Sirens, we only ate once a month and it was during the full moon. We recharged through the energies of the moon and through the blood of the sailors we took as our prey. Our beautiful voices lured them in, creating the perfect distraction for us to group around their boats and then attack as they were just waking up from the daze our lullabies put them into. No matter how cautious they were, they usually never made it out alive. The Raging Sea was our territory and despite sailors and pirates knowing about it, they still tried their luck and travelled through it. If the violent storms didn’t kill them, the sirens lurking in the depths surely did.

I opened my eyes and they fell on a large ship in the distance, sailing away peacefully, unassuming of the doom they were about to face tonight. It was a full moon and the swarm was hungry. Last month we didn’t find enough sailors for ourselves and had to share our prey among us, something which left us weaker than usually, thus we were starving, bloodthirsty and slightly desperate. Their blood wasn’t the only food, human flesh was tastier than anything else. Some were sweeter than others, mostly women, but we rarely had the pleasure to kill one, so we had to suffice with the disgusting sailors. Pirates were harder to trick, but if you stayed persistent, they’d willingly come to swim with you which made our job so much easier.

Bubbles travelled to the surface of the salty water before a head popped up to the surface, light green eyes staring into my icy blue ones, “Here you were.”

It was Serena, we were from the same swarm and she was someone I considered a friend. We usually stuck together when hunting in case anything went wrong, someone was there to help. Sirens didn’t make connections between each other like humans did, but I trusted Serena enough to allow her to approach me whenever she wanted. Despite living in a swarm, each one of us went on their merry ways, only reuniting when the full moon was to come up. We were stronger together than alone.

“Do you need something?” I asked her as she swum around the rock before pulling herself halfway out of the water, forearms resting on the solid surface. Serena’s head tilted and she smiled, her sharp teeth showing.

“Are you contemplating again?” She asked amused and I looked away from her, eyes focusing on the ship again. She followed my sight of line and her smile disappeared.

“About what?”

“Life.” Serena said, her expression mirroring mine. Our sharp eyes were narrowed and mouth slightly salivating at the sight of so many humans. We couldn’t help it; we were hungrier than ever before.

“I was actually fantasizing about the taste of those sailors.” I said to Serena, her eyes looking back at the ship.

“They are actually pirates,” She corrected me and then chuckled, “Silas asked us to meet near the cave, I came to let you know.”

I hummed and jumped off the rock, the cool water washing over my warmed-up body. My skin was slowly drying out from staying in the sun for so long and out of water, but it instantly rejuvenated once in the salty water. My body was light in the water and once Serena was underwater too, we swam off, headed to the cave. Our feast was soon about to start.

            The sun had set hours ago and the pirates lowered their small boats into the water, getting into them with torches in their hands. The swarm watched from afar as they started paddling towards the small deserted island. There was nothing on it except for a little green here and there and perhaps pearls, it made no sense that they were headed towards it, but nobody seemed to care. To be fair, even I could only think about their warm blood gushing into my mouth once I ripped their throats apart. There were fifteen of us in the swarm, Silas being our leader. He looked at everyone before slowly immersing himself fully underwater, everyone following after him. Our scales had a light fluorescent color in the water at night, making it easier to see each other. And even if they didn’t, our light eyes glowed in the dark, making us scarier looking than we already were. We were creatures of the sea and darkness, designed to be alluring in order to survive. We didn’t have much purpose besides feeding and playing into humans fantasies about peculiar creatures. I’ve heard many talking about mermaids while they sailed the seas, if it wasn’t a full moon we usually wouldn’t harm them. I liked to follow them closely on those days, letting them catch a glimpse of my tail in order to make them think they were hallucinating or seeing a bigger fish maybe. I heard the stories about mermaids, how friendly and sweet they were. But in reality, there were no mermaids. Only Sirens. And we weren’t friendly nor sweet. We were dangerous and lethal.

The swarm traveled carefully, making sure to remain unseen until the right moment. There were three boats in the water and five of us swam underneath each one, listening to pirates’ conversation carried by the water. The sea was quiet tonight, the full moon high up on the sky, luminating their dark paths. It was as if nature was the quiet before the storm, the storm being us. I watched as a pirate leaned over the boat slightly, his face blurry through the water and I smiled. Wasn’t he so eager to get into the water? And he wouldn’t have to wait for so much longer. Silas’ whisper carried around us like a caress, resounding around us softly and clearly, as he let us know that it was time. Serena smirked as we made eye contact and then slowly surfaced, showing her face to the pirates. I swam up as well, only peaking my eyes out, nose and mouth still underwater. The men were staring at us in awe, looking at us as if they’ve seen the biggest treasure of their lives. My eyes ran over the boat filled with six men and I found one who looked horrified. His mouth has fallen open and if I didn’t know better, I would’ve said he stopped breathing by how red his face had gotten. He was shocked, but intrigued at the same time, as I swam closer to the boat, our eyes locked onto each other. His were a dark brown, and he pushed one of the man to the side to get to the edge of the boat. I pushed my head fully out of the water and smiled at him sweetly, hiding my teeth. His eyes were wide as he stared at me and I sighed dreamily, making his eyebrows furrow.

“You’re real?” He whispered, more to himself, as I parted my lips and allowed the first note to slip through them. Our voices were angelic, high and melodic, they could lure over even certain sea animals. I didn’t think the pirate’s eyes could get any bigger than they already were, but it did, so I continued singing the lullaby, holding eye contact all the time. His body slowly seemed to relax as my voice carried higher and higher, slowly waddling closer to his boat. The pirate was fixated on me, eyes slowly dazing over, mouth slightly opening. His brain was fogged and body probably going numb from the Siren song. It was like a sweet poison, overtaking your whole being, rendering you completely helpless, allowing us to be in full control. I reached the boat and touched the side of it with my hand, nails long and pointy, as the pirate leaned closer, over the boat. His cherry-colored lips were pouty and his skin tan from staying out in the sun. I smiled at him as a few of the sirens already brought their prey into the water with them and I allowed my hand to reach the edge of the boat, lightly graze the pirate’s lips. He smiled dazed and gripped the sides of the boat, my song luring him inside the water. And as he got rid of his jacket, the muscles on his high cheekbones twitched. I ignored it and gripped the boat, next to the pirate’s hand, our skins touching. His was extremely hot compared to my freezing one. I smiled sweetly at him again, nodding in reassurance. He seemed to be taking his time in getting into the water compared to most of companions, who were already in it. But I remained calm and patient. I caressed his hand with my other one, and his eyebrows furrowed. Perhaps my song wasn’t powerful enough, so I raised my tone, taking his hand in mine and lightly pulling on it. He started getting up from his seated position, finally manipulated into coming inside the sea. But the muscles of his face twitched again and his lips pulled into a straight line, suddenly snatching his hand out of mine. My eyes widened but I didn’t let that discourage me as I continued singing, voice louder and more aggressive as I maintained the eye contact, but the haze was starting to disappear from the pirate’s eyes. What was happening? Was I not powerful enough anymore? That was impossible, the full moon enhanced our powers.

“No, no, no—” The pirate started muttering to himself, shaking his head as he started blinking, “No—Stop!”

I gasped as my lullaby came to an end, watching the pirate jump up and shake his dazed mate, “No, stop listening to them! These are sirens, they’ll—”

The man behind him screamed as a Siren bit into him and pulled him underwater forcefully, snapping a few pirates out of their daze. They looked horrified as they jumped to their feet and grabbed their weapons. Silas’s high-pitched wail pierced the pirates ears as the ones in the water fought for their lives, only to have their necks pierced by the sirens sharp teeth.

“Father!” The pirate I tried to lure into the water screamed at the dazed man still sitting, hand in water, Serena whispering sweet things to him. I smirked and went underwater again, wanting to antagonize the pirate a little bit more. Chaos had already erupted, and the pirates in the water were lost forever, however, the ones in the boats searched for their weapons, wanting to harm us. As a bullet pierced through the water I hissed and crashed into the bottom of the boat forcefully, rocking it quite harshly. I heard thuds and got back onto the surface, watching as my pirate fought against Serena as his father still didn’t snap out of the daze. Gunshots echoed through the night and a siren wailed loudly, making my head snap in their direction. Their eyes were wide open as a bullet pierced their forehead, making me cry out loudly. It pierced the humans eardrums and I looked back at the pirate now aiming his shotgun at Serena, and I knew what I had to do. I quickly swam to the boat and jump out, gripping the pirate’s arm as I pulled him with me underwater. He had dropped his gun in the boat in shock and tried to swim away, but I wrapped my hand around their torso and head, holding them against myself. The pirate startled struggling and just to spite him more, I started singing, smirking at him when he realized what was about to happen. I opened my mouth wide, sharp teeth visible, as the pirate started choking on water, kicking anywhere he could to no avail, as my teeth sunk into his neck. I moaned at the taste of blood in my mouth, my body warming up from the top to the bottom. I closed my eyes as I took us deeper underneath, losing myself in my lust for his blood, sweeter than anything I have ever tasted before. I could feel my skin glowing, buzzing with electricity as I drank more, saliva mixing with blood at the thought of the taste of his flesh. I couldn’t imagine how tasty he’d be if his blood was this sweet. But as he finally stopped flailing around in my tight hold, something sharp pierced my neck. It was plunged deeper and the sudden pain shooting through my body made me release the pirate and scream loudly, the sound echoing around in the water, getting everyone’s attention around us. It was loud and filled with pain and I tried to swim away, panicked, but something grabbed my tail and started pulling me upwards. Bubbles left my mouth as I screamed for help, but Serena was nowhere. I knew nobody else would help me. Despite the fresh energy coursing through my veins, I felt power slipping from my fingers and tail as it went numb, the water around me colored a deep red. I was loosing blood dangerously fast and when my head suddenly hit the surface I choked, breathless and kicking around to get back underwater, but I was pinned against the sand. Someone was coughing on top of me, wheezing and groaning in pain. Our eyes connected for a second, revulsion reflecting on both of our faces, before I gasped for air, the world going black around me.

            Falling unconscious in water could be just as scary as falling unconscious on land for a Siren. We could breathe underwater, but still needed to come up to the surface to take in some fresh air, or else our lungs would start burning, making us choke like any human being. Falling unconscious on land, however, nobody knew the repercussions of it as we’ve never ventured close enough to find out, but it most certainly meant death as our bodies dried up fast, scales itchy and head dizzy from staying out of the water for too long. So, waking up panicked and confused was rather understandable as I kept banging against something hard, my body curled up as if I was confined in a small space. When my eyes opened, I gasped, taking in my surroundings. All I could see were men, so many of them, walking around, talking loudly, peeking at me in horror. I swirled around in the water, heart beating fast as I slowly realized what was happening. I was captive. In a glass box of sorts, enclosed in a small space. I couldn’t even stretch my body fully, tail curled up, as my box was put on display in the middle of the ship, held down by several thick ropes. I was on a pirate ship. The pirates we attacked during the full moon, were here now, holding me captive.

I started breathing fast, heart beat accelerating even more, my lungs asking for fresh air as I started choking on the water. I looked around in my little cage, and noticed that the water didn’t reach the top of the box, and there were little circles cut into the top of it in one corner. So, holding onto the glass on both sides, I pulled myself to that corner as I raised my mouth and nose out of the water, taking deep breaths of air. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, pretend that I was in the sea, coming up for some air. If I didn’t stop panicking, I would die from choking. And that was a dishonorable death for a Siren, I’d rather die at the hands of a pirate. However, my little bubble of fantasy was destroyed quickly as something starting banging against the glass, making me jump and hit my head in the top glass. I heard muffled laughter and turned my head only to come face to face with a man. He looked amused as he tapped the glass again, taunting me with his wide smile. I snarled my teeth at him, but he didn’t look frightened as his eyes ran over my body. His blond hair was longer at the back and black was smeared around his narrowed eyes. The white cloth tied around his right forearm told me that he was the captain. His mouth started moving, but the glass was thick and I couldn’t make out their words, so I watched their lips move, trying to decipher what they were saying.

“Nice catch, isn’t she?” He said to his men, who seemed afraid enough to keep their distance from my glass box, “Wonder how expensive she’ll be.”

A strikingly beautiful man showed up, his wavy black hair pulled in a ponytail, a shiny golden compass around his neck, “We’ll ask around once we dock down in the Sun Set Kingdom.” He seemed to be the least interested in me, not even glancing in my direction as the captain turned his head back at me, a menacing smirk slowly sneaking onto his face. I could feel myself itch from his gaze, fury and helplessness overtaking my body.

“Thanks to you I’ll be filthy rich, gorgeous.” It was as if he knew I would understand his words, his lips articulating his words slowly and obviously, making me scream out. The pirates held onto his ears as I screamed, starting to throw my body against the glass. I wouldn’t let them sell me off to anyone. I couldn’t die like this. This would be a disgrace to my species, centuries of anguish to follow. If the world finds out we truly exist, we’ll be hunted down for the mere sick enjoyment of humans, eliminating our species. I couldn’t be the cause of it, the thought made me sick. It didn���t matter that my body was aching from how violently I was throwing myself against the glass, banging on it with my fist, even trying to break it with my tail knowing it was strong, but nothing was working. It seemed that it was unbreakable, but the mocking laughter of the pirates egged me on more to keep on trying, refusing to appear helpless and frail. As my lungs started burning from exhaustion, I knew I had to stop and take a breath, there was suddenly commotion in the crowd gathered around me. I pushed my head to the little circles, and took deep breaths, watching what was happening. A man appeared to be pushing everyone out of the way, screaming something. I tried to make the words out, but all I got was ‘stop’ and ‘get away’. The voice sounded almost familiar and when I turned around, my eyes fell on a very familiar face. I gasped as my icy blue eyes widened, dark brown ones staring back just as shocked. I snarled my sharp teeth at the pirate, hitting the glass with my fists, hatred radiating off of me. He was the reason I was here. He was the pirate I tried to kill, the one I bit, but then he stabbed me, brought me to land, and captured me. My eyes fell on the bandage around his neck and it made me touch my own neck, feeling the bump of a wound. It seemed to be sealed, and my eyebrows furrowed as I looked at the pirate, who seemed to be watching my reaction. I snarled again, and crashed against the glass, trying to scare him off like I did to the others who have already scattered around, but this pirate didn’t budge, he kept on watching me, eyes slightly wider. He seemed to be amazed, eyes taking in my body, freezing on my tail for a second, making me crash it into the glass, the pirate jumping in reaction. I was glaring at him hard, baring my teeth at him when he stepped closer to the glass, a hand touching it. His eyes carried resentment as his lips opened, “You should’ve swum away when I snapped out of your song’s control.”

I understood, because he mouthed it slowly, his eyebrows furrowing when I didn’t react. I just turned my head to look away, done with entertaining him. He did not deserve my attention. He made me wonder how he snapped out of the daze induced by the Siren song, but he’ll never hear my voice ever again. I wasn’t going to utter one word to these monsters. Despite the pirate’s fascination with me, he didn’t seem too keen of me, as I watched him walk up to an older man, who was holding a wooden cane, the resemblance between them quite obvious. So, his father survived too, what a pity.

            Time seemed to jumble together, I tried to keep up with the rising and setting of the sun, but after a few days I lost count of it. I assumed I had been on this ship for around a week now. The Raging Sea could be tricky and hard to navigate, yet these pirates somehow sailed it without many difficulties. They seemed to avoid the storms best and travel around them, their navigator quite talented. Perhaps if I had known that their navigator was the pirate who captured me, I wouldn’t have thought that about him. The Sun Set Kingdom and the South Kingdom weren’t very far from each other, if you were lucky enough you could sail through the Raging Sea in two weeks, however, the constant storms made it sometimes impossible to get through it. Sailing out into the Black Ocean was even more dangerous due to its huge creatures, best you could do was say a prayer and hope someone in the Heavens blessed you to have an easy adventure, that is, if you believed in such a thing. Humans easily believed in anything, you just needed to appear even a little bit confident when trying to sell your idea, and there it was: a new belief, a new tale. I suppose the confirmation of our existence would just send them into a frenzy of confusion about what was real and what was not. Humans were afraid of the unknown, and I was considered already a dangerous creature. The fearful glances of the pirates working on deck never seemed to cease and if I happened to be looking at them, they’d shudder and look away, avoiding eye contact. I knew the fact that I was a Siren wasn’t the only scary thing about me, without my songs, my appearance was rather odd than beautiful.

However, there were some more daring pirates, who seemed to fear no God or even their very own Captain. I heard it loud and clear when he shouted that nobody was allowed to get close to the glass cage, touch it, or even think about opening it. I was a prize he wanted to sell, assuring his riches for a lifetime. However, three pirates seemed to be stupid enough to not listen to their captain as one evening, while I was thinking about the ocean, they approached me. It was a windy evening, waves crashing into the ship, rocking it left and right, yet the sky was clear and non-threatening for now. Here, the weather changes abruptly, but this being my home, I knew it wouldn’t storm just yet. My skin wasn’t as smooth anymore as it used to be, the water they kept me in stale and rather smelly. I was lucky they were smart enough to allow me to breathe fresh air, as I found myself needing it more often than usual. Being out in the sun all day long was taking its tool on me as well, my body not used to the constant heat. I would sit on rocks quite often, but never for too long during noon, and then I would retreat to the depths of the sea, where it was cool and dark. I sighed loudly as I watched the waves crash against the side of the ship, some water getting on deck. My hand reached out, almost as if I had forgotten I couldn’t reach it, missing my home like crazy. I probably should enjoy the little time I have left of being close to water, once we hit land, there’s no guarantee to what’s happening to me. Letting my guard down, thinking that I was finally alone on deck, was a mistake. I started humming to myself, missing the voices of the other sirens and our little games of hide and seek. Our songs weren’t just for luring in the humans, it allowed us to communicate between each other as well. The melody I was currently humming was the one Serena and I would sing whenever we finished hunting and were searching for each other, making sure we were alright. I could imagine her singing it after our last hunt together, never getting a response. At least she knew I was gone and she wouldn’t search for me, stray away from the swarm and endanger herself.

The sudden crash of something hard against the glass made me jump and I whirled around fast, eyes falling on three pirates who were smirking and slurring their words. They were swaying as they stood, probably drunk, holding tridents in their hands. One of them had a giant key in their hand and my eyes went to the giant padlock holding the top of the glass secured to the rest of it. I knew these dumb pirates could hurt me, but if I outsmarted them, I could escape. So I watched them innocently and figured out that they wanted to kill me before we’d get to land and sell me themselves, betraying their Captain. I chuckled, knowing very well they were just as dead as me once their captain finds out they are traitors. The one holding the key pushed his mate forward, and he crashed into the glass. He stared at me frightened and when I smiled and raised my eyebrows at him, his eyebrows furrowed. The other man, who was clutching his trident harshly, kept his distance, visibly afraid. The pirate with the key went to open the padlock, and that’s when I started humming loudly enough for them to hear me. Their bodies tensed, eyes widening as I lured them in with the song, eyes softening, lips pulling into a smile. The most frightened one dropped his trident and fell to his knees as he crawled towards the glass cage, watching me mesmerized as I got closer to the glass, bewitching them. The other pirate pushed himself against the glass, his weapon still in his hand, but he had obviously forgotten about wanting to kill me. The one holding the key, however, moved accordingly to my own will, leaning up on his tiptoes, hands gripping onto the padlock as a rather harsh wave crashed into the ship. I didn’t let that distract me as I continued singing the lullaby, pitch higher than before, icy blue eyes glowing in the dark. The three pirates became my puppets and I could feel my heartrate pick up as the one with the key finally inserted it into the padlock and slowly started turning it around. I pushed myself against the glass, hands on the top of it to break free once the padlock is unlocked, but the serenity and spell broke when someone came rushing down the stairs, screaming.

It was that one pirate again, my pirate. The one I almost killed, the one I wished nothing more than to kill. He almost fell off the stairs as his feet tangled together in his rush, a thick looking notebook clutched tightly in his hands. He was screaming at the pirates to stop listening to the song, but it seemed as though they were too deep in to even hear his words. So I continued my song, smirking at the desperate pirate as he shook the one holding the trident, and once he realized what was happening, tried to stop the one from opening the padlock. I was so close, one more click, and I’d be free. I started pushing against the glass, struggling to open it, I was so close.

“Kim Hongjoong!” The familiar pirate shouted at the top of his lungs, physically having to remove the pirate from the padlock, fighting against him as he cried out that he needed to open the lock. Seven other men came bustling down the stairs, eyes wide and sleepy as they assessed the situation. Everyone but the captain seemed to be wearing more casual, comfortable looking clothes, as they realized what was happening. I raised my voice higher, louder, allowing my voice to travel to their ears as well, watching as one of them tensed, appearing to be in a daze.

“No! Stop listening to her!” My pirate screamed again, somehow pinning the one with the key against the floor boards, struggling to hold him down because of his violent kicks and screams, “Think about something, don’t allow her voice to get inside your heads!”

But that one pirate seemed to be already under my influence, and I beckoned him over with the wriggle of my finger, a smile appearing on his lips, “Take Wooyoung away!” A taller man next to him, who seemed to be struggling against my lullaby as well, grabbed Wooyoung and dragged him away, slapping him hard when Wooyoung started screaming that he had to get to me. It all happened quickly, the remaining five pirates helped out my pirate in keeping the man down, taking the key from him and handing it to the Captain. His body seemed to be shaking, forehead sweaty as he approached me, eyes ablaze. He was fighting the siren’s song, but was close to giving up.

“If you don’t stop—” He gritted out, suddenly raising a shotgun against the glass, “I will kill you this second.”

Dying by a bullet wound seemed unworthy, but at least I wouldn’t get exposed to the horrors of other humans on the mainland. It seemed like a reasonable death all of a sudden, so I didn’t stop, just continued singing and closed my eyes. I heard the click of something, and I knew it was coming.

“No! Stop, Hongjoong!” I knew that voice, it was that pirate again, “Don’t kill her, please!”

The melody froze in my throat, eyes opening and falling onto that one pirate again. His eyebrows were furrowed and he was breathing hard, clutching that notebook again, looking at the Captain with pleading eyes, “Please.”

I took the momentum to my advantage and tried to open the top of the glass again, but the Captain acted first, locking the padlock again, throwing me million steps away from my escape. I screamed and bashed myself against the glass again, wanting to tear their throats apart. The pirates who came here initially to kill me snapped out of their dazes and looked around them frightened, bodies shaking as one of them started crying. I snarled and whipped my tail at the glass, making them jump.

“What were you doing here?” The Captain demanded to know, voice commanding. The three pirates lowered their eyes to the ground, shaking their heads and saying nothing. I glared at them, hissing when they wouldn’t state their reasons. My pirate noticed my anger and looked at me, approaching the glass cage. I refused to look at him, he once again stopped me from escaping.

“I asked a question!” The Captain shouted and the men shook their heads again, bodies shaking. I went to take fresh air again, lungs beginning to burn from exhaustion and my eyes fell on the Captain. If my Siren song couldn’t cause chaos, my words definitely would.

“They were here to kill me.” All heads whipped in my direction, shocked at the hear of my voice. It wasn’t as majestic as my voice when I sung, it was rather husky and scratchy, my throat currently burning too.

“She can speak?” One of the pirate’s who came down with the Captain wondered out loud, dumbfounded as he looked at me. But that was all I would say.

“Of course, she can.” The familiar pirate spoke up softly, eyes finding mine, “The only difference between a mermaid and a human are the tail and legs, San.”

The pirate looked at me as if asking for confirmation, but I just averted my eyes, disgusted by his attempt of making conversation with me. I was not a mermaid, I thought that was clear by now.

“Judging by your current positions and your missteps in the past,” The Captain spoke up, jaw clenched and eyes glaring down at the three pirates, “I’m ought to believe the monster.”

These humans were the real monsters, not me, “She’s not a monster!” My pirate snapped; eyebrows furrowed as he looked at me. Why was he defending me? What was it in for him?

“Whatever, Jongho,” The Captain muttered tiredly, “Takes these three to my office, I’ll take care of them.”

And just like that, one by one, all pirates retreated back to their previous activities, neither throwing a second glance my way. All except one. The one I tried to kill, the one that tried to kill me, my pirate. He lingered behind, almost by the stairs when suddenly he ran up to the glass cage, tapping the window softly. My eyes pierced into his as I glared at him, snarling.

“My name is Jongho,” He said cautiously, almost afraid to do so, “And yours?”

Siren’s names were sacred, so I huffed amused and turned around, ignoring his burning gaze on the back of my head. I refused to let him know my name. Realizing he wouldn’t get an answer, he walked off, notebook already opened as he made his way up the steps, a pen in his hand. He was peculiar. His resentment towards me was very obvious, yet his eyes held fascination each time he looked at me. I couldn’t decide whether he wanted to kill me or protect me.

And it only became more confusing as the week went by and this pirate continued to approach me more than once a day, talk to me, ask me questions. I didn’t answer him, I didn’t even listen to him at most times, glaring and imagining all the ways I would rip his throat out during the next full moon. I couldn’t bear being in this cage anymore. My bones were aching, my tail was numb from not using it for so long and the smell inside started making me nauseous. The circles allowing the air inside seemed to be getting smaller, suffocating me rather than offering fresh air. I was slowly going mad, banging against the glass, desperately trying to break it. I needed to get back into the sea, I had to save myself.

            Two more days passed by barely, nothing happening as the pirates carried on with their usual shenanigans. My pirate, Jongho, as he had called himself, seemed to be glued to the glass cage, refusing to even sleep in his usual place, afraid someone would try to attack me again. I didn’t understand his concerns and why he was going out of his way to keep me safe when it was clear he hated me for what I did to him. I hoped he knew I would do it again, no feelings of any sort tying us together. A soft-spoken pirate, whom I noticed would check up on Jongho’s wound from time to time, seemed to be the only one able to convince the pirate to retreat to his quarters and leave me alone, scared for his safety. Jongho refused him numerous times at the beginning, but when the strikingly handsome pirate interjected with their conversation, Jongho finally seemed convinced enough to leave me alone. I couldn’t have been more thankful for the two for making the man leave, I have had enough of him. He talked a lot. He asked a lot of questions. But I also noticed he muttered a lot to himself whenever he was working on the maps, making strange lines with some sort of pencils and rulers. His eyebrows were always furrowed when he watched the stars with his binoculars at night, checking the direction of the wind every half an hour. If something seemed to confuse him, he’d curse to himself quietly and would start from the beginning, never giving up. The other pirates seemed to rely on him a lot, I figured that he was probably their navigator, his father helping him out from time to time. The two seemed to be quite close, often helping each other out. Jongho’s father was repulsed by me, it was quite obvious, and he screamed at his son often for not staying away from me, scared that I would bewitch him again, but Jongho remained persistent and kept on insisting that someone needed to keep an eye on me and who was better than him? Apparently, he knew everything about my species there was to know. I highly doubted that as all these stupid pirates seemed to think I was a mermaid, but Jongho was right in one thing. He somehow became immune to my Siren song, blocking his mind from my melody’s allure. I did not know such thing was possible, and even Jongho seemed surprised at his discovery. The thick notebook was with him at all times, and I found him doodling something in it while sneaking glances at me. I did not want to know what it was, I just wanted to be free.

And it seemed like my wish would become reality faster than I thought so. Except, it wasn’t exactly in the way I imagined it to be. And it just so happened on the night Jongho decided to finally leave me alone. But that was perhaps better, because I was woken from my slumber to the violent rocking of the boat, and fireballs flying in the air. I watched with wide eyes as a fireball flew over the deck, dangerously close, yet missed anything important. I didn’t understand what was happening until all the pirates ran up on deck, each holding weapons of all sorts in their hands. Most were shotguns and the tall one who took Wooyoung away seemed to be the one in charge of all the gunners. He was shouting orders left and right, instructing the rest of the men when to fire and when to duck down. He seemed to be the most skilled as his shots never missed their target. When another fireball wheezed through the air it crashed into the mizzenmast and broke it in half, sending flying wood all over the deck; I finally realized the ship I was on was under attack. An enemy was trying to kill us. I started laughing bitterly as a pirate screamed, his clothes caught on fire, barely believing that I would die from getting attacked by an enemy ship. It was the most hilar thing in the whole four seas and four kingdoms, I couldn’t believe it was real. Well, if I had luck, then I would die and if I was unlucky, then I’d be taken by the enemy ship and either sold off or killed on the spot. My future didn’t seem too bright at the moment and I found myself laughing at the chaos unfolding around me. I was right in the middle of it, yet remained safer than anyone else on this ship. I watched as the pirates protected their ship fiercely, the captain and two other men on his right and left, leading their crew and throwing small things overboard, them exploding once they landed on the other ship. I figured they were some sort of explosives; I have never seen them with my own eyes. I watched two men trying to fix the damages at lightning speed, one was the soft-spoken man, thought he was called Yeosang, and the other one seemed smaller than a regular man, but it wasn’t my place to question their appearance. I watched Jongho do his best in getting the ship away from the enemy as fast as he could, Wooyoung next to him, barking orders, pulling on several ropes as he was trying to fix the sail of the mizzenmast. Another hard rock of the ship sent the pirates tumbling down and I crashed into the glass rather aggressively as one rope holding the cage stable broke. I watched wide eyed as nobody paid attention to me, a siren being least of their concerns right now. And to my utter shock, three bullets came flying into the glass, but it was so thick that they remained stuck in it. I watched amazed as a thin crack ran from one of the bullet holes down to the bottom of the glass. This was my chance to free myself. Nobody was paying attention; nobody was here to stop me. Freedom was just a few steps away. So, gathering all my energy, I started throwing myself against the glass, groaning and panting when the little crack didn’t seem to expand. I was growing frustrated and I screamed and I whipped my tail against it with all the force I had left in my body, but nothing happened. I felt helpless, useless, and defeated. Cannonballs going off from underneath us deafened the humans on the deck for a second, my sensitive ears started ringing. I have never cried in my life before, but for the first time, I felt a lump in my dry throat, squeezing and squeezing. I had to try once again, get out of this prison. So, once again, I banged my tail against the glass, letting out a frustrated wail as nothing happened. The cannons went off again, shouts coming from all directions on the deck, and then something miraculous happened. The Heaven’s listened to my cry of help.

The glass started breaking more, the little crack growing, expanding all over it. I took a deep breath and held it for a second, placing my hand against the broken glass, lightly pushing it, not expecting much. But it broke. To a million of pieces, the salty water crashed against the floorboards and so did I, falling face first onto it. I gasped loudly, my heart beating fast as the muffled screams and shouts loudly enveloped my surroundings all of a sudden, the rocking of the ship more violent and real, now that I wasn’t confined inside the glass cage. The chilly air hit my skin like rocks, and I gasped for air, lungs filling to the brim with clean and fresh air. Breathing has never felt so good before. I couldn’t believe I was free. I didn’t even notice the shards cutting into my skin as I pushed up onto my forearms, wincing at the sudden pain shooting up my tail. My numb body was finally able to move, I could finally stretch out. I could finally escape. But as I started crawling towards a hole in the side of the ship, the pain in my tail became more and more unbearable, making me let out a painful scream. It paralyzed my whole body and I started shaking, scratching at the scales covering my body, itching terribly. What was happening to me? Was it because I was out of fresh water for so long? Was I dying? And as the pain became unimaginable, veins showing through my translucent body, head thumping and eyes popping out of its sockets, my body started convulsing. I couldn’t control it, all I could do was take it in, accept it, and scream. But my throat was so raw, no sound made it out anymore. I wanted to reach the water; I needed it. The Sea would heal me, the Sea would save me. Something started streaming down my cheeks and I would’ve laughed if I could’ve, I was crying. Sirens never cried.

And as my back arched of the floor, hands clawing at anything they could, it all stopped suddenly. My mouth was open, about to let out a gut-wrenching scream, but it all stopped. It just…stopped. The pain. It went away. As suddenly it came, as suddenly it went. I was gasping for air, touching my face and neck. Something felt wrong. My body…felt heavier. My tail…I couldn’t feel it. So shooting up in a seated position, I screamed at the sight. My tail was gone and instead two dangling abominations took its place. I had legs! I started shaking my head, muttering no to myself over and over again, pinching the skin and crying out when it hurt. I could feel them, but I couldn’t move them. They were so heavy I didn’t think I could even stand. How was this possible? Where did my tail go? Was I no longer a Siren anymore? My heartbeat picked up at the thought again, and I turned around, eyes falling on the sea through the hole. I needed to get into the water right now. But as I wanted to turn around and continue crawling, a burning wooden plank from the mizzenmast broke off, plummeting straight towards me. So, this was it, I would die on a pirate ship as a human, bringing shame to my people. I closed my eyes, unable to save myself, awaiting the excruciating pain, the heat of the fire, but it never came. Before the burning plank could kill me, a body crashed into mine, making me yelp, as we tumbled to the side, tangled together. I lightly hit my head in a barrel and groaned, my body feeling numb from the torment it went through in the past few minutes.

“Why wouldn’t you jump away if it’s falling straight at you—” The panicked voice stopped screaming suddenly, pushing themselves off me, “It’s—you?”

I turned my head and came face to face with a shocked Jongho, wide eyes running over my body before he stiffened and his face became red. He suddenly stood and ripped his long coat off of himself and threw it down on me, turning away, “Put that on.”

Despite the chaos going on around us, I looked down confused and realized I was totally naked, oh. I chuckled, finding the whole situation hilarious as I pulled Jongho’s coat over myself, mimicking the way he wore it.

The blast going off not too far away from us sent Jongho into action, making me gasp and tense, when one of his arm’s went around my torso and the other underneath my now, legs, more specifically knees. I started pushing Jongho away as he held me firmly in his arms, baring my teeth at him, about to sink them into his neck, but he threw me a glare and hissed, “Stop it, will you! I’m trying to save you!”

His words made me freeze and I stared at his profile as he ran around the pirates, avoiding bullets and explosions as he brought us to relative safety, having run down the steps, placing me down next to them. It seemed like I weighed nothing to him, he showed no signs of struggle to hold me despite my heavy good for nothing legs.

“Stay here until I come to get you.” He pointed a finger at me and hesitated for a second, until I nodded at him. Where could I even go? I couldn’t walk or run like him. My legs weren’t usable, they were an abomination, turning me into a freak I never was. I allowed my thoughts to take me away from the reality I found myself in, tunning out the battle sounds, cries and shouts. All I wanted was the sea and my tail back.

            I had no idea for how long it lasted. Or how many died. Or if anyone even won. What was the reason of this attack? All I knew was Jongho coming back and lifting me up in his arms again, as if I was a feather, taking off towards another set of stairs. I held onto him tightly, watching his clenched jaw, his skin glistening with sweat and eyebrows furrowed. I had no idea where he was taking me or what he’d do to me, but I had no energy in me to fight back. I was even more useless now that I had legs. The ship seemed to have quieted down, no more screams and shouts, no more cries of pain, no more gunshots and cannonballs. The fight was over.

Jongho kicked a door open with his foot, and my eyes took the room in quickly, figuring it was a living quarter of sorts. There was a bed fit for one person, a huge desk littered with maps, notebooks, books, pencils and pens and ink. The floor next to the desk had even more rolled up papers, maps and books. There was a closet too, not too big, and next to it a wooden chair. The tiny window allowed me to see the moon, and I sighed as Jongho placed me down on the bed. It felt weird, the texture underneath my legs. It was soft and it didn’t hurt me. I touched it with my fingers, eyebrows furrowing.

“That’s called a blanket.” Jongho muttered as he started unbuttoning his shirt which was covered in dirt, sweat, and even blood. My eyes pierced him, watching carefully his every move. He turned around before opening his shirt, obscuring my eyes from the sight of his torso as he walked to his closet, opening it. He pulled out a clean looking shirt and dropped the one on him onto the floor, the muscles of his back showing. He was well built and strong looking, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that he carried me so easily. The view was gone as Jongho pulled the black shirt over his body, doing the buttons up to his chest. He grabbed another shirt from the closet and walked closer, his eyes watching me carefully. He was wary, as he should be. I was also wary of him; I couldn’t know what he’d do to me if I didn’t stay alert.

“Put this on,” He spoke up, handing the shirt to me, “I’ll be right back. You need more fitting clothes of which I don’t have.”

And with that, he turned around and quickly left, not closing the door fully. I stared at the shirt for a few seconds before deciding to put it on, the coat currently on me offering no warmth, I was freezing all of a sudden. I mimicked Jongho’s actions, pulling the shirt over my back once the coat was off, pushing my arms through the sleeves of the shirt, and one by one started doing the buttons. They seemed a little difficult at the beginning, but I got the hang of it as Jongho came back inside, eyes falling on me. Since I didn’t know how much I should button up, I stopped at my chest, looking up at Jongho when he cleared his throat.

“That’s too low for you.” He muttered and placed the soft looking garments in my lap, hands going to the buttons of my shirt. I recoiled and he pulled away quickly, holding his hands up, “I’m sorry, but you should do two more buttons.”

I just stared at him, with no intention of doing what he just told me, making Jongho sigh. He slowly approached me again, hands going to the buttons, letting him touch me this time as he made quick work and did the two buttons he said I should do. My eyes fell on his chest, on the black pearl he had on the string around his neck. As he went to step back, my hand flew out swiftly, gripping the pearl and stopping him. Jongho froze and fell forward a little when I tugged on the pearl, examining it from up close. He was hovering over me, arms in the air once again, eyes looking at the wall as my nose scrunched after smelling the pearl. It seemed to be authentic, and it was a black pearl. Those were really rare.

“My father and I used to be fishermen when I was younger,” Jongho spoke up, making me look up at him, “I like collecting pearls, that’s why I have this one. It’s rare.”

I nodded and slowly released the pearl, eyes never leaving Jongho’s. He gulped and pointed at the things in my lap, “There’s undergarment and pants, you should put them on.”

I looked down at them and gripped them, holding them up to my face. There was a thing which seemed to be smaller than the other one.

“The smaller one is to protect your genitals, and the other is to cover your legs. They are called pants.” Jongho explained as I had no idea what I was supposed to do with these, and looked back at him, but he had already turned around. I frowned, not quite understanding why. I placed the pants on the bed next to me and held the smaller ones up, looking down at my legs. How did I even moves these things? I bit my lower lip, trying to lift them, at least one of them, but they weren’t moving. Why? They must work like arms, so I tried again, but they didn’t even lift an inch off the bed. I groaned frustrated, but Jongho remained with his back facing me.

“I can’t—” I croaked out, embarrassed, “I can’t put it on.”

Jongho sucked in a breath, “Why?”

“I don’t know how to move my legs.” I whispered; eyebrows furrowed as I stared down at my lap. Jongho whirled around, eyes wide and a shocked expression decorating his face. He seemed embarrassed, as if what I just said was normal.

“I didn’t think you’d—I’m sorry.” He apologized, making me look at him confused, “Of course, you don’t know how to move them…may I help?”

I bit my lip and contemplated a little, nodding at last. I wouldn’t be able to do it without help, if he was offering it then I would take it. He seemed a little reluctant and hesitated when I reached my hand out holding the smaller pants, his eyes avoiding mine as I looked at him. He took it and then got down on his knees, fist clenching before his hand touched my calf. I gasped and gripped the blanket on the bed, skin very sensitive on my legs.

“I’m sorry!” Jongho apologized quickly, looking at me with a panicked look in his eyes.

I cleared my throat, “The skin is sensitive, that’s all.”

He looked at me for a second, before nodding and proceeding with his previous actions. He lightly touched my left calf before gripping it, his cold skin making goosebumps erupt all over my body. The feeling was new, unknown, intriguing. I watched as he tried to avoid skin contact as best as he could as he placed my legs through the holes of the small pants and then started pulling them up my legs, stopping bellow my thighs. He gulped and his eyebrows furrowed before he looked up at me, face flushed.

“I can’t—I can’t pull it all the way up if you’re sitting.” He seemed flustered; I did not understand why.

“Well, I can’t stand up.” I muttered, and Jongho nodded, seeming to think for a second.

“I’ll support you and then you can pull it up yourself.” I nodded at the solution and watched as he gulped again, his finger lightly grazing my thigh as he stood, gripping my forearms before he helped me up. I tried to stand on my own feet, but they weren’t working, without Jongho’s support I would’ve fallen. I gripped the smaller pants and pulled them up until they allowed me to, noting how Jongho was looking over my head, eyes never falling on me. These legs weren’t long enough as I appeared to be a lot shorter than him. I cleared my throat and he glanced down at me cautiously before sitting me back down and doing the same with the real pants this time, these being a struggle a little bit as they were tighter. The feeling was totally new, warmth covered my whole body, finally I stopped shivering. The pants seemed comfortable enough as they hugged my legs and I touched the fabric, hardly believing that I was wearing one. The silence was interrupted as hurried footsteps ran down the hallway, nearing the room we were inside, and the door was kicked open. I jumped at the loudness of it, eyes falling on seven other men. They were the same men that came up onto the deck the night those three pirates tried to kill me. The Captain stepped inside, followed closely by the strikingly handsome one, and the others seemed to push each other around in order to see inside the room. It was a peculiar image as one of them cried out before kicking the other one for biting them in order to get them out of the way. Did humans also bite each other? To my knowledge, they didn’t feed off of blood.

“Where’s the mermaid—”

“Hongjoong, I told you she’s not a threat—”

“Is that the mermaid?” The Captain asked horrified once his eyes fell on me. I looked at him with a glare, fed up with them using the wrong term about my species.

“I’m not a mermaid.” I snapped, flashing my sharp teeth at them, “I’m a Siren.”

There seemed to be a moment of silence filled with shock before the man standing behind the Captain spoke up, “Where’s your tail?”

I scoffed, slapping my thigh, instantly regretting it as pain shot through my muscle, “I would like to know that too.”

The Captain walked closer, grabbing my chin tightly, making Jongho protest, “Don’t be smart now, monster, what did you do to your tail?”

I slapped his hand away and hissed, annoyed that this man wasn’t afraid of me anymore, “I cut it off.”

I heard chuckles coming from the doorway, the other seven men looking at each other amused as Jongho seemed unimpressed and the Captain, drew his sword out, “Your legs will be the ones cut off—”

“Captain,” The strikingly handsome one spoke up calmly, placing a firm grip on the Captain’s shoulder, “I think she’s honest. She made no attempt to walk away from the falling plank back on the deck, meaning she’s never had them before”

The Captain huffed and placed his sword away, shaking the other man’s hand off himself, “Then where is her tail, Seonghwa?”

The two men looked at each other, but the handsome one, Seonghwa, shook his head, “I do not know, Hongjoong, I did not see what happened.”

Silence fell over the room, everyone confused as to how to proceed, until Jongho spoke up, “She could be shapeshifter. They have a tail in water and legs on land—”

“I’m a Siren.” I snapped, shooting him a glare.

“Is this your first time out of the water?” He asked and I looked away as I nodded, not too happy about admitting to personal things about myself in front of a pirate crew.

“You could be a shapeshifter siren, then—”

“Ten seconds ago you still thought I was a mermaid.” I threw Jongho a glare and he sighed, massaging his forehead.

“That is not exactly true,” He tried to defend himself, “Based on my studies you exhibited no behavior of mermaids, so I knew you were something else—”

“Mermaids aren’t even real—”

“Enough!” The Captain exclaimed and both Jongho and I shut up, looking at the wall, “I don’t bloody care what you are, just get that tail back so I can sell you.”

I snarled at the Captain and would’ve clawed his eyes out if I could walk to attack him, “Everyone, get back to your posts, we have a long night ahead of us to fix the damage Lee Yuri left behind.” The Captain’s mouth twisted, seemingly disgusted at the mention of the woman, his expression annoyed. Everyone yelled a ‘Ai, Captain, ai’, and then started leaving, but Jongho was stopped from doing so.

“Not you, mermaid boy, keep an eye on your monster.” The Captain said, holding him back from leaving the room. I sighed at the use of that term again, fed up with it.

“She’s a Siren, not a monster.” Jongho muttered as the Captain left too, slamming the door shut behind him. I looked at Jongho and he sighed, looking at me.

“You can sleep meanwhile I check the maps; I promise not to touch you without your consent.” Jongho said as he walked closer, making my eyebrows furrow.

“I’ll bite your finger off if you touch me while I sleep.” I threatened menacingly, making Jongho chuckle as he helped me lay down.

“I do not doubt that.” He whispered more to himself, pulling the blanket over my body, the feeling foreign. The bed felt comfortable. Very warm and cozy. It also smelled like salt water; it reminded me of the sea I missed so much. I sighed and closed my eyes, my back facing Jongho as he sat down at his desk, papers shuffling.

“You can call me Y/N.” I found myself whispering, making up a name on the spot. I would never let a pirate know my real name. Jongho hummed and said nothing, the sound of scribbling resounding in the room. The soft rocking of the ship quickly lulled me to sleep.

            Time moved faster than the ship we were on, slowly, we were approaching the Sun Set Kingdom. You could see the shore in the distance, it would take around three more days to reach the mainland. I couldn’t ignore my feelings of distress whenever the topic was brought up by Jongho, who by the way, kept me prisoner in his room. Everyone else seemed afraid of me, not forgetting that I was still a Siren as a few days ago the tall pirate, who’s name I learned was Mingi, mocked me that I was a regular human now, so, I almost made him jump into the shark infested water, proving it to them that I was still a Siren. Jongho was rather appealed each time someone called me a monster, defending me, leaving me confused each time. He seemed to have gotten used to my presence in his room and spent most of his time with me willingly, either scribbling in that thick notebook of his, silence engulfing us, or he would ask me outrageous questions about my life. I rarely answered him, throwing him a glare each time he’d bring up the Siren topic, which he seemed to be obsessed with. Despite my protests, he also started feeding me fish, seemingly thinking I was some sort of pescetarian…that is until I threw up on him, he finally stopped playing smart with me. After that I explained, once again, that I only ate during the full moon and my meal was human flesh and blood, not fish. Those were my favorite’s and anything else made me sick. Jongho seemed terrified a little bit when he learned this information, muttering something as he started writing in his thick notebook. I started figuring out that he was probably noting down everything I said, it was probably his diary. His father, however, hated me and had a knife pointed at me each time we crossed paths, saying that he’d slash my throat if I dared to lay a finger on his son. To my amusement, I told him that I had to touch Jongho quite often as I couldn’t move on my own, almost getting my head cut off if it wasn’t for the Captain screaming at the man to stop. They were still trying to figure out how to get my tail back, and it was rather hilarious as I sat on top of a barrel, watching the men throw ideas at each other.

“Here,” The smallest looking pirate approached me, handing me a dark colored fabric, “They are undergarments, Jongho told me he borrowed one from me. You can’t have just one though.”

I took in the pirate’s appearance, the long curly hair and feminine voice confusing. Her hair was a vibrant red and her lips were plump, a little gap between her two front teeth as she smiled at me brightly, “What are you?”

The pirate chuckled, looking at a man who was carrying a list in his hands, checking the barrels on the deck, immersed in his job, “You’re quite brazen, aren’t you?”

“Am I supposed to be any other way?” I asked confused, not quite understanding this weird pirate. They just shook their head, pulling the bandana wrapped around their head off.

“I’m a woman.” I watched her open her shirt, showing the fabric wrapped around her breasts, flattening her chest. I knew she wasn’t a man, her voice too soft and face not as harsh as a man’s.

“Then why are you pretending you’re not one?” The woman chuckled as she buttoned her shirt up, making eye contact with the man checking the barrels. His lips pulled into a soft smile, eyes lingering on her for a second too long.

“It’s a long story, but I’m not pretending anymore.” She explained, reaching her hand out, “My name is Taeri, by the way.”

I looked at her out stretched hand and nodded, not quite understanding what I was supposed to do. She chuckled amused and took my hand, making me hiss, and shook it, “Don’t hiss at me and introduce yourself.”

I snatched my hand out of hers, not understanding her weird gesture, “Stop commanding me, my name is Y/N.”

Taeri ignored my words and stepped away, looking around on the deck, “Can you walk?”

“Not without support, Jongho’s been trying to teach me but I don’t want to walk.” I muttered, crossing my arms in front of my chest as my eyes fell on the mentioned pirate, he was checking his map again.

“You’re lucky you’ve got Jongho,” Taeri said quietly as she leaned closer to me, “The others wouldn’t treat you so kindly.”

“I do not care how I’m treated,” I snapped, eyes glaring at the woman, “I belong in the sea, not on land, but your Captain is hungry for a prize he will never get. I am worth more than anything in the four seas and four kingdoms.”

Taeri chuckled patting my cheek, making me pull my head away, “I like a woman who knows her worth.”

Before I could say anything else, she stalked away towards the pirate who had stopped checking the contents of barrels, and they started conversing as the man pulled her slightly closer to himself by her waist. I watched their interaction closely, noting how comfortable they seemed to be in each other’s proximity. The woman didn’t flinch at his touch, she even seemed to be enjoying it. The man was smiling at her and he adjusted her bandana before grabbing her hand and pulling her with him, headed towards the stairs leading downstair. Human connections seemed more complex than the Siren ones. That couple appeared to be…quite fond of each other.

“It’s time for your daily walking lesson, Y/N.” I jumped at Jongho’s voice being close to me, having not noticed him approaching me. I looked at him, analyzed his stance, and noted how relaxed he seemed. He was smiling as he extended one hand, even looking excited. I couldn’t exactly understand why this man seemed so amazed by me, always watching me closely, and paying attention to everything I said or did. He always apologized if he touched me unannounced and kept asking me if I was alright while he did so. I didn’t like people standing too close to me, but Jongho’s constant questions were irritating as I found myself more accepting of his proximity. He wasn’t as bad as the loud pirate he seemed to work with the most, Wooyoung. The first time he tried to touch me, I punched him in the face and ever since he’s been glaring at me whenever we made eye contact. I wasn’t some sort of animal put on display for others to touch or talk to whenever bored.

However, the little freedom I seemed to have was quickly taken away a few nights ago as I had attacked Jongho while he was asleep. I had warned him before, that if he ever fell asleep around me, I would attack him, but apparently he thought I was joking. I found it rather annoying as the Captain placed handcuffs around my wrists, securing me against the leg of the desk Jongho had in his room. He growled at me that he’d kill me if I dared to harm his crew even once more, making me chuckle as I started humming, warning him that I was still a Siren, and I could still make them do whatever I wanted to. Jongho had started training them in how to block the Siren song from getting to them, but the Captain seemed to still have trouble with it, so I loved antagonizing him. The attack I conducted on Jongho which led to my current predicament was a mere experiment, I felt like checking if I still had it in me. I was woken from my slumber by loud snores coming from the desk behind me, and when I turned around, I found Jongho with his head on the desk and eyes closed. I watched him, confused by the sounds he was making, until I realized it was probably snoring. He looked serene in his sleep, body fully relaxed. I could’ve easily ripped his throat out, so enticed by the thought, I found myself sitting up. I still couldn’t walk on my own, these legs were just too heavy for my body, but if I leaned against a wall and held myself up, they worked pretty fine. The were still sensitive and my feet would hurt if I stood on them for too long. I didn’t know having legs was this exhausting. After I reached Jongho, surprised that he didn’t wake up as I crashed into the wall and even fell a few times due to the rocking of the ship, I leaned my head close to his. I gripped the desk tightly, eyes trailing his smooth skin, missing my own being like that. My body was doing a lot better than I expected out of water, but it felt dirty and extremely dry. Drinking water strangely seemed to hydrate my skin though. Jongho sighed loudly in his sleep and my eyes fell onto his neck, the scar of my teeth never disappearing. The wound has healed, but the scar remained. I had a scar on my neck too because of him, at least we were sort of even. Jongho’s eyebrows furrowed and suddenly his eyes opened, making me take action. As he stood up straight, I gripped his neck and squeezed it, snarling at him as his eyes widened. He looked confused as he tried to pry my fingers off himself, making me chuckle. When I showed him my sharp teeth, his body tensed and suddenly he jumped up, twisting my wrist with one hand, making me hiss in pain. I couldn’t exactly react as he gripped my neck and suddenly my head was pinned against his desk, cheek getting squished.

“What in the Heavens are you doing?!” Jongho snapped, voice laced with fury and bewilderment.

“I told you I’d kill you if you fell asleep while I was in the room.” Jongho chuckled amazed, unbelieving what he was hearing. I smirked, but it was quickly wiped off as the door opened and his father walked in. He quickly created a big scene, totally unnecessary, and ten minutes later I was chained against a desk, forced to sit on the floor as the chains weren’t long enough to reach the bed. Hongjoong said if I behaved like an animal then I’d be treated like an animal, and after that I barely saw Jongho anymore, Taeri being the one checking up on me from time to time. She said we’d dock down soon, making me nauseous. That meant I was dying soon.

            I had fallen asleep after Taeri’s visit, head resting against the wall as my lower back seemed a little numb from always sitting. This human like body was a rather painful experience. My head banged against the wall and I woke with a start, startled by the screaming coming from above me. My eyebrows furrowed as I looked around, and realized the ship was rocking terribly from side to side. Something wasn’t right, I could feel it in my bones. I quickly looked outside through the window and saw darkness covering the sky, rain falling rapidly. We had run into a storm. I looked around the room, realizing there were very low chances of survival on this ship, so I needed to leave now. I could use my legs this time, support myself against the wall, and just jump into the water. I had no idea what would happen if I did so, but I hoped I’d get my tail back. I tugged on the chains, but obviously they were too strong for me to break, and suddenly, my eyes traveled up to Jongho’s desk. Underneath all the papers, a shiny thing peaked out. The key. I gasped and leaned up, grabbing it, and hurriedly undid the chains around my wrists. I smiled in victory, excited to finally leave these awful pirates behind, excited to return back home. I could hear the Sea calling me as I carefully stood, trying to find my balance despite the harsh rocking of the boat. It was hard, but I wasn’t about to give up.

Finding support in the wall was hard, but I found myself out in the hallway, half dragging myself half actually taking steps as I walked. It must’ve been a hilarious view, but it was the best I could use my legs. The shouts of orders got louder and louder as I made my way up the stairs, only being able to take one step at a time. My thighs were a little bit numb by the time I made it all the way up the two flight of stairs, feet aching. I did not understand how humans were able to stand on their feet all day long. I had to grip onto the railing tightly as the waves rocked the boat aggressively, struggling to stand up straight. I peaked my head through the corner and watched as the pirates tried to hold the sails still, the Captain trying to steer the ship away from the storm, but that was impossible. At this point, they had to ride it out, we were too deep in it. I took in the situation, wondering whether these men and Taeri would survive this storm, so close to the mainland, yet so far away. What a pity. But once again, I had to take advantage of the situation and I made my way onto the deck, the rain hitting my face, making me look up at the sky and laugh. I haven’t felt water on my skin in so long. It didn’t feel like the salty water that I have missed so much, but it still felt majestic. My clothes got soaked in mere seconds and I fell onto my knees as a wave crashed into us harshly. But I had to get up, so I did, I gripped a barrel and pulled myself up, eyes falling on the railing. I just had to get to it, and from then on, I was free. I have never been so close to freedom before. And so, I started taking baby steps, legs and core tense as I tried to keep my balance, having to forget about the support of other things around me as I had to cross through the middle of the deck. But as I was walking, amazed by myself, someone blocked my path making me look up at them, their breathing ragged.

“Good, you’re here,” The pirate shouted over the loud thunder, and my eyebrows furrowed, “The more the merrier! I need you to tie those barrels against the mainmast, fast!”

He pushed a thick rope in my hands and my eyebrows furrowed as I watched the pirate run off, helping his mates in need. He was the man Taeri seemed close with, his name was Yunho, she has told me. I felt frozen to my spot as I gripped the rope, eyes falling on the three barrels Yunho was talking about. I wondered if he realized that I was the Siren and just went on, asking for help. I did not understand why, but I found myself walking towards the barrels, the rope already wrapped around the mainmast, I just had to push the barrels closer to it and secure the rope around them. It was rather hard, I could barely walk, let alone push some heavy barrels. And yet, I found myself on my knees, pushing with my whole-body weight, groaning when the barrels barely moved and the rain made it hard to see, the waves constantly making me lose my balance. This seemed to be an impossible task and I stopped, catching myself. Why was I helping them? I was their prisoner. They deserved to die. They took me away from my home and they want to sell me. If anything, their deaths will only bring satisfaction, not an ounce of regret or sadness. So I stopped. I dropped the rope and pulled myself up, ears picking up on a frustrated cry. It was a familiar voice and I looked in their direction, eyes falling on Jongho. He was by the railing, pulling on the rope of the mizzenmast’s sail, as it had sprung free from its place. He was screaming at Wooyoung to bring five men and help him tie it back before the wind rips their sail apart. There were tiny rips in the main sail already, which wasn’t a good sign. I took one step, two steps, three steps, and suddenly, my body was thrown against the wooden floor, head crashing against the barrel I was holding onto. Suddenly, everything was hazy around me, voices muffled and head throbbing. I couldn’t feel my legs nor my hands as I gasped for air, blinking but not seeing. Panick seeped through my body, hard to breathe all of a sudden as I clawed at my neck.

“Hey, hey!” The voice shouting seemed to be at a distance and I felt something colder than the rain pressing against my cheeks, “Y/N, hey! Calm down, you’re alright!”

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut together, when suddenly I felt a light slap on my cheek, the person talking to me demanding me to open my eyes. My eyebrows were furrowed as I forced my eyes open, seeing but black dots covered everything; Yunho was the one holding onto me, “Take deep breaths!”

I did that and found my vision clearing a little bit, but it was still hazy. There were zero chances that I could stand up with the nausea I was feeling. I have never been this sick.

“Everyone get under deck!” Suddenly a strong voice shouted over the thunder, “Right now!”

People started abandoning their previous tasks as everyone hurried underneath deck, but Yunho stayed by my side. He figured I couldn’t walk and suddenly I was hoisted up, carried towards the stairs as he looked around frantically.

“Yunho!” A feminine voice called out behind us and Yunho turned around, letting out a deep breath.

“Come on, Taeri!” And the woman caught up to us and held onto Yunho’s bicep as the three of us left the deck, me confused about what was happening. The hallway was filled with the pirates, everyone panting and drenched.

“We can’t stay up there anymore, nothing we do can save the damage.” Hongjoong breathed out defeated, eyebrows furrowed, “All is left are the prayers.”

A deafening silence fell over the hallway, nobody saying anything as their fates sunk in. I gulped, suddenly feeling the doom looming over our heads. I would survive it; I was a Siren. But nobody else on this ship would. My eyes ran over the people’s faces, searching for only one. Jongho. He seemed nicer than anyone else on this ship. He treated me decently when everyone else called me a monster and was afraid of me. I found myself thinking about how he didn’t deserve a harsh death. He taught me how to walk. He tried to feed me; he brought me water. He dressed me up and always tried to keep his distance if it wasn’t necessary to be physically close. He told me stories of his life before he became a pirate, how his father and him would spend their days on a boat fishing. He loved pearls and even showed me his little chest filled with them, wanting to give me one but I didn’t want it. He was hardworking and dedicated, very good at his job. Yunho suddenly placing me down snapped me out of my thoughts and I realized how fast my heart was beating. I was scared…but not for myself. For Jongho.

“Where’s Jongho?!” And as if the Captain read my thoughts, he called out. Everyone started looking around frantically, checking who was standing next to them.

“Jongho?!” His father called out, pushing people aside as he looked for his son, eyes wide and frantic, “Where’s my son?!”

I gulped, doom settling in the pit of my stomach. Jongho wasn’t here. And he wasn’t on deck. And if he wasn’t here and there neither…he was in the water. I gasped and felt my body tense up as I grabbed onto the wall harshly and started moving without a second thought. I never knew legs could be this strong, they didn’t hurt as I found my balance without holding onto anything. I pushed the few people standing in my way aside, making eye contact with the Captain before I started hopping up the stairs. I couldn’t run, I still didn’t know how to move my legs accordingly, but this was the fastest I have ever moved. My legs carried me back onto the deck and my eyes settled on the water. There was nothing and nobody stopping me anymore from jumping in.

“What are you doing?!” I heard Hongjoong shouting after me as I gripped the railing, heart beating like crazy. The water has never looked more inviting than right now, and without a word, I found myself leaning over the railing, arms out stretched as I fell rapidly towards the water. I was smiling from ear to ear, waiting for the moment when my skin finally made contact with the water. And when it did, all my worries seemed to disappear. I gasped, bubbles surrounding my body and sticking to it, everything so much quieter underwater. My ears stopped ringing, my hair regained its glow and my skin felt new, clean, fresh. The heaviness bellow my waist disappeared and when I looked down, the ripped pieces of the pants floated away, my long and strong tail replacing my atrocious legs. I started laughing, tearing the shirt off my body, a lump in my throat forming. I was a Siren. My tail was back. I didn’t turn human. I was free. I started moving my tail, chuckling at how easily it moved, how light I felt again. But my moment of euphoria was interrupted by screams of help, making me turn around as my eyes fell on human legs. It was Jongho. And he was still alive. I swum over faster than ever, but when I tried to get onto the surface, a huge wave crashed against me and sent me deep underwater, away from Jongho. I shook my head and hissed, searching for him as I couldn’t see him anymore. My glowing eyes seemed to be of no help all of a sudden. I thought he was forever lost, swallowed by the depths of the sea, but I caught his body. Little bubbles left his mouth as he was being pulled deeper and deeper by the current. It looked like he wasn’t even fighting back, face almost serene as he accepted his fate. My heart clenched and I found myself near him in mere seconds, his eyes closed. I panicked, but knew it still wasn’t too late as I could hear his heartbeat now that I was back in the water. I grabbed Jongho’s cheeks, making his eyes fly open in shock, and pressed my lips against his. He didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to do, so I forced his lips open with my tongue and blew air inside his mouth, supplying his lungs with enough air for us to get to the surface. Jongho seemed be dumbfounded as I pulled away and wrapped my arms around him tightly, swimming towards the surface, feeling where the current tried to take us, but fought against it. Our heads popped above the water and Jongho took a deep breath, slightly choking as he started coughing and he clung onto me as I stared up at the tall ship.

“Kim Hongjoong!” I screamed as loudly as I could, allowing my Siren voice to carry it to the ship, above their deck. It didn’t take much for the Captain to look overboard and once again, I screamed, “Go to the kitchen window! I can hand him back through there!”

The Captain said nothing but I knew he understood as he disappeared from the railing, I looked at Jongho, who was smiling in awe at me, “Take a deep breath.”

He sucked in a deep breath and we submerged underwater again as I swum around the ship, towards the kitchen window. Jongho didn’t stop smiling and when I pushed him towards surface, he gripped my arms tightly and pulled me above water too, panting as he stared into my eyes deeply. I didn’t move as a wave hit us, but had to hold onto Jongho to keep him above the water, his body not strong enough to do so. The kitchen window wasn’t open yet, it took some time to get there from the deck. Jongho’s warm brown eyes were soft as he tried to push his hair out of his face, watching me.

“You’re so beautiful.” I felt my body warm up at his words, a little taken back by them. Despite knowing I was a beautiful creature, his words seemed to have an effect on me. I knew my eyes were glowing and my skin was almost translucent again, yet Jongho caressed my cheek and pulled me in. His warm lips were cracked from him biting them so much, but their plumpness made them softer than I imagined they would be. I found myself kissing him back eagerly, wondering where these desires were coming from. Our lips moved perfectly against each other; the waves not even capable of breaking us apart. Jongho held onto me tightly, lightly shuddering from the coldness of the water, holding my cheeks firmly. It felt overwhelming to be held like this, to have lips against mine, to have someone like Jongho call me beautiful. He was the beautiful one, in fact. I’ve never seen a human like him before. So joyous of what life had to offer him. Friendly and accepting despite the strangeness of my nature to him. When I pulled back, I couldn’t breathe properly. I never knew a kiss could steal your breath away. I gazed at Jongho starstruck and he chuckled, planting a shorter but strong kiss against my lips again. I suddenly wondered what love felt like. And if the person who loved you gave you kisses like Jongho’s all the time. How would Jongho be if he were in love with you? Sweet, attentive, and loving?

I could hear the pirates struggling to open kitchen window, they were annoyingly loud. I didn’t want our little moment to end, but I had to hand them Jongho. He was a human, and I was a Siren. We were creatures different from each other. Our lives had no future if intertwined. It was best to let go while you could.

“Sunmi.” I said to Jongho as I heard the window opening, “My name is Sunmi.”

Jongho’s eyes widened at the hear of my real name. One night, when he wouldn’t stop asking me questions, I decided to tell him that the name I told him to call me by was fake as Siren’s names were sacred and only their swarm knew them.

“We’re here!” I heard Hongjoong screaming from above us and I turned around, looking at them. Yeosang, who despite seeming so soft was awfully strong, was leaning out the window, being held by Mingi and Yunho. Hongjoong was also leaning out, held down by Seonghwa and the one pirate who thought I couldn’t speak, San. Jongho and I shared one last look before I swum him closer to his mates, raising him out of the water as best as I could, until Yeosang and Hongjoong were able to hold him by his arms.

“Goodbye.” Jongho mouthed to me and I smiled as I watched him being pulled back to safety, the window slamming shut once his body disappeared through it. I jumped back underneath, swimming further and further away from the ship, feeling the sea calling out to me, guiding me towards my home.

I knew one day Jongho would tell his children about his encounter with a Siren, and if they happened to follow their father’s footsteps and sailed out onto the Ragging Sea, I would make sure to save them if needed, like I have saved Jongho.

Next part (divider)

[stayevildarling]

Miranda Priestly x Wilhemina Venable x Reader- Dragon meets Purple, Part 3

word count: 2k

tw: hints of smut

taglist: @lunaticwhittaker, @billiebeanhoward, @lanawinters-ily, @kenzbro, @minaslittleone, @httpfiftyshadesofgay,@whitelotus00, @ninaahs, @vintagepaulson,@isle-of-earle,@paulsonsratched, @stepintomyworld, @grilledcheeseandguavajelly, @lucyintheskywithxanax, @fanfics4world, @mymiraclewitch, @hazard-to-myself, @awritersometime

Fast forward a couple of weeks and you had finally somewhat settled into your new job. Runway was demanding for sure, constantly being on your feet, having to assist Miranda's needs. Being bossed around by Emily. But somehow you loved it, the behind the scenes of all the fashion shows, the possibility of going to Paris and you didn't exactly mind your two direct bosses Ms Priestly and Ms Venable.

Today was a somewhat ordinary day, Miranda in meetings most of the day, an event she was attending tonight but alone as it was more of a dinner. It was a Friday and that usually meant you could leave a bit earlier.

It's currently around lunchtime and you know by now that Ms Priestly prefers her usual Starbucks by the time she gets back. Having finished your tasks for today, you make your way there, picking up everyones usuals before heading back to work.

As you return Emily wasn't there, assuming she is still at lunch with her friend Serena. You simply place her coffee on her desk before opening your bosses door, assuming she is still gone as her calendar is blocked another hour.

Opening the door, your breath gets caught in your throat as you see your boss sitting there with Wilhemina, both of them having lunch in Mirandas office.

,,I'm - I'm so sorry Ms Priestly and Ms Venable, I assumed you are out of the office for lunch'' you explain yourself.

,,Well you assumed wrong'' Miranda states, Wilhemina's eyes meeting Miranda with a certain sharpness in them.

,,I just have both of your coffees here'' you explain, quickly before placing them down. As you look at Ms Venable her eyes on your cleavage once again catches your attention. However you make sure you exit her office as quickly as possible before closing the door behind you.

As you return to your desk you exhale deeply and are met with Emily's judgy face.

,,Well..'' she looks at you with a raised eyebrow.

,,Anyway you will be in charge for the rest of the afternoon, I'm leaving early'' she explains, grabbing her things.

,,I have got myself a hot date for tonight'' she smiles excitedly, unaware that her boss could clearly hear her, as they just finished and opened the door.

Emily leaves before realising and you can't help but overhear the conversation that follows.

,,Ugh how come these young things can find dates and men so easily?'' Miranda sighs and purses her lips.

,,Why limit yourself to just men, lunch tomorrow?'' Wilhemina smirks before leaving.

Your heart pounds as you try to muster up your best smile for both of your bosses, slightly in disbelief of the statement you just heard as both Ms Venable and Ms Priestly are undeniably attractive.

-------

A few weeks later and Wilhemina never thought the innocent launch dinner invitation would lead to this. She finds herself in Miranda's townhouse. Miranda exiting the bathroom,wearing a loose fitting white shirt, the length of the shirt exposing her legs and Wilhemina can't help but stare.

As Miranda catches a glimpse of Wilhemina on her bed she can't help but smile. It had been going on for a few weeks, from Miranda being her boss, to not really being her boss anymore since Wilhemina worked in HR to being coworkers or friends? and suddenly more than that.

,,You look at me like you actually want me, which is more than what my ex husbands used to do'' Miranda suddenly exclaims, standing on the other end of the room, getting dressed.

,,Because I do'' Wilhemina speaks eventually, barely audible. She wasn't one to admit feelings and she certainly didn't quite understand what this was but there was something about Miranda she adored.

,,Ive told you we should keep this open, it will be better'' Miranda explains, combing through her hair.

The first time happened so quickly that neither of them really had time to process or think this through. The launch dinner invitation seemed to have kicked things off. It didn't go well and Miranda couldn't cope too well with the criticism she took for the spring collection.

,,There's no denying the job you do for Runway'' Irv had started at first but quickly adding ,,However we aren't happy with budgeting lately''.

Miranda simply averted her gaze, pursing her lips, having to sit through this dinner and listen to his ridiculous words. The tension in the air loomed with anger and just as Miranda was about to snap, Wilhemina suddenly entered the conversation with calm but strict words. ,,Budgeting has been better for Runway than ever before, plus the spring collection has made you more money than ever before''.

Miranda's head snapped towards the redheads, not expecting her to say much tonight and certainly not the words she chose as she actually managed to make Irv shut up and the conversation taking a different turn. Suddenly the redhead woman working as her assistant before but now in HR was utterly attractive to Miranda, and she wasn't one to be subltle about it either.

Somehow it kept happening, Miranda showing up in Wilhemina's office in the late hours of the night and them spending the night together. Maybe it was that shared loneliness that tied them together. Both of them knowing the other one would still be in the office, at whatever hour of the night. Or perhaps it's the way their personalities match and clash at times, binding them together. Wilhemina was stern but hidden behind several walls. Walls that built up over years, filled with pain and heartbreak. Miranda was stern and snappy but in a more open way. She didn't hesitate to make sarcastic comments all the time and let people know what she thinks of them. Maybe their sarcastic selfs were enough to make them a match. However Miranda felt for Wilhemina, her dedication despite the limits her body had put on her. Wilhemina therefore admired Miranda, leading a whole company that is usually dominated by males and Miranda not having a care in the world.

,,Certainly'' Wilhemina mumbles, before composing herself and getting changed.

-------

Today marks another week working for Runway and Ms Priestly. Another Friday, Miranda already gone at some dinner Runway thing, Emily again with her hot date she spoke about last week. It was late, everyone had left the building or so you assumed.

You didn't tell anyone but the last couple of nights you had spent in the office. You moved to New York with a job but no home, the housing market was crazy and despite your savings and all the right documents, you couldn't find a place. You couldn't make time for a viewing and the ones you attended on the weekend were either interrupted by Miranda or Emily needing something or someone already having put a deposit down. The first week and a half you stayed in a hotel, however due to some event in the city everything was booked out

You didn't have a lot of choices and so you put all your belongings with a luggage service and only kept one bag at work at all times. You exit the little kitchen behind your desk, after having heated up your ramen, before sitting back down at your desk, the only source of light, the New York sky illuminating from Miranda's office and your computer.

Despite thinking the building was empty as it already is way past midnight, Wilhemina is still in her office. She didn't usually stay this long but the conversations and situation with Miranda kept replaying in her mind like a broken record.

When both of them first started sleeping with each other, Wilhemina didn't think much of it other than a hookup, of course she had those in her life before. Relationships were however a stranger to her and when Miranda sat her down and talked about how it would be best if they kept this open, she felt a strange feeling in her chest. Heartbreak? Sadness? She wasn't sure. Miranda felt good, the time they spent together while having coffee, work related or in Miranda's bed felt good to Wilhemina.

After about a year she finally feels as if she had that private life, hobbies and people she cared about that she longed for before and ultimately drove her decision to come to New York. As she walks downstairs, on her way to the elevator she sees a light.

The redhead knows this can't be Miranda as she was at a dinner tonight, so she assumes someone had kept the light on. As she enters through the glass door, her eyebrow raises as she sees you, by your desk, in pink Victoria Secret button up pyjamas, the top buttons not done up all the way so the hem of your black bra showing slightly.

,,And what are you doing here?- in your pyjamas?'' she asks. Her voice causes for you to jump on your chair, almost dropping your ramen pot.

,,Oh my god Ms Venable'' you shriek ,,You scared me'' you exhale after catching your breath again.

,,I think you have some explaining to do Ms Y/N'' she states coldly. However her eyes not leaving yours or the hem of your bra for a single second.

,,Look Ms Venable I'm not from New York and I have been trying like crazy to find an apartment but I can't find one. I have been staying in a hotel but they had no availability left and so this has been where I have been sleeping the last couple of nights'' you explain, figuring honesty was best in this situation.

You had always been a quite confident and possible flirty person but somehow Miranda and Wilhemina and the whole Runway experience knocked your confidence. Usually you would have made some sort of joke, causing the other person to laugh but you knew Ms Venable was strict and so you didn't want to risk offending her.

Wilhemina isn't quite sure what to say. Part of her wants to fire you right there on the spot but then she is reminded of a younger version of herself, working out of the back of a van and spending countless nights in said van. A part of her wants to scold you or respond with some kind of sarcasm but somehow you caused for the redhead to be unable to form words which didn't happen often.

,,Collect your things'' she states coldly and your heart sinks at her statement.

,,I'm really sorry Ms Venable, please I really want to keep this job'' you beg.

,,I'm not firing you, I'm taking you home, come on'' she replies.

,,Oh you are?'' you can't help but smirk at her statement before quickly gathering your things. It takes you less than a minute to collect your things and change back into your work outfit from earlier that day.

As you make it to Wilhemina's car, you quite enjoy the drive, not having been able to see a lot of the city yet and despite it being night and dark it's mesmerising. Somehow you couldn't take your eyes off the redhead, her hands coated in Chanel purple gloves wrapped around the steering wheel. Her eyes focused on the road but sometimes betraying her and wandering to you.

You can't help but really take in her features, the shape of her face, her beautiful brown eyes, the glasses, the hair and just every single detail, every wrinkle, every detail.

,,Here we are'' she eventually says as she parks outside of her apartment.

As she unlocks the door, she shows you to the kitchen very modern and minimalistic, the living room looking more homey. You notice the knitting basket in the corner and smile internally. She points you to the bathroom and eventually the spare bedroom.

,,There is bedding and towels over there'' she explains.

,,Thank you so much Ms Venable, I'l make sure to keep looking for apartments tomorrow and I'm so sorry for the inconvenience'' you apologise.

She doesn't say anything and simply walks back to the kitchen so you can collect your bag.

,,Do you have any other questions?'' she asks as you bend to pick up your things.

Silence fills the room before you scan her features and decide to shoot your shot.

,,I do'' you state as you take a step closer to the redhead.

,,You know my eyes are up here right?'' you take a leap, praying you didn't misread the signs and the several times she had checked you out so far.

Unsure whether she was going to kick you out or possibly kill you, you stand still frozen in place. The older woman takes a couple of steps towards you and you close your eyes, hoping she wasn't going to slap you. To your surprise you suddenly feel a firm but soft hand on yours and just as you open your eyes your lips are met by hers.

You moan slightly into the kiss, thanking yourself internally for not reading this the wrong way.

[breakfastteatime]

Today's request is for @serena-darrin, who chose 'Are you okay?' (¬‿¬)

Sometimes, Cal wonders if the Force is punishing him, because of all the cabins he had to walk into on the entire Venator they’re scrapping, he’s stepped into a long-dead Jedi’s bedroom. It’s dark, the power long since cut, and yet that doesn’t stop Cal from seeing the single bunk identical to his own, a desk covered in study materials and the training tools, and a robe hanging over a locker. All of them are markers of a life torn away.

And now Cal’s got to gather it all up and throw it away.

The echoes in here hum and sing, voices bleeding into the present. He’s not getting through this without smashing into the past. It’s too loud, too demanding. First things first though. Cal sticks his head into the hallway. Good, no one’s coming. He blocks the door with the trash can anyway. Better safe than sorry.

He goes through the room carefully, tossing the training aids he wouldn’t be able to use anymore away, feeling the determination and pride clinging to them. His body wants to move with the memories, feel the satisfaction of perfecting a new skill. He still remembers how easily it all came to him compared to the others in his clan…

It hadn’t helped at all in the end. All that studying. All that training. For what? Master Tapal’s dead and the Jedi are gone.

Cal makes good progress, tossing the past into the trash. He knows this was a Padawan’s room, although she’d been far older than him and preparing for knighthood. Her life slips through his mind in a wash of emotion and chatter. She was so sure she’d pass the Trials, so excited for the end of the war and a return to peace. Cal throws away her mementos: a holoimage of her and her master with their troop, a carving depicting a bird Cal’s never seen before, a selection of pressed flowers, more clothing several sizes too large for him along with space for arms he doesn’t have… It’s all useless now. Anyone seen wearing it would probably be shot dead on sight.

The dead Padawan’s datapad lights up when Cal touches it, a half-finished message popping up. ‘Be back on Coruscant soon, according to Master Day. Can’t wait to see you! Maybe we’ll head to the lower levels and –’ Cal tosses the datapad into the trash. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. She’s dead. Her friend is dead. Their masters are dead. All the Jedi, except for Cal it seems, are dead.

Cal’s deep in the storage locker when he feels something unexpected buried under a pile of wrinkled robes. His hand slides under cloth, fingers closing around something cold. Metallic. Wrapped in leather.

“Master, I think it’s time.”

Master Day looks up at her, brown eyes crinkling with a smile. Not so long ago, it would have been the other way around, but she’s had a growth spurt and all the aches and pains have paid off. She is taller than her beloved master, and it is time for another change.

“My lightsaber hilts are simply too small. It is affecting my performance. With your permission, I would like to spend some time redesigning them.”

“Of course, Padawan. After all, I can hardly enjoy beating you in sparring if your lightsabers are so small they fall from your hand, and you burn yourself on the blades.”

She is nowhere near Master Day’s level, and such a thing will not be happening anytime soon. But someday, maybe… “Master, when I beat you at sparring, you will have to petition the Council to knight me on the spot.”

Master Day’s laughter is rich and full. “Young one, if you are still a Padawan by then, you will be the oldest to have ever lived.”

Cal breaks free of the memory. He can feel himself smiling, heart swelling with love and joy that do not belong to him. They fade steadily, leaving him in the dark with a pair of hilts that no longer house kyber crystals and the Jedi who built it long gone.

He tosses them in the trash and pretends it doesn’t tear something out of him to do so.

By the end of his shift, the cabin is empty, ready to be stripped tomorrow. Cal pushes his trash cart outside. Cold rain pelts him as he tips its contents into the ever-hungry Maw. He trudges back, ready to catch the train. Prauf’s there, and he waves him over. Cal joins him.

“Hey Cal.”

“Hi, Prauf.”

Prauf stares at him. “Are you okay?”

Cal shakes himself. Nothing can be done. The past is the past, and he must accept that. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He makes himself smile. “Long day.”

“Hah, ain’t it always!” Prauf pats him on the back. “C’mon, let me buy you a non-alcoholic beverage of your choice at the Rust Bucket.”

“Feeling flush?” Cal asks as the train pulls onto the platform.

“I wish! Nah, you look like you could use it.”

Cal blinks back a sudden rush of tears. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Prauf.”

“Attaboy. No booze though. I’m not dragging your drunken ass back home.”

“No booze,” Cal says, even though a few hours of oblivion sound pretty sweet. “You got it.”

[murasaki-cha]

Oh my god you read iseop's romance as well, I love you<3333 Serena and Iseop's romance are my favvv, I just wished I came across them once they're finished because I can't wait anymore😭

Fun fact the only exposure I'd had to Iseop's Romance prior to reading it was literally that one panel of Iseop with the cat ear filter. And that honestly was enough to get me sold on this webtoon and immediately put it in my tbr.

And I was bored during my history lecture one friday and decided to read it. I finished it in a day.

Coincidentally that same friday happened to be the day the last chapter of Eiser's backstory came out, which I read immediately after finishing Iseop's Romance. I will never be able to put into words the emotional whiplash I experienced that day

[bellaxgiornata]

Keep Coming Back to You (Chapter Two)

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader

Summary: Reader travels the multiverse hiding in different worlds from the one who is hunting her because of her ability. Over time, she realizes she keeps getting pulled back to Matt Murdock in his world. You can read the full summary and see the chapter list for this series here.

Warnings: 18+ for this series; angst, smut, horror, language, violence (possibly more warnings later)

Word Count: 4.1k

a/n: Finally sharing chapter two since chapter three is about written! I have no set schedule with updating this series so I'm not sure how soon I will be releasing chapter three yet. But enjoy college Matt and Foggy and the Matt POV we get slipped in here! You get more into Matt's head in the next chapter, too.

Your eyes took in the sight of Matt and Foggy’s dorm room as you stopped in the doorway, hesitating while both Matt and Foggy headed to either side of the room. There were two beds across from each other in the small space, one side of the room vastly neater than the other–you found that quite telling. Judging by the way the two men dressed, you figured you could guess whose side of the room was whose even without seeing which bed they sought out.

There were textbooks and notebooks scattered along the worn wood floor along with some food wrappers and empty potato chip bags. Your stomach gave a quiet, hungry grumble at the thought of food. Some thick stapled handouts were strewn about Foggy’s bed in a mess of paper haphazardly tossed along with his balled up sheets half hanging onto the floor. A few empty beer bottles decorated the nightstands beside both of their beds. A little ache formed in your chest as your eyes lingered on the clutter in the space before you, something hollow growing inside of you at the sight.

This was college life. Something you would never experience. You'd never even finished high school, too busy learning to survive in the post-apocalyptic world you'd been drawn into years ago after those three mean girls had been terrorizing you on the sidewalk. Nightmare 1 is what you'd taken to calling that place once you'd learned you could jump worlds. It was a terrible place and you found yourself pulled there against your will whenever you lost control, though mainly it was whenever you were really afraid. You'd spent years trying to control your emotions to avoid being pulled into that hellish nightmare world. 

You hadn’t really gotten to live much of a life. Growing up, you’d spent the entirety of it moving from foster home to foster home, never truly feeling wanted. Never forming real connections. The closest you’d gotten were those few years on Nightmare 1 with the small group of survivors you’d gradually begun to call family–until you’d inevitably had to leave them, too, to stay alive. And when you'd eventually returned a while later…most of them were gone.

Jealousy flared in your gut, your jaw clenching as your eyes landed on what must’ve been Matt’s backpack on the floor at the footboard of his bed. You would never get to have anything like this because you were always on the run. Never truly belonging anywhere. You didn't get to have possessions or friends or family. A significant other. A home or a bed. 

You didn't get to have a life. 

"Serena?" 

Your eyes darted to Matt when he'd called you by the fake name you'd spent years going by, the one you’d recently given him. Realizing your heart rate had elevated to an unsafe pace, you shoved those thoughts aside and tried to relax. You didn't need to get pulled to that place twice in such a short span of time. 

Standing just beside his bed, Matt held out a hand towards you with that friendly smile still spread across his lips under those dark glasses perched on his nose. In the dim lighting of their dorm room, you had to admit you found him attractive. Despite the dark hair neatly combed on his head, there were a few strands that had fallen onto his forehead. Your fingers itched to brush them back, wondering momentarily how soft his hair might actually be to touch. His smile was oddly disarming–which was what he clearly intended, but normally you didn’t fall for people’s attempts to pacify you. But somehow his charming voice and that warm smile were doing something to you, something you hadn’t felt since Kyle Felton. And that had been years ago. You eyed Matt cautiously when he spoke again, wary of him and the fact that he had such an unexplainably soothing effect on you.

"Are you going to let me look at your arm?" he asked you. "Or are you going to stand there bleeding in our doorway?"

Your brows furrowed at his words instantly. "How the hell do you know what I'm doing?" you asked him.

"I'm blind not deaf," he answered, his smile turning smug. "I can tell you stopped in the doorway." He pointed in your direction. “Your footsteps are a lot lighter than Fog’s.”

"He's weirdly good at that," Foggy told you as he sat on the edge of his bed, leaning back on his hands. "Throws me off sometimes, too."

Chewing your lip nervously, you continued to hover in the doorway uncomfortably. You hadn't wandered into anyone's space like this in years, even if you occasionally did rely on the help of others in the different worlds you found yourself in. Accepting help sometimes made things easier so you wouldn’t have to steal everything you needed to survive the times you found yourself in a city. You didn't need help outside of cities, though. You could take care of yourself in the wild, having learned survival skills years ago to get by. But as your gaze landed on Foggy sitting at the end of his bed shooting you a tight smile, one that showed you he was just as nervous about letting you in as you were about letting them in, you realized this felt different. You weren’t entirely sure why, but it felt almost like that day you’d met Lexi and that small group you’d come to consider the closest thing to family on Nightmare 1. 

You took a few tentative steps into the room, cradling your bleeding arm against your chest. When no one moved to attack you, your feet came to a stop before both beds. You stood there awkward and unsure.

"Fog, can you get me the first aid kit?" Matt asked, turning to face the direction of Foggy’s bed. "It's in the bottom right drawer of that dresser."

“Sure thing, man,” he answered. 

Foggy pushed off of his bed, your alert eyes watching as he made his way over to the dresser. Matt's hand reached down, his movement drawing your attention back to him as his fingers searched for a moment until they brushed along his mattress. He sat down on the edge of the bed, folding up his cane as he focused somewhere near you. You shrank back into yourself under his sightless stare behind those dark glasses.

"Do you uh,” he began, still trying to pacify you with his charming smile, “you think you can come sit down here so I can help with that arm?"

Nervously cradling your arm closer to your chest, you cautiously eyed him for a moment longer. He seemed safe enough, and as you glanced back over at Foggy, he was indeed pulling something like a first aid kit and not a weapon out of the dresser. Slowly you nodded at his question before you quickly realized he couldn't see what you’d just done. Feeling ridiculous, you whispered out an 'okay' before you carefully made your way over, sitting down a little away from him on the bed. 

Foggy crossed the few steps towards Matt’s bed, leaning across the other side of it to slide the first aid kit across the mattress towards him. Matt’s right hand drew the white container with the bright red cross on it closer to him, his fingers feeling for the latch that opened it.

"Thanks, Fog," Matt said as he undid the latch.

When he swung the lid open, your eyes landed on the small container of rubbing alcohol, bandaids, cotton swabs, and bandages tucked inside. Looking a bit closer, you spotted something that looked like a needle, too. Apparently he wasn't kidding about being able to stitch you up, something you found curious despite his inability to see.

Matt held out a hand towards you next, his brows rising above his glasses. "Can I take a look at your arm?" he asked. He chuckled lightly as he added, "Not literally, of course."

One of your brows rose gradually onto your forehead at the blind joke he so easily made. Mouth still feeling incredibly dry, you slowly lowered your injured arm into his awaiting palm. Your heart beat a little harder when his warm fingers wrapped carefully around your wrist, finding yourself confused at your body’s reaction to his touch. It was like the warmth of his palm was awakening something in you that had been dormant since your stupid crush on Kyle Felton. And you weren’t sure you liked that.

Moving as if he wasn’t blind, the fingertips of Matt’s other hand traced very gently above the cut near your elbow, somehow easily finding exactly where it was located on your arm. You found yourself grateful that he’d taken that moment to wash his hands in the bathroom before touching your open wound. 

“You don’t need stitches,” he told you gently. “Just need to clean it and wrap it.” His head turned, looking over your shoulder. "Can you grab one of those bottles of water, Fog? I need to rinse out her cut."

You heard the sound of Foggy rising from his bed again, shuffling somewhere behind you. A few seconds later his hand appeared in your peripheral, holding out a bottle of water and lightly tapping it against Matt's hand. As Matt accepted the bottle, briefly releasing your arm to unscrew the cap, you noticed Foggy didn't retreat back to his bed this time. Turning to look up at him, you saw he was cautiously staring back down at you.

"How did you appear in the alley like that?" Foggy asked suddenly. 

You stiffened at the question, eyes narrowing at him instantly. It was dangerous for them to know about you. Better that they didn't. 

"I didn't," you stated sharply. "We've been over this."

Matt held your arm over the floor before pouring a bit of water over your cut. The room temperature liquid ran over it, cleaning it out as the bloodied water dropped onto their floor. Matt remained silent as he worked, but Foggy pushed forward, clearly more focused on your strange appearance in that alley than your fresh blood decorating their floor.

"You weren't there and then you were," he pressed. "We had been standing there for a couple of minutes discussing a class from earlier today and then out of nowhere you were sliding down that dark alley with a knife in your hand."

Teeth gritting together, you internally cursed Foggy’s keen observance. Matt was rifling through the first aid kit, still remaining oddly silent, but you could tell he was certainly listening in.

"That's absurd," you said quickly. "No one appears out of thin air, especially not me."

You caught the way Matt momentarily froze at your words, his head tilting to the side. And then his hand continued its search, eventually pulling the gauze out of the kit before he was reaching out and searching for your arm again. When his fingers brushed against you, he gently gripped your forearm and began to slowly wrap your cut with the gauze. You were surprised at how delicate and purposeful his touch was, oddly knowing exactly where to bandage.

"Then how did you get there?" Foggy pried, drawing your attention away from Matt again. "Because no one was in that alley and you didn't pass us to go into it. And I saw you slide along the pavement."

Pursing your lips, your mind raced trying to search for a quick lie that would make him believe you. Internally you cursed yourself for trusting them and coming back to their dorm. You should have just stolen something for your cut from a store instead of coming here. Not like it mattered if you were arrested, you could just jump out of a jail cell. 

 "I fell," you lied.

Foggy’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at you as Matt continued to bandage your arm. You held Foggy’s disbelieving stare as best as you could.

"You fell?" he asked skeptically. "Like from a roof?"

"Yes," you answered. 

"How did you not break any bones?" he questioned. 

"I don't know," you snapped. "Guess I got lucky."

"Okay, but those roofs are like–"

"Fog," Matt cut in, "maybe you don't need to be interrogating her."

Foggy’s look of disbelief only further etched itself onto his face as he turned his attention on Matt. Matt was focused on finishing bandaging your arm as Foggy shook his head at his friend. 

"Seriously, man?" he asked him. "A strange young woman appears out of nowhere with a knife in an alley, refuses professional medical attention and police assistance, and you just don't have questions?" 

Your own brows rose curiously at the man sitting on the bed before you, surprised that he would come to your aid and stop Foggy’s line of questioning. Meanwhile Matt was putting the unused gauze back into the first aid kit. 

"I have questions," Matt admitted as he flipped the lid of the kit closed. "But she clearly doesn't want to answer them. So we shouldn't push. It's not our place."

Curiously you watched Matt as he turned to look in your direction again, those dark black glasses entirely hiding his eyes from you. Your fingers fidgeted nervously in your lap, unsure what to make of his kindness and understanding.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "Like I said earlier we were about to order pizza."

Foggy stood staring at Matt with his mouth hanging wide open. While pizza sounded good– really good–and you were quite hungry, you weren't going to stay here any longer. You needed to leave, you couldn’t have them asking anymore questions. It wasn’t safe for you or them. You figured you’d just lift something from a shop to hold you over when you left their dorm. Maybe this world had your favorite type of Doritos, the ones that reminded you of Home–you’re real Home. And then you'd find your way up onto a rooftop somewhere and sleep before you figured out what to do tomorrow. 

“And like I said,” you replied, an edge to your voice as you rose from his bed, “I’m not a stray. Thanks for the bandage.”

You turned, ignoring the way Foggy was staring at you like you’d grown a second head, and headed straight for the door of their dorm. Though for some reason, you really wanted to turn back around and stay. You hadn’t had pizza in a very, very long time. And you were admittedly curious about Matt and the strange way he was making you feel.

“Wait!”

You stopped just a few feet from their door at the sound of Matt’s voice. You looked back over your shoulder at him, watching as he made his way towards you with that bottle of water in his hand, holding it out in your direction. Your eyes lingered on the bottle.

“At least take some water?” he begged.

Your eyes flickered behind Matt to the look of confusion Foggy was shooting his friend before you focused back on Matt’s earnest expression. Lips thinning into a tight line, you wondered what was with his insistence to help. But as your eyes dropped back down to the offered bottle of water in his hand, you were tempted to accept it. You were thirsty from all of that running you’d been doing. And it would be one less thing to swipe from a store.

"Please?" he added, stretching the bottle out further towards you. 

After a moment's consideration, you turned fully, taking one step towards him and accepting the bottle. "I'm not a stray," you repeated more firmly as you took it. 

A friendly smile spread across his mouth as his hand lowered back to his side. Your eyes dropped down, drawn to the movement of his plush lips. They weren’t remotely cracked like yours often were from dehydration, if anything they looked incredibly soft.

He has a beautiful mouth.

Eyes widening in sheer horror at the thought that slipped into your mind, you stumbled backwards, blinking rapidly. That was not a normal thought, that was a thought you couldn’t afford to have with who you were. Spinning on your heel, you headed straight for their dormitory door, yanking it open before bolting out of their room without a backwards glance.

◈𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 ◈

"Well that was weird," Foggy said, his focus still on the open door of their dorm.

Matt hummed out a noise of agreement, his focus on the sound of you hurrying out of the building. You had been… so interesting. Especially that strange flair of attraction he thought he’d picked up on just before you’d suddenly panicked and left.

Foggy wasn't wrong at all–you had definitely appeared out of thin air in that alley. He'd heard the moment your heartbeat suddenly appeared behind him, startling him entirely. He'd never experienced that happening before, hearing a heart just abruptly appear somewhere it hadn't been before. As if you had just materialized out of nothing.

And somehow that wasn't even the strangest part about you. You smelled like ozone–the exact smell that occurs when a storm does. He knew it well. But it hadn't stormed in New York City in almost a week. That distinctive smell shouldn't have been on you, but somehow it was. 

You'd also smelled like must, mold, and mildew mixed with sweat and the stronger scent of your fear and adrenaline. But it was the scent of your fear that hit him the hardest after you'd appeared, the smell of it easily overwhelming him. People didn't usually smell quite that strongly of fear unless they were afraid they were about to die.

And then you'd been so wary of accepting any help. You refused the police or hospitals. It had taken a bit of coaxing to even accept his help, as innocent as it was supposed to be. He’d also noticed the way Foggy's questioning  had only worked you up–but then you'd done something else incredibly strange and amazing. You controlled your heart rate. Each time he'd caught your pulse increasing in fear, you'd somehow quickly dropped it back down to a calmer state. How? Why ?

He’d also heard the telltale irregular patter of your heart when you’d lied a few times tonight. Serena was not your name, yet you’d given them a false name nevertheless. You’d lied to Foggy and him about how you’d appeared in that alley. 

Not only all of that, but you were clearly dehydrated and hungry. He’d heard the soft rumblings of your stomach in the alley and then again in their dorm. He’d especially noticed it both times he’d mentioned pizza, but yet you’d still refused him. You’d almost refused that bottle of water, too. 

Everything about you had completely baffled Matt. He’d never encountered a more confusing and complex person before. Who were you? Were you someone different like him? Had you endured some transformative accident yourself that had somehow made you a little more special than everyone else? 

"Okay, well now that the drama for the evening is done," Foggy said, his heavy footfalls loud to Matt's ears as he crossed the room to close their door, "I'm going to order pizza. Vinny's good for you?" 

"Uh, yeah, sure," Matt answered distractedly. 

Matt heard the click of the lock on their door. Clearly you’d made Foggy uncomfortable, but Matt figured if Foggy had been able to pick up on the things he had, he might’ve felt differently about you. Though Matt quickly found himself wondering if there were things Foggy had noticed that he couldn’t because of his one lacking sense. 

“Hey, did–did you notice anything strange about her?” Matt asked his friend carefully.

Foggy let out a snort in response as he made his way through the room towards his bed. Matt heard the way Foggy’s hand gestured towards their dormitory door while his other picked up his phone.

“You mean the weirdo who just booked it out of here?” Foggy asked. “Uh, yeah. Everything . What wasn’t strange about her?”

“She seemed scared, didn’t she?” Matt pressed. “Nervous, maybe?”

“Well she looked homeless or something,” Foggy answered, plopping heavily onto his mattress. 

Matt’s head tilted to the side as he stared across the room at Foggy. His brows knitted together behind his glasses as his friend's words registered in his ears. 

“Homeless?” he asked.

“Yeah, her uh, her clothes were a mess,” Foggy explained. “Looked like she hadn’t changed them in a while. Or washed her hair recently.”

Matt noted that was also incredibly strange about you.

“Why’re you so interested in her?” Foggy suddenly asked, lowering his phone. “You really can’t be that desperate for women, can you? Like sure, she was attractive, but I don’t think it’s a great idea sleeping with crazy, homeless chicks.”

“What? No,” Matt answered quickly. “No, that’s not it at all. She just…she seemed different.”

“Yeah,” Foggy agreed with a laugh, pushing a few buttons on his phone. “That’s a nice way of putting it when a homeless chick appears out of nowhere with a knife and a bad attitude.” His head darted up from his phone, focusing his attention on Matt. “You want the usual?”

“Yeah, sure,” Matt answered, half-paying attention.

He pulled his glasses off of his face, trying to push his senses out to see if he could find you nearby still. A slight frown pulled at his mouth when he realized he couldn’t.

◈𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 𝅒 𝅓 ◈

Your legs crossed before you, you sat on the rooftop of an apartment building, staring at the busy street quite a few floors below. Your spoils of shoplifting sat before you–a protein bar, a package of Reese’s, and a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Not the most nutritious meal, but you didn’t have much space to hide anything other than your pockets and under your shirt, and you hadn’t found your favorite bag of Doritos in who the hell even knew how long. You’d instantly regretted taking them for granted when you were younger; who knew not every world had a goddamn clue what Cool Ranch Doritos were? And almost worse–you’d found a world that seemed so similar to Home but they didn’t have Reese’s peanut butter cups. How the hell could that not exist somewhere?

Tossing a chip in your mouth, you reveled in the flavor as the brisk spring breeze blew over you. You weren’t going to just inhale these chips quickly, you were going to enjoy them. Because you didn’t know when the hell you’d be getting another bag of them again. As you chewed, your hand reached beside you, picking up the bottle of water you’d almost finished. You paused mid-way bringing the bottle to your lips though when your mind conjured up the image of Matt’s smiling face and those dark glasses. Your eyes dropped down to the bandage on your left arm, remembering the way his hands had so carefully dressed your wound.

Why had he wanted to help you so badly? The only other person you knew that had been remotely that compassionate had been your little family on Nightmare 1, back when Lexi had found you in that gas station frozen in fear and confusion at the sight of a literal corpse walking around. 

More importantly though: why had you wanted to stay there and drop the attitude back at their dorm? Because you knew you couldn’t stay there and tell them the answers they wanted, even if they would believe your insane story. It wasn’t safe. Not when they were out there looking for you. If they even got so much as a hint of a rumbling about someone spotting a young woman who just appeared out of thin air, or someone who believed they could travel through worlds, they’d be looking for you. And they would be watching Foggy and Matt if they suspected the pair knew you. 

And you already knew they weren’t above killing, either.

Which made it all the more foolish that you were sitting here on the rooftop that was about to be your bed for the evening, staring at a damn bandage on your arm and thinking about soft lips and what color eyes might be hidden behind those dark lenses. Because you were not seventeen thinking about stupid crushes on boys like Kyle Felton anymore. Your life didn't have room for that sort of shit, which was why you were twenty-three–or so your best guess told you–having never even been kissed. You didn’t date. Hell, you didn’t meet guys long enough to do more than exchange a brief hello before you were off on the run, hiding somewhere.

So why the hell could you not stop thinking about his damn mouth?

[mamasplat]

hi im looking for cringe kalosshipping vs armourshipping fics but i cant seem to find any

ive seen you mention them a couple of times so i was wondering if you had any recs lol

Okay I only have two I could actually recommend as most of the stories i remembered have been seemingly lost to time- anyways!

-

This one never finished and was definitely just a young fans fun story but it’s a great example of common themes I saw in old ash vs calem plots, Choose me~ (Amourshipping vs Kalosshipping) by The-unknown-narrator on wattpad

it’s a measly five parts and doesn’t dig into Calem much but that alone explains why I think it’s such a good example story. A lot of ash vs calem plots are made with a heavy amourshipping bias which tends to take away from Calem’s character and remove a lot of ash’s more childish nativity in favor of making him the obvious choice love interest.

-

As for a story where it actually follows closer to canon, I’m pleased to give you Amicable Conversation by Arcion_Days on Ao3 this is perhaps the best take I’ve ever seen on them and is single handedly the reason I got myself back into this entire concept.

Ash being oblivious is something I always missed in early XY day fanficions. Calem seeming to have an evident sense of wounded self esteem seeing the way Serena fawns over the ever clueless ash gives me life.

-

If you’re looking for more of the old aged like milk stuff, I’m guessing a fair share of it was deleted in recent years. Checking places like amino or deviantart might bring something up? I’ve also heard about some stories on fanficion.net and some fun arguments in Reddit threads. Sorry i couldn’t provide much

I’ll reblog with any future finds

[greenmoons]

Power rangers writing prompts

I decided to do a post to ideas and prompts I have or recieved of Power Rangers, so people might decide to write them. Feel free to use them. It would be nice to get credit or message if you do use them but it's not necessary. If you have other ideas write me in the comments or in a message and I might add them to this list.

Some of the ideas are solid and some are very general.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:

Tommy Oliver struggling in school (can also be written as ADHD or learning disability character)

Autisic Billy Cranston

Civilians figuring out the rangers identities because they always stay to fight against the putties even without morphing.

2X08, the tape recorded the rangers morph and their identities revealed (by the news company or because Bulk and Skull screen it to everyone before the rangers were able to stop them)

2X09: Rocky, Adam and Aisha are coming to Angel Grove to the Broomball Tournament.

Sylvia, Kelly, Jeremy, Curtis finding out their cousins are power rangers.

There are many episodes with a child who hang out with the rangers so write fanfics from their point of view about the rangers, maybe what would have happened if they figured out their identities or what happened to them in the future because they appeared only once (Maria, Willy, Sylvia, Kelly, Jeremy, Cameron, Roger, Hallie)

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy:

Cassie became the pink ranger after Kendrix's death

Power Rangers Dino Thunder:

Rewrite of the season with Kat as Tommy's wife/girlfriend and the pink dino thunder ranger

Power Rangers SPD:

Sky, Bridge and Syd as red, blue and green, and starting as a team of three.

Cruger thoughts on why not giving Sky the red suit.

Z growing up in the streets.

Jack and Z first meeting.

Autistic Bridge Carson. Fic 1.

Cruger finding someone to take care of Z, Jack and Sam instead of letting them be alone in the streets.

Jack and Z experiences in the streets.

The rangers are doing Jack a birthday party since he never had one before.

E14: Bridge tries to read S.O.P.I.E's aura and figuring out she is a cyborg.

E17: Bridge reads Sky's aura and find out the alien switched bodies with him.

Sky handles differently with the whole Mirloc situation.

E30: Bridge thoughts after he got kidnapped.

E31: SPD calls Tommy Oliver of the future for help after the Dino Thunder rangers appeared.

Post series: Jack Landors/Ally Samuels

The other rangers team come to help defeat gruumm.

Z and Syd also got promotion in the colors.

Power Rangers Jungle Fury:

RJ journey to find in himself the wolf spirit and how he became a master.

Why RJ openned a pizza parlour.

Dominic journey when he was alone.

Power Rangers Samurai:

Lauren is the leader of the team instead of Jayden

Serena a ranger instead of Emily

Terry a ranger instead of Mia

General (comics related stuff, crossovers and dynamics between characters from different seasons):

The morphin grid bless the rangers and help them to succeed in life after they finished being rangers

One of the rangers get hurt badly.

The rangers deals with chronic pains from injuries they got in duties.

Power Rangers Mighty Morphin X Power Rangers SPD:

Billy Cranston and Bridge Carson meet and being autistic together. (Ideas for the meeting: Bridge will go to a mission in Aquitar and meet Billy there. Billy is on earth and SPD asking him for help in some tech. Billy meet younger Bridge before he is a ranger because he came to an internship in his company.)

Power rangers overdrive X Mighty Morphin the return:

Thrax and Selena meet

Thrax and Selena grow up as siblings

Kira and Adam talks more about Tommy

Power Rangers SPD X Soul of the Dragon:

Conner, Ethan and Kira meeting Dr. Oliver in the future

Conner, Ethan and Kira meeting JJ Oliver

JJ Oliver is part of the plot of the season (maybe in D-squad or E-squad)

[ngmn2002]

Hello, I hope I'm not bothering you, I found your blog through my favorite blog, Lunar Fairy, through the last chapter analysis post, I went to your blog and saw that you really like Tsukasa, I was happy, I love him. Can I ask you some questions? Do you think the twins will ever reconcile? I have great hopes that Hanako-kun will one day be able to tell Tsukasa how much he loves him. But I have doubts, do you think Hanako-kun loves Tsukasa? If he loves, why does he treat him that way? Why does he despise him? Why isn't he true? He's never kind or affectionate towards Tsukasa, and seeing that hurts! At first I was afraid of Tsukasa, but then I saw that he was just suffering alone, but it was all because of Hanako-kun, why doesn't Hanako-kun show how much he loves Tsukasa? Sorry if I asked too many questions, I hope you have a good day. Greetings from France.

Hello. ^^ Haha, oh yes, it was one we discussed and decided to cooperate and make together to list some points we had at mind regarding the last chapter. I'm glad it was to your liking. Hmm, he is my favorite character in this manga, the reason I'm here and still here. I'm happy to hear you love him, too.

"Do you think the twins will ever reconcile?"

This similar ask might hold a good part of the answer. I will say yes, as long as there is love, there is a way. The 2 love each other more than anything else. What's between them is a misunderstanding built on increasing miscommunication, once that is 'fixed', things will go the right way. However, we're not sure what their 'ending' will be after they reach that point, or how things will develop with them. Would the 2 coming to fix the issue to last for long between them open a door for a "better future" they can happily share together, or announce the finish line of their journey, and have the curtains falling to end their entire 'play'? Let's keep on having hope for the 2 to share their love the right way one day, and have a happy ending to await them, despite all the odds.

"do you think Hanako-kun loves Tsukasa?"

As previously said on the twins' feelings toward the other, and looking at these to serve a part of Hanko's case,

... don't they scream Hanko's inner feelings toward Tsukasa? Ones to hold lots and lots of 'love and adoration' for his precious moon?

"why does he treat him that way? Why isn't he true?why doesn't Hanako-kun show how much he loves Tsukasa?"

If we came across Hanako's way of behaving with those he loves, what can we do... he is this type of guy...

He has a great curse cast on him, by his own tongue and rude actions, some methods he tends to use to cover up those rosy cheeks of his, and show a tough behavior before those his heart is about to explode inside his chest out of the love he holds for them. He is that type of 13-year-old teenager. Someday, he shall grow up, become more experienced, and can communicate his feelings toward those he loves better. I hope for that.

It's thanks to his great curse, we reached this point between him and Tsukasa, him and Nene. I can't help but sigh thinking over that. How a word said in the right time and place can change a lot, and having it not said, leads to such massive destruction and mess. The more it stays hidden, the more the situation gets messier and extremely difficult to fix.

"Why does he despise him?"

Hanako hating Tsukasa? Oh, as we said, he loves him so much, but can't communicate his feelings right due to him simply being Hanako/Amane, so it ends up looking that way, just reflected the wrong way, to most people, Tsukasa himself included. Hanako just needs to work on himself to communicate that love the right way, and he is trying to do it right...

He is improving, but still, as he does that, the mess itself grows messier and is getting so hard to fix at this point, I even assume we might have gone far beyond words being able to fix it. Which is so tragic.

In fact, maybe for you to get a nice view on how I see this thing, Hanako's "I hate you" to Tsukasa, their miscommunication issue, this post on ch 110 might help. X You can also find some other posts to talk about the twins here on the blog if you might want to check them out.

"He's never kind or affectionate towards Tsukasa, and seeing that hurts!"

Yes, key word is directly.

He shows many tender behaviors and gestures of pure love toward Tsukasa, many, ever since they were little kids and up until now, but they are lost along the way, don't get through, again, due to him not communicating them the right way, they just end up missing their aim.

It's so tragic, painful to think about how their feelings don't seem to meet at this stage of the story. Maybe one day, that shall change. Hope is still there.

"but then I saw that he was just suffering alone"

Yes, that's painfully the case with Tsukasa, one a lot turn a blind eye to. Until when will that last, that is the question. One day, this boy will finally be understood the right way, when we find ourselves shading countless tears over how much he suffered all alone, by himself, when we see how much he struggled, and no matter what stayed up on his feet, never wavered, followed what he believes in, and kept moving forward regardless of anything to stand in his way, trying to cure that ill world they live in and change it into a better one. Such being is one to feel proud of, to admire, to pay full respect to, and it will hardly be near enough.

It's alright, I hope the answer I went for helps you. Greetings to you, have a good day.

[clqveris]

stock dancing but it's all the fandoms i've ever been in

despite tumblr's accounts being called blogs, this is probably going to be the only "blog post" that I'll ever post. at least in the near future.

it's going to be a long one. disclaimer, it will contain some talk of things like fandom discourse, as well of mentions of Dead Dove topics, so scroll away if you need.

it will also be pretty personal, so I'm not adding all the tags for the fandoms and characters. this is mostly to those who know me.

I'll start at the beginning, in the best chronological order that I can remember. Not by order of appearance in the video, because I kept forgetting what came first when drawing the frames.

My Little Pony (Rarity) and Warrior Cats (Firestar)

These were my very first "fandoms." Before I even went to school, I discovered MLP on the television. I then proceeded to draw those stupid little ponies on the desk and some plastic containers. Thankfully it was with pencil, and not on any important containers and whatnot. Very glad I'm not a brony now, and very glad there was a human version so I didn't have to make a pony awkwardly dance.

Warrior cats was a series I read for a long time. I don't remember when I dropped it, but I just ended up losing interest. It has been stretched out by a lot by now, I believe. Warrior cats was also the first fandom that I "participated" in, by using Amino. Somehow, miraculously, I got out unscathed. By that, I mean no "safe adults" or suspicious people approached me. Not that I would've fallen for it after listening to internet safety week. Firestar is at the end of the animation because, well, it's difficult to make a non-anthro cat dance the same way as people do.

It's funny, because these two are most associated with people becoming furries later on in life, and somehow I am the only one who doesn't take much of an interest in furries within my friend group.

LittleBigPlanet (Sackboy) and Vocaloid (Miku)

LBP wasn't something that I was really "in a fandom" for, but I definitely really enjoyed playing it with my best friend and even made my own username based on it. I remember playing LBP, LBP2, and LBP3, and the disaster that was LBP3 because after finishing the story, none of it would load properly. Tons of surfaces and props would just be missing. Still, it's a nice game to look back on.

I will be honest, this is probably the first Miku I've drawn. Vocaloid has just been a thing in my life since discovering it back... I don't remember when, but the first music that went in playlists of music I liked to listen to was generally made with vocaloid or other voice synthesizers. Miku has always been there, somehow.

*not to be mistaken with AI voice generators, as people actually agree to provide their voice for the voice synthesizers

Marvel (Winter Soldier), Pokemon (Misty), Yandere Simulator (stand in- Vera)

I never drew anything for Marvel, except for the above frame. My family watched it when I was younger, everyone watched it before it started falling off after the infinity stones thing got resolved. The only reason I put it here was because I definitely read fanfiction for it, and definitely thought there was something fruity about america and his best friend. I mean, you find yourself in the future and everyone you've ever known is dead except wait, your best friend isn't, but he's brainwashed and now you have to kill him, so you betray the government and all your new friends instead to try and reach him. Shame that kind of story was stuck in the mcu.

Pokemon was an interesting phase. I drew Pokemon in ms paint, but never any of the humans. I had (still have some) Pokemon plushes and watched the first Pokemon anime on Netflix when it was still on there. I also watched the one with Serena. This was also the fandom that I first discovered porn. And tentacles. So if you ask me why, it's because of Pokemon. It's rather funny, because once again, I seem to be the only one in the friend group who doesn't take an interest in Pokemon anymore.

Yandere Simulator was discovered in elementary school. Because it's been shown that the dev was found to be interacting inappropriately with minors, I have not drawn the protagonist of the game and instead used an OC of mine as a stand in. All you need to know about Vera is that he is not a good person. I used to draw for this fandom back in my Amino days, just a bit, but ended up dropping it because of more and more people pointing out his incompetency. Plus, the complaint that to do anything in game you would have to watch the videos on YouTube, thus making a blind playthrough impossible. As well as his "sex license" comment, which was more than enough to turn me away from that game.

That aside, YanSim was my first exposure to the "yandere" trope- the obsessive, possessive type characters. In the game, it was done in a very bland way, but I like the general idea of the trope. Its influence still drives me towards certain preferences of mine in other fandoms, but I'd rather attribute that to Araki, who apparently popularized the trope with Yukako. I guess this is probably where my interest in "bad things happening in fiction" started.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (Sketchbook), Don't Starve (Willow), Cookie Run (Roguefort Cookie)

Initially, DHMIS was going to be my second or third fandom on the list, but I realized that I got into it when I was old enough to have an email address, and not before. Hence, now it's down here. I ended up using that popular design of the human sketchbook to be recognizable. It was an interesting fandom, and also another from my Amino days. I don't know who came up with the idea of the sketchbook and the clock having a love-hate relationship, but looking back on it, they might've been cooking. I remember joining a discord server for it, having my phone get taken away, and then coming back and the server was about the grinch. I also remember that this was the first time I actually interacted with the community and talking to the others within the fandom, since the Amino community was pretty small. I look back at it and cringe, because there are so many things I did for attention. Instead of linking back to a person, I would put emojis around the link with sunglasses and pointing hands saying "This idea came from 😎 👉 this person." All that aside, this is probably where my interest in horror started.

The only reason I remembered that I was technically in the Don't Starve fandom was because I went looking in my folder of drawings and found some there. Then I remembered that yes, I had also read fanfiction for it. Mostly, though, it was a videogame that I played with my family. I ended up using the charcoal pencil brush here for Willow, instead of the pen, to mimic the artstyle just a bit.

Cookie Run is a fandom that I was in, and only get back in briefly whenever Roguefort is in an event. I also first discovered it due to an artist on tumblr who I followed for DHMIS. No idea where they are now because I can't remember the correct spelling of the username. Other than that, I just play the game, which I have been playing since before high school. Now I am out of high school. It was also the fandom that I believe was probably responsible for a good amount of my early art improvement, due to some art challenge where you drew every cookie. Overall, fond memories, but I'd rather not return to the fandom. Too much drama, too many people making big fusses over dumb shit. The Valentine's Day video being an especially dumb one, especially when you consider that maybe, putting in offensive stereotypes contributes to bad perceptions of real life people vs some ship between biscuits. I even remember asking, when I was younger, "Should I ship Pink Choco cookie with White Choco cookie or Hero cookie? I can't decide." Poor little me didn't know about multishipping, and the answer I got was that "Some people headcanon the Choco cookies as siblings, so it's safer to ship her with Hero." Well, now that I'm older, I have decided that I don't have the energy to act like fictional ships anywhere near the same level as real relationships and problems, and would probably ship both were I still interested in the fandom.

Team Fortress 2 (Sniper), Doki Doki Literature Club (Monika), Jojo's Bizzare Adventure (Kakyoin)

Yes, I was in the TF2 fandom. I barely played the game but I usually played as Medic when I did. I also realize that as I type this out, this might have been the original old men thing. Or at least, some of the oldest. I drew them a lot, and I wrote a fic that I orphaned some years later out of shame. It had a werewolf in it for some reason, and was multiple chapters. Although each chapter was only about 1000 words, compared to my current long-term multichapter fic which easily have 2000+ a chapter. Well, aside from that, I don't know why I liked Sniper the most. He throws piss in bottle and I will say, piss is something I avoid if I can. It's in my muted words somewhere.

I never personally played DDLC. I did watch playthrough of it, and seeing people's reactions to some of the stuff was always enjoyable. Yes, Monika was my favorite, and still is. I can't say with certainty why she is, but maybe I just found her the most interesting out of all the characters. This fandom I remember drawing for because this is where one of my OCs originated from, although that character I am only really remembering as I type this out, despite repurposing her.

JJBA. I cannot say that I look back at my time here happily. This is probably where I first started learning about the current state of fandom (ie, Not Good) and getting a bit of personal experience with it. At the time, I did enjoy it. I enjoyed talking in a ship server (A) about it, and another general server (B) about it. It was great and all, until A started blowing up. Which wouldn't be a problem if it didn't have a blacklist of topics that anyone could add to. They're useful in smaller circles, yes, but in large public servers, most things are going to end up being blacklisted. I remember dresses and "positive talk about mothers" being blacklisted, and eventually I got too anxious that I would say something on the blacklist to speak at all. B was okay, and I even tried to get over my fear of talking to strangers in voice chat by joining one during a whiteboard or something similar where everyone draws on the same canvas. I later ended up deleting all 200+ of my messages there and leaving. Why? Because the members of the server did not know the concept of "block and move on." "Scroll away." "Ignore things that you don't like online." A popular artist in the fandom was brought up and the people started trashing on them because of their wedding, which was apparently themed with the favorite JoJo ship. (But honestly, if someone wanted to theme their wedding to a ship I would respect the hell out of them.) The reason I ended up leaving that server was because they started saying stuff like, "It's creepy and weird, because the characters are minors so there's probably something wrong with that person," and implying such things over a JoJo ship of all things. (And, it gets into the territory of the "violent videogames are the cause of vioence" argument. Do you think that because I particularly enjoy using shotguns in videogames because I find them satisfying means that I want to go out and shoot real people with a shotgun? The state of gun control in the US is awful, and if anything, I want less guns.) And, generally, judging things by how "weird" they are rather than whether it harms or helps people is too arbitrary of a measure. Unfortunately, this was far from the last time that I would see serious accusations made on the basis of dumb shit, and now I am doubtful of most callout posts.

Other than that, at least I know all the Jojo references people complain about seeing all the time. Although, now that I'm not into JoJo, I don't actually see that many jokes about it.

Helltaker (Malina) and Weak Hero (Alex)

Malina gets two frames because she unluckily got the one that did not show her face. I can't say I remember much about the Helltaker community, but this was the community that I posted on Reddit to. Since then I have not used Reddit, but it was a good game and people seemed nice, at least from what I remember. Azazel was the one I drew the most, but Malina is a gamer girl, so I chose her for this.

I only remember Weak Hero because I saw that I drew a total of two images for this fandom. I discovered it on Webtoon, and joined a server which I have long since left, and that's all I can remember. Other than that, it was a webtoon with fighting and that's all I can say.

Omori (Omori) and Genshin Impact (Xinyan)

Omori was the first rpgmaker game I actually drew things for, although most of these drawings consisted of Sweetheart. Although I do like Ib and The Witch's House and Corpse Party, I never really went into the fandom. There wasn't much else to it, but the plot of Omori was good and it led me to discover one of my favorite artists, who, unfortunately, has left the internet. I wish them well.

Xinyan is here because she was and still is one of my favorites from the game. I wish she got better treatment from the game, especially gameplay-wise. I haven't drawn much for this game, due to the level of detail on outfits, but I did still play it for two years and read fanfiction for it. Lately I've just been watching videos for the story quest, though. Uninstalling it gave me 50+ GB back of space on my computer. About the Genshin fandom... JoJo may have been my first real bad experience with how online communities are, but this was my first time seeing how widespread it was. Lots of baseless accusations, fighting over headcanons, telling people awful things because they dislike a character... Well, the post that says the best way to enjoy fandom is to enjoy it with a small circle becomes more and more correct.

OC era (Left to Right- Aster @/sepialkali, Lucy @/hattiestgal, Alason @/moonlightguardianmoon, Zion @/sweet-pattycakes, Bisu/Sparrow @/monarch-orien, and Danaus)

For this one I realized that I had leftover blank frames at the end of the animation, and asked my friends for their ocs to fill in. This era lasted a very long time, and started because I discovered Tupperbox. Since then, my characters have become a lot less watered down as I drifted away from roleplay, and most of the things I do with them is just art now. Two of them are getting a sort of visual novel story thing made of them though, if that counts for anything.

Nu:Carnival (Kuya), Stardew Valley (Elliott), Wildfrost (Tusk)

Despite playing this game for a sizeable amount of time, the most I've done for this fandom was read fics and draw an event character once. Somehow, despite the bland gameplay, I have made a habit of continuing to play the game. I used Kuya because he's the only character I consistently roll for.

I first played Stardew Valley a long time ago without mods, and then forgot about it for a few years. When I came back to it earlier this year, I thought it would be funny to install mods that makes characters into crazy yanderes. It was definitely entertaining, although most of them were pretty standard. I will give massive props to whoever made the Elliott one, because they added events and schedule changes and a lot more than just dialogue changes. Anyways, the reason this is here is because I decided, on a whim one day, to start writing a very long fic for Stardew. This was at the beginning of the year, and it is not even halfway through right now. Then I lost interest in the game while retaining an interest in writing the fic, somehow.

Wildfrost I picked up near the beginning of the year. It doesn't have much of a story, and there's little fanart because of that, but the character designs are pretty good. I still play it daily, and Tusk is still a good unit, because it's basically free damage.

Honkai Star Rail (Peepaw Welt), The Greatest Estate Developer (Lloyd), The Coffin of Andy and Leyley (Ashley)

Honkai Star Rail remains on my computer, but I cannot find the energy to open and play it. Each new character becomes its own meta, and the gameplay loop isn't that enjoyable anymore. During the time that I did, however, I had my 50/50s ruined twice by Welt, which is why he is here. Otherwise I would've chosen Tingyun or Yanqing instead. Gameplay aside, I am lucky to have found a good community for this fandom through a ship server, as an almost complete mirror of the previous servers I was in for JoJo. They are what keeps me in the fandom.

TGED was a very short era that lasted for less than a month. During that time, however, I was afflicted by the demons, and drew and even wrote a decent amount (at least for my standards.) Funnily enough, what drove me away from it was the server I was in for it. This fandom is a very small one, and so the server had probably the majority of active fandom members that could speak English. What made me leave was the poor moderation and some immaturity from some members. Links to NSFW fanart was allowed in the same channel as SFW fanart, NSFW conversations wouldn't always be in the NSFW channel... Which, if it was an adults only server, would've been fine, but it is not, and I feel that this server is a genuine safety concern with the NSFW problem.

TCOAAL was a game I watched a playthrough of when it first came out, and then I saw the chaos that happened when it blew up with the release of the second chapter. I personally found it very entertaining, with the way people didn't have a problem with cannibalism and murder and cults until they found out there was an ending with incest, and suddenly the game was a bad game you shouldn't play. Although if you look at the Steam reviews most people don't care because, well, it's only a game. This game also served as a bit of a precursor. I find codependency in ships interesting, but I am only slightly interested in the game. I don't think about it that much, for some reason. Maybe that'll change when more chapters are released.

The S-Classes That I Raised (Han Yoojin)

If you take a quick scroll through my account, you can probably tell that this is my current fandom. Funnily enough, the server that brought me into this was one I joined while trying to get out of TGED. I suppose it only worked because I read it on Webtoon awhile ago. This server is a lot better kept, although maybe it's because it's strictly an 18+ server. As well as that, it's a smaller community within the fandom, because the server's subject is inherently tied to one of the Big Dead Dove topics, so there's a lot less worrying about drama starting over that sort of stuff. To my mutuals, I will not talk about weird dead dove stuff that I'm into unless asked to, so don't worry about it. Some sort of codependency just makes me go crazy. Unfortunately, I was not able to fit him next to another image to make Tumblr make him smaller, and had to remove one of Malina's frames to fit the 30 image limit.

If any of my friends are reading all the way down to here, thanks! I'm very lucky to have you guys as friends, and I hope we can stay friends for a long time.

[doxypsychlean]

Our Blades Are Sharp

Aegon II Targaryen x Bolton!OC, Aemond Targaryen x Bolton!OC

Warnings: Explicit language, death, gore. Nothing out of the ordinary for my beloved Boltons tbh

Thou shan't repost/copy/ translate any of my work or I'll let my inner Ramsay run loose!

English isn't my first language. I don't proofread. I slap commas wherever I feel they're needed.

A/N: So...A really bad idea crawled its way into my skull. Imagine the boys meeting the female version of Ramsay Bolton:) Now imagine some Red Wedding activities going down at the Dreadfort. Ugh, I'm awful...

────────────

Such a beautiful thing. Snowflakes. White and pure. Each one unique, never too close to the one that came before it. The two princes stared at them as they fell to the ground and melted in the pools of blood.

A woman's screams for help tore through the Dreadfort. Aegon looked at his younger brother, then at their father. All three of them were sporting the same expression. Horror. Disgust. Fear. Neither one of the three had ever heard another person plead for death like that before. In fact, the young princes had never heard anyone do it ever.

"What is the meaning of this, Royce?!" Viserys yelled our after their host.

"You see, your Grace, my youngest...She grew up on tales of our ancestors. Some of her favorite were those of the Redarm." Lord Bolton responded with a wolfish grins as he turned a corner. "She takes after him."

The screams got louder as the men walked inside, lord Bolton leading the way. Not long after, they saw it.

There, in the middle of the hall of the Dreadfort, stood a big wooden cross. Big enough for a person to be tied to it.

"Kill me!!" A high-pitched scream came from it.

Both Aegon and Aemond took a step back as they set their eyes on what was once human and now a peeled sack of flesh and bones.

"Serena!" Lord Royce hissed through gritted teeth. "Get this thing out my sight!"

The young girl turned quickly as she spun on her heel. Her dark hair was slicked back in a tight bun, only one loose strand of hair hanging in the middle of her forehead. Her pale eyes bore into those of her father.

"Father! You're back early." A gravely voice came out from between her full, pink lips. "I thought you'd be back in a fortnight."

The way she spoke terrified the two princes that stood behind her father. That surely wasn't the voice of someone that had been skinning a person alive up untill few moments ago. It shouldn't be. It was way too calm. The words were way too put together, way too well-thought of.

King Viserys couldn't think of what to say. He just stared at the flayed woman.

"Bolton, you know flaying is a forbidden practice." Prince Daemon's voice rang through the hall. He felt a sense of relief as he thought of how he'd told his wife and children to not follow them inside. He'd heard enough about the northmen to know that the sight wouldn't be pretty.

"Old ways, my Prince" The young woman in front of them said. "Can't allow for tradition to die out."

Daemon only hummed in response as he put a hand on his sword. It didn't go unnoticed by her. She smiled as her eyes went from his sword and back to his face, sharp canines showing between her lips.

"Serena, do not make me repeat myself." Lord Royce got in his daughter's face, his voice lowering enough so only she could hear him. "Drag that bitch down below and finish her before she screams her head off."

As father and daughter spoke in hushed,angry voices, Aegon allowed himself to look around the place. As he did, his eyes turned to look at his brother's face.

"Aemond! Aemond, don't look..." He whispered to his younger brother.

But the taller boy couldn't tear his eyes from the thing that was bound to the wooden cross. The woman was writhing in agony, the ropes around her wrists and ankles biting down hard. It came to him- they were made in such a way, so that every time the victim pulled, they got tighter. The poor creature had gone silent with the words of her lord, allowing her vocal cords to rest. She was overwhelmed, exhausted, in pain. Whatever was left of who she once was, however, was still fighting for her life- painfully obvious from the way her naked body wouldn't stop moving.

"Aegon...why is it shining?"

"Don't look, for fucks sake. Just don't."

"Aegon..." Aemond's voice was shaking ever so slightly. "Aegon, that's salt. They've covered her in salt."

"Serena. Now." Royce Bolton said.

The girl's pale eyes narrowed for a second. Then all emotions dissappeared from her even paler face.

"But of course, father! We wouldn't want to leave our guests waiting!" Serena smiled once more, her words drowning in poison.

She whistled, the sound tearing through the now silent room. Two men came through one of the open doors. Both were towering over Aemond, who at the age of nine and ten stood about six feet from the ground. The two walking mountains stopped on each side of the wooden cross. They didn't take long to get to work though. One busied himself with untying the creature, while the other grabbed the cross and lifted it, as if it weighed nothing. The two men turned around and left, walking out the same door they'd come in through.

"Go. Make it quick." Royce Bolton placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "If I hear this thing during the feast, you'll be the next one on that cross. You hear me, girl? I'll skin you myself."

They all heard him. He didn't even try to hide his words from them, but instead purposely made his voice louder. The girl didn't cower. She didn't stare back at her father in shock and heartbreak. What she did was much, much worse than his threat. She smiled. A big, toothy smile. Then she left, only turning her back to them when she reached the door.

"I apologize, your Grace!" Lord Bolton said without turning. "Our blades are sharp, just as our tongues. Here, let me escort you to your quarters."

"I- the Queen...and the others..." was all King Viserys said.

"Yes, of course. I will have my servants show you the way then? I'll make sure you don't have to pass through the Hall until it's been properly cleaned." The man sat in return, finally turning to look at his guests. "Prince Aegon, Prince Aemond. Let me show you to the training grounds. I trust you wouldn't want to miss on any lessons."

Neither one if them responded. They were staring at the door the young lady Bolton had left through. As if on cue, another scream rang through the Dreadfort.

"Come now. My daughter will join you soon. I doubt she'd miss on her training either."

────────────────

"I don't understand why mother wouldn't let us go in. I'm freezing!" The young Prince Lucerys said as he rubbed his gloved hands together, his whole body shaking. "Let's just go, I can't deal with this cold!"

The four of them were standing in the training grounds. Aegon and Aemond had refused to let their nephews in, who insisted on going in the Great Hall. It was cold. Way too cold for them, even if they'd spend most of their time up in the clouds. The North was unforgiving.

The silver haired brothers gave eachother a knowing look, their older nephew noticing immediately.

"You two mind telling us what's going on? What were those screams? Why wouldn't they let us in?" Jace asked, eyes going from one of his uncles to the other.

"There's things that aren't well-suited for a young prince's eyes, I'm afraid." A voice rang from above them.

They all turned to stare at her as she made her way down to the group.

"It's a pleasure, my Princes! I am Serena Bolton, daughter of Royce Bolton!" She said with a warm small.

Both Aegon and Aemond felt uneasy. The monster in front of them was trying to hide inside the body of this pretty thing. They knew it. The two also knew they both would've been just as smitten with the Bolton beauty as their nephews were, if they hadn't seen her covered in blood and gore; the skin of her victim draped over her shoulder as if it was a piece of clothing.

As Luke and Jace exchanged pleasantries with the young lady, Aemond turned to his brother.

"I don't like this." He whispered, lips barely moving as he spoke. "We have to be careful."

"Of course we have to, she was skinning someone alive few minutes ago." Aegon returned quietly. He spoke the words through teeth, too afraid that thing might catch them.

And it did. Its eyes were now trained on them. It strode over, Luke and Jace on its left.

"Would you care to join me for a hunt?"

"You hunt?" Luke's voice came through.

"Why, yes I do, my Prince!" The woman laughed out. "Quite often, actually!"

"I have never heard of a lady going hunting before. Well, except our mother. She killed a boar once. She was about their age." Luke pointed to his uncles.

The two's eyes narrowed, but also widened at the same time. The last thing they wanted was for its attention to go back to them.

"Well, I must admit, my taste in prey is rather... exotic."

Lady Bolton laughed again. The sound was different this time. More wild. More unhinged. More animalistic. At least that's how it sounded to the older brothers.

To Luke and Jace, it sounded like someone that didn't go boar hunting that often. Maybe it was deer or wolf for her.

"I plan on leaving as soon as possible, before it gets dark."

Before it gets dark.

"We would love to join you, my lady!" Jace said.

Before it gets dark.

"Wait for me at the gates then!" It returned. "I'll be quick, just have to go get my pack."

Before it gets dark.

"Pack?" Luke asked.

Before it gets dark.

"Yes, hunting dogs. I never leave without my loyal beasts, the woods could be a dangerous place."

Before it gets dark.

"Oh, well alright then! We'll wait for you at the gates, my lady!" Luke said with a happy smile. The boy was delighted at the prospect of going on a hunt in the big, wild North. "Oh, should we get our horses?"

Before it gets dark.

"No need. There's not that much snow this time of the year. We'll manage on foot."

Before it gets dark.

"Let's not distract the lady much longer. We'll go wait!" Jace said as he pushed his younger brother and uncles forward.

Before it gets dark.

The thing stood there for a while. Watching them, observing. Then the same wolfish grin her father possessed, found its way on her face.

It turned around and headed towards the kennels.

Before it gets dark.

"Aemond...It's getting dark."

"I know, Aegon. I fucking know..."

[enter-the-performapals]

@arcvmonth Day 23: Back At Class, They Never Taught A Thing

Gah, I haven't been able to find much time to put into arc v month for the last two weeks, but I'm trying my best! Slowly!

So, I went into watching Arc V after not really liking ygo in my childhood, so I had no idea of anything that happened in the previous series going into it. I had no idea why Obelisk Force was called that, nor what the colors meant with the Academia students.

That is, when I got to the end of my Arc V rewatch late last year, and was recommended to watch GX by an IRL friend who's also into ygo. While I still have yet to finish it (I'm around halfway through year 2) I can happily say I know enough about Slifer/Osiris Red, Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue to say that Serena probably wasn't great at studying while at the Academy.

I know we don't really see a lot of interaction between Joeri and Serena throughout Arc V, but I imagine theyd study together. Or they'd see one another studying and go and harass the other when theyre bored.

[serenasoutherlyns]

simplicity and other myths -- chapter three

“Yeah, just your friend,” said Alex. “Am I your friend?”

cabenovak. mature. ao3. chapter one. chapter two.

Thank God for Serena Southerlyn, thought Alex. She brought Thai food and the DVD of Pride and Prejudice over. The food was gone, and the movie was almost over.

“So what’s wrong, Alex?” Serena finally asked.

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Pride and Prejudice does not come out for nothing.”

“It’s Olivia,” Alex sighed. “She hates me.” Serena rubbed her shoulder.

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you.”

“She’s definitely upset I didn’t tell her I was back.”

“I told you so.” Serena couldn’t resist it. Alex swatted her arm. “What did you want her reaction to be?”

Alex sighed. “I guess I wanted her to be happy I’m back.”

“I’m sure she is,” said Serena. “She can be happy you’re back and upset over other things.”

“That’s true,” said Alex. “It sucks.”

“She’ll come around.”

“I hope so.”

“Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy,” went the TV. Alex wiped her eyes.

---

“Caaaaaasey,” Olivia yelled from the bathroom.

“What?” Casey said, feet away from her in the hallway, causing Olivia to jump.

“I’m about to shower,” she said.

“Oh are you?” said Casey, hugging her from behind. Olivia relaxed into the touch.

“I am,” said Olivia. Casey kissed her shoulder. “Care to join me?”

“Happily,” said Casey.

---

“Alex,” said Casey when she turned around. She looked nice in her cocktail dress, she thought. “Don’t you look nice.” Damn it.

“You look nice yourself,” said Alex.

“Do you want a drink?” Casey asked, gesturing to Alex’s empty hands.

“Sure,” she said. They could be friends, couldn’t they?

“How’s the consulting business?”

“It’s fine,” said Casey, “I like the flexibility.”

“And the money,” said Alex.

“That too.” Casey winked. “What brings you here?”

“I’m meeting Serena,” she said. “What about you?”

“I’m meeting Olivia,” said Casey without a drop of embarrassment or awkwardness. Alex’s heart sunk. She envied her talent for un-subtlety. “There she is now,” said Casey, pointing to the door.

“So she is,” said Alex. “I’d better.” She gestured to the other side of the bar. As soon as she got there, she sent a series of increasingly panicked texts to Serena. They chose a different place and Alex tried to slip out unseen. If she had looked back as she left, she would’ve seen Olivia’s eyes dart to her and back to Casey.

---

“Liv,” said Casey. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You just sighed into your wine.”

“Oh,” said Olivia. “Alex.”

“Ah,” said Casey. “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.” Olivia picked up her and Casey’s glasses and set them on the kitchen counter.

“I wasn’t done.”

“I was,” said Olivia. She took both of Casey’s hands and guided her up from the table and into the bedroom. She kissed her lips, then her neck, and Casey found herself less annoyed at the interruption.

---

It was getting harder and harder to bear.

Alex was so fucking good at her job. Alex was dressing differently, somehow even classier, tailored suits in court, subtly revealing sweaters. Alex was trying to make things less awkward between the two of them. Bringing her coffee, asking her how she was.

Olivia couldn’t fault her determination. Her own broke one Saturday night. Drinks with the squad, peanut shells on the floor. One too many beers. A light brush of her hand, a playful squeeze on her shoulder.

Before she knew it, they were stumbling into her apartment.

“What about your girlfriend?” Alex asked between kisses, though she made no attempt to stop.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Olivia said.

“Wait, really?” Alex said, legitimately surprised.

“Yeah, we’re just friends.” Olivia pulled Alex’s shirt over her head.

“Who leave clothes at each other’s houses?”

“I didn’t say we weren’t fucking, Alex.”

“I see.” Alex unhooked her bra for Olivia. Olivia’s mouth met her nipple and she sighed. Just like old times, Olivia thought.

When they were well and truly finished, satisfied, Alex spoke again.

“Olivia?”

“Yes?” Olivia rolled over to face her.

“I never apologized to you.” Olivia felt her heart jump.

“No,” said Olivia. “You didn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am.”

“Thank you, Alex.” said Olivia, and turned back. Alex stood up and gathered her clothes.

“See you,” she said, and left.

“Bye,” said Olivia after her.

---

They weren’t dating.

Casey had to remind herself of this occasionally, when she found her heart beating a little too fast in the presence of Olivia Benson. When she had a bad meeting with a client and the first person she wanted to call was her. Olivia might be her best friend now, but she wasn’t her girlfriend.

“Oh fuck, Casey,” Olivia sighed from above her. Casey felt her stomach flutter. That never got old. It was a typical night for them: Olivia came over after work and before they knew it they were fucking. Afterwards, they would go over their days, their weeks since they’d last seen each other. Olivia would either stay over and slip out in the early morning or head home after a little while.

When Olivia left, Casey realized how much better she slept beside her.

---

It was so easy to find solace in Casey. Olivia found herself wanting Casey’s company over anybody else’s. She was comfortable around her, Casey was easy. Casey was fun. Casey was chill.

Alex was the opposite. Every time she saw her something was fraught, something went unsaid. Her pulse would quicken, she would feel cold, then hot. She kissed down Alex’s neck, nipped at her collarbone. They fucked like they used to, like they had never spent any time apart. They didn’t talk like they used to. They barely talked at all.

Her phone rang. Casey. She declined the call, and felt a wave of guilt in her chest. She flipped Alex over and scratched her back before going back to the task at hand. Alex gasped. Olivia could stand to hear that again.

“Olivia,” Alex said when they were both too tired to continue. “Can you forgive me?” Olivia was silent for long enough that Alex started to panic.

“For not calling me, yes.”

“What about for--”

“You were under a lot of pressure,” said Olivia. “I can understand why you left me.” “You can understand it?” Alex said, hesitating to ask the other question.

“Yes,” said Olivia. “Show me you’re not going anywhere, and maybe.”

“I will,” said Alex. “Would you stop seeing Casey?”

Olivia laughed at the suggestion.

“No,” she said. “I like seeing Casey.”

“More than me?” said Alex.

“You’re not comparable,” she said. “Alex, Casey is my best friend. She’s very special to me.”

“Yeah, just your friend,” said Alex. “Am I your friend?”

“I’m not sure,” said Olivia. Alex couldn’t find a way to reply to that.