#but she finds it absolutely adorable

[softquietsteadylove]

Dear!

The Mermaid AU is absolutely amazing! Can you write some cute fluff? Maybe Gil is cooking for Thena while she's examining his house further and asking questions about all of his stuff.

🖤✨ Hugs and much love!! ✨🖤

Gil turned down the stove burner with their seafood chowder to let it simmer. Cliche or not, Thena really did like any recipe he had with any form of sea life in it. Even just seaweed soup seemed to whet her appetite.

He kept one ear trained on the living room while he was cooking. Thena had fallen asleep on his shoulder on the boat ride home, leaving him to carry her inside. He had initially thought about putting her in his bed, but he wanted her a little closer. He wanted to know a little more certainly that she really was safe here, with him.

She had been strung up in a net just a few hours ago, after all.

He had gotten her to the couch, pulled his shirt on over her head for when she split her tail later on, laid a blanket over her. Her skin still had red marks on it from where she had been thrashing against the net's hold, but he assumed she would heal those up for herself.

He still wasn't sure if it was the right move to keep her on land with him, but he had to admit that it pleased the more selfish part of him--the part that wanted to keep her close so he could protect her. If the only ways to protect her were to keep her with him or send her away, he definitely had a preference between them, even if he still believed that the other method would have been just as effective.

Gil chopped up the celery, the last vegetable he was adding, hoping it would stay a little crunchy while absorbing the creamy soup. Thena was fascinated by plenty, but especially loved crunchy foods. She said she had always wondered what it would be like to take a bite of coral - like a parrotfish - and that this was much better.

He blinked as a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. "You a Cuddlefish, now?"

Thena pressed her face further into his back.

"Hey," he whispered, raising his arms up to try and turn around in her tight embrace. He manged it somehow, bringing his arms around her delicate waist. "You okay?"

"I'm sorry," she all but whimpered into his shirt miserably. "What if that man comes after you?"

"It's okay," Gil assured as best he could, rubbing his hand over her arm. "As long as you're safe, that's all that matters to me."

Thena just sighed, still clinging to him, as he found she was rather prone to do whenever she had her legs on. "What are you making?"

"Chowder--it's a creamy soup, and I added lots of fish for you," he smiled. She was still burrowed into the front of him, but he couldn't imagine how much she was reeling from being caught like that...no pun intended. "Are you hungry?"

She nodded. "They offered me some fish, but..."

Of course she hadn't wanted to eat in front of her captors. Gil kissed the top of her head, "do you want a little snack while this finishes?"

She finally pulled her head up to peek at him.

"I got more of those dried sardines," he drawled, attempting to tease a smile out of her. He had discovered that she loved the dried little fishes that crumbled to the touch. Maybe they were like a bag of chips, or popcorn to her.

Thena finally managed a smile, small and fragile, but real. He could practically imagine her tail wiggling in delight. "You did?"

"Just for you," he promised, tapping her nose as she released him to hunt for her new favourite snack food. "Cupboard?"

Thena looked around herself for a second before reaching out and just barely pressing her finger to one of the many small doors lining the kitchen.

"Good, top and on the right," Gil nodded. He was all too happy to encourage her exploration of his home--a human home.

Thena moved her hand from the bottom cabinet to one of the ones above the counter. She pressed her fingertips to each door one at a time, until she was at the end. She looked at him, and after receiving a nod, she opened it delicately.

The first one she had ever tried she had ripped right off its hinges, assuming it would have some resistance to it. She had apologised in a panic but Gil let her watch him screw it right back on with a spare hinge--no harm done. She liked watching him use tools.

Thena pulled out the crinkling bag of little fish with a bright grin, showing off her fangs. She ripped it open, inhaling like someone might with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

Gil was enchanted by just the sight of her.

She closed the cupboard door again and came back over to him, looking infinitely more comfortable with her hand wrist deep in the bag, shovelling sardines into her mouth. "What is that?"

"Hm?" Gil looked around him, moving his hand slowly until he could find what exactly she was asking about. "The stove?"

She nodded.

"Hm," Gil paused; how to explain the entirety of an oven. "Well, most houses have them now. They used to just be a metal shell you could build a fire in. But now we can use electricity and gasoline to make much smaller, more controlled fires so we can cook with them."

"You like cooking," she surmised as she took a seat at the table, her favourite spot from which she could watch him work. "You're good at it."

Gil shrugged with some modesty, not that it mattered to the woman who was used to snatching fish as she swam alongside them and tearing into them raw. "I've always liked cooking. It always makes people happy and brings them together."

Thena tilted her head a few times. Gil was comforted by the sight of one of her many personal habits. "It does make people happy, doesn't it?"

Gil nodded, coming to sit down with her. He was honoured when she offered a small pile of her precious snack. He would be worried about her ruining her appetite if he had any concept of how much she could and couldn't eat. He picked up a few in his fingers, "do you eat meals together?"

She considered his question, knowing he was referring to when she was among her own underwater. "If you're hunting together, you'll eat together, but we don't go to an effort to gather for it."

Gil had plenty of curiosities of his own about her, but with most of his larger questions answered by now, he had started asking the little things. The questions that seemed almost silly to ask, but that always made him happy to know anyway. "Do you eat while you swim or do you, like, find a little resting place?"

Thena shrugged (which she had learned from watching him and Sersi). "It depends on what you catch, I suppose. If you have somewhere to be, you then just eat as you go."

"That makes sense," Gil agreed, finishing off his little pile. He smiled as Thena immediately replenished it. He looked up at her with a grin, "you feed me, I feed you?"

She rustled the bag on her lap. "It seems only fair."

Gil pinched a few more morsels between his fingers. "Would you share stuff with your brother?"

Thena immediately let out a loud groan and rolled her eyes.

Gil couldn't help but laugh. "You sound like Sersi did when she was younger."

Thena tilted her head at him, her hair tumbling over her shoulder. "I don't understand that--you seem like so much better a brother than Ikaris."

Gil shrugged, smiling at the topic with love - and exasperation - built right into it. "Yeah, but you don't get along as well when you're younger. When we were kids, it seemed like everything I said annoyed her."

Thena tilted her head a few more times at him. "But she loves you."

Gil beamed. "Yeah, she does--and you always know your sibling loves you, no matter how much you fight. I like to think I was a pretty good brother to her when we were younger."

"I'm sure you were," Thena muttered with absolute certainty, digging into the bag with a renewed fervour. "I think I had to fight Ikaris for everything when we were hatchlings."

That was a cute term for when they were kids. "Siblings fight a lot, I guess."

Thena sighed, though. "We were maybe...more aggressive than some our age."

Gil snorted. He could already imagine his beautiful Angelfish hissing up a storm at her own brother over the littlest thing. "You liked annoying each other?"

She smiled faintly. "I suppose so. And for all his grievances, I admit that there are worse brothers one could have. I can't imagine it at the moment, but I'm sure it's true."

Gil laughed. She certainly sounded like someone who very - very - reluctantly loved her brother despite his faults. "Does he like sardines too?"

Thena gave him a smile that showed off all of her teeth, "hates them."

Gil stood to stir the stew again, "then those are all for you. I'll always have them in the house, too, if I'm not around to cook for you, okay?"

Thena looked from him to the fridge. He had also explained the concept of leftovers, and that she could open any of the containers in there and eat anything she found.

He didn't tell her anything about heating anything up. Something about the idea of Thena and electricity just...made him uncomfortable.

"It's ready!"

Thena looked up at him with a smile as he set down a bowl in front of her, positively heaping with seafood and with a little nori sprinkled on top. "Thank you, Gil."

He blushed. She looked so cute, sitting there with her legs crossed at the ankles, his shirt sleeves billowing around her tiny arms that usually had scales dotted along them. "Anything, anytime, Angelfish."

Thena gave him a grin that he had come to learn was her feeling mischievous, "am I not a cuttlefish, now?"

"Cuddle-fish," he corrected with a grin of his own. She seemed humoured, although her smile turned faintly shy as she looked down at her food. He picked up his spoon and poked at his serving, "that's okay, though. I like having my very own Cuddlefish."

[benoitblanc]

doggett in 8.01 is SOOOO fucking funny to me in an absolutely awful way because he just has NO idea what is going on. homeboy brings mulder’s gravestone into the office, tells scully that he thinks mulder killed himself, then asks her, dana scully, his codependent basement soulmate of the past eight years over whom he nearly ACTUALLY killed himself MULTIPLE times, how well she knew him. at this point in the narrative scully is ACTIVELY PREGNANT WITH MULDER’S CHILD. read the ROOM john

[goldensunset]

the indecision between ‘i love this character and i want them to be happy/i want to see more of them’ and ‘it would be most narratively compelling/intriguing if they died or otherwise were (mysteriously) never seen or heard from again’

[zombie-bait]

the real tragedy of iwtv might be that Claudia and Gabrielle never met, I personally think those two would get on like a house on fire and it would drive both Louis and Lestat crazy

[cult-of-the-eye]

Literally having so many thoughts about miss gwendolyn bouchard right now like wdym she's very much a bitch and is literally trying to steal her boss' job but in the process getting horrifically traumatised and regretting it just the tiniest bit

[uncanny-tranny]

When I find it hard to do certain things, I like to pretend I am a neanderthal living in a cave with my clan, and I must do The Thing in order to survive.

So, when I'm doing cardio at the gym, I'm actually chasing and tracking a mammoth, and when I need to cook, well, I'm not cooking on a stove top, I am hurdled over the first fire and watching the fat of our kill drip down onto the burning wood. And when I find it hard to crochet, I pretend that the first winter storm is coming and our clan needs me to make blankets to hurdle under and that I must contribute.

I hope whatever you do to do The Things will help. It is a uniquely personable trait to motivate yourself through pretend and stories. That's what makes this life interesting - that's what makes you feel larger than yourself 💛

[moeblob]

Windy at my house + power flickering = no comm work = quick laptop doodle

[bookiedoodles]

God Casey Jr must have the most god awful absolutely phenomenal fashion sense, what with having a lesbian mom and a gay father

[cuteniaarts]

@katkastrofa, circa 40-ish hours ago: Hey, what if our newest bunch of OCs adopted a baby from one of the other brothel girls who knew she couldn’t afford to raise one? That would make for some fun shenanigans :D

Me, with a notoriously non existent sleep schedule, instinct of self preservation or concern for my poor wrist: Alright, bet. Watch how fast I can make you fall in love with this hypothetical baby >:)

Daneli as a gentle and loving caretaker-turned-adoptive-mother is something that can be So Personal, actually, and originally I was going to leave it at this quick sketch, but then I got carried away thinking about what this child will grow up to be like raised by this little gang of misfits, so…

Here she is!! A little older and so, so beautiful, I need more of her in my life immediately, she’s way too precious

And, because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t also add a sapphic element to this absolute cinnamon roll, a small crack ship that I’m only half serious about for when she’s a little older still:

All in all, we may be getting impossibly far from canon, but I for one already cannot get enough of sweet darling Kumisai <3

(I fully drew three pieces from scratch in 9 hours I cannot feel my brain or my hands anymore send help)

[catocappuccino]

Snorkmaiden plush I got.

LOOK AT HER. LOOK.

SHE'S SO ADORABLE I LOVE HER SO MUCH 😭😭😭 best purchase ever

[chromochaotic]

Nona the Ninth spoilers!

It’s ungodly late/early but I don’t feel sleep coming on so I wanna ramble about griddlehark and one of my favorite ship tropes, that also involves Nona. Nothing super deep but it’s making my insomniac brain happy

So if you compare Nona and Harrow, they’re almost completely opposite—friendly, innocent, forgiving, trusting, vs. reclusive, jaded, vindictive, prideful. (Though it’s also interesting to think about the things they have in common, like a sense of loyalty and compassion and self-sacrifice but that’s not what this is about). pretty much, there’s one sunshine-y character that’s almost instantly liked by the people she meets and connects with others easily, vs Harrow 1000-Emotional-Walls Nonagesimus.

I’d gamble that if you put both of them at a party and asked all attendees who they preferred after five minutes, Nona would take the W.

But you know who immediately clashes with Nona, and would clearly prefer Harrow in all the ways I listed above—who in fact misses her so desperately that she’s described as “the saddest girl in the whole world”?

[hawaiianbabidoll]

Bruh pk steps out to visit lurien and returns will hundreds of bouquets and gifts. Or the soul master trying to court him.

When he asks 'this is for us?' people think he's using the royal us, but he's actually talking about him and his wife.

[setsunasknife]

In a non-massacre AU, Itachi would constantly catch Sasuke and Sakura in compromising positions. And Itachi ain’t no snitch so he doesn’t tell their parents but gives Sasuke a very DETAILED talk to avoid any little Uchiha’s too soon.

In your opinion, do you think it works? My opinion will be in the tags 👀

[prototypelq]

this speech is a must-listen for any 'father figure Dante' trope fan

(why you should listen: a daughter of a rockstar roasts her dad at his own award receiving ceremony about him not wearing any shirts when he was picking her up from middle-school)

[sysig]

BIRTHDAY

Birthday! :D

[mokeonn]

I started an honor mode playthrough with probably the cutest tiefling in bg3 and I fuckn got killed during the Phase Spider Matriarch, so I decided to continue my save with dishonor because my character was just so damn cute. Well for some reason or another the game didn't?? Switch it to custom mode?? It's still honor mode??

So I'm either going to get those golden dice in the most dishonorable way possible or the game is just pulling on my leg and It's just honor mode without the reward.