#lets start with the fact he's a sea creature cut off from the rest of hell bc it cant comfortably accommodate him
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
thekingofchungus · 1 year ago
Text
the more i write leviathan lore the more sense it makes for him to be disabled/chronically ill
0 notes
spiderceo · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
WORLD SWAP AU
warnings: slight scopophobia (fear of staring)
a/n: welcome to my funky lil au inspired by @aerkame and their ‘alive au’. i really like the idea of the puppets somehow ending up in the reader’s world and making their life ten times harder than it needs to be lol
master post
Tumblr media
🌟 you were never a morning person so you always hit the snooze button the moment your alarm went off. you reached over like you usually do to your alarm clock but instead of the usual metal, you grabbed onto something soft and squishy like…felt? hold on-
🌟 you opened one eye only to come face to face with a little yellow puppet staring at you widely with a grin. it’s blue hair in your hands and nothing but staring between you both. time seemed to pause as you waited for your brain to catch up but then it suddenly spoke:
🌟 “…good morning, neighbour.” it smiled brightly.
🌟 you let out a screech that could burst eardrums and tried to put as much distance between you and this creature. you backed into the wall against the other side of your bed and just kept screaming bloody murder. the puppet was also screaming alongside you but it wasn’t scared, it was just copying you.
🌟 cut to a few minutes after and you are standing in your living room with all of the puppets crammed on your couch. they all came in varying sizes so it made their squeeze to fit rather difficult. the puppet who almost gave you a heart attack introduced himself as wally and then told you the names of all the others. the fact you even felt sane enough to sit and listen to them all talk over each other for your attention was a miracle. most people would have either fainted or gone back to bed in hopes this was just a bad dream.
🌟 for some reason, the shock of these living puppets in your home wore off pretty quickly. it was probably the idea of having to take care of them and the stress it would put you through that did it. no time to be in shock when your entire life needed to be rearranged.
🌟 none of the puppets could find a way to explain their situation. “one day we were playing, and the next we were here!” the one named sally exclaimed, using her arms expressively as she talked. it wasn’t like you were much help in this situation. you were just as confused as they were.
🌟 the rest of the day went by a bit chaotically. these new roommates of yours caused a lot of trouble. they didn’t know anything about the modern world apparently so you had to teach them like they were children. they asked about everything from the toaster to your toothpaste. curiosity was something they all didn’t lack.
🌟 keeping them entertained wasn’t a hard job. it meant that you could process your situation and figure out a way to send them back to where they came from.
🌟 frank was interested in your bookshelves. you found him reading pride and prejudice. the speed at which he read amused you greatly. they were practically flying through the pages.
🌟 you had to teach poppy how to use your kitchen. all she wanted to do was bake you a nice meal in thanks for welcoming them into your home — despite all the trouble it was going to cause.
🌟 you let julie try on all your clothes and have a fashion show with everyone. cleaning up after her was a haste but they offered to help clean up which was weirdly sweet.
🌟 wally had figured out how to use the tv but not entirely. you walked in on him watching static to which you asked “how long have you been staring at that?”. his response was “my eyes feel funny.”
🌟 sally has taken a liking to the random ornaments scattered around your house. she will randomly pick one up and come running to you to ask what it is. of course you’ll explain anything to her but it was strange that she didn’t know what a sea shell was…
🌟 eddie has started doing arts and crafts in bulk. frank said that he does it when he’s stressed. you’re not entirely sure how to relax him because it’s not like you can take a puppet to a spa or treat them to a nice meal-
🌟 barnaby has been following you around with perfectly timed jokes and sound effects. it’s starting to get on your nerves (especially when you’re trying to nap) but your hope that they’d soon return to whatever world they come from makes you tolerate it.
🌟 howdy hasn’t found something in your home he enjoys yet. he spends most of his time helping you with housework. his multiple arms and tall stature help when it comes to cleaning and reaching the top shelve. if you could choose any of them to stay it would definitely be him because he’s so kind and helpful — maybe you’d keep poppy around too because her meals are like heaven on a plate.
74 notes · View notes
rococodeco · 15 hours ago
Text
@annehackaway I found another unhinged review, this time from a fantasy only reader. A review of The Pisces (the bolding was done by the reviewer):
Let's get something straight right away: normally books like this aren't my thing. I've been trying to read more widely and outside of my comfort zone as of late, but fantasy is still my main jam. It's because of this that I was willing to give The Pisces a shot - it's not what I reach for in terms of genre, but balanced by The Shape of Water vibes that I thought I would enjoy it.
I didn't.
Everything about this book just made me feel gross. The main character, the side characters, even the plot itself made me feel uncomfortable and repulsed. By the time I realized the entire novel was going to be like this, it was too late to turn back; I was halfway through, and I might as well finish to count it towards my reading goal.
Imagine reading a whole novel that makes you feel gross just so you can claim your internet point for reading it. It's like self-flagellation but goodreads is your god.
The rest of the is below the cut because it is long. Someday I'll figure out how to link to specific reviews. That day is not today.
I can see why this would be compared to The Shape of Water - both feature a woman that engages in a romantic and sexual relationship with a non-human sea creature. But The Shape of Water is whimsical, funny, diverse, and, most of all, aware of how it fits into conversations about fantasy, race, and sexuality. The Pisces is merman erotica that spends the entire novel justifying animal abuse, pedophilia, and the harmful decisions of its pathetic main character simply because she's a "broken" woman. I say "broken" because I'm still not sure, exactly, what makes her "broken," much less what could possibly justify all the problematic shit she does.
The main character, Lucy, is intensely unlikable. She's a 38-year-old grown-ass woman, and she's still mooching off of her university's grant money for the thesis she's been writing for 9 years. As an undergrad student whose high tuition puts the fear of god in her, her abuse of university funds is deeply offensive to me. Not to mention, Lucy's entire purpose of being graciously invited to live in her half-sister's million dollar house instead of her shithole apartment is to watch her sister's dog, Dominic. Dominic has diabetes, so he needs to be given medication. But instead of taking care of her sister's sick dog, LIKE SHE'S BEING PAID TO DO, Lucy spends the majority of the novel trying to satisfy her libido by having sex with random men who couldn't give two craps about her.
That's right, folks. We get to spend the entire 270 pages watching Lucy's animal abuse unfold. She forgets to walk him, feed him, give him the medication that helps keep him alive. She starts giving him daily tranquilizer pills - overdosing him on the first try and then continuing to up the dosage as he builds resistance to it - so he doesn't bother her. SO HE DOESN'T BOTHER HER. We watch him waste away to nothing while Lucy fucks her merman lover on her sister's white couch during her period, ruining the couch by staining it with her menstrual blood. Sexy, am I right?
And Lucy's therapy group? Don't even get me started. I don't know exactly the policies surrounding therapy groups, but when a 40-year-old woman admits to wanting to have sex with her son's 16-year-old friend, believing that he is attracted to her, nothing is done. Nothing happens. No one says anything. No one calls her out on her deeply, deeply disgusting thoughts. In fact, the other women feel sympathy for her. What the fuck. What the actual fuck.
This book is an absolute garbage fire. A problematic, disgusting dumpster fire. Don't expect to find The Shape of Water here. Go watch the movie. Spend your afternoon elsewhere.
When a goodreads review begins with, "I usually only read YA but I decided to branch out," you know the review is going to be good (have the most unhinged opinions you've ever seen about literature)
6 notes · View notes
ginazmemeoir · 3 years ago
Text
Since it's Krishna's birthday I couldn't help but write his birth story. So here y'all go, you're welcome. Oh also fun fact about Janmashtami : it always rains tonight. It might be just a drizzle, but it always rains tonight.
Devaki’s screams rent the air as she pushed and kept pushing. This was the eighth time she was giving birth to someone. The prison guards could hardly be bothered, and instead laughed at her like hyenas, their mere gazes leaving marks on her skin. Vasudev covered the prison bars with a flimsy cloth, and went back to assist his wife.
She was crying when Vasudev returned back. He bent down by her side, supporting her, and was about to go in front to assist with the delivery when Devaki squeezed his hand and stopped him. Panting, she said, “I don’t know if I want this child Vasudev.” Vasudev was stunned upon Devaki’s proclamation. She had given birth seven times, all sons, and six times had watched them being murdered by her own brother, the brother who had loved her more than any brother could love a sister. The seventh time, Vasudev had quietly given the baby to his first wife Rohini and instructed her to head to Gokul, where his friend Nanda lived. They had simply lied to Kansa and cited that Devaki had miscarried.
How cruel fate was. The couple had watched six of their children murdered in front of them in cold blood, not even a day old. The seventh, they did not know of his fate. Of his first words or his favourite food or the way he laughed. And yet, this eighth child carried hope. This child would be their salvation. Devaki continued “I cannot bear to watch another child snatched away like that Vasudev. Please I’d rather this child die on my womb, or I die while giving birth so at least I don’t have to watch him die. Please Vasudev, I cannot do this anymore” cried Devaki, tears raining down her once lustrous bronze skin, her once luxurious locks lying limp and lifeless by her side like her soul. “No Devaki. I cannot imagine the pain you endure, each time you push another life from inside you, but know this – this child is our salvation. This child is the reason six of our children were murdered. This child is the reason we sent our seventh son into hiding. This child is the reason we have wasted away in this prison for years. Devaki this child must live. Our child must live to avenge the deaths of our children. To avenge us. This child must live if the universe carries even a shred of mercy for us. For Devaki I would sooner kill both of us than watch another child tortured by your brother.” Vasudev’s eyes burned with an intensity Devaki hadn’t seen in a long time. Most of the time they were sad or scared, reminiscing their past. Their married bliss had ended the day it began, with her brother imprisoning them over a prophecy. Vasudev’s words breathed new life into Devaki. She would not let this child die. She would live. She would make sure the child lived. And she would make sure she heard her brother whimpering in agony as her child crushed his skull open.
The gods had given a prophecy. Devaki and Vasudev’s eighth child would be the death of Kansa. And Devaki did not want to prove the gods as petty liars.
With a final push and a scream, that was thankfully masked by a loud thunderclap, Devaki expelled her child out. Vasudev cut the umbilical cord with a flint stone he had dipped in cheap somaras which he had stolen from the guards yesterday, and cradled the child in his arms, lying beside Devaki, giving this child his parents’ touch one final time, the shared breath and heat warming him. He was dark, dark as the rainclouds that had gathered over the entirety of Brijbhumi that day, as the moonlit night that held secrets and wonder. A small glow emanated from his body, barely lighting his immediate surroundings. The couple kept looking at their son, prerplexed, and the baby looked back at them. He had big soft eyes, and instead of crying, he just looked up at them and gave a small laugh, reaching to grab his mother’s hair. Devaki’s tears fell on his face, as she kissed his forehead and hugged him tight. She then looked at Vasudev, and they understood what had to be done. Vasudev took the baby, and opened his prison door. Turns out if you get drunk with the guards ever so often, they don’t notice things like missing keys.
Vasudev stepped out, and half thought that he and his son were going to be hacked into pieces, but the entire cellar was quiet. The whole world seemed to hold its breath, time itself felt suspended. Only minutes ago the guards were cackling, and yet they now slept a deep slumber. Vasudev quickly stole a dagger, and placed the baby in the laundromat’s basket, covering him with a heavy warm cloth. He exited the prison quarters and entered into Indra’s wrath. The clouds overhead boomed with thunder, and rain covered everything as far as the eye could see. Unperturbed, Vasudev kept walking eastwards, until he reached the Yamuna. He looked for a boat, searching the banks of the usually idyllic river, which now coursed with the strength and vigour of the mighty Saraswati, and yet found no boat to carry him and his son. Time was running out, and his son’s life outweighed a safe passage for him, he could already imagine Kansa’s men running towards him. Vasudev then did the only thing he could – let the river decide his life. He walked into the river, determined to reach the other side. The yojana wide river divided Mathura and its outskirts from the countryside – where his son was to find sanctuary. Vasudev kept walking, and the Yamuna’s waters kept rising and rising. The heavy rain pelted Vasudev, and he kept his swaddled baby on his head in his basket. The spaces between the bamboo basket refused water from filling in. Somehow, he reached the middle, when he felt the water threatening to reach his chin, the river hell bent on drowning him and his son. No mere river was going to stop the descendant of the mighty Shuri, the prince of the Vrishnis today though. Vasudev held his breath and kept swimming forward, the basket safely above the surface of water. Surprisingly, there were no crocodiles in the river. Vasudev had only swam a bit further when the river level started lowering and lowering, until it reached his waist. Vasudev was perplexed, the river was usually the deepest at this point, then why did it suddenly lower down to below his waist? Lost in his thoughts, Vasudev almost missed the giant creature slithering towards him, and that is when he realized he and his infant son were about to be devoured by a sea monster that liked toying with its prey. The creature reached Vasudev, its smooth obsidian scales emitting a green glow, extending to its full length, spreading out its thousand hoods and shielding Vasudev and his son from the merciless rain. Had he not known better, Vasudev would’ve thought it was Adi Shesha, the thousand hooded snake, upon whose infinite coils Narayana rested. Time was running out, and Vasudev picked up speed, the serpentine creature slithering along. Climbing out of the river, he kept picking through the wilderness and hamlets, the creature’s presence scaring off any hungry predators.
At last, Vasudev glimpsed the village of Gokul. Overjoyed, Vasudev rushed down the hillock, which was dotted here and there by the occasional cow. He entered the safety of the village, his frayed nerves calming down, and started searching for Nanda’s home. Even though he was the village chief, his house was tough to spot, the only thing differentiating it from others was a larger gateway and a bigger courtyard. Surprisingly, Nanda was already standing at the gates, waiting for him. Vasudev rushed up to him, and began to speak when Nanda asked, “Vasudev, how did you come here? How are you barely wet?” Vasudev looked behind him, and found the creature had returned. Maybe it was scared of society? “There’s no time for that Nanda. I have come to entrust my last son to you,” said Vasudev, as he hastened to enter Nanda’s home. There was a lantern in front of each room, and the large house was empty except for the cows in the outside stables. Vasudev kept searching along the corridor, until he found Nanda’s wife’s room. He expected to see his elder son sleeping with her, but instead found her snoring loudly, with a baby lying beside her. Vasudev quietly placed his son beside her. The baby started crying, clutching onto his father even as he laid him on the bed. Vasudev quietly removed his hand from his grip, and sang him a lullaby. It was about a bee returning to its hive after a busy day in the meadow. He had never got a chance to sing this lullaby before. Devaki and he and spent each day perfecting it in prison. The baby quietened and went to sleep, and Vasudev left, his vision blurry, when he was stopped by Nanda. “Wait here.” he said. Nanda then returned from his wife’s room, his baby with him, and handed it over to Vasudev. “Here you go Vasudev. You may take my daughter home with you.” Vasudev looked at Nanda with disgust. Was his friend so lowly that in favour of a son he would condemn his daughter to the confines of a prison, frequented by a monster that would kill her the moment he got to know? “I know what you were thinking, and I would never do that Vasu” said Nanda, sensing his friend’s thoughts. “Yashoda gave birth to her yesterday, and hasn’t seen her since. I took her to Goddess Gauri’s temple the same day, to seek her blessings. I can’t explain what happened Vasu, but I heard Gauri. She spoke to me and she instructed me to give her to you when you came. Why do you think I was waiting for you outside?” “Oh come on Nanda, you’re just making up stories now.” said Vasudev, even more repulsed now. “Why would I lie Vasu? Is this what you think of me, a murderer? Trust me Vasu, Gauri Devi spoke to me, she told me to give my daughter to you! Who are we to defy the will of the gods?” Nanda reassured him.
“The gods don’t care about us Nanda. They stopped existing for me when they made me watch my sons’ heads being bashed against walls or crushed by hammers. But even so I will take your daughter. Maybe Kansa might spare a girl?”
Saying so, Vasudev took Nanda’s daughter and vanished into the night, heading back to his prison. Even though the babe wasn’t his, he had already named her – Maya – after this night, an illusion, a reality that felt like a dream. He did not know what fate awaited this girl, but at least his boy was safe for now.
Maybe the gods did have a plan. A plan that was tucked away under Yashoda’s arms in the tiny hamlet of Gokul, snuggling against the only mother he would ever know.
221 notes · View notes
cafecourage · 3 years ago
Text
The moment they realized they loved you. (Isekai Au Edition) Part 2
If you want more information on this AU here is the Link!
Sky:
- It started slow and very sweet.
- He took a long time realizing who you were. But he still believed in the others when they started to recognize you.
- When your behind him cheering you on, he feels invincible. Since during his adventure Impa tore into him pretty badly when he was late to save Zelda.
- Your presence is comforting to him. It feels like home despite being on the ground.
___________________________________
Being back in Skyloft was a small blessing for the chain. The tight knit community had already welcomed the travelers with little to no questions about their origins. It was a stroke of luck that they landed in front of the bazaar in the early morning when no one else was up yet. Their first day there was a resting day in attempt to gather information on the black blood monsters and inventory checks.
Sky took his time catching up with everyone. Letting the Headmaster and Sun know about the situation that had the hero hopping around in the timeline. Then he needed to go down to the small settlement on the surface to check on them. Sun did already tell him that things where still safe down there and that he should take a break. But he still would rather check it out himself just in case something did happen it better to be safe than sorry.
Despite being able to jump off from any of the decks in Skyloft. He automatically went towards the plaza near the tower of light. During his adventure it was the quickest way to the opening above Faron Woods. Sky was just turning the bend when he saw his Loftwing was already there on the docks and under its wing was You. You were trying to put a small amount of distance between you and the bird but the creature kept bring you closer to hold.
“(Y/n)!” Sky was baffled at his Loftwings reactions to you. He dashes to your side. “I’m so sorry. He isn’t normally like this.”
“It’s fine.” Your uncontrollable laughter the was full with childlike glee finally reached him. “In fact, I think he recognizes me!” You whispered smiling. The Crimson Loftwing cooed now leaning into his masters touch as Sky softly pet the side of his necks. Sky wondered if what you said was the truth. Since a Loftwing and its rider do share a special connection, it’s fully possible that his also felt and heard you. “Hey Link?” Suddenly your demeanor changed. “Can I ask something?”
Your bashful and embarrassed expression made Sky feel soft inside. “Of course.”
“One of these days can you show me around the sky or the surface?” You shifted awkwardly from him. He actually forgot that you haven’t physically been to his era before. That for the longest time you only saw things from his point of view without the ability to truly explore anything. “You don’t need to- “
“Are you free now?” He quickly cut you off. “I was actually heading down there now to check on the settlement.”
“Really?” Your face seems to brighten but then you remembered something and leaned closer to him whispering again “I don’t have a Loftwing though.”
He gently takes your hand “my Loftwing is strong enough for both of us.” He guided you to his side. You eyed the bird with uncertainty but you let him help you up onto the harness. Sky got on behind you reaching around you to get the reins. “Hold on to me if you get scared.” He teasingly warned and before you could question him. His Loftwing took off nose diving off of the deck.
You let out a small squeak as you latched onto his tunic. Sky almost felt bad that he actually scared you. But once in the air and on a steady path you finally opened your eyes again. “Woah!” The sight was nothing special but it was still just as beautiful. The clouds below them created an endless sea of white. “It’s so pretty.” Pride bubbled up as Sky watch you taken in the beauty of his home. This was just the start of what he wanted to show you as different locations came into his mind. “Hey.” You looking over your shoulder with hope in your eyes. ”Next time can we go to the Lumpy Pumpkin? I remember you singing high praises about their pumpkin soup.”
Sky tried to think of what he wanted to do tomorrow, right now there wasn’t anything that needed his attention. “If we have time tomorrow, I can take you there for lunch or dinner.” Maybe he could take a break from being a hero for a bit.
“Great! It’s a date then.” You sent a wink his way that sent his brain into a haywire before looking back into the endless sky. He was lucky his Loftwing is able to steer himself. As dot’s where finally connecting in Sky’s head. Pure love and affection bubble up as he embraces his new found feelings.
- He will be the one to uno reverse card on you. All love and affection will drown you instead. There was so much he wanted to tell you before to thank you for being by his side and encouraging him.
- Cuddle time will start here because of his need to make sure you know your loved too.
- He would be the one to confess first, but it would probably be played off as friends telling each other that they love each other.
- You’re not dense but overly affectionate. He might just need to spell out how you make him feel on a daily basis. Maybe then you’ll understand what you’re doing to him.
___________________________________
Legend:
- It hit him like a freight train.
- He isn’t mad at you. He is mad at himself. He had made his dues with what the people he had lost. Yet here he is. Already going too far.
- Your ability to make the situation brighter slowly eroded the walls he put up years ago.
- It might be all in his head, but he swears that you always make sure his needs are met even if he is trying to hide them.
___________________________________
“Link!!!” You barreled towards him ignoring the questioning stares the people of Windfall Island. “Link! Link! Link! LOOK!!!” You hold up a pink rabbit stuffed animal that you bought. “It you!”
The veteran in question huffed, “seriously of all things.” He turned on his heels “I’m going back on the ship.” He didn’t know why he was still entertaining your antics at that point.
“Wha- Hey! I was joking!” They were stocking up in Windfall and Legend was not happy to be on a boat nor in the ocean again. He wouldn’t say that he afraid.
Just… cautious…
You on the other hand looked like you were having the time of your life on the ship talking the it’s Captain and crew member’s. Yet most of the time you would stay by his side. The reason was obvious but nether wanted to talk about it.
Which is why you dragged him out to the port island. ‘An easy distraction.’ You told him, ‘I can show you around so we won’t get lost!’ He wasn’t worried about that. Legend trusted you. A fact he will never say out loud. However, he would rather hole up somewhere and escape the world then be here.
A soft hand took his when Legend reached the docks. He already knew who it was since you’ve been following him like a lost puppy all day. “One more place please?” You looked at him expectingly. “Then you can go back.”
“What are you a child? Why can’t you just go alone?” Legend snapped back, “you don’t have to be around me.”
“Legend I like being with you.” You pointed out like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “However.” You let go of his hand. “I also understand if you don’t want to hang out anymore and want to go rest.” There was no fighting back. No offense to his words. Nothing. Just a warm smile that filled him with warmth, that was accompanied by words fueled by unlimited care and understanding which made his heart beat faster. The silence between you two seemed to give you an answer. You turned around. A panicked feeling shot through. Legend was surprised with himself when he almost reached out to you when you walked away.
Instead, he watched you go. In the wake of his own emotions, he realized what had been happening. How he has been acting around you was starting to get familiar. “Not again.” He whispered disappointed in himself.
___________________________________
- Legend is going to be bitter about it. He isn’t going to take it out on you, but his mannerisms are going to be different after this.
- Not quite closed off, but it’s almost like he is mourning another loss.
- You would need to drown him in love and affection before he realizes you like him back. But like Twilight, he is going to be heartbroken if you decide to leave him to go back home.
___________________________________
Wild:
- Its progression was as natural as breathing.
- He just got off of his adventure so he always had you by his side. Just being near you is second nature.
- If anything, he was more than excited to actually have you physically be here alongside him.
- It rare to see ether of you not near each other when traveling together you two are inseparable.
___________________________________
The only upside of being in Wild’s Era is that the champion knew what to expect, it’s chaotic was normal for him and actually brought him a bit of peace. You came with that peace of mind. Having you join the chain to him was almost like you never left his side in the first place. From the moment he woke up after being told his name and what he needed to from Zelda, he was aware of your presence. You were the one to encourage him to explore the ruin kingdom. You were the one to recognize structures that the people in his world didn’t know about. The weird part was that you didn’t know how he was before the calamity, but he didn’t question that fact too much. He was more than happy to have someone treat him as a different person from before.
Now having you physically with him. Wild wanted to bring you to all of your favorite locations that you vocally told him about.
But that had to wait for now, because the downside to Wild’s Hyrule was the amount of things that wanted him dead. Moblins? Bokablins? Those guys are fine to fight they were push overs unless infected with the black blood. Actually, most of Wild’s monsters were like that. Once you get a hang of fighting them and recognize their patterns. They are a breeze.
A common threat that was annoy to deal with however, was the Yiga Clan. Which leads to the situation Wild and the others found themselves getting in while on the road to Hateno. He should of figured that they were going to strike when he got back to his Era. But he honestly didn’t think it would be in this quantity they were out number but thanks to Warriors taking control of the situation where managing. He was trying to make sure everyone was accounted for and was alive when he heard a string of curses coming from his right.
You had been knocked on the ground by a Blade Master. Your sword was near the clan member. Wild felt his world freeze in that moment as he bolted towards your body. With a falcon bow in hand. Wild side jumped. Locked in an ancient arrow and let it go.
The arrow sped towards the Blade Master. Hitting him directly. Turning the Yiga member into a bunch of Sheikah blue ribbons before collapsing into an orb where the arrow hit.
Wild slide towards your body. A pulse he needed to feel a pulse. Placing the tips of his index and middle finger on the base of your thumb and wrist. He pressed lightly to feel the blood pulsing beneath his fingers. A sigh of relief escaped him. Wild was lucky that the battle had come to an end. As the other Yiga members ether retreated in horror of what happened to one of their own or cut down quickly.
Hyrule join him soon after shooing him out of the way gently. Wild didn’t move from your side all that much. He didn’t want to. Just in case you left him too. He doesn’t know a life without you in it. A world like that just doesn’t exist.
Wild knows the name of the cause of his feelings. It’s the same thing that drives him to share his experience with you. He wants to be by your side and to make you happy.
___________________________________
- He is protective but not controlling. If anything, he wants to spar with you more. So, you can get better at fighting.
- You can bet he is going to start making you taste the different foods he had discovered, or sneak out to visit areas in his world more often. He doesn’t want you to miss a thing.
- There is so much he wants to do with you. So much he wants to share. So many things to say. That he just wants to do it all at once so there can be new things you both can discover together.
(Part 1)
152 notes · View notes
mordoriscalling · 3 years ago
Text
Seeing Him For the First Time Again
In which Geralt, when waking up after tonsil removal surgery, suffers from temporary memory loss. The stunning stranger at his bedside claims that they're married. Geralt has trouble wrapping his head around it.
A little addition to the Singer and the Sailor series, but can be read as a stand-alone. Inspired by this video. Also available on AO3. 
There’s a cacophony of sounds around him but he doesn’t fully process the noise. He only knows that he’s had tonsil removal surgery. His throat sure hurts like it. His head is heavy, his mind fuzzy, it’s all wrong. He wants it to stop.
His thoughts go directly to his mouth as he mumbles, “I need medicine.”
From the right, there comes a beautiful, mellifluous voice.
“They’re bringing you some,” it says.
Startled, Geralt looks to where the words came from and –
His breath hitches in his throat and his heart skips a beat; there, right at his bedside, sits a vision.
The man is not just a man. He must be an elf, or a fae, or some other inhuman being. His face is straight out of a fairytale, and his eyes are so wide and blue. He could be an angel, with those eyes, but his body – strong neck, broad shoulders, chest hair – invites Geralt to sin.
Why would someone like this be here, watching over him?
“Did the doctors send you?” he wonders. With mouth-to-brain filter absent, he adds, “You’re eye candy.”
The otherworldly creature laughs – which is such a gorgeous melody – but god, his smile. His smile is the Sun itself.  
“Wow,” Geralt breathes out. “You’re the prettiest person I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, thank goodness Yenna isn’t here,” the guy replies, grinning. “You’d say that to her instead if she were.”
“Yenna?” Geralt echoes. The name feels familiar on his tongue for some reason. “Yenna... Yenn... Yen...”
“Yes, Yen,” the stunning stranger chimes in. “She’s visiting you with Ciri later.”
He’s somehow sure that he knows Ciri too. The next moment, he realises that Ciri and Yen are important. He feels it down to his very bones. Why? That escapes him, even though -
This train of thought is cut off by a snicker. Geralt looks at his bedside angel once more. The surreal man is holding... something, in one of his hands. It’s a really beautiful hand, as if an artist carved it from marble. The whole of him is like an artwork. He must be widely admired, with such compelling facial features and those eyes.
“Are you a model?”
“No,” the stranger denies.
That doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s so pretty. He’s pretty like a... like... somebody. He’s certainly someone. Geralt needs to get to know him.
“Who are you?” he asks. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Jaskier,” the man introduces himself. “I’m your husband.”
“You’re my husband?!” Geralt gasps in shock, not believing his ears.
“Yeah,” the model-but-not-a-model – Jaskier, yes, that name suits him – confirms.  
“Holy fuck!” he exclaims, smiling, his chest fit to burst with joy.
Jaskier chuckles so beautifully again and Geralt closes his eyes, savouring the sound. Then, a wave of nausea hits him and he can’t really focus on anything. When it passes, Geralt turns his head back to the vision at his right. His husband. That’s so incredible. And serious. They could be parents, even.
“Do we have children?”
“Depending on how you look at it,” Jaskier explains, “We have between zero to two kids.”
Geralt frowns, dumbstruck. How do you have between zero to two children with someone? He’s quite sure that having children with someone doesn’t work like that. Having children starts with... kissing... and then... Wait.
“Have we kissed yet?” he asks.
Jaskier throws his head back, laughing with his whole body. Geralt’s breath is taken away again.
“We’ve kissed a lot, darling,” Jaskier answers.
“Is that what we call each other? Darling?”
“We call each other many names, dearest.”
Suddenly, there’re many thoughts at once running through his mind. Something about “Lead me, dearest”, sirens and sea. Yes, sea, he knows that too. He knows that he knows many things; he isn’t young. But since when has he got a husband?
“How long have we been married?”
“Three years,” Jaskier replies, smiling warmly.
“Fuck yeah, I hit the jackpot!” Geralt cries triumphantly.
Jaskier is his husband. He’s his. His to love, his to touch –
“Let me see your face,” Geralt says as he reaches out to cup Jaskier’s cheek. Turning his husband’s head to the side, he gushes, “Your profile is perfect!” Then, he loses the strength to touch Jaskier, but that’s all right. He has another idea. “Turn around.”
“No,” Jaskier objects with a delighted giggle.
Geralt pouts. He just wants to see if Jaskier’s ass is as perfect as the rest of him. Not that he doubts it. Wouldn’t hurt to check, is all. Checking up facts is good.
“We’re married!” he repeats with wonder and his husband nods. “Oh fuck.”
Jaskier only laughs again and tells him to settle down. Geralt, being a good husband to his surprise husband, listens. Still confused as to how he got so lucky but overjoyed at the fact nevertheless, he drifts off to sleep.
***
Later, as the anaesthesia starts wearing off, Geralt’s memory returns, dispersing his confusion. Slowly, all the pieces fall into place:
Jaskier is not a model, but a well-known singer, who Ciri was a fan of as a teenager.
Jaskier and Geralt got together after they pretended to be engaged and actually pulled it off. They have been together for six years now.
Geralt and Jaskier call each other a sailor and a siren. “Lead me, dearest, to the coast of tomorrow” is engraved on the inside of their wedding rings.
Technically, they don’t have children together. Geralt has Ciri with Yennefer. Jaskier is Dara’s guardian. Yet, Ciri and Dara are inseparable like siblings, and Jaskier and Geralt treat them as such.
Jaskier and Geralt also have a dog and a boat. Both are of the same name.
As a retired Royal Navy commander, Geralt finally has enough time to cherish his family. He often takes care of his nephew - Eskel and Essi’s son - Nao. He does that especially when Eskel is deployed, just like Eskel used to help him with Ciri. Lambert and Aiden help Essi too. So do Yennefer and Triss. And Jaskier and his sisters with their families. Plus Ciri and Dara. And Vesemir. Jaskier’s parents as well. Really, Nao, at two-and-a-half, might already be the most spoiled child in the world. Not that he minds. He loves the attention nearly as much as he loves Jaskier’s niece, Zofia. Zofia and Nao are so adorably taken with each other that no one can quite handle it.
All in all, Geralt’s life is just so good.
“I really did hit the jackpot,” he says after they return from the hospital.
“No, my heart,” Jaskier replies, “I did.”
Then, they kiss, and the anaesthesia incident is happily forgotten.
Or so it should have been.
The reality is this: at a family gathering a week later, it turns out that Jaskier recorded the whole thing. He shows the video to everyone. Geralt has never been simultaneously laughed at and called “precious” so much in his whole life. In fact, he never wants to hear the word “precious” spoken in his vicinity ever again.
More or less fleeing this predicament, Geralt takes Roach (the dog) and goes to hide on Roach (the boat) for solid three days. He wants to stay there longer, he tries to be mad, but then Jaskier appears with an apology song.
Geralt thinks to himself he’s a rather shitty sailor, unable to resist a siren’s call.
162 notes · View notes
theyreonlynoodlesmike · 4 years ago
Note
Second request, the boys are out hunting and see a odd young woman stumbling along the beach. They watch as she starts talking to this boy, soon, his eyes get glossy and he follows her as they disappear beneath the water, this pattern repeats for a week. Finally, they decide to go and properly get to know her... this girl from the water turns out to be more than they bargained for.
Bait and Catch (Poly!Lost Boys x Fem!Mermaid Reader)
Warnings: blood/gore/implied violence, near death experiences, pining over someone you definitely shouldn't pine over
Word Count: 1.8k
Tumblr media
When the boys saw what was happening on their beach, they didn't know what to do. They hung in the air like clothes left up to dry, watching the scene play out in front of them. They'd been hunting, hunting the exact boy that you had approached. They figured he'd lead them towards some beach party, given his type, but when he stopped to help you as you stumbled along the beach they paused. Waited.
The wind whistled in their ears and the waves crashed below them. They couldn't make out any of the words that were spoken, but they saw as stillness went up the boys spine. Like someone had strapped a ruler to his back.
They watched as you lead him to the water, and they couldn't see what happened when both of you disappeared under it's depths. The only thing they could see was the red bubbling to the surface.
Now, this was an issue. They watched you for a week, and every night it was the same. They'd passed ideas back and forth. Paul suggested,
"Ghost, maybe?" But David doubted it. You could be. You only came out at certain times and you certainly lead people to their dooms. Yet, none of them had ever heard of a ghost being tied to a beach. You seemed odd, supernatural, but solid. Not quite spectral, even if they thought you had a sort of glow or glimmer to you. It had been a few days before any of them dared to utter the word.
"Mermaid." Dwayne finally said as they watched you guide another helpless victim towards the water. It wasn't a question, and none of the boys tried to argue with him. Not even David.
Mermaids were a problem, even for vampires. They didn't understand the concept of territory, and not even a vampire was immune to their glamor. To their song. And they didn't understand the concept of cleaning up after themselves either.
David and the others had to pick up what they could when it washed on the beach, but it was difficult when they didn't know where you lurked beneath. When he saw news of a hand being found on the shore, David knew this wasn't an issue they could skirt around any longer. You were sloppy, and the boys had managed a perfect balance in their little town. They killed enough to keep the statistic high enough that the public wouldn't be surprised when someone went missing, but they never left anything for them to find. The point was missing, not dead. And bodies meant dead. Dead drew hunters.
David had thrown the newspaper into the trash, and flicked his cigarette in there along with it. They needed to solve this problem, and they needed to do it tonight.
They knew when you hunted, and they knew where. And, just like always, Paul would be their bait. If he was nervous, he didn't show it. In fact, he spent most of the time before asking if his hair looked alright, before Marko finally hit him and told him,
"Shut up, man. This is serious." He said, but Paul scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"I am being serious. Mermaids are supposed to be total babes, man. And I wanna see if she's friendly." The way the wolfish grin spread over his face, the boys knew exactly what he intended by that. Dwayne rolled his eyes and Marko gave him another punch in the shoulder, but David only nodded his head towards the beach. It was time.
The boys had escaped back up towards the skies, hiding in the dark cover of the sky and watching the platinum blonde as he attempted to look natural as he walked across the dunes. Whether his performance was convincing or not, you climbed out of the salty sea and approached. You took the bait.
The boys watched as he chatted you up in his usual fashion. The pair of you were walking along the beach, and Dwayne frowned at how close he was letting you take him towards the water. The pair of you were only less than a foot away from where the tide touched. David sunk down closer to see if he could eavesdrop on your conversation, wondering where Paul had taken this. He was just out of hearing range when you sung three notes. That was all it took, and they watched as the blonde straightened. How his lazy, slumped shoulders were gone in a second, how the smile slipped off his face. How his eyes seemed even more hazed than usual. In that second, the boys fell out of the sky like puppets who had their strings cut.
You were quick, just like usual, and the boys watched as Paul started to take off his shoes. He was going to get in the water, and Marko and David grabbed him just before he could get the first shoe off. To their surprise, he thrashed the second their hands tried to stop him.
***
You'd gasped, surprised by the sight, and, out of instinct, you shrank back into the water. You were up to your knees, watching carefully as the boys fought to keep the blonde away from certain doom. You watched as the boys faces changed and distorted, how the boy you'd planned on eatings face did the same.
Sharp lines, yellow eyes, large fangs. Vampires. You had half a mind to dive under the second you put it together, but none of them lunged towards you. If anything, they seemed preoccupied with their friend. The farthest extent they'd gone to threatening you was the hiss the bleach blonde sent towards you, but he was quick to try to brace the blondes shoulders and hold him back. You weren't surprised by his persistence, and you had to dodge his shoe when he attempted to kick one of the boys. The smallest of the boys exclaimed,
"Jesus, Paul!" And Paul, the one you'd planned on eating, didn't intend on calming or to go down quietly.
"Let me- Let me go! She needs me! I need to be with her! I need to- I want to go-" He yelled, and one of his friends attempted to cover his mouth. In an instant, the smell of blood filled the air and the brunette retreated as he clutched his hand.
"Fuck! You-" But he cut himself off, shaking his hand as it healed right in front of you. Paul shook the smallest of the blondes off him, but the platinum grabbed him before he could slip past. He held him from behind, holding his arms behind him as the blonde toed the edge of the water. The others launched forward, helping the bleached blonde drag him away from the waters edge.
"Paul, calm down!" The blonde shouted, and even you could hear the suggestion behind it. But it was no use. The only one that could stop a mermaids call was the mermaid in question, and you saw as ocean blue eyes flicked to you. He seemed to know this as well, and, while it seemed to pain him, he didn't hesitate to ask, "Help us!" And you let the struggle go on for another moment as you thought about it. You looked at the four of them, weighing your options. You could sing again and kill them all. Or you could let him go, and let them do whatever they obviously planned on doing that night. But, as you looked at each of their earnest faces, your eyes fell on the blonde you'd hypnotized. He had tears in his eyes now, and his voice was weak as he begged.
"Let me go, let me go, let me go," It was an insistent mantra, and you didn't know who he was saying it to anymore. He was twisting in their hold, but their grip looked painful. Even for a creature of the night. For the first time in a long time, you felt your heart ache. You felt a bead of sympathy. And, it only took a small hum for the spell to be broken.
You watched as the boys fell back into a pile on the sand from the sudden give of their fellow vampire, and, before they could regroup, you dove into the water.
***
The boys laid in the sand, completely shell shocked. All of Paul and part of Marko had fallen onto David, with one of Paul's legs sprawled on the blonde. They all sat for a moment, processing what had happened and their own stupidity before David was pushing the lanky, blonde vampire off of him.
"Get the fuck off of me." He snapped, and Paul still seemed dazed as he was pushed into Marko instead. Marko didn't seem to care, and simply panted as he laid flat against the sand. David pushed himself up to stand, wiping the sand off of him as his eyes searched the murky, dark waters for any of sign of you. But you were gone. As if you'd never been there at all. Dwayne pushed himself up onto one arm, before leaning across to deliver a heavy punch to Paul's shoulder. That seemed to fully snap him out of it, and he whined an,
"Ow," As he rubbed his shoulder. "What the fuck, man?" He asked, and Dwayne sat up and leaned his elbows on his knees as he said,
"That's for nearly getting yourself killed. And for biting me. Next time, think with your head. Not your dick." He said, shaking his own head as he looked away and examined where the blonde had bit him. The wound was gone, but the pain was fresh in his mind. He held his own hand, pressing where the bite had been.
"Dumbass." Marko said as he reached up to ruffle the taller blondes hair. Paul shifted, letting the back of his head rest on his chest. Marko didn't say a word after that. He was just relieved that they'd gotten him in time, and he was almost impressed with how much of a fight he'd put up.
"She's gone. We should head back in case she changes her mind." David said, but none of the boys had moved by the time he turned around. They were still catching their breath, even if they didn't need to. Finally, after a moment, Paul tapped his fingers against his chest and asked,
"...you think she liked me?" And the boys didn't know if it was the lingering effects of her song, or if Paul was just a dumbass with a death wish. Maybe both. Either way, David didn't grace him with a response, and briefly thought that the wrong person had caught the wrong thing.
As he looked back out at the ocean, he tried to convince himself that replaying the look he'd seen on her face over and over didn't mean anything.
353 notes · View notes
dwollsadventures · 3 years ago
Photo
Tumblr media
The second part of a request from TheLOAD from... a while back. The initial one was the Nix/Nokk/Knucker piece. This one took me a little longer for a few reasons. Mostly school reasons. And writer's block reasons,  which is why this is taking the place of the monthly preview. And because, for research, I had to re-read the entirety of Drakon by Daniel Ogden for information. For those not used to my pedantry, this is not an "in-canon" family tree of the Greek dragons, such as you might see in those huge Greek mythology family tree pictures that are on the internet (I've got a few in my favorites from waaaaayyyy back as well). Rather, this is a way of showing how the concept of the dragon came about throughout time and how other beings are related through those branching lines. Of course this is presented as a lot more neat than it probably should be. If it were truly accurate it would have interconnected lines all over the place and obscure the little lizards. Before we talk about what's on the tree let's talk about what's not on it. Though Odgen talks about every (and I mean every) slightly Draconic being in Greek and Roman mythology, I've opted to include a trimmed down version. Because some, like Medusa and Lamia, I personally do not consider dragons proper, and others like the goddess Keto are relatively obscure and probably only exist to explain the existence of a related being (like the ketea). Creatures like Chimera and Typhoeus are included because, while not usually serpentine or draconic, they are in effect dragons; horrible, vaguely reptilian monsters slain by a hero. Not every individual dragon is depicted, only the ones I thought pertinent to include. (warning: LONG)
To start with, a drakon is a snake. The Greeks used the word to refer to both huge monsters and mundane snakes. Drakon itself is derived from the word dérkomai and is believed to literally mean, "the one who sees". The hypnotizing power attributed to snakes is present in drakons, traditionally given the job of the sleepless guardian of treasure. Going back even further, we see that the drakon comes from two disparate cultural perceptions of snake, each of which is still present in its classical form.
Snake Goddess - One of the native precursors of the Greeks were the Minoans. They had more in common with their Egyptian and Near Eastern neighbors than the Italians and Balkans. From what little we can gather of their culture, it appears the snake was a symbol of the goddess. Whether or not it was any goddess in particular is unknown. This theme survives into ancient Greece, however. Athena often uses snakes as agents when acting with mortals, Hera uses them as well (the twin serpents who attempted to strangle Heracles and the Hydra), and Medea had a chariot pulled by snakes. Earth goddesses in particular are heavily associated with them. Python was a direct product of Gaia, and the snake was a divine symbol of Demeter, who also had a rad snake chariot. Even in mortal women, their dynamic with snakes and dragons is nurturing. Several heroines sing to snakes as their masculine counterparts steal the treasure they guard, fulfilling a nurturing role in comparison to the destructive masculine one. Here the snake is a guardian, a creature of the earth and everything beneath it, including gold and the dead. These dragons are usually not slain, but pacified by the presence of a woman. In addition, the beard is an originally Greek symbol associated with snakes, particularly those connected to the gods. This was quite possibly a signifier of their supernatural status above mundane serpents. The goddess depicted above isn't any one in particular, though her dress does pull from a statue of Athena holding a curled python.
Drakaina - One way in which the snake goddess has survived is in the drakaina. This word is simply the feminine form of drakon, but also encompasses the numerous beings characterized by having the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a drakon. Numerous beings in Greek mythology fit this theme, but the one I've focused on is the Scythian drakaina, a woman who intercepts Heracles during one of his labors and kidnaps some cows. She offers to return the cattle in exchange for a night of intercourse. And then Herc is off and we're told the three sons of that union go on to become kings of great renown in Scythia. Some authors interpret this as a Greek adaptation of a Scythian myth, with one of the key pieces of evidence being that the drakaina's name is Hora, meaning "Seasons". Regardless of whether or not this is a goddess, it is a story where the snake-woman is neither killed nor stolen from, instead given the prestige of being the founder of a line of kings.
PIE Chaos Serpent - From the Proto-Indo-Europeans up North, we get the dragon we're all more familiar with. Serpents of this breed, such as Apep, Tiamat, and Jormungand, are all enormous, destructive creatures allied with darkness and the unforgiving seas. They represent the primordial chaos from what order sprang out of, and often have a hand in trying to return the world to that way. One of the primary themes associated with them is the dragon slayer: a god or hero who fights a dragon to save something, be it a land or treasure or an Ethiopian princess.
Typhoeus - This guy, though significantly more humanoid and giant-like than any others, is the clearest example of a PIE chaos serpent in Greece. It does not get more typical than a giant snake (like) monster fighting a storm god. Typhoeus probably sprung from traditions where he was more serpentine, but gradually added other aspects. Such as his own storm god qualities. In Greece, gods associated with the winds are always given wings, save for Zeus. The two's battle is reflective of a battle between the terrible whirlwinds and lightning strikes and the calmer, helpful rain showers that enable humanity to survive. 
And then we get to the drakon proper. Taking elements from both sides of the tree, the archetypal Greek drakon is an enormous, often monstrous serpent associated with both the underground and the waters in some way. They are agents of gods, most often goddesses, sent to battle heroes or guard priceless treasures. Sometimes they're killed, sometimes they're merely lulled to sleep by a helpful maiden. Rather than breathing fire (which everything from mechanical bulls to horses to giants do), they possess venoms and rows of sharp teeth. Mention of their terrible gazes is often made. This drakon has both a beard and a casque-like crown, common elements in drakon descriptions from Greece. Its face is much less serpentine, being modeled after a clay illustration of the Colchian dragon. This gives is a suitably monstrous look, as if it were being pealed from layers of mud.
Chimera - Despite its odd appearance, the chimera fits the pattern of a dragon terrorizing a countryside and being slain by a plucky hero. The chimera may in fact be the originator of the classical Saint George imagery, where the saint is depicted as towering over a crawling, pitiful dragon. A 3rd century mosaic from Imperial Rome may have started this trend. What makes her (because despite her mane the Chimera is a female) stand apart from all the rest is the sheer strangeness of her form compared to others. Especially the little goat that comes out of her back, like a rider. Which I had to cut for spacing reasons :(
Hydra - Another classical Greek dragon is the multi-headed hydra, who has given its name to a whole genre of creatures with more heads than they ought to have. In addition to having the attributes of a typical Greek drakon, the Hydra has two traits seen in Mesopotamian monsters as well. The first is the amount of heads. Having many heads is not as common in Greece as it is in the Near East, where the idea of an eleven-headed sea serpent pops up numerous times across several different cultures. The second is that the hydra, in its earliest mentioning by Hesiod, is said to have been raised by Hera specifically to combat Heracles. This same tactic is done by a few Mesopotamian gods. In their realm of influence, monsters are pawns of the gods, who send them out to do their bidding on Earth while they lounge in Heaven. Our Hydra may have been a later influence from Greece's neighbors to the East. Also, had to add in the crab that Hera also sends in to help the hydra. If this were a spec bio piece, I would make it a species of crab that evolved to clean the hydra of parasites.
Cetus - Sea monsters such as these are perhaps the furthest from the traditional Greek drakon, while still remaining core parts of the mythology. In form cetoi range from exaggerations of real whales and sharks to dog-headed serpents with frilly fins and ears. Or even animal-headed fish. Because they live underwater, they almost always function as tools of divine vengeance. Kinda hard to steal treasure underwater. Heavy metal tends to sink. While cetus was originally a word for any sea monster, it would eventually become the root of the scientific term cetacean: whales and dolphins.
But the tree doesn't end there. See, even after the culture we recognize as the Ancient Greeks and Romans faded, their dragons still lived on. Medieval Europe, with its glorification of Greco-Roman texts, derived many of their folk beliefs from their predecessors. Or, the people who they liked to imagine were there predecessors.
Draco - The Romans adopted the Greek drakon whole-clothe, like a lot of stuff. The only noteworthy original dragon to come out of the pre-Fall Roman era was the Dacian Draco. The Dacians used the image of a dragon as a standard during war-time, represented as a serpent with the head of a dog. When conquered, the Romans adopted this, possibly beginning the Western tradition of associating dragons with military power and identity. The dog-headed serpent would also survive to the modern period, showing up in descriptions of Balkan lamya. 
Indian Drakon - Here begins a tradition in Greek and Roman literature that claimed that foreign parts were full of large, dangerous, and more interesting fauna than the mundane peninsula they were all stuck on. This is a common theme of humanity in general, where everyone you're not familiar with is teeming with exciting and ancient life. Just look at cryptozoology. India in particular was a favorite of Greek tall tales, being far away for journeys to be rare, but also rich and full of exotic animals. Philostratus populated India with three types of drakons: the lowly marsh, the silver hill, and the dazzling golden mountain drakons. They were typical in every respect, having enormous sizes, red crowns, beards, and guarding treasure beneath the earth. An interesting addition was that they were the mortal enemies of elephants. Being the largest land-animal (in real life), they made perfect prey for these humongous serpents. Feeding on them was fraught with peril, however, as the struggle between reptile and mammal could result in the death of either party, or both. To symbolize the foreignness of the drakon, I drew it as a sort of hybrid between the drakon and the Hindu naga. 
Pliny's Drakon - This drakon is otherwise the same as the Indian, but is the start of another theme. As time went on, philosophers began taking more grounded looks at fantastical animals. While also perpetuating even more outrageous falsehoods. None was more popular than Pliny the Elder, hence the name. He believed that, while foreign drakons might be real, they were much more similar to the snakes of Greece than the monsters of legend. He scoffed at the crowns and hair they were adorned with. His Natural History was the first of many instances where the fantastical elements of the dragon were toned down to seem more palatable to a scientifically minded audience. It also introduced an interest into the life history of the dragons, treating them as real animals with lives beyond the myths. Our dragon up top evolved to resemble pythons, rather than the other way around to what probably happened in real life, where pythons were exaggerated to become dragons.
Then, we get two foreign influences, which would come to shape the modern definition of the European dragon. Christianity's influence cannot be understated here. As Jonathan Evans states in Medieval Folklore, the dragon came to be confused with several other desert animals. In Jewish and early Christian belief, desert animals were themselves demonic, living in inhospitable regions devoid of human life. Later, texts like Revelations would specifically denote dragons as heralds of evil, and even harbingers of Armageddon itself. This is in contrast to the morally neutral Leviathan. In the medieval era, dragons were beings of evil, without a doubt. Bestiaries were full of on the nose fables about how the natural lives of dragons. Like how they could not stand the breath of a panther (a symbol of Jesus Christ). Or how they could not catch birds that nested in the Peridexion tree (the tree being the church and the birds being Christians, who are safe from the devil so long as they do not stray from the arms of God). This is represented by a typical medieval devil, being brightly colorful and made in mockery of God's creations, aka a weird hybrid with a snake coming out of his butt. Then, the Germanic dragon. This is seen especially in Northern and Western Europe. The Germanic dragon is otherwise similar to the Greek, except that it began as a character of evil. Lindworms and other serpents are almost always antagonists, and there is no heroine who saves them from their fate of death. They also had a stronger connection to treasure. Greek dragons guarded treasure as a job, but the very existence of Germanic dragons is tied with their golden hoards. In addition, in Greek myths, getting transformed into an animal is usually the end of one's story. With the Germanic dragon, it's merely the beginning. Transformed dragons act as antagonists and moral lessons wrapped in one; a lesson to all to not be greedy. Germanic dragons, represented by the lindworm, reinforced their role as antagonists and agents of selfish evil.
Which finally brings us to the medieval dragon. In a way, this creature is a mix of everything above. The dragon is an animal and demon in one, simultaneously a figure of evil who spoils the land around them and a living being with its own life and needs. The medieval era also introduces the origin of dragons, showing them as having nests and young, not simply coming into existence out of the earth or sea like before. They also developed some less reptilian traits, like wings and hair. This was probably because of artistic traditions among the monks who wrote bestiaries rather than popular legend, which continued to conflate them with snakes and lizards and even crocodiles. This particular line of the tree would develop a life of its own, spreading far and wide across Europe and eventually reaching beyond the seas. Our modern conceptions of dragons are a whole 'nother story.
65 notes · View notes
kryptsune · 4 years ago
Text
World Building Wednesday! ~Felldritch
Tumblr media Tumblr media
🌼I got a request to do a WBW for Felldritch and since there have been updates to the overall world and lore I wanted to make sure this was all in a nice little package! If you have questions and want to learn more let me know the ask box is always open!  So let's get started! Oh and here is a link to the fic! FELLDRITCH
Felldritch
Classification: HorrorFELL
Cult  Alternate “Nicknames”:
Red: Saw Boss: Corvus
Gaster: Sephtis
Asriel: Saber Toriel: Ameria
Asgore: Kirnon
Undyne: Ryx Alphys: Vesh Muffet: Carmilla Grillby: Noire MTT: Faust
Doggo: Croix
Riverperson: Bastet (Tet)
Tumblr media
Main Plot Synop: Felldritch takes place after a pacifist run by Frisk. The story briefly goes as follows. Frisk ends up in the Underworld (Underground) and befriends the monsters and wants to set them free. It is basically a way watered down version of WTU in essence. Once reaching the end of her journey the monsters refuse to let her be that final soul. They would rather wait and figure out something else but with her Determination she promises to return to them and set them free. At this point in time she is around 18-19. Asriel sacrifices himself to that end to see her leave through the barrier only for the humans to capture the poor girl after she leaves. They conclude that she is not mentally stable due to her insistence that monsters are real and throw her into an asylum/sanitarium to be “treated”. Nearly 5+ years later and she manages to escape finding herself once again in the Underworld only it is far different from what she remembers. At this point, she is questioning whether anything is real or not. After being “treated” for so long she doesn’t quite know which reality is the true one. As Red (aka Saw) points out:
Tumblr media
The Brothers: 
Red: The younger brother of the two. His attachment to Frisk stems into more of a relationship though he blames himself for loosing her all those years ago. This psychological state causes him to throw himself into the problem that is befalling their world. At first nothing seems to combat this intrusive forest and horrifying beasts but he learns to utilize his magic in a different way. Prior to this he is what one would think of a a Red type but after meeting Frisk he promises to not only change his heart but also the hearts of others. Instead of destructive magical ability he follows in his brothers footsteps and takes up healing practice. 
In the world he is known as the merchant, the one that tends to give out healing items in exchange for coin but the bulk of his business relies on talismans or charms to ward off the evil plaguing their home. As far as they all know these magically infused charms are powerful and have incredible protective capabilities. He runs a wagon that travels around the entire Underworld.
In the current timeline he more sympathetic and empathetic. The concept of Kill or be Killed is no longer a factor. This is mainly about survival and for the most part the other monsters are aware that working together is their best option though their heightened paranoia (validly founded btw) makes it difficult sometimes. His personality is lighthearted on the surface, making jokes, and being a good guy. In a way he reminds me of Jester who tries not to dwell on what is going on but is fully aware of the situation. Red wears a blindfold in public to keep up appearances but he has no vision or eye light problems.
Tumblr media
Boss: After Frisk’s departure from the Underworld, Boss, takes her words to heart. Unlike the majority of Fell Pap characterization he is very soft. When he feels his brother no longer needs his guidance he begins to feel purposeless until he learns that like his brother he has the magical ability for healing. As Red is the charm merchant of the two, Boss is the apothecary. His design harkens to plague doctors back in the 17th century. He grows all his own herbs and spices but he is particularly fond of tea. He also wears a blindfold just like Red but unlike Red he does in fact have damage to his left eye socket where the teal color of his eye lights no longer inhabits. 
The two combined help their fellow monsters as much as they can but in a world of uncertainty how are you supposed to know who to trust? 
Tumblr media
Frisk’s Mental Demons: The psychological toll on Frisk is great as she has been told constantly that she made up her time in the Underworld in order to shut herself away into a fantasy world. A world where she had a family… where she is loved and wanted. This happens frequently as the “Doctors” continuously try to refute her experiences or sensations medically.  Every time she goes to sleep in the Underworld she ends up back at the Asylum tied down kicking and screaming. 
She only wakes up again when she is sedated. Rinse and repeat. The question is… is it real? Or rather which is real. The doctors go on to state that her dark state of mind twisted her original concept behind her “family” making them this eldritch styled horror. He also goes onto explain that the reason she is so drawn and close to Red is that it is her “flirting with death”. That she is accepting that outcome because if she continues to resist treatment she will die and the moment she trusts him in her “fantasy” that will be the end. These kinds of situations happen a lot.
Tumblr media
There are also instances when the lines between real and fiction are blurred as Frisk's behavior consists apparently of defensive aggression, auditory, visual, and olfactory hallucination, acute paranoia, anxiety, and PTSD. One such example of this is her apparent psychiatrist, Dr. Cyrus Reycroft, who happens to have an uncanny resemblance to her skeletal friend if he was human. 
The Beasts: Felldritch plays off Eldritch horror aka the fear of the unknown. As Frisk reunites with Red she is subjected to a rather concerning conversation in which he explains the situation they are in. He mentions having crossed into an upside down broken and colorless world which drew both himself and his older brother into. It is implied that the two stepped into a dimensional space that was able to then afflict those within their own dimension. Over time the inhabitants begin to go missing and great otherworldly hellish beasts begin appearing. The inhabitants come to the conclusion that these creatures can not afflict you with their corruption if you can not see, hear, or speak in their presence. This mindset has some rather gruesome implications as inhabitants become irrationally desperate mutilating themselves to adhere to the new "See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil”.
The Occult World: The cult as I keep referring to it as is a group of powerful monsters. After the deposition of the King the other monsters begin to become influenced by outside sources. They begin to believe that any fallen humans are the angels of death and because of this they will kill humans on sight, of course, they want to live in denial of their horrible deeds because monster souls are supposed to be made up of love and kindness. Unlike the cult that wishes to break the barrier, the rest want to stay hidden from the beasts above believing that the humans are to blame for all that has happened.
The senses play a huge roll in this idea as the beasts are rumored to be able to use souls like puppets, as in spys, if they are corrupted. It essentially becomes like a hive mind with the main entity being able to see, hear, and speak through those it comes in contact with. It’s no secret that Red is in fact infected by this entity in some form as this is a quote from the fic:
A set of antlers snagged the velvety cape as he worked the metalwork to release its hold on the material around his throat.
Bony fingers tugged on the bunched up fabric and pulled it back, revealing a charcoal grey sweater underneath. It was soft to the touch but just hidden beneath the wool she caught a glimpse of off white colored bone. There were bits and pieces that had been chipped off, knicks, and cuts. Even before they had met Red had some scars especially around his collarbone but that was not what caused her to gasp. His hood remained over his head as if using it to shield his expression from her view, “See?” He flinched when her fingers traced some of the scars.
She didn’t want to appear like she was fearful of what she was witnessing but her fingers quivered, pulling them back toward herself. A soft whimper of a voice left her, “R...Red…” There intertwined with the magically composed vertebrae of his spine were branches. The same deep blackish red wood that plagued this entire forest. It wove itself through the bone engulfing portions of his ribs, twisting it into chilling patterns. If it was allowed to continue its infestation it would crack his ribcage open in a bloodless gaping fissure. She could just make out that gentle white and crimson glow shrouded by the wood. Was that his soul? There was no other explanation.
It looked like the branches were trying to worm their way toward that glowing heart, pierce it, and absorb it into its oily black, almost pulsating bark. That was only one singular aspect of horror that she was now subjected to. Her eyes followed the trail that crept through the bone following the knots and twists that crept up and underneath where his skull attached to his spine.
The grip that he kept on her hand only tightened while the other shifted to pull the hood off his skull. Her eyes widened, reddish-brown irises wavering within a sea of white. A hand rose to land on her mouth, now agape in a silent gasp. She could see the same strange bark that comprised his antlers exited straight out of his skull. There were fractures that radiated from above the temporal portion of his cranium in concentric circles. The same kind of patterning one would see from blunt force trauma. Only this had pushed out the bone externally rather than internally. His sockets no longer contained those ever dulling carmine eye lights as her own eyes traced the hairline cracks along his head. She could not imagine the kind of pain a transformation like that would have caused him. There were places where the bone had tried to heal and suture itself back together, forming around the bark.
Angel of Salvation (a.k.a. The Eldritch Horror)- What the cult has been working toward is summoning their “savior” with the help of the human souls they are bound to. It gives them extra abilities and power. Each within the ranks is bound to a human soul. Their leader ??? wants to use this power to summon an “angel.” It turns out that is actually an unholy amalgamated eldritch beast/god out for blood instead. Humanity will perish and the monsters will take control of the surface once more. That is the reality. (The cult including Red is told otherwise).
Tumblr media
154 notes · View notes
starshine583 · 4 years ago
Text
New Girl on the Block (8)
(Thank you all so much for your love and support during this fic! I hope that you all enjoy this next chapter and be sure to check out the mini series connected to this called Journal Entries!)
Ch.1 / Ch.7 / Ch.9
Chapter 8: Lost and Found
Lost. 
Felix was utterly and hopelessly lost.
He stalked the aquarium aisles, looking this way and that for the rest of the group. How did this even happen? Allegra had had an iron grip on his wrist. He was certain of that. Yet somehow, he runs into one person- one person! -and just like that, everyone’s gone! 
Felix tisked, annoyance quickly rising in his mind as he turned down another aisle. Briefly separating wouldn’t have been that bad. In fact, he welcomed the moment of silence at first. Aside from the occasional person who bumped into him, no one was yanking on his wrist or dragging him along. The problem arose, however, in the realization that he’d been aimlessly searching for them for thirty minutes now. After losing sight of them for a second! Did they truly walk that fast or did they leave him on purpose? It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. 
His hands clenched into fists, and a scowl tugged at the corner of his lips. He was this close to climbing on top of heads- 
A light giggle caught his attention, faint but there, coming from the southern side of the room.
Felix whirled around, his eyes darting through the crowd. He recognized that laugh, but where was she?
His gaze landed on a pair of pigtails a moment later, and he nearly sighed with relief. Even with the dimmed lights of the aquarium, he could make out Marinette’s small figure standing in front of a smaller aquarium not far from him. He didn’t see anyone else with her, though. Where were the others? Did she get lost too or were the other people blocking them?
Felix moved forward to approach her. With the trio or not, he’d finally found someone from the group. That was his main concern. Besides, she didn’t seem worried about being alone, unless cooing at the glass and laughing was a sign of nervousness. (which, for her, it wasn’t.)
“You look like you’re enjoying yourself.” He commented as he stopped next to her.
Marinette jumped, as usual, and let out a squeak of surprise.
“Oh, Felix!” She gasped. “We were looking for you earlier.”
Felix hummed, glancing down at the octopus that was crawling along the rocks in front of them. “Yes, it would seem that ‘keeping up with the group’ wasn’t as easy as Allegra had claimed.”
A nervous chuckle tumbled from her lips, and she tucked a strand of hair behind her as she said, “Yeah.. we thought about texting you, but Claude said that you would catch up eventually.”
Felix scoffed. He should have known that Claude would be the one to prolong his suffering. Looking around for the brunette once more, he noticed that they were indeed alone. (Save for the large crowd swarming around them, that is.)
“How did you get separated?” He asked, merely curious. The group’s left him several times, but he doubted they would abandon Marinette so easily. Something else must have happened. 
“Well, I was originally trying to look for you,” she explained, “but then I ended up getting distracted..”
She snorted. “I swear I stopped to look at one turtle, and by the time I turned around, everyone was gone.”
Felix offered a nod. He knew all too well how that went.
“At least we found each other.” He pointed out. 
Marinette smiled up at him. “Yeah! And I found this adorable octopus!”
The way she said ‘adorable’ was similar to the babying tone of someone who was speaking to a dog, and she turned to the tank to wiggle her finger at the creature. Felix thought it to be somewhat.. endearing. 
“.. Did you know that an octopus has three hearts?” He asked, strangely wanting to encourage her enthusiasm. Normally, when Claude would start rambling or bouncing around about different subjects, it would annoy Felix. With Marinette, though, that.. simply didn’t happen. Perhaps it was because she was quieter about it?
Marinette gasped, her sparkling eyes shifting back to him. “Wait, are you serious?”
Felix nodded. “They also contain blue blood.”
Her jaw dropped open. “No way! How do you know that?”
“I’ve read a few encyclopedias.” He admitted with a half-shrug. “They’re a lot more interesting than people give them credit for.”
“That’s so cool!” Marinette nearly squealed. “Tell me another one.”
Felix stared at her for a moment. That might be the first time someone’s ever willingly asked for him to recite facts without a sarcastic tone. He didn’t think he would be this pleased about it.
“Well..” He began, mentally sifting through the pages of books that he’s read. “Their limbs are actually called ‘arms’, not ‘tentacles’. The term ‘tentacles’ is reserved for squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus.”
“What?” Marinette blanched. “No! My whole life is a lie!”
Felix smirked at her dramatic groan. It had been surprising for himself when he first read it too. 
“Tell me another one.” She said after rubbing her hands over her face.
Felix let out a small laugh. “Are you sure? You didn’t seem to like that last one.”
Marinette waved off the comment. “Yeah, yeah. I can take it. Tell me another one.”
“Alright, another fact..” Felix muttered, his gaze flicking upwards in thought. “Ah.  Each arm has a mind of its own. Some two-thirds of the octopus’ neurons reside in its arms, which allow the arms to react to stimuli and function at a fairly high level on their own. This fact applies even when one of the limbs is severed from the body.”
Marinette scrunched up her nose at the image of a severed, octopus limb still twisting about. 
“How do you remember all of this stuff?”
Felix clicked his tongue. “I think the information is interesting, and I enjoy being knowledgeable. So I make it a point to remember everything that I can while reading.”
Marinette nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense.. Do you know facts about other animals here?”
Felix tilted his head back and forth, trying to recall the animals he’d passed while searching for the group. “Most likely. As I said before, I’ve read a handful of encyclopedias, along with a book or two on Marine Biology.”
She lit up with a grin at the reply and reached down to grab his wrist. “Great! That means you can come tell me more facts!”
Felix was pulled forward, and a part of him held his breath, waiting for the indignation and disgust to set in from being grabbed. It always happened. Allegra, Claude, and occasionally Allan would jerk him around, and resentment would kick in without fail. Of course, the irritation towards Marinette certainly wouldn’t last, since she’d simply gotten excited, but it would undoubtedly come. So he waited..
..And waited..
..And nothing came.
Felix looked down at her hand, which was still firmly on his wrist, and frowned. She was dragging him through the crowd, yet he felt.. nothing. It wasn’t necessarily good, but it wasn’t bad either. He was just.. normal. 
How odd.
“Which animal should we go to next?” Marinette inquired, eagerly looking around. “I’ve already seen the jellyfish, the octopus, and some of the bigger tanks with the multiple types of fish.. Maybe we can see the big tank again so you can tell the na-”
He didn’t look up at her until her ramble abruptly cut off. She was staring down at his wrist too, her eyes wide with surprise. She must not have thought about what she was doing when she grabbed him.
“O-Oh!” As soon as she registered what she’d done, Marinette ripped her hand away from him. “I-I’m so sorry! I- uhm -I was just so excited, a-and.. I’ll try not to grab you again.”
“No, it’s..” Felix rubbed the part of his wrist that Marinette had grabbed, almost not believing the next words he was about to say. “It’s fine. We should probably be holding onto each other anyway, unless we want to get separated again.”
“Oh..” Marinette said, sounding a bit dazed. “Oh yeah.. Um.. How do you want me to..”
She held her hand out towards him again, and Felix hesitated. If they were to hold onto each other, holding hands would be the obvious option, but that was out of the question on account of the strange feeling that twisted inside him at the thought of doing such a thing. The next option would be holding onto his sleeve, or grabbing his wrist again. Would that be peculiar for her, though? He’s unsure as to why it would be peculiar, but it felt peculiar. 
Before he could decide what to do, Marinette tentatively took hold of his bag strap.
“I-Is this okay?” She asked, searching his face for discomfort or disagreement.
Felix blinked. That was actually..
“This is perfect.” He said, grabbing the part of the bag strap that was just above her hand.
A relieved smile passed her lips. “Good. Let’s keep walking then. I wanna learn as many facts as possible before we leave.”
The two set off, weaving around people and going from tank to tank. At each new animal they passed, Marinette would request a series of facts, and Felix would oblige when he could. Then, when he couldn’t recall any facts, they would look up a few for the sake of fun. He had a decent time doing it, as he got to learn some new things about the animals and himself. For example, the electric discharge of an eel can be stronger than five hundred volts, sea turtles apparently think jellyfish are delicious, and when Felix’s hand finally slid onto Marinette’s on the bag strap, he didn’t mind at all. In fact, he didn’t even notice that his hand was on hers until she jumped ahead to look at the shark tank.
“Wow..” Marinette breathed, staring at the enormous whale shark that was gliding through the water in front of them. “Look at how big it is..”
Although slightly distracted by the fact that they’d been touching and he hadn’t noticed, Felix joined her at the tank and watched the shark as well. With its large body and narrow tale, its movements were slow and graceful, and seeing it brought a soothing sense of calm to him. 
He glanced down at Marinette, curious how she might react to the gigantic creature. 
Despite buzzing about while looking at the other animals, she stood entirely still as she stared upwards through the glass. One of her hands was delicately placed on the tank, and her lips were parted with awe. She appeared to be mesmerized by the sight. 
Tumblr media
The mix of water and the lights above brought a bright, blue glow to the room, and it reflected on her perfectly. Accenting her round cheeks and wide eyes, bringing out the deep blue color of her hair that was often hidden.. the illumination made her seem utterly.. ethereal. 
Felix sucked in a small breath, shocked by the swirl of warmth and enchantment that swelled within him. Why was he feeling this way? He didn’t recall experiencing it before. Was it something about the aquarium? Or was it something about Marinette? Why would she make such a difference, though?
“I know you enjoy her company.”
His mother’s words hit him like a truck as they resurfaced in his mind. Enjoying her company.. Was that what this was? He didn’t think something like that would be ‘warm’ or ‘enchanting’, but he supposed he’s never fully enjoyed someone’s presence before to know. Claude and the others- even his parents on rare occasions -would annoy or pester or drain his energy. Marinette, somehow, never did that. Maybe it was because she always listened to him, or because she would offer a smile or clothes or croissants- whatever he might need without ever asking for anything in return. She was selfless and didn’t demand his attention like everyone else, and that, Felix realized, made all the difference. 
“Know any facts about this one?” Marinette said, shaking him from his thoughts.
“Hm?” Felix dragged his eyes back to the whale shark. “Oh, yes. If I remember correctly, they-”
“There you are!”
Claude’s declaration barely registered in Felix’s mind before he was suddenly tackled by the brunette. 
“We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
Felix scowled as he wrestled Claude off of him. There’s the feeling of revulsion that he remembered so well. 
“Oh, and you found Marinette!” Allegra chimed in with a smile. 
Marinette pulled a sheepish expression. “Sorry for walking off.. I got distracted.”
Allan waved off the remark as he joined them. “Don’t sweat it. This trip was meant to be fun. As long as you had a good time, everything’s fine.”
Marinette smiled. “Thanks. I had a great time.”
“Aw~.” Claude jokingly sang. “That’s good to hear. What about you, Felix? Did you have a good time?”
Felix rolled his eyes at the babying tone, but a chuckle brought his gaze back to Marinette. She was shaking her head at Claude, her eyes bright with amusement and her smile warm.
“Actually..” He muttered. “I did.” 
~~~~~~
The icy cold of the evening brushed over Marinette as she walked outside, but she smiled anyway. The aquarium had been more amazing than she could have ever predicted, which was saying something considering she’d already expected it to be great. She got to see turtles and whale sharks and octopi and all sorts of animals! On top of that, she got to see all of those animals with Felix, who was able to tell her little facts about them! Although some of the facts were hard to swallow.. like, who calls octopus limbs ‘arms’ instead of ‘tentacles’? That’s crazy!
Marinette chuckled at the memory as she nuzzled her nose into her white scarf for warmth. Yes, some of the facts were definitely mind boggling, but there was no doubt that they were the best part of the trip. 
Well.. She thought, glancing over her shoulder. Maybe not the best part.
The rest of the group was exiting the aquarium behind her, Felix being amongst them. The best part of the day had honestly been when he said that he had a good time. With all the scowling and his getting lost, she’d been kicking herself about inviting him to the aquarium, especially when she knew that crowds weren’t his forte. But then they went on that impromptu tour together, and his hard expressions softened into small smiles and quiet laughs. 
It was the first time she saw him fully relax (in a crowded room, no less!). Just knowing that she’d been a part of that brought her more joy and fulfillment than the whale shark she’d originally wanted to see. 
Of course, now that the tour was over and the group was back together, the hard expressions had returned, and he was currently chewing out Claude for trying to hug him “in the name of warmth”. Marinette couldn’t help giggling at the sight, though. Even as Felix was clutching his coat around himself and shivering, he refused to be touched by anyone. She vaguely wondered if he was against the notion for a specific reason or simply had an aversion to touch. He didn’t seem to mind them touching in the aquarium, though, so there had to be a specific reason then, right?
“I don’t know about you guys,” Allegra spoke up, taking Marinette from her thoughts, “but I had a wonderful time today.”
“Are you kidding?” Claude asked, finally stepping away from Felix with a smile. “Today was awesome! And that mermaid show? Incredible.”
“And completely generic.” Felix added with an eye roll. “They didn’t even bother to make it look as though she were breathing underwater.”
“Well, yeah.” Allegra smirked. “They can’t get real mermaids. Those are too hard to catch.”
“That’s because they don’t exist.” Felix stated flatly. “Which is another reason why they shouldn’t hold that show. It will give people the wrong idea.”
“Hey, mermaids could exist!” Claude- because if anyone were to fight for this, it would be him -insisted. “The ocean is huge, and we haven’t seen it all yet. You have no idea whether mermaids actually exist or not.”
Felix scoffed. “Please. A creature with a human half and a fish half that also lived in the ocean would be scientifically impossible. At the very least, the human side would perish from the low temperatures and prolonged exposure to salt water. The only way it might survive is if the creature simply had a humanoid half rather than a human half, and in that case, the creature wouldn’t look anything like the actor they had inside.”
“Who said anything about science?” Claude argued. “What if it’s magic?”
Marinette had been watching the conversation with an amused smile until the topic of magic came up. She knew it wasn’t a direct mention to her alter ego, but it still caused her stiffen. Thankfully, no one noticed, since they were too busy watching Felix raise a brow.
“That’s preposterous.”
“How come?” Claude retorted. “If we can have Ladybug and Chat Noir running around with their magical weapons and abilities, why can’t we have mermaids?”
Marinette faltered in her steps, but quickly regained balance. Now that was a direct mention of her alter ego. Should she try to change the subject? It definitely felt like it was time to change the subject. 
“Chat Noir and Ladybug gain their powers from the miraculous specifically.” Felix stated. “What you are suggesting is an entire species that is born and raised with the same ‘power’ that doesn’t come from a miraculous. That’s what I’d call grasping at straws.”
“You guys know the show is supposed to be for kids, right?” Allan asked, gaining a snort from Allegra.
Claude placed his hands on his hips. “Yes, but I still think mermaids can exist somewhere.”
“No, they can’t.” Felix remarked.
“You don’t have any proof of that!”
“Neither do you!”
“Okay!” Allegra interjected, stepping between the two boys with a barely contained snicker. “You two kids need to behave or you’ll both be put in time out.”
Marinette laughed despite herself, even as Felix glared at the blonde. 
Allegra ignored the glare, turning back to the group as she asked, “So where do you guys want to eat for supper?”
“We’re eating supper together?” Marinette inquired.
“Only if you want to.” Allegra smiled. “I just figured, since it’s seven o’clock, that our parents have already eaten. So we might as well eat together, right?”
“Yeah!” Claude agreed, the mermaid discussion slipping from his mind before Marinette’s very eyes. “Let’s go to Dairy Queen. I haven’t been there in a while, and an ice cream sounds so good right now.”
“You want to get ice cream?” Felix blanched. “In this weather?”
“Sure.” Claude smiled. “Anytime’s ice cream time for me. Besides, it’s not that cold.”
“Not that cold??” Felix retorted, his eyebrows furrowing in disbelief. 
Marinette chuckled, silently agreeing with Felix. Ice cream was nice when you weren’t already covered in goosebumps due to the cold, but right now, she’d much rather a nice, steaming cup of hot chocolate.
A gasp brought her attention to Allegra, who pointed towards the sky with wide eyes.
“Guys, look!” She grinned. “It’s snowing!”
The group followed her gaze to the Eiffel Tower, which stood bright and tall in the blackness of the night. 
Sure enough, flakes of freshly fallen snow were passing the lights of the city and fluttering to the ground. It started out small, with a bit of snow here and there, but soon, a whole flurry began, quickly covering the sidewalks and roads.
“Aw, yeah!” Claude cheered, sticking out his tongue to catch some of the snowflakes. “Freshly fallen snow, man!”
Marinette giggled and stuck out her tongue as well, feeling a wave of euphoria as the snowflakes began hitting her tongue, nose, forehead and cheeks. It hasn’t snowed since last month, and she’d missed it dearly.
“C’mon, Fehix!” Allan urged, his words coming out in blabs because of his tongue sticking out. “Catch snowfakes wis us”
“Absolutely not.” Felix sharply declined. “Do you know how many pollutants are in the first wave of snow, especially with all of this wind? Sulfate, Nitrate, Formaldehyde, Mercury- you might as well drink a bucket of chemicals!”
Marinette paused, though she left her tongue sticking out. Were there really that many chemicals in snow? She’d known there were some, of course, but it couldn’t really be that dangerous, could it?
“Wow, Felix.” Allegra said with an amused smile. “I didn’t know snow could be so dangerous. Can you lighten up a little, please?”
Felix tisked. “I’m only stating facts.”
“Right, right.” Allegra replied. “You don’t have to stick out your tongue, but at least spare us on the ‘grim’ details, will you? It kind of dampers the whole ‘first snowfall of the year’ deal.”
Felix rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he tilted his head towards the sky and closed his eyes. Marinette imagined he was trying to gather some semblance of calm or composure, if his deep breaths were any indication. What really caught her attention, though, were the snowflakes. Or rather, the way the snowflakes landed on him. They were crisp and frozen, and it created specks of white all across his features as the snow nestled in Felix’s hair and eyelashes. If she had been any less disciplined, she might have been tempted to take a picture of him. (Only to use the snowflake patterns later as a design idea, of course.)
“Alright, let’s head for Dairy Queen!” Claude abruptly declared, breaking the brief silence that had settled amongst them. 
Felix’s eyes cracked open, incidentally meeting Marinette’s at the same time. She averted her gaze, a strange sense of deja vu washing over her. Here she was, staring at him again. How many times was she going to feel weird about staring- or being caught staring -until she remembered not to stare? Granted, it shouldn’t feel weird in the first place. Staring was staring, especially when it was a stare between friends. The most he should say about it is, “what are you looking at?”, and that wasn’t a problem. That was a completely logical response, actually. So why did her stupid brain think it was a problem?
“I call dibs on driving Marinette!” Claude added, wrapping his arm around Marinette’s shoulders.
“What!” Allegra nearly yelled from shock. “You can’t call dibs!”
“Okay, then I call turns!” Claude shot back. “You got to drive her on the way here, so I get to drive her on the way to Dairy Queen.”
“Guys, you know she’s a human being, right?” Allan commented.
Marinette laughed. “It’s alright. I’ll go with Claude to Dairy Queen, and Allegra can drive me home.”
“Aw, she gets to drive you home?” Claude whined.
Allegra, however, pulled a triumphant grin. “Ha-ha! I get a good night snack from Mme Sabine!”
“I’m glad you two only value Marinette for her pastries.” Felix remarked.
Marinette snorted, but Allegra and Claude immediately let out an offended gasp.
“How dare you claim such a thing!” Claude said, now wrapping both arms around Marinette’s shoulders. “Marinette is amazing and wonderful, and I would choose her over pastries a thousand times.”
Allegra hugged Marinette as well. “Yeah, we’re not that shallow. Mme Sabine’s cooking is phenomenal, but Marinette is the one we truly love.”
“I hear that.” Allan chuckled.
The beginnings of a blush curled around Marinette’s cheeks, and she hugged Allegra and Allan back. She knew that she was the one they loved, not the pastries, and that’s why she wouldn’t hesitate to give them all the pastries in the world if they asked.
Tag list:  @artbyknigit @athena452 @nickristus-dreamer @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @arsaem @abrx2002 @neakco @pawsitivelymiraculous @too0bsessedformyowngood @nathleigh @lusicing @officiallydarkgeek @all-mights-asscheeks @tbehartoo @woe-is-me0 @raeuberprinzessin @lazuli-11 @miss-chaos27 @trippingovermyfeet @sadpotatoondrugs @ladybug-182 @jaggedheart11 @marinahrasauce @i-need-blog-ideas @thewheezingbubbledragon @crazylittlemunchkin @unabashedbookworm @moonystars14 @sunflowers-and-mooncakes @2confused-2doanything  @magnificentcrapposts  @moonnette @nickristus-dreamer @vixen-uchiha @casual-darkness @luxmorningstarr @jjmjjktth​ @kaithehero​ @itsme1598
274 notes · View notes
the-iceni-bitch · 4 years ago
Text
A Warm Fire
Pairing: Valkyrie/Brunnhilde/Fem-Reader
Word Count: 3876
Summary: Val helps you warm up after you get caught in a storm.
Warnings: Fluff, Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame (erring on the safe side with this one), Explicit language, explicit sexual content (oral sex- f receiving, scissoring, fingering) SMUT, 18+
A/N: I’ve decided for my b-day week I want to bless all you sweet bitches with a brand new smutty fic each day. My holes are worn out from all the rough himbo sex I’ve been throwing at you, so today I wanted to soften things up with something for my WLW ladies. I sub for no man, but Val could spit in my mouth and turn me into a housewife!
Tumblr media
“Well, fuck.” You sighed.
You had hoped you’d be able to outrun the storm you saw rolling in off the coast on your weekly trip to New Asgard but hadn’t even been driving for an hour when lightning started streaking across the sky and the clouds let loose a deluge that had your ancient pickup’s wipers maxed out. You couldn’t even see 20 feet in front of you and slammed on the brakes suddenly when you came upon a massive tree blocking the road. The engine stalled out and you had now been trying to turn it over for 10 minutes with no luck.
You had thankfully been able to contact Aud and Sigurd and have them bring your animals in and batten down the barn, but there was no way you were making it back tonight. You resigned yourself to sleeping in your front seat when a pile of rocks reared out of no where and tapped on your window, causing you to let out a shriek.
“Everything ok in there?”
“Jesus Christ, Korg, what are you doing out here?”
The massive Kronan straightened back up and you thought you saw his brow furrow before his face split open in a wide grin.
“Y/N, excellent! Some of us got concerned once the storm rolled in and Val sent out a group to make sure you made it off of the Fjord ok.”
“Ok, well clearly this piece of shit is not cut out for Skagerrak storms.” You told him as you stepped out into the deluge, pulling your parka around you tightly as the wind tried to whip your hood off. “I don’t suppose you drove here in any sort of vehicle?”
“As a matter of fact, Miek drove the Jeep.”
“I’m sorry, Miek drove?” The thought of the Sakaarian larval creature driving a vehicle filled you with equal parts horror and mirth. “Do you mind if I drive us back?”
“Probably for the best. I told him that knife hands are not conducive for steering but you know he doesn’t listen to me.”
You let out a laugh as Korg lumbered into the large trailer hooked to the back of the Jeep, causing it to sink into the mud a bit. Miek scooted into the passenger seat as you turned the vehicle around and started to head back to Tønsberg.
Your cautious driving extended the trip by a good 45 minutes. The thunder had stopped but it was still pouring as you parked the jeep in one of the converted stables. Korg and Miek gave you a wave as they headed back to Thor’s, Korg carrying 3 of the pallets of Aquavit you had brought with you earlier.
You headed towards the town square and saw Brunnhilde leaning against the posts in front of her small brick house, watching the storm that was still raging out at sea before she saw you and broke out in a grin.
“Y/N, I told you not to head out in this! That piece of shit truck of yours give out on you?”
“What do you think, Hilde? I just decided to walk all the back to your house for fun in this?” You shook out your hair as the two of you stepped inside, spraying her with a thin mist of rainwater.
“Ah, you bitch! Get out of those wet clothes, I got a fire started and some dry towels and blankets set out for you. Want a hot toddy?”
You winced at the thought as you started peeling yourself out of your soaked jeans. “I’d like to be able to wake up tomorrow hon. Your hot toddys are literally just a hot mug of Aquavit with a slice of lemon.” You cursed yourself silently for introducing the Asgardians to the spicy Scandinavian liquor that you now had to truck in every week. While it was extremely lucrative, they now put it in everything.
Hilde sauntered back into the main room carrying two steaming mugs as you wrapped yourself in a wool blanket and settled in front of the fire, wearing only your bra and panties.
She rolled her eyes at you and handed you a mug, which you took a wary sniff of and were pleasantly surprised to find it was just peppermint tea.
“You’re just a lightweight.” She said as she curled up in her armchair, wrapping one hand around her mug while the other picked up the worn book that was sitting on the end table.
“How do you like it so far?” You asked her, sipping your tea slowly as you waited for it to cool.
“The writing is lovely, but it’s pretty inaccurate.”
The friendship the two of you had built over the past 3 years was something truly lovely. When she and the rest of the refugees had landed, after the snap, they were all hollow shells of grief. Thor shut himself away almost immediately, and Hilde found herself thrust into a position of leadership she had never wanted. All of them wanted nothing more than to be left alone with their sorrows, doing just enough to keep themselves alive.
The first storm off the Skaggerak had almost devastated their new home though, and when she contacted Banner for help, he called you. You still kept in touch after your years together at university, and he knew you had settled somewhere in Norway and could arrive to lend a hand faster than he could.
Your arrival brought some much needed distraction to their sleepy town. You had managed to round up a group of your Norwegian neighbors, along with some fellow expats, and set about making the necessary changes to assure that New Asgard would be a thriving community. While the rest of your group set to restructuring architecture, and teaching the town’s new inhabitants the necessities of a seaside existence on the windy Fjord, you began the slow process of helping the refugees move on from their sorrow.
Your anthropology doctorate was specialized in Norse culture, after all, and you would often bring small reminders of their lost home with you whenever you came to visit. Whether it was a collection of replicated Talharpas, Skalmejens, and Lurs to give to the children to learn music or a large cache of drinking horns to stock their taverns, every time your truck came lumbering down the hills, Brunnhilde watched the faces of her citizens light up with anticipation for some new pleasant surprise. When you arrived with your first load of Aquavit and spent the night drinking with them and singing the drinking songs they knew well, you were all but confirmed as an honorary Asgardian. Your haunting rendition of Lilja actually brought tears to a few eyes.
Brunnhilde made sure to let you know how grateful she was as much as possible. She would always have some small gift for you when you arrived, but all you asked her for was to sit and talk, discussing the history of Asgard and the nine realms as you scribbled copious notes. She loved watching your face screw up in concentration as you bent over one of your notebooks, one stubborn lock of hair falling into your face.
She laughed to herself softly now as she remembered the visit a few weeks ago when she had first introduced you to her winged steed, Aragorn. Your look of awe had been replaced quickly with uncontrollable laughter when she had told you his name. You refused to tell her what was so funny, but she was determined to get it out of you at some point.
You had brought your original copy of Snorri’s Edda the next week, and she had read it through 3 times already.
She ran her hands softly over the spine of the book before tossing back the rest of her toddy and setting the book and her mug back on the end table before sinking to the floor behind you and nuzzling herself into your hair, sighing as she inhaled the scent of fresh rain.
You leaned back into her slowly, giving a soft hum of contentedness. She slipped the blanket off of your shoulders to pool around your waist as she left a trail of soft kisses down your neck, before softly raising a bruise into your collarbone with her mouth.
The moan you gave her made her grin against your skin, and she slipped one hand into the front of your bra, softly drawing her fingers across your nipple.
“Fuck, Hilde!” you pressed your chest further into her hand as her other moved behind you to unhook your bra and slip it off your shoulders, freeing your breasts. She felt your nipples harden against her fingers as she turned your head and slowly teased your mouth open with her tongue.
“Eyes open, pretty girl.” She whispered as her left hand continued to palm at your breast and roll your nipple between her fingers. You stared at her through your lashes as she brought her right hand up and put her index and middle finger in your mouth. You gave them a soft nip before sucking and swirling your tongue around them slowly.
She grinned at you wickedly as she dragged her soaked fingers down your torso at an agonizing pace, leaving a thin trail of your saliva before she tucked them under the edge of your panties and dragged them over your sopping cunt, separating the soft folds there to tease against your entrance.
“Oh, poor baby, look how much this pussy missed me?” She said as you let out a thin keen, screwing your eyes shut and dropping your head against her neck. She slapped your tit suddenly and tweaked your nipple hard, making you gasp. “You better keep those eyes open if you want me to let you come sweetheart. You want me to stretch this pretty pussy around my fingers and make you feel good?”
“Yes, god” you let out breathlessly, forcing your eyes open as she studied your face.
“Ah, ah, ask nicely.”
“Yes please.” You hissed as her fingers continued to tease at your folds, lightly brushing against your clit.
“Good girl”
She slipped one finger inside of you slowly and you immediately clenched around it as she pressed it against that soft spongy spot.
“Ooh, honey. You’re so fucking tight, I’m gonna stretch you out so good.” She whispered against your lips as she kissed you softly.
Her second finger slipped in easily and she started fucking them into you slowly, pressing her palm against your clit as she did so and your arousal seeped all over her hand. Your breath was hitching in your chest as she increased her pace.
You felt yourself flutter around her and it took all of your willpower to not screw your eyes shut and drop against her shoulder. You ground yourself against her hand as she suddenly slowed down, hungry for more friction.
“You want me to add another finger, sweet girl?” She asked slyly, teasing her promise against your entrance.
You didn’t trust yourself to speak so you nodded at her, your chest heaving as she continued palming your breast and you felt a resounding shiver in your core.
“You’re lucky I’m soft on you sweetie, I should be making you beg for this.” She murmured as she shoved all three of her fingers in suddenly, causing you to let out a small cry as she started fucking them into you at a rough speed. “I’m just finishing you off so I can feel this sweet mouth of yours on my cunt. You want to taste me baby?”
“Shit, Hilde!” The thought of her taste on your tongue sent you over the edge as she drove her palm into your clit one last time and you released around her, fluttering as you soaked her hand. Her strong arms held you still as your orgasm wracked you and every muscle trembled. Once you had ridden it out, she drew her hand out of your ruined panties to suck on her fingers.
“Mmm, you taste so good honey. Don’t you think?” She placed her mouth on yours and pressed her tongue against yours and you moaned as you tasted your own release.
“Help me out of my clothes baby, I need to ride that pretty face.”
She climbed around you and settled into your lap, kissing you deeply and making happy little humming sounds. You drew her sweater up over her head and tossed it aside, and were pleasantly surprised to see she wasn’t wearing a bra. You gave her a wicked grin before lifting her up and pressing her chest to your face, latching your mouth to one of her nipples as your hands cupped her ass through her leggings. She gave a light laugh and tossed her head back as her fingers carded themselves through your hair. You brought one of your hands between the two of you, shoving it down the front of her leggings and drawing your fingers through her slick, making her gasp.
“God, baby, you’re so fucking greedy.” She laughed lightly as you peppered her chest with kisses, occasionally creating some light suction with your tongue to raise a light bruise. “Mmm, you know just what to do, but I want to come all over that beautiful face of yours.”
You smiled against her chest as you gently nuzzled yourself between her breasts before falling back abruptly and making her gasp.
“You are being such a trouble maker, today, Y/N. Fine, I’m going grind your pussy so good before I rub that smirk off your face with my cunt.”
She sat up between your legs a drew your soaked panties off before removing her own leggings. She stretched your right leg off to the side and lightly drew her fingers up the inside of your thigh, removing them right before she reached your quivering pussy and making you whine.
“Don’t be a brat baby. Look at this pretty pussy, just weeping for me.” She stared at your swollen cunt with a grin as she hooked a hand under your left knee and positioned herself so she was straddling you, her soft folds just kissing yours as she hovered there. “You want to feel my pussy on yours, baby? Want me to grind that clit so good? You better fucking beg for it.”
“Oh god, pleasepleaseplease…” you let out in a hiss as she pressed herself down and ground herself into you.
“Mmm, I feel that sweet pussy quivering for me. God, you’re like my own fucking vibrator.” She kept twisting her hips into yours, hitting you at that perfect angle each time and making you mewl and whimper unintelligibly as she edged you closer to your release. She unbent your right leg slowly, running her thumb up your calf before nipping at the pad of your big toe, making you arch into her. “No no, sweetheart, isn’t it so much better when you hold still? You know I’ll take care of you.”
She stretched your right leg out so you were wide open and pinned your thighs down with her hands as she picked up the pace. She bit her lip and gazed down at you through hooded eyes and you felt her core twitch against yours. One more drive of her hips and you came apart at the same time, your releases mixing together to coat the insides of your thighs. You let out a scream while she just gasped, still managing to hold you down as your pleasure wracked through you and you wound your hands into the blanket beside you for some kind of anchor.
“Fuck baby, this pussy is so good to me. I wanna run my tongue over this pretty cunt while I ride your face. You better be good for me.”
She twisted herself around to straddle your face. You softly nipped at her left cheek then gave her ass a slap, making her yelp, and she responded by smacking your pussy twice before grinding into your face.
“Oohh, are you going to be a bad girl?” She scolded you as you wrapped your arms around her thighs and teased her folds with your tongue. “Am I going to have to edge you all nigh… Fuck!!” Your tongue found her entrance and you moaned into her cunt, causing vibrations that made her clench against your face. “God, baby, you’re so good at that. Your miss this pussy so bad, look at the mess you’re making.” She separated your folds and softly blew against your clit before shoving three fingers into you with no preparation. “Mmm, you’re fucking ready for me sweetheart, I’m barely even stretching you now. You want me to add another finger?”
She gave your clit another soft slap and you came suddenly, legs and core trembling as you clenched and released around her fingers. You tried to come up for air, but Hilde just ground her hips into your face.
“Na-ah.” She scolded you. “You wanted to get fresh with me and now you better make me come if you want to breathe. You get to work. I’m going to wring every ounce of pleasure out of this pussy until you give me what I want, I don’t care if you pass out.”
She inserted a fourth finger into your canal and started to fuck them all into you, flicking soft kitten licks against your small bundle of nerves before she latched onto it, sucking hard.
Tears started streaming down your face as another orgasm ripped through you. You were starting to feel light-headed from a mixture of pleasure and oxygen deprivation. She drew her tongue slowly up and down your entrance while her fingers kept moving inside you, doing her best to lap up your release before her tongue went back to massaging your clit.
You barely skimmed your teeth against her clit and she let out a soft cry against you, slapping your pussy in response and making you come again. You shook your head to bury yourself deeper into her folds and fought off the urge to pass out before shoving your tongue into her pussy and bringing your fingers up to rub harsh circles into her tiny apex of pleasure.
She collapsed against you at the sudden change in sensation with a gasp before she rose up to really grind into you.
You started fucking your tongue in and out of her, making sure to press it against her g-spot each time and felt her thighs tense around your face.
“God baby, don’t fucking stop. Fuck, just like that, right there. That tongue of yours is so fucking good. You’re so fucking good. Feels so good.” You knew when she started babbling breathlessly like this she was close. She brought one of her hands up to palm her breast as her other gripped the wrist of the hand you had working her clit, making sure you didn’t move away.
Just as the edges of your vision started to close in, you felt her core vibrate and her cunt clenched around your tongue as her release gushed into your mouth. The only sound she made was a rapid breathless pant and she rolled off of you slowly, finally allowing you to suck in oxygen as stars swam behind your vision. You did your best to catch your breath as you felt her stretch languidly beside you before she sat up to stare at you.
“Fuck, baby. I don’t know why I let you take this pussy away from me. I know you just lay there by yourself every night dreaming of my fingers buried in you.” She slowly drew a hand along your slit and you groaned when she brushed against your overstimulated clit. “Just swollen and crying for me. Whose pussy is this baby?” She asked you, curling her fingers against your mound.
You knew if you didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear, she would wring it out of you, and if you had any more orgasms you were going to pass out. “Yours, baby.” You murmured, staring at her through your eyelashes.
“Good girl.” She patted your cunt twice, making you twitch, before she bent down and kissed you softly.
She stood up and collected your mugs and brought them back into the kitchen, wiggling her ass at you when she felt you watching her, making you laugh.
“Can you throw some more logs on the fire, Y/N? I’ll grab us some clean blankets and pillows and we can sleep out here.”
“Yes ma’am.” You called back to her, breaking the current logs apart with the poker before adding three new ones and stoking it. You gathered your discarded clothes and the soiled blanket in a bundle and headed to the bathroom to put them in the hamper and run a damp towel against your sex to clean up, bringing another out with you as you headed back to the fire, where Hilde had piled a ridiculous amount of blankets and pillows in a massive nest for the two of you.
You sank down next to her and she drew your face to hers for a kiss. You smiled against her lips as you gently drew the soft towel you had brought with you over her cunt and along her thighs to clean her off as she gave a contented sigh.
“Stay.” She said softly, nuzzling softly into your neck as you held her against her chest and slowly sank back against the pile of cushions, giving her hair a soft kiss.
“Hilde, the road is out, I’m not going anywhere until tomorrow.”
“No, Y/N. Stay. Move here with me. I need you.” She looked up at you with genuine pleading in her eyes. You had never seen such open emotion on her face before.
You only had to think about it for a minute. The weeks between your trips were always spent planning your next visit. Thinking over what you wanted to talk to Hilde about. Your bed felt empty without her there.
“I need you too baby. I love you.” You whispered to her, tipping her chin up to look into her eyes as you gave her a gentle smile.
Her face split into a grin. “Is that a yes?”
“Of course, Hilde.”
“Oh god, Y/N, I love you too!” She drew your face down to hers and kissed you deeply, clutching you to her needily before releasing you with a grin. “I miss that pussy almost as much as it misses me.”
You laughed at that and laid back with a sigh. Hilde rested her head between your breasts and brought her hands close around your sides, pulling the thick wool blanket around the two of you tightly.
“Just make sure Miek doesn’t try to fight my sheep again.” You whispered to her, running a hand softly up and down her back.
“That was a misunderstanding.” She smiled against you as her breathing slowed and deepened, and she sunk closer to sleep.
The two of you laid there intertwined for the rest of the night, drifting off as the fire crackled and died. You had never felt so content in your life.
290 notes · View notes
pocfansmatter · 4 years ago
Text
Wishing For You
Sailor Gally x Mermaid reader
Summary: A sailor named Gally stumbles across an injured mermaid. She then agrees to grant him a wish for his help. 
Y/N was an absolute idiot. How she managed to get herself caught in that net she doesn’t know, okay she does, but it’s too embarrassing to even think about fully. The fact that she got distracted by an actual dolphin is such a childish mistake she never wants to think about it again. Knowing dolphins it probably led her into the net on purpose. So Y/N has been caught in nets before, she’s got out of them many times, that’s not her problem. Her problem is instead of the fishermen waiting to catch more fish in their net by leaving it in the ocean for a little while longer like most do, they started to pull the net to the surface as soon as they felt her stuck in it. That threw her off a bit, caused her to take a little longer to get free, she didn’t break surface of course but she got close enough to where they made her figure out and shot at her once they noticed she got free of the net. The harpoon sailed effortlessly through the water and caught her side. The long spear stuck but she used her claws to cut the shaft, the arrow however was jammed beneath the skin of her stomach and she’d be stupid to try to get it out here where there’s a chance she could get caught. Ignoring the pain she swims straight down, deeper into the ocean, far away from the boat trying to capture her. She ignores the pain as she examines her surroundings. She needs to figure out a plan and fast. She was bleeding so it won’t be long until she attracts predators. Although she could normally handle her own pretty well she was injured and she knew in her weakened state she wouldn’t survive a fight. She had a fleeting thought about racing home, but if something followed her there she could put the colony at risk. She knew they could win a fight but if she gave away their location they would be upset they had to move again. She couldn’t risk it. In a true act of desperation she heads straight to shore. She knew nothing big enough to take her down would be in that shallow of water. Her only worry was hiding from humans. She just needed time to think and take out the arrow so she could heal properly.
She swam as fast as she could to where she knew shore to be. She could feel herself growing tired the closer she got. Her version started to get spotty and she could feel her body getting weaker. Just a little bit more. She encouraged herself and pushes onward. She doesn’t give herself time to rest or even look around. She can’t take that chance. Finally she notices the bottom of the ocean getting closer, signifying she was near shore. She uses the last of her stretch to swim that much faster. Finally she breaks the surface and see the sky is dark, it’s night meaning she is least likely to run into humans at this time, she rushes to the sand. Until she using the top half of her body to crawl, unable to use her tail this close. Finally she stops and one hand goes to her wound and feels the arrow sticking out of her abdomen. Before she can gather the strength to pull it out she decides to take an actual rest for a moment, just a moment. The rest of her vision goes black and she doesn’t even try to fight the sleep that overcomes her.
Gally walked along the shore to clear his head. The guys were getting on his last nerves and he just needed some space. He walks for about 30 minutes one way, far from the dock and people. He sits on the beach and just looks out into the dark waters he can see the reflection of the moon in the ocean. He scans the area and freezes when he sees a lump on the beach. He can only make out a dark mass, the light of the moon not bright enough to help him see the shadow. He slowly makes his way closer thinking a manatee washed onto shore or something. Once he gets close enough to see a little better he can see it’s actually a girl, he can only see the top half of her body, the bottom half is submerged in the sea. Gally rushes closer and collapses onto the sand beside her. His hand goes to her neck and he sigh in relief when he feels a pulse. He notices her breathing is shaky like she’s having trouble but other than that she doesn’t move. He examines her and sees the problem, the tip of a harpoon is sticking out of her side.
“Jesus, who the hell throws a harpoon at a woman?” He whispers to himself. Thinking quickly he wonders if he should carry her to the town or if it would be faster to run to get help himself and rush back with a doctor. The thought pops into his head that this probably wasn’t an accident and if he leaves her here there is a real chance whoever did this to her might find her and finish what they started. That decides it and he gets to his feet and hooks his arms under her armpits to drag her out of the water fully. He doesn’t get far though because what he finds shocks the hell out of him. He falls flat onto his ass and uses his feet to push himself far away from the thing as fast as possible. The moment wakes her and she slowly starts to stir. What Gally thought was a young woman was actually anything but, her waist cuts off into a tail, an actual fishtail. The scales shimmer in the moonlight and reflect a glittery purple and the end fin was a lilac. Gally wondered for a moment if he was asleep, dead, or had gone batshit crazy. There was no way he was seeing an actual mermaid on the beach. Just then the girl opens her eyes and he can’t help but scream. Just then the creature face transforms; her cheekbones become sharper, her eyes go completely white making her pupils disappear, and she opens her mouth to reveal sharps fanglike teeth and it hisses loudly. Gally freezes and he gets the weirdest flashback to when he was a child and he was playing outside. When he was 7 he found a cat stuck under a fence, when he got close she hissed menacingly and swapped her claws at him. She scratched him pretty good and he bled out but he just waited until she calmed down enough for him to aid her. When he freed her she ran away. This creature reminded him of that cat, she was terrifying and could probably rip his head off with her teeth alone, but she was injured and scared, that’s where the hostility comes from.
Gally holds his hands palms up facing her to show he wasn’t trying to do anything funny. She has her sight trained on him.
“It’s okay, I’m just trying to help.” He doesn’t even know if she even understands him but he keeps his voice low and steady like an adult would talk to a skittish child. “It’s okay, your injured, I think I can help, I’m not gonna hurt you, it’s okay. I know you’re scared, I know you’re hurt, I know you want to get back in the water, so let me help you.” In the middle of his speech he slowly sits up and gets to his knees. By the end he slowly scoots towards her.
Her tail was still planted on the sand but her top half had twisted back towards him and her hands were planted on the sand. He knew with her injury it had to be painful but she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He understood but notices she doesn’t move as he gets closer. Her face stays the same, never going back to the calm regular face it was when she was sleeping except her eyes squint. He slides to the side of her so she can turn her body back forward and be in less pain. Once he has her facing back towards the sea and her body isn’t twisted painfully he stops again. A quick glance shows he’s right beside her tail but doesn’t move her hands from their upturned unthreatening position. He glances at the arrow again and tries to figure out how to get it out.
“I just want to help,” he reassures and she watches him, her mouth now shut but still just as intimidating. “Can you understand me?” He asks softly and waits. She continues to study him for a moment before nodding once and he fights back a gasp of surprise.
“Okay, we got to get that out of you,” he nods towards the weapon lodged in her side. “if you know any specific way I can help you I would like to know them now because my only plan is to pull it out, press down, and pray you don’t bleed out.” She stares at him for a moment and he still doesn’t move waiting for some kind of sign from the siren.
“Seaweed,” she says softly, her voice is small and smooth and it takes everything in him not to fall in his ass in shock that an actual mermaid can speak and said something to him.
“Seaweed?”
“I need a long piece of seaweed to wrap around me… it’ll help me heal.” It takes her a while to get the sentence out like it takes too much energy to talk. Gally nods and looks around the beach to try to find what she needs. A few feet into the water he notices a stack of rocks and knows there is a fair share of seaweed stuck on them. He stands and notices her tense beside him.
“Shit,” Gally says softly to himself. “Okay, this is probably going to hurt but please don’t bite my head off, okay?” She studies him in silence for a moment before nodding once. He slowly grabs the end of the arrowhead that is above her skin. She teases at the moment and he stays still for a moment. “Okay, now take a deep breath and I’ll pull on 3, okay?” She nods once. He takes a breath with her and starts to count. He only says 1 before pulling the arrow straight out as fast as he can. He hears a loud screech near his ear and he scurries out of the way from the sound.
“I’ll be right back,” he informs her before rushing towards the boulders. Before he hits the water he kicks off his shoes and slides his shirt over his head he decides to keep his pants on. He quickly gets in and it doesn’t take long for the water to hit the middle of his chest. He reaches the nearest rock and hauls himself up before scanning the area. It takes him a minute but he finds a few long pieces of seaweed wedged between rocks. He doesn’t know how much he needs but figures better safe than sorry. After he grabs threes long pieces he jumps back into the water and as fast as he can gets to shore. With his other hand he grabs his shirt and shoes and runs back towards her. He slows down as to not startle her again and drops to his knees quickly. He notices that her face went back to normal like how she looked while she was asleep. He tosses his shirt and shoes to the side not bothering to put either back on before holding his hand towards her and waits for her instructions. She takes the seaweed while managing not to touch him. She stares down at the wound and studies it for a moment. “Unless you have powers I don’t know about our only option is to pull it out.” She meets his eyes for a moment and y/e/c burns into his soul before she jerkily nods.
He nods back and slowly scoots closer to her. Once he was right beside her he can see the arrow is serrated making it harder and more painful to get out. 
“You lied!” She screeches and he sees her face back to the terrifying face it was earlier.
“I know I’m sorry, I was trying to catch you off guard so you didn’t tense up.” He explains quickly and he looks down at the bloody arrow before dropping it and going to her side again. She calms down again and her face goes back while she grabs the seaweed. He holds it against her wound and she wraps it around her waist and ties the end. After she lays flat on the beach and takes a few deep breaths to calm down and Gally sits silently next to her waiting for his heartrate to go back to normal. Her eyes are closed now and he’s terrified to break the silence. After what feels like an eternity she opens her eyes again and turns to look at him.
“Can you… help me get into the water… not too deep just to feel the water… it’ll help me heal.” She speaks slowly and takes deep breaths between pauses. Gally nods before standing and trying to figure out how to move her to the water with the least amount of pain. He decides dragging her again is not a good idea.
“I’m going to pick you up,” he explains and she nods and he slowly carries her bridal style to the ocean.
“Stop here,” she orders and he slowly lowers her to the water. It’s not too deep but enough to keep her wet and his feet to be submerged. She stays seated and they fall back into silence again. He waits a few minutes just watching her staring down at her seaweed wrapped stomach.
“How- so how did this happen?” Gally finally asks and she whips her head up to glare at him, it scares him a little bit but not too much since her face doesn’t change again.
“Humans,” she spits the word like an insult. “I got caught in a net and when I freed myself they shot the harpoon at me.”
“Did they see you… like what you are?” He clarifies.
“I don’t know, I don’t think so, you humans confuse us a lot with others…” he nods remembering how not too long ago before he walked up to her he thought she was a manatee.
“So wha- what do I call you?” He wasn’t sure what exactly her species was referred as. He wasn’t sure if mermaid or siren were interchangeable. His only knowledge was horror stories exchanged among sailors on ships to scare the newbies. Even though he’s been working on the sea for 5 years he never had stories of his own. Hell he wasn’t even sure he believed in mermaids until this moment right now.
“We greet each other differently,” she says and he waits for her to explain but she never does. Instead she reaches for the seaweed and pulls it off. Gally is surprised to see her wound gone, only a light pink scratch remains but Gally can tell it will be gone in no time. She bends her tail to pull herself deeper into the oceans and Gally watches her unsure what to do. She gets to waist deep water for him but she’s laying down so only her head bops above the water.
“Y/N, that’s what you can call me,” she answers and he can feel his cheeks warm embarrassed.
“Y/N,” Gally tries the name and smiles kindly. “Well I’m Gally ma’am,” he introduces himself before holding out his hand; she looks at his hand in confusion. “Uh, you’re supposed to grab it and shake it up and down,” he explains while reaching for her hand. She watches him and once her grasps it he moves it slowly up and down. Her hand feels smooth but at first but when he moves a bit he can feel it snag like his hand is stuck. “It’s how humans greet each other,” he explains and she whispers his name softly to test it out and Gally ignores the shiver going down his spine.
“Thank you for your aid sailor Gally,” she says and he furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “I’m a siren, we can smell sailors from miles away,” she explains and her eyes flash all white for a moment before going back. “For helping me, I will grant you one wish, anything you desire is yours.” She explains and Gally sits there stunned for a moment trying to figure out what his wish would be. His mind was drawing a blank, the only thing he could think at the moment is he wanted to know more about Y/N, not just her species but her specifically.
“I don’t know…” he admits, “Can I take a day to think about it?” He asks and she studies him for a moment. She’s trying to figure out if it’s a trap or not.
“Fine, meet me here tomorrow night,” she says and he nods.
“What time?” He asks and she studies him before a moment before flashing her sharp teeth in a horrifying smile and turning her body and diving into the sea depths and disappearing. Gally sits stunned for a moment wondering what time he should come back tomorrow or if she was ever coming back, did he just lose out on a wish?
“You know you can’t return,” a fellow mermaid named Brenda warned.
____
Y/N explained to the colony what had happened to her and meeting the sailor.
“I offered him a wish in exchange for his help,” she explained.
“He could set up a trap for you when you return,” another explains.
“Don’t you think he would’ve attacked while I was injured if he wanted to do me harm? I can handle a human now that I am fully healed.”
“You give humans too much faith,” Brenda argues.
“I owe him a wish, that’s it.”
Y/N waits to the moon is high above the ocean before going to meet sailor Gally. It doesn’t take her long to swim to the same area but she takes a while to swim around the area before breaking the surface just to make sure he didn’t try to set up a trap. She spots the piles of rocks that Gally found the seaweed the night before and swims to it to use it as a shield to scope out the area before exposing herself. Her head lifts above and scans the area. She sees Gally laying on the beach staring at the stars and she takes a moment to just watch him, making sure no one else is with him.
_____
Gally decides his best bet is to go to the beach the same time he went yesterday and wait. He figures it would be empty by that time anyway like it was yesterday. He leaves the house and claims he’s going for walk. He leaves with only his jacket and a small blanket to rest on while he waits, he doesn’t know how long he’ll be there. Once he gets to the same spot he met Y/N he unfolds his blanket and sits as close as the water as he could get without hitting the tide. He slips his shoes and socks off again and scans the ocean waiting.
After she deems it safe she swims near shore and reveals herself. Gally doesn’t notice as his attention is still on the night sky.
“You’re back,” Gally greets.
“Sailor Gally,” she calls out and he quickly sits up to see her swimming.
He stands and walks closer and she gets closer as well.
“You sound surprised,” Gally chuckles and shrugs before pulling off his shoes and rolling up his pant legs before sitting down.
“You helped me, I owe you a debt, don’t you remember?”
Y/N pulls herself onto shore and lays on her stomach but remains in the water.
“I… I wasn’t sure you were going to come back,” he admits
“Of course I do…” Y/N lays her head on her folded arms and looks up at the sailor, studying him.
“Well, did you think of your wish?”
“No, I’m still trying to figure out what I want,” Gally looks down and his cheeks tint red.
“You don’t know what you want? That’s rare for a human,” she explains.
“Well what would you recommend I wish for?”
“I don’t know, humans usually wish for money, power, love, trivial things like that.”
“Love is a trivial thing?” Gally raises one eyebrow high as he questions Y/N.
“It’s freeing… the thought that I’m constantly in motion and not tied down to any one piece of land is comforting. I didn’t really start because I WANTED to be a sailor or work with water, I was 18 with no family and needed a job. Then I fell in love with it. It’s easy to get lost in the ocean, on land people can focus on you too much…” Y/N stares at him in thought for a moment.
“I wouldn’t know,” Y/N admits as her tail waves back and forth with the movement of the ocean. “Why do you work with water?” She starts with.
Gally looks out into the ocean for a bit and thinks of how to word his thoughts.
“How about your own boat and crew?” She reasons. “A lot of sailors would kill for that…” Gally shakes his head as soon as she suggests it.
“No, I have no desire to be in charge of a crew. If you asked me a couple years back maybe but now I know it’s not for me.”
“What’s it like living on land?” She questions instead of trying to dissect what he said. Gally shrugs and sighs.
“I’m not here much but I share a house with the crew and all they want to do is drink and talk about the local women. It’s… suffocating. It’s like you’re in competition with everyone around you. On the ship we all have a job and place but on land it’s like you have to outdo the person next to you.”
“When do you go out again?”
“We set sail again in another 2 months,” he answers.
“I can make someone fall in love with you,” she offers and stares ahead at the sand.
“Nah, if I get into a relationship I want it to be authentic and real, not magic.” He explains.
“You’re a difficult man Sailor Gally,” Y/N smirks showing a bit of fangs and Gally chuckles in response.
“Now you sound like my captain… How does this all work? Like your magic, where does it come from?”
“Everyone is born Sailor Gally,” Y/N smiles.
“Magic has always been there, there’s no explanation I have, it’s like your voice, it’s a part of you that you’re born with and just use. It’s just something my body is born with, same as my tail and hands.”
“Were you… born?”
“No… I mean…” Gally takes a deep breath and tries a different approach. “I’ve heard stories that some mermaids are women who fell overboard and drowned but were saved by a kiss and changed into mermaids themselves… Is that true?” Gally looks into Y/N eyes and waits for her answer.
“It is possible to be changed that way… they rarely FALL though,” she spits the word and a little bit of a hiss comes out. “Usually they are thrown overboard by other humans. Do humans really believe women aren’t allowed on ships because it’ll wreck?” Gally takes a deep breath and slowly exhales it.
“There are some sailors who believe women don’t belong on the ocean and that having one as a crew member is bad luck… yes. I don’t know if I fully believe it but my crew has never thrown ANYONE overboard since I’ve worked it.”
“Do you work with women on your crew?”
“…no…” he admits and she studies him a moment.
“So it means at least your captain believes it…”
“How did you become a mermaid?” Gally dares to ask.
“Do you need more time think of a wish?” She counters instead of answering.
“Yes…”
“Then I’ll leave you for now, tomorrow I’ll be back. Hopefully you have a better idea of what you want. Farewell Sailor Gally,” She flashes her sharp teeth again and shoves her body deeper into the water before disappearing again.
Gally stared at the still waters for a moment before standing and gathering his things again. He had been here for about 3 hours. Tomorrow he at least had a better idea of what time to come.
“You’re going to see that sailor again aren’t you?” She accuses.
____
Y/N prepares to meet Gally when she’s stopped again by Brenda.
“He still has a wish to make,” Y/N swims around her.
“He’s keeping you coming back to give himself time to set a trap.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“This can only end badly.” She warns before Y/N swims far enough away to not hear her anymore.
Just like before Y/N scans the area before revealing herself to Gally.
“Y/N,” he greets before walking barefoot to the edge of the water like the night before.
“Sailor Gally, hello,” she answer backs.
He sits down and she rolls onto her front and stares up at him.
“You don’t know what you want do you?” She asks and Gally stares at her in silence for a moment before shaking his head. “Eventually you’re going to have to give me an answer, I can’t come back forever…”
“Why not?” He challenges and his eyes shine.
“I’m not supposed to hang around humans too much,” the mermaid stares ahead and the statement hangs in the air.
“I wou- I have no reason to hurt you…”
“Humans tend to find reasons to hurt us.” Y/N made unwavering eye contact with him; Gally breaks it first and looks down.
“How old are you?” He asks.
“I can’t remember, over 200,” she answers and Gally’s eyes widen.
“Years old?!”
“Yes, we age differently than you…”
“Yeah I can tell…” he chuckles surprised.
“How old are you?”
“I’m 23,” he admits.
“You’re young,” he chuckles.
“So what do you do in the ocean?” He asks.
“You’re a curious young human aren’t you?” he gives a hearty laugh.
“What do you do on land?”
“Mostly wish I was back on the water… I read a lot. I like to be by myself, it’s hard to get some alone time on a ship with a bunch of other guys. So on land I take advantage of that.”
“Read?” Y/N’s lips move oddly around the word.
“Do you know what a book is?” Gally tries not to sound judgmental in his question, he genuinely wants to know more about the being. Y/N shakes her head no and Gally takes a moment to try and think of how to explain it. “Books are stories that you can hold, reading them is how you find out what they are saying…” Y/N nods and processes what he says.
“We gather and one of the mermaid’s tells a story and we all listen, usually it’s the oldest.” Gally nods.
“Books are like telling stories to yourself that someone else has created. The act is called reading.”
“Can you show me these books?”
“Yes… do you want me to read to you?”
“Yes, please, I want to know what human stories are like.”
“Okay, I’ll bring one tomorrow,” Neither of them pointed out that they never agreed for her to come back or that he still hadn’t decided on his wish yet.
The next night Gally grabs a copy of Alice and Wonderland and a lantern so he could see.
"Heading out again?" his crew mate Tim asks.
“Yeah… you know me, can’t stay trapped with you all too long…” Tim doesn’t say anything else so Gally gives him a nod before leaving.
It doesn’t take long for Gally to get to their spot, he doesn’t question when he started to think of it as their spot but he tries not to think too hard about it. He rolls his pants up and brings the blanket as close to the water as he could get before sitting the lantern down and lighting it with a match.
“What’s that?” Y/N startles Gally but he catches himself quickly.
“It’s a lantern, it helps me see in the dark,” he explains while getting himself situated.
“Your eyes don’t do that?” Y/N tilts her head in confusion.
“No, human’s need light to see, sometimes moonlight is enough, sometimes it’s not.” Gally chuckles and Y/N pulls herself as high up the beach as she can go to be closer to the sailor.
“Why are you so far?” only the tip of her tail is touching the tide by the time she’s close enough to him.
“The lantern and book can’t get wet,” he explains and she reaches for the lantern but he catches her wrist before she gets too close and closes the glass door to block the air from the flame. “You can’t touch fire, it hurts.”
“Fire,” she tests the word. “Why do you use it if it hurts you?”
“Your teeth can hurt you but you must use them,” he points out and she ponders his statement for a bit. “It helps us see, and cook, it also gives us warmth.”
“Cook? What is cook?”
“It’s what humans must do to our food to eat it.”
“You call it cook? We call it clean.” Gally gives a small smile at her mix up.
“We clean our food too, that’s not what it means though… It’s hard to explain. We burn the food so it’s not raw… It makes it warmer and tastes better to us,” she makes a face, “also if we eat an animal or fish after it’s just been killed we could possibly get sick and might die.”
“So you get hurt from fire and sick from food, I’m starting to question all the stories I’ve heard about the terrifying predators called humans…” Gally throws his head back and lets out a bark of a laugh at that. When he calms down he finds Y/N smiling, not enough to show teeth though.
“Are you going to show me this… book of yours now?”
Gally picks up the Alice in Wonderland and hands it to the siren. She turns it around and feels the cover before he reaches over and opens it so she can peek inside. She pulls it away a bit and stares at the letters trying to make sense of the symbols before closing it again and staring at the picture on the front and handing it back.
“Tell me the story,” she orders and Gally gets more comfortable.
“It’s long; I can’t tell it all in one night.” He explains and she nods once before he starts into it.
The next night Gally once again grabs his book and lantern, they got through a good chunk of Alice but didn’t finish. Gally had to cut the meeting short after 4 hours. Y/N protested but Gally explained he needs sleep. She let him go with a promise to return. The time to set sail was getting closer and Gally actually had to work during the day preparing for their next voyage.
“Off again?” Tim stops Gally before he leaves his room.
“Yep, just a stroll and a read before bed,” Gally explains as Tim narrows his eyes.
“Well don’t stay out too late, and stay safe.” He calls as Gally is already walking away.
Gally closed the book but kept his finger as a marker, looking up to show the mermaid she had his full attention.
___
"I have a question,"
"What's a rabbit?" Gally blinked realizing they made it a good chunk into the book without her knowing what a rabbit was.
"It's... an animal on land, it's fluffy and has big feet so it hops a lot. Anymore questions well we're talking?"
"What else do you have questions about?"
"Yes what's 'hops' mean?"
Gally laughs before getting up and hopping to show her what exactly it meant.
"What is a hat?"
"Still don't know your wish Sailor Gally?" Y/N smirks knowing the answer.
They spent hours talking about land versus water. Gally learned about more about fish than he ever learned as a sailor.
It was near sunrise when they finally parted.
"Not yet sorry..." Gally smiles back and she pushes herself back into the ocean fully before diving down and disappearing for the night.
Off to the side, out of sight of both Gally and Y/N, Tim sat having followed Gally and watched his interaction with a mermaid all night. The first hour he was convinced he was dreaming but now he knew for sure that his fellow sailor was interacting with a siren. Once he seen them start to part Tim got up and rushed to beat Gally back to the house to not raise suspicion.
Once back at the house Tim racked his brain trying to figure out his next move. Gally was literally flirting with danger. The fact that sirens were real was still shocking to him, this was life changing. People would travel days to see a real life mermaid. Tim thought back to the freak's tent at the circus. He wasn't an idiot. He knew that trapping the siren would be no easy feat, he would need the help of the whole crew for this. How would he convince him of the truth though?___
"Do you have a mate?" Gally chocked on the strawberry he was eating. Instead of reading like normal they decided to have a picnic. Y/N was curious about human food so Gally brought her different fruits.
"By mate you mean?"
"A perfect match... a partner for always... Do humans not have them? I know you can fall in love..."
"Yes we have them I just... was surprised by your question."
"Ok... well do you have one?"
"Uh no... it's hard being with someone when most your time is spent on a ship. Human women usually like guys who are around or who are of a higher class or someone they could relate to..."
"Do you usually have a hard time relating to other humans?" Y/N grabs a grape while she waits for his answer and chews it slowly making a sour face at the sweetness that Gally smiles at.
"Yeah, I just, I've always been alone so you kind of get used to it..."
"I understand... sometimes I leave to go alone for long periods of time. It's not smart for a mermaid though, we can die or get caught alone. It's best we stay in groups."
"Were you alone when you got stabbed with the spear?"
"Yes, I was just taking a swim alone, I shouldn't have been so close to the surface but I wanted a closer look at the moon." Gally looks up at the night sky and nods.
"It is beautiful," Gally agrees.
Once again out of sight of the mythical creature and sailor, Tim and another crew mate Mark sat in astonishment at the interaction.
"I don't believe it," Mark says in shock.
"You see it with your own two eyes. that's why I brought you here. As proof for everyone else.
"Do you think Gally is going to trap it?"
"No... look at them? Eating fruit on the beach? it's almost... romantic."
"He's not just going to let us take it..." Mark points out.
"He doesn't have to let us do anything! Once we convince the Captain to trap it, it's him against us. He's out-maned. I just needed you as my witness. Do you know how much money we could make? How famous we could be?"
"Come on, lets go back to the house and talk to Cap before Gally is finished with his date."____When Gally returns right before sunup he's surprised to see his captain an older man by the name of Janson sitting at the dining room table waiting for him.
"Captain?"
"Sailor Gally, I was waiting up to tell you the news..." Janson looks intently into the younger man's eyes for a moment before finishing his sentence. "We're setting sail tomorrow morning, you have a day to get yourself in order... say your goodbyes and such." "I have no one to say goodbye to Cap," Gally reminds him but the Captain just smiles.
"Of course... Most of us don't..."
"May I ask why we are leaving so soon? I thought we had at least another couple weeks?"
“Do you want to know how I became a mermaid?” Gally was shocked by Y/N’s question.
"Job came up, real money making opportunity, I'd be stupid to pass it up..." He smiles and Gally gets an uneasy feeling before nodding and walking to his room.
_____
The air is tense, both the human and mermaid were upset by the fact that this would be there last meeting for who knows how long. Gally would be shipping out tomorrow before the sun was even up.
“Yes,” he said quickly.
“A long time ago, before you were born, even before your parent’s parents were born I lived in a town far from here. The townspeople were scared because of things these little girls were doing. To keep themselves out of trouble they tried to blame others. It didn’t take long for things to get out of hand,” she pauses to take a deep breath and it comes out shaky before she continues her story. “The townspeople accused me of being,” her nose scrunches up a bit a she looks a little lost. “a witch… They ran this… trial… they threw me far into the ocean with a rope tied to my stomach.” She chuckles a bit but Gally doesn’t find anything funny about it. “I didn’t know how to swim then… They were supposed to pull me back but they weren’t quick enough. Before everything went black a mermaid swam towards me. Her name’s Brenda but I didn’t know it then. Do you know what a mermaid’s kiss is?”
“I think so…”
“When a mermaid kisses a human, they can turn into a mermaid. We don’t do it as much anymore, humans can’t be trusted as much as they used to. It’s only used on human’s that are drowning. I don’t really remember my first life… just my death, in bits and pieces, Brenda filled in the rest.”
By the end of her story Gally felt tears in his eyes. He mourned Y/N's past life and their death. He can't imagine how scared Y/N must have been in their final moments but he was glad they were at least still with him.
They spent the rest of their night in silence, a comforting one where they watched the stars and moon and listened to the ocean crash against the sand. Gally was done ignoring the romance of it all but knowing he loved Y/N doesn't change anything. The sun starts to show itself but they didn't rush to part like always, instead they watched it rise until the danger of Y/N being spotted was too much. As she starts to push herself into the ocean she asks again "Do you know what you want to wish for yet?"
"We're not really asking kid," Captain Janson explains kneeling in front of Gally.
"Yes..." Gally didn't finish the sentence however and Y/N didn't pry just smiles and fully submerges herself into the water. They had an unspoken understanding it seems. Gally walks back to the house and wonders if he'll see her while on the ship but given how little privacy he has aboard and the fact that Y/N isn't that reckless he knows that probably won't happen. He'll just have to wait until they dock again. The energy in the house is weird when he returns but not too different from the normal sail off days so he ignores it. No one blinks twice at Gally coming in when most of them were waking up. It's pretty normal for seamen to spend all night out the day before they leave again. They'll just assume he was at the pub or spent the night with his best gal, they don't need to know his best gal wasn't human. He packs what little clothes he has and walks beside his crew to the dock where their ship sat. Gally felt unease being around his crew but chalks it up to the fact that for the first time in his life he had something worth sticking around for, he wonders briefly if this is what others meant when they said they wished to go home. Gally wasn't the smartest man but he knew that him and Y/N would never fully work. They were from two different worlds, literally. However he wants her as long as he can have her, if that means secret meetings under the moonlight where they spend hours talking that was fine by him.
_____
"I'm not doing it." Gally was exhausted, he should have known something was wrong when everyone was acting so strange around him, plus the shipping out early but he had no idea they knew about Y/N.
"Sorry Captain," he stares at the floor and remains quiet again.
"Come on Gally, there's other fish in the sea," The other crew mates laugh at the joke. "Just let us catch her and you can find yourself a nice octopus to settle down with..."
"Shut up Tim."
"That creature can hurt you, they rip the flesh off of sailor's bones for a snack, they lure good men to their death for breakfast-"
"If she's so dangerous why do you think catching her is a good idea?" Gally spits blood out of his mouth directly onto the Captain's boot in a weak attempt at defiance and gets a backhanded slap for his actions.
"That thing could get us a lot of money. You may never have to work hard again. Come on, orphan like you, no family, no ties, you could set up roots, clean up, get some female attention that actually has two legs." The crew chuckles again.
"There's no amount of money in this world that will make me help you catch her." Captain Janson looks down in frustration and stands up before punching Gally straight in his jaw, once, twice, a third time before Tim stops him and pulls him back. Gally lets his head hang in defeat.
Away from the crowd Tim whispers his idea to the Captain.
"He's not gonna give it up... but maybe, their bond is a two way street..."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean he won't say where the siren is and maybe the siren feels the same way... Maybe it won't let him die..."
The Captain thinks the statement over for a second before looking back at Gally. He was stubborn as a mule. They beat him bloody and he still hadn't given them any information. Clearly going to get the creature wasn't an option but maybe, just maybe they could get the creature to come to them. 
“I wish Y/N was here,” he thinks as the water gets darker around him further from the light he sinks. His lungs start to burn screaming for air. They don’t understand what’s going on, they think he’s holding his breath for the fun of it. Things start to get hazy when he sees a back mass heading full speed to him. 
______
“Oh great a shark,” he’d laugh if he could.
He fights to keep his eyes open, he’s getting light headed. The creature comes closer into view and he finally sees it’s not a shark but Y/N. Gally immediately believes it to be a hallucination conjured by his brain to comfort him in his final moments. She grabs his face with both hands.
“Gally,” he can hear her voice so clearly in his head, like she is really speaking to him, just like it would sound on the beach. “Please hold on, I’m here now,” she reaches behind him and suddenly his arms are free, she must of slashed them with her claws. She grabs one of his hands and shoots upward swimming as fast as she can. The water sloshing around them makes it harder for Gally to see and without air he’s already fighting not to pass out anyway. Gally has enough sense to remember the crew awaiting to trap his friend and he uses his last little bit of energy to thrash around and tug on her hold on him until they stop. When Y/N stops swimming and comes face-to-face with him again he notices the water is lighter again, like they are closer to the surface.
"I hope they don't see us." He could feel Y/N confusion but she doesn't try and pull him to the surface again.
He wishes he could tell her it’s okay, that he’s sorry, that he’ll miss her, but he can’t speak. He closes his eyes when she grabs his cheeks again and can feel himself falling into unconsciousness. Right before he slips completely under he feels a softness touch his lips
“I love you Y/N” he thinks before everything goes black.
His eyes open and he feels different… weightless. Gally is confused, “is this heaven?” he thinks, before a movement catches his eyes. Y/N is in front of him and touching his cheeks again.
“Gally,” her voice is soft. He knows now it is heaven. “This isn’t heaven…” she explains and he blinks, his eyes feel different. He looks around. He still looks like he’s in the water. That’s impossible, he’s dead, he has to be. Is heaven in the ocean? Or is his heaven with Y/N and because she’s a mermaid he’s in the ocean. “Gally!” He looks up at her.
“How are you speaking without opening your mouth?”
“I need to explain somethings. Gally you aren’t dead… I- do you remember the story of how I became a mermaid?” Gally thinks back to the conversation they had on the beach before and nods. “You’re a mermaid… I kissed you.” Her eyebrows furrow and her lips are downward. “I’m sorry…”
Before she could overthink too much he grabs her face and smashes his lips to hers. Their first kiss he didn’t get to enjoy it because he was on the cusp of death. Her body pulls closer and molds against his and she wraps her arms around his waist as she kisses back. It’s when her arms touch his hips he realizes a change. He pulls back and looks down. His tail is a yellow with a gold shimmer and the fins are black.
“I have a tail!” He hears a giggle as he swishes it through the water. “Wait how do we talk… can you read all my thoughts?” He looks back up at Y/N and she shakes her head fondly.
“Above the water we can talk like you did before. Down hear I can’t hear your thoughts… It’ll take you some time but you’ll learn the difference between communicating and thinking. Basically if you look at another mermaid and talk to them in your mind they’ll hear it. Don’t direct thoughts at another mermaid don’t look at them or picture yourself talking to them or they’ll hear it. For a while you should only look at me if you’re trying to talk to me until you get used to it.”
“I’ll probably offend other mermaids for a bit…”
“No, you won’t meet others for a while. I have to keep you from the others until you learn how to be a mermaid…”
“Are… are they upset about me?” Gally’s voice comes through worried.
“No… it’s just the rules whenever a human is changed. I’ll explain more later.”
"Wait, where are we? Are we still where you found me?" Gally becomes frantic and Y/N has to grab his cheeks to stop him from literally swimming in circles.
"Calm down, we are far away from the surface and away from the ship, what happened?"
"My crew turned on me, they found out about you somehow. I think one of them followed me to the beach one night. They wanted to trap you but I refused, that's why they threw me over. I think they were hoping you'd save me."
"I did save you," she corrects.
"I know but I think I sunk too deep if you broke the surface they would've caught you," Y/N gets this soft look on her face, almost fond.
"That's why you fought me when I tried pulling you to air," it wasn't a question but Gally nodded anyway.
"Gally you spent your last human moments protecting me?" She squeezes his cheeks which she was still cradling while he explained what happened and smashes her lips to his for a third time.
The merman melts into it and moves similar to how he would move his legs he manages to wrap his tail around hers and she giggles against his lips before pulling apart, Gally chases her lips and she allows a few a few more pecks before placing a clawed finger on them to stop him.
"I love you Sailor Gally," she smiles softly and if he still could he would be blushing.
"I wished for you, you know?" He says instead knowing she already heard his confession earlier.
"I know..."
60 notes · View notes
love-and-monsters · 4 years ago
Text
Cold Sea Monster
M sea monster X GN reader, 2,713 words.
Winter is a rough time for monsters who usually live in the tropics. Luckily, he can rely on you to keep him warm. 
There was a lump in the blankets of your bed. You prodded at it, lips pressed together to hold back a giggle. “You can’t stay in there all day. You know that, right?” The lump wriggled away from your touch. “Come on. I need to make the bed.”
“No, you don’t.” The voice was muffled beneath the cloth. The lump curled into a tighter ball.
 “I do. And you need to get out of bed sometime today.” You tugged at the edges of the blanket, trying to force it up. Claws hooked it from the other side, pulled it back down. You swallowed hard against the tidal wave of giggles.
“I’m hibernating.” The lump shifted and you managed to get the grip you needed to wrench the covers up. Your partner wailed as the cold air touched him. “No! Give me back the blankets!”
 “Get out of bed,” you said, staring firmly down at him. “It’s past noon.”
He slunk slowly out from under the covers, gazing at you with enormous, sorrowful eyes. His dark, fishy eyes gave him a look like a kicked puppy. Luckily, he’d given you the look so many times, you were immune.
“Don’t look at me like that,” you said. “You can go get in the hot tub, if you want.”
Getting a hot tub had been expensive, but absolutely necessary when your partner was amphibious. He was covered in pale blue scales that melted into skin on his belly. Brightly colored fins stood on the top and sides of his head and his long tail ended in an enormous, frilly fin, though it was folded down most of the time. He crouched on his long, digitigrade legs, peering at you with soulful, sad eyes.
“It’s so cold,” he whimpered. You rolled your eyes.
“I turned the thermostat up.” Keeping a tropical boyfriend warm in the winter was a pretty big task- even with the thermostat in the seventies, he still shivered and complained.
He looked sorrowfully at the electric blanket as you tucked it away. His mouth gaped in an enormous yawn. It was quite a change to see him now from the summer- he was usually energetic, but the instant the temperature started to dip into the forties, all his enthusiasm seemed to drain out of him.
“I set up a fire downstairs,” you said. “And a humidifier.” The drying effect of heating a house wasn’t great for an amphibian either. He yawned again, standing to his full height. He was much taller than you, with long limbs that helped him move through the water.
“Okay.” He snagged a quilt from his blanket pile and wrapped it over his shoulders. “Are you done?”
You smoothed down the last of the bedsheets. “Yeah, I’m done. Do you need me for-”
Before you could finish your sentence, he had seized you and pulled you into his arms. You yelped, startled, though not entirely surprised. He had a habit of picking you up and hauling you around. “Where are we going?”
Instead of answering, he simply pulled you into the living room. The fireplace was going, and there was a humidifier humming away in the corner. A heating pad sat tucked in a pile of soft blankets.
He wasted no time burrowing into them, you still in his arms. “Hey,” you said, squirming. “Come on, Morgen, I have to go to work.”
He rolled over, smushing you underneath him. “You work from home!”
“Yeah, on my laptop. Which is in the office. And not here,” you said. Morgen grumbled.
“What I mean is, there’s no way they can tell if you’re in the office on time or not. So…” He squirmed over, trying to give you another sorrowful, big-eyed look. It was a bit diminished by the fact that he was mostly covered in blankets and it was hard to see his face.
 “Look,” you said. “It’s past twelve. I’m technically on a lunch break right now, but I am going to have to go back to work eventually. And you’re going to have to let me go eventually.”
 “That’s what you think,” Morgen said, puffing up his chest. “I could lie here all day. And you’re going to lie here with me!”
You stuck out your tongue at him. “What if I have to go to the bathroom?”
“Ugh.” He gave you a playful shove. “Why do you always have to ruin all my perfectly laid plans?”
“If reality has started screwing up your plans, maybe they weren’t perfectly laid in the first place,” you pointed out. Morgen wrapped you in his arms and pulled you further into his enormous nest of blankets.
“Shh,” he said. “Be quiet. Let’s take a nap.”
There was more work to be done and a billion other things you could be taking care of at the moment. But it was so warm under the blankets and Morgen was rubbing at your tense shoulders in a way that felt so nice after hours of bending over a computer, and the idea of crawling back into the cold office and staring into a screen was sort of depression.
You groaned and rolled over, pressing your face into his shoulder. He made a quiet noise of triumph next to your ear, squeezing you even tighter. “Yes. I win!”
“Yeah, sure,” you grumbled. “Hope you like going to bed alone because I’m going to be staying up late finishing all my editing.”
“Noooooo,” Morgen wailed. “I hate going to bed alone! It’s so cold.” Despite that, he didn’t make any attempt to release you. If anything, he clung tighter. You snorted, stroking your fingers along the top of his head. His fins twitched as you ran your fingers along them. They twitched and jerked under your ministrations. His fins were so delicate and sensitive. Apparently, they could pick up subtle changes in the currents when he was underwater. On land, they made him very ticklish if you played your cards just right.
One of his ear fins twitched wildly as you ran a calloused fingertip over it. “Cut that out,” Morgen said sleepily.
“Yeah?” you said, scratching at the thin membrane. “What are you going to do about it?”
Morgen made a noise that could generously be described as a snarl and less generously described as a snore and rolled over onto you. “Gotcha,” he mumbled, wrapping his tail around you. “Now you’re never getting out.” You were completely smushed under him, though he was leaning back so you could still breathe. His tail was twitching, fins slapping against your back. It was rather funny, the way he wagged his tail when he was comfortable.
There was very little you could do to actually get him off you. He was pretty heavy and as he started to relax, the weight only seemed to increase. It was still pleasantly warm under the blankets, though his skin was cool against you. You closed your eyes, running your hand along the top of his head.
You startled awake abruptly. Your head was hazy and confused and your sense of timing was completely lost. It could have been thirty minutes or six hours for all you knew.
Muzzily, you poked your head out from under the pile of blankets. Morgen was still on top of you and he protested sleepily against your movements. After a moment of craning your neck, you caught a glance at the clock.
“Morgen, you need to get up. It’s two thirty.” He groaned, attaching himself even tighter to your side. “I need to work, come on!”
“No! I’m sleepy and you’re so warm.” It was impossible to get up with Morgen attached to you. He was so tall and his gangly limbs meant that he could very easily attach himself to you and he couldn’t be pried off.
“It’s past two! I need to work.” You kicked the blankets away from you and shivered. Even with the fire on, the warm was still pretty chilly. Morgen whined and retreated back into the blankets like a deep-sea creature recoiling from sunlight.
“You’re going to abandon me,” he said. He blinked at you from under the blankets. Somehow, having the blankets tangled around him only served to make him more pathetic. “Your boyfriend… all alone… cold and abandoned.”
“I’m not abandoning you! I’m going to be one room over! You’re going to be asleep, you’re not even going to notice that I’m gone.”
“I’ll notice,” Morgen said sorrowfully. “I always notice.”
You hesitated, then crouched down next to him again. “Okay. I think I have a plan. I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?”
 He looked suspiciously at you, but he let you leave. You trotted to the office and carefully pulled your laptop free from its nest of wires.
Morgen had fully buried himself under the blanket when you returned. He peeked out as you stopped next to him. “You brought your computer,” he said.
“Yeah. Budge over, make some space for me in the blanket.” Morgen was only too happy to do so, rolling over and lifting the blankets so you could shuffle in next to him.
It was sort of hard to write while lying on your stomach. Resting all your weight on your elbows hurt after a bit, and it was awkward to type. Morgen didn’t help in any way. He was half-sprawled over your back, a heavy weight that pressed you into the ground. Despite all the discomfort, though, you didn’t want to change your position. Morgen made little, sleepy noises of contentment as he pressed his face into your shoulders. Occasionally, he would even move to press kisses to the base of your neck. It was utterly delightful.
The afternoon dragged on. It was impressive how much Morgen could sleep, really. And such a change. It was strange to think about how much temperature affected his mood. You looked at him, curled against your side. He wasn’t quite entirely asleep, you thought. It was more like the sleepy hazes your childhood cats had gone into. His eyes were closed, but his fins twitched at the slightest sound and you could see his eyelids twitching every now and then.
You only ended up working for a couple of hours. Not only were you getting stiff from trying to type on the floor, but you were also growing increasingly distracted by Morgen. He had started to stir and was clearly trying to get your attention.
“Do you need something?” you said, finally pushing your laptop away. Morgen beamed, tail wagging so hard it shifted the blankets aside.
“I think I just got it,” he said. He tucked the blankets securely around you. “Want to put on a movie?”
“Are you actually going to stay awake through the whole thing or do you just want something in the background while you go to sleep?” you asked. Morgen tried to look innocent and utterly failed.
“It’s not my fault the cold makes me sleepy,” he said. “You can put on whatever movie you want! I won’t even complain if it’s one of those really boring ones.”
“The Poltergeist is not a boring movie. You just have no appreciation for subtlety,” you said.
 “It’s so subtle that nothing happens,” Morgen said, rolling his eyes. “I don’t get why humans are so scared by it.”
There was no way either of you were going to win the argument, so you just grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Morgen wasted no time in sprawling himself across your lap, still smothered under several blankets. In the end, you put on an animated move you’d both seen several times before. Morgen said the way the water was shown reminded him of home, and you liked the story and bright colors.
Morgen dozed on your lap as you half-watched the movie. In truth, you were more paying attention to him. you worked your fingers over his scalp, scratching against the fins. He made little noises of satisfaction, leaning into your touch. For a water creature, his cat-like behavior was rather funny.
“I can’t believe how much you can sleep,” you said as he started awake and shifted his position on her lap. “You’ve barely been awake for two consecutive hours.”
“It’s the cold,” Morgen said. You ran your hand along his head and he pressed into the touch enthusiastically.
“Does the cold just make you more sluggish or does it actually make you need to sleep more?” you asked. Morgen rolled onto his back, his head still resting on your lap.
“This is just a guess,” he said. “I’m totally speculating here based on some stuff I’ve heard, but I think it’s mostly accurate. So, my species lives in tropical areas, yeah? But it was thought that in the past, we lived somewhere a little more temperate, that sometimes got cold snaps. And when there were cold snaps, in order to conserve energy, we went into a hibernation mode, where we all gathered together and slept until temperatures rose again.” He yawned, showing off his large canines. “Sorry. Anyway, when we moved to more tropical areas, we stopped needing to hibernate, but we still have the genes for it.”
“Which means that spending time in the cold is triggering your need to hibernate,” you said. “That’s why you’re sleeping so much. Your body is trying to hibernate.”
“Mm,” Morgen murmured. “My body wants to find somewhere warm where I can sleep until the temperature rises.”
You stroked your hand over his head again, fingers twitching. There was an abrupt feeling of nervousness coalescing in your stomach. “It must be hard. To fight that.” You played with one of his fins. “Is it uncomfortable?”
“I’m sleepy a lot. And cold a lot,” he said. “It’s a little uncomfortable, I suppose.”
You pursed your lips. “Would it…” There was something choking happening in your throat. Morgen blinked up at you, waiting for you to keep speaking. You cleared your throat a couple of times. “Er. Would it maybe be easier for you if you did hibernate? I mean… If that’s’ what you’re supposed to do in the winter? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
Morgen looked up at you with his big, soulful eyes. “If I’m asleep, then I can’t spend time with you.”
You snorted. “You’re avoiding hibernating because you’re afraid I’m going to miss you?” It was unreasonably sweet and it was also fairly accurate. You pushed your sorrow away, though. It wasn’t fair to him, to force him to stay awake for you. “I mean, I will, but it’s only during the winter. And you’ll be awake sometimes. I’ll manage. You’re not the only person I talk to, you know.”
Morgen’s fins drew close to his face and he gave a small, slightly sheepish smile. “I wasn’t really worried about you missing me, exactly. I was more worried about me missing you.”
You made a noise of surprise. “You’ll be asleep. Are you even going to notice?”
He flicked his fins out and in, his version of a small shrug. “I think so,” he said. “I haven’t just been wanting you around because you’re warm. I love you a lot. I want to be with you.”
“I know,” you said. You couldn’t keep the emotion out of your voice and Morgen smiled, pressing his face into your stomach. “But I don’t want you to make yourself sick or something because you’re not doing what you should during the winter. And I really don’t want you doing that on my behalf.”
“I’m not doing it on your behalf,” Morgen said, his voice muffled. “I’m doing it because I want to.” He turned his head to blink sleepily up at you. “Trust me. I’d much rather spend time with you, even if I’m a little sleepy, than spend all winter asleep.”
Your eyes stung with tears. You sniffed. “That’s the sweetest thing I think anyone’s ever said to me.”
Morgen lifted his head toward yours, smiling. “It’s true.” You bent down and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He sighed, reaching a hand up and pulling you down to kiss you more firmly.
“See?” he said as you broke apart. “I can’t get that when I’m sleeping.”
168 notes · View notes
chitto · 4 years ago
Text
I Analyzed All Of the Songs on Ranboo’s Lore Playlist and Here’s What I Learned.
We can pick a few themes out from the songs: 
Time
Fighting something inside of you 
Alluding to a villain arc 
Transition of a person 
My biggest theory from all this is that c!Ranboo is a time traveler from the future (probably before Mizu but after the Haunted Mansion). He traveled to the past, November 27th specifically, to stop c!Tommy’s exile. We can assume that in c!Ranboo’s future, c!Tommy burned down c!George’s house by himself but when c!Ranboo went back, he got caught up in it, thus creating a time paradox. (Evidence from the songs Merry-Go-Round of Life, all songs of Hawaii - Part Two by Miracle Musical, and The Ruler of Everything). Now knowing he is the cause of c!Tommy’s exile, c!Ranboo feels immense amounts of guilt for his actions, the regret keeping him up at night (Ain’t No Rest for The Wicked). This mental stress is something that has resulted in the beginnings of insanity for c!Ranboo (The Mind Electric). 
A villain arc is very plausible for c!Ranboo in the near future, most likely brought up by harm coming to c!Tubbo or Michael (Killer Queen, Mr. Bad Guy, I Can’t Decide, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, and Live and Let Die) 
Full Analysis on Each Song Under the Cut: 
(All Song Lyric Analysis Credits go to the wonderful people on genius, I merely fit them into the context of the DreamSmp and c!Ranboo) 
Prologue (StarKid) - A simple ticking clock. ARG trailer tie in as well as even more references of time. 
Introduction to the Snow (Miracle Musical) - Comes off an album that (storywise) has the listener loop over and over the songs in the album, as a time paradox. 
Dream Sweet in Sea Major (Miracle Musical) - Final song in the album (loops). Occurs in three movements. Tells the story of a sailor that gives himself up to the mermaids. Lyrics don’t give much in terms of hints at anything. 
Turn the Lights Off (Tally Hall) - About a journey through puberty and adolescence (??) perhaps could be changed to fit. However main name of the song is meant to convey accepting differences and confronting fears, something c!Ranboo doesn’t really do. First line also says ‘Don’t go in there, you’ll become one, Freaky creatures, monster party’ perhaps relating to the enderwalk/possession c!Ranboo goes through. 
The Mind Electric (Miracle Musical) - The song starts off in reverse, the singer speaking backwards. Once the song straightens out, we’re shown that the protagonist of the song is a mentally unstable man trying to figure out what triggers a specific fear. The second verse then goes into a young child who’s been held trial for insanity. The child and the judge then have an open dialogue throughout the rest of the verse until the child is sent to an asylum. The song concludes with insane yet peaceful thoughts from the child. Obviously I’m not a psychiatrist but doing some light research into insanity (NOT psychosis, as insanity is more of an umbrella term for unstable mental state while psychosis is a specified disorder) you can see a few signs of insanity that could be applied to c!Ranboo. ‘Denial of obvious problems’ Many times c! Ranboo has dismissed or downplayed his issues and problems, most notably when he’s found in a panicked state by c!Sam who asks him if he’s okay, to which c!Ranboo replies that he’s fine. ‘Delusions or Hallucinations’ this is a big one as throughout the Doomsday arc, c!Ranboo spoke to c!Dream in his panic room, only to realize he was talking to no one. ‘Dramatic changes in sleeping habits’ This is more of a reach as we have no actually confirmation but it could be assumed that c!Ranboo’s enderwalking could be disrupting his sleep patterns. 
Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney) - a song about a once young person who used to say ‘Live and Let Live’ but has now changed their maxim to ‘Live and Let Die’. Could be said that as people grow older they grow more cynical. Granted the phrases mean the same thing but one seems much more pessimistic. 
The Ruler of Everything (Tally Hall) - Once again a song about time, the entire song meant to symbolize how time controls our lives (once again feeding into a time paradox theory). The song has a verse that is a man and Time itself singing. The song then starts to speed up, representing how short periods of our lives can be in the grand scheme of things. ‘Do you understand that mechanical hands are the ruler of everything’ This lyric of the song is meant to mean that time (the mechanical hands of the clock) are at the root of everything, once again drawing us back to a time motif with Ranboo’s character. This specific line could lead us to believe that c!Ranboo is being ‘controlled’ by time, aka perhaps caught in a time travelers loop. 
Merry-Go-Round Of Life (Howl’s Moving Castle OST) - While the song itself is an instrumental without words, one could do some digging into the story of Howl’s Moving Castle, spoilers for the film in this analysis. In Howl’s Moving Castle, there is a sequence in which Sophie goes back in time to find Howl, seeing him as a young boy. She calls out to him, telling him to find her in the future, before getting taken back to her time. It seems pretty insignificant until you remember that in the beginning of the film, during Howl and Sophie’s first interaction he says to her, “There you are, sweetheart, sorry I’m late. I was looking everywhere.” thus representing that Howl has been looking for Sophie his entire life after she called out to him in the past. So what does this mean for c!Ranboo? Well its just more time motif and even more time paradox themes. But what even is a time paradox? A time paradox is when somebody who has traveled back in time, becomes a part of the past and causes the events they set out to stop in the first place. Perhaps this means c!Ranboo traveled back in time to stop c!Tommy’s exile, as it was a catalyst event that resulted in many problems on the server (L’manberg’s second destruction to name one) before getting sucked into the events that caused it himself. 
Killer Queen (Queen) - Really can’t say too much for this song as the song is meant to convey how “that classy people can be whores as well” (Freddie Mercury). Freddie also said that anyone else could call their own interpretations of the song as well. I can’t really think of too much about the song that could be molded to c!Ranboo. 
Mr. Bad Guy (Freddie Mercury) - This one is more interesting as the bridge of this song details how Freddie is ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ and that he can ruin people’s lives and many people are afraid of him. This could sound like something c!Ranboo would say in relation to someone trying to threaten the people he cares about. c!Ranboo going to any length for those he cares about (most notably his family) is something that recently cc!Ranboo has tried to drive home, making it a tweet under his character’s lore thread on twitter. 
Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked (Cage the Elephant) - The main line of this song is a bible verse that means that those who are sin-free can sleep well at night knowing they haven’t done anything wrong but those are commit sins need to keep one eye open at all times. Perhaps c!Ranboo believes that he has done something wrong that keeps him up at night. It could be tied back to the time paradox theory by saying that c!Ranboo is kept up at night by the fact that he couldn’t stop the bad events from happening, even becoming a part of them. 
The Bidding (Tally Hall) - While the song itself is about an auction in which men are trying to “sell” themselves to a woman, I would like to call attention to one specific verse. ‘I’ve been training like a Pavlov dog,  Let my independence out to take a hike, All you gotta do is activate my bell, and I’ll fetch you anything you like’. The first lyric calls reference to Ivan Pavlov, who ran a conditioning experiment on dogs, training them to associate the sound of a bell with food, whether they actually got food or not. The last two lyrics I find particularly interesting as we have seen somebody “activate” c!Ranboo. c!Sapnap. After c!Sapnap visited c!Dream in prison, c!Dream asked c!Sapnap to deliver a message to c!Ranboo. The message being ‘:)’. When c!Sapnap repeated the message to c!Ranboo, c!Ranboo immediately switched and began to speak in enderman language before wandering off. He then spoke to c!Sapnap in chat saying, in ender, “Doomed are those who try to run, for it always catches up eventually :)’. This is one of many incidents of c!Ranboo being switched into his enderwalk state, in which he does stuff for c!Dream such as burning down the community house. 
I Can’t Decide (Scissor Sisters) - This song is a upbeat song about a psychotic killer trying to decide on whether or not he should kill his victim. This song could relate back to c!Ranboo’s relationship with c!Dream. c!Ranboo has been very cagey on whether or not he would like c!Dream, most recently being very eager to break into prison and murder him. This song could also hint towards a possible villain arc for c!Ranboo. 
Stardust Crusaders (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures OST) - Unfortunately, this song is another instrumental. And even more unfortunately, I don’t watch JJBA so I can’t comment on what the song could be alluding to. Stardust Crusaders is the name of an arc of the show but reading through the plot summary on Wikipedia doesn’t turn back anything that could be tied to c!Ranboo. 
A Mask of My Own Face (Lemon Demon) - While the song itself is relatively simple, a man singing about how he wants to wear a mask of his own face to confuse people, a few lines have sparked certain people to examine the song deeper coming to the conclusion that the singer wants to cause chaos and controversy. The mask of his own face would allow him to mask his identity, as no one would wear a mask of their own face, while still allowing him to be associated with the chaos. For c!Ranboo I can’t really see this pointing to anything but the Syndicate. c!Ranboo really does believe in their core value of dismantling the things on the server that are bad but also he knows many people he’s close to who are at odds with members of the Syndicate, most notable c!Tubbo. However this could be rather lose as cc!Ranboo is a big fan of Lemon Demon and who hasn’t put a song from their favorite artist on a playlist even though the vibe doesn’t necessarily fit. 
Stranded Lullaby (Miracle Musical) - Another song of the Miracle Musical album Hawaii - Part Two, which loops itself over within the story. This particular song is about a sailor sailing through a cerebral ocean, which may or may not represent time itself; the sailor being a time traveler who had a mistake in his time traveling. This once again brings us back to the theory of c!Ranboo as a time traveler. There is also a line I would like to call upon, ‘Aimless thoughts and papers blown around, A million moments meant remembered rest in deep dark sound’. These lyrics are meant to relate to memories and how truly fleeting some may be, just papers floating in our brains eventually lost to time. This obviously can relate back to c!Ranboo’s memory problems, which are a known side effect of time travel, as told to us through the story of c!Karl, the only other time traveler on the server (excluding c!Connor who is only theorized as a time traveler for right now). 
Hidden In The Sand (Tally Hall) - This is slightly complicated as the song has two meanings. On the surface, the song is about a man who falls in love with a woman who leaves him, however the man is still in love with her. But in the music video, a new meaning can be found. The music video shows a cruise full of people, all very nice and kind until the ship begins to sink and the real, selfish, sides of the people is revealed. ‘Hidden in the Sand’ is meant to symbolize that a persons true nature is covered up by their outward acts and personality. This could apply to c!Ranboo, as he is outwardly very polite and gentle, growing attached to every animal he finds and refusing to kill any Enderman but he could have a whole other personality to him that we don’t know about. If songs such as ‘I Can’t Decide’ and ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ are any hints, we could theorize that c!Ranboo has a secret dark side to him that could be exposed in the events of his family being threatened. 
Now I’m Here (Queen) -  No statements or theories about what the song means or any of the lyrics. 
& (Tally Hall) - This song, as with others off this particular album, deal with opposites. The whole chorus of this song is about certain opposites such as dark and light or cold and hot. Relating back to c!Ranboo, perhaps this song is meant to tell us that c!Ranboo is a foil of a certain character. Possibilities could be c!Dream and c!Ranboo, as c!Dream is very against attachments towards things and is a very outwardly violent person while c!Ranboo is attached to almost every animal and enderman (not to mention c!Tubbo and Michael) and is a very peaceful person, or perhaps c!Ranboo and c!Karl, the two time (theorized) travelers on the server. c!Karl has a stronger control over his abilities and seems to retain most of his memory fairly well so far while c!Ranboo perhaps can’t control his power and has short term memory loss and can’t remember where he came from. 
I’m Gonna Win (Rob Cantor) - This song is a description of a fight between the singer and his inner demons, the fight resulting in very physical injuries for the singer. This can relate back to c!Ranboo, as he could be fighting the demons of his enderwalking state. This song has a very cheerful outlook on the fight however, as the singer is very confident in his abilities and knows he will win. c!Ranboo isn’t always the most positive, sometimes believing more in the pessimistic outcome but this could be a new leaf for c!Ranboo or a goal of his to be more positive. 
74 notes · View notes
thehappiestgolucky · 3 years ago
Note
I have several questions about merm au (the loveliest of aus)
Does Quirrel have any wierd habits or bits of knowledge that humans shouldn't have that get cleared up when he finds out?
How did the human crew (and Quirrel) meet?
How do merfolk react to Quirrel before & after the reveal?
What does Zote do? Is he just kind of a background guy or is he important?
Does Soul Master get hit with the consequences of his actions?
Do Quirrel's "parents" find out that he knows at any point?
How mad does Monomon get about her baby being forced to forget as well as being forced into a different form?
What exactly is the infection in this au?
Are the vessels still void? Or something else?
Did Myla hit Soul Master with crystals in that first picture set? Why was his arm behind his back? Who all was caught in the net?
How did Bretta and Myla find out they had magic?
Do they just meet up with their merm friends on the beach or anywhere else as well? How do they hide the merms from other humans?
(I just like digging into character interactions and lore don't mind me.)
Thank you! I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it lately huh-
He does! He has a strange knowledge of oceanic creatures despite not studying in that field that the human crew just brushed off as “Well he’s smart of course he knows odd facts”. Turns out it’s because he’s lived with them for a while. He also is completely fine with eating random sea/ocean plants that his friends went “bruh wtf lmao” - but didn’t really think anything more because the entire group is made up with people that have more odd habits anyway. He was also oddly critical of mermaid movies and seemed to be super confident in the behaviours he criticised and corrected - people just thought he was oddly passionate. Turns out he knows because he is one-
It started with Quirrel meeting Lemm by being in similar uni courses and becoming friends. Later Quirrel ran into Bretta and got along - and she introduced the two to the rest of the group.
When Quirrel was thought entirely human - most merms were a little apprehensive of the whole human group at first. Just because merms and humans weren’t buddy buddy - but the merms that talked to the human group and knew of them warmed up to them when the human crew showed they had no intention of screwing with the merms. When Quirrel ended up showing he was actually a merm it just got getting used to him being underwater and not just a human - they already knew his character.
Zote is more comedy relief background guy. He sees the merms but being the old man he is he instead mistakes them for people wearing costumes and starts ranting about ‘young’un these days doing all this weird stuff’. He works for the boating business near the beach - owned by Elderbug - who the human crew know and like.
Y E S
They get a hint when he finally completely cuts contact with them that something happened - but they’ve been distanced for a while and even if they tried to confront him to woo their way back - well having a human squad and merm squad ready to throw down is certainly a great detterant-
She’s furious at the parents but she’s mostly more worried and upset for Quirrel. And incredibly grateful she found him again and got him back, even if her heart aches that he lost some years with her. If she ever met the parents it’s on sight 🔫
The infection this time is a magic based sickness that used to stain the ocean - only infecting merms - until the Radiance appeared and magic kept it at bay to let other merfolk start arriving to let the land flourish - under the watch of Unn. She wasn’t planning on PK arriving to make a kingdom - but as stated before a mutual agreement was made to prevent the innocent mortal merms from getting hurt. The infection plagues the mind with violent and terrifying thoughts as it slowly makes the merm return to base feral instincts.
They are still void yes. Not murdered by their parents tho - what happened is that they grew up for a bit before something killed them. PK has his future vision - saw that there was a way at letting them have a chance of a second life since it was snuffed out too soon - at the cost of them never remembering their original parents. Buried in the depths of the void the siblings emerged and are now the void siblings we know and love. (Yes with Hollow still missing an arm - some having their cracks in their head ect.). Since they didn’t mass murder babies this time they didn’t have a lot before their kids died. What killed them? Either a god specific illness or an attack - not quite sure yet.
Nope she didn’t - buuuut she did damage the ship and force them to have to get repairs and buy the crew more time to save merms - after the crew released their friends and boated away becuase they were still very outnumbered. No real reason - it was just a generic “I’m the baddie” pose. Tiso and Grimm were in the net - having split for a while away from the group. Luckily they got rescued thanks to Myla “Haha crystals go brrrrr”
Haven’t fully figured that out yet - all I know for sure is that it was a surprise to everyone because everyone just assumed they were all normal humans. Surprise - actually witches and warlocks among them-
They meet at specific times in a very private section of the beach - knowing when there’s gonna be very few humans to have to worry about spying on them. They also keep the merms submerged leaning on rocks to give the illusion they’re normal humans just talking whilst in the water.
23 notes · View notes
prettyboy-asmo · 4 years ago
Text
Aquarium Date
Pairing: Diavolo/Reader(Gender Neutral reader)
Pure fluff/attempt at humor- SFW
Summary: Diavolo asks about your favorite things to do in the human realm, and you tell him about aquariums. He decides you should go to one together.
Huge thank you to @jugodeflores for motivating/ encouraging me to write this and also beta reading for me!
“MC,” You look up Diavolo from your D.D.D, wondering when he’d stopped doing his own paperwork. Instead, his gold eyes focused on you as he propped his chin on his hand, “What’s your favorite thing to do in the human realm?” 
“Well, I guess it depends,” You tell him, smiling a little as he listens to you speak with intense curiosity, “Do you mean day to day, or special occasions?” 
“Special occasions?” He questions, leaning forward in his seat now.
“Yeah, Like vacations, day trips, or dates and stuff.” 
“I’m interested in special occasions,” He answers. 
“Okay, Well, I never really went on vacations or traveled much,” Which in a way, is what had prompted you to sign and mail the mysterious exchange forms that had found their way in your mail one day, “But I liked taking trips to the cities I lived near, just to explore and find new places and stuff. There were a couple of water parks around, and some carnivals during the summer, along with an amusement park a few hours away, a few museums too. I think my top favorite was the aquarium though, alone or for a date.” 
You watch the Prince tilt his head slightly, his expression urging you to continue. “There’s just something about the experience that never gets old for me. Seeing all the different creatures that I wouldn’t see otherwise, and it’s more than just looking at fish too, sometimes they have live feedings for certain animals, and the one I went to had penguins and sea otters and A jellyfish tank. I could watch the moon jellies for hours. And there’s information on everything housed in there, so you can learn about them while you observe them. I went for a field trip in second grade and I fell in love with it.” 
“That does seem like it would be an entertaining experience.” he grins warmly at you, “Let’s go to one.” 
You blink at him, processing his words, “Huh?” 
“Let’s go to a human realm aquarium. I want to experience one with you.”  You feel your face flush when he laughs, “I’ll make all the necessary arrangements.” He already looks so excited that you can feel your heart melt. It’s not like you’d have said no in the first place, but you nod your agreement anyways. 
So a week later you’re visiting the human realm, Your hand gripping Diavolo’s as the Demon Prince led you along to the aquarium he’d chosen to visit. It wasn’t very often you got to see him in casual clothes, So while he was focused on your destination you took some time to admire the way he looked in the dark red button down and black slacks. It was kind of unfair, really, how good he looked. 
Soon, though, you had reached the doors and Diavolo was paying the entry fees, taking a map and leading you into the building farther before stopping and turning to you, “What should we do first?” 
“Well,” you pondered, glancing at the pamphlet he held out to you, “There’s a show with the dolphins in two hours if you’re interested in that. Until then, we can start here and work our way through the building, unless there’s something you want to see right now.” 
Diavolo shook his head, “I want to see it all.” and with that he sets off again, his enthusiasm drawing a laugh from you as he leads you in the direction of the exhibits. His eyes light up as you walk into what you note is supposed to be an exhibit on the Amazon, and the look of wonder that graces his features is something you want to commit to memory for the rest of your life. 
You move along the tanks, and he leans in close to each one. Sometimes, you’re able to point out a specific fish and give a few facts about them, and sometimes you read him the trivia posted around the exhibit.
“It kind of reminds me of Leviathan,” Diavolo says suddenly, prompting you to turn from the sign of facts about Piranhas you’d been reading. You can’t help the laugh that you let out when you see he’s observing a rainbow boa that’s draped lazily on one of the many large branches in its enclosure. The pattern along its body does indeed remind you of Leviathan’s demon form. You don’t have time to respond as Diavolo takes out his D.D.D, double checks the flash is off and snaps a picture. 
You try to peer over his shoulder to see what he’s doing, but with a grin he finishes typing and turns the phone toward you. The Picture of the snake is there, soft iridescent sheen on it’s skin visible along with the pattern, under it is a short message that simply reads, Is this you? And you can only imagine how Levi will react when he opens that message. The thought is amusing but it quickly drifts to the back of your mind as Diavolo starts moving toward another enclosure, attention captured by something there. 
You follow him through the rest of this exhibit, letting him lead you around the rooms and take as much time to observe everything he wants. You’re glad he’s so tall, otherwise you might be afraid you’d lose him in the crowd with how suddenly he seems to take off to other exhibits when something catches his eye. The interest and child-like excitement that continues to shine through him rubs off on you, and soon enough your hands are intertwined once again as he pulls you gently along. You make it through a freshwater fish exhibit before you decide it’s time to head to the show. 
As you’re heading there you pass a group of young children clearly on a field trip, and apparently heading to the same show you are. A few of them stare at you- or, more accurately, Diavolo. One of them whispers to their friend, a not so quiet- “He’s really tall, like, as tall as a superhero!” You feel the soft chuckle Diavolo lets out, biting back your own laugh. Diavolo though turns back slightly, sending a wink at the pair before guiding you to your seats for the show. 
Now, instead of his grip on your hand he wraps his arm around you, pulling you flush against his side. It causes a slight blush to dust your cheeks, but you lean into his side anyways, enjoying the closeness of the moment. “Are you enjoying your day so far?” he asks as people continue to find seats, shuffling around and settling while waiting for the show to begin. 
“I’m having a lot of fun,” you tell him honestly, your own smile bright, but your conversation is cut short by the show beginning. You both give it your attention, though every so often, after a dolphin performs a particularly impressive trick or amusing maneuver, you glance at the demon beside you to see his reactions. Each time he laughs in delight you can feel it move through him, and you can feel the way his arm tenses around you during tricks, can see the awe in his eyes when the trainers explain some of the mannerisms of the animals, the relationships they form with one another, and efforts to help the earth’s environments to help the natural habitats of the animals. 
After the show, you end up at the touch pools- something that sets off a whole new level of excitement in Diavolo. He’s extremely careful when he reaches in, fingers gently grazing the creatures sitting in the shallow water. “It’s fascinating,” the Anemone his hand brushed against swayed gently with the movement of the water. 
“You don’t expect them to feel so...squishy, right?” 
You go through a few more exhibits after that, and you even manage to sneak a few photos of Diavolo, your favorite being the one where he’s nearly leaning against the glass of the beluga whale enclosure, one of the creatures on the other side  staring right back at him, the delighted expression on Diavolo’s face is priceless. You also manage to send it to Lucifer, knowing he’d appreciate it as much as you do.  A while later, Diavolo takes your hand in his again. 
 “The Aquarium is hosting a jellyfish exhibit for a limited time,” he says, leading you along to a staircase that has another attendant standing at the top, “I got us the passes because you said you liked them.” He hands the attendant the passes, who nods as you continue on down the staircase. Even in the dimmer light as you reach the bottom you can see the faint tinge of pink on his face. 
“You didn’t have to do that,” you squeeze his hand, smiling up at him, “but thank you, I love it.” 
The pace you took around the exhibit was slower now, moving along the dim rooms and taking minutes at a time to watch the strange creatures drift through the lit tanks. It’s quieter here than the rest of the aquarium, and less crowded, probably due to the fact that it required additional passes- but it feels almost serene, despite the low chatter of the other guests roaming the rooms. 
“I believe I understand what you meant when you said you could watch them for hours,” Divaolo says next to you, his golden eyes are tracking the movement of the Jellies, his features bathed in the blue glow of the tank’s lighting- it makes everything feel softer somehow, the way his lips are curved into a smile, how his hair falls just slightly into his eyes, even his gaze. 
When he turns to you there’s something else in his eyes that makes your face heat up. “They really are beautiful,” he says, and you realize he’s leaning in closer, as he continues, “Almost as beautiful as you,” he finishes, and even though there’s sincerity in his voice- even though you know he doesn’t lie- you have to fight the urge to roll your eyes. 
“That’s...so cheesy.” you say, but you can feel your own grin on your face, your hand squeezes his tighter, and you lean up, almost completely on your toes to meet him in a soft, quick kiss. “Thank you for this,” you say earnestly, “I’m happy we got to come here together.” 
“As am I. I should thank you for putting up with me dragging you around all the exhibits, I’m sure you are used to a more relaxed atmosphere than that.” 
“I think it’s cute.” You answer, satisfaction washing over you at the blush that covers his face, “I like how excited you are. It means I can tell you’re having a good time.” 
He chuckled slightly, “I would say any time spent with you is good.” 
The two of you lingered in the Jellyfish exhibit for a while, silently admiring the displays. 
When you finally emerge you have to blink at the sudden increase in light, but Diavolo is already leading you along again. “I was told that these sort of trips aren’t complete without a visit to the gift shop.”  
“I guess that is kinda true,” you admit, following him into the shop. Immediately, something catches your eye. “Dia, look!” You hold up an almost perfectly round stuffed seal in your hands, squeezing it’s soft sides slightly, “It’s so cute!” It’s little flippers dangle slightly as Diavolo looks at it- and you- with unveiled amusement, “Feel it!” 
He takes it from your hands, squeezing it slightly. “It is incredibly soft,” he turns it over in his hands, squishing it again, “Do you want one?” 
“Wait- really?” 
“Why would I ask If I didn’t really want to know?” 
“I do like it,” you admit- “Reminds me of you, in a way.” 
Diavolo looks at the Seal’s face, then back to you, “It reminds you...of me?”
“Nice to hug. Cute.” 
“Is that so?” Diavolo’s cheeks are flushed pink again, and even though your own face feels warm you can’t help but admire the ability to make the Prince of the Devildom blush. He tucks the seal under his arm without saying anything else- and then it seems that a display of t-shirts catches his eye. “All proceeds go to charity. MC, do you know this charity?”
You glance at the sign. “I do! It’s a good one, they support a lot of rescue habitats and environmental efforts- and they actually use their money for what they say they do, unlike some.” 
Divaolo’s eyes shine as he takes in the shirts, Colorful cartoon fish decorate the fabric, and bold, bright letters declaring “Don’t be Shellfish, Protect our Oceans,” are written on the front. He moves to the display, rifling through the shirts before pulling out three different sizes. 
"Three?"
"One for Lucifer as well!" 
You laugh out loud at the mental image of Lucifer wearing the shirt and nod, "Good idea."  Diavolo wanders around the shop a bit more, when another stuffed animal catches your eye. A beluga whale. Your mind flashes back to the delight on his face when you’d snapped that picture of him and the whale earlier that day. You pick the stuffed beluga up, it’s large and, to your delight, is just as soft as it looks. You glance over at Diavolo and see that he’s distracted by a book display, so as stealthy as you can you make your way to the cashier with the whale. 
You pay, thanking the cashier, then make your way to the door before calling out, “I’ll be waiting outside, Dia!”  
It’s not long after he exits the gift shop with a curious expression, multiple bags gripped in one hand and the seal tucked back under his arm. “MC?” 
You hold the whale out to him, “I thought you’d like this,” you say, pleased by the fondness obvious in his expression, he frees the seal under his arm, handing it to you and taking the gift. 
“I adore it. Is this why you left before me?” 
You grin, squeezing the seal with one arm and linking your free hand with his, “I wanted it to be a surprise, as well as a thank you for all of this.” 
You feel like you’re half asleep when you get back to the Devildom, eyes drooping and legs slightly aching from all the walking you’d done that day. You eat dinner with Diavolo, and then you insist on joining him in his study when he says he has some paperwork to finish before he goes to bed. 
You’re curled up in one of the armchairs, the stuffed seal Diavolo bought you under your head like a pillow as you watch him do paperwork. You feel your eyes droop, slower to open them each time. Eventually you decide it’s easier to give into sleep, figuring Diavolo could wake you before he went to bed for the night. 
“Dia,” You mumble, waiting for him to look up from whatever paperwork he was pouring over now, “Thank you for today. I love you.” 
He smiles softly back at you, “I love you, sweetheart.” You give him one last smile before curling up tighter and letting yourself fall asleep. 
157 notes · View notes