#and then the human was nice to him

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Bound, Part 16

Previous part

Tim watched Marinette warily out of the corner of his eyes. She hadn’t done anything since their first kiss, seemed content so long as she was allowed to hang off of his arm, but he couldn’t bring himself to trust that – not entirely, at least. Not when she was looking up at him through her lashes, as if he had personally hung the moon and the stars and she would do anything at all to thank him. Not when he was so tempted to simply let her, and a single moment where he was caught off-guard might just doom them both.

Admittedly, though, remaining concentrated on the here and now was making it very difficult to think about what to do moving forward.

He hesitated, before looking at Marinette full-on. Her eyes lit up the moment she realized she had his full attention… lit up, literally, in that they gained a new, faintly silver sheen.

He swallowed thickly. “Hey, I’m really in the mood for a coffee, but I’ve got to work… can you go get me some?”

She blinked, and some of her smile died in favor of a mildly concerned expression. “Coffee? This late at night? You won’t be able to sleep.”

“That’s alright. I have a bunch of stuff I need to do anyways.”

She looked somewhat unconvinced, biting her lip thoughtfully, but then she was smiling again. “Fine, but I deserve a kiss, I think.”

“For helping me do something that’s bad for my health?”

“Because I’m going through soooo much effort to get you what you want,” she corrected lightly, and he could almost see the old her poking through for just a moment, but it was only a moment. “So?”

He considered this, trying to ignore the pleading look in her eyes, the glassy sheen making her look like she was about to cry. “Only on the forehead,” he said. She could turn her head if he went for the nose or cheek, but he would be able to react in time to prevent being tricked if he opted for something that far away from her mouth.

She seemed sated regardless, beaming as she finally let go of his arm. “Deal! No takebacks!”

He watched her leave, something warm threatening to bloom in his chest.

And then his lips curled into a scowl. He stared at the deep lines etched into the skin of his wrists. It was annoying enough, being unable to tell his own thoughts from the ones that Fate had decided for him, watching Marinette give in to it all and seem so happy in a way that he never had been before, knowing that all of their attempts would likely end in nothing… but he couldn’t even fight back. He couldn’t even see the String that was controlling him. Had he been able to, trying to tear it out would only end in pain, and he was scared of finding out just how deep the String would dig into his skin, how it would retaliate.

He was helpless.

He gritted his teeth and started looking into pet stores in the local area. In The Odyssey, Odysseus managed to pierce the veil between life and death with a sacrifice. Tim was willing to take a page out of his book, if that meant that he could get to the end of his own story – whatever that may be.

~

Marinette hummed as she made her way through town, holding two cups of coffee. Neither were for her, of course (why would they be?). She had simply decided that she might as well get extra, since Tim had said he had ‘a bunch of stuff to do’, and implied he wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night, so she had thought ahead and gotten him a second one for after he finished the first.

Maybe she would get a second kiss! Or or or a better kiss!

She was so lost in her fantasies of romance that she almost missed the man in the alleyway. Probably would have missed him, had he not coughed lightly to grab her attention.

She looked over and sent a brief, slightly nervous smile before immediately speeding up.

She walked for about a block before she dared to glance back, only to find that she had lost track of him.

She bumped into someone, and nearly screamed, immediately jerking backwards. Hands caught her by the wrists, and this time she did scream.

No one seemed to notice.

Marinette swallowed thickly. Slowly, she turned her head again to look at him.

He was not tall by any means, but was still tall enough to look down his nose at her as she squirmed, twisting her arms this way and that to try and loosen his grip. Despite his frame, she couldn’t seem to get out.

Alarms blared in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t pinpoint why.

There was nothing particularly interesting about the way he looked, he was utterly average in every possible way. Neutral clothing, a classic hairstyle, a face without a single freckle or mole to distinguish him by. If he wasn’t currently keeping her from leaving, she would have done so without ever giving him a second thought again. She still might, his eyes were hard to look at head-on, and something about the exact features of his face were hard to recall even as she actively stared at him.

“Let me go,” she said, her gaze flicking downwards. Maybe she should just kneecap the guy and run. The coffee was going to go cold at this rate.

“Is that any way to address a God?”

Her head jerked right back up to look at him. “A God?”

The alarms in the back of her head picked up, screaming in utter terror at the prospect of a God taking an interest in her.

Why was she so scared, though?

Probably because Greek Gods didn’t have the best reputation.

Still, with a guy this plain, she couldn’t just take his word for it, could she? Artemis had been utterly otherworldly, this was just a Guy.

Wait, when had she seen Artemis? Why did she know what she looked like?

He chuckled. “Take your time, I know I’m quite the sight to behold, Marinette.”

Marinette was almost tempted to inform him that that was not at all the reason for her silence, but then she decided against it. The fact that he knew her name without her having to introduce herself suggested that he was who he said he was.

“Thank you for your kindness…” she trailed off.

Who was this?

She looked him up and down again, and her eyes narrowed in on his shoes. They looked to be sneakers, at first glance, but now that she was looking closer she noticed that there was a design on them. Wings were painted onto the fabric.

That was important, but what did it mean?

Why did her head feel so… empty of all the things that were supposed to be there?

“Lord Hermes,” he said, apparently taking pity on her… or, at least, tiring of waiting.

“Hermes,” she said, smiling gratefully.

“Please, call me Lord,” he said, smiling in a way that he probably thought was charming. She only saw it as smug.

Though, to be fair, it would be hard for him to charm her, when her heart already belonged to Tim.

She nodded, tipping her head forward just slightly in a bow. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence, Lord?”

He let go of her, and she pretended not to notice the dull sting of bruises forming on her wrists. The skin was marred by angry red divots that reminded her of the lines in Tim’s wrists, and she couldn’t help but smile at the thought of them matching.

“Walk with me?” he asked. “I am the god of travel, after all.”

She nodded easily enough, though something was itching at the back of her mind.

Hermes was the god of a lot of things, wasn’t he? A jack of all trades type?

She felt that that was important. Why, though? What did he rule over, and why was she supposed to care?

She fell into step beside him, frowning at the ground. Trying to parse through her brain was like chasing a rabbit through the woods – no matter how hard she tried, the rabbit was so much faster than her, and it was determined not to let her catch it. The information was there, of that she was sure, but she couldn’t get to it.

“You know,” Hermes said, smiling. “I’m a god of boundaries. It is my job to help guide souls to the afterlife.”

She nodded along.

And then she jolted.

The afterlife.

Tim wanted to go to the Underworld, right?

She lit up. “Can you get Tim and me to the Underworld?”

He didn’t seem surprised in the slightest by his request, though she doubted that he got it often. He continued to smile that perfect smile of his. He looked like a businessman, she thought absently. Maybe that was another thing he had dominion over.

“I can,” he said easily enough.

She beamed.

“But, nothing is free.”

“Anything,” she agreed easily enough. She would do anything if it meant making Tim happy.

His smile turned sharp. “I want to sever your bond with your soulmate.”

Her footsteps stopped cold.

“No.”

Laughter echoed in her ears. It belonged to a woman, but it wasn’t her own.

It set her on edge. Why was she so amused? What was Marinette missing?

Hermes seemed just as pleased by this development. His grin stretched wider. Too wide to fit properly on his face. “‘No’?” he repeated.

“He’s – I’m – no, Lord, I can’t.”

“I thought you would do anything,” he teased, leaning towards her, until their faces almost touched.

“Anything but that,” she said, backing away quickly.

He tipped his head back in a laugh. “Aw, but you won’t even have to do anything. I’ll be the one tearing you apart, you don’t have to lift a pretty little finger.”

“I – I appreciate the offer, Lord, but I will have to pass. Respectfully, we can find another way into the Underworld, but there is no guarantee that our String can be tied back together.”

His laughter petered off, but he seemed no less delighted as he nodded. “I suppose you can’t win them all.”

She nodded her agreement. “Thank you for coming to help me, even if your plans fell through.”

And then Marinette held a coffee out for him.

He stared for a moment, his smile faltering. “This…”

“You’re supposed to give Greek gods offerings, aren’t you?” she said, tilting her head to the side, just as confused as she thought he was.

“We… don’t typically get offerings anymore.”

She wasn’t deterred, continuing to hold it out for him to take. “Then it’s a gift. I have an extra, anyways, so I might as well.”

Slowly, warily, as if he half-expected the cup to be poisoned, he took it from her.

She smiled at him, lifting her now-free hand up in a wave as she headed off again. “Goodbye, Lord.”

“Hermes,” he said, softly, too quietly for her to hear.

She glanced back. She had expected him to be gone again, but he was still standing there, looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite place. She would think it was guilt but (she was not sure Gods could even feel guilt) what reason would he have to feel guilty?

“Er, sorry, I didn’t catch that?”

He shook his head just slightly, matching her smile inch by inch. “I said that you should tell Tim that it won’t work – Odysseus only managed to commune with spirits.”

She gave him a mildly confused look, but nodded and committed the message to memory regardless.

~

Tim and Marinette stood on the dock, smiling and nodding along dutifully as the man whose boat they were renting explained how it worked.

Neither of them were actually paying attention, though.

Tim already knew, more or less, how to navigate on this type of boat – it wasn’t too dissimilar from the one Bruce, in his infinite paranoia, had once taught him to use. It was a slightly newer model, but not enough so that Tim no longer knew how to drive it. All of the new features were luxury features, anyway, and they were not traveling along Cape Matapan for fun.

Marinette on the other hand was, as always, too busy staring at her soulmate with a lovestruck expression. At least it made their cover of being a couple on a romantic outing more believable.

Finally, the man ended his speech, and Tim sent him one brief smile, shouldering his bag.

“Thank you so much for letting us use your boat on short notice, sir,” Tim said.

The man waved him off, smiling genially. “That stack of money was thanks enough. You two have fun, yeah?”

Tim gave a two-finger salute. “I’ll try my best.”

He stepped onboard carefully, and then turned to offer his hand to help Marinette on, too. She stumbled slightly, crashing face-first into his chest. He didn’t know for sure whether the slight rocking of the boat had actually thrown her off, or if she had simply seen an opportunity to be close to him and taken it, but she was quick to wrap her arms around him regardless.

The man chuckled and lifted a hand in a lazy wave as he walked away.

Tim gave a sigh, looking down at Marinette. It didn’t look like she intended on letting go anytime soon.

“Can you do something for me?” he asked.

She nodded instantly, drawing back to look at him with wide eyes.

“I can’t see magic, so I need you to look for a cavern.”

She nodded dutifully, and rushed to take a seat at the front of the boat, leaning over the railing precariously as she scanned the shoreline.

He almost felt guilty for using her like that, but it was the only want to get her back to normal.

(Or, at least, that was what he hoped. He wasn’t sure what he would do if they cut the String and she remained enchanted.)

He sighed as he took a seat behind the wheel and they were off.

It was a nice day. It was a little on the hot side, but the salty sea spray and a gentle breeze made it far more tolerable. The slight rocking of the boat was peaceful. If he didn’t have a mission to complete, he thought that he might have been happy to lay down beside Marinette on the cushions and laze in the sun.

Maybe they could do that on the way back.

Now, though, they had a mission.

Marinette straightened abruptly, her eyes locked on the tree line. For a moment, her eyes were clearer than they had been in what had felt like forever.

“Marinette?”

“It’s there,” she said. Absently, she waved to someone – or, perhaps, something – Tim couldn’t see. “That’s the Ferryman.”

And he trusted her.

So, he turned the wheel and started heading in the direction she was looking.

~~~

Next part

@laurcad123

[findmeinthefallair]

The healing and lasting love of a mom

[hazerun3]

Thinking of ink gijinka options

[raspberrighost]

... big metal wife

[kagoutiss]

pelican town, ‘72

[crescentfool]

reunion 🌸

[thedevildompolybunch]

Ever just want to curl up into a cage and forget about your worries while a kind and charismatic Demon King watches over you like the treasure hoarding Dragon he is?

[maomango-doodle]

Getting to know people

Based on @acetrigunweek day 3's quote

[httyd-art-requests]

Buddy is entirely unimpressed by the floating dorito

(Not canon to the Ad Astra AU)

[dreki]

i felt so bad for him when he tried to give Gavin his coffee :(

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 131

Okay, so first of all Dan would like to say it’s not his fault. Ellie was the one to bring some unknown object into the speeder and Jazz was the one driving. Or had Sam been driving- didn’t matter! It wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t the one shooting at them, he wasn’t the one to break whatever, he was not the one to open a stupid portal, and so it wasn’t his fault! 

So why is he now like, five years old, and why is the speeder crashed in some sort of corn field. Why is everyone- except for Jazz whose now like six- also like three at most?! And- oh fuck the door just opened and… okay that’s a kid. Like, nine at most. 

A kid and an adult, who he hadn’t noticed at first so again, it’s not his fault if he hissed at them and tried to hide his not-siblings behind him. It’s also not fair they’re apparently stuck to ghost speak for who knows how long, but at least they can understand the people. 

“Martha, get some blankets, it’s happened again!” 

[themirepirate]

was reading Sherlock holmes and this popped into my head

[saphushia]

i read a wonderful little sickfic that had phantom!etho in it, and despite never even considering the concept before i now can't stop abt etho phantom mechanics and him just being silly with it <3

[wandixx]

I've seen a lot of different takes on Fear Toxin/other fear causing stuff (Yellow Lanterns Ring or something)(later just called Fear Toxin cause I'm lazy) but here is another one.

Danny seems like he isn't affected by Fear Toxin because his biggest fear is that his accident changed him so much he is no longer human, he can no longer truly experience human things.

So when he gets lungful of fear Toxin, he feels normal. He was antsy before, because c'mon, it's a rogue attack but it's not worse. Or so he thought. Because the anxiety lingers. Not enough to register as abnormal just this slight hypervigilance that makes you see things about yourself and your surroundings that you'd never realize otherwise. He'd realize he doesn't blink as often. He'd realize that if he doesn't consciously focus, he sometimes seems to not touch the ground. Forgets to breathe. He can't feel his own pulse at time. He'd realize people will miss him when he's walking down the street as if he was invisible (people just don't care about everyone they pass by). When he'd look straight into his reflection, he'd look slightly to the left. Not enough to actually name anything that was wrong but just stretched enough to fall on the wrong side of the uncanny valley. If he just caught his reflection in the peripheral vision, it'd be vaguely shadowy creature with glowing green eyes and white smoke instead of hair. Overall he'd be just wrong enough to be distinctly not human.

For everyone else, he'd be just a dude. Literally couldn't find more normal dude than this dude. Will pass as absolutely normal human unless someone is specifically looking for ecto-ghost stuff. Even most magic users wouldn't clock him at the glance

Tldr: Fear Toxin makes Danny perceive himself as some sort of eldritch horror but not enough to make him believe he'd actually be affected, while from outside perspective he's Just A Dude™

[grechsblog]

i think isafrin dynamic, especially postcanon, is so funny to me because (among other things) isabeau is the notorious Gets Scared When The Horrors Appear type of dude, but also happens to be madly into a guy who, for lack of better words, can be aptly described as The Horrors

[the-elusive-soleil]

My new favorite Halenthir idea:

Haleth does battle, meets Caranthir, feels some feelings, heads west per canon and eventually reaches Brethil...and becomes acquainted with Finrod Nom Felagund as he tries to talk his kinsman into letting the Haladin settle in the area.

At some point, Haleth and Finrod are talking and he compliments her on her mastery of elvish languages, and she's like "oh yeah, the lord of Thargelion and his people taught us". (Note: this is not the AU where Caranthir only teaches them Quenya.) And Finrod's like, "hey, that's my annoying grumpy cousin!"

And they chat about Caranthir a bit, because Haleth also thinks Caranthir is annoying and grumpy and is willing to joke back and forth with Finrod on the subject, but she's not willing to go along with it once she feels that Caranthir is being insulted/mocked. And somewhere along the line Finrod clocks that "oh, there's something going on here".

Which is confirmed when, at one point, she mentions that Caranthir wanted her to stay and as good as proposed marriage.

She's about to reel off her usual list of rationalizations for why she couldn't possibly have, but Finrod gets there first with "oh, but of course it was for the best in the end that you left him, elves and Men are just too [dramatic gesture] metaphysically different to ever be together, it's always destined to end in tragedy", and basically tries to Athrabeth her.

Except that Haleth doesn't particularly care to be Athrabethed. Like, yes, she made the choice to do what needed to be done for her people instead of what she maybekindasorta wanted, but that was her choice. She's not really into this smarmy know-it-all elf patiently explaining to her like she's a child that she can't have Caranthir because ~*Fate*~ said so.

And, well, her people have a safe home now. Her sister-in-law will make a good enough peacetime leader until her nephew is grown up.

So she gathers the Haladin, explains what she's going to do. Most of them, naturally, opt to stay in Brethil, but a few adventurous or Thingol-averse sorts join her on the trip she ends up making back to Thargelion.

Where she marches up to Caranthir and essentially says, "I'm going to marry you to spite your irritating blond cousin."

Which is the best reason Caranthir has ever heard of for doing anything.

(They're married for like seventy years and ridiculously happy and in this one, Caranthir's brothers find out fairly early on because he won't stop sending smug letters to Finrod every year with updates on his marriage to his amazing adaneth wife and sketched peredhel baby pictures and so forth.)