#it goes away when shes diving underwater i think

[baalzebufo]

im sorry in advance to the tag because im going to keep drawing these. i cannot be stopped

a little spooky and solitary but probably a very nice cog, as long as shes not angry- then its a full-blown tempest

[latenightdaydreams]

I HAVE COME BACK! i loved what you did with my request omg <3 but now i have something real dirty i wanna ask of you my lovely.

is it possible we can get a mermaid type thing? so what i'm picturing is kinda like the original Ariel movie yk? so the reader can have a giant fish tail and can speak underwater but instead of losing a voice when they shift to two legs, they lose vision :DDD

really it's like the blindfold kink without a blindfold lmaoo but can we also get the reader to be a bit on the chubbier side? reader likes to eat too much krill lol TYSM MY LOVELY you work so hard i love youu

I LOVE THIS IDEA SO MUCH!!!!

König x Mermaid!Reader (fem)

Part 2

MDNI🔞

Master List ✍🏽

>cw: fem/afab, sketchy deals, blindness, groping

2.0k word count

🧜‍♀️

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Last week you’ve noticed a ship docked in the port; you typically scour for human inventions. Your first thought is excitement about all the new things that might be tossed into the sea or on shore for you to grab. Yet, it’s not the little treasures that keep bringing you back.

You linger miles away from the shoreline, watching as the men on the ship wake up. Only the top of your head peeking through the water so you aren’t spotted. Your eyes instantly focus on him. He towers over all the other men, his pale skin turning red from exposure to the blistering sun. It’s almost as if your heart stops beating when you see him. He’s perfect, worth leaving the safety of distance to get a closer look.

König walks on to the dock with his men, his mind fuzzy as he recovers from heat exhaustion; not being able to fully rest. He has never felt this level of disorientation before. As he walks along the boardwalk, his flash falls off his hip into the water. His eyes shift, looking as he sinks lower down into the water.

“Scheiße.”

König stops, pulling off his white shirt and dark blue pants, tossing them aside so they don’t weigh him down. He dives into the blue water, swimming down after his flask. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a shape, causing him to panic, missing his flask as he turns around to swim back up.

This is the closest you’ve ever been to a human, to him. You watch him return quickly to the surface without his item, so you grab it for him. König breaks the water, crawling up on to the shoreline. He lies on his back breathing deeply from the adrenaline that just rushed through his body. His eyes remain watching the water, yet he sees no shark fin. Could he be seeing things still?

With his flask in hand, you poke your head out of the water. Your eyes instantly locking with his pale blue eyes. After a moment of intense eye contact, you lift your arm with his flask. König sits slack jaw looking at you, a beautiful woman in the water.

Your head goes back underneath as you swim closer to him, showing up only a foot away from one another. You take your time to study his features, how beautiful he looks. His skin was covered in scars and his eyes locked onto you.

“Hallo?” König says in a small voice that surprises himself.

“Hello.” You bring up his flask to hand to him, coming up onto land more.

König ignores the flask in your hand. Instead, he looks at your whole body. Your skin seems impossibly soft, your large breasts bare without a top also exposing your chubby stomach. As his eyes travel down, the color of a bright green and iridescent blue looking fish's tail follows you.

“König!” A group of voices shout from behind him.

“I’ll be right there!”

He turns to look behind him at his men calling for him. Once he turns back to face you, you’re gone. Nowhere to be seen. His eyes frantically search for your presence, but the only thing that remains is his flask pushed into the sand.

“König, come on. We’re late to start the day.” One of his men, Alan, says as he approaches him on the beach.

“Did- did you see her?” König asks, still searching the ocean for you.

“Who?” Alan looks down confused.

“There was… a naked woman. I think she was a woman.”

“I think the suns getting to you again, maybe you should get in the shade and drink something.” Alan tries to suppress the chuckle in his voice so he doesn’t anger the testy giant.

“I heard her speak…maybe you’re right.”

König stands and grabs his flask, walking back to the dock to get dressed before following his men to the small port city so he can get fresh water to drink. The image of your full breasts and soft plush body lingers in his mind. The way your voice sounded so sweet… if you’re a dream come true, he hopes to see you again soon.

You rush back to your home, full of excitement and heart full of love. A soft hum leaves your lips as you dance in the water, celebrating your new found love. That all stopped once you noticed Tabatha, the sea witch, lingering by the entrance of your home. She looks over at you with a knowing smile on her lips.

“Hello, little princess.” She greets you with disdain in her voice.

“What are you doing here?” You stop swimming and stare at her, guarded.

“Oh, nothing.” Her tentacles push her off the rocks behind her body. “Just noticed you were gone today during your fathers gathering.”

“I’m allowed to have my own life—”

“A life near the surface of the water? Near…humans?” She smirks at you as he swims closer, circling your body with her slender long frame.

“Please don’t tell my father.” You instantly begin to beg, the thought of him finding out terrifies you.

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I just wonder why you never come to me…” Tabatha fakes a voice of sadness as her shoulders drop.

“What do you mean?” Her act works, piquing your interest.

“Well, you know I make miracles happen.” Tabatha turns her head slightly, masking her smirk as her blonde hair flows in the water.

“But at what cost?”

“You can’t expect a witch to work for free. It’s always a fair trade, it’s not my fault some don’t…follow through.” She turns to face you again.

“Well, what are you offering me?”

“Human legs. Lungs. The ability to leave your oppressive father and explore the world you desire to be a part of. You can fall in love with that sunburnt lover boy.” Tabatha gets close to you, so close her tentacles begin reaching out and caressing your flowing hair.

“What do you expect back?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really…” She goes behind you, whispering in your ears. “Just your sight.”

“My sight? Are you insane?”

“What? Don’t they say love is blind? So, what will you need your vision for?” There is almost a sound of glee in her voice, she’s aware of how tempting her offer to you is.

“But… I’d miss seeing his face.”

“Oh, princess, you’ll get your vision back eventually—if you can make him fall in love with you with this…ailment…then it’s true love.”

You look off into the entrance of your decorated cave. “What if he doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll keep your vision and you’ll be forced to navigate the ocean sight unseen. A risk, of course, but I’m sure you’ll succeed.”

You close your eyes and think about König. His pale eyes and skin, the scars litter his face and body. You’ll miss looking at him, but if it’s temporary. Tabatha’s tentacles grab your arms and spin you around to face her. She looks into your eyes, seeing the desperation. She knows she has to add a bonus to push you off the edge, making you take the risk.

“You’ll also be able to return home…see your sea family. If you’d even want too by then.”

“I could?”

“Of course. There are spells for everything.”

“Why are you being so helpful?”

To spite the king, your father. So she can punish him for banishing her for simply having a different body. With you out of water, he would be lost. Broken. With you here simply a helpless creature blinded by love—that’s even better.

“I’ll do it.”

The words escape your lips before you can even second guess yourself. You watch as her eyes darken with pleasure. She caresses your face with her hands as he holds you at the waist with two tentacles.

“Good choice. Look into my eye. Just don’t look away.”

You gaze at her blackened eyes. Slowly, you feel yourself getting light headed. Everything around you begins to fade, your body falling into a sleep-like state. Soon enough you’re out of it, puddy in Tabatha’s grip.

König comes back to the ship, later than the rest of his men. His body was exhausted in the tropical heat. He walks slowly and looks over to the beach where he saw you earlier only to stop in his tracks. You. It’s you.

König rushes to you, his body getting a rush of adrenalin as you lay there. As he approaches, he notices that you’re completely naked. Your plump body is on full display for him. While he wants to look away and be a gentle man, you just look so delicate. He kneels near your body, gently grabbing your shoulder and laying you on your back. His eyes exploring your breasts and apron stomach. Your thighs look welcoming with a forest of hair between your legs guarding your sacred cunt. You can’t possibly be real.

“Hallo? Fräulein?”

You hear his voice as you slowly come to. The feeling of his warm hands radiating throughout your whole body. Your face turns to him, opening your eyes to gaze up at him, but see nothing. There is simply nothing. A hand reaches out to caress his face, fingers tracing down his nose to his thin lips.

König watches your face as you explore him. You’re the woman from before, yet your eyes are pale and you seem to lack your vision. The green tail is now gone. He knows it’s you though, your beautiful face and supple body.

“My name is König.” Your heart flutters hearing the name he was called earlier, it’s him. “Are you okay? Can you speak?”

“Y-yes.” Your voice sounds like a chorus of angels to König.

“What is your name?”

“I’m y/n.”

“Are you lost? You can’t see.” He says as a statement as your hand travels to his jaw.

“I am.”

“How did you even end up here?”

“I don’t know. I passed out and woke up here.”

König’s eyes travel over your body before gently grabbing you, lifting you from the sand. Poor thing probably is suffering from exhaustion. Your body feels cold against his body, a welcomed sensation. He walks you back to his ship, making sure to head straight to his small cabin.

The sounds around you seem louder, each step he takes on the wood beneath him seems to boom in your ears. You wiggle your toes, feeling your new feet. A whole new body you have to explore. You can hear a heavy door close before being sat on a soft fabric.

König takes a seat next to you, his massive body completely towering over you. He reaches out and caresses your arms. A shiver runs over your body, never having been touched so delicately before. His eyes see goosebumps forming on your skin.

“You’re a very beautiful woman.”

You place a hand on your own thigh, feeling it. He watches you closely as your hand moves up to the patch of hair covering your pussy.  Unable to resist, he places his hand on your other thigh. In a slow motion, he rubs a circle on the soft skin of your inner thigh. You let out a sigh and open your legs more to permit him more space.

König gazes at you, taking this as the invite he was desiring. His large hand moves up until he grazes against the fluffy bush, gently pushing past to touch your folds. His finger grazes over your clit to see your reaction. Your leg twitches and a surprised moan leaves your lips.

The simple touch of his finger felt like nothing you’ve ever felt before. Being unable to see his next move sends a jolt of excitement through you. A spark in passion is ignited and you feel hopeful you’ll be able to make him fall in love with you. He’s already obsessed with your body; he can easily fall in love with your mind. 

Part 2

[lost-girl-2021]

Adopted Spider Headcanons (Metkayina Edition)

I've been reading fics where Spider's adopted by Ronal and Tonowari the past couple days and now I'm obsessed. The problem is that I mostly write angst and I really wanna read hurt/comfort, lol.

I feel like the typical/common way that I see Spider get taken in is basically him doing his little beach bum shit after everything and slowly getting adopted into their family. And I eat it up. Every. Single. Time.

Spider: *Building a campfire, roasting his own food* Ronal/Tonowari/Tsireya or Anoung: *Why is the Sully's adoptive son alone on the beach?* *Oh well, mine now*

I feel like Ronal would definitely be way at first, she's made it no secret that she strongly dislikes Sky People. But, I'd imagine that eventually, she comes to see him not just as a human, but as a child. And a child who is alone and in need of help.

Aounung would probably be the same. I have this idea of him giving Spider a hard time (after all the carnage/damage/dead people have been handled). Like, trying to mess with him as much as possible, just being an asshole. And then, maybe Spider goes under for a long time while Aounung is on the beach weaving or something. And, even though Spider has a mask and can breath underwater as well as he does above it, Aounung somehow forgot that and freaks, thinking the human has drowned.

Aounung tossed his half-repaired net aside, diving into the water. He whipped around, eyes catching on the mess of dirty blond. Pushing further, he grabbed the boy by the armpits, shooting to the surface and pulling the human onto land. He flipped him over, meeting confused eyes as he placed a hand on his chest. He was breathing fine, not even panting from being under for so—

Spider's mask glinted in the sun. Aounung was an idiot.

"Are you . . . okay?" The smaller boy asked hesitantly, making no move to sit up.

"You were under for a long time." He mumbled, pulling away.

Spider's face split into a grin. "Did you— did you think I was— "

"Quiet." He hissed, standing up. "We will never speak of this again."

Spider's laughter followed him as he stormed away.

I feel like with Tsireya, she would've immediately been all over him. Like, this is Spider, Lo'ak's supposed best friend. The human boy who acted just like he was Na'vi. It probably started mostly as curiosity, but I think that after seeing how the Sully's interacted with Spider, she'd be confused about his place, his family. If Spider didn't sleep in the Sully's marui, didn't eat with them— then where did he do those things?

Tsireya glided along the water, Lo'ak a few feet from her. "Why doesn't Spider stay in your marui?"

Lo'ak raised a brow. "Uh . . . I don't know. He lives with the humans, I guess. Always has."

"But . . . the humans left after helping Kiri. They have not returned."

"They . . . they haven't?" He cleared his throat. "I'm sure Dad has it handled. There's probably a new shack or something for him."

Consider Spider's mask running low and there isn't a spare anywhere. As a kid, he never was gone from the shack long enough for his battery to run low and during his time with the recoms, there were always spares in someone's pack when he needed it. Idk how long the masks last, but for my own sake, I'm going to say Spider got a new one the day of the battle and it lasted him about a week. Or maybe, he managed to pillage one as the ship went down so he's on his second and it's like two weeks or so.

I think that when he saw the little red light flashing, a small beep-beep sounding, that he'd probably be like a kid who forgot there was a test. He'd just panic. But, I imagine he'd also be scared to bother the Sully's by telling them, so he'd spend the next hour searching the village (discreetly) to see if there were any pilfered batteries or masks left behind when the humans visited. Let's say he has two hours from when the mask starts flashing to change it out. And where, oh where, does he wind up when he's got a half-hour left?

Spider was not panicking. Because, when a human panicked, they breathed faster and wasted more air. Norm told him that, so it had to be true. But, he'd checked everywhere he could think of and . . . nothing. There was no shack, no Norm or Max to run to before his timer ran out. No humans. Only him. And in a matter of . . . fuck, twenty minutes, he was going to die just like a human.

He sat slumped on the beach, looking out into the water and trying his best not to openly sob. He didn't want to die crying like a little baby. It was not working out well for him. At least, he'd have a good view when he died.

"Child? What is wrong?"

Spider flinched, looking up with wide eyes at the clan leader. He'd only talked to Tonowari once, when Jake had introduced him. Of course, given his spectacular luck, the man would find him when he was on death's doorstep.

With a sniffle, he held up his beeping pack. "It's almost out. Twenty minutes."

The man frowned down, grasping the device carefully. "And that is why you're so upset? Because, you don't wish to go into the village for a new one? Did something happen? Someone make you feel unwelcome?"

"There is no new mask." There was also no home to go back to. "That was my only one."

With a cut-off gasp, he pulled Spider to his feet. He marched the boy through the village and into what he recognized as the healer's marui. The Tsahik was mixing something, but she stood as soon as they entered.

"Tonowari?" She asked, stepping closer. "What happened? Is he hurt?"

"His mask, where's the spare?"

Wordlessly, the woman pulled a mask from one of the many baskets, easily connecting the tubing and turning it on. Like, she'd done it before. Spider had no time to ask why she had such a thing before she was right in front of him.

"Take a deep breath." She ordered, unlatching the straps of his mask before pulling it off. Just as quickly, the new one was secured. Spider hadn't even moved.

I think that even before deciding to adopt Spider, Tonowari and Ronal would probably make sure he had spare masks and check what food he could/couldn't eat. Like, as soon as they realize the Sully's aren't caring for him, they'd probably subconsciously take responsibility for him. Because, he was just a kid, really. And kids were clumsy and careless and needed help, needed parents. Anoung and Tsireya, despite being independent and skilled, still needed their parents sometimes. Let their mother do their hair and insisted on their father de-gutting their catches. And Spider— Spider is fragile. He's skilled and smart and quick on his feet, but he's a human surrounded by Na'vi. Not to mention, one wrong move and he's left with a cracked mask. And what if he eats the wrong food, mistakes one fruit for another and ends up poisoned?

This ended up way longer that I thought it would be, lol. But, I really love these types of fics and if anyone has any recs or wants to hear more, my comment section is open. XD

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 18 thoughts

although i tend to care less about episodes that center upon aliens, i found myself intrigued by this episode and constantly wondering what was going to happen next- which i would take to be the mark of a successful episode! when we can get some big plot gears moving AND insightful character analysis, i'm gonna be sat

there were a few moments in particular that made me lose my MIND. you will see what i mean.

but let's return to the me from a few hours ago, who did not know what was coming, and was writing live on the scene:

we’re BACK. after a pause of… however many days??? 4, maybe? too many. i will need the little recap they stick on the second half of the two parters this time. and just to be safe, i’ll go over my notes again, too.

okay, i’m refreshed. there was diving, there was pendrell, there was a guy named frish who i still don’t trust.

reading the episode description… mulder getting placed under arrest… fork spotted in kitchen. let us resume.

the recap reminds us that somebody stole a bunch of watches, mustache man was spray painting one of the bodies from the plane crash (?) and then he burst into the bar where frish and scully were hanging out. and you may recall, that Things Went Down.

but now we begin with the new events.

mulder in the lake…. damn, filming that had to be awful. he is being approached underwater!!! by two divers…. he seems to have narrowly escaped them

oh they are looking for HIM, it appears. at first, i thought they were alien divers coming for their lost comrade. not sure if the aliens understand solidarity like we do. each time one of 'em dies they seem to just... leave their body on earth.

here we see a sad man in a wetsuit (mulder) being caught by a jeep. despite racing a moving vehicle and therefore being destined to lose, he gives it his best go. only to be arrested!

how undignified, to be arrested in a dive suit…

(intro time)

hey- the intro was different again!! don’t think i didn’t notice…

(they must have a version that is a few seconds shorter that they bust out for the really jam-packed episodes, because by this point i am not surprised by it, but it still is jarring that the typical rhythm is broken up)

back to the bar with scully, pendrell, frish, and mustache man. 

it appears that pendrell was shot in the chest, which is not promising. scully tells him she will be right back as she makes a break for the mustache man.

but where did he GO?!?!? how did he get away!! he was dripping blood!!!

(is HE an alien???? we may never know)

the police roll up and scully flashes her badge to them as they arrive late and confused as per usual!! smh!!!

a guy from the EMT squad is telling people to let scully through the crowded bar, and i appreciate him for that. we need more people advocating for her. it is hard to be a genius and also small.

AWWWW pendrell no... oh sweet scully :( she’s trying to stop the bleeding and she keeps saying he’s going to be okay and “we still haven’t celebrated my birthday, pendrell, i’m not gonna let you off the hook like this” <- the way she was trying to comfort him and give him hope is going to make me cry

(i know he’s busy dying, but it also must be insane to watch the woman you have a crush on shoving towels into your gaping bullet hole wound while she is covered in your blood. might need to try that sometime if the chance ever comes)

and he smiles because he’s down bad. but at least he smiles.

she says he has a puncture in his right lung. which sounds very bad. but she tells the EMT he’s FBI and will NOT die. i wonder if she believes that, and that is her Firm Doctor Opinion, or if she is just saying that because she knows he can hear

BUT NO!! scully!!! her nose is bleeding :(((( she looks very scared...

(are her nosebleeds stress induced? is that even possible? i mean, all things considered, it's not the wildest plot point to take place on this show)

despite being scared, she goes back to frish, who is still waiting at the table, and gets down to business. if he didn’t tell his girlfriend he was in DC, that means there’s someone inside, she says. wiping the blood off of her face and saying that like she didn’t just have to shoot someone and save her coworker. damn. she is very good at pretending to be made of steel.

they’re taking pendrell away and skinner arrived. skinner!!!

she is still covered in blood and she is asking him why wasn’t there someone to escort frish!!! that order was cancelled because frish is being put under military arrest for suspicion of murder and false testimony in a federal investigation! ohhhh!

(tbh, i don’t know what the difference between regular and military arrest is except for that maybe military arrest means you were in the military. that’s my best guess. follow for more educated guesses ❤️)

anyway, scully is gagged by this!!! and rightfully so. now, i still don’t trust frish, but it does seem like someone is trying to censor him because he can attest to the government’s crimes. hmm….

and skinner says that this comes from high up in the government, who also put mulder under military arrest!!

(well, there goes my theory on what "military arrest" means!)

scully is very pissed as she explains that the military SHOT THAT PLANE DOWN. and skinner says they admitted as much!!!! omg why????

they’re having this sort of face off, until skinner notices the bloody tissue in her hand, and asks if she is alright

(STOP. STOP I’LL CRY??? god, whenever skinner interacts with them tenderly.... i will fall to my KNEES with emotion when they care about each other)

oh my GODDDDD. wait you have to hear about this next part.

(grabbing her hand and looking at the bloody tissue, then into her eyes) “i have a responsibility for the safety of the agents under my supervision, agent scully. i’m not going to put another agent’s life in jeopardy just to keep her out in the field” 

WAHHHHHHH... HE CARES ABOUT HER AND SHE IS TRYING TO KEEP WORKING AND NOT THINK ABOUT HER SICKNESS, BECAUSE TO THINK ABOUT IT WOULD MAKE IT REAL... BUT SHE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, AND HOW DO YOU MAKE SOMEONE TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES WHEN THEY FEEL HARDWIRED TO TAKE CARE OF OTHERS??? AND WHEN THEY HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD THIS FACADE OF BEING OKAY AT ALL TIMES?

the doctor needing the caring is always going to get me. a thankless task it is, to tend to the dead and dying, and how much more awful it must feel to her knowing the limitations of medicine

she has tears in her eyes and assures him she’s okay, but skinner has banished her to the hospital with pendrell. "thank you skinner", we all say in unison.

stop. stop. skinner :( he loves them both…. and she needs to rest :(

cutscene NOT TO HER IN THE HOSPITAL but to her at an air force reserve installation finding mulder 

GIRL HE CAN BE OKAY!!!! YOU NEED TO GO TO A DOCTOR PLEASE!!! 🙏 HE GOT HIMSELF INTO THIS MESS LET HIM GET HIMSELF OUT WHILE YOU GO TAKE A NAP

“mulder.” “hi, scully. you come to spring me from the joint?” <- he’s such a fucking loser (said with love)

is that all it takes to get someone out of military arrest? the bestie rolling up? damn. i thought it would be a lot harder than that.

so the military confessed to being responsible for the crash. that's surprising.

and oh my god, he’s getting undressed. just right then and there with her right in front of him. you see, at first i thought he was just unbuttoning his weird military arrest shirt, because maybe he was hot, but then scully turned around like they have done this a million times before (and they probably have) as he unzipped his pants. i’m taken aback by the intimacy of such an act. 

doing all of this while arguing, btw. deeply impressive.

they are so married. it's not even funny. not even just married. some weird soul tying thing is going on there.

the military is claiming that there were faulty coordinates given to the flight that had max on it. and they were the only two planes on the screen. 

and i appreciate them spelling this cover story out for us very clearly, because i was playing mental ping-pong trying to keep track of the amount of crash sites and planes last episode.

this cover story lays the blame on the man who was working with frish, who allegedly ended his own life- convenient to lay the blame on a dead man- and it also posits that frish lied to save himself, and came to the FBI to blame the military. 

hmm. it’s a cover story, alright. not even sure if it’s a good one, but it sure is a cover story.

the military is claiming the second plane that crashed into flight 459 was military, but then mulder reveals he has burns on his head that scully quickly realizes are from radiation!! he got them while he was underwater looking for the mystery craft!! this does NOT seem like a feature that the US military would want to have in their planes.

ooookay, so he says it was a UFO (well, we did see a little alien in there, may he rest in peace) that collided with flight 549- and when the military shot the UFO down, the passenger plane went with it.

see, this makes sense to me now. thank you for making it incredibly clear!!

plane man gets a name reveal!!! his name is mike millar. scully points out that he says there was no evidence of a collision, and while he could be lying, he seems to be the only one that really wants to know what actually went down. 

plane guy. i have called you this for a whole episode. and now, you have become plane guy mike. it would have been nice to know that last time, but we cannot change the past, a fact i struggle with daily.

and mike went to scully to tell her about finding sharon wandering about the crash site!! he didn't have to do that. so it adds more evidence to the "he seems to genuinely want to know what happened" camp

mulder asks, he found sharon, max’s sister? but PLOT TWIST: she’s NOT his sister??

maybe it’s a “blood siblings” sort of thing??? swearing loyalty? found family? because lying about being someone's sibling feels odd. there has to be some sort of story there.

well, whatever their dynamic may have been, here is what we know about sharon: she is an unemployed aeronautical engineer who has spent time in and out of mental institutions. WHERE SHE MET MAX!!!

omg….. the truth raises only more questions…

NO!!! scully tells mulder that pendrell is dead. oh my god. she did the best to make him smile right before he died…

scully, you are the best friend in all the world. i have said this many times before, but it still bears repeating.

mulder is shocked and grabs her shoulder, asking how pendrell died. she explains he was shot by mustache man, who was aiming for frish

“mulder, what are these people dying for? is it for the truth or for the lies?” <- i love her Need to be righteous and stand for the truth, even though she lives in a terrible and corrupt world, and how it drives her, how it vexes her to live in such a lawless place, but how her own moral compass keeps her oriented

he says it has to be the truth they’re dying for, and they owe it to those who died to find it out. damn. if that isn’t his whole life in a sentence.

they go to max’s trailer, where i recall mulder tenderly holding him through a seizure a few seasons back.

(i didn't even pick up on the fact that we had seen max before last episode. my b.)

scully hates his trailer LMAO “i remember being amazed at what some people will call a home” <- ohhh she wants a nice, comfy place to live... write that down, write that down

she presses a button and some music starts playing and then says “i think you were actually kindred spirits in some deep, strange way” “what do you mean?” “men with spartan lives, simple in their creature comforts, if only to allow for the complexity of their passions” <- OHHH you better analyze him!!! read him like a BOOK!!!

mulder wants to find whatever it is max wanted to tell him so badly, badly enough to get on the plane even though he knew it was dangerous. this seems like a reasonable thing to be searching for in such conditions.

they find a tape of max recounting his life story, how no one believes you when you’re an alien abductee, and how he wants to expose the people who have recovered the UFOs in the military and the FBI. and they’re using the alien tech in military operations!!! which is crazy.

we see the military taking pieces of the craft from the lake AND AN ALIEN BODY!! MANY ALIEN BODIES!!!!!!

and guys passed out and throwing up from all the radiation!!!

(musical flourish) IT’S GONNA BE CSM, RIGHT? 

NO!!!! it was mustache man!!!! maybe they went to high school together.

mustache man is just straight up watching this dude die but announces “we found it” as if that answers any and all questions

plane guy mike is working to identify the bodies from the crash of the flight, and announces they really cannot find any other evidence to figure out what happened. he asks his team to please wrap up tonight and then go home. 

plane guy seems nice… i know his ass is gonna die.

(author's note: rejoice!!! he might have made it!!!!!)

mulder and scully are here to talk to him!!!!!!! actually, plane guy mike called THEM!! he wanted to say thank you for the lead that it was the military’s fault. but he has no other ideas on what could have gone down.

WELL! mulder is going to tell him his story.

mulder thinks that max was followed by someone who wanted whatever he had on him. and what was the object? proof of the existence of aliens!!

(now what type of object could that be....?)

(plane guy mike glances back at scully) (she looks at him and raises her eyebrows as if to say “yeah, i know”)

then, mulder thinks that the flight was taken over by a craft that never appeared on any of the radars (because it was a UFO and clearly they don’t show up on radars)

((wait, they definitely have before in the past… well. i guess they didn’t this time. i'm sure there are plenty of different alien species with varying technological skillsets))

if all had gone to plan, the UFO would have taken Max right from the flight.... but the third plane shot the UFO down, and since the UFO had control of flight 459, it went down along with the UFO!

we then see max getting taken out by the aliens…… while time stands still and everyone on the flight watches. it is very creepy. 

he thinks that had the military plane not shot the UFO down, everyone on flight 459 would have had their memories wiped and no one would have known that max was ever abducted!

but the missile hit, and (plane crash scenes) (incredibly horrifying plane crash scenes) (people just keep falling and falling and someone is saying a prayer)

(quite upsetting to watch this, actually)

but back to the modern day. awaiting a plane guy mike reaction to such an outrageous tale.

plane guy says that even if it WAS true, they can’t prove it. damn. just can't get a read on this fellow.

scully says that while she had the same reaction, there is something that needs to be explained: the seats and the door showed traces of radioactivity!!!!!

woaaaaah… plane guy, you didn't find anything radioactive in the crash, did you?

surprise! he did find something from the wreckage that had some radioactivity… and he pulls it out… it’s max’s bag!!! it has his hat in it!!!! but seemingly nothing else beyond the hat.

plane guy says he has to write his final report, and that basically mulder is crazy, and goodnight.

ohhhh, said about the deaths of pendrell and max: “and if we don’t find out, what meaning do their deaths have, or their lives?”

sighs. the pressure these two put upon themselves to right every single wrong in the entire world. they mean well, but they cannot fix everything, and this will only disappoint them.

mulder proposes starting their renewed quest for answers with sharon, who is in a mental institution. he says he’d go with scully to find her, but he’s afraid they would lock him up, and she jokes “me too”. and i’m thinking, girlie needs to get to the hospital!!! now!!! mulder, YOU go!!!

(i think we were supposed to understand that scully DID, in fact, go to the hospital with pendrell, where she got checked out and learned of his death- we just didn't see it onscreen. however, as i was watching, i wasn't really processing what they were trying to say and was instead in "someone help scully" mode, which explains a lot of my thinking at almost all times)

but no, rather than going to the mental hospital to ask sharon some questions and letting scully rest, he instead goes back to max’s trailer, where he finds things all torn apart and scattered. someone must have broken in!!!! omg these bastards!!!

the trailer park manager asks what he’s doing here and mulder has to break the news that max is dead…. and the manager is deeply sad, but also (very practically) asks what he should do with his mail. 

WOAH!!! in the back of the video where max was talking about himself, you can see sharon!!! it looks like she was the one filming!!

mulder has max's mail…. and he is opening it. can you open a dead guy’s mail? maybe if you’re in the FBI?? it has this sort of badge thing with numbers on it.

(this was later revealed to be a luggage tag, or perhaps the writers and prop team expected people to immediately recognize its purpose. but i didn't. and you know i require honesty when recounting these things)

scully is here to visit sharon, who is sitting up on her bed in the night. a little spooky of her. and she immediately confesses to not being max’s sister. 

scully sees she is covered in blisters like max was!! so they were exposed to something… something sharon stole….

she stole something radioactive from her job!!! but what was it??? and how do you even DO that??

allegedly, it was alien tech. that was divided into three parts. but where is the third one???

that piece with the numbers on it was a luggage ticket!!! so mulder is taking it to find the bag, and presumably the radioactive part within.

but who arrives after him, but some people in suits!!! watching him take max's bag! and beginning to chase after mulder!

he uses the federal agent card to get out of there, which i fully support, and scully calls to tell him that this mystery thing was stolen from a military contractor. and i’m thinking, TELL HIM NOT TO OPEN IT, PLEASE

and she’s trying to tell him this, but the cell signal is breaking up!!!! PLEASE DO NOT OPEN IT BRO. it looks like he is about to, but he sees it a little through an x ray instead. PHEW!

scully says this must be high tech industrial espionage… which would be fascinating. but i don't think that is what is going on here.

and mulder’s getting on the plane with the mystery object!! BE CAREFUL- THEY’LL GET YOU!!

NOOOOO, MUSTACHE MAN IS ON THE PLANE!!!

did he regenerate the parts of him that were shot or something???!!!

mulder is sleeping on the plane…. mustache man comes to sit next to him…. and he sees that he has a gunshot wound on his leg… ah, so no regeneration

mulder clocks his nonsense very quickly, and says he has a weapon pointed at him!!

“what if you miss?” “i won’t” <- LMAOOO king has been practicing in the range!!!

but mustache man says he’ll depressurize the plane at 30,000 feet and jump away on a parachute. rude as hell. 

mulder guesses that it is perhaps alien energy in the bag he carries that so many people had to die for… and he tells mustache man to get to the back of the plane, NOW, so he can be exiled to the bathroom 

he calls scully from the plane (you can do that???) and tells her that he has the man who shot pendrell locked up!! and can she please give skinner a head’s up to get to the airport? thank you

“hey scully?” my watch just stopped” (he drops the phone and runs) “mulder? mulder?!” <- oh the DESPERATION in her voice…

he is always dropping calls and running, leaving her to yell with worry on the phone. we need to train him to stop doing this. in fact, the one time he did not do this was when he was on the phone with scully's mother, and it was remarkable for how much effort it probably took

mulder tells the flight attendant that the flight is about to be boarded, but mustache man comes out with his gun!!! saying to put the bag down NOW!! all the passengers are shocked to see this happening.

so he does set the bag down… and then the plane is rumbling… and the lights….. the UFO!!!! everyone is screaming!!!! 

mulder pulls a gun on mustache man as the door starts to get blown off, just like he thought it happened to max. and then everything is very very quiet…..

scully and skinner are RUNNING to the plane as the people disembark. 

and mustache man isn’t there anymore!! and his watch is off!!!! omggggg!!!

the alirans got him!!!

he seemed like a dick so no real loss on that end. but i'm sad mulder cannot use that mystery part to prove they exist.

although, it seems that claiming "it's just super advanced tech from (insert country that is not the USA here)" would be the government's first move. not sure how much the actual object would have helped if they had that trusty excuse hanging in their back pockets.

“would you like to tell me what’s going on here, agent mulder?”, asks skinner (scully intercepts) “i don’t think you want to know the answer” 

skinner looks very very confused. my poor guy.

back to the video of max, where he is talking about the secrets the government is keeping. sharon is watching it. WITH SCULLY AND MULDER!!! my besties :)

she asks if she can keep the tapes and he says yes, she should start a collection of all of max's things

when sharon mentions that scully also lost someone very close to her, she has to leave the trailer…. and mulder follows behind in his white sneakers

“you thinking about pendrell?” “i realized i didn’t even know his first name” <- OUCH. queen please do not feel guilt over this, because that is just how having coworkers is.

but she was really thinking about HER BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM MULDER??? OMG?? she’s looking at it and smiling

wait, this next monologue NEEDS to be copied down….

“you never got to tell me why you gave it to me, or what it means, but i think i know. i think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals… that what can be imagined can be achieved… that you must dare to dream… but that there’s no substitute for perseverance and hard work and teamwork… because no one gets there alone. and that while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible”

“i just thought it was a pretty cool keychain”

(soft music as the camera turns to the stars and fades to black)

WAAHHHHH

oh scully, i mumble for the hundredth time... she makes my heart hurt. she has so much good in her and yet nothing good happens TO her.

i love that she is so analytical and finds meaning in everything, even the little keychain <3 and i love that she is both dedicated to science and an idealist, and neither of those things are mutually exclusive even if you might imagine that the hard realities of the world do not mesh with optimism and faith.

and i don't fully believe that mulder just thought the keychain was cool... he knew what he was doing there. at least a little bit. now i will imagine it dangling from her keys for decades, jingling each time she unlocks her door, a little piece of their connection made physical.

so, what am i thinking about the episode?

well, we didn't get any closure on plane guy or frish, and i know better than to think we will get some in any future episodes. so that feels a little unfinished.

in terms of plot development, we are introduced to this mustache man and an object that could prove the existence of aliens, but both of those get wiped away, and we leave off sort of where we began. that left mustache man feeling underused, or sort of like a waste of narrative focus. unless he comes back?

still, while i might have qualms with the plot not being entirely wrapped up, i enjoyed this episode! the moment with skinner absolutely got to me, as did scully's kindness towards pendrell and her analysis of mulder's gift. the moment where he just started changing clothes and they had that unspoken understanding also killed me.

i was also glad that this episode explained things a bit more than the last one did. i was confused with the constant switches between theory and fact, that while i'm sure some viewers were annoyed with how they spelled it out so clearly, i was pleased.

i love the tales of mulder and scully's spooky job. it was a good episode!

[sunnyie-eve]

25 | Money, Money, Money

Series: Never Leave You | OBX

Paring:(JJ Maybank x OFC! Rafe Cameron x OFC!)

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: feelings still conflicted

MASTERLIST

"Moment of truth. All right. Pin is 0000. Enter." John B puts in the pin.

"You're kidding me." Callie gives him a look.

"What?"

"Tell me that's a temporary pin." Kie tells him as well.

"I thought nobody could guess." He tries to explain.

"Change that immediately." Pope tells him so he apologizes.

When the receipt comes out John B and JJ fight over the paper to see what the amount was and John B wins to read the amount while everyone looks over his shoulders to see.

"Okay. Our joint account balance... after paying JJ's resignation at 10:04am on Tuesday.."

"Oh come on. Get on with it!" Cleo tells him.

"Our joint account balance is one point one million, seventy-two thousand, five hundred and forty-nine dollars."

"You said mil?" JJ asks.

"Million?" Pope adds.

Everyone celebrates and Callie sees JJ walk off a bit so she goes over to him, "I thought you would be the happiest out of everyone." She leans against the fridge like he was.

"I'm happy."

Callie sighs as tilting her head back closing her eyes, "But you're not, JJ." She looks back at him, "I know you well enough."

"I just wish certain things were like I wanted them to be." He gives her a look and she knew exactly what he meant.

She sighs looking away to see Kie looking over at them before looking away, "I wish the same but things happened." She tells him before walking away going outside.

Kiara watches her then walks over to JJ, "Still hasn't forgiven you?"

JJ looks at her, "I don't expect her to yet."

"If she truly loved you should would forget everything." Kie tells him so he leaves going to find Callie but she was no where to be seen.

Callie had walked off going to the nearest way to the beach. While she was walking Rafe drove by but backed up seeing her, "Hey stranger."

"Hey." She gives him a smile but it was her normal smile.

"Where you headed to? I'll give you a ride." He offers so she takes it saying to take her to the beach.

Without saying anything once they get there, she gets out walking towards the water getting in then diving underwater. Rafe gets out rushing over to see what the hell she was doing.

"Relax would you." She laughs as he gets close to her.

"I hardly ever relax."

"Unless you're with me and you are so." She stands up giving him a smile.

"What's up with you?" He asks because she wasn't herself.

"Thinking about things. I love JJ but the more I take time to think... something doesn't feel the same anymore." She tells him, "And I can't figure it out."

"It's that one little broken piece that hasn't been put back with the others." He tells her what he thinks.

"Maybe it is." She agrees with him, "It's like something is holding it back from joining the rest."

When Rafe drops her off at her place, JJ was waiting outside for her. He still hated how close she was to Rafe. Callie automatically knew he wanted to say something as she walks up and Rafe drives off.

"You just vanished earlier."

"I wanted to go to the beach." She tells him truthfully.

"With Rafe?"

"No, I was walking and he drove by and saw me so he offered to drive me there. Why does it bother you? He's a friend." She goes to unlock the door and he follows her inside.

"A friend you've hooked up with and is an asshole."

"Why bring up that first part?" She turns to face him, "It doesn't matter because I'm single. We're still not together, JJ."

"Why is that still?"

"Because I don't know if I want to get back together, honestly. If it happened once how do I know it won't happen again?" She tells him.

"Callie, come on. I never worried about you and Rafe after you hooked up."

"I was single when I did that. You weren't when you wanted to kiss Kie. That's the difference." She tells him. "And those feelings for Kie aren't gone no matter what you tell yourself. I know that because how I have feelings for Rafe still from our time together." She steps forward taking his hands into hers, "I love you, JJ. I do. But I don't want to fear things that might or might not happen. I don't want a relationship with anyone right now so don't assume I'm going to run to Rafe. I just need time alone." She kisses his cheek going towards her room

"So we're done done?" He asks so she sighs.

"Maybe someday we can try again." She goes to her room so he could let himself out.

That whole conversation they had Tess had heard while in the kitchen being quiet so she could ease drop. Once JJ left she goes up to Callie's room to check on her.

"That was a big decision you made down there."

Callie looked over at her, "Yeah, and I stand by what I said. And like you said, I need to focus on myself."

"If that's the case... let's go on a little vacation. You need a getaway. Come on." Tess smiles clapping her hands excitedly.

"Seriously?" Callie laughs.

"Yes, we can leave in the morning. I'm free. Do you have any plans?" Callie shakes her head no so she stars to get things together to leave for tomorrow

The next morning as soon as both were awake they get there things together to leave for who knows how long. They didn't have a plan for anything and were just going with the flow. And after a few weeks away when they got back home, Callie felt better. She didn't feel the pressure of having to please either guy.

Later the same day they got back, Rafe showed up knocking on the door, "Rafe?" Tess opens the door.

"Seeing you're back that means Callie is too right?" He asks her.

"Yeah, she's up in her room. Come in." Tess lets him in so he goes up to her room knocking on the door.

When she opens it she was surprised to see him just a bit, "Sup?" She lets him into her room and he sees she was changing it up.

"Needing a change?" He asks her, "Your hair is also a way lighter brown too." He points out.

"Yeah, a change was well needed." She laughs going back to painting her wall.

"Didn't you have the guys names carved here?" He asks pointing at the window.

"Wow, you really payed attention to things. And yes, I did but I fixed it up."

"What's up being more girly this time?" He laughs at her.

"It's not even that girly." She rolls her eyes, "Now what brought you here? You miss me?" She jokes.

"You wish... My dad's ashes arrived earlier and I put them in the ocean. You said you helped Sarah put up a cross for him but they found him lying at the bottom of a cliff left there."

"I did help but we didn't move his body, Rafe. Again I'm so sorry." She stops to face him so he pulls her into a hug. "Just remember he said he was proud of you because he left." She rubs his back, "I know you really needed that so don't forget that."

Rafe just cries into her for a bit and she didn't mind. She wanted him to let it out. She wanted to be there for a friend.

"Enough of that." He finally pulls back so she wipes his tears away laughing at him. "Tomorrow is Kildare Enduro. I'm in it and I believe JJ is as well." He lets her know. Just incase you have no plans." He walks towards her door to leave.

"I'll think about it." She gives him a smile as he leaves.

[ncisfranchise-source]

“This is one of my favorite episodes of my entire career span on NCIS. It’s so beautifully done and hits so many emotional levels for many different characters,” says Katrina Law, speaking with us about the twenty-first season finale for NCIS: Case Closed, our weekly aftershow.

It was particularly tough for her character, Special Agent Jessica Knight, who got an angry breakup speech from her boyfriend, Chief Medical Examiner Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) after he heard she was considering taking a new job in California. Watch the video above for the two actors’ breakdown of the episode.

“It was a wonderfully human reaction that happens, that’s not planned,” Dietzen says. “Jimmy lost one of his best friends and his mentor this year. Losing his wife, even though it’s been a few years [still affects him]. Him saying, ‘I want something on my own terms’ — I can understand why that happened even if it’s not said eloquently or there’s a harsh edge that’s unusual to see from Jimmy Palmer.”

That side of Jimmy sent Knight reeling. But things got much worse when a murderer locked her and boss Alden Parker (Gary Cole) below deck in a ship set to be blown up. The scenes were shot on a 30-year-old set once used for JAG (the show that launched NCIS) on a sound stage in Southern California.

Parker suffered a life-threatening injury and Law says Cole’s performance was so good she was genuinely concerned for his real-life health. “I remember looking at him and being like, ‘Oh, you don’t look well. This isn’t acting. Are you okay?’”

The character was so badly hurt that he began hallucinating a mysterious childhood memory: playing on a ship with a little girl named Lily.  When Knight asked the hospitalized Parker about it later, he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) go into it. “It’ll be interesting to see if Parker continues to deny his knowledge of who Lily is or if he goes forward and suddenly has a confessional moment,” Law says.

The team’s fearless leader only lived because Knight realized that to save him, she’d have to swim for help. For the underwater sequences, a small tank was built, and Law crowded in with a wetsuit-clad camera operator. “I’m a pretty strong swimmer. I used to surf. I scuba dive. I’m pretty comfortable and happy in the water,” Law says. “That being said, I always have a mask on, or my eyes are closed.” For this scene, she had to deal with myriad technical issues, including the possibility her contact lenses might float away. (Watch the video for details.)

With everyone safely back on land at the episode’s end, Knight agreed to take the California job. Law told us she’s been informed she’s staying on the show: “The writers said that they were going to bring me back, but they lie sometimes, so we’ll see what happens.” So, what could the producers come up with to keep Knight in DC?

“Maybe she goes and takes this job and realizes that she truly loves her NCIS team, or maybe she just wants to be back in a relationship with Jimmy full time. Maybe something happens with the NCIS team that calls her back. I think there’s a whole plethora of reasons that could make her either come back or stay,” Law says.

[hangedmanrui]

With just 2 days left to order the Revue Starlight Enactment Zine (order here!) and less than 10 orders left to unlocking the bgumi pin (which I also designed), I thought I would post my thought process behind the bookmark I made for the zine. It's long, so... more under the cut

starting with the arcana arcadia side - i wanted to try to depict the entire story so I split it up vertically into 6 parts.

act 1

pretty self explanatory - the magician summoning the devil, the hanged man saying he won't stop walking, high priestess being sent to hell

act 2 - is a depiction of these two moments in the screenshots

act 3

also self explanatory... the trial. hermit's eyes are closed, still in denial of the truth

act 4

this one i struggled with a bit initially - because conceptually they're also the wild pirates but Evolved in the "play part" of act 4, at first i wanted to include that, but i couldn't figure out a clear way to do so. the paper moon is aruru:

act 5

this was the easiest to come up with - i was just like OK. STAR WAR. (though i did mess around a lot with the directions they faced) the escape pod is taking star girl away from the battle.. the bottom 3 are cheering as they crash to their deaths. the effects on ai/hologram hikari were fun to do. it was inspired the most by this poster:

act 6

and so the girl arrives at her destination - the moon, a desert of bone and ash. where arcana go to die and be reborn. the fool sets off on his new journey, the world teaches the star of her identity, and the moon passes on her brilliance... ah... i can't put a succinct story screenshot in here. go read act 6.

I wanted to include some imagery from the star tarot card. here's a description of the jugs of water i just stole from biddytarot:

She pours the water out to nourish the earth and to continue the cycle of fertility, represented by the lush greenery around her. The other container pours the water onto dry land in five rivulets, representing the five senses.

instead of water, I wanted it to look like paper, like a long scroll overflowing from the jugs. and they're gold just to match the #aesthetic. the star, brimming with hope and brilliance, continues the cycle of death and rebirth by continuing to write stories. :)

now for the stage play side:

originally i just thought of this as the blue glitter side to include seiran - but then i was like what the heck, there are so many other stageplay characters and i want to draw them. but i think it's still representative of the plays as a whole because seiran were the school born on and for the stage exclusively.

i was thinking of the platform stages that you see in the anime, big round things. i didn't actually cross reference but that's how they were in my brain

the jhs are just jumping (diving) into this world of the stage (they did appear in delight first and foremost after all)

as follows from Diving, i was thinking of limitless when i drew this because i looove the lyric that goes "Limitless, into this strange phenomenon / The one who plunged in was me" and the whole underwater theme of seiran esp in the blue glitter manga. i considered replacing the three musketeers tagline with some form of that lyric, and playing with some underwater themes - but it proved to be too messy and difficult. but we still have this kind of jumping down feeling which is really one of my fav expressions in revue starlight

only the actors show their faces to the audience.. (on stage, everyone minus sakura the stage production stage girl)

guess who's in the audience! well i'm going to tell you. from left to right:

souda-sensei

layla (#3 growth)

namie (#3 growth)

kirin

saegusa chizuru (saikai eyes, movie) (grownup form)

saegusa ichika (saikai eyes) (student form)

yakumo-sensei

i think i wanted to have chizuru and ichika in these not necessarily linear ages because first of all it's the most recognizable, but also because you could say it's them in the point of their lives where they're the most invested in the stage. also I guess the teachers are not in the audience they're the . revue masters calling the curtains to open

anyway that's it, if you read this far, i'm sorry and thank you. please check out the zine and order if you're interested, there is so much cool stuff, and the proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDs!

[aquaheartgirl]

Seeing you have “Little Mermaid II” as your profile pic…what do you think would’ve happened if instead of building the sea wall, Ariel and Eric just sent Melody inland far away from the sea?

I kind of doubt they'd send her anywhere unless they went with her. She's their daughter. But honestly, I've never even thought about that as a possibility. Because as much as I love Little Mermaid 2, I have to admit the whole premise is incredibly flawed, and the problems go so deep that sending Melody away wouldn't make any more sense than building the wall. It even goes further than just Ariel and Eric's out-of-character parenting decisions. It pretty much starts before the movie even hits the five-minute mark.

I know this is going way off topic, but now you've got me thinking about this lol. So first of all, you have to ignore the sheer absurdity of Morgana's plan and the fact that there's no way it should have worked. It starts with her literally grabbing baby Melody from her mother's arms... from the top deck of a ship... while Morgana herself is still underwater. I know there's plenty of inconsistency on just how long these tentacles are supposed to be, but this is maybe the most ridiculous stretch (literally).

Whatever, let's say she's really stretchy. Now, kidnapping Melody is not necessarily a stupid plan in itself, but just how crazy is she to do it in broad daylight in front of hundreds of people? I guess not quite as crazy as the fact that not a single one of those people makes any attempt to stop her physically. The movie makes a big deal of how unskilled she is with magic, so it's not like anyone should be that intimidated by her. And yes I know babies are delicate, but they do have the instinct to hold their breath; I think Melody could survive a short dunk in the water if Morgana got knocked out or something. There are dozens of merpeople everywhere; if Triton couldn't reach her, someone else would. Ariel would definitely dive headfirst off the ship to get to her if it came to that.

But let's say everyone is so worried about Melody getting hurt that they don't want to get too close. Okay. Even if Morgana isn't particularly scary, she does have a tiny bit of leverage. But the next thing that happens is Triton, king of the sea and wielder of presumably one of the most powerful magical weapons in existence, IMMEDIATELY gives in to her demands.

This is supposed to be the same King Triton who initially refused to give in when Ursula, a way more powerful witch, tried to blackmail him?

He only gave in to Ursula once it was very clear he couldn't beat her by force. And not only was Ursula a substantial threat, she also had an actual legal claim over Ariel with the contract. But he didn't care. And yet he doesn't even TRY with Morgana, who is far weaker and has far less leverage over him. All she's doing is threatening to feed Melody to Undertow. If she wasn't physically holding Melody, she would have nothing at all.

Triton has the trident right there in his hands, and apparently there isn't a single thing he can do with it that will save Melody.

Oh, wait.

He totally can.

And he can do a whole lot more than that.

But not just yet... or else there would be no movie.

NOW, after we've already suspended a whole lot of disbelief, we finally get to the building of the wall.

First, we have the fact that Melody is Morgana's only target, and furthermore that everyone assumes this is the case. Yes, she verbally makes this threat, but it's a huge boast on her part, and there's no reason to assume she'll actually be able to follow through. She spends twelve years waiting for a chance to get at Melody again. That's a LONG time to wait for something that might never happen. Okay, Morgana isn't very bright, but you'd think she would get frustrated and give up or make a new plan. Doesn't Triton have any other grandchildren she could kidnap by now? (In fact, where are Ariel's sisters throughout this whole thing? We see four of them for two seconds during Down to the Sea, and... that's literally it. You'd think we'd at least see them helping in the search or something.)

Also, why can't Morgana get to Melody one of the ten thousand times she sneaks out to swim in the ocean? She can spy on her, so she should know this is a regular occurrence. If the wall really does anything to protect Melody, then it wouldn't take so long for Morgana to lure her away once she starts going under it. And she's clearly very practiced at this by the time we see her out there.

Basically, Ariel and Triton and everyone else are seriously overestimating Morgana's abilities AND the functionality of the wall for... no particular reason. But that's not even the biggest problem, in my opinion. Even if you ignore or rationalize everything up until this point, this is when you get to something even stupider than the wall: Ariel lying to her daughter.

To be fair, I do like the way they tried to frame Ariel's parenting struggles against her father's and show that she was making a hard choice that she thought was the right one, just like her father once did. But the way they got there just makes no sense. I can understand why keeping Melody out of the sea might make sense as a really extreme precaution, but I fail to see how not knowing about Morgana or Atlantica would make things any safer for her. Why not just... tell her?

"So you're half mermaid, and when you were a baby an evil sea witch tried to steal you to blackmail your grandfather, who by the way is the sea king, and she threatened to come back for you and we still have no idea where she is, so we don't want you going in the ocean unsupervised."

That's it. There's literally no reason for her not to do that. And it doesn't necessarily have to mess up the movie. What if Morgana disguises herself as someone else and tricks Melody that way, saying she wants to help find this sea witch to make the ocean safe again? What if she creates a diversion and lures Ariel and Eric into some kind of trap, and she blackmails Melody into stealing the trident to save them? Those are just off the top of my head. There are plenty of ways to make a good story without turning beloved characters into not just terrible parents but idiotic ones too.

I'm not even going to get into all the rest of the issues with this movie. Like how Ariel and Eric apparently convinced everyone in the kingdom to go along with the ruse and not tell their own kids about Atlantica (otherwise why would all the kids be making fun of Melody for "talking to fish"?). Or how Melody spent so much time hanging around Sebastian and Scuttle and no secrets ever slipped out - or for that matter, how no secrets ever slipped out from ANYONE in the castle around her. Or why Sebastian just let her run away instead of going with her for protection or maybe explaining things to her right then. Or how Tip and Dash have conveniently never heard of King Triton or his trident. Or how Tip, a penguin, can breathe underwater. Or how everything in Ariel's cave is intact after it was wrecked in the first movie. Or why Morgana can spy on Melody whenever she wants but Triton can't do the same thing to find her, even though he's obviously more powerful. Honestly, I keep thinking of new things even as I'm writing this, and I've given it plenty of thought before. But this is already way too long.

So yeah... I will defend Little Mermaid 2 with all my heart as a sweet, fun mermaid movie that I still enjoy. I could make a post even longer than this one going into all the things I love about it. But I can't defend it as anything close to a solid story because it falls apart pretty much anywhere you touch it. And I think it's important to acknowledge the difference between the two.

[dapandapod]

For Mermay :)

Eskel and Geralt? Hmmm a word...

Glittering!

No pressure and i hope this inspires you 💕😊

It does, thank you and thank you for indulging me <3 writing spree activated, I'm sorry for so many posts in a day, but aaah, words! Also since it was not specified, I also didn't specify if it is a ship fic or not. I hope you enjoy! <3

Send me a pairing and a word and I will make you some words? ❤️

On Ao3 here

When the sun goes down, the world glows brighter. Anemones and shrimps and little fish and the gentle light of the moon above lighting up the rocks and the kelp and the sea grass.

Geralt only knows it is called moon because of the songs of the humans. Some of the people beyond the reef call it the Silver Sun. 

Her pale light doesn’t dive as deep as her brother, but every ebb and flow is at her mercy. 

From below, you can’t see her children. For that, you have to reach the surface. It is something that is to be avoided as much as possible, Vesemir instructed them in their youth. Above the surface they hunt you, or you get stranded, or far worse.

Geralt hasn't seen his mother since she went to the surface. All he remembers of her are her colorful fins and auburn hair, her clawed finger gently thumbing the crease of his smile. 

Now that Geralt is the age she was when she disappeared, Geralt wants to see the children of the moon. The stars, he heard the humans call them. 

It is a calm night, and the skies are clear. Geralt floats, his chest and face and arm just above the surface. Leaving his back unattended, turned to the world below feels weird, his hair floating around him, the same color as the Silver Sun.

He should be fine, though, fins and tail sleek like a shark keep most predators a safe distance from him, recognizing what he is. More than fine, seeing Eskel is there with him, floating just inches from where he is.

The ocean sounds different from here. Sharper, but quieter. If he lets his head sink, he can hear the underwater life sing. Above, it is Silent. Peaceful.

“They look like little jellyfish. Or mareel.” Eskel mumbles. His voice too is different up here, and the water trembles around his chest as he speaks.

Geralt doesn’t respond. He only keeps looking, the far away lights glittering like gems, or scales in the sun.

“Do you think she is up there?” Geralt can’t help but ask eventually. The water around him vibrates, lapping at his skin like little kisses.

“You think she just kept swimming?” Eskel turns his head to look at Geralt, and he can see it so clearly in his mind.

How his mother just kept swimming up, up, up, until she joined them far above in the inky darkness, just like in the stories of their childhood.

“More likely they hunted her.” Geralt says, frowning at the memory of being left behind.

Eskel reaches for him, their fingers tangling together when Eskel grabs his hand, so much bigger than his own.

Eskel always was bigger, stronger. He comes from the north, his body the black and white of the orcas. Even now, Eskel still mourns the loss of his family, and Geralt has sworn never to leave his side.

The stars wink at them, an echo of what is below. Geralt wonders if you could trip and fall into it, a sky of upside down sea. 

Eskel’s hand in his is grounding, their hips and fins touch as they float closer together.

“Ready to go home?” Eskel asks eventually.

Geralt turns his head and gives a smile, pulling them even closer and knocking their foreheads together.

“With you, I’m always home.”

But they dive down, leaving the empty quiet above, to the singing depths they know.

[casspurrjoybell-17]

Hart and Hunter - Chapter 36 - Part 1

*Warning Adult Content*

Julian Hart

"Where's Dane?"

"He was right behind us," Freya says, worry edging her tone.

"Had to give Erickson a shove. Fool panicked when he saw that smaller tunnel."

"I didn't think I'd fit," Erickson snaps.

"I thought I'd get stuck in the damn thing."

"Stuck in the..."

Horror floods my gut.

The tunnel had been claustrophobically small but I'd had enough room to wriggle through with little trouble.

I'm a slender guy, though.

Erickson's slightly bigger than me but Dane...

"Oh, shit. He's stuck."

With fear seizing my throat, I take a gulp of air and dive beneath the surface again, hoping against hope that I can still find the entrance to the tunnel and that I'm not too late.

A few meters down I find the bottom and shine my flashlight over the rough gravel and stone.

Through my blurry vision, I can hardly see more than vague shapes and shadows but by a stroke of luck the entrance is obvious.

Like a drain in a sink, it's a black circle gaping at the bottom of the pool.

I balk at the sight of it but my fear can't be anything compared to what Dane must be feeling... if he's even still conscious.

Entering the tunnel head first, I swim down at a steep angle.

About two meters in, the tunnel flattens out to the bottom of the u-shape we'd come through.

The narrowest part of the tunnel was right at the bottom of this and that's where I spot Dane.

He's wedged fast, one arm forward and one pinned back.

He's still struggling and looks up at my light as I approach.

Agony twists his face and streaks of blood discolor the water where he'd already scraped himself raw in his desperation to get free.

I reach for his hand and grab hold, trying to pull him loose but I have no leverage and he doesn't budge an inch.

Upside down, with my legs in the tunnel behind me, I have nothing to push or pull against and merely tug ineffectively at his hand.

He knows it's no use and as our eyes meet through our blurry underwater vision, the look on his face changes.

Agony gives way to an almost peaceful calm and he stops struggling.

His lips form my name and then he releases his breath.

The bubbles escape in a cloud, sticking to the tunnel's roof as they skitter away in little silvery globs of spent life.

Dane's grip loses its strength, his body goes limp and his dread-locks float free around his face.

I scream and my own breath escapes to join his as I tug on his arm in a futile effort to free him.

My lungs burn but the pain in my chest is more than physical.

It feels as if my heart is being crushed and torn apart within the cage of my ribs.

The primal instinct to survive is telling me to let him go and swim for the surface but I can't... I won't leave him.

Shutting my eyes, I feel the sort of peace I'd seen on Dane's face spread through me and my fear and pain dissolve.

If this is where we end, we'll end together.

Just as the darkness closes in on my mind, something else closes on my ankle with a startlingly strong grip.

My eyes snap open and I just have time to clamp my hand around Dane's wrist before I'm yanked violently from behind.

My grip on Dane slips but I refuse to let go.

Another sharp tug and another and then, with one final yank, I feel his shoulder dislocate and he comes free.

With the need for air searing my lungs like white hot fire, we're dragged from the tunnel and into the open water of the pool.

I can just make out Freya's form, gesturing at me to let go and swim for the surface.

As she takes hold of Dane, I successfully command my oxygen-starved brain to obey.

Breaking into the air once more, I cough and gasp, floundering as the last of my strength fails me.

A hand grips the collar of my shirt and flips me over to lie on my back, keeping my head above water and through the fog of confusion clouding my brain, I see Erickson dragging me to shore.

Meanwhile, Freya hauls Dane onto the stony bank and begins CPR.

Pinching his nose shut, she breathes air into his lungs, then compresses his sternum rhythmically on a count to five.

She repeats this and repeats it again, all the while swearing at him under her breath.

"Don't you go dying on me now, you son of a bitch," she hisses.

"Breathe, damn it."

By the fifth round of this, my breathless gasps have turned to sobs of despair and the beginnings of a black hole open in my heart.

Then, just as I'm about to fall into it, Dane seizes, vomits water, and draws a deep, ragged breath.

"Oh, thank fuck," Freya swears, sagging with relief and rubs Dane's chest as he coughs.

She rolls him to the side, thumping a hand on his back to clear the last remnants of liquid from his lungs and then helps him to sit up, mindful of his dislocated shoulder and the places where he'd scraped himself raw.

Much less carefully, I throw myself into his arms and hold on tight, wracked by shivers and shaking with sobs.

Gradually, I become aware that Dane's rough coughs have subsided and that instead he mumbles reassurances as he holds me with his good arm.

I lift myself to look at him.

"You okay?" he whispers.

I choke on a laugh and drink in the sight of him... his amber eyes, the dark lashes clumped with water, the hard line of his jaw and the softness of his lips.

"I am if you are."

"I will be, thanks to you. You saved my life, Julian."

"Actually, Freya saved both of us," I point out weakly and he smiles.

"Yeah but you came back for me."

"You know I'll always come for you," I whisper through a watery smile and then the tears win again as our mouths meet in a rough, desperate kiss.

I cling to him... to his warmth and scent and strength... to everything that, for a nightmare moment, I thought I had lost.

"Okay, okay," Freya says, intervening gently.

"Y'all need oxygen, remember? And I need to get that shoulder back in place before it heals wrong."

Dane continues to kiss me for a few moments longer, anyway, his lips brushing mine with a caress and a soft exchange of breath, both of us needing the contact and reassurance almost as much as we need air.

Finally, he draws back with a sigh and a wince of pain.

Beckoning to Freya, he taps his dislocated shoulder.

"All right. Make it quick."

She rolls her eyes.

"You know I will. Erickson, gimme your belt."

Erickson frowns.

"Why?"

"Cuz mine's Italian leather and yours looks cheap, and because I said so," she snaps.

Scowling, he obeys.

She folds the belt in half and holds it towards Dane's mouth.

"Bite down."

He shakes his head, grimacing at the belt.

"Just do it," Freya huffs.

"If you'd all stop being difficult we could get this over with. Now open your damn mouth."

She might not be an Alpha but she gets results like one.

Dane opens his mouth and she places the belt between his teeth.

He bites down, features twisting with disgust, while Freya grasps his arm and braces her foot against his chest.

"Okay, on three. Ready?"

He nods.

"One."

With a sharp, twisting motion, she pulls hard, popping his shoulder joint back into place.

Dane's muffled groan of pain contains a sound that any lesser man 'myself included' would have released as a scream.

Breathing hard, he spits out Ericsson's belt and tosses it back to him.

Dane's canine teeth have lengthened noticeably and Erickson examines the new set of holes in the leather with wide eyes but threads it back through his belt loops without complaint.

As Freya moves aside, I stroke Dane's damp brow as he lets his head drop back and shuts his eyes.

"Any better?" I ask.

"Hmm... hurts less already," he mumbles.

"Muscle and ligaments heal fast," Freya says, watching with her hands on her hips.

"And Dane's the fastest healer I know."

"I thought I lost you," I whisper, pushing a sodden loc away from his face.

He opens a bloodshot eye a crack and looks at me.

"I thought so, too, for a minute."

My breath catches.

"I'm sorry, Dane. You were right. This was a crazy idea, and way too dangerous. I should have listened to you."

"Nah," he coughs, clearing some lingering liquid from his lungs and squeezes the back of my neck.

"If I was right about anything, it was letting you take the lead. If I'd insisted on going first, I'd have taken the wrong tunnel or got stuck and blocked the way. Either way we'd all be dead."

I search his eyes.

"When I passed out after the reading... I know how you felt, now. Don't do that again, okay?"

He laughs and then coughs.

"Hey, that's my line. But if you won't, I won't. Deal?"

"Deal," I say.

"As happy as I am that we're all alive," Freya says,

"I don't think we should hang around celebrating much longer. How about it, Juju? Anything look familiar?"

[hufflepuff-ravenclaw-reviews]

Little Mermaid (2023) review

So I thought about blocking this review out, or simply not dropping it until later, but like… My dudes. This movie came out in freaking 1989. You’ve already seen it. Maybe not specific parts of this movie, but the beats are almost identical to the point where there’s literally no reason to not drop this.

So first off, the movie opens with introducing Eric on a boat. The only notable thing in this scene is taking note of what’s not in it. Mainly the fact that the sailors aren’t singing. It’s not a memorable song in any way, but you all know this song. The absence of it is jarring and begins the first major problem with this movie and pacing, which I’ll get into later.

Then, we introduce Triton and his six mermaid daughters. Now, you might have seen promo images released maybe a month before the movie came out featuring Ariel’s six sisters. They’re all different races (one is blonde, another Asian, another is a darker black than Ariel, etc). The sisters are introduced as being minor goddesses of each ocean. Which was a plot point that people report had been dropped from the original movie. However, literally none of this is important, and this is dropped almost as soon as it’s brought up. It would have been something interesting to explore, but no. Triton always was the king of the oceans, but this is a role that is straight-up explained in the new movie, rather than something that you kind of read-between-the-lines. Also noteworthy in this scene is something that’s not present: music. Again, we’ll get back to this point later.

The introduction of Ariel herself played out exactly as it did in the original. Shipwreck. Shark. Chase. It added nothing to the movie, but it also took nothing away from it.

Also, as jarring as Flounder’s initial character images were, I have to say that I think that I prefer him vs if they’d had a straight-up CGI flounder. That is to say, directly copied from reality, ala the Lion King remake. He’s cartoon-y enough that I kind of didn’t mind him after considering his character. But I’ll get more into his actual characterization and role in the movie probably after my beat review.

After this, we have the introduction of Scuttle who is voiced by Aquafina. The realization that this is who had been cast sent a pit of dread into both my husband and myself. This was probably not going to go well, and we ended up being right later on. Scuttle is still some kind of sea-bird (I’m not enough of a birder to identify the proper species, if there even was one to begin with????), but this is important for the scene that follows. In the original, Ariel leans her forearms on a large rock that seems to be Scuttle’s homebase. In this, Scuttle literally dives under the water for probably about 5 minutes to explain the concept of a dinglehopper to Ariel. Yes, birds can dive under the water to catch fish, but holy cow, Batman! They can’t actually breathe underwater!

I’m pretty sure that there was a scene between Ariel and Triton after this, but it was unremarkable that I can’t exactly remember. Then, Ariel goes to her cave of human trinkets, where we have the movie’s first musical number. Now granted, it’s probably the number one song that everybody thinks about when they think of the music from Little Mermaid. But at the same time, we’re now a good… I want to say 30 minutes into this movie. It’s been literally the first musical number, and they’re opening on a giant show stopper like this? The pacing of this movie felt so awkward and forced, and this was the first prime example of this happening.

Following this is Ariel being drawn to the surface by the fireworks being set off for Eric’s birthday. She hops into a lifeboat to watch the dancing crew. The camera goes to Ariel’s perspective to show that she can really only see the crew from their knees down. This might not seem significant right now, but put a pin into this, because I will be discussing this movie’s lack of foot fetish themes later. (Yes, this is important, as much as I loathe to admit.)

The storm happens. The only noteworthy addition to this scene is that there’s a bit when Max jumps into the water, and Ariel helps guide him over to the lifeboat, where the crew help get him up. (Does the dog die? No he does not.)

Following this is Ariel taking Eric to the shore. She leans her head against his chest to check that he’s alright. Which removed a minor joke from the movie of Scuttle telling Ariel that he thought the heartbeat could be heard in the feet. Which is one of those foot fetish moments that I mentioned earlier. In a movie with themes about legs and feet, the removal of this scene felt rather jarring.

Following the crew showing up to find Eric, Ariel does have her iconic “Part of Your World” splash on the nearby rocks. The writers might not be imaginative, but they’re also not stupid.

In the original, the statue of Eric was unveiled as a birthday gift to the prince. However in this, the statue kind of exists without any sort of explanation. Ariel never has a moment of actually finding it and mooning over Eric’s stone face, the way that she did in the original. Is it actually of Eric, or was it simply a random statue being carried on the ship? I can’t even say with certainty either way.

Random aside (and I’m not even sure that this is the correct scene order, but I don’t care), but when Triton asked Sebastian to keep an eye on Ariel, he mentioned that Sebastian was his majordomo. Which is a pretty far cry from the music director role he was in in the original. BUT, as Sebastian left this meeting, he complained that he was supposed to be a royal adviser. Which is a not exactly a majordomo.

Following this is the Under the Sea moment. Ariel actually joins in this number, almost in a sarcastic way which was honestly kind of fun. BUT… This also means that Ariel has to be there for the final reprise. In the original, she’d gotten a message from a seahorse about the Eric statue, and had left halfway through the number. So in this, when Sebastian looks around for Ariel and she’s not there, I literally said out loud “She literally left five seconds ago. Try harder in looking for her!”

Then there’s a scene where Ariel’s six sisters are shown cleaning up the mess Eric’s ship left. They complain about all of the damage that’s been done by the ship, and say something along the lines of “It’ll take 1000 years for the coral to recover”. Ariel chides them, and says that it’s not as if the humans intended to crash. She then flees, and her sisters allude to the idea that Ariel is in love with a boy, which is making her irrational.

Following this is Triton’s tantrum in Ariel’s curio-cave. And while I do have notes about his behavior, it’s got nothing to do with my commentary about the differences between this movie and the original. I feel like that probably deserves its own. The entire scene was pretty on-par with the original though, so… Yeah. It happened.

Up until this point, there had been a couple of scenes that kind of introduced the concept of Ursula. Much like how in the original, the concept of the sisters representing the oceans was scrapped, so to was the idea that Ursula was Triton’s sister. This one outright stated as much. Although, I have to say… I thought that it was bad the idea that this obviously not white man could somehow father 7 daughters of wildly varying ethnicities was bad. But it’s got nothing on Triton’s and Ursula’s parents creating first a man who is half fish, and then a woman who is half squid. Yes, they’re magic, but at the same time… HOW.

Anyway, so Ursula had been spying on Ariel via her pet eels, Flotsam and Jetsam. So while I felt like the introduction to Ursula’s character itself was more dragged out, the actual point upon which Ariel met Ursula was pretty much the same. The only real difference was that when Ursula used her magic through Flotsam and Jetsam to talk to Ariel, to get her to leave the cave and come see her… Ursula introduced herself and Ariel said “The sea witch?” “The sea wi-?” Like Ursula had legit not heard that this is what people in the city thought about her. It was legit one of the funniest moments in the movie… Which is telling, because the comedy moments were so sparse in this remake.

So Ariel goes to Ursula’s evil cave of evil, but there’s a few notable but tiny differences. When she goes in, she is grabbed by something. But it’s not the “unfortunate souls” who are trying to stop her from making a huge mistake. And during the actual musical number, they intentionally left out a few key moments. One of them with Ursula explaining: This one longing to be thinner That one wants to get the girl And do I help them? Yes, indeed And then goes on to explain: Now it's happened once or twice Someone couldn't pay the price And I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the coals If you’ll remember during this number, Ursula went to her cauldron and made little figures to demonstrate exactly what she meant. Tiny figures of a man and a woman who became attractive, and fell in love with each other. But then after they failed to make their payment, they were turned into worms. This was completely absent in this movie, leaving their fate more than a little ambiguous at best. This is the thing that I’ve been talking about this entire time: this movie doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Everybody has seen the original one. We know what the consequences are if Ariel fails to get that kiss in 3 days time. Only that there are consequences to non-payment.

The other missing moment is Ursula explaining to Ariel that she won’t have her voice, and Ariel questioning how she’s supposed to get this kiss. Then Ursula saying “You’ll have your looks. Your pretty face. And you must not forget the importance of BODY LANGUAGE”. The last part which is accompanied by a rather sensual wiggle on Ursula’s part. Maybe Disney thought that this was too mature for children, despite Little Mermaid remaining a classic children’s movie for 30+ years now.

In fact, as I sit and write up this review, I’m struggling to remember Ariel questioning literally anything at all during this scene. Ursula sang a a little, and the next thing we know, voice is gone. She’s human now.

It’s also worth nothing that after Ariel left, Ursula made a comment along the lines of that she’d added a bit extra to the spell to make Ariel forget that she needed to kiss Eric within 3 days. She wanted Ariel back down there, no matter what. But we’ll circle back to this in a bit.

We pause briefly in Ariel’s story to do this movie’s signature movie: a half-assed attempt to bring life to random background characters. The character who is introduced now is not somebody who was ever in the original. And maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not. But like everything else, I think that it could have been interesting to explore this, but the movie literally never let any of this happen.

For you see, Eric did not suddenly poof into being one day. Like everybody else, he has parents. Who are the king and queen. Shocking, I know. As I said, they were never even mentioned in the first movie. They must exist somewhere, but they aren’t even in the castle where he lived.

It was briefly mentioned while Eric was still on the ship that he was adopted. This will be important for later. It’s also mentioned that his father, the king, is dead. Will also be important.

Now back home, he greets his mother, who is upset about her son’s most recent misadventures on the water. She comments that 6 different ships have been lost while returning to their island home. Eric’s defense is that he must update their island home, and connect it to the outside world. Which is a fairly worthy cause, I think that we can agree upon. But the queen chides him, saying that the vials of vaccinations that were on the ship he’d been on are not doing anybody any good since they’re currently at the bottom of the ocean. She also makes a point to say “The god of the sea does not favor us.” Which made me think that it was her way of kind of fast-tracking her approval of a relationship between the granddaughter of the god of the sea and her son. She’s also kind of upset that Eric keeps talking about this mysterious woman who’d saved him from the shipwreck. He’s obsessed with finding her, thinking that she might be in some kind of trouble or something. This is obviously worrisome behavior for anybody, and forget a literal crowned prince.

Now, going back to an earlier pin I had you put in place, the queen is notably black. Which in itself isn’t a problem. Her race has little to do with the actual plot. But Eric himself is pretty much an exact cast from how he was in the original animated version. White skin, black hair, cheek dimples. He’s a dreamboat. He’s also WHITE. This movie is shown to take place somewhere in the Caribbean, possibly in Jamaica or Barbados. The movie does little to hide this fact, giving all of the islanders heavy accents, casting a lot of black people as the villagers and castle servants, and even at one point showing somebody playing a steel drum. So with all of the talk about why Ariel needed to be race-bent, and the movie going out of their way to introduce Eric’s mother as being black… Why in the world is Eric white? At this point, him being black would have made more sense. It’s also never explained where Eric came from, or why he was adopted by the royal family.

Circling back to the point Eric had brought up to his mother about needing to bring the island up to date, it’s also worth noting that the queen, Eric himself, and Grimsby were all wearing most decidedly mid 19th century EUROPEAN fashions. Fashions that they wouldn’t have been able to get unless somebody from Europe had come to the island. On a ship. The same could also be said of their castle itself, the silverware, the plates, etc. HOWEVER, all of the random villagers were wearing more traditional Caribbean clothing. So unless the island itself is simply that out of touch, and this movie is supposed to take place a lot later, literally nothing about this makes a lick of sense.

The final point that I need to make about Eric is his title as a prince. As I mentioned, Eric had off-handedly dropped the fact to the viewers that his father, the king, was dead. Yet for some reason, he still maintains his title of prince, rather than taking on the title of king. Now, it is possible that the title was granted to him via his mother (who was the actual ruler, rather than the father), but that’s also not lining up with anything ever done in history. I’ll use the British monarchy as an example, since not only is it familiar, but it’s also a perfect example of what it is that I’m talking about. Queen Elizabeth was the actual ruler. She married Philip. Whom I’m sure everybody would agree upon was titled PRINCE Philip, rather than king. This is because the male consort is always a prince, but the female one is always a queen. (No, I’m uncertain of why. You’d have to deep-dive on that by yourself. Sorry.) So even if the queen had been the actual ruler, her husband wouldn’t have been titled as the king. There’s literally no reason why Eric wasn’t the king already in this movie, other than the fact that he’s supposed to be a prince. (As usual, I know too much about certain things to ever actually enjoy them. {Yes, I am a delight at parties; why do you ask?})

There was also an Eric solo song sometime before Ariel showed up. And while I didn’t hate the idea of him having his own song to kind of explain his feelings about the shipwreck and subsequent saving, the song itself was so unremarkable. I literally forgot it the second it was over.

Going back to Ariel, she swims up to the surface after having been given human legs… and human lungs. Upon reaching there, she’s accidentally scooped up in a fisherman’s net. Which I did actually enjoy a lot more than her making it to the beach, and Eric happening upon her.

It’s at this point that Scuttle shows up, and does the “Something is different about you…” moment. However, much like the scene with Eric and Ariel on the shore after the storm, this movie fails to deep-dive into the foot fetish moment. Part of me wondered if it had been difficult to keep the actress properly covered so that she could wiggle her toes for the CGI bird, but mostly I’m annoyed. Because a major theme of this movie is Ariel getting those feet, so a foot fetish makes an awful lot of sense. But no. The moment is completely and utterly missed.

Back on land, some of the villagers tell the fisherman that he should take Ariel up to the castle; that they’ll know what to do with her up there. However, the literal only reason why none of the villagers themselves offered to take Ariel on seemed to be simply because the plot demanded that Eric and Ariel meet.

As Ariel is taken into the castle and the housekeeper (?) decides what to do with her, we’re subjected to another solo song from Ariel. However, since Ariel has obviously lost her voice, this entire thing comes off as more like… her inner monologue? It’s like they didn’t know how to properly express literally anything unless it was done via song. I thought that this song completely bogged down the movie, and took up way too much time. The entire thing could have and should have been glossed over, but no. We have to turn it into a montage, dammit!

Eric only meets Ariel after she’s had her bath and is more or less dressed. Again, noting that Ariel is dressed in corset, bloomers, a proper English dress (which is suitable for the hot, island weather) and boots. While her outfit mimics the outfit she wore in the original cartoon, it’s at odds with how all of the villagers are dressed. Eric had rushed to the room to see Ariel after the servants told him about her arrival, but was disappointed to find out that this girl can’t talk; she can’t possibly be the young woman who’d rescued him.

Ariel is told to rest after that, and Sebastian makes his way to her. He finds out that Ursula had made Ariel forget about the 3-day kiss business, but we’ll circle back to that shortly. The only reason why he and Flounder know about this is because the two of them had followed Ariel to Ursula’s cave, and overheard most of the Poor Unfortunate Souls business.

After this is pretty much the only new scene that added something of value to the movie. Ariel wakes up from her nap and decides to go exploring. She finds a library full of trinkets, as rich people often have. As she’s looking around, Eric comes in and comments that nobody but him comes in anymore. Despite my enjoyment of this scene overall, there’s this really long bit where there’s this carved mermaid figurine that Ariel had picked up, and he’s like “Oh, my little mermaid!” It was super awkward, and went on for much longer than it should have. After that, Eric happily showed Ariel some maps. He makes a comment that there’s some unexplored/uncharted areas still out there, which makes me think that the timeline for this is back in the 1800’s. As I said, the royal clothing choices were interesting and poorly thought out. Grimsby comes in, and Eric says that he’d like to show Ariel around the town tomorrow. Grimsby tells Eric that he had previously ordered all of the carriages be sent out in search of his mysterious shipwreck hero. And that Eric is to remain at home until he feels better.

Eric insists, so off they go in the morning. With a little nod and wink from Grimsby. There was also a few seconds where Grimsby was standing by the head housekeeper, and I thought that we might get a subplot romance between the two of them. But we literally never saw the housekeeper after that scene. Alas.

The scene with Eric and Ariel kept to the same general beats, while somehow expanding upon it. I both loved and hated this. Loved it because it was nice to see the two of them actually bonding and spending quality time together. Hated it because it lasted too long, and only served to pad out a movie that was already like 90 minutes in at this point.

However, thanks to Ursula making Ariel forget about the curse business, the set up for Kiss the Girl needed to be more forced. Scuttle stole Eric’s hat, and dropped it into a really convenient rowboat. Where this boat came from, I haven’t the foggiest. It is an island, but it seems kind of silly to have a boat on a lagoon when you could simply go out onto the actual ocean.

Once the two of them are out there, Sebastian says that they need to set the mood without actually alerting Ariel as to what’s going on. Pin this, will circle back in one second. Scuttle then tries to set the mood herself, and I thought that it was funny how the movie actually switched to Eric’s view to hear what that sounded like in his ears. That is to say… a local seabird making an unholy ruckus around dusk.

Sebastian then sets up the song in the same was as the original. But then he starts to sing, which seems to be completely at odds with what he’d literally said a minute earlier! At one point, Scuttle, Flounder, and Sebastian are sitting on the end of the boat oar, doing the refrain from the song. If either human had literally turned their head a fraction of an inch, they would have seen it. The scene made completely and utterly no sense whatsoever. And made me wonder why they even bothered by having Ariel forget anyway.

The two of them row out from under the canopy of trees, where Eric begins to show Ariel some of the different constellations. He tries to ask for her name at this point, and makes a few random stabs in the dark with common names like Catherine and Elizabeth. She points up towards Aries, which Eric had shown her a second earlier, cuts him off as he says Ari- and kind of makes a gesture until he stumbles upon the name Ariel. Which I thought was a much better way of having him figure out her name than having Sebastian whisper in his ear. Which never made much sense to me.

After Flotsam and Jetsam overturn the boat, Ursula decides that she has to do something to ensure that Ariel fails. She starts throwing ingredients around, all of which her tentacles try to offer their own help. In a way that kind of felt like it was supposed to be a joke, but never quite got that far. Eventually, Ursula is all “Oh, there it is!” and then turns herself into a human, where she goes and meets Eric.

The next morning, Scuttle wakes Ariel up by flying into her room and rapping about how she’d heard some gossip about Eric proposing to somebody later that day. The only thing worse than finding out that Scuttle is voiced by Aquafina is finding out (the hard way) that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote a song for Aquafina to rap. The entire thing continues to fill me with so much rage, I’m not sure that I can even properly express my anger over this scene.

After Ariel finds out the devastating news that Eric isn’t going to marry her, Scuttle then discovers Ursula’s deception. Again, this scene is almost word-for-word from the original. Except that she doesn’t do it in SONG. So it’s disappointing. What’s worse is the realization that instead of getting Ursula’s “I’m so evil” song, we got the Scuttle/Sebastian rap.

There’s also a scene of Ariel sitting and moping on a rock. And we get yet another “silent” song from her. It’s a reprise of Part of Your World, which I don’t mind on the surface. But I felt like yet another song done in this “silent” style was too much. Especially because we hadn’t been inside of Ariel’s head, and there’d been no more singing by her up until this point.

As Eric’s engagement party goes forward, his mother seems kind of happy over her son’s upcoming engagement. To a girl that Eric claims to have only officially met literally a few hours earlier. Yes, Eric has been brainwashed by Ursula. But at no point does she say “Hold up, something ain’t right here.” Maybe obsessive and compulsive behavior is normal for her son. But at the same time, this isn’t him looking for some random girl; this is marriage. And it’s not simply any marriage, but the future queen of this island nation.

When she eagerly offered up an heirloom family ring for Eric to use, did I start to wonder why Disney had bothered with her character at all. She felt like a cardboard cutout of an actual person. Aside from her introductory scene, she never once expressed any actual opinions. She cheerfully went along with whatever was happening in any given scene.

Not too long after this, Scuttle comes up and takes the ring that Eric is holding. This causes Ariel to show up and tackle Vanessa/Ursula to the ground. Not only were there guards, but also plenty of party-goers who had come to celebrate the engagement between Eric and Vanessa. However, the only thing that stopped a single one of them from pulling this unknown girl off from the would-be queen was… the plot demanded their inaction. None of it makes any sense, especially as the two women were literally rolling around on the ground like puppies.

But, Ariel smashed the shell that contained her voice. And for one moment, a glowing orb hung suspended in the air as her voice was piped in. At this point, people were frozen in place simply because… what the hell is going on? What is that thing?

It goes back into Ariel, who is finally able to talk once more. Eric realizes that she’s actually the woman who saved him, and the two of them are about to kiss. But it’s too late… the sun is setting. (Which was never given at the drop-dead timeline by Ursula in this movie. Only in the original. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.) Ariel turns back into a mermaid, much to the horror of everybody gathered there for the engagement. Ursula then transforms back into herself, takes Ariel, and dives off a cliff. (Which the fall would have probably killed them, but whatever.)

As the final battle progressed, the entire thing felt rather… phoned in. The characters had long since grown beyond who they were from the original movie, but the writing itself seemed to be intent on keeping to the original beats of the cartoon. The scene that the movie had been building up to this entire time was decidedly underwhelming and not exciting at all. Even if I hadn’t known what was going to happen, I doubt that I would have cared much. That’s how bored I was with the entire thing. It didn’t help that this probably happened around the 2 hour mark.

Probably about a day after the big battle, Triton decides to turn Ariel into a human. I’ve always felt like the scene of Ariel rising from the ocean in that sparkly, silver dress was as iconic as the splash on the rocks. But I guess the costume budget was spent on those 19th century dresses. So the only thing Ariel is wearing is the same dress she’d been wearing the entire time… Which is now dirty and wet from having been dragged through the ocean in the fight with Ursula.

After this, the two of them get married. And again, Eric’s mother seems to be perfectly cool with her son marrying a girl he met like 4 days earlier. Granted, at least she knows that maybe good fortune would follow Eric and Ariel as they set out for a sea honeymoon, but still. Four days.

As the two of them get into a rowboat to go out to the big ship, every single merfolk citizen shows up to see their princess off. They climb up onto rocks, but also get into the fishing boats of the villagers, who had come to see their prince off. And for some reason, everybody is oddly chill with probably several dozen merfolk showing up. Despite the fact that this is the first time that even the audience has seen any of these characters.

All in all, this movie was only like a quarter of a step above both the Lion King and the Beauty and the Beast remake. That is to say that Disney had little to offer by way of new content to this. They never once allowed the characters to actually evolve and grow organically beyond the pre-set beats from the original movie. Everything felt half-assed. For sure, questionable casting and costuming decisions were made.

Two last parting thoughts: First being, in case you hadn’t noticed, but I barely mentioned Flounder in this review. He was in a large chunk of the underwater scenes, and showed up from time to time when Ariel was on land. But he also didn’t exactly say or do much that added anything of actual value to the plot. He existed, and that’s about all I can say for his character.

The second which is something that I should have squeezed into my super huge aside about Eric, but I forgot, and then the longer I put it off, the weirder it seemed to try and squeeze it in… But regardless of Eric’s biological status as the queen’s son, he’s still the heir and next in line for the throne. The queen lamented about how he could go out onto the seas when it was known to be dangerous… Yet somehow still let him do so, anyway. If he actually was any kind of ruler, he would have delegated the shit out of reaching out to other countries to “bring the island into modern times”. Like yes, go on your honeymoon. But at the same time, don’t force Eric to go and make treaties with other countries for supplies and news.

Also also, my husband reminded me that they completely removed the Sebastian/cook scene. Which was sorely missed… Not only because it was my favorite scene, but also because this movie was so completely devoid of all and any humor.

TLDR: yet another lackluster live action remake from Disney. They have learned nothing from this, however. Disney will re-offend. Up next appears to be live action Lilo and Stitch??? And possibly Moana?????

[demon-blood-youths]

Navarro gasps in the water, seeing how deep Natsu is in the water when he breathed his fire. He had to come up right away and gets himself back onto the beach. He sees the mage uses his fire magic to dry himself. That's very convenient. He goes over to Natsu's flames and already he is dry. He is like a warm campfire or a living furnace. "Thanks." He tells him as he is now dry and goes to put on his hoodie and pants.

As for what he thinks....

"I gotta say. That is the most badass thing I have ever seen ever." Navarro admitted. "It defies all logic I have ever seen. I couldn't believe" He stated. "Because I dive there myself and saw it for myself. I almost drown a bit seeing it.." He said, sitting down on the sand. "I bet you train a lot to do the impossible. No wonder, Ink likes you." To him, Natsu is a perfect sparring partner for Ink. He wonders if Ink asks him to teach her to breathe flames underwater as well.

Yeah..she definitely might. Though..her flames aren't the same as Natsu's. Hers is blue and hotter than Natsu. But who can tell?

"Hell if you go even deeper and still breathe underwater, I believe ya and it makes me wanna see. So I gotta ask. But how did you do it?" Navarro asks him. "You have to hold your breath underwater 1-2 minutes unless you're training your lungs or your lungs are expanded." He said.

After Natsu blasted fire from somewhat deep under water, he'd merely wait for Navarro to join him in the ocean before returning to the surface. While he could easily hold his breath for a few more minutes he'd rather not risk the other male getting hurt. So whenever Navarro dove into the water he'd see that the Fire Slayer was a good forty or so feet down with his sandal clad feet on the ocean floor. After he swam back to the surface he'd swim to the beach and step out of the water, allowing the liquid to cascade down his form before surrounding himself in fire and drying off.

"So, what ya think? Should I do it again at a deeper water level or do ya believe me now?"

He'd grin toothily, showing off his impressively sharp canine teeth which all Dragon Slayers had and some were known for. Sure some of them had sharper or larger canine teeth than the others but they all had them. They were certainly much larger than a typical humans was but then again, the Dragon Slayers weren't exactly 'human'.

"If you want me to go deeper into the water let me know and I will. It doesn't take me long to dry off once I get out of the water or anything. I can help you dry off too if you want."

All Navarro would need to do was step close to the Dragon Slayer as he surrounded himself in fire. Basically using him like a human shaped dryer. His friends did it all the time so it didn't really bother the Fire Slayer. It bothered some of his friends that the others treated him like a walking, talking, living, breathing, heater, or dryer but it never really bothered the Fire Slayer himself.

[thebubblesareevil]

Aquadad

Based off @phand0mfic s idea of Aquaman adopting Danny

So the big reveal has just happened and it did no GO WELL. Danny ends up on a table with his chest open and the only reason he is able to escape is because Jazz manages to distract their parents. Danny is literally holding himself closed as he dives into the ghost zone, normally this would be the end of it. The zone start mending the wound immediately as he’s slowly flying making his way to the far frozen when he here’s the sound of the specter speeder hot on his trail. He starts flying as fast as he can but he’s getting weak. The zone can sense that he’s in impending danger and opens a portal near him, he dives in transforming as he falls through.

He lands in the Atlantean throne room, human, Vulnerable and scared. He can barely see so when a large Orange blob approaches him Danny freaks out begging him to stop, that he’s sorry, please just don’t hurt him before passing out

King Orin was in a meeting with several council members when the teen appeared at first they were worried it was an attack until they realizes it was a kid. Aquaman approaches the kid who then has a full blown panic attack, begging him not to hurt him and not hearing as he tries to calm him down. He sends everyone out of the room. And cautiously approaches the kids. Who’s pleading with him. Orin nearly stops breathing when he says, “please don’t hurt me, I’m still your son I swear, dad please” seconds later the child is unconscious. Orin goes to see where he is hurt, he removes the white bloodstained shirt and sees RED when he recognizes the barely sealed y shape incision. He rushes the kid to the medical wing, king or not they refuse to let him stay and he demands that they alert him the moment he is out of surgery.

King Orin goes to his wife and explains what happened. She looks him dead in the eye and says what ever you decide I am at your side no matter what. Orin decides there is no way he’s sending this kid back to the monsters that did this to him, that should the child agree he will name him his son. Mera fully agrees, they both understand that Atlantis would not agree with a surface dweller as an heir. So Mera give Orin a LOOK and says well then I’ll e should probably get to work making him a sibling.

The next day Danny wakes up with King Orin at his bedside, he asks if he knows where he is, how he’s doing, what’s his name, Danny introduces himself explains he does not know where he is and lies that he doesn’t know how he got here. Orin eventually breaches the topic of him adopting Danny and he’s in shock, like why me I’m nothing special. Orins like you don’t need to be. Danny accepts.

Danny doesn’t tell anyone about being a half ghost, aquaman just thinks that his new son is a meta with ice powers, because he sneaks away to practice. Neither parent brings it up, worried that this might be why his other parents attacked him. Mera just puts books on Atlantean magic in his room so he can practice with magic with actual guidance, and waits for him to come to her. Mera also does a spell that alters Danny’s lungs so he can breathe underwater and withstand the water pressure. Danny does not like Orm. He doesn’t directly say anything but he gives him serious Vlad vibes so he tries to avoid him.

Danny is actually not in Atlantis when the ocean master attacks, he was in another city hanging out with a friend when he heard about the attack. He rushed home only to find the fight was over. He tackles his parents the moment they are “alone” (Kaldur and Garth are there) and says that he doesn’t know what he’d do if anything happened to them. And if his eyes looked green when he said that it was probably just a trick of the light. He thanks Kaldur and Garth for helping his dad (who is now tearing up because he just called him dad) both of whom say it was an honor. Aquaman gives them the options of continuing their studying or training under him. They each choose. And things are normal except Danny and Kaldur hang out anytime he’s not training, Danny has a crush on Kaldur and Kaldur is absolutely smitten. Aquaman isn’t sure if he wants to encourage the two or (murder) scare Kaldur away from Danny. The dad instinct is strong in this one. Kaldur joins the young justice team and Danny is all for it. Just like in the series kaldur returns to Atlantis but this time it’s to confess to Danny and he states his intentions to his king. Never before has Kaldur has so fear his kind as when he told him what would happen if anything happened to his son. Mera just smiled…it was terrifying. Mera announces her pregnancy and Danny absolutely glows (definitely a trick of the light, totally) and talks about how excited he is. When the attack occurs Danny refuses to leave meras side and to everyone’s surprise he viciously took down a manta goon that got too close with (ghost) Atlantean magic Mera just smiles and says you’ve improved very proudly.

This is getting really long but Kaldur confesses to Danny who tells Kaldur I’m not who you think I am I have a lot of secrets that I’m not ready to share and Kaldur takes his hand and holds his face and says then you do not need to, you can tell me whenever you’re ready . They kiss and have a moment. Kaldur tells Danny his plans to stay in Atlantis so he could be closer to him and Danny vetos that and says he is more than capable of visiting him on the surface, thank you very much. Fast forward ocean master attacks and nearly causes Mera and to lose the baby and this is not okay. Danny follow when Mera was taken because he may or may not have marked her with his ectosigneture to make sure his could protect her. When he sees the ocean master sucking the life force out of his mom and unborn brother he sees GREEN he transforms and tear the area apart, the only reason ocean master escaped with his life is because Danny was worried about the baby and his mom. He meets up with the young justice team and leaves Mera in their care before fleeing to the ghost zone Terrified of their reaction. Eventually danny returns in his human form to find his worried parents who hold him and listen as he explains everything and they just ACCEPT it and danny is overjoyed. He also casually asks his dad if he could get some help learning diplomacy because apparently he’s the new ghost king. Aquaman laughs and says of course you are and they arrange for him to have tutors. Aqualad still goes undercover but Danny knows what’s up and uses that time to study..

Okay I’m gonna stop here or else I won’t stop enjoy!!

[erectionsandtea]

Poly party summer fun headcanons bc 😄 (I'm sorry I'm advance that this is so fucking long please forgive me) (you can find part 2 here)

Part 1

Pool party:

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

- El learns the usage of the word "hot" (regarding attractiveness, not temperature) when she sees Max in a two-piece swimsuit

But then Mike is like "what about me?" cos he's totally jealous and wants El's attention too, but before she can respond Max is like "you're not hot, Mike, you're more like cute in a nerdy kind of way. I guess." and El is like "yeah, you're a cute nerd!" and Mike is like "ex-fucking-cuse me??"

And then Will is like "I think you're hot" and Mike is like "thank you-"

"but you're still a nerd"

"you're a nerd!" and he grabs Will and kind of traps him in this hug and says "but you're a cute nerd" and then a cute kiss

And El is giggling at byler but still staring at Max too, and Max is yelling Byler to get a room, and Lucas is just rolling his eyes at everyone but he also keeps getting distracted looking at Max, and Dustin is yelling at everyone

"for the love of god, can you guys stop flirting for like two minutes and help me set up the snacks??"

And Suzie is like "I'll help you, Dusty-bun"

"you're the best girlfriend in the whole world"

*giggles* "you're the best boyfriend in the whole galaxy!"

"well YOU'RE the best-"

(cos Dustin and Suzie like to do this weird one-upping kind of thing ???)

And then everyone is just like "okay okay, we're coming!" and "we're helping, geez!"

- Max totally helped El shop for and pick out her swimsuit, something that would show off her cute bod and drive Mike crazy (but also herself), and "damn girl, you have no idea how good you look" *wink*

- Lucas pushes Max in the pool

- Max obvsly gets revenger by pushing Lucas in the pool, while he's in the middle of doing something else like conversing, idk

- El wants to get in on the pool-pushing action, so she tries to push mike in the pool, but he grabs hold of her and they both fall in

- Underwater kisses! (with all the ships)

- mad flirting and lots of staring, lol (also with all the ships)

- El and Max sunbathing next to Suzie but they are on towels on the grass instead of a chair bc how are they supposed to get all close to each other on a single chair ??

- sunbathing girls ogling the boys in the pool

- boys in the pool ogling the sunbathing girls

- squirt guns, water balloons, and fights with pool noodles

- Suzie likes to sunbathe and read fantasy novels (she's totally a girly-girl nerd) and Dustin likes to just stop and watch her sometimes bc she's beautiful and also cute and hot, and sometimes she'll catch him watching from the pool or across the yard and they'll smile at each other.

And then she'll say something super cheesy like "I miss you, Dusty-bun" cos technically they are apart from each other. And he starts to say that he misses her too, but then Max/Lucas are like "jesuschrist, you guys are LITERALLY 20 feet away from each other!" and Dustin is just like "hey, I put up with all of your cute couple-y shit!"

- El wants to know what Suzie is reading and Suzie starts telling her the story in great detail (cos she's totally read the book before, it's one of her favorites? WHAT BOOK DO YOU GUYS THINK IT IS, LET ME KNOW) and then she recommends more books for El

- El totally takes control of the big inflatable pool floatie shaped like a duck or a unicorn or idfk

- Mike and Will try to push the floatie over but she clings to it, screaming, and even tho they manage to overturn her she still comes out on top and splashes them to make them stop

- Max helping El defend against the boys by jumping on some backs lol (more like grabbing and hoisting bc it’s hard to jump when in water)

- Max then trying to join El by jumping on the floatie (from the side of the pool), but she just ends up sinking them both

- El also tries doing those mermaid hair flips and just generally her and max doing funny things with both their hair (El wants to be a mermaid)

- pool volleyball, anyone? Or maybe pool basketball??

- Joyce is there to bring them lemonade and the burgers that Jonathan makes and other summer foods bc she is mom of the goddamn century

- chicken fights (top/bottom) (lmk who you think would win, lol)

Max/Lucas vs El/Mike

Will/Mike vs El/Max

Lucas/Dustin vs Max/Mike

Taunts and "insults" are slung, but also cheers, lol

Everyone falls down more often from loss of balance than actual pushing

- "no running around the goddamn pool, or you little shits will face some serious consequences!" (lol sorry I had to put Steve in there, but he's really not threatening at all 😆)

- Marco Polo (and El is totally not allowed to cheat by using her powers) (but even without cheating she's still pretty good, lol)

- sneaking up behind and dunking

- El wearing goggles and just being able to actually look and SEE underwater and it's so cool and beautiful, "but it makes everything sound weird"

- splash fights, and usually more than half the party ends up turning on one or two specific people

- the boys try to do that thing where you dive through inflatable donuts and it basically becomes a contest

Will can successfully dive through one donut, it's mostly just luck tho

"okay, you can dive thru one donut, but can you dive thru two??" (Mike kind of succeeds but he somehow gets his foot stuck and kicks the donut off)

"okay, but can dive thru three???"

And Dustin is like "come on guys, this is getting insane" but he sees the donuts getting stacked and everyone lining up and he's just like *sigh* "goddamnit" cos he knows he has to do it now too, he's not backing down!

El doesn't dive but she successfully pencil jumps thru at least one donut

Max dives thru two-and-a-half donuts (don't even ask me how) and it's not all three, but it's more than any of the boys can do so she totally wins the contest

- when it starts getting late, before everyone goes inside, Joyce takes some photos of all of them while the sun is still out (until Will jokingly begs her to stop), some smiling ones, some silly face ones, and a couple candid ones (Jonathan takes most of the photos tho cos duh)

If you have any ideas or anything to add, please feel free to do so, either by reblogging or my askbox! 👍🏻

[rogue-durin-16]

MERMAID

Summary: the sexual tension of George and Y/n's weird friendship is getting the best of their friends, so when Harry suggests a trip to the Black Lake, they become adamant about getting them together.

Pairing: George Weasley x Reader

Genre: fluff

Tags:

Permanent taglist: @elia-the-bibliophile @randomparanoid @karlthecat15722 @thebutchersdaughtersblog @amourtentiaa

Warnings: language and a bit of makeout

A/N: BITCH I THOUGHT THIS WAS A SHORT ONE??? I needed some fluff for this boy since I'm torturing him, so here it goes an idea I had half asleep in the bus, enjoy <3

Rogue-durin-16 masterlist

"They're literally— her legs are wrapped around his hips— are you kidding me?!" I whispered-shouted in desperation. "This is unbearable!"

"Fred relax, they just need a little push." Hermione's words sounded ridiculous even for her own ears.

"I brought her here!" Harry backed me up, equally annoyed. "If that's not one hell of a push, then what is it?"

"Shush, boys." Ginny spoke, her eyes still closed under her sunglasses as she laid on her towel. "We have hours ahead of us for them to make a move."

I puffed, my eyes returning to George, whose arms were wrapped around Y/n's middle from behind, making her squeal before throwing her to a deeper part of the lake.

They would not make a move.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

READER'S P. O. V.

We had moved to the dock in order to see the sunset better, and, now that the sun was low and the light lacking, we began to pick things up.

"Why the long face?" George questioned when he saw my gaze.

"I'd have enjoyed a night swim, if I'm being honest." I got up and went to grab my bag. "Another time I g— George!" I couldn't help but cry out when his arms picked me up and threw me into the water. "You fucking plonker!" I yelled, moving my wet hair away from my face. "This was the only dress I brought!" The lake wasn't as deep there, so I could easily stand on my feet and climb up, but I was already drenched.

George was bent over himself, laughing loudly, so he was helpless when Ginny pushed him into the lake.

As he resurfaced besides me, I couldn't help but burst into laughter at his shocked, betrayed face; it was priceless.

"Have fun you two." Ginny spoke as the rest laughed. "C'mon guys." The redhead grabbed my bag and Hermione picked George's, and soon it was just the two of us there.

"Aren't you going to thank me?" George broke the silence, crouching to dip his body underwater, protecting it for the blows of wind.

"Why?" I moved deeper into the lake, seeking the protection of the chill temperature too.

"You got your night swim."

"My dress is soaked!" I exclaimed, splashing him right in the face.

"Oi, so is my shirt!" He replied, following my lead and diving in. We stayed like that for a couple of minutes, idly swimming and floating until George stopped moving and spoke. "You know? You kinda remind me of a mermaid."

"You've seen a lot of them?" I quirked an eyebrow, giving up the swimming to stand on my feet.

"Git." He send a splash of water in my direction, making me giggle. "I mean like the one in the perfects' bathroom."

"You're not allowed into the prefects' bathroom, Weasley," I moved my hands on the water's surface, creating little waves around me. "Unlike me, you're not a Prefect, because only prats become Prefects." I quoted him in a mocking tone.

"Are you gonna rat me out, Y/l/n?" He teased, eyebrows raised as he circled me.

"I would, but I don't get anything out of it." I shrugged, sinking into the water once more until the only thing over it was my face. "Sooo..."

"Sooo..." He mocked me, making my eyes roll.

"A mermaid." George hummed, taking a look at the moon, which was shinning more than it usually would. "Is it because I'll lure you into the depths of the black lake?" I inquired, his eyes meeting mines when my hands found his underwater tugging him towards me as I stepped back, deeper into the water.

"I'd follow you without question." He dramatically replied, doing as he had said with a smile on his face until his feet couldn't reach the bottom.

"How romantic." My fingertips traveled up his forearms, reaching his shoulders as he moved even closer to me.

A wicked smile slipped through my gaze and he didn't have time to step back before I shoved him down in repay for dunking me earlier. I was quick to rush in the shore's direction, but not quick enough.

"Oi, not so fast!" He half swam half ran after me, taking a hold of my leg and pulling on it, and, given that I was standing on my tiptoes, consequently dragging me back to him. "You're a nightmare."

"I think you mean a dream." I mused, spinning to meet his gaze.

"Nah," His hands had left my legs after I catching me, and now rested on my hips. "I'm pretty sure of what I mean."

"Is it because I haunt your dreams in the night?" I laughed at my own joke, my fingertips toying with the hem of his shirt, slightly floating due to the water. "Can't sleep with the thought of me on your mind, huh?"

It was meant to be another playful tease, but by the way his hands' hold tightened ever so slightly, it dawned on me that maybe I had taken a too accurate guess.

My heart hammered against my chest as I have his shirt a tug. "If you wanna kiss me so bad, pretty boy, why don't you?"

He snorted as if I was joking; I couldn't blame him, though. We were always joking about that. "Why don't you kiss me, if you want it so bad?"

I went for a laugh and a shake of my head as a response, not trusting my voice. A particularly cool blow of wind caught us and he shivered; the temperature had gone significantly lower in the last couple of minutes. "C'mon, I don't wanna freeze to death, and we got a long way to the common room." I caught one of his hands as they left my hips and led him back to the shore. "They took the towels?!"

"Don't worry," the ginger said, taking off this drenched tee to wring it out. "We'll kill them later." He assured me, throwing the clothing back on as I wringed the hem of my dress. "C'mon, love." This time it was him taking my hand to lead the way.

We walked in silence, cracking a joke or two as we made our way to the castle. Finally reaching the stairs of the boat house, we began to climb them.

"Oi." George gave my hand a tug, his eyes scanning our surroundings. "You heard that?"

"Stop it." I chuckled, playfully bumping his chest before attempting to pull his hand to resume our walk; he had been pulling the strange noise card the whole walk. "C'mon—"

"Shhh!"

"I'm not gonna fall for it." I climbed off one of the steps to meet the ginger. "I'm cold so—" and then I heard it. "What...?" My gaze left the boy to scrutinise the darkness over his shoulder.

"Told you." He whispered, prompting me to come closer to him with a squeeze on my hand.

"You've been joking about that the whole time!" I scolded in an equally quiet tone.

"Who said I was joking?" the eyes of us both fixed at the bottom of the stairs trying to discern something.

"You think we should go check...?"

"Darling, I think that's the worst idea you've ever had." He responded. "It could be anything— we're out here at night."

"Yeah, but we're almost in the castle." We had come incredibly closer, partially because of the unnerving feeling that something was watching us, but also because of the wind that hit our still very wet clothes.

He seemed to think for a moment before turning back to me. "Walk before me." He instructed, already pushing me upstairs. "I'll keep an eye behind us."

The paranoia in my mind increased as we went up— we were outside the castle, it truly could be anything, and I didn't exactly enjoy the idea of George at the back.

That noise again.

I huffed, frustration and fear growing inside me.

"Don't worry." George, who until now had been at least three steps behind me, rushed up, holding my waist and giving me a gentle squeeze. "It's probably nothing, alright?"

"Walk by me." I requested, in a mutter.

He seemed to understand the nature of my plead and his hands left my waist so he would be able to fall into step with me. "Can't take your eyes off me, huh?" He successfully lightened up the mood, but right when I was about to tease back, the damn noise sounded again, this time making us jump. "What the hell..."

"That sounded close." I pointlessly observed. George groaned when he went to grab his wand and realised it was in his bag, most likely in the common room already. "Running to the boathouse is very tempting." I joked, leaning on him with my eyes still looking for the source of our fear.

"Blimey, Aurora!" we had to refrain our yelps when Professor Sprout's voice ended the tense silence we had fallen in. "Didn't think I'd find you here."

As the Professors seemed to descend the stairs and consequently come closer, George and I shared a panicked look. In a rush of adrenaline, I tugged him to the edge of the stairs and made him jump out to the raw rocks with me right after him; we made it just in time for Sinistra and Sprout to walk down the place where we had been an instant ago.

GEORGE'S P.O.V.

Y/n peeked over the rail to see the two women chatting, following their path without any sign of suspicion. With a sigh of relief, her eyes fell on me, crouched besides her with a hand on the stone rail to steady myself. I raised my eyebrows, surprised at her resolution, and then proceeded to chuckle, which earned me a kick on my leg.

"Shut it." She warned me with a smile of her own.

Silence fell among us once again, and, when she stood up, propping herself on the railing, my mind decided it was a good time to stare.

She was always a sight for sore eyes, but now with the moonlight reflecting on her hair and skin, she seemed to glow. Her dress, though it was meant to be flowy, had stuck to her torso due to the water, and hugged her curves in the most delightful way. Oh what I would give for her to realise I wanted to hold her tight in a different way as she allowed me to.

"I'm gonna pretend you're not ogling me." She informed me, her eyes still fixed on the path our Professors had taken. I only smiled to myself, standing up to jump back to the stairs before offering her both my hands.

"C'mon darling." She took them in hers before climbing up the railing and jumping down in front of me.

Her words had been echoing in my mind during the whole walk.

-If you wanna kiss me so bad, pretty boy, why don't you?-

Did she mean it?

"What is it?" She questioned with a confused smile, staring at me. "What?" She repeated, but my mind was somewhere else.

My mind was at the lake, where her hands had roamed over my bare skin several times; where I had held her against me in nothing more than our bathing suits; where we had been left alone and she had found a thousand different reasons to take my hands or pull me closer; where her tone had dropped as she said those words at mere inches of my lips.

"George," she snapped her fingers in front of my eyes. "we gotta go."

Not yet, I thought, taking a step towards Y/n that felt like a leap of faith. Though she took a step back, her hands held my forearms, taking me with her just like she had done moments ago at the lake.

And just like it had happened before, her eyes lured me into drowning, and I followed without question.

The kiss was as deep as the black lake, my hands finding the rail behind her for some extra support —I had become weak on the knees, my legs feeling as if they were about to give out—, and her hands going from my arms to my chest without pulling away from my body.

The synchrony of our lips was unbelievably perfect, sending shocks through my whole body.

My lips detached from hers to pepper kisses down her jaw to her neck.

"George..." My name came up of her as a quiet moan and I felt dizzy, not noticing the moan that came out of my own mouth. "George," she called again, this time with a more steady voice, clearing her throat before pushing me away with her hand on my chest.

"Something wrong?" I inquired, trying to get a grip on myself. "Did I—?

"No— I'm very much enjoying this," She assured me. "but a moment ago we were scared shitless because—"

That noise.

Whatever that was, it was nearly in front of us. That time, along with that weird noise, something like whispers were heard.

We both yelped when Harry's Cloak of Invisibility was thrown to the ground before us, revealing three grinning idiots, them being Fred, Ron and Harry.

"On Merlin's beard..." My cheeks started to burn and I felt the imperative need of hiding my face. "What are you doing?"

"We needed to see if you'd finally make a move." Ron explained.

"We even bet on where would it happen." Harry confessed, making my cheeks go even redder. "Now we owe Ginny money." He grunted. "Ugh, you were so close on the lake, I almost won."

"For a moment there, Georgie," Fred was biting back a laugh. "I thought we would witness you two shagging." Ron grimaced at the thought. "Poor Harry panicked and threw the cloak down."

"I'm gonna murder y'all." Y/n jumped in, nearly as mortified as I was. "I finally got him to kiss me and you go and kill the mood! Why don't you piss off so we can do it again?"

Fred got the memo thanks to Y/n's death glare and they rushed upstairs, my twin brother whispering a quick 'congrats' as he passed by me.

"Well that wasn't like I expected our first kiss to go." She confessed, letting out a laugh at the sight of me. "You're as red as a beetroot."

"Shut up." I bumped her arm, a grin twitching the corners of my lips. "So you want me to kiss you again?"

"Of course." Her arms wrapped around my neck, bringing my closer. "If possible, without involving voyeurism." I snorted, tugging her hips to mines before leaning on to kiss her again.

Little did we know that Hermione and Ginny, ever the smart and subtle ones, were watching from the top of the stairs.

[cimerran-714]

The fact that Harry missed Ron during the fourth book of the series is completely irrelevant to the 'Harmony' ship (unlike what Romione shippers claim)

I'd like to preface this by mentioning that I'm neither anti-Romione nor anti-Ron. I actually like him a lot (unlike a few of my fellow Harmonians, who hate the redhead so much that they actively wish him death). I really don't care whom people ship. At the same time, it makes my teeth chatter to hear Canon shippers make fatuous arguments that somehow "proves" that H/Hr can never be together.

I'd come across most of these claims on some other site, and for some mystical reason, they've received hundreds of upvotes. Despite the fact that Romione shippers tend to indulge in selective reading themselves.

And one of the most prevalent ones is, of course:

Harry missed Ron a lot during GoF. It's a sign that H/Hr would never work.

Seriously, how weird is that?

The friendship between Harry and Ron is certainly not germane to the H/Hr ship. I don't know why it shouldn't be more obvious, really.

Imagine using the affection (which is fully platonic) he felt towards Ron to leverage your own ships. Harry would miss Ron even if he was pitched with Cho Chang, Ginny Weasley, Romilda Vane, Luna Lovegood, Fleur Delacour... or literally any female character in the series you can think of. You might as well ship Harry with Ron himself, for all the good that would do.

The Weasleys had essentially adopted Harry. It's sort of the difference between your paramour and someone whom you consider a brother.

Also, as 'u/HopefulHarmonian' mentioned in response to a comment on Reddit a few months ago, Harry actively chose to spend more time with Hermione during that period, which is something he wouldn't have done if he disliked it very much.

And it's not as if he was completely dysfunctional without Ron, anyway.

"Well, that's good," said Harry loudly, his temper getting the better of him, "just as long as it's not drawn-out. I don't want to suffer."

Ron looked for a moment as though he was going to laugh; he certainly caught Harry's eye for the first time in days, but Harry was still feeling too resentful toward Ron to care.

Notice that the reason Harry didn't care about Ron nearly laughing is that he was angry at him. So, it's obvious that after a few days/weeks of being given the cold shoulder by his best friend, Harry had learned to get on just fine without Ron (unlike the very first day after his name came out of the Goblet and he enquired about Ron to Hermione).

I must also address the corollary claim that it was Ron whom Harry tried to save first during the Second Task of the Triwizard tournament.

Yeah... you get the point, don't you? Romione shippers hate the H/Hr romance so much that they pretend as if Ron.... wasn't Harry's priority.

That's the reason why he tried to hack the ropes binding Ron underwater. It also goes without saying that Harry would've inferred Hermione to be Krum's hostage. Why in the world would he try to save Hermione when his task was to rescue Ron?

Also, I'm curious as to who would've been Harry's hostage if Krum hadn't asked Hermione out to the Yule Ball.

Look at the very first thing he did after helping Ron out. You'd expect him to try and cut off Cho Chang's ropes, right? An extremely pretty girl whom he was head and heels over?

Well, no.

There were rocks littering the lake's bottom. He dived and snatched up a particularly jagged one and returned to the statue. He began to hack at the ropes binding Ron, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Ron floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.

Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione, raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at her bindings too -

Need I say more?

And that's not to mention the fact that Harry starts to appreciate her more during the last few books.

I have no idea why some Romione fans pretend as if Harry never cared about Hermione, which is simply untrue. For one thing, it was she who managed to draw him out during OOTP. It was also Hermione for whom Harry made an exception during Deathly Hallows (when he didn't bother to wipe away his tears).

Won't you miss a family member if he/she acts like a jerk and stops talking to you?

That pretty much sums it up, because Harry viewed Hermione in an entirely different way compared to Ron.