#my dream is people who don’t know about the mermaids seeing this

[frozenjokes]

A Little Question About Love (It’s Not Little At All, Though Scar Is A Bit Frustrated It’s Not As Simple As It Is On TV)

“Hey, thanks again for driving me to the zoo all week, G, I really appreciate it. Still can’t believe how stiff my arm is, I mean, yeah, I expected it to hurt for a while, but I’m so sore!”

Grian chuckled in the driver’s seat, but kept his eyes on the road as he turned onto the street where the employee parking lot was located. Given how massive Scar’s zoo was, it took quite a while to navigate the surrounding area, so he needed to maintain some focus. “So sore you can’t bring your other one up to the wheel either? That sounds pretty bad, Scar, maybe I should turn this car back around and take you home. You might even need to go back to the hospital!”

“No! No no, that won’t be necessary. I just can’t drive, Grian, see, the seatbelt pushes real hard on my arm and shoulder and when I lift it like that it’s so much worse! Blame the seatbelt, blame the seatbelt.”

“And your other arm?”

“Have you heard of phantom pain?”

“Pretty sure we already discussed that’s not how phantom pain works, but sure Scar, go on.”

“Agony, Grian, agony. Can’t lift my arms,” Scar caught Grian’s eye, throwing him a wink, “Only in the car though. A very specific problem, nothing any doctor could address without wasting hours of our time.”

“Our time?”

“Well, duh, you’re my driver!” Scar laughed, and Grian joined him, unable to help himself. Scar could never accept an injury as it was and let himself rest when he needed it. Always moving, always working; that was the Scar way. An idle Scar was a miserable one; it didn’t matter what he was doing as long as he was moving, though he always did prefer to have someone to talk to. It’s why he hated to be at home for too long, or worse, the hospital he frequented as a result of his recklessness. Grian had a theory it’s why he hated driving as well. Sure, it wasn’t quite idle, but sitting still and focusing was not Scar’s forte. Of course, Grian didn’t mind.

He was content with the small silence as he pulled into the parking lot, but Scar would never let that stand.

“I’ve been thinking about something you said recently. I'm just curious, I guess.”

Grian tensed, glancing in Scar’s direction. He looked thoughtful, but in an impossibly neutral way, difficult to read. “Scar, that could mean anything, buddy. Gonna need you to be a lot more specific.”

“Oh!” Scar looked surprised, as if he hadn’t just said something deeply terrifying, “Sorry! Just thinking. It was with Mumbo, after he got upset and bit me, y’know. When I wanted to go after him, I mean. You were really worried and it kinda made me think and stuff.”

Grian deflated, his shoulders sinking a little closer to his chest, “Scar, I really don’t want to talk about that. You know it makes me upset.”

“No- it’s not about you getting upset, I know why you were and I really am sorry. That’s another thing that’s been in my mind but not the thing,” Scar began to ramble and Grian let himself fall back against the seat, resigned to the fact that this was happening. He didn’t want to have this conversation again. He just didn’t want Scar to get himself killed; a high order apparently.

Scar continued regardless, “It was more about.. I dunno, I mean, I’d say we’re pretty close. We’re close, right?” Scar didn’t give Grian any time to answer, “And you said that I mean a lot to you, and you mean a lot to me too, but I don’t know what that means to me, and then you said that I’ve got a lot of people who love me, but it kinda sounded like you were saying you loved me, and that’s great, I also have feelings that are like that, but I also also don’t know what that means really, to love someone. And I was just thinking about it. I love you, of course I do, but what does that mean? Does it mean anything? When you told me you loved me, what did that mean to you?”

Grian gaped. What the fuck else could he do. What the fuck was even happening here???

“Scar. Are you. What are you asking here. What are you saying.”

“I love you.”

“Okay.” Grian gripped the wheel so hard he was sure his nails would leave indents. He didn’t even bother trying to park; halfway between the lines of two spots would have to do. “You love me. What does that mean.”

“I don’t know. That’s why I asked you.” Scar was infuriatingly relaxed, like this was just a normal conversation with zero implications at all.

“I can’t tell you how you feel, Scar!”

“Well you said you loved me first, so I was asking you what that meant.”

“I didn’t- I said people love you, Scar, like your friends and family! That people would be very upset if you died doing something dumb- it- it wasn’t meant to be some kind of confession?”

“Oh, I didn’t think so!” Scar threw up his hands in defense, like that was at all obvious.

“Then what did you think?”

“I thought that you loved me.”

“Of course I love you- obviously I love you. What is happening here? Why are you so stuck on this?”

“I just don’t know what it means. I don’t know how to tell the difference and I thought that if you loved me you might be able to tell me. I feel like I love everyone the same, and that’s all sorts of confusing. I mean, maybe besides family love, but that’s more complicated, there’s like- layers.”

Grian had to fight to keep himself from gaping. This was not the conversation he thought he’d be having today. “Well,” he forced his voice back into a more even tone, something a little nicer, “For me, yeah, kinda. There’s a lot that goes into love, layers, like you said. There’s the kinda unconditional respect I have for most everyone, and it builds from there? Friendship of course, elements of physical attraction can further things sometimes. Attraction in general makes a big difference, and not just physical, it’s an emotional thing too. Personality. Mannerisms. It’s a slow thing for me most of the time. That’s not always the case though, some people fall fast. For me it’s like.. a slow infatuation with the wholeness of someone. Not necessarily loving every trait, but kinda respecting it, y’know?”

“Like friends.”

“Like- no, not like friends, like being in love. Romantically.”

“That’s friends though.”

“It’s not- Scar how many of your friends do you feel all those ways about- how many of your friends are you physically attracted to?”

“A few. Close friends, Grian, obviously. And come on, like all of our shared friends are hot, physical attraction can not be the deciding factor here, that does not make any sense.”

Grian shrugged. “We do have many hot friends.”

“I know! I think you’re attractive.”

If Grian had been drinking anything he would have spit it all over the dashboard, “You- Scar!” Scar didn’t seem to notice his words had any effect though, rambling on.

“I mean, seriously, what the hell is supposed to be the difference here! Platonic, romantic, I’m half convinced everyone has just been lying to me. I keep waiting for all these rainbows and sparkles to light up in my brain and go yup! There it is! That’s romance, that’s love, and it’s like- yeah love as in my friends who I love dearly, who I’d happily spend the rest of my life with if I got the chance-“

“-Scar-“

“-Yeah, I mean obviously when I tell you I love you I mean very explicitly every single one of those things you mentioned. Every! One! I don’t hand out ‘I love yous’ for free, I mean it. That’s not the same for everyone though, and that doesn’t bother me or anything, but doesn’t it feel a little confusing sometimes? So that wasn’t what you meant when you said that, right?” Scar looked at him so genuinely, so innocently, like that was the easiest question to answer in the world.

“Uhm. Yeah, I. Love. I love you, Scar.”

“Great!” Scar preened, apparently fully, completely, entirely satisfied with what just happened here, “This is great. Glad we’re on the same page.” And then he gathered his things and just left. Opened the car door, personal items in hand, and walked away with a goddamn smile on his face before Grian could even hope to yell out the window, WE ARE NOT ON THE SAME PAGE.

Instead, he buried his head in his hands, screamed a little, punched the passenger seat, let his face hit the car horn, then drove home, feeling overall very normal about that little conversation.

read the rest of the fic here

[sukioyakio]

Part two of

siren Sukuna

Previous part

an:I didn’t expect that people wanted more but anyway here we go 😝 i didnt. Proread this

Siren Sukuna who was inside the pond in the cave,just swimming to wake up his fins,the only reason why he stays in the cave is because underneath the pond it leads into the ocean.He had already heal your wounds from whatever attack you.

Siren Sukuna who instantly hears a loud irritating voice coming from the surface of the pond.He immediately knew that it was coming from the human mouth.He already started to swim up to the surface of the pond.

“Ahhh!!” You screamed out as you gasp out air as you look around to see the pond.You quickly realized that you woke up from a dream. A dream where you saw a giant looking half naked fish creature coming towards you and then eating you.Which wasn’t true as you start to relax,letting out a sigh.

“What a crazy dream”You muttered.

You saw that your knees were healed,which you didn’t question how they got healed as you started to move your legs.As you felt more confident to stand up going towards of where the light is.And then splashes sound come out the pond.

“And where you think you are going?”

Your body froze from hearing that low authority voice,as you slowly began turned your head to see the same creature that was in your dream.You started to sweat fear.

”Don’t tell me that you completely forgot about your deal that you made with me women”Sukuna question with as he glares at you.His reds eyes glowing like fire under the pond shine.

Siren Sukuna Who just wonder how stuipd you are,he could easily kill your with a flinch of his nail.As he watches how you are sweating in fear which makes him smirk in mockery.

You just gave up your soul,as you really didn’t want to die,as you walked towards the half naked fish creature,As you cursed yourself for making a deal with something like that. Now sitting on edge of the wet rocky surface of the pond. Sukuna was there watching your everything movement,and was even surprised of how quickly you summit to him.’wow,this women is seriously wont even fight back’

“You know fishy dude,I’m completely t-telling you the truth about how nasty tasting I am” You whisper with a bit confidence while stuttering.You refused to look at him,in fear of seeing his crazy sharp teeth.your hands shaking a bit. Sukuna looks at you completely amused by how confident you are to tell him that part;that his lips widened and then Laughter erupted from him,taunting you with his laughter.

Siren Sukuna who tells you the argument on the deal,You have to bring him food from the city and come back here so that you don’t forgot about the deal.In which your sparkle in delight because a thought of your running away from him and never coming come in thought.But Sukuna isn’t stuipd and put a spell on you that he can put to work whenever he wants. The spell is just a simple shock of pain onto your body.

Siren Sukuna Who for the first few days has never wanted to drown you or cut your mouth up.Everyday you would stay in the cave just minding yourself before you go find food or You started to ask him question about himself.And at times you beg for him to find somewhere where there is light instead of a dark cave.

”Sooo Mr Fish have you ever tried eating yourself?”You asked him without looking at him but instead at the ceiling of the dark cave.

“What-“

“Is there a reason why you have red eyes,I don’t hate it but do you think you could change my eyes colors like yours?”

“No Are you-“

“Do sea creatures speak to you?that really fricking cool if you can” You asked him with a wide smile,smiling to yourself. ”Stop it-“ ”Are you half witch half fish or Your half fairy half mermaid?” You asked him with your eyes shining in amazement at the thought of that.But quickly disappears after hearing his voice.

“Enough with the fucking question brat,before I drown you” Sukuna replied with a harsh tone,that made you shivering in thought. ——-

It was late at night when you were on your way back to the cave with a food that you got stole from people houses.In Which you were getting paranoid of someone following you.As you found the damn cave you ran into it,Completely scared of something grabbing you.You mentally cursed yourself out,at night the cave becomes a nightmare of yours.You couldn’t hear anything but your heavy breathing.

when you finally made it where the pond is,and the light from the pond dimmed quiet a lot in the night. You put the food down where it couldn’t touch the wet rocky areas of the pond.You look around to see if you could see Sukuna but you couldn’t see that well in the dark.

“Sukuna?y-you there?”You announce in the silence of the cave,to hear a sound coming from the direction of the opening,which made you flinch,you could hear your heart pounding in your chest. ‘I hate this cave so much’ you said mentally to yourself.

“S-Sukuna stop p-playing with m-mme. . . Please i hate this damn cave,S-sukuna I’m here” You voice so small and scrawny,as another sound was heard closer than the last sound.

“Sukuna! I-i. . . Swear to life-“

“Boo”

“AHHHH!!!I HATE THIS CAVE I HATE THIS CAVE So fucking Much I BEG YOU PLS FIND ANOTHER PLACE PLSS!!!” You screamed out loud as you jump and ended up falling on your ass,as you closed your eyes.As tears fall down your eyes.

Sukuna ‘s haunting laughter is the only thing revealing his presence inside the darkness.

You continue to close your eyes. As He began to speak as he wipes off tears from laughing so hard.

“Your so easy to scared,women ,God that was a good laugh”Sukuna said with a small chuckle as he was just behind you laying on a a large rock the whole time.

”That isn’t fucking Funny,I could’ve have a-a ..-you paused trying to think of the word your trying find-

“Heart Attack ,god You are so fucking stupid” Sukuna spoke for you with his hand pinching the bridge of his nose.

“whatever fried fish,Just please make a change of this damn cave and I got your food ” you mutter underneath your mouth finally opening your eyes and giving Sukuna a glare.

Siren Sukuna Who starts to notice things you do,and how you don’t bring yourself anything to cover up at night,or even when it freeze cold at night.And how you don’t talk much about your familywhich has this man thinking that they probably left because of how talkive you are which is a joke.But he doesn’t bring himself to talk about it because it doesn’t matter to be.

Siren Sukuna who really hates listening to your dumbass story’s. He says

“Then I was going to steal this beautiful cloak that I saw from a rich folk house,and I knew that it would be a challenge going into the house but hey it surprisingly it was easy,I mean the couple left their windows open like who does that unless they didn’t want me in their.I did get my shoulder badly bruised but-“

”and what happened to the cloak?you don’t seem to have it on you” Sukuna bluntly asked you,completely interpreting your story.His face unfazed but there a hint of curiosity in his eyes. ”I’m getting there” You said with a soft smile.

Siren Sukuna Who likes to tease you,it could be with his fin touching you which makes you jumpy or flicking your forehead off when you asking him a dumb ass question.Or pulling you into the pond wetting your body,as you scream in the water at him,ofc he doesn’t have a wide smirk on his face.

“Sukuna I am not gonna get myself wet” You exclaimed as you tried to appear serious about it. ”Oooh is the brat scared of liquid oh my come on what a little water going to do” He replied with a challenge look,Smirking with his white teeth in display.As his eyes had mischief in them. ”Y-yea no am n-not,just I don’t not want to get wet”You replied back with as you cursed yourself for stuttering.As you slightly move backwards from the edges of pond. Sukuna grab your waistline and drags you down onto the pond,As you scream out his name. His tail wagging in the water shinning his dark red fin tail.His chuckle would be heard even under the water. Moreover the water under the pool was very clear with colorful flowers(idk if there flowers underwater)He let go of your waist so you don’t drown in the water.As you started to swim up but you look down at his masculine body to see how pretty he looks with his fin and how his scales on his skin look mesmerizing. As you got on the rocky surface sticking out your middle finger to the surface in the pond.While coughing up water.He just look at you though the water smirking at your little Reactions.

Siren Sukuna who has been quite enjoying your company ever day (he won’t say that much to you).He also didn’t think of using one of spell that he hadn’t used in years.His transformation spell,giving him a human form.As he Only does this at night when he knows your asleep,he walk around the area of the cave to find another place for him to call home.And then he spot a water fall the water fall making a big pond with fishes and inside of it a cave.And he makes a path to let you know.

In which you Were very happy that Sukuna found a new place,and of course he knew you thought that it was some sort of magical guide that lead you there.

Siren Sukuna Who hates whenever you touch his scales,especially his back scales.His faces turns red,and his hand were already slapping your away from you.And he hates when you act so confuse about it.

“Sukuna?what did I do wrong?” You look at with doe eyes and with a raised brow in question,your eyes completely showing confusion. ”Nothing,brat”He says with a harsh tone,as he finds his face with hands,and hiding his flustered face. “Mhmm,can you fishes get sick?” You said genuinely ask him with a serious intent. And which that stop him,and genuinely look at you with a dumbfounded disgust at them.In which he grumbled about how ridiculous your questions are. “Oh my fucking god how the hell did you last this long alive” He harshly said to you as he scoff out.

I kinda lose hope for the last few sentence of them making common sense 😭.But I hope y’all like this one and see y’all in the next.

Please share your thoughts in comments,I always love reading them.

part|||

[the-stars-in-your-eyes-if]

☀︎NO DEMO YET☀︎ PLAYLIST ☀︎

☀︎SYNOPSIS☀︎

Your childhood friend has always dreamed of the big scene, of the crowd singing your lyrics, of a world tour. Max always wanted for your bands to succeed together. Until...

Well, it is was all a big stupid joke.

The real world caught up to you: you are no longer the naive child you once were. Writing a Grammy worthy album isn’t as easy as it seems and the big scene is nowhere to be seen. You navigate through life as you can, you party with your friends every Saturday and write music all week. You enjoy each one of your gigs – big and small. Your burning love for music doesn’t seem to fade. Your band brought together a solid community that crosses borders. You have fun with your band and it’s all that matter.

But you can’t help but fantasize that, someday, you’ll be at the top of the world…

Big stupid joke, right?

✮BATTLE OF THE BANDS IS BACK!✮

You thought 2020 was the end of us, uh?

You couldn’t be more wrong!

The worldwide known music contest is finally back!

We carefully chose the mentors of our beloved participants. This year will be all pink…

Make way for Pink Riot!!!

Application open to foreigners (check our website)

RATED +18

TW: explicit language, (occasional) violence, transphobia (one character is misgendered but just in one scene), use of alcohol and drugs, (soft) sexual content, parental abuse (flashback), depression, self-harm (warning will be in the "next" button), mention of suicide (same as self-harm)

☀︎FEATURES☀︎

– Customize your MC’s appearance and personality. You decide of their public image and persona.

– Your choices will define your band’s public image and popularity. Are they loved? Do they make underground or mainstream music? Are they the parents’ worst nightmare? The reference of rebellious kids?

– Decide your band’s aesthetic. Do they have one to begin with? Or do they each dress in their own style?

– Write your own lyrics!

– Engage in romantic affairs…

– ...or don’t, your choice!

– Are you going to help the people that cross your path or do you only care about yourself?

☀︎A BIT OF CONTEXT☀︎

Of course, this story is set on Earth.

But.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, antisemitism and fatphobia will get you in court.

You are not very well seen if you do one of those things and, if you’re a celebrity/politician/public figure, it can (and will) ruin your career.

I know that this isn’t realistic at all but I need to believe that, one day, this will be real. My characters have and will go through enough trauma and bad moments, I want to give them some peace.

And it feels really good to make a world where those things will ruin the oppressor and not the oppressed.

☀︎ROs☀︎

THE HERMIT — Diesel Di Angelo (they/them)

Diesel is the soul of the band, they bring a sort of osmosis. Their calm energy somehow has a place on stage and is liked by everyone.

Diesel took their first steps in the music world with Max and MC. It was just the three of them before the band grew bigger. Diesel is a talented guitarist, they worked hard to get where they are and they don’t stop improving. They are quite reserved and don’t talk about their feelings… Who knows what lies beneath their shell?

THE MISCHIEVOUS DRUMMER — Roman Lupin (he/him)

If MC is the backbone of the band, Roman is its beating heart. He has no problem to make the public jump from the back of the stage. He’s a spark that will light a bonfire.

Roman learned to play drum from his mother. He went to the conservatory but he didn’t stuck with it. Since a young age, Roman wants to have a band and to perform all around the world. Roman is full of life and he’s the human version of a sunshine. Is there something behind that smile or is he genuinely happy?

THE LITTLE MERMAID — Isra Wafa (she/they)

Isra brings magic to the band. Her mermaid low voice is unique and enchants the public. If you think you’ve heard good bass players, just wait until you see Isra on stage.

When Isra was a child, their parents let them chose an instrument to learn and to their surprise, she chose the bass. They fell in love with this low instrument. They navigated from band to band before settling for this band her boyfriend was part of. Isra keeps ignoring their responsibilities toward her family. For how long can they pretend it doesn’t exist?

THE REBEL ANGEL — Archibald “Archie” de Beaumont (they/he)

Even with a classical training, Archie managed to switch to their band’s genre without too much troubles. All the members affirm it: Archie is a gift from the universe.

Archie popped out of nowhere to audition to be the band’s keyboardist. He was the most talented person they saw all day and the chemistry was very much here. The band doesn’t know much about Archie, but it doesn’t matter. They are a good person and a dear friend. It wouldn’t change anything to learn about their life before the band. Right?

THE MANAGER — Cal Bremont (he/him)

Cal works in the shadow to make the band shines under the spotlight of the biggest stages. The band claims it, he is the best manager you could hope for.

Cal takes his job very seriously, he has a perfect work ethic. Maybe he is a bit too close to his clients and they may not just be clients… But, well, no one is complaining. Cal is very secretive about his personal life, he never mentioned his family or anything else. Can he maintain his relationship with his friends and still keep his life a mystery?

THE RISING STAR — Max Larash (she/her or they/them)

Max moved their band to the other side of the world and they managed to impose themselves on the west coast scene. We’ll keep an eye on them as they’ll compete against their former friends…

Because of artistic divergences, Max decided to leave the band when Isra and Roman joined them and they created their own band with high school friends. Max had big dreams for Sleep Walking and their friends in MC’s band, but it didn’t turn out as Max has hoped. Sleep Walking left the country for the USA without their friends and they intentionally lost all contacts with them…

THE MUSE — Olivia “Ollie” Madden (she/her)

You may have never see her face but, as a comics fan, Ollie Madden is a name far from unknown. None other than the comics artist and writer of the most followed comics, Ollie is still a mystery to her fans.

Olivia works for Blue Pegasus, a major comics book publisher, since years. She was the comics artist on a lot of books, it took her a lot of hard work to finally publish her own series. Olivia isn’t only a famous artist, she also is a single mother. She’s taking care of a lot by herself and it often leads to forget about herself. There is nobody to remind her she’s human and not a superhero…

THE PRINCESS — Katharina "Kat" Deluca (she/her)

We don’t need to present Katharina Deluca anymore. Success and awards seem to follow every movies our Lady K touched. She confessed that her break from the cameras and greens screens was to be present for her best friend… Athena Pierce.

Also known as the Princess, Katharina is one of the biggest actresses of her generation. Between two roles worthy of an Oscar, she is also a model and the face of the infamous designer brand: Beaumont-Griffin. She is in the industry since she was 12. But, behind closed doors, Kat doesn’t seem to have a joyful life… What is she hiding from the world?

GODDESS OF MUSIC — Athena Pierce (she/her)

Athena is a legend in the industry. Everybody wants to work with her and Pink Riot. Her voice will shatter your world, there is a before and an after Athena Pierce.

Athena is the lead singer and front woman of Pink Riot. She was a star child and charmed America with her angelic voice. But, with the creation of Pink Riot, Athena is no longer the little angel of the USA. She’s now known as a freaking rebel and she is quite provocative. She flirts with the limits all the time. Her persona is loved all around the world, but who is the real Athena?

☀︎CANON EVENTS☀︎

You can customize a lot of things regarding your MC and your band. But there are a few things that are canon.

— MC is born and lives in France. Where exactly is up to you. The only place MC can’t have grow up in is Paris. (I headcanon them growing up in Perpignan or Montpellier)

— The names of MC parents can’t be choose. I tried to make them as common as possible so you can choose their origins. MC is French but their parents can be from wherever you want!

— MC's age can’t be choose.

— MC is friends with Max and Diesel since they are 6. They were in school together.

— MC’s first band is with Max and Diesel.

— During high school, MC met Roman and Isra. They joined MC’s band but Max didn’t like the kind of music their band was into so they formed their own band with other high school friends (Sleep Walking).

— The OG band (MC-Max-Diesel) exist until the fateful break up.

— MC’s band and Sleep Walking always were there for each other and gave mutual support. They also create songs and musics together, some are only instrumental and other are with vocal.

— MC speaks French and English. Feel free to add a third and even a fourth language.

— MC lives with Isra and Roman since they finished high school.

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

‘Our Flag Means Death’ Star Rhys Darby on Stede’s Transformations & Hopes for Season 3

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Episode 8 “Mermen.”]

Our Flag Means Death saw Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) transform from a fish-out-of-water swashbuckler into the romantic hero he was always destined to be in the latest season of Max‘s original comedy.

After realizing the error of his ways at the end of Season 1, Stede sought redemption in the eyes of the infamous Blackbeard, a.k.a. Ed (Taika Waititi), after recognizing he was in love with the pirate. While the path wasn’t a direct one, they eventually found their way back to one another with the help of a fantastical mermaid sequence, some much-needed apologies, and ultimately a better string of communication.

Reflecting on his journey, star Rhys Darby is opening up about Stede’s various transformations in Season 2, including the excitement surrounding that mermaid tail, as well as about where he thinks the pirate lovebirds might end up next should the series return for Season 3.

Congrats on Season 2! Now that we can finally talk about it, what has it been like getting to see fan reactions, especially during the SAG-AFTRA strike?

Rhys Darby: Yeah, it was like a pressure cooker that needed to burst, for us and for the fans. When it finally came out, the burst happened and there was so much love for us, [but we] couldn’t talk about it. We were still stuck in this bottle and the cork wouldn’t come off, and that was difficult, but it was really lovely to see all the love and the surprise from everyone. Obviously, as you know, the fan artwork, it’s what we would say in New Zealand is pretty full on. So yeah, it was super cool.

And not that anyone gives out numbers, but I think I heard on the ethos that people [are] watching it, and it’s rating really high and at a time when we need this kind of beautiful love fest of comedy with a whole bunch of silliness to take us away from the disasters that are happening in the world. It’s been lovely. I just wish it was longer. I know people watch and rewatch and they’re so fanatical, but it’s just a comedy show, so to have any effect means so much to us.

In Season 2, Stede’s gone through a few transformations, one of which is that he’s a real pirate now, at least comparatively to Season 1. What helped you get into that new version of him? Was it the writing, costumes, or a combination of the two?

Yeah, the costumes are the first thing that comes to mind because once he starts wearing different gear, he looks at himself and goes, “Oh my God, I’m a different man.” And he really is turning from a man who is wearing these beautiful gowns with high heels and things inappropriate for a pirate ship to becoming an Errol Flynn-type hero straight away. That’s what they wanted to do with the character. So he’s lost a lot of that beautiful pageantry and is becoming a more practical guy who has to survive. He returns to this nightmare of a world because he wants to fight for love, and for want of a better term, “man up,” whatever the modern-day version of that is, “person up?” To become the guy that he dreamt of being in the first season.

He didn’t dream that he was going to fall in love with someone. He dreamt he was going to be this amazing pirate and that just was not going to happen. But then when he found this love, I think he went away from that [dream] going, “I don’t deserve this.” And then when he realized upon returning home that he does deserve it, he had to fight for it. And so the only way to fight for it was to drop the battle armor of the gowns and actually become the pirate he imagined being. So it was great to become that and to fight for that love and to thank god that [Blackbeard] didn’t die. He would’ve actually lost it, I think, because it would’ve been like, “Well, what am I fighting for now?”

I think it was just so fun to see that character change, but also within that change, see a bit of the old self come through, especially when he found that cursed red suit. And all of a sudden it was like, “Oh my God, the old me again, look how good I look!” So it was lovely that they had those elements… I was missing a little bit of the old Stede myself. So it was great to find that again. And then again near the end with the British invasion scenario where I got to do the big coat and everything, which of course looked awesome. You can see that moment where I put it on and did that slow turnaround. It was way more filmic shots of me wearing that kind of stuff. And I think that gave Stede's strength as well. So much of Stede's embodiment comes from the things he’s wearing.

Speaking of costumes, the big one of the season had to be Stede’s mermaid look. How did you wrap your head around getting ready for such a fantastical, and ultimately, beautiful scene?

That was the highlight of the whole season for me. As a kid, I used to swim around like a little merkid. I would put my legs together and I’d swim under the water. I’ve always been into mermaids and things because I’m into cryptozoology. So when I got to be a mermaid or a merman, I really took to it. It was pretty easy, to be honest with you. I didn’t have any training to swim like that. So the only training I did was some breath work beforehand to help me hold my breath longer. But that was kind of almost superfluous. Once I got that [tail] on, I just became a mermaid. It’s hard for me to describe how I suddenly become these things, but I think I just got under the water. I could swim really easily with it.

And I had weights on. So one of the things was we had to make sure I was the right weight so that I wouldn’t just float. That thing was sort of buoyant. So once we sorted that out, I could actually swim really well, and then just sort of hover underneath the water for a long time while [Taika]’s looking at me, I’m looking at him. To see it on the day, on the screen when I knew they’d got [the shot], there were just so many cheers, and I think they even played the music to see how the scene would work out. It’s one of those life moments where you go, “Oh my God, I’m becoming a cryptid again. I’m never going to forget this.”

This season really does focus even more on Stede and Blackbeard’s romance. How did you and Taika prepare for that? Especially since Stede’s more transparent about his feelings this time around.

It was good, and it was time. And because I was the new strong Stede, it felt really natural for me. I think it just worked really well with the writing because of the aggression that I was going through. When I was fighting that really bad guy [Ned Low (Bronson Pinchot) and] threw a violin at him because he ruined Calypso’s birthday, that was a good moment because it is not just about Ed, it’s about the crew, Stede’s family, and they were going through this amazing moment there, and all of a sudden this guy turns up and next thing we’re getting tortured. And I’m like, “How dare you?”

I think that progression of strength helped [Stede] break into the moment of, “I’m just going to take my lover as well now, and do something with him.” He probably had no idea what he was doing because it’s Stede, but it worked out and it was the right time in the show. Taika and I are really good mates, so it’s really easy to do emotional scenes together. As soon as we put our gear on, we’re just looking at that character, and we admire each other.

You and Taika have been known to improv on the show. Was there any improv moment from Season 2 you were particularly proud to see onscreen?

Yeah. Well, one, I noticed that some people are talking about that they thought was scripted, which wasn’t — most of the [scenes where] I’m with Taika are improvised in those emotional close moments — is on the deck of the boat where we’d do the thumb thing. That was all improvised on the day. So that was fun that we got that kind of stuff in. And there were some more little bits and pieces, but that’s one that comes to mind. That worked really well.

By the end of Season 2, Stede and Blackbeard have settled in to open their own inn. Do you think the peace and quiet will last in a possible third season, or will they get bored and want to rejoin the excitement?

Well, obviously as it stands now, it’s very lovely and it’s a nice positive ending, which is lovely for Season 2. But in reality, if you think about the characters, even in the fictional world, they’re both outlaws, they’re pirates, and the British back then… they never gave up. They did track down all the pirates and either hang them or get rid of them. There was only a couple that got away, and it certainly wasn’t those two. So I think what they’re thinking is, yes, this is bliss, but both those characters must be thinking, this is not going to last because you’ve got to sleep with one eye open.

Even though they’re in the middle of nowhere, they’re still in an area where everyone knows what they are, so they’re going to be tracked down. So I think if it was me, [they’d] end up back in action one way or another, especially if their inn is popular, which it probably would be. Word would get around. I mean, in those days, had you heard the Blackbeard and Stede had opened up an inn, [you’d have] to check that one out. It’ll be like Planet Hollywood.

There would be a wait-list, for sure.

Yeah, absolutely. Basically, they’re too famous now that Stede’s killed Ned and everything. He’s a famous pirate. So death is going to come to their door at some point. They’ll have to deal with it.

Do you think this version of Stede and Blackbeard’s story could avoid the fate of the real-life pirates?

Yeah, no, I think you’re dreaming if you think they’re going to live happily ever after.

Our Flag Means Death, Seasons 1-2, Streaming now, Max

Source: TV Insider

[s-che]

Monsterhearts 2: Plotting Anti-Plot

Last week I had the fortune to MC (and play) Monsterhearts 2 for the first time as the Dream Library begins a unit on monsters, monstrosity, and monsterfucking which will carry us through November, and boy howdy am I glad we managed to do it. 

For those who (somehow) don’t know, Monsterhearts is a game that bills itself as being about “the messy lives of teenage monsters.” It cites Twilight, Buffy, Ginger Snaps, The Vampire Diaries, and The Craft as media touchstones, it’s not joking when it says that these monsters are 1. messy and 2. teenagers. Monsterhearts is angsty, horny, frightening and, above all else, extremely fun to play. On top of that, Monsterhearts is also one of those games that, if you’re in a certain sector of the indie RPG scene, people will remind you is extremely fun to play all the fucking time. It feels sometimes like every designer I know has a good Monsterhearts story, and as much as Avery Alder’s reputation on a larger stage has been defined by The Quiet Year, I get the sense that for people who like what Monsterhearts is doing it’s an extremely hard game to beat. 

So to be totally honest, I was more than a little anxious MCing for my first time actually playing the game. There’s a sense in which hosting a game which you know is great can be way harder than hosting games you think might be bad — after all, if the session goes poorly, there’s nobody to blame but yourself. On top of that, Monsterhearts moves through some tricky territory: underage sex is a core element of the game, and the eight “Small Towns” (short, pre-prepped settings for quick starting the game) all deal more or less explicitly with histories of racism and colonialism in communities across North America. While these are interesting places to go in play, the idea of taking them on myself as host made me shy away a little bit (and I’m excited in the next session to look at things from a player’s perspective). 

All in all, though, I think the session was a resounding success. I went in with basically no prep and as much familiarity with the book as I could get (not enough to realize the quick reference sheet we were using for the first half of the session was from Monsterhearts 1, but so it goes), relying on the game itself — which leans away from strictly organized plots and encourages you, in true PBTA fashion, to let characters and their needs bounce off each other until the conversation goes somewhere interesting — to get us smoothly into play. I would call my efforts there a mixed success: while Avery has a real skill for writing pedagogically, giving you the explicit frameworks you need to get into play (if you’ve never begun a session of The Quiet Year by reading the rules book aloud to each other, you should go fix that now), the session was hampered a little by some awkward pacing and uncertainty: partially driven by my chronic tendency to waste time on slowly establishing things in one-shots rather than swinging as hard as I can in the first five minutes and letting the players lead from there and partially by player character relationships that lead to clear, decisive actions... which left one of our players bored at work while the other two went off adventuring. We ended up taking a moment, after returning from the normal mid-session bio-break, to chat and refocus ourselves, figuring out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see in the last hour or so of the session, and then jumping back in and — thankfully — playing hard to reach a strong conclusion. In the end, I’m not interested in tracking down exactly where the first half of our session lost its footing (although I have some ideas for how I could have hit harder as an MC). I’m more interested in celebrating the way the table was able to come together, talk explicitly about what we wanted, and get the game somewhere satisfying for everyone involved. We closed on, among other things: an underwater fight between the Fairy (Mermaid?) Queen and a Kraken-Leviathan-Hellmonster, a throuple sneaking off from a beach party to hook up, and the messy end of a South Jersey summer (complete with a tsunami and a beached whale front of the boardwalk). It was a good time. 

Most striking to me in this moment, however, is the way thinking about Monsterhearts as a plotless game positions both me as MC and the other players. It really speaks to the way that capital-T The capital-C Conversation works in Powered by the Apocalypse games (good ones, anyway) to let play flow not according to the rules of a paced narrative, but along lines of player interest and highly-charged emotional incident. It is, I think, part of what makes all the PBTA games we’ve played in the Dream Library sing (in no small part because we pruned the last unit and didn’t play any PBTA games I think are bad, but that’s a different conversation) and it suits this game — with it’s emphasis on sex and messy desire — extremely well. It also fits in nicely with a point I’ve heard a couple of people make recently: that thinking of RPGs as first and foremost collective narrative engines is, at the very least, a narrow view. 

Anyway, this week I’m fortunate enough to be joined by a new host (hi @jdragsky) so I can check out MH as a player, then we’ve got a couple of two-shots planned for the end of the month before we move on to our next monstrously intimate game: Bluebeard’s Bride. You want in on an upcoming game? Have a link. You want to hear more about Monsterhearts? One of my players wrote up some of her thoughts as well.

Otherwise, well, get out of here. Scram.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Silver, Azul: Equal Parts Noble and Naive

... Why's he making a Malleus "r u lost bby ghorl" face while also copying Lilia's chin-in-hand pose/Malleus’s Dorm Uniform pose 🤡 There's another Malleus parallel in the vignettes; Silver comments on the same Philip-Aurora dancing painting (that is shown in Malleus's Groovy) and says that he took up dancing too since he admired the prince. Boy was ready for GloMasq/j Malleus glaring at the happy couple and Silver determined to stand firm against a fearsome foe... ;v;

I don’t know if I should be concerned or not given the Groovy and potential foreshadowing for book 7 😂 since there’s fan theories about how Silver could be the “sword” that slays the dragon… *rubs hands together* but it would be fun if it happened…

Fun fact about this Groovy: it had to be corrected because during the initial drop the devs forgot Silver's eyeshadow www The first time this mistake happened, I believe it was on Platinum Suit Vil's chibi.

A Tale as Old as Time.

There was a magic to two sets of parallel lines, bound together to form a quadrilateral. A great number of things could be contained within it. Upon a storybook's page or a painter's canvas, endless possibilities and mystical beings.

Silver gazed at one now.

A spindly dragon, horned and with massive spines protruding from its back, was poised in a platinum frame. Its belly was a violent shock of violet, its scales black as the night. Leathery wings splayed, gaping maw glowing green, trails of smoke exuding from its nostrils, the fearsome beast was prepared to strike down any warrior foolish enough to approach it.

"This is the Thorn Fairy in her dragon form," Silver murmured, his expression set in seriousness. "I'd always dreamed of seeing it for myself someday."

"How wonderful that your dream has now become a reality," a slick voice crooned. It belonged to Azul, who had sidled up to him like an all-too-eager used car salesman. "Ah, but you seem to be troubled. What ails you?"

“It's just... for the Thorn Fairy to have assumed this form, it means she felt as though she was in danger. Someone may have threatened her or put her in this situation."

“That’s true.” Azul nodded. “As I recall from our Magic History lectures, fae tend to be reclusive creatures with rather tumultuous relations with other races.

“In the days when magic was branded as heresy, fae were particularly ostracized due to their natural affinity for it. Humans far and away wide feared them. It's possible that this painting depicts a struggle of a similar nature."

“A struggle…” The corners of Silver’s mouth turned down. “Yes, humans and fae have historically been at odds with one another. We are fortunate to live during an era of relative peace."

“Quite! My own people—the merfolk—have also had a strained relationship with humans. It was through the union of a mermaid princess and a human prince that we were able to begin efforts to mend that bond. I am most gracious to them! It is because of the mermaid princess that I’m afforded the opportunity to study on land.”

“That’s great, Azul. I’m happy for you.” Silver gave a smile that was as softy and airy as dandelion fluff. “It’s nice that we’re able to meet and share ideas with people from different walks of life. It makes the world a richer place.”

He looked to the painting again, his eyes tracing the curved horns of the dragon and stopping at the sharp tips. His liege, too, had a pair like those.

“… As much as I hate to admit it, it will be a while before fae and humans can reach that level of understanding." Silver folded his arms. "Sebek says the differences are too numerous, but I… I want to believe that we are capable of bringing about that kind of a future.”

His vision, so clear, so pure. It sparkled like the face of a polished mirror.

Azul pushed his glasses up, his hand concealing a smirk.

"Fufufu. Perhaps it is possible to achieve with your endless optimism and empathy, Silver-san. After all, I don't believe I've witnessed you losing your cool even once with Malleus-san, Lilia-san, or Sebek-san. That kindness and patience is your strength, stronger than any sword you could wield."

He pretended to hesitate. "Though... I do wonder what should happen if--no, never mind. Please forget that I said anything."

"What is it? You can tell me," Silver reassured him. Dread surged up from his stomach--but the spike soon settled.

"Well--" Azul made a little show of choosing his words carefully, as though he were thoroughly coming through ingredients lined up on a shelf. "Consider: what happens if the day comes when you are forced to point your sword at your master?"

"At Malleus-sama?! I can't imagine..."

"If, if. This is entirely hypothetical," his peer tutted. "Let us say that Malleus-san were to make a decision--a decision which has dire consequences for you, for all of humankind. Silver-san, would you be able to salvage that precarious peace?"

Surprise lasted for a second before it vanished from the knight. Back was a quiet stoicism, steel sharpening the delicate colors to his gaze. A hand clenching his chest, as if to keep his heart still.

Finally, he spoke.

"I will do what has to be done. I will not back down. If there comes a time when my lord strays from his path and into the darkness, then it is my duty as his retainer to return him to the light."

“And you are not concerned for what awaits you in the aftermath?”

“No,” Silver replied matter-of-factly. The answer was simple. “I will offer my hand.”

“I beg your pardon?! Am I hearing this correctly? You plan to help the person you just opposed back up after you defeat them?”

“That’s the right thing to do. Everyone deserves a chance for their feelings to be heard. If we listen, then we can find a solution together and keep the same misunderstanding from happening again. That’s my hope.”

His wish was like the buoyant notes of a bell. Clear, crisp, resonant. It flitted up, rising above the boys’ heads, at last bursting like a bubble and letting the words rain down on them in thoughtful flecks.

"… I see,” Azul mused. “So that is the type of person you are."

How noble. How naive. It seems that Silver-san is a very bit like the prince from the story he so deeply cherishes. Neither will recoil from foes, no matter how formidable.

The valuable piece of information, he tucked away for a rainy day. With his probing settled, Azul brought his hands together and flashed a winsome grin.

Here was a hero in the making, and he, the sponsor to the champion.

“Your character is commendable!! I look forward to witnessing your many friendship-fueled triumphs.”

[thequeendesi]

hiii!! okay forgive me bc i’ve ever actually requested something before but could you write a fluffy fezco vibe where it’s the readers first time smoking (with him, they’ve gotten high before) and they’re being really funny and silly back and forth?

Dating Fez was definitely something… new. You’ve dated nearly all types. The jock, the alternative, the musician, the nerd, and now, the dealer. Surprisingly, he wasn’t your original dealer. You used to buy from sketchy people until your best friend, now estranged, Rue, told you about Fezco O’Niell.

“You wanna hit this, ma?” Fez asked, holding the fresh lit blunt. “Why not?” You shrugged. You weren’t a roller, you didn’t really know how to. Normally, you used a pipe, or a bong. Fez took a hit, then passed to you.

“Thank you.” You said, taking the blunt in between your index and thumb. You took a hit and leaned back against the couch the two of you were sitting on. You blew the smoke out and passed the blunt back to him.

“You ever put food in before a smoke sesh?” You asked him. “Nah. But that’s a good idea. We should’ve done that, huh?” Fez took another hit, passing it back.

“To late now.” You laughed and took another hit. “You ever think about aliens when high?” Fez asked. “Definitely.” You said, before blowing the smoke out.

“You think they fly pass earth and go ‘ew’?” You asked him, passing him the blunt. “I think they purposefully go out of the way to not pass the earth.” You followed up, answering your own question.

“I think all kinds of shit when high, ma.” He took a longer hit. “You know who’d be fun to smoke with?” He asked after blowing the smoke in your face. “Mm? Who?” You asked, looking at him, eyes already half-lidded.

“Adam Sandler. But the character he plays in That’s My Boy.” He answered his question, passing the blunt. “Oh true! I’d smoke with Adam Sandler in general… or like…” you paused before giggling and taking another hit. “I forgot.” You blew out the smoke.

“No no, I got it. My dream smoke circle consists of,” you passed the blunt before holding your hand out. “Seth Rogan, Seth McFarlane, Snoop, Pete Davidson, Adam Sandler, Matthew Lillard, and Tom Kenny.” You listed.

“Tom Kenny? The fool who played SpongeBob?” He asked, hitting the blunt then passing it back to you.

“I feel like he’d keep me laughing.” You shrugged, hitting the blunt, coughing a little.

“Why y’a’int list me?” Fez picked. “I keep you laughin’.” He half smiled. “You do, but I get to smoke with you.” You nudged him, passing it back.

“You ever get to thinking about conspiracy theories?” You asked him, passing him the blunt. “Conspiracy theories? Like Loch Ness and shit?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Exactly like that.” You said.

“You got one?” He took a hit of the nearly finished blunt. “I do. It’s gonna sound dumb.”

“Nah, lay it on me, mama.” He placed his elbow on the armrest, and held his head up with his hand. “Ok, so, what if all those mythical creatures ‘nd shit existed?” You paused, looking at him while you took a hit, and passed it to him.

“Possible.” He acknowledged. “What if they were real, but, they died and shit.” You said, trying to see if he was following your train of though.

“Mhm?” He took the last hit of the blunt and put it in the ashtray. “And what we see now are their ghosts?” You asked.

“See, you got me. But here’s where you lose me,” he adjusted himself so he was sitting in a way that faced you completely, which had you follow suit.

“What about when people see them in groups, like Bigfoot and shit?”

“Right… maybe they fucked and made more?” You laughed, which made him chuckle. “So this is what you think ‘bout when you smoke?” He asked. “Yup.”

“You think mermaids are real too, dontcha?” He leaned against the couch. “A thousand percent. Yes.” You nodded your head. “What you don’t?”

“No proof.” He shrugged.

“Exactly why I believe.” You added. “Over ninety-somethin’ percent of the ocean ain’t been explored. How do we know they don’t exist?” You questioned his reasoning. “Got me there mama.” He nodded.

“Wanna go get some McDonald’s?” He asked, standing up. “Oh God, yes.”

“You’ll say that later.”

[lovebvni]

holaaa!! (dr rant + just an appreciation post)

(TW SLIGHT HINT TO GROOMING)

soo i’m shifting soon and i decided that im going to make my first album when i get there (LIKE START JT, DUDE. START IT. IM SO EXCITED) there’s going to b an ep i’m going to finalize when i get there and it will be released on the 26th of the month i get there (as it is kinda a diss on a MAN who was 26 when we dated… i was a minor still.)

i’m also gonna make a family tree because i’m really bored (and i also kinda js wanna see all my siblings yk? im gonna draw them all soon bc like AUGH AJAJDKDJ I MISS THEM!!!)

omgz i’m so excited dude!!

(appreciation below!!)

also i saw billie eilish in my dream last night. one of the funniest and sweetest people i know 😭 SHARK WAS ALSO IN THAT DREAM HES SO SWEET ‼️‼️ god i wish i could hug them today, just right now. yall don’t understand how much billie and finneas have been through together, and im so proud of how far they made it. i love you both, and although you won’t see this post in this reality, i know you will when we r together :DDD u guys make me so happy, so inspired, and just a better person overall. also huge thank you to billie in helping me with directing my music videos and being featured in one of my favorite songs — ripple effect. thank you finneas for just 😭 for keeping her alive, giving her a passion, and being so protective and supportive of her.

i’m so excited to b friends w both of them n js talk to them daily — it’s so fun.

i’m also super duper excited to meet one of my closest friends — nile — in person finally!!!! it’s been like 3 years of shifting together, and i know she’s excited too. i know she’s reading this, btw so i love u sm nile and thank u for being such a great and perfect friend throughout this whole journey. i truly don’t think i would still be kicking without you. i owe you the world, and i know you’re going to be blessed with many MANY things in the coming months, and the years following will be some of your best, but that’s only a taste of what is truly to come.

i’m so proud of you, and i’m also so round of everyone that has been clinging onto shifting even though it hurts. i’m always here for you. i love you all so so much. i want the best for you, and i know you’re going to get it. i’m always here to help in ANY way i can. ask me anything, i promise you i will answer with the wisdom God and the universe has given me!!

i cannot express my gratitude to my father, loki, enough. i don’t know how to even put it into words. he’s been there at my hardest, he’s been there at my best. i don’t think i would actually even be this far without him either. he’s one of the silliest and sweetest people ive ever met. i can’t believe he’s my FATHER you guys!! ITS SO COOL AUGHH

i also have so many people here i need to thank, there’s more that i can think of right now but just know i love and appreciate every one of you guys.

staring with @smellofemale!! you were such a sign when i met you. i don’t think i’ve met a christian shifter — you’re the only one i still talk to if i have! im just so so sooo blessed to have met you. i don’t know what to say, dude! i love you so much. you’re so sweet, so kind, and so inspiring. i love you!

@eneablack although you’re one of my newest friends, you’re another really really inspirational one. you’re so open about your struggles with shifting, even though you’ve had success time and time again. it shows me and many others how shifting sometimes is a hard thing to get used too, even with successes under your belt!

@daisys-reality! if you don’t know them, FOLLOW IMMEDIATELY PLEASE OMGGJAJSN she gives some of the best and most accurate readings i could ever ask for. also her drs (specifically her mermaid one) have inspired me so much!!

@kanachaka UR AO COOL BRO I JS LOVE SEEING UR POSTS AJSJDKDJD

@kazylynn i love u sm!! u rlly show me i can be an inspiration to others, and that’s something i’ve hoped for all my life. i want to be a good, helpful person — and i love you for showing me i can be.

@babybearthepsychic a few months ago you gave me a free reading that was just so accurate and so real. i don’t know if i would still be on this spiritual journey without it, because i was at one of my hardest points then. i cannot believe how just truly accurate and kind you are. i love you so much, you’re doing amazing. i wish i could give you the biggest hug, and i could donate like a million dollars to u rn but i literally don’t have a job 😭

@zipperrants i don’t think i rlly need to explain this… dude i thought u we’re so cool even when u we’re js interacting with @maddies-chronicles and i rlly wanted to interact w u so bad but i was so so scared bro!! and thank u hale for giving me the opportunity to meet them!!

@accidentalshifter YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW MANY PEOPLE U REPRESENT IN THIS RESLITY — YOURE ONE OF THE FIRSR ADULT SHIFTERS I SAW ON HERR AND IM SO SO SO SO SOOO FUCKING HQPPY YOURE SO OPEN ABOUT IT! you’re just so free and it’s beautiful. i love you so much

and there are so many more but i just.. im gonna cry i love you all tooo much.. please know u all mean so much to me and i can’t wait to tell u so many stories when i get back, and help u guys shift. i am working so hard to post more, and i pray this post can help me become more active.

so so so much love, to everyone in this community, you’re so wonderful. may the gods bless you.

so much love, peace and joy

the abyss

[a-romantics-guide-to-life]

╰┈ 𝓶𝔂 𝓳𝓸𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓻 𝓫𝓸𝓵𝓭 ┈➤

𝓼𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓻𝔂 : when sailing, pirates, fishermen, and the navy alike follow three simple rules. one, respect the sea and all of its wealth. two, stay alive. and number three, when you see any kind of merfolk, don’t wait, just shoot.

𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓰𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 : mentions of injury, blood, shooting, drowning, descriptions of anatomy,

𝓪/𝓷 : based on @francixoxoxo's beautiful pirate!billy x mermaid!reader au! i haven't stopped thinking about this au so here is my take on it! hope you enjoy!

Every sailor knows that the ocean hosts the biggest mysteries of man. From the gaping depths that not even the dead can reach, to the beauty of the reefs and fish that swam the waters blue. And, yet it is still unknown to man the difference between a mermaid and a siren. 

See, sirens be a dangerous thing. Heavenly and beautiful, but deadly nonetheless. They’ve got no human in them, making humans their number one prey. They’ll lure you in with a song so sweet, you’ll hear the tune for the rest of your life. They’ll trick you with their beauty. Their scales shimmering in the light, even offering them modesty by covering the swells of their breasts. But, as soon as any sailor lets their guard down, they reveal their fangs. 

They drag sailors and fisherman alike down, drowning out their screams as the sirens sink their fangs into the flesh of man. Which is why, sailors alike all follow three very simple rules all of equal value.

Number one, respect the sea and its wealth. Do not take it for granted for you may find your fishing nets empty or even your ship wrecked.

Number two, stay alive. This one should be very self-explanatory, yet some still decide to throw themselves overboard anyway. They clearly didn’t get the message.

And number three, when you see any kind of merfolk, don’t wait, just shoot.

Billy never understood these rules, he always thought they were contradictory. How can one respect the sea when one is expected to shoot its people on sight? He loved the sea and would never dare to shoot someone who called the deep blue home. Which is why he prayed that he would never encounter any merfolk on his excursions at sea.

Even his family, a family of sailors and navy men alike, had never encountered merfolk. Billy had grown up with a father that told stories of his and his crew's trips out on the sea. His mother had grown up right on the beach, sharing stories that her fisherman father had told her. His own brother, Jo, had always dreamed of sailing away on the deep ocean blue and finding adventure. Jo would often beg his older brother to take him out on the small sailing boat that their father had made just for the two of them. And of course, Billy would oblige.

He’d get the sail ready and he would hoist Jo up and onto the boat before pushing away from the shore. Billy would quickly jump on to the mini boat, causing it to rock back and forth as the sounds of Jo laughter and their parents shouts of care. He would steer the ship left and then right, zig zagging on the ocean. Finally, once night fell, Billy would help Jo lay down on the deck, pointing out constellations.

“You see that one, o’er then Jo? That one is called the North star.” Billy would point up, his finger seemingly touching the bright star as it glimmered in the dark night sky.

“N why is that Billy?” Jo would ask, bringing his hand up next to his brother, reaching his hand so that hopefully, it would be as long as his older brothers. Billy would chuckle and lower his arm, noticing his little brother. Billy would then wrap an arm around Jo as he helped Jo sit up, slowly steering them back to shore.

“That’s cause it leads true north Jo. It’s mighty helpful to us sailors so don’t you forget it.”

Once they reached shore, their Ma would already have dinner cooked, most likely seafood stew or grilled fish depending on what was caught that week. Their Pa would be awaiting them, blankets in hand, asking about their adventure. Jo would then happily tell his Pa everything Billy had taught him, from how to steer the boat to everything about the stars. 

It was on nights like those that Billy wished that he was with them. The stars glittering in the skies while Billy sailed never failed to make him homesick. When he had finally become old enough to sign himself up on a crew with his friend Jesse Evans, Billy waved bye to his parents and Jo embarked on a fishing boat. He continued to write to his brother about his adventures as a sailor as the crew slowly but surely grew. Billy found that he had more and more to write about as they traveled quite frequently, selling all that they fished to the locals in the town or even trading them for other commodities. Slowly, their crew grew and their ship became lively with the chatter of the boys dreaming about the ladies in the next port town they anchor in. 

Billy never joined in on conversations like those. He didn’t dream about one night stands with women who’ll forget your name by morning. No, Billy dreamed about love so grand that it’d contest his love of the ocean and his family. He yearned for a love so wrong that it felt right. He couldn’t help but look at the ocean, praying to the big blue that he would find someone who'll love him as he loved her.

As he gazed up at the stars that night, Billy played the fiddle and sang to the ocean about adventure and love hoping that it would sing right back to him.

You had always wanted to see the stars.

Your father, however, had forbidden it. You see, your father was part of the surface guard, a special force that protected the mermaids and mermen from reaching the surface where the sirens and human sailors were. Of course, as the daughter of the captain of the guard, you had a duty to your father to set a good example for the others in the reef you lived in. Yet, that didn’t stop your curiosity towards humans and the upper world. Your very own mother had been the same way, a likely reason your father hated you took after her. After all, it was that very wonderful curiosity she had that ended up leading to her death. 

You were young when she was harpooned. Your mother had been checking up on your father since he was on guard duty that day. She loved visiting your father not only because she got to see the love of her life but also because she got glimpses of the surface. She even kept a detailed log of what she observed every time which she had passed on to you. 

But on that fateful day, she wouldn’t be able to write about the cruel sailors that caught a poor turtle in the net. She would never be able to tell you how your brave father had frantically thrown his spear to cut the net your mother was about to get herself tangled in.  And even your father would never be able to muster enough courage to tell you the sound he made when he saw the harpoon cut straight through your mothers chest, smile on her face as she whispered to your father one last time…

“I love you.”

He had changed after that day. He hated humans, even more than sirens who plundered their food stores and murdered mermaids and humans alike. He hated how you took after your mother, her eyes reflecting in your own. He couldn’t even bear the thought of losing you like he had lost your mother.

So, he cracked down on the siren and human infestation. He shot and killed any man that drifted close into their reef. He also made sure that no mermaid or merman ever reached close enough to the surface to get harpooned. 

Of course, that didn’t stop you from breaking your fathers rules. Turns out, there was a shipwreck not even an hour swim away from your darling reef. You loved visiting it even if it was well within harpooning range of the sailors that sailed right above it. That didn;t stop you though. You loved looking through the chests of treasures like human clothes and even a human gun. You loved all the thinga-majigs you found, even if no one was with you to admire it. 

Although, your favorite part about the shipwreck was that it was close enough to the surface for you to get a glimpse of the bright lights that littered the night sky. You had never dared to go above the surface. The old women in your reef telling stories about mermaids who became sirens the minute they breathed in fresh air. No mermaid in their right mind would ever want to become a siren so of course, all the young mermaids did their best to stay away from the surface. Even you were still a little afraid of the surface and the air above. 

And yet, that didn’t stop you now. 

Although in truth, the position you found yourself currently in was just a big instance of wrong place at the right time. 

You were just swimming to your little hideaway when you suddenly got caught in a big confrontation between a group of guards and sirens. One of the other sirens had pulled you into their group, not realizing that you were a mermaid. But of course, out of fear, you had clammed up because who knew what they would do to you if they found out you weren’t one of their own. You had followed them, making sure that your hair covered your breasts in fear they would see the peaks and murder you in an instant. 

So you swam, watching the sirens in fascination. Soon, you came upon a human ship, nets in the water and anchored down. The sirens surely got into position, swarming around the ship, slowly humming. One of the sirens pushed you, shoving you into formation. Slowly, each of the sirens started singing. The tune was haunting yet beautiful. Yet, as you slowly reached the surface, you heard another voice singing. This one wasn’t as perfect or smooth as a pearl, it was deep and rough. That’s when you spotted him. 

Up on the ship, sat a human. His face twisted in concentration as he hummed the harmony to the stringed instrument on his shoulder. His chin rested on the tail end of the instrument as he used a long, hairy stick to hit the strings producing a tune so unique and unlike anything you had ever heard. His lips pursed as he hummed louder, the softer. He had hair that looked so soft as if it were the algae that stuck to rocks. And once he opened his eyes, his deep blue ocean eyes widened in panic as he pulled himself away from the raised edge of the boat.

The other sirens had started to sing along to the tune of the human, lulling some of the sailors to whisk their heads over the edge, nearly falling overboard. Some ran back and yelled commands at the others. Your heartbeat spiked, and you felt your skin grow colder and colder with each breath you took of fresh air. You had even forgone looking up at the stars you had so desperately wanted to look at. Your chest started to heave up and down and in fear, you looked down at your breasts, relieved to see that they were still peaked. Those old ladies were just lying, truly a relief. 

What wasn’t a relief was the fact that Billy had been so ignorant of his surroundings while he was playing his fiddle that he didn’t see the merfolk that had flocked to the ship. They had started singing the song Billy had been playing, an old sea shanty about a sailor named William. Their voices creeped up on the sailors as Billy had rushedly started yelling to the crew. Yet that didn’t stop mermaids singing. He rushed to the weapon stores, as did Jesse and many others. Billy rushed as he quickly reloaded the rifle while jogging to his station. 

The sirens continued to sing their haunting tune, their voices growing as they moved closer and closer to the ship. You had followed them of course, adrenaline running high in your veins as you felt your heartbeat in your ear. The sirens had all started to claw their way aboard the sailors ship, all reaching up to the sailors demurely. They put their arms out in front of them, as if inviting the sailors to hoist them up onto the deck. 

Suddenly, a loud bang rang out and the sirens hissed as their fangs came out. They used their specially made algae nets to latch onto the sailors and pull them down into the water. You hurriedly swam away from the commotion as other sirens had also started to flee.

“Filthy little mermaid.” You heard hissed before suddenly being thrown back. You were tossed around as the sirens pushed past you as more and more bangs were heard. You felt small bullets like the one you had found in the human gun whizz past you. You turned to the ship, looking up at the skies that were littered with dots of bright lights. You closed your eyes and prayed that Poseidon would allow you just a few more minutes before sending you to see your mother again.

Billy was frozen, rifle in arm, aimed right at one of the merfolk. His finger was on the trigger, ready and waiting to release a bullet, yet his finger lay frozen as well. It was pure chaos on the ship. Sailors yellin’ and shootin’ the damned sirens that surrounded their ship, trying to pull the sailors down for a quick bite. They were fighting tooth and nail to scatter the merfolk. Many of them had fled and very few were still trying to drown them. 

Still, there was one that lay just below the surface of the water. She had seemed different to the other sirens. Her hair was long and flowy and her breasts were nippled just like a woman’s. But it was her tail that completely threw Billy off. It was slowly moving back and forth, its iridescent color changing in the moonlight as she moved. Once it was pale pinks and blues, then it was bright green and purple. It was like no gem Billy had ever seen yet his gun was aimed right at her. The other sirens' tails were murky colors, drained and tired. Her’s was bright and full of life. Her eyes were trained on the starry night sky just like Billy’s were not even ten minutes ago.

“Oh Kid, ya’ gonna shoot ‘er or what? What’re ye’ waitin’ for?” Jesse yelled at him, Billy turned around and saw Jesse with the harpoon ready and waiting. Billy panicked and shot without really aiming. 

In a flash, you also panicked and swam as quickly as you could to the underside of the ship where most of the sirens had hid. Blood started tainting the water red from where the ocean eyed sailor had shot you. Red hot searing pain rippled through your body as you clamped a hand over the wound on your torso. You looked around, curious because none of the other sirens were attacking you viciously as the people in the reef believed. That is when you noticed how they were working together, slowly rocking the boat left to right. They were going to topple the ship over so that the sailors would drown. The other sirens continued to attack the sailors as more and more bullets whizzed through the water.

Billy had noticed the ship slowly starting to rock. His heart raced as he prepared himself for the worst. He quickly ran to Jesse explaining what he thought was happening. Billy believed that there were sirens underneath the ship, rocking the ship back and forth to topple it over. And that the sirens attacking them were merely a distraction to keep the sailors busy instead of sailing away. Of course, Jesse slowly also started to notice the rocking.

Jesse yelled at the crew, opening the sails and getting the row boats ready just in case. They slowly started to rock more and more. Suddenly, rain started pouring and the wind picked up, moving the ship slowly as it started to rock more and more. 

One of the newer crewmates screamed as he fell overboard, barely catching the taffrails of the ship. Billy ran over to help the poor guy when a siren latched onto his legs, trying to pull him down. The boy's cries for help grew louder and louder as Billy reached for any weapon he could pry the siren off of the sailor with. He found a harpoon in hand and Billy paused. He knew he shouldn’t but it was either the young sailor or the siren. Billy aimed and then the siren screeched out in pain falling down, down, down. He hoisted the young boy up as the boat continued to rock.

You saw the siren harpooned in front of you, the sirens screaming out in madness. After all, the sirens were one big family. They cared for each other, that much you could tell as all the sirens banded together to avenge their fallen sister. You wondered if that was what your father had seen when your mother was harpooned. Had he seen the skin go sickly pale and red enveloped his vision? Or had he seen her scales go brittle and her tail seize up? In honesty, you didn’t want to know because if he had seen something even remotely similar to what was in front of you, you knew you wouldn’t want to relive that nightmare again.

You swam up to watch what the sirens would do. All at once, sailors and fish as cool as ice were falling into the sea as the sirens ripped and gnawed at the sailors ship. You saw the sailor shoot more and more of the sirens as you had been shot. But, one of the sailors, the one with deep blue eyes, was weaponless. He was trying to get some of the other sailors to put away their harpoons. Why? You didn’t know or understand. 

Suddenly, the ship started to sink, more of the sirens pulling the sailors down. The ship suddenly split into two, pieces of wood covering the sea and your view. You started to swim when you saw sailors swimming away or continuing to shoot and harpoon the sirens. Slowly, prey in tow, the sirens started swimming away one by one. You too started to swim away when you noticed the blue-eyed sailor. His face calmed as he shut his eyes and moved his lips slowly.

When Billy had been pulled underwater, the first thing he thought of was his poor mother. How would she take the news of his death, he wondered. How would lil Jo take it? His father would be furious, that's for sure. Not only at the ocean but the merfolk as well. Would anyone else mourn Billy? That, he was unsure of. He had closed his eyes, resigning to his fate. And yet, he was happy to have died this way. In the arms of his favorite place. The water didn’t feel cold or deadly, it was suddenly warm and enveloping. He thanked God like his mother had for being granted this life, no matter how short it was. He thanked Poseidon as his father had for being granted this death. Slowly Billy lost consciousness as could no longer hold his breath, letting water take over his body and wash him away from the land of the living.

You, on the other hand, had started to hoist the sailor up towards the surface. He was by no means light, making your tail work extra hard just to slowly reach the surface. Once you had, it was just a matter of where the closest beach was. You didn’t want to leave the man for dead because after all, he tried to stop his friends from outright harpooning them. Sure, he may have shot at you with a gun but wounds like those were easy to heal. You had started to swim to shore, remembering every so often that humans couldn’t breathe underwater. Once you finally reached the shore, you lay him down on the sand. His eyes were still closed so you checked if he had any life left in him. You pressed you ear to his chest, hoping that men too had hearts that beat like yours. You felt the slight rhythm so you decided to hit his chest hoping that it would get the water out of his weak human lungs. 

Up close, he was beautiful, you thought. He looked so different to the mermen in your reef. You traced his jaw with your hands as you felt the slight roughness of his chin. You moved the hair away from his forehead, noticing how light it felt. You pressed down on his chest again, hoping that it would finally wake him up. What good was it if he just ended up dying after you had brought him back to land? You opened his mouth, noticing how soft his lips felt. You recalled how your father said that humans breathed out deadly gasses while merfolk breathed out air that humans could breathe which is why sailors alike looked to be kissed by mermaids many moons ago. Then, you lightly pressed your lips to his, breathing out air into his lungs. 

Billy woke up with a start. He turned to his side and coughed out water, his throat burning from the salt and expelling the water. His eyes squinted underneath the harsh sun he found himself under. He looked around, taking in the beach that he now lay upon. That's when he finally saw you. His eyes trailed down from your face all the way down to your gem-like tail. 

Billy noted your beauty that was incomparable to any other woman he had ever seen. Your hair was silky and your eyes were big and bright. He saw your bare breasts that seemed like they would fit perfectly in his rough hands. You were looking at him with those glowy eyes of yours, your head tilted. 

“Well good morning sunshine.” You smiled brightly at him.

“G’morning darlin’,” he smiled back, you noticed how boyishly he smiled much like the young boys in your reef, “Ya’ wouldn’t happen to know where we are, would ya?”

“Well, no, I don’t. But,” you practically sang, you voice sweeping over Billy like a tsunami,” its land. And there should be a human town somewhere over there.”

“So not only did ya make sure I didn’t drown, ya also brought me to land where I can breathe?”

“Well isn’t that a silly question,” you giggled, chuckling at how silly he was. You found yourself entranced by him and you didn’t even know his name. 

And that feeling was reciprocated. Billy found himself enchanted by you, of course, probably because you were merfolk. He didn’t think you were a siren though, but he had been taught that sirens and mermaids are one in the same.

“Well, since ya did all that for me, thank you. Really.” Billy had sat up and brushed a lock of your hair behind your ear. You then pressed your cheek against his hand, reveling in the warmth of his palm. 

“Then I suppose you're welcome, human.”

“I do have a name y’know,” he laughed.

“And yet you still haven’t told me exactly what that name is. Shame, I suppose I’ll just have to call you human from now on.” 

“Then I suppose I'll have to call you darlin’ from now on. Though I wouldn’t mind you calling me Billy, seein’ as it’s my name ‘n all.”

“Sounds like a deal, sailor.” You smiled, slowly splashing your tail around in the water. He asked your name so you told him in that sweet voice of yours. Billy found himself wanting to talk more and more to you, he wanted every single laugh and chuckle to himself. He was selfishly in love with you.

And you had found yourself wanting to know more and more about Billy. You wanted to know more about the story behind the sailor, wanted his deep and smooth voice to drown you like the sirens had drowned the humans. Both of you willing to drown as long as it was with each other. Billy had found that the sea did sing his song back and you had found that the sea led you right to its biggest treasure. 

Respect the sea and all of its treasures, they said. And it, too, will give you treasure.

I had so much fun writing this and would love to hear your thought on my rendition of this au! Love love love @francixoxoxo's beautiful mind and this beautiful au!

[the-writer-mao]

|| Ohsama Sentai KingOhger ||

Disney AU One-Shots

Hymeno Ran -

Across the Princessverse

[ not my art‼️ creds to @106cm94689 on Twitter X, ty @meganechan05 ]

Tangled || The Kingdom Dance ||

Hymeno + Yanma

Beauty & the Beast || There may be something there that wasn’t there before ||

Hymeno + Kaguragi

Cinderella || A Dream is a Wish your Heart makes ||

Hymeno + Jeramie

Aladdin || A Whole New World ||

Hymeno + Gira

Sleeping Beauty || I walked with you once upon a dream ||

Hymeno + Rita

<< Potential Ideas >>

Frozen || Beware the Frozen Heart ||

Mulan || I’ll make a Man out of You ||

The Little Mermaid || Part of your World ||

Pairings ????

Ok so I saw this fanart on Pinterest ages ago while I was in uni, and I’ve always wanted to write some Drabbles/one-shots of Hymeno as different Disney princesses. For each AU the other royals will be the other leading partner, (and support characters!)

Now one thing I need people’s help on is who is who in each one shot- like for example, I would love to see Yanma and Hymeno in Rapunzel’s story, but Yanma as Aladdin ALSO makes so much sense.

Another instance, I love Rita and they’re quite the character, it’s difficult to settle on which Disney prince they could be- in the art they’re Prince Phillip of Aurora’s story but I’m not sure he matches Rita, but their song and vibe of ��we’ve met before” is so pleasing

HOWEVER I may write these aus in a way it’s still true to the KingOhger characterization- slightly change things so that I don’t take away too much from the Kings that we know, especially Hymeno.

I am 100% OPEN to suggestions/votes for other Disney princess aus to replace the current ones I’ve listed, (Mulan, the little Mermaid, even Frozen like a sibling dynamic would be great too). I grew up with Disney and know all these stories by heart- the fanart was only potential inspo. (Also if anyone knows the artist pls drop their name cause I would love to credit them).

Also while there are pairings I don’t necessarily ship romantically, it’s more so about the fun of adapting and crossing two fandoms I love and to practice writing.

[daughterofthesea]

You know what I don’t even care if the little mermaid doesn’t do well in theaters. Fuck the haters, I’m going to cherish this movie forever. I cried the first time I watched it, the second, and I will cry the third. I will cry when I watch it with my daughters knowing that they will get to grow up with the black mermaid that their mother dreamed of seeing on tv. I genuinely wanted this movie to be something for everyone to enjoy, but if people want to be racist about it that’s ok too. Maybe it is only for the little black girls who dreamed of being mermaids. Imma be excited and proud and flaunt it all the same.

[heavyhitterheaux]

Forever My Ariel

Gifs not mine

AN: Don't ever let people discourage you from making your dreams come true and if you haven't seen The Little Mermaid, go see it!

Synopsis: The trailer has just been released for your first feature film and the secret has finally been revealed. However not everyone is happy that you were chosen for the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid

Pairing: Jack Harlow x Famous!Reader

Always thankful for my loves @hoodharlow and @nattinatalia 💕

Warnings: mention of racism

Jack Harlow Masterlist

Please Do Not Repost My Content Anywhere

As you were scrolling through your timeline on different social media apps, the tears were steadily cascading down your cheeks and hitting your pillow that was covered by a white satin pillowcase.

You were so excited that your trailer for your acting debut had finally gotten released at midnight and you were incredibly proud of yourself. You had stepped out of your comfort zone and got into acting since you were primarily known for singing with your older sister. 

The Little Mermaid had been one of your favorite movies growing up and now that you had an opportunity to play her was a dream come true. Even though you did have to audition for the role, they approached you first telling you that they wanted for you to play Ariel. 

Then seeing you sing Part of Your World had everyone’s mind set.

They had found their Ariel. 

What you didn't expect was the backslash and people being up in arms simply because….

You were a black woman

Even though Ariel is a fictional character and also a mermaid who everyone knew not to be real, they didn’t mean the outrage was any less.  

One of the top trends on social media was 'Not My Ariel' and of course after you saw it, you had been crying ever since.

At midnight you had sent your boyfriend the trailer to watch on your instagram and he couldn’t stop saying how proud he was of you and now you were thinking that you might not have made the right decision regarding the role.

It was now later in the day and Jack was rehearsing for his upcoming CHTKMY tour and he was due to be back at your condo at any minute and the last thing that you wanted for him to see was you being upset.

You tried to wipe your face as best as you could when you suddenly heard the front door open.

“Shit.” You muttered and you knew that it was too late.

“Babe, where are you? Did you eat yet? I’m starving. Did you want…” Jack immediately stopped talking as he came into the bedroom and saw your tear stained cheeks and you furiously trying to wipe them away. 

“Um, no I didn’t. I’ll eat whatever you order. I don’t really feel like cooking anything tonight.” You said while shrugging and he immediately came over to you.

“Now you know you can’t hide those tears from me so what happened and how can I do my best to help fix it?” Jack asked as you were now sitting up and he quickly slid you onto his lap.

“It’s silly, baby. Don’t worry about it.” You answered trying to reassure him, but you knew deep down that he wasn’t having it. 

“It’s not silly if it has my girl upset.” Jack replied while kissing your cheek but all you did was shake your head.

All you did was sigh in response and you quickly went to lay your head on his shoulder and without warning, the tears started all over again.

“Baby, the last thing I want is to see you cry and you know that.”

You simply opened Twitter and handed him your phone so he could see the trending topics.

He immediately clicked on ‘Not My Ariel’ and began to scroll looking at the phone in disbelief at what people were saying about you.

“Why? Why are people so mean?” It almost came out as a whisper and Jack’s heart was breaking seeing you so upset.

“Because they have nothing else better to do. This doesn’t change anything, babe. I know you’re upset with good reason but the movie is finished and I know from the trailer that you did a damn good job and no one else they would’ve picked would’ve come close. Fuck them.”

“I worked my ass off for this.”

“I know and they can never take away how incredibly talented you are because everyone sees it. You’re amazing at what you do and people being racist fucks are never going to change that. And since when are mermaids based on real people? They could’ve made you blue and people would still find a reason to be upset and I would have still watched that shit.”

“Baby, this isn’t Avatar.”

“You get what I mean!”

“I do and I.. thank you for always being there for me when I need it.” You said while smiling up at him. 

“And you know that’s never going to change. I just…. It’s easier said than done but do not let them win. You’re letting them win by you allowing them to get you upset and that’s the last thing that we want or need. You’re amazing in your own right and no trending topic on Twitter is going to tell me otherwise. My baby is the shit and she’s everyone’s Ariel and I’ll kick anyone’s ass who disagrees with me.”

“I just… want everyone to love my performance in this just as much as I do.”

“And they will and I’m going to need for you to stop worrying what people think about you all the time. If you know that you did your best that is literally the only thing that matters. Haters are always going to be there, but while you’re over here making millions, what is their ass doing but sitting at home and hating from a social media app?”

“That’s true.” You said while nodding your head and agreeing with him.

“For now, I’m keeping your phone because the last thing I want is for you to be scrolling looking at unnecessary outta pocket shit that people are saying.”

“But what if….”

“No, if it’s something important I’ll give it back to you, but other than that no. We’re ordering food and having a movie night and no social media.” Jack was soothingly rubbing your back as you tried to scoot yourself closer to him if that was even possible.

“I want chinese and what are we watching?”

“The Little Mermaid of course and anything my baby wants, she gets.”

“Fine, but I’m singing the entire time.” You said while finally smiling up at him.

“Oh, so I get early access?”

“You always get early access, just don’t tell anyone because they might get jealous.” You answered while leaning over to kiss him and pinching his cheek.

—

It was now premiere night and you were extremely nervous and kept fiddling with your dress trying to smooth away any imaginary wrinkles that might be there.

Jack noticed and quickly went up to you and grabbed both of your hands to get you to stop.

“It’s going to be fine, baby. Remember what I told you.”

“I feel like I’m going to throw up at any minute.” You said while feeling extremely overwhelmed and your eyes were starting to brim with tears.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Breathe for me and relax. I’m right here and I will be here with you the entire time. I’m not leaving your side for the entire night.”

“Promise? I… I….”

“Shhh…. I promise, baby. You got this. Now everyone is about to see why you were the perfect person for this role and no one else. Take some deep breaths for me.”

You did as you were told as you heard Jack taking deep breaths with you and you could feel that your heart rate was now finally starting to slow down. You focused on your breathing and holding Jack’s hands to help ground you as he massaged small circles on yours.

This was something that he always did for you when you were nervous before an event.

Jack knew how your anxiety was and his priority was always making sure you were okay. 

“I love you, you know that right?” Jack asked you and you couldn’t help but to immediately smile at him.

“I love you too, more than I can put into words.”

“You feel any better?”

You simply nodded and smiled as you reached up to hug him and he quickly embraced you back and leaned down to give you several kisses. 

“I just… I know I say it all the time but I love you so much and the way you support me is just…”

“Oh no, babe Deidre is going to kill me if I make you cry because of how long it took for her to do your makeup. You can cry after! But you do the exact same thing for me. We’re always going to show up and support each other no matter what.”

“Always, nothing about that is going to change.”

“Now come on so I can sing all the songs and give a Grammy winning performance. Been waiting months for this!” Jack said and you immediately laughed as he took your hand and the two of you began to make your way downstairs in order to head to the theater where the premiere was being held. 

As promised, Jack didn’t leave your side for the entire night and would give your hand occasional squeezes to let you know he was there for whatever you needed him for. 

“Now it’s time for people to see why you’re forever going to be my Ariel.” Jack whispered to you once the two of you were finally settled in your seats and the movie was getting ready to play. 

Jack held your hand the entire time just like he promised and would periodically look over at you and smile

He was amazed at how well you did, but not surprised

He knew that you had it in you from the very beginning

When the credits of the movie started rolling, you were startled by everyone erupting in applause and giving you a standing ovation as you made your way up to the stage to say a few words. 

You couldn’t help but to cry looking out at the crowd and seeing how so many people were supportive of you and that they love it just as much as you did.

When the applause finally died down, you were doing your best to hide your tears before you spoke.

“I… I knew I was going to cry but damn. Just… thank you.” You said and heard laughter while you finally wiped away the rest of your tears.

“Words cannot even form a sentence of how grateful I was for this opportunity and so many amazing people had a hand in making that happen. I’m so happy that Disney trusted me along with everyone involved in the cast and crew to make Ariel come to life and I just want everyone to love this film as much as I loved making it. Never let anyone deter you from making your dreams become a reality. I remember being little and seeing the original film for the first time and now look, twenty something years later and I get to bring her to life on the big screen. I’m not just Ariel for some people and not others, and my boyfriend had to tell me that. I am everyone’s Ariel and I am so damn proud of stepping out of my comfort zone and letting little girls who look like me know that they can do this too.” 

Liked by jackharlow, neelamthadhani, lolabroke, latto777, dojacat, champagnepapi, urbanwyatt, theshaderoom, and 6,870,921 others

yourinstagramname: always thankful that you get to be a part of my world and me in yours 💕

jackharlow: forever and always. so proud of you. you did amazing just like I knew you would.

yungmiami305: bitch you made me cry when I watched it even if I knew what was going to happen lol

neelamthadhani: job well done! I knew they picked the perfect person for this role!

maggieharlow: you were a literal dream the entire time. you didn't just play Ariel. YOU ARE ARIEL.

urbanwyatt: I see Jack is dressed like the ocean and ready to dive in yourinstagramname 😏

yourinstagramname: urbanwyatt you are always so outta pocket, I CANNOT but yes. I agree lol

yourinstagramename: thank you so much everyone, you have no idea how much this means to me

See all 201,829 comments

Liked by yourinstagramname, urbanwyatt, claybornharlow, dualipa, icespice, lildurk, teyanataylor, and 4,823,031 others

jackharlow: Forever My Ariel 💕

yourinstagramname: jackharlow loveee you now how many times have you watched the movie? lmao

urbanwyatt: yourinstagramname this might be number six

jackharlow: not the both of you shaming me. my baby did amazing 🥰

urbanwyatt: and keeps asking me to refill the snacks so he can continue

neelamthadhani: urbanwyatt I'm joining so bring me some popcorn too

urbanwyatt: neelamthadhani imma start charging yall asses for this. I am making one more trip and that's it!

druski2funny: why didn't anyone invite me to the party?

yourinstagramname: druski2funny because you don't like to answer your phone

druski2funny: yourinstagramname but I'm here now!

jackharlow: druski2funny your ass is about to be late to your own funeral

See all 110,927 comments

Liked by jackharlow, claybornharlow, yoursistersinstagramname, theshaderoom, latto777, lolabrooke, neelamthadhani, and 4,126,720 others

yourinstagramname: this is what a mermaid named Ariel looks like 😘

jackharlow: you got damn right and I don't wanna hear any negative shit! my baby did that!

lolabrooke: don't play wit her, don't play wit her

yoursistersinstagramname: my little mermaid 😍

yournamesource: forever our Ariel!!

yourbestfriend: she did what needed to be done and left no muthafuckin crumbs!

yournamesource: I need a sequel and idc what that shit is about. we just need to see you on the big screen more.

yourinstagramname: yournamesource something is getting revealed soon lol stay tuned

See all 461,780 comments

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[autisticlancemcclain]

“Anyone seen Lance?” Shiro asks, checking his watch. “We have to suit up in an hour, but I haven’t heard anything from him.”

No sooner do the words come out of his mouth does the man in question stroll into the kitchen, pausing in front of the table where everyone is gathered and clearing his throat.

“I will not be accompanying you guys on the mission,” he announces.

It takes everyone a moment to process that one. Hunk is the first to react, something clicking in his expression before he groans, resting his forehead on the table.

“Here we go,” he mutters tiredly.

Lance happily ignores him, pouring himself some food goo and taking a seat next to Keith.

“Are you ill?” Allura asks, when Lance fails to provide any further context.

“Nope! I’m just going to hang back from this mission because I Saw what’s going to happen last night and no part of me is interested in crawling through sewage. Y’all have fun, though.”

“Why the hell do you think we’ll be crawling through sewage?” Keith asks. “All the Yuvleans want us to do is find some crystal for them.”

“And I’m telling you it’s going to involve crawling through the sewage system,” Lance insists. “I’m not doing that. I’ll stay on the castle with Coran and do chores, or something.”

Shiro looks pleadingly to Hunk.

“Please translate,” he asks.

This is not unusual. Lance and Hunk frequently have to explain each other’s trains of thought to the team at large.

“Lance thinks he can see the future,” Hunk explains tiredly. “He is not a Seer. He just gets lucky, occasionally, and he’s observant. There is nothing I can do to convince him otherwise.”

“That’s because you’re wrong,” Lance says patiently. “I do so get visions. I told you about the mermaid planet when we were fifteen, remember?”

“Lance, you dreamed once about alien mermaids and the universe is so batshit insane that it ended up being true. That is not predicting the future.”

“Mhm, sure. And the fact that I knew the names of the mermaids we could trust was coincidence.”

“Exactly!”

Hunk and Pidge both look exasperated, but Keith looks intrigued.

“You can really tell the future?”

“Please tell me you don’t believe in that shit too,” Pidge groans.

Both paladins ignore her.

“Not as clearly as you’re thinking,” Lance says, making a so-so motion with his hand. “I don’t usually get full detailed visions, although I do occasionally. Usually I get bits and pieces, right before something happens. Like, if we’re on an infiltration mission and we don’t know which hallway to take to escape, I usually get a flash of images that tell me what’s down each one.”

Shiro, who had been eyeing Lance warily for the most part, tilts his head in consideration. “You do manage to lead us out of ships when everything goes to shit.”

Hunk looks at him incredulously. “You too?! What part of ‘Lance has good instincts and is crazy observant’ am I making unclear? Science, people!”

“I’m not saying I think he can see in the future,” Shiro says hastily. “But I’m not saying he can’t, either.”

“Thank you,” Lance says emphatically. “Finally, someone believes me.”

“Hey,” Keith protests. “I believed you the whole time!”

“‘Course, Mullet,” Lance says with a grin and a wink. Keith goes a little red. “I appreciate it.”

“I also believe you!” Allura says excitedly. “One of my mother’s handmaidens also spoke of an ability to see forward in time, and she often made excellent predictions about future trades!”

“Ha,” Lance says, pointing his spork triumphantly at his best friends. Both of them roll their eyes in tandem. “Coran believes me, too. Said he can feel it in my quintessence, or something. You guys are outnumbered.”

“Whatever,” Pidge mutters, but she doesn’t really look all that annoyed. “I can’t believe you’re skipping the chance to flirt with pretty aliens just because you had a weird dream. I can’t believe you’re staying back to do chores instead of prancing around the planet’s canals and comparing the water to beaches back home.”

Lance shrugs, standing up to dunk his empty bowl in the sink. “Like I said, I’m not crawling through the sewer,” he says, heading for the doors. “But y’all have fun. Let me know if you meet the ninja turtles.”

———

Hours later, five very grumpy, very dirty paladins stomp their way back to the castle. Lance and Coran meet them at the decontamination chamber.

“Have a shitty time?” Lance asks smugly.

“Dollar in the bad pun jar,” Keith says immediately, just as Hunk says: “Can it, Cassandra.”

Hunk sounds cranky as he says it, but instead of being offended, Lance only laughs.

“Fitting,” he taunts, “since no one believed Cassandra and she ended up being right. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, Hunky?”

Hunk levels him with a glare, but only lasts about three seconds before a reluctant smile spreads across his face.

“Alright, alright, touché. I still think you just made an educated guess. But I’ll give you that one.”

“Sure thing, bud. I’ve Seen the day you and Pidge believe me, you know. I’m going to be very smug.”

“More smug than right now?” Allura asks.

Lance smirks. “Exponentially.”

———

Shiro doesn’t let Lance skip any more missions because of his Sight. “If a mission is going to suck, then we get to suffer as a group. Team building,” he reasons.

He still doesn’t quite believe that Lance can See the future. But he does start to take Lance’s input in mission planning, so long as Lance can actually rationalize his predictions.

“That’s not going to work,” Lance says firmly, tapping the path Shiro has drawn down a hallway on the blueprints of the Galran cruiser they’re planning to infiltrate. “If we split up, Allura is going to get ambushed and hurt.”

Shiro inclines his head. “Reasoning?”

Lance pauses for a moment to study the blueprints further, trying to figure out why he knows that to be true. He saw the altercation in a vision, of course, but over the weeks of planning with Shiro he’s found that his divinations often follow a largely logical path of reasonings, Sherlock-style.

“This is a Druid-heavy cruiser,” he says finally. “See how the energy systems are rerouted to neutralize more power outbursts than usual? That means a lot of raw quintessence outside of its usual transport containers, which means Druids. And you know how freaky they are about trying to isolate Allura and take her for her quintessence abilities. She shouldn’t spend a second on this ship alone, and especially not down the corridors that are most heavily fortified and monitored. She’s our strongest, but in this case it will only make her a target.”

“Sounds good to me,” Shiro says, placing a proud hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We’ll work out something better, huh?”

———

It’s no secret that Lance spends at least two nights a week at the observation deck; missing his family and falling asleep to the projection of Earth’s steady turn. The team has quietly worked out something like a schedule, making sure he’s never there alone, and everyone makes sure he knows he knows they love him and are there for him.

Lance pretends to be oblivious to the schedule. He saw it in a dream before he’d even met most of the team, but he likes that they try so hard to keep it quiet anyway. It’s sweet.

“Do you know why I’m like this?” he asks one night, when Coran is the one to follow him in.

The advisor takes a moment to consider the question carefully, humming softly.

“I felt something different about you the second I saw you,” he says eventually. He huffs a laugh. “That’s half the reason I was so defensive of you.”

Lance snorts, remembering Coran’s flailing and threats. “I thought it was because I made eyes at Allura.”

Coran grins, checking him gently across the shoulders. “That, too, lad.” His expression turns more serious, pondering. “But I’ve always been very in tune with the energies of the universe, the balance of quintessence in every single thing that takes space. My father taught me to sit quietly with the space between things, to feel how they fit together. You, my dear —” he shifts to look at Lance directly, jewelled eyes meeting deep brown — “your quintessence reaches farther than most. For whatever reason, your soul is stretched wide, across space and time. Everyone’s is, to some degree, but yours more so. For whatever reason, when you came to be, the universe saw fit to grant you the burden of Knowing.”

He takes one of Lance’s hands in his, squeezing gently. “It’s a lot of responsibility, child. But there’s no one I would trust more to shoulder it with grace.”

———

Usually, Lance’s Gift is harmless. It doesn’t matter who on the team does or does not believe — it never has a great enough bearing on their life and mission to make a massive decision.

Until it does.

Until Lance stops mid-attack, freezing in his lion, shout ringing through the comms.

“Lance, come in,” Shiro demands. “What’s wrong?”

Everyone’s screen flickers for a moment before Lance’s comm feed pulls up, brown eyes wide and panicked, terror written all across his face.

“We need to pull back!” he says frantically. “Now, now, now!”

“We can’t pull back now!” Pidge protests. “That ship has the closest guarantee to finding Matt than any other we’ve found so far, and our intel guarantees we outmatch them!”

“I Saw differently, they have —”

Pidge bares her teeth at him. “If you think I’m giving up on my brother because you think you can tell the future —”

“You have to trust me,” Lance begs. “The entire fleet is a setup. All the fighter jets are manned by sentries, there’s not a single soldier on board the commanding ship. It’s a giant bomb. The second we touch it it’s going to blow so big it’ll start a new solar system. Please.”

“Lance, now is not the time —” Shiro interjects.

“I know, but —”

“We have every guarantee from the Blades that my brother may very well be on that ship!” Pidge says shrilly. “I know you think you can see the future Lance, but I just can’t trust that!”

“I’m not asking you to trust it,” Lance says again, more and more desperate by the second. “I’m asking you to trust me. And I promise you, Pidge, if we move forward than every single one of us is going to die.”

Tears drip from Pidge’s eyes. Her face crumples.

“Why are you making me choose between my brother and the team?” she sobs.

“Please trust me,” Lance begs again.

She swipes a hand across her eyes.

“If you’re wrong, I’m never going to forgive you.”

As soon as she says the words, Lance is yelling for everyone to pull back. Shiro echoes him, and the retreat back to the castle. As Allura opens a wormhole, the entire fleet starts to blow, every explosion tripping the ship next to it, until the entirety of the blackness of space is ignited in bright white flame and incinerating debris.

They barely make it through the wormhole in one piece.

———

“I still don’t believe you,” Pidge says stubbornly, once her tears have dried and they’re all safe in their hangars.

Lance smiles softly. “Thank you for trusting me anyway.”

———

Hours after everyone else has fallen asleep, after the last movie for movie night has ended, Keith and Lance sit facing each other on a mound of blankets, knees pulled up their their chins and arms held tightly around their legs.

“Your turn,” Keith whispers.

Lance hums. “How many questions do I have left?”

“We passed twenty forever ago. I think we’re just getting to know each other, now.”

“Oh.”

“Is that okay?”

Lance hides a grin in his pajama-covered knees. “Yeah.”

“Good. Ask your question, doofus. You’re taking forever.”

“‘Kay. How come you pretended not to recognize me when we were rescuing Shiro?”

Keith’s face flames. “I really didn’t recognize you!” he insists.

Lance shakes his head. “We had four group projects together, and you smirked at me after no less than twelve flight sims. I’m not buying it, Samurai.”

Keith holds his gaze for several minutes, glaring stubbornly. But finally he deflates.

“Fine,” he concedes. “I remember you. But if I tell you why I pretended to forget, you have to promise not to get mad, okay?”

“Fine, fine. Just tell me already.”

Keith looks away. He’s quiet for long enough that Lance reaches over to pinch him for not answering.

“Jesus, okay! I’m getting there.” He bites his lip. “Do you remember that dumbass line you used to say? About threading the needle?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Uh. I didn’t get it for a long time. I thought —” he grimaces, accepting Lance’s oncoming diva fit — “I thought your name was Taylor. So.”

To his surprise, Lance bursts out laughing.

“You dumbass! Did you really?”

“It was a valid assumption!” Keith defends. “You said that people called you tailor! What was I supposed to think?”

“Our names are right next to each other on roll call,” Lance chokes out, wiping a tear from his eye. He flashes a teasing grin as he slowly starts to calm down. “Guess there’s I reason I usually did better on the practicals, huh?”

“Oh, shut up,” Keith says, scowling. “You barely did better.”

“Neck and neck,” Lance teases.

“Yeah, yeah, cargo pilot. Whatever you say.”

They’re both quiet for a moment, silence interrupted only by Shiro’s horrible snoring and Lance’s occasional giggle.

“It’s your turn,” he says, once he’s finally gotten himself under control. Keith rolls his eyes, but asks anyway.

“How come you don’t flirt with random aliens anymore?”

To his surprise, the question makes Lance flush darkly. He looks away, picking at his nails.

“I, uh, Saw that I end up with someone soon. Feels disrespectful to flirt knowing I’m gonna be with him any time now.”

Keith’s breath hitches. “Him?”

“Them,” Lance corrects hastily, but the damage is already done.

“Who is he? Do I —”

“Game’s over,” Lance says hastily. “I just had a vision. If we keep playing you’re going to choke to death and die after I make an excellent joke, so. Better safe than sorry.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Keith accuses, but Lance has never been wrong before, so he hesitates.

Lance notices, doubling down. “Yep. I try to give you the Heimlich and everything, but it doesn’t work. You die in minutes. Gotta prevent that.”

“Fine,” Keith says sullenly. “I guess we should go to sleep then.”

“Probably,” Lance agrees, audibly relieved. “Don’t want you to die or anything.”

His face is red until the second he falls asleep.

———

Lance has his impulsive moments, sure. But the real impulsive members of the team are Keith or Pidge, no question about it. They are the king and queen of dumbass, split-second decisions.

When Lance gets a vision, mid-fight, on a planet so overrun with Galran soldiers that ‘outnumbered’ does not begin to cover it, he kicks both of those losers off their thrones by a goddamn mile.

“Lance!” Allura yells, once she realizes he’s breaking formation. “What the quiznack are you doing?”

“The witch controls it all,” he gasps out, to quiet for anyone to hear. He ignores the shouts of his team, ignores their questions, ignores his own guilt for leaving them so abruptly, and books it, as fast as he can, straight towards the cluster of Druids. They stand in a perfect circle, all perfectly still, tendrils of lightning quintessence pouring out of them faster than Lance can track, all tunnelling towards where Zarkon stands suspended above them all, sending deadly bolts of attack at Voltron and their scrambling allies down below. Every time a Druid drops, their very life force drained from them, a new one fills their place, as quickly as possible.

But Lance doesn’t need to see what’s in the centre of their circle with his eyes. He’s Seen it. He knows who lies in the middle of the cluster, who is pulling the strings between the entire empire, who has been this entire time.

As he runs, he feels his bayard warm in his hand, feels the form change from the barrel of his beloved gun to something sturdy, smooth, curved. When he glances down, he sees the familiar contour of a bow.

It’s too simple.

Far too simple.

But Lance trusts himself. He trusts the universe, and the responsibility Coran says it has granted him. He knows it would not lie to him.

He stops hundreds of feet before the cluster of Druids, standing firm as they all turn to face him in unison. He does not flinch when they raise their arms towards him, does not move when Zarkon turns to face him, raw quintessence lighting up his arms as he takes aim directly where Lance stands.

Lance breathes in. He aims the bow high in the sky, not at the Druids, not at Zarkon, but where he knows the arrow will arch gracefully, and make it’s deadly decent: landing dead in the centre of the Druids, where Haggar stands, unfocused on the sky above her.

Lance exhales.

He fires.

He hears a wicked shriek echo louder than any person every could, just as Zarkon’s final blast hits him square in the chest.

His own agonized screams drown out the terrified yells of his team.

———

You’d think it would be quiet, death. It’s the absence of life, after all. The cease of all movement. The end of one’s time.

It’s not.

Lance feels every one of his cells as they sizzle and fry, his very molecules tearing themselves apart as the blast of quintessence breaks easily through his armour. He feels every part of his body and soul incinerate out of existence.

It sounds like one long, shrill screech of brakes stopping abruptly.

It hurts.

———

“There’s no way he’s going to survive that! It’s a waste of time to hope!”

“How can you say that? How dare you say that?

“You think I want to? You think I want this? His very soul was fried, Keith! He is my best friend, he is my brother, but I am not going to put myself or anyone else through the pain of hoping!”

“The pain of hoping is the only thing that can make the pain of giving up feel better!”

———

Coming back to life is shockingly silent, in contrast. Still, too. He knows he’s not dead — he can’t be, if he’s thinking — but he can’t feel any further than that.

Everything is quiet.

———

It’s barely noticeable, when he can finally feel again. The faintest brush of a hand through his hair, a whisper, the press of lips to his forehead.

Then nothing, again.

———

“You’re going to make it, Lance. I’ll kill you if you don’t, you dumbass, selfless bastard.”

———

By the time he can finally move again, he feels like he’s lived four thousand lives. It’s the barest twitch of his finger, but it makes someone gasp, and then there’s a hand grasping his.

“C’mon, Lance,” it says quietly. “Prove me wrong, okay? About Seeing and living and everything. Please. Show me how wrong I was. I’ll even let you gloat forever, okay? I’ll never complain again. I’m sorry.”

Lance tries his hardest to move further, to squeeze Hunk’s hand; hell, even to twitch his finger again.

Nothing.

“That’s okay,” Hunk assures quietly. There’s a slight pressure on his head, briefly, and the scent of Hunk’s face cream and motor oil, and then it’s gone.

“Take your time, okay? I’ll be here. We all will.”

———

The first person Lance sees when he finally opens his eyes again is Allura. He can’t make his mouth move, can’t call out, but he doesn’t have to — she smiles softly at him, never moving her hand from his hair.

“It’s good to see those eyes again,” she whispers. “We’ve missed you, Lance. You think you can try moving your hand? I’ll help you, if you like.”

Lance screws his eyes shut — not because he wants to, he doesn’t, he’s only just opened them, he never wants to close them again — but he can’t seem to stop himself. It takes so much effort just to lift his hand a millimeter up from the mattress it rests on.

“Good!” Allura says, and when Lance forces his eyes open again he sees that she’s smiling much brighter, now, although tears drip down her cheeks.

“You’re so much closer every day, asteraki. In a couple weeks you’ll be all healed up, I’m sure. Okay?”

Lance still can’t make his mouth move, but he manages a hum. That makes her smile wider.

———

Allura is not entirely correct. He is not entirely healed in a couple weeks. But he gets closer and closer every day. After one week, he can move his hands, even though they shake. After two, he can speak, although his voice is raspier than the desert.

The first thing he asks for is an update — did he do it? Did it work?

“Zarkon and Haggar crumbled to dust,” Shiro assures him. “The second your arrow struck. Ten thousand years caught up to them, I guess. The Druids died, too. The Empire hasn’t really gone anywhere, but it’s in chaos. No one knows what to do. Planets are revolting left and right.”

He squeezes Lance’s hands, lifting one up to press a kiss to his knuckles.

“You did it, kiddo. You and that goddamned gift of yours.”

———

It takes months. Months of physical therapy, if speech therapy, of disgusting nutrient-rich diets and fine-motor training that frustrates Lance to tears.

It works, though. Over time, he starts to come back to himself. Not everything is fixed — he needs hearing aids, now, because he was so close to Haggar’s final scream that it shattered his ear drums. His hair is bleached white, too, and lightning-shaped scars run up and down his skin — Shiro jokes that they should start a club. He’s unbelievably lucky that he regains all the mobility in his hands. He still speaks in a stutter, and he likely will for the rest of his life.

But he’s fuckin’ alive, goddamnit, so he’s sure as shit not complaining.

His visions stop coming, too.

He doesn’t mind.

“You were right, though,” Hunk says.

As promised.

“You really could see the fuckin’ future. I’ll be damned.”

“This moment was slightly less depressing in my vision,” Lance says, grinning wryly. “All I got were those two sentences. Who know I almost had to die to get ‘em.”

Hunk glares, flicking him lightly in the forehead. “Too soon, buddy.”

“It’s been half a goddamn year since I got nuked!”

“It will be too soon for the rest of our lives. Your lucky I didn’t build you the safety bubble I wanted to build you, you menace.”

“He really was going to,” Pidge pipes up. “I had to pry the blueprints from his hands.”

Lance tips an imaginary hat. “And I thank you for your service.”

“Whatever, goober,” she says, rolling her eyes, but she’s smiling.

———

There’s nothing strange about the knock on his door. Keith knocks as he always does: just one singular knock, to make people on edge, because he thinks it’s funny.

But Lance freezes.

Because he recognises this feeling, the intense feeling of déjà vù mixed with clear memory — one of his old visions is playing out.

And there’s only one outstanding vision of his that takes place in his bedroom, with Keith, as he’s folding laundry.

“Come in,” he squeaks, desperately trying to compose himself and fight the blush off his face and failing horribly.

Keith steps in and immediately starts helping Lance with the laundry, even though he’s horrible at it and always insists that closets have more space if you roll up clothes instead of folding them.

Menace boy.

He’s quiet for a long moment, rolling laundry until Lance smacks him, and then begrudgingly folding it.

“Did you See this?” he asks eventually.

“Yes,” Lance admits, because he sees no reason to lie.

“Then you know what I’m going to say.”

“I do.”

Keith’s hands finally still, and he sighs, finally looking over at Lance with a smile that shows the barest peek of his crooked incisors. “That doesn’t make it easier, somehow.”

Lance’s belly curls, like he always does when Keith smiles at him like that. He tries to remind himself that he is a grown ass man and he does not need to swoon like a preteen when his crush looks at him, thanks. He forces himself to set the laundry down and take a step towards Keith.

“You should say it anyway.”

Keith hums, closing the distance between them and placing on hand on Lance’s hip.

“Is that how we’re gonna play it, Sharpshooter? You’re not gonna have mercy on me?”

Lance’s breath hitches. “Not for a second.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Keith mumbles, and then his other hand cups Lance’s cheek and he doesn’t waste a second before pressing their lips together, firmly, like he knows Lance can take it.

“I’m in love with you, Lance. I want to be yours. Sound alright?”

“I suppose I could live with it,” Lance rasps, completely unable to dodge the flick that Keith aims for his head when they stand so close.

He decides he doesn’t mind, though, not when Keith shuts up any further teasing with another press of their lips together.

And another.

And another.

It’s just as good as Lance knew it would be.

[xstrawberryshiftsx]

TITAN VALOR ACADEMY DR PT11

pt1/pt3

Titan Valor academy (TVA) is world known—like I’m talking famous—international school based in the smack middle of New York City, anyone with any inkling of a power strive to get in-but they only except the best of the best…super elite, they only take main sub-mutant powers (basically super flashy powers) TVA isn’t the only school of course; mutant schools are littered all over the world, but TVA is everyone’s dream.

I stare at the building in front of me…it was big-like castle big. Is this really my new home? “Hi! Welcome to Titan Valor Academy! How are you today?”

An American accent rang in my ears and I looked behind me to see a very short, very skinny and very blonde lady wavy at me.

“I’m Rachel and it is so nice to meet you!”

she smiled and reached out her hand, I stared at her for a second before shaking it carefully.

“hi I’m-“

“I know who you are! We all know who you are! Welcome Dove!” She interrupted me and giggled before walking ahead of me and opened the main doors.

“now! I’m the guidance counsellor of TVA so I’m in charge of the welfare of students and extracurricular activities! So I’m very busy and don’t have time for you right now, which means I’ll be passing you on to one of our-uh-um…finest? Student!”

Rachel laughed awkwardly and her left eye twitched slightly. She led me into the foyer to where a student was waiting by the couches. They where blonde (whether dyed or not it wasn’t clear) and pale, they low key looked like Addison Grace.

“This is @zipperrants! They will be showing you around school! We had another student ready for you…but they-uh-they died. Laugh! Out! Loud!”

and with that she scurried away up the stairs leaving me alone with…Zipper.

“Hey, your Dove?” They walked over to me and shook my hand.

“Uh-yeah It’s nice to meet you” I laughed awkwardly, fiddling with my hands.

“Yup! I’m in your class this year, my uncle is the vice principal here so I basically know everything, since it’s halfway through the year you’ve missed a bit but my job is to basically help you along for the rest of the year.”

Zipper walked me around the school as they explained the ‘lore’ of the school as they put it.

“okay so first-this school has been open since the dawn of mutants! So like since 1970 I guess. Anyway so since this school is elite or whatever we only have one class for each year group and each year group has around 18 people…”

we walked up the stairs and passed a window, outside

was a giant field filled with students fighting, it looked amazing. Everything was choreographed and perfect, the mutants powers worked perfectly together. They looked so professional.

“…We have about five lessons a day, we have two breaks one for 30 minutes and one for 1 hour, school starts at 9 and ends at 4, we have mostly normal lessons other then two lessons at the end of the day which are focused around power and combat training”

Zipper continued the tour pointing out things around the school as they did.

“So what’s your power? I can teleport, im a sub-space mutant so uh-I’m pretty cool” they said smirking.

“oh-I like to call mine Siren! My mum and dad where both sub-mermaid mutants, I’m basically just what you’d think of a siren”

Zipper paused for a second before smiling

“so your…an evil mermaid….thats not Australian of you, not very H20”

“I will siren sing you into jumping off the top of this school”

zipper paused

“Dually noted”

finally they reached the dorm house

“So this is your dorm! Number three, I’m number six down the hall, I’ll come by in about an hour for dinner. I’ll introduce everybody then!”

and with-that they blooped? Away? Either way they disappeared somewhere.

I HAD TO CUT THIS SHORT BUT I PROMISE ILL INTRODUCE YALL NEXT IM SORRY

link if you want to be added to my dr:

@ningsols @maddies-chronicles @littlecoffeeadict @sugaredlavenderhearts @st4rshipr4nger @faithymanifestsandshifts @zipperrants @lilydreamsss @livingsecret

[mvltisstuff]

can I request a jonah hauer king fic where they're both famous and can't spend a lot of time w each other, angst to fluff?

you’re losing me - j.h.k

summary: request

jonah hauer king x reader

a/n: and i wouldn’t marry me either 😁 a pathological people pleaser 😁

“i don’t think i can make it on friday, darling,” jonah says, his sullen voice through y/n’s speakerphone. she could almost predict that was what he was going to say. it’s almost been one night a week together, despite the years of a relationship.

due to the little mermaid release, jonah’s career has been at an all-time high. y/n’s never felt prouder of a person before, let alone the man that she loves. this is all she’s wanted for him, his dreams to come true and it’s finally happening. every time she sees him on that screen, or on that carpet, her heart is flooded with love.

“are you sure?” she questions, the sound of defeat seeping through her words.

“i have the premiere, and i’m going to be doing press with halle as well,” he adds, only to confirm that he cannot make it to y/n’s show. y/n swears she can hear her heart crumble in her chest, hearing the muffled crack of glass.

“ok,” she tells him, simply but leaving it at that.

“i’m sorry, love, i don’t make my schedule though.”

“i know, it’s just you haven’t been to a single show for this tour. and i’m playing in london this weekend.”

“i get that, it just happened to fall on a terrible weekend. i tried to negotiate it but it doesn’t work that way. i’m so sorry, y/n.”

“you don’t have to apologize,” y/n replies, trying not to let any sass or hurt come through the phone. “i really wanted you to be there.”

“y/n, i don’t know what you want me to do. i wish you could be at the premieres, but you have your tour to worry about.”

“i don’t need you to do anything, baby,” she rubs her eyes with her fingers, letting them rest on her face. “and i’ve tried to make it to the events, i swear. im just glad i even made it to the ones i got to go to.”

“it just makes me feel bad, i don’t want you to think i haven’t been there for you.”

“that’s the complete opposite, jonah. i know you support me, and i want you to know that im here for you, even if im not there physically.”

“i love you, y/n. i have to go shoot for a bit, but i’ll call you tonight?”

“i love you, too,” she tells him, leaving just the sound of a kiss through the phone. she throws it back down on the bed, laying on her side and pretending his arms were around her.

it’s never easy being separated from someone you’ve grown so close to. both of their careers have skyrocketed, but their naïvety never realized how difficult it can be to have love and fame.

so, when y/n closed her eyes that night, she simply dreamed of jonah being next to her.

the friday came too quickly around the corner, still no signs that jonah would be able to attend. before changing into her concert outfit, she spoke through her several mics, asking if jonah had said anything, but alas, there were barely any messages. until right before she went on stage, she got a few words from her assistant.

“hey, jonah texted to say good luck, and that he’s sorry.”

y/n could only nod, not wanting her upset to come across as clear to her fans. she never realized how one small thing could ruin the magic of a night. however, she painted a bright smile onto her mouth, her bright beam soon being revealed onto the massive screens around the stadium.

she forced herself to sing through each of her songs for the tour, the thrilling fans in her ears. she never gets tired of seeing the people who come here just for her, but if she’s being honest, she’s tired of missing jonah.

when the lights went dark at the end of each set, her cheeks were finally relieved of the fraudulent grin on her face.

the show finally came to an end, the encore being finished and the fans starting to disperse. y/n slipped on a jacket over her sparkly costume, and followed her crew out to her area to get unready. she just wanted to go home and be able to be held by jonah, but then she was confronted that home would just be another lonesome place without him.

she walked with a lack of pep to her room, connecting her warm palm to the cool metal of the doorknob. she opened the door slowly, only to see jonah’s handsome figure on the couch in her room.

“that might’ve been my favorite performance yet,” he smiles, sitting up from the back of the couch. y/n releases a breath she didn’t know she was holding, rushing over to let herself fall into his arms on the couch. the exhaustion from the show tonight started to really take over her body, but it still couldn’t outweigh the feeling of joy that she gained from seeing jonah.

“how did you get here?” she asks, gleefully.

“i pushed a few things around, i left a little early.” he informs her, leaning over to kiss her cheek as she sits and places her head on his shoulder. “you planned this showtime for me, and i didn’t even think about it.”

“you’re here, and you have no fucking idea how much that means to me,” y/n connects her lips with his, letting the kiss come together perfectly. she can taste the faint champagne on his lips, seeing a photo of him drinking it with cast mates earlier. the comforting smell of his strong cologne filled her nose. even after running around a stage, with imperfect makeup, y/n still looked like N angel in jonah’s eyes.

“let’s go home, love,” he gleams against her lips, getting the same bewitching grin that he adores in return.

[twisted-wonderland-shenanigans]

MERMAY: Twisted Wonderland Mermaid!AU Skit

Okay, here’s the other skit for my other version of the Mermaid!AU~!

Compared to the Marine Biologist!AU, this version has Yuu getting stranded on an island while on a scuba diving trip, and their goal is not only to find a way to get home, but also to discover the secrets of the island and uncover the history behind what caused the mermaids and the avians (aka like Rook since he’s a seagull) to be separated and turned into mere mythology.

What you’re about to read was more or less a writing exercise I wrote and edited for a possible part when Yuu first wakes up. I don't think I'm going to use this as part of the prologue, but it’s still a possibility if anyone else wanted to imagine this situation once I get it started!

Reminder: there is a language barrier between the humans and mermaids/avians, meaning that things we know the names of would be things they don’t know. Just like in the Little Mermaid! 0v0

Enjoy~!

////------////

Drip…drip…drip……

A quiet groan escaped as Yuu slowly opened their eyes, grunting and gasping as they slowly picked themselves up. Their body was battered and sore, their lungs burning as cold, damp air chilled their skin. Struggling to gather their thoughts, slowly but surely the memories of what happened came flooding back. What the hell was that…that…thing they saw?! What could possibly exist in the world that could destroy an entire ship in one swipe?! How—

How…did they survive?

“Where…am I?” Yuu uttered, looking at their surroundings. It became clear that they were inside a cave, a large pool of water nearby illuminated with a bright blue-green light that made ripples across the ceiling. The stone walls were also covered with glowing blue lights, slowly fading in and out like glittering stars. Were these glow worms? Wait…no, those hung from the ceiling. Some type of crystal?

On trying to stand to get a closer look at the wall, however, they collapsed the moment they tried to put any weight on their leg. In the dim lighting, they could see that their leg was wrapped tightly in seaweed. Peeling it away, they discovered a strange paste covering a large gash in the wet suit’s leg and an injury that looked mostly healed. Where had it come from? Who wrapped their leg up in seaweed and tended to their injuries?

“What’s…going on?” they uttered, noticing the array of random junk and items nearby. It looked like random stuff that had come from ships, some old, broken, and tattered while others were sealed in water-tight containers. Digging around one of the containers, Yuu found several survival kits inside and a survival guidebook in a waterproof bag and immediately pulled out the thermal blanket to wrap around their cold body. Sighing as their body began to warm up, they looked around once again and wondered, “How did I even get here?”

Bloop!

Yuu’s eyes landed on the pool of water nearby, staring at the rippling surface.

Bloop!

Their heart skipped a beat as they scuttled away from the edge, clutching the blanket around them tightly as they stared. Even from this angle they spotted two shadowy shapes appearing, both slowly growing larger and larger. ‘What is that?!’ they thought, heart hammering in their chest. Then—right before their eyes—a head emerged from the water.

A humanoid head with fins on its head.

Bright green eyes stared at them, the creature’s skin a mix of soft and dark blue with a black spade mark on its face partly hidden by the dark blue hair on its head. Its jaw dropped open as the fish it had been carrying fell, floating in the water. Seconds later, a second head emerged from the water with a head of bright red hair and a red heart-shaped mark on the opposite side of its face. This one looked annoyed as it chittered and squeaked something at its friend…before it too stopped and stared at Yuu.

“……I…I’m dreaming,” Yuu whispered. “I’m delirious and imagining fish-people in the water. There’s no way this is real…”

Then—in what looked like whispering—the creatures began quietly clicking and chittering at one another.

///---///

“…dude…it’s awake…”

“I know…”

“Why is it awake?!”

“I thought it was going to still be unconscious by the time we left the fish for it!”

“Dude, I told you to leave that thing alone! What if it’s dangerous?!”

“If it were dangerous, it would have already attacked us, Ace!”

The cavern echoed their words back at them, both of them glancing back and forth between each other and the strange two-legged creature.

“This is not good,” Ace uttered, gripping his head nervously. “Seriously, what are we going to do? How are we going to explain this to the others?! What even is it in the first place??”

“I don’t know!” Deuce snapped. “Maybe…they’re a deformed seal? Or an avian who lost their wings?”

“Then how do you explain the flippers on its legs instead of talons?” Ace pointed out. He did a double-take and asked, “And did it just grow a new set of silver scales? That’s so weird!”

“Weird or not, it still needed our help, Ace!” Deuce said with a frown. “They only appeared right after the Island Guardian reacted to that small metal whale, right? So maybe…it’s a new species that came from another island seeking help?”

Ace groaned as he shook his head. “We’re going to be in so much trouble once Riddle finds out about this…”

“You’re the one who said you wanted to go out beyond the void after getting him angry in the first place.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Eem treemin,” the creature mumbled, shaking their head before smacking their palms against the sides of their head. “Eem treemin, eem treemin…!”

“Is…is it okay?” Deuce asked, cautiously swimming forward to try and check on them.

Spotting movement nearby, Ace noticed a brightly colored form slithering across the cavern floor as it crawled across the silver skin around the creature’s body. It seemed to notice its new visitor too and—with wide eyes—it jumped up with a shriek.

“AAAAA!!”

“AAAAA!!!”

“AAAAAAA!!!”