#his hair... his chin.... his nexk...

[gorillaxyz]

i really like this angle actually omg. everything here just comes together so perfectly aghhhh i wish i could draw it. whatevs.

[chaseatinydream]

pirate king (87) || atz

Hongjoong stares, eyes wide and lips parted. Kill the... kill the sea goddess?

“Kill a god?” Yeosang repeats, so incredulously that his voice wavers. “Did I just hear that right? You want to kill the sea goddess?”

“Do the gods even exist?” Wooyoung mumbles under his breath, trying to put two and two together. The expression on his face is doubtful, suspicious. “That’s it. This voodoo stuff is a bunch of bull. San’s sorcery hands are the most I can deal with.”

His father doesn’t reply, merely staring straight at Hongjoong with his head held high. Eyes unrelenting, burning with determination, he almost feels the urge to take a step back in response. “You’re going to kill the sea goddess. How?”

His father’s hand reaches down in response, beginning to pull something from his belt. At the sight of a metallic gleam, Wooyoung and Yeosang react instantly, the gunner yanking his shotgun from his back to aim it squarely at the man while Yeosang ducks behind him for protection.

“Don’t shoot!” Hongjoong’s voice is harsh, and Wooyoung’s finger stills on the trigger. He’s trembling for reasons he himself doesn’t understand, hands barely able to grip and hold the gun steady. Everything about the man before them throws him off, from how normal he appears to the way he can declare such outrageous things without the slightest change in expression. Does he really believe that he can kill a god?

“Don’t worry. This blade can’t hurt you.” Hongjoong’s father unsheathes the blde at his belt fully to reveal a shining black dagger, the handle curved and carved with elaborately twisting designs reminiscent of surging waves and the ebbing tides. “It’s a sacred relic I tracked down, crafted by witches in the ancient times. I don’t know what their purpose was in making this,” he holds it up, and even in the blinding afternoon sun the black metal seems to swallow the very light that glances off it, “but it’s worked on all mythical creatures I’ve encountered.”

“You’re not,” Wooyoung snarls, teeth practically bared, “getting that anywhere near Chin Hae! What are you, some kind of monster?” The thought of you even being hurt, by that terrifying blade no less, scares him worse than if the blade were to be used on him instead. He won’t let anything happen to you, he can’t-

“Call me all the names you wish.” The commander lifts a shoulder in dismissal, mismatched eyes clear, not wavering in the least. “I knew what I was getting myself into the second I set this plan into motion. And I can assure you,” his gaze narrows as he looks down at the gun in Wooyoung’s hands, “that your weapons will do nothing against me.”

An icy cold sensation trickles down the back of Wooyoung’s nexk, and he finds himself swallowing involuntarily as he tightens his grip on his shotgun. “So what?” He retorts, as harshly as he can muster. “That isn’t going to stop me from trying.”

“Wooyoung.”

Wooyoung’s mouth clamps shut the second Hongjoong speaks, voice hard and eyes lost in thought. Hongjoong can’t help but feel like there’s something that his father has not yet revealed, something that would connect all the dots to reveal his father’s true intentions. Something so large that he just can’t see it yet. He’s still looking at individual stars, but he needs to see the entire constellations to read the night skies, just like his father had taught him to navigate the seas.

“One more thing.” Hongjoong says slowly, fingers curling around the handle of his blade. This question will link everything together, from his father’s intentions to the very reason he’s standing here right now, facing down his own parent with a sword in hand. He thinks he knows the answer already, but he wants to hear it spoken out loud in confirmation. “Tell me. What does any of this have to do with Chin Hae?”

For a moment, there is nothing but the sound of the sea winds sweeping over the sandy beach. His father takes a deep breath, exhales and speaks.

“The being you call Chin Hae...” he says softly, words carried over by the wind, “It is the essence of the sea that people call the sea goddess.”

Wooyoung stills completely, so shocked by the man’s words he can’t seem to move except to utter a single ‘what?’ from his lips. Yeosang, too, seems similarly stunned, eyes wide with surprise. Only Hongjoong swallows at the confirmation from his own father’s mouth, jaw clenched.

“What you call Chin Hae is nothing more than the essence of the sea in a vessel of clay.” His father says calmly, and every word resounds in his ears like a gunshot. “All the memories, every kind word it has said, every warmth and every embrace it has ever shared with you: it is most likely fake. The sea goddess has some sort of agenda in mind, I know it. The gods do not extend compassion to human beings - it simply isn’t their nature.”

You had come to his ship without memories, and they had found out that you were a a living, breathing, walking body of clay. The way all of the people they had encountered in the attempt to discover your identity had spoken of you as if you were something not quite of this world, something special, it all points to what his father is saying: you’re the sea goddess, and the very same one who had saved him all those years ago on the beach his father had marooned him on.

The sea is a cruel mistress, it does not discriminate, he remembers his father telling him that all those years ago. It is unfeeling and merciless, and cares nothing for humans. You must learn to overcome it yourself, son.

Hongjoong remembers the way your eyes had flashed stormy grey last night, the colour of a raging sea ready to pull him under, the knife in your hand an inch from ending his life. What if... but no...

The silence is broken by a snort, before it suddenly turns into full blown laughter. Hongjoong turns to see Wooyoung wiping away the tears at the corners of his eyes, laughing so hard that he can barely keep himself upright if it weren’t for his shotgun supporting him.

“Sea goddess!” Wooyoung wheezes. Hongjoong presses his lips together, and Yeosang inhales slightly. Is their gunner alright in the head? “Chin Hae, a sea goddess?”

Hongjoong’s father does not reply, simply watches as Wooyoung regains his bearings. The gunner shakes his head, determinedly raising his gun once again to point it at his target.

“You thought just telling us that she was a sea goddess was going to be enough to get us to give her up to you?” Wooyoung says sharply, teeth gritted. “Let me tell you something. You’ve never felt the warmth of her hug or the softness of her hand in yours. You’ve never seen the way she cries because she’s worried for you.” Wooyoung’s hands tighten on the gun, shaking near imperceptibly with his anger. “But we have.”

At those words, the air suddenly drops in temperature. Thunder rumbles somewhere off in the distance, lightning faintly crackling overhead, and Hongjoong shivers ever so slightly. Unease begins to pool in his gut, rising with each passing second as the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. What is happening?

“You’re talking about things that you do not understand.” Hongjoong’s father’s voice turns cold, and for the first time in his life, Hongjoong senses anger in his father’s words and his heart plummets in his chest. “Do you know just what the sea is capable of? Have you ever been on board of a ship in the middle of a hurricane as the waves and storm rips your hope to shreds right before your eyes?”

Wooyoung falls silent at his question, unable to say a word. His father presses on, voice growing more and more quiet until there’s another voice speaking with his, distorted and mangled like an echo overlapping with his words. “Have you ever stood at the helm, watching your crew members get swept overboard by waves as you try to steer the ship out of the storm? Look on as their friends scream and cry for them before they too, in the next second, are lost to the sea? If you have, tell me if you think that anything capable of doing that could ever be kind and loving?”

Hongjoong bites his lip so hard he tastes iron in his mouth. The Treasure has had some rough experiences before, and he’s watched a few of his men fall prey to the sea with his own eyes, seen the way the survivors had grieved and mourned and cursed the seas. But still, you weren’t like that. You were different. You had to be-

All of a sudden, his father stumbles back a step, one hand pressed tight to his eye and face drawn in pain. Instinctively, Hongjoong steps forward, concern hanging from the tip of his tongue before he catches himself: his father might not be the villain he had made him out to be, but he certainly is not someone to be trusted just yet.

“Sorry, give me a moment.” His father says slowly, voice strained with pain. “The human body wasn’t meant to contain this sort of power, it’s been getting more and more unstable recently.” He coughs, and an unnatural mixture of both blood and clear water trickles from the corner of his mouth. Hongjoong swallows at the sight - it reminds him far too much of you and your disintegrating body. “I don’t have much time left to find the sea goddess. Hongjoong, please.”

His father is dying too? A weight lodges itself painfully in his belly, one that he didn’t even know was there. Hongjoong had never thought that he would feel sadness or even care about his father after his betrayal, but when being confronted with the thought of the one person he had cared about when he was a child really dying and leaving him forever...

He doesn’t want to admit this feeling.

The thought of it scares him.

He forces it down, gritting his teeth, burying his fingers in the soft red fur of his coat. Remember, he chants to himself desperately. Remember who you’re doing this for.

“Whether you live or die doesn’t matter to me now.” Hongjoong says, with as much harshness as he can muster, and watches raw pain flicker across his father’s face. “You’re not touching my crew. So take your armada with you and get lost before I decide to kill you where you stand.”

His father stares at him for a moment, before he sighs, head bowed forward in disappointment. For a moment, Hongjoong wonders if he might actually listen to his words and relent, but then when his father raises his head once more, Hongjoong is horrified to see both of his father’s eyes have gone dim. Instead of the green shade that perfectly mirrors his, all he sees now is the depths of some terrifying, unknown darkness.

“Then I have no choice but to resolve this my way.” His father’s voice drops to a harsh, low whisper, and in that instant the winds tear through the beach in an instant, so strong that he has to raise his hands to shield his face from the flying sand. The gales stir up the water near the beach, the waves crashing back and forth unnaturally as if moved by some invisible force, and Hongjoong turns to stare in horror at his father. The man who he once loved so much as a child steps forward with merciless eyes, and Hongjoong realises that he can’t move a single step as his father approaches him. “I apologize, Hongjoong. As a captain, I hope you understand.”

Is his father going to kill him? For getting in the way of his plans?

An icy cold feeling washes over his body, and his limbs feel like there are leaden weights holding him down, preventing him from moving. Run! His body’s instinct is to flee before the thing that is walking towards him right now, but his legs won’t seem to obey. His father steps closer and closer, until Hongjoong can feel the pure power radiating off him, and bites down on his lip so hard he tastes blood.

Move, run, lash out, anything!

But his father steps past him, and in that second the immense pressure is lifted off him, Hongjoong collapses to the ground, panting and trembling, while Wooyoung and Yeosang run to him to help him up. Wheezing, Hongjoong grits his teeth and shouts after the man he had once called his father.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?”

His father stills for a moment, almost hesitant, before he speaks once more.

“You may not believe this, Hongjoong.” He says, so quietly that the winds scream over it and the sound of falling rain near drown it out, but Hongjoong knows just exactly what he’s saying. “But I told you earlier, you are my son, whom I love. That, no matter which sides we’re on,” his father turns back to give him one last, final smile. “Is something that will never change. That is why I will never hurt you.”

Suddenly, the waves swirl and surge once again, water from the both the sky and sea clashing in the middle and sending water arcing through the air. Lightning flashing and tears the sky itself in half, the cry of the wind rising to a fevered scream, and Hongjoong feels some part of him deep within his soul twisting at the presence of something it has not felt since that day he was a child.

Just like that day from his memory so many years ago, the sea itself parts, whipping up in massive waves to make way for its only master, and Hongjoong can only stare as a being walks over the surface of the sea even as it writhes and churns beneath its feet.

It’s just like he remembers.

The wind tears his eyepatch away from his face, and his fingers come up to grip his blinded eye tightly as the storms roar overhead. That figure walking out of the storm overlaps with his memory, stained red with blood in his mind, wearing the face of the woman he’s come to know and love over all this time.

It’s you.

“Chin Hae.” The name falls from his lips without thought, and it feels like the first time he’s saying those words all over again, from the very first time he’d named you and taken you in as one of his own. Then he’s scrambling to his feet, trying to reach you while Wooyoung and Yeosang simply stare at you in sheer shock. “Chin Hae! What are you doing? It’s dangerous!”

As if you’ve heard his words somehow over the howling of the gale and storm, you look directly into his eyes - Hongjoong just knows. Then you smile slightly at him, but it’s a sad, resigned smile, and Hongjoong’s heart plunges into his chest.

No. You’re supposed to wait for him. You aren’t supposed to come out to meet him before he returns, in this manner.

“Chin Hae is here.” You say aloud, and the thunder echoes your words like a chant, a prayer. Your eyes burn with unearthly light, and for a moment, Hongjoong almost can’t recognise you at all. “What is it that you want with me, Commander Kim?”

Hongjoong can only watch as his father smiles, stone cold, and raises the dagger to point it straight at your chest.

“Finally, we meet again, sea goddess.”