#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

🧜‍♀️

.

.

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

[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?????

[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.

[imxeracus]

From Now On

Ok y’all, this is super long hahahahha I’m so sorry. Happy Gruvia Week 2021!! Here’s my contribution and I’m sorry but I don’t think I have the time to do more but I hope you guys like it anyway. I hope its not too OOC and if FT had more romance elements I believe this would be possible. Enjoy!

--------------------------- Gray tousled his hair and fidgeted around the entrance, feeling nervous about the day when it was only about 10 o’clock in the morning. Today, he told himself that he had to make sure things went well and most of all, to not take off any of his clothes subconsciously. For an ice mage, ironically he could not seem to get himself to calm down and stay cool about this. Regarding his first official date with Juvia, that is.

The 100 Years Quest was over and as promised, he spoke to Juvia about their relationship and how he was finally good enough for her. Despite the water mage’s disagreement to his initial beliefs and reasoning, she was elated that Gray formally addressed their feelings for each other. Furthermore, he initiated that they ought to have a proper first date that weekend itself.

He clicked his tongue briefly and frowned upon himself as he began to manifest in some thoughts to keep himself together. Why are you getting all nervous for! He ponders, his hands getting a little clammy in his pockets. Aren’t you the Gray Fullbuster, who bravely puts himself out for others and save the world countless times?

”Gray-sama?”

Before he could go on any further, a cute slivery voice interrupted his train of thought. Miserably trying to keep his cool, he spun around eagerly and was met with sapphire eyes that gave off a different vibe from her usual self. The said bluenette had her locks half tied and wore an off-shoulder dress that was not too revealing, similar to her nature. Accompanied with her outfit was a pair of kitten heels, some accessories and a subtle blush adorning her cheeks.

”Juvia is sorry for making you wait.”

For the majority, her outfit is considered simple and chic but for today, Gray thought she looked really, really good. Dammit, he gulped loudly as he felt his cheeks started to blush already at the sight of her. He knew that the water user was attractive, but it was beginning to sink in that he is now calling this beautiful person his. “Ah—um—” Gray fumbled and looked away, trying his best to hide the redness. “Shall we get going?” She simply smiled, gave a small chuckle and placed her left hand gently on his right arm (as if he could take more), indicating him to proceed to their destination. On their first date, Fullbuster had planned to go and visit the aquarium—because the water reminds him of Juvia, but he is never going to admit it—which was not too far off from where they were. It was a good walking distance, and they had a nice peaceful time on the way there. Despite saying that, he was worried as it did not seem natural for the bluenette to stay silent. Especially today, he expected her to be more excited and be all over him. As they arrive at the aquarium, Gray went over to the counter and bought a pair of tickets and made his way back to the front, where Juvia was waiting for him. As he carefully observed the water mage from a distance, he could see that she was looking down with an expression he could not seem to grasp. ”Juvia.” Surprised, she looked up hastily to see Gray back by her side. ”Is everything alright?” ”Juvia’s fine!” She exclaimed, quick to lighten up the mood. “She’s just... a little excited—as in, we’ve never done this before—but Juvia’s really happy!” She glanced at him timidly. “Also, Gray-sama looks dashing today.” For once with the determination of not stripping everything off, the ice mage did make the effort to dress well in a brown coat paired with a t-shirt and jeans. Albeit reddening slightly at her remark, he was more concerned on the fact she seemed to not be telling the truth. Here he was, blessed to have her despite all those years of constantly avoiding her advances—and now, when she is distressed, she was still keeping herself together to not worry him. His gaze soften as the guilt was slowly crept up inside him. Despite that, the said man tried to push the matter aside for the time being and wanted to make sure the day goes well. As of now, he knew that he needed to push himself more and step up his game. Once again, her eyes met with his onyx ones as he spoke quickly. “You.. you look good, too.” Juvia’s pupils dilated while Gray blushed furiously, frowning at how embarrassed he was over such a simple statement. It was a start, at least. He also noted on how she seemed to be elated from it. Before she could ask anything else, he took her hand in his and brought them into the aquarium. He could tell people were staring as the both of them were rather known after all they have done in Fiore, but screw it. Gray decided that it was not going to get in the way of his pride today if it could. Thankfully, the ice mage started to loosen up as Juvia gleefully looked at all the sea creatures that were present. When her beloved mentioned about this place, she gladly agreed because this place was known for breeding imported fishes outside of Fiore. The water woman, being part of the sea and occasionally swimming in it, found joy learning the names and characteristics of the animals she meets in the ocean.  “So these are angelfishes!” she exclaimed to Gray, as she lightly tapped on his shoulder while pointing at the said creature. “Juvia always sees them if she takes a dive into the ocean.” “Hmm,” Gray mused, acting disinterested. “What else do you normally see?” "Juvia’s seen all of these underwater because in this tank, all of them are common sea fishes.” “Isn’t that a bore?” The ice mage rolled his eyes. “We should go see something you don’t normally see—that’s what this place is for.” He smoothly took her hand in his and brought her along. Meanwhile, Juvia lightly blushes as she realised that this incident—Gray initiating the hand holding—has been happening a few times already. Every time she releases his grasp to point or walk towards a destination, the brunet would eventually put them back together again. She glanced at Gray who seemed to pay no mind to the matter as they visited the different tanks and places of the aquarium. Indeed, the bluenette was not complaining but a little taken aback. Is this suppose to be normal? She thought, as her imagination continued to spiral on. The smooth and sly Gray-sama was taking a little too much for her to handle—even from before! Eventually, her legs gave way and she started to lose her balance. Quickly, she placed her hand on the wall for balance which caused her footsteps to come to a halt and the ice mage to notice her situation. “Juvia!” He held her arms by the sides and shook her slightly in worry. “I’m right earlier, aren’t I? You really weren’t feeling good?” “Gray-sama...” He raised a brow in question. “Yes?” Juvia took a quick glance back at him before she burst into tears. “Gray-sama is too gentlemanly and sly today!” She wailed, half in distress and in joy. “First, he chooses to dress up and pick Juvia up at her place. Secondly, he complimented her outfit she took hours to decide and still felt it wasn’t good enough!” “Lastly, Juvia didn’t want to bother him and occasionally walks on her own, but Gray-sama keeps coming back, holding her hands gently and she’s too happy that she can’t walk straight anymore!” Full of emotions, she tried to control her tears as she quickly wiped some of it away. “Juvia’s not used to it Gray-sama. You’re being too nice and cool!” At this he flushed hard, did he really hold her hand so often? “Oi!” He panicked, his cheeks continue to redden in embarrassment at her bold statements of him. “D-don’t make sure a big deal out of it. I mean—like—just calm down!” With her loud voice, the people nearby saw and heard the context of the incident and lightly chuckled in amusement which caused Gray to be conscious with their surroundings and it made him uncomfortable. He quickly took her to an area with minimal crowd and dimmed lights to spare them from all the attention. He sat Juvia down on the nearby bench in hopes to calm her down as she sniffed softly. The ice mage took a moment to stare at the bluenette who was being all worked up earlier on. Gray’s eyebrows furrowed as he run his hand through his hair in exasperation before he sat down next to her. “Here,” A cold can drink grazed upon Juvia’s cheek gently. “Drink this.” She took it with gratitude and managed a few sips, a troubled look appearing on her features as she noticed her beloved looking away—clearly upset. The water mage frowned and looked down, tightening her hold on the can drink as she quickly apologises. “Juvia is sorry, Gray-sama. She should’ve known better than to embarrass Gray-sama in public,” Surprised at herself, she started to fumble. “Gray-sama doesn’t like attention and Juvia failed to see it. Juvia shouldn’t have been so swamped at her own giddiness, Juvia was too–” “Stop it,” Gray clicked his tongue in annoyance, his bangs covering his eyes. “You make me sound like a terrible boyfriend.” “Juvia didn’t mean—eh?” It took a moment before she realised what Gray has declared and took a small peak at him. “Did Gray-sama just say ‘boyfriend’?” “Aren’t I?” “Juvia didn’t expect you to say that out...” He scratched his neck nervously, his eyes looking away. “I mean.. I promised you didn’t I? I’m going to become a man good enough for you. If I can’t even say that out, I’m worse than flamebrain.” As much as she was feeling touched, she couldn’t help but worry. “Juvia doesn’t want to force you to change, Gray-sama.” “I’m not forcing myself.” “But Gray-sama kept forcing himself to make sure that we held hands—” “Because I wanted to!” Pupils dilated once again as she was struck with confusion. Fullbuster, flushed and embarrassed at what he just blurted out, grew annoyed at her denseness and tousled his hair once more before speaking up. “Dammit woman, why are you making me say all these sappy shit...” “Look,” He sighed before looking back at her once again, determined. “Every time we hold hands, I always try to play it cool but damn—it’s stupid to say this as a grown man but I get so nervous and happy about it. I kept wanting you close to me....” Gray felt annoyed at his frenzied heart as he continued to speak his feelings aloud. “I really want to be better for you, Juvia. I don’t want you to always make it easy for me. I want to return the favour back as much as I can.”  Before he went on, the ice mage narrowed his eyes in dismay and looked away as he gripped his knuckles tightly. “But this whole time, I kept making you cry and get upset. Even now, I don’t even know how to make you feel better when you’re always here for me previously. Instead, I chose to take us somewhere else and frown about it because I was a coward.... I’m sorry.” The ice mage mumbled at the end of his sentence, but Juvia could make out his words anytime. It was funny, really. All her life, the water mage was contented on loving him without expecting anything much back. Now, when it was becoming a reality, Juvia’s heart swelled. For once, her mind went blank on how to express these thoughts aloud. Loving Gray has been wonderful, but being loved back by him now was even better than she could ever imagined. She placed a hand on his cheek in efforts to cheer him up and as he turned back—in his opinion, Gray was greeted with the most alluring smile he has ever seen. “Thank you for trying so hard, Gray-sama.” She spoke in the most loving voice she could muster. “Juvia loves you very much.” In that moment, his gaze softened as he swiftly took away her hand that was on his face into his own, lacing them together. Tightening his hold on her said hand, Gray took her cheek in with his other free palm. The ice mage took a good look at her before he slowly leaned in. He heard Juvia uttered something out of confusion, but he paid no mind to it. Because in that moment, all he could think of was how much he adored her kindness, love and patience.  In the dim lighting and quiet section of the aquarium, his lips met hers in a chaste kiss as response to her statement earlier on. Frankly, the ice mage did not know what to say either as he nervously pulled away to check on her reaction. When his eyes slowly opened and met with hers, Gray could not help but smile back at his girl whose cheeks were now flushed in surprise. He let out a slight chuckle and squeezed her hand lovingly as he could tell that the water mage was clearly still processing the kiss. It was embarrassing, he admitted, but he did not regret doing so. He had nothing to hide anyways. “Shall we continue on with our date?”

After all, Juvia was his to keep from now on.

[chaussetteblanche]

waves (part ix)

PART NINE

summary: frankie goes looking for something in the sunken boat and gets trapped underwater

word count: 1'628

warnings: swearing, i think that's it

"I got the cans," John B called as he and the two other boys pulled up near Kiara's docks with the HMS Pogue.

"Good, they full?" the curly-haired girl asked as she jumped in with Pope's help.

"Uh, about halfway," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck as JJ drove off. "But it should be enough," he added quickly, seeing the 'are you kidding me right now' look on the girl's face.

"This is empty," she sighed as she inspected them, "You took empty cans,"

"I-"

"Where are you going?" Kie suddenly asked the blond boy, shooting up as he started heading towards the marsh. "Frankie's place is the other way. Oh, this one is a quarter full, enough for one of us," she set a tank to the side.

"Oh, we're going to the dealer's house?" he sneered, his nose upturned. Kiara glared at him, standing up.

"In case you'd forgotten, dumbass, she's the only one of us who know how to fucking dive," she spat, "so, yes, we're going to the ex-dealer's house," JJ glared right back at her and begrudgingly turned the boat around. Kiara let out an irritated sigh and leaned back in her seat. When they got to the dock near Frankie's house, Pope asked JJ to go.

"Why me?" the blond asked, frowning deeply. Pope shrugged.

"You're the closest to her," he answered simply.

"And the biggest asshole. You need to apologize," Kiara glowered.

"I don't need to do shit," JJ snapped, sighing loudly before marching off the boat and heading for the girl's house. He rolled his eyes at how stupid this all was before knocking loudly three times on the front door. When no one answered after a minute or so, he knocked again, louder this time. The door was pulled open, revealing an angry redhead.

But it wasn't the angry redhead he was looking for.

"Why don't you just go ahead and knock the door down?" Dan drawled, lips pursed as he looked down at the blond in front of him. He was only wearing a pair of board shorts and JJ was surprised to see how much muscle he usually hid under baggy shirts. He was even more surprised at the large dragon tattoo that sat proudly on his left pectoral. He was a good few inches taller than JJ and the latter was starting to get slightly intimidated.

"I, uh, I'm looking for Frank," JJ said, trying to look past Daniel's shoulders but the boy stepped outside, forcing JJ back a few steps, and closed the door behind him.

"I reckoned," he answered, "She doesn't want to see you,"

"But we need her," JJ argued, frowning.

"Should've thought about that before mouthing her off yesterday night," Daniel shrugged.

"But- it's important!"

"Look here, blondie," Daniel leaned down until his face was only a few centimetres away from JJ's, "Nothing is more important than my sister's happiness and well-being. I tolerated you guys until now because even though you got yourselves into a shit-ton of trouble, she was happy. She was the exact opposite of happy when she came home yesterday. I got a gist of what happened and I'm sure you lot did a lot more than what she told me because she didn't want me to cave your face in next time you showed up," JJ gulped as the front door opened again.

"Daniel," a familiar voice called. The boy stepped aside, his dark eyes flitting over to his sister. She gave Dan a small nod.

"Your friend is here," he said, squeezing her shoulder before walking back inside, bumping into JJ's shoulder and making the blond stumble. He disappeared into what JJ guessed to be his room and left Frankie alone with him.

"What do you want?" the girl asked, walking towards JJ.

"We need you," he answered.

"Is that the only reason you're here?" she asked. JJ hesitated for a second.

"Yeah," he lied. "We need you because you're the only one who knows how to dive,"

"You're kidding yourself if you actually think I'm going anywhere with you," she shook her head.

"Well," JJ raised his arms and let them fall back at his sides, "what do you want me to say? I meant everything I told you,"

"I don't know if that's true or if you're just lying to yourself to feel better but you guys better find another diver," Frankie spoke calmly before heading back inside and closing the door. JJ clenched his jaw and resisted the urge to kick Frankie's front door. He stomped back over to the HMS Pogue, scowling.

"Where's Frankie?" Kiara asked when JJ jumped back into the boat, making it rock.

"She's not coming," he grumbled. Kiara spluttered like a fish out of water.

"Wha- What do you mean she's not coming? What did you tell her?" she questionned angrily. JJ recounted what had happened and Kiara repeatedly smacked her forehead.

"You, JJ Maybank, you are the biggest imbecile on Earth. That's it, we're going to take a vote on whether we forgive Frankie for 'lying' to us and move on with our lives or if we act like 3 year olds like JJ!" she exclaimed determinedly. "All those in favour for forgiving and moving on?" She raised her hand, as did Pope and John B. JJ scoffed at John B, who shrugged.

"Sorry, man, but she's cool and I honestly don't think it's that big of a deal," Kiara nodded in agreement and hopped off the boat.

"I'm going to get her," she said, walking off.

The two girls returned about fifteen minutes later, arm in arm. Both were slightly red-eyed, though no one mentionned it. John B helped Frankie onto the Pogue and gave her a big hug, whispering a few words in her ear. She was smiling when she pulled away before being pulled into a hug by Pope. They also exchanged a few words as John B helped Kie on as well. Frankie totally ignored JJ's presence as he started the boat up and headed for the marsh.

Once the HMS Pogue was on top of the sunken boat, Frankie started taking her clothes off. "You're sure you've done this before?" Pope asked worriedly as the girl started strapping on the diving gear. "Oh, yeah, I sometimes used to give diving tours to tourists back in Straya," she assured. Once she had checked everything and Pope had made some calculations to tell her when to stop, she walked to the front of the boat. John B stood in front of her.

"Don't die," he instructed. "I'll do my best," she grinned, looking back at the others. JJ refused to meet her eye, turning his head to look somewhere else. He heard her jump in and sat down in the back. Only a few second later, the group heard sirens.

"Shit," Pope cursed, "JJ," The blond boy turned around, looking at the boat coming towards them. "Guys, that's the police," he said. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," John B groaned. "Just- act frickin' normal," Kiara ordered, flipping her hair back and leaning on the side of the boat. Pope checked the timer he had put on his phone. Frankie had five minutes left before running out of air.

"Evening, officers," JJ greeted, catching the rope they had threw him and tying it to the front of the boat. "How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" the officer asked. The four teens pretended to be shocked, all replying 'no's and 'oh my god's. "Why is it closed?" asked John B. "Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down." JJ couldn't help but think how ironic it was that they were right above the boat that they were looking for. "Seen anything?" the other officer asked. All the teens shook their heads. Pope tried to discreetly check his phone but the deputy saw him. "Say, where's you friend you always hang with? The redhead? She here?" he asked. "She's at home," Kiara answered, "Her brother grounded her,"

The deputy hummed. After a few seconds of tense silence, he climbed onto the HMS. "I'm gonna check your little boat out," he decided. "Oh, yeah, hop on board," John B nodded. "Check her- check her out," JJ grinned, trying to push idea of Frankie being underwater with very little air. Pope checked his phone again and raised four fingers at JJ. Frankie only had two minutes left. The knot in JJ's stomach tightened. The deputy started checking the number of life vests on board. Pope raised one finger. The deputy sent him a strange look. "What're you doing?" he asked. Pope's heart missed a beat. "Checking the wind," he answered. The man looked at him for a second before nodding. "Good that, always good to know which way it's blowing," He stepped to the front of the boat, right where Frankie had jumped just minutes ago, and looked around. JJ was starting to get impatient and John B was starting to get fidgety. Seconds felt like hours as the man stared at the water. Pope stared intently at JJ and ran a finger over his throat. Frankie had officially run out of air. JJ put a hand over his chin, biting the inside of his lip.

The deputy finally climbed back in his own boat and untied the ropes. "Well, kids, you let us know if you see anything on your way out," he said. "Yeah, we'll be gone soon, sir," Kiara spoke. "Yes, you will," The two officers drove away. The four teens let out a breath and rushed to the side of the boat to see if Frankie would come to the surface. "She's definitely out of air,"

[aka-indulgence]

Take Me by the Hand

So I wanted to post this on valentines (it’s not exactly valentine-themed, I just wanted to put something out hjdsk), but decided it was better to post now -w- this is a little fluff fic for @yeosin-n!! She has a really cool au called underwaves, and of course she makes just wonderful wonderful stuff and i love them all- and then its an undertale au!!!! in the ocean!!!!! ahdjkshd I kinda instantly fell in love with it... and UW Sans (Naut) as well, so uh!! Here’s a fluffy self-indulgent fanfic!!

Naut (UW!Sans)/Reader :D!!

"heheh, ya look like a big duck, darlin'."

  You try not to make a frustrated noise at him (lord knows he's already having WAY too much fun with you) and choose to simply mumble to yourself quietly as you take step by heavy step towards the innocently splashing waves, as if taunting your predicament.

  "I'd appreciate some help right about now, I could do without the remarks." You snap (softly) at him as you waddle your way over the sand, your heavy diving equipment jostling a little with every step.

  Naut had been helpful enough to put all the weight on you, and you wanted no more than to strangle the grin off the bastard's face.

  He's lucky you're dating him and love him too much to do that.

  Naut only chuckles for a bit, in your face, and you're about to throw your flippers at him when his laughs finally die down.

  "sorry, sorry," Naut lets a few more chuckles out as he wipes the "tears" away from his top set of eyesockets.

  You could swear you saw his lower eyelights turned into hearts for a second…

  "couldn't help myself. ya sure are a cutie," he says, and you would've made a sound of indignation if you didn't see the flowers happily popping into existence near the hole in his skull, floating down as if a slow waterfall was carrying it.

  You're the one with the happy little flowers, you want to tease, but at the same time, you didn’t want him to hide it. It was cute and pretty, you loved seeing him happy and relaxed.

  Without realizing what he's trying to do, Naut's already by your side, going behind your back. Before you could ask him what he's doing, you make a "hup-!?" Noise when he hoists your tank up.

  "better?"

  He was.. helping you carry your equipment.

  "Y-yeah!" You startle (you're not sure why, but the fact that he's actually helping you makes you feel.. sentimental).

  "ok then, let's keep going,"

  With the help of Naut, the journey to the water’s edge wasn’t as painful as it was when you started trudging down the sand, and you eventually got about chest-deep in the water.

  Naut let go of your tank, keeping you steady while you fit your dive boots into the open heel flippers. You fit your mask onto your face, and Naut starts drifting into deeper waters, now bobbing in the waves (how do skeletons float…? Of course he came from the ocean but… it’s like he has invisible floaties on!). He snrks a little. You make a face at him (well, as much of a face you could make with a mask covering half your face).

  “What?”

  “heheh… nothing. ya just… ya kinda look like a fish? with the goggles…” He makes two C-shapes with his phalanges, bringing them up to his sockets. “oh glowing waves above, i just wanna pinch you.”

  “H-hey! Stay focused!” you fluster, holding your hands out to him as if he was going to bite you. 

  Naut chuckles. “yeah, you’re right… i can always pinch ya later.” he teases, and before you could protest more, he gestures with his hand. “ok, check your second stage first, and let’s swim slowly…”

  You give the purge button of your second stage a couple of times, before attaching it to your mouth, floating towards your sea-lover. You release the air from your BCD, and Naut takes you by the hand, gently guiding you into the water.

  Everything feels different as soon as you are completely submerged, the sounds around you switching from air to water; your surroundings turning blue in an instant. For a few moments, you can only hear the sound of your breathing, the bubbles burbling around you.

  “you doing ok?” Naut’s voice snaps you out of your momentary awe, sounding practically as clear as he does outside the water. “don’t forget to equalize the pressure in your ears.”

  The sand slopes down, and you tilt your head this way and that, giving Naut the ok signal when you think you’re good.

  He’s dropped his teasing and playing around as he slowly brings you away from the surface; you vaguely feel like someone with a blindfold on while someone else’s pulling you somewhere to show you a surprise. He has to keep looking behind him to make sure he doesn’t run into corals or sharks or whatever.

  Your world completely changes around you- not that you’ve never seen ocean scapes before, but actually being in it to see it for yourself sure is a special experience. You see your first fish, catching your eye as it darts away from below you. The sandy bottom keeps going down, and down, and down….

  … Until eventually, you reach a spot where it stops, turning into a plain of sand.

  Naut sits down- just, sits down on the sand, and it's so weird how he just so casually sits, legs apart below you, underwater. He tugs you a bit, pointing to the sand.

  You descend, knees hitting the sand with a soft ‘pwsh’... your hands inadvertently fall onto Naut’s ribcage.

  You see all four of his eyelights looking down, then lighting up, and you have no idea if he can see you blushing underwater-

  But thankfully, Naut knows to set his priorities straight, and right now it’s making sure your diving goes smoothly and safely.

  “good?”

  For a second, seeing Naut completely at home in this environment, you nod your head without thinking- shaking your head before giving him the ok sign.

  His grin grows and he laughs.

  Damn. Even underwater he still sounds smooth as hell…

  “heheheh… ok, bubbles. let’s get started then, shall we?”

  After about a minute of buoyancy practice, Naut kicked off the sand with his slippers (how did they stay on his feet under- you know what? Maybe you shouldn’t question the physics of underwater monsters so much), letting you follow him in your own pace.

  Not too far from the water’s edge, corals started sprouting out from the sand, and no longer than that, more sea life appeared. A rainbow of fish were milling about, shrimp and crabs skitter over the ‘living rocks’, and a sea turtle lazily swims by.

  Naut easily backpedals towards it, and it circles around him.

  Your eyes are taking in the underwater scene all around you with splendor; if you could smile, you would. It was all just so pretty, and your boyfriend’s over there becoming some sort of disney princess, as a few cleaner fish swim towards his skull. You don’t need to hold in your laughter on account of the regulator in your mouth, but your metaphorical smile gets bigger as you watch the tiny striped fish look around his crack while he’s completely unaware… he looks like he’s about to say something when his eyelights go out, as one of them starts nibbling.

  He flaps his hand like he’s swatting a fly away, and maybe you’re being tortured right now because you just want to let out a raucous laugh, purposefully shoving it in his face.

  “oh, of course, you’re entertained.” Naut lids his sockets a little, feigning annoyance, though the cute little flowers only continue to flow out of his skull.

  You want to gesture a “sorry (not sorry)” at him, but without knowing sign language, the most you could do is open your hands for a hug. He’s been wonderfully non-teasing the whole way down, and you think he deserves some credit, especially showing you… all of this.

  You’re thinking about how thankful you are to have him with you when you see his eyelights dart somewhere else with his grin turning mischievous. He points to the turtle still swimming nearby and asks “hey, what kind of turtle do you think that green sea turtle is?”

  … What.

  You blink at him a couple of times, trying to convey your “what kind of question” emotion you’re feeling right now, knowing he’s smart enough to realize what he just said-

  “hahahah, i’m joking i’m joking, i know it’s Chelonia mydas. c’mon, i’m no loggerhead.”

  w-

  …

  Loggerhead. Loggerhead sea turtle.

  …

  You raise your fist at him, and you hope he could hear your internal screaming at him. Looking at the way his sockets crinkle and his grin practically stretching from non-existent ear to ear, you think he can.

The dive was relaxing and pleasant, with Naut completely in his element, giving you the reassurance that you’ll be alright with him. He brought you to different parts of the reef, highlighting some of the animals similarly as to how he addressed the sea turtle.

  He brought you swimming closer to the seafloor, showing you clownfish in their stinging friend-homes, and with a straight face he said, “keep your friends close,” he put a ‘friendly’ arm around the carnivorous invertebrate, “keep your anemones closer.”

  You swam away from him then, closer to whee the sand starts sloping again. You met a singular jellyfish there, to which Naut poked away from you- it could just fit in your palms. You watch with mild glee as he gently poked it around… you know it’s a living creature… but wow did you want to bounce it and play around with it like a toy. He moved it away from you and sent it bobbing in the direction of the open ocean, and he turned to you to say “are you jelly you didn’t get to play with it?”

  You wanted nothing more than to show him a flat face, if you were brave enough to take the regulator off your mouth. You followed him back towards the reef, swimming through a large school of fish that parted as you did.

  “how you feeling seastar? i’m feeling fin-tastic.”

  He turned around to gesture at the school. “aren’t they like living artwork? so beautiful. i like to consider myself sofishticated, you know.”

  You almost couldn’t focus on the reef around you as you were both delighted and desperately trying to hide it from him, that you’re enjoying a diving buddy/instructor that could talk to you as you dive.

  You swam leisurely ahead of him, looking for more “landmarks” (sea… marks…?) to look at before you run out of gas, when you heard a rush of water behind you.

  You almost let the regulator out of your mouth when you see a huge eel flapping about near you, with Naut holding its tail end and keeping it from coming at you. He reeled it in towards him, holding its head.

  “don’t know what got into this guy. maybe your fins surprised him.”

  He goes silent for a while.

  “but i guess thaaat’s a moray for you.”

  Old jokes!!! He’s too much!!!

  You wished you could’ve said something to him so you weren’t simply being subjected to his continuous puns, but at that point it looked like you might just get that; when you saw that your pressure gauge showed less than 100.

  Naut quickly looked to you when you made a wave at him, giving him a 9-0 signal, trying to convey an “up?” as best you can.

  “oh. oh yeah let’s get you up, bubbles.” He said as he swam towards you.

  It was like- he had a switch for professional diving instructor and ‘regular Naut’. He quietly guided your ascent, slowly and steadily, making a stop below the surface to decompress, before finally swimming all the way to the surface and inflating your BCD.

  “Blah!” you ungracefully spit the regulator out, letting it sink into the water and take the mask off your face. “My teeth always feel weird afterwards…”

  “cus’ you’re clenching it all the time.” he floats towards you, putting an arm around you. “how you feeling, gull friend?”

  You open your mouth, only to stop when you realized what he said- as if on time, a seagull keows above you.

  You give him your best attempt at a seething glare, but you take a breath and smile, putting an arm around him as well. “You know what? That was really nice. I haven’t had this much fun in a while. … or really, I didn’t do that much before I met you. I liked this, Naut. Thanks for taking me out here with you.”

  You watch with satisfaction as Naut’s lazy expression and smug-ass grin fade away, his main sockets becoming wide and a light blush colors his cheekbones.

  Ha, gottem.

  “o-oh. you- yeah. i… you're welcome. anything for you, seastar. i’m glad you liked it.” his eyelights shift away from you.

  “Yeah… though not gonna lie, you really were a sun of a beach down there. Punning when you know I can’t say anything to you- it was like, water you doing!”

  “ha, yeah i know, it was-” Naut paused. And then he turned to you, seeing how smug and proud you looked of yourself.

  You watched how his eyelights dilated in his sockets, sparkling like sun rays dancing in the water.

  “heh… heheheh….” he chortled, “oh… don’t be mad now… it’s not a good idea to get too tide down to your emotions.”

  “Well- high tide or low tide, I’ll be by your side.”

  “better make sure you weren’t pier-pressured into that.”

  “Nah. I’m a girl who just wants some sun with my bonefriend!”

  He was smiling like a downright lovable idiot right now, eyelights shining like the sun.

  “hhhhoooh my god, i want to kiss you.”

  You give him a smirk.

  “Oh! So you’re feeling… naut-y?”

  Your grin weakens a little when Naut stops grinning, and his eyelights shrinking back to their regular sizes, shimmering. For a moment you worry if you said something wrong somehow, but your worry was unfounded- just moments later you watch as cute little hearts start coming out of his skull, with four of his eyelights turning into the same shape.

  “i don’t know why kissing’s naut-y, but it’s in my name-ture to be.”

  You’re smiling just as wide as him, ignoring how far he had to reach to make that pun. He closes his eyes and you let him lean in towards you, meeting him in the middle. He wraps his arms around you and kisses you while you reciprocate happily; bobbing in the waves under the sun.