#naga and harpy? maybe

[psi-spectacular]

C-

Chimera Lili?

Pwease? 🥺

ask and ye shall recieve

[yandere-fetish]

So I've been thinking of the Omegaverse lately and I can't quit thinking about adopting the entire fantasy trope around it.

Like, for example, just imagine...

An Alpha Siren who happens to discover its Omega Reader while there's a cruise ship above, which leads Alpha Siren to follow the ship to port while attempting to gather Omega Reader's attention, stalking you from a distance, leaving little love trinkets everywhere you go, before finally kidnapping you and dragging you need into the dark abyss.

Or reverse it— An Alpha Reader hunting down their Omega Siren, searching the ends of the Earth, diving in vast oceans, countlessly losing your Omega Siren after a single glance, only for your Omega Siren to come to you, half laying on the deck, wagging their tail desperately, wantonly begging for their Alpha Reader to impregnate them.

An Alpha Dragon that captures treasures in their vast abode while waiting on their perfect omega, then happens to discover Omega Reader gathering herbs. We can even turn you into an Omega Witch. Captured by the dragon, fighting for your life, even when your heat kicks in...

Or maybe an Omega Dragon that sneaks up on Alpha Witch Reader in the forest one day and refuses to leave your side. Whines like a puppy, guards like a dog, purrs like a cat, but is as horny as a rabbit when it comes to its heat.

How about an Alpha Naga hunting in the forest, searching for prey for their tribe, then comes across Omega Reader collecting samples, safeguarding the forest, or whatever else you may be doing for planet earth, and takes the chance to observe a new species before falling quickly. Alpha Naga ends up causing your premature heat, kidnapping you from your tent, and hiding you deep in a cave. Your heat gets the better of you but that doesn't mean you won't put up a fight.

Or an Omega Naga that you find as an adventurer that fights you tooth and claw. After winning, maybe it just slithers away or, because of Alpha Reader's pheromones, they go into heat. Maybe you help Omega Naga through its heat intimately, or maybe they are the ones who claw at your shirt, coiling their tail around your legs, their forked tongue kissing your neck and face, even the slippery cocks that end up slipping between its orifice.

Take an Omega Selkie that adores the shore and while swimming to the surface, catches wind of your Alpha pheromones, which leads to the Omega Selkie searching everywhere for you, discovering your swimming form scuba diving or just swimming leisurely, they end up playing with you in their seal form before revealing their true self when you have to leave. It's pretty hard to turn down a tempting and innocent creature that's leaking for you to sate their desires.

Or an Alpha Selkie who dominated the waves, blending in with humans while protecting the seas, they also dare to sift through the human omegas before coming across you, which leads to your rejection and their perseverance until you end up being emotionally and physically attached. Now you’ve got no where to run and no where to hide with Alpha Selkie breathing down your neck and following you at every turn.

Maybe try an Alpha Harpy bleeding from a wound in a fight and comes across you, an Omega Bird Hybrid, before passing out, to which you take them in and clean them up, feeding them, nursing them back to health. Alpha Harpy refuses to leave at the end, declaring themselves your mate, grabbing many courting gifts to give you, nonstop attempts to mate you, aiding you in building your nest and even collecting your meals.

Or maybe an Omega Harpy that is in constant need of affection but refuses themselves from having any contact with it due to their abused childhood, thus leading Alpha Reader, who has Omega Harpy as a pet, to care for their needs, to learn more about habits and behaviors, before attempting to try anything, which leads to multiple disputes that ends bloody for Alpha Reader before you honestly takes care of Omega Harpy through their heat, platonically, thus ending up with them falling for you.. but more slowly and with caution.

We could try an Alpha Cereberus Pack that has lived for thousands of years, most of them mateless and horny, until one night where they meet their perfect little Omega, you, a Cat Hybrid. They're sent to guard the demon that's killing your neighbors, all the while watching you, individually, invisibly, before the demon comes after your Omega Cat Hybrid Reader— which sends Alpha Cereberus Pack feral and ends up taking the demon's life and disappearing with you...

Or an Omega Cereberus Pack that have been abandoned by their last owners or their parents (bc that's the way of life what cruel abusive demons do) and are starved, on the brink of death, when innocent Alpha Cat Hybrid Reader finds them in the wet rain before taking them safely home. You take good care of the Omega Cereberus Pack, even as they snap and growl at your every move, but eventually, they grow fond of you, growing like wild weeds, and, out of nowhere, they've become adults, begging in heat one day.

Maybe enjoy an Omega Arachne that is super shy and scared of others that are not of their kind due to the screams of terror when coming in contact with someone else. Omega Arachne who's lived alone for a few hundred years, succumbing to loneliness.. then they caught a whiff of Alpha Reader's pheromones and suddenly went into a force heat, which causes your rut to come into play, but not until you've stumbled upon their web (in a cave, in a forest, or maybe on a mountain).

Or an Alpha Arachne that has set his eyes on you, an Omega Arachne (or maybe an Omega Lamia) since you were born, watching, waiting, for the perfect time to strike and capture you in their web. Alpha Arachne designs a web for the upcoming mating season and delivers many prey of all kinds for the honeymoon, and even if they don't end up catching your attention, they take matters into their own legs and kidnap you for their own. After a clutch or two, they know you'll be fine.

[boffix]

forget pussy, forget cock. I want to know what you think of a monster AU for deep cut. Shiver being a Harpy, Frye a Naga and Big man a Wearbear.

Ooo fun! More at the bottom :D

(Sleep deprived vomit ⬇️)

Harpy Shiver was interesting to think about. Since the myth is that they were sent by Zeus to torment and stuff, would the world of Splatoon follow that logic? If so, then there would have to be a god or gods to believe in (Anyways I’m gonna ignore it because this is being posted at 3am bestie). Maybe she could have been sent by some higher power for that reason and joins the other two along the way. Maybe gone rogue and abandoned her mission? Idk.

Naga Frye was sick as fuck bro. I was focused mainly on the au portion tbh- like her searching for some rare loot or whatever and choosing to help Shiver as long as they help with the treasure hunt. BM joining as the moral compass of course.

Werebear BM was SO fun to draw. The werebear origins I came across was from the berserkers of Norse mythology. Couldn’t tie much of that to the big guy so he’s just a gentle giant, now with more fluff! His demeanor wouldn’t change at all after transforming. With him being the head of his clan, his self control should be the best of the best.

[twsted-kinks]

TWST Monster AU Ideas (NSFW)

>ageless and minors dni<

IDK if I'm gonna do an AU where NRC is just filled with non-humans and MC is the only human or have a completely different setting where it's basically fantasy village filled with the TWST boys but monsters. For beastmen basically just give them animal heads and like... Fantasy beastfolk. Same with mers they're basically the same but more monster features.

Either way I want thoughts on what monsters each guy would be

Riddle - Centaur- based off competitive/show horse

Ace - Satyr (maybe make shortstack for size diff)

Deuce - Rabbitfolk/half rabbitfolk? (Shortstack?)

Cater - Slime/ooze (Can do the duplication spell but not because he just splits himself)

Trey - Minotaur

Leona - Lionfolk/Leonin

Ruggie - Hyenafolk/Gnoll

Jack - Wolffolk/worgen

Azul - Octomer but big/kraken?

Jade & Floyd - Eel mer but more monsterous (more teeth and creepier)

Kalim - Harpy (parrot or bird of paradise based)

Jamil - Naga (definitely keeping the hypnotism)

Vil - Incubus ;)

Rook - Bugbear/firbolg/troll idk something big with a tail and some tusks mayhaps

Epel - fairy/pixie (even more size difference)

Idia - Ghost

Malleus - Dragon (basically the same but humanoid form is glamour and still he has lots of scales and his tail and wings and of course horns)

Lilia - Bat monster (basically giant bat with some human-like features)

Silver - Centaur (based off work/war horse)

Sebek - Lizardfolk/Drake/Dragonborn/maybe kobold? (for size difference)

Neige - Angel

Che’nya - Catfolk/Tabaxi

Dire Crowley - Crow harpy

Divus Crewel - Human? Maybe breeds monsters like monster husbandry.

Mozus Trein - Human? Maybe also a monster fucker so monster fucker mentor? Or just the friend that judges your taste.

Ashton Vargas - Chimera/Manticore (looking like Beast)

Sam - Undead? Ghoul/zombie? A friend from the other side?

Please reply or send me an ask with your thoughts!

[the-raindeer-king]

SELKIE👏SOAP👏 big brain stuff. Don't get me wrong, the Dullahan is my favorite of all mythological creature. I have a whole figurine a foot tall of one on my shelf. But Selkie Soap hits so hard. He'd so be the type to leave his coat out at your house all the time after dating and knowing you're his person. 'Oh, whoops Soap left his weirdly heavy and thick coat here again', 'Oh look, he's calling asking if you can bring him his coat' after a while he gives up and just throws it on you tbh. Let him be yours, damnit!

If selkies are always cold without the pelt, I wonder how important warmth is so Soap. You cuddled up and comment how warm he is, or how warm and cozy it is under the blanket(and pelt cause ofc) with you? Absolute heart eyes. You probably just said the equivalent of something so serious and loving and he's fawning

Big brain shit

AND BEAR SHIFTER PRICE the rumbles the RUMBLESSS takes 'bear hug' to a whole new meaning. Yes he adds honey to his tea, he will bite if you comment on it (if you're not one of the very few he really trusts and cares for that is. If it's say, his wonderful partner, they'll get smothered with a kiss an' a cuddle and maybe a nip at most. Gotta take care of his lil' love after all.) Supreme den to sleep in. Dark room, probably painted like a dark brown or something so it's really dark dark once the sun goes down. California King size bed, so many blankets, heavy ones he can shift around into certain ways. Pillows everywhere, AC cranked LOW low so he can cuddle his sweet partner so so close without them overheating, leaving them clinging to him in their sleep bc he's so warm. Probably loves smelling your scent, and scenting you so others smell him and know to leave you be

ELDRITCH GHOST THO!

He's always there. Haunting those he hunts and those he loves and it's such a rare thing to be so vehemently focused on tbh. As his enemy, it's an endless looking sense. The dark is too dark in certain spaces but not all of them. The quiet is too quiet when they step into a specific spot but take two steps away and they can hear their brain thinking again. On the flip side, you never feel like you're alone. There's always something right around the corner, right behind you that you can't see. Yes, Ghost is there physically, and his body almost feels like there's soft layers and hollow inside. But when hes not there, it's like he is still. A drink on the counter when you wake, a towel on the sink when you shower, the blankets moving and being tucked around you as you settle to sleep, even if you not moving, especially when it's dark.

And 100% I don't see Gaz as a harpy. I think you're on with a Naga though. Notoriously hard to kill (as we've seen with all the shit Gaz gets into (cough cough, helicopter, cough cough)) ruthless on the job but Amicable unless disrespected off the job (usually used as guards in mythology) and I'd go a step farther and say I could see him as either a Boomslang(one of the 10 fastest snakes, cause Gaz isn't super bulky but he's light and quick and snaps to where he needs to go yk?) also a beautiful black/green combo and slimmer species that I feel would fit him well, highly venomous and hang out in trees, idk if that's fitting just a fun fact.

Oooh just imagine going to pick him up after a rough mission. He's still on guard, alert, serious, and once he sees you he's snapping to you, already holding you close, the midsection of his tail winding up to press against the back of your legs, pressing you closer. Mumbling quiet words with a light hiss to them as he draws you in, seeping up your warmth. He's a cold blooded creature, can't you help him warm back up? 🥺

Anon, you and I are on the same wavelength and I love you (platonic).

[a-twistedheartslonging]

I love babies, so i wanna talk about beasty babies!

Riddle is a headgehog creature in my mind, so I’m picturing him helping his baby through the itchies of growing in their quills since they’re not born with them (thank goodness!) taking a bristle brush and helping scratch their little backs so gently, and the lotions do they don’t end up with any irritations! Once the baby has their quills fully grown in he calms down, but until then he’s a nervous wreck!

I can only see Trey as a centaur since a friend said it, so picture a half centaur baby, maybe just the two legs like a faun. Since they’re half human I feel they would take longer to walk and run and stuff, but they would sit up super fast. Trey and his family keep trying to help baby stand when they’re still too little and he’s such a worried papa!

Leona is like « I’m not a kid person, I don’t wanna be a dad » as he’s playing tea party with his cubs. No more than two, honestly wanted only one but somehow ended with twins. Tries to lick them but they always cry cause his tounge hurts! But eventually they try to lick him and his heart melts.

Jack is petrified during every moment of his child’s life, that one who is like « don’t climb that! Be careful! I CANT look ! » wants to bubble wrap all of his pups up so none can get hurt! And don’t get him started on shots! He can’t be in the room with them during, so good luck to you!

Azul probably doesn’t have kids till a bit later than everyone else, so he’s atleast got a lot of second hand knowledge, that all goes out the window when his babe is born. That baby has him wrapped around each tiny tentacle! He’s still a big powerful boss man, but he’s very strict now on coming home on time to be the soft sweet daddy man he is also meant to be.

I feel the twins stay so close their own kids think they’re actually siblings! They call the other dad « uncle daddy » and it’s a tight knit group! Floyd always is there with a game, or roughhousing to get any excessive energy out, while Jade is there to help with mental stimulation with board games, or reading! Family hikes/swims become weekly activities, and the kids all love it. It also gives the other parents a break from the gaggle of children (that includes the Leech twins!)

Kalim is a cockatoo harpy, so happy and excited to be here! His baby and him sing from birth, or…Kalim says they’re singing but really they’re just babbling back to him. I think Kalim ends up only having one or two kids, he remembers not seeing his parents much, and how he never got to know all of his siblings that well and how even though it was a full house, he was lonely. He wants to give his all to a few babies, since he’s grown up quite a bit now.

Jamil doesn’t want kids unless he’s free, so he and Azul both end up having kids a bit later. Only after he’s free, and gone through enough therapy to start speaking with Kalim again will he think of having kids. He and Kalim are on speaking terms, but Jamil is still keeping his distance, until the babies are born, then he’s calling Kalim every two minutes to ask questions, completely forgetting that Kalim is a different species! Naga Jamil for life! Bet his babies all inherited his beautiful hair.

Idia also seems like he has to warm up to kids, but he remembers how much he loved hanging with Ortho and wants to provide that for some kids. He ends up adopting I bet cause he doesn’t want to pass his flame hair down, adopts a pair of siblings, who torment him day in and day out. But he loves them! And besides, he has enough legs to hug you, Ortho and those two with some to spare!

Malleus is ready for babies the second you say hello to him, he’s down bad! Wants atleast two since he was lonely as a kid. Since he’s king now, he does have to keep up airs sometimes, but his kids know when he is King Draconia of Briar Valley vs King Daddy of PillowFort Land! I bet they sneak into cabinet meetings and sometimes you can hear a small giggle, or see the movement of the table cloth, but by the end they’re all asleep, snuggled up on papa Malleus’s tail.

Lilia could take or leave kids, but if he had to choose he would want to adopt again! Ends up basically running an orphanage, full of laughter and smiles. Really it’s more of a foster home since he does try to find better families for them, but while they’re with him they’re all family! How he can handle 50+ kids, be close with them all, have all of their likes, dislikes, hobbies, friends, teachers, enemies and everything else memorized you’ll never know. He loves all the kids, and helps them grow into their best selves! Many still return to hang out and catch up after they’ve left the home and he always gets a bit teary eyed seeing them go, but he’s so proud of them!

Sebek has one child, a spit fire from birth! An angry baby who yells right back at Sebek whenever he tries to scold them. Says yucky to Sebek’s Malleus painting and Sebek cries in the corner. Eventually the kid gets over the terrible toddler years, but still a stubborn kid, who only listens to their other parent! Sebek and his kid are fighting for your affection 24/7 including back stabbing, black mailing, and somehow a glitter bomb.

I like a lot of these, I think with the getting shots thing though Jack has to leave the room cuz he's unintentionally scaring the doctor and growls at doc if the kid makes a sound of pain/cries during.

[teejaystumbles]

Dream is the new addition to the goddess Calliope's collection of husbands - she has got over a dozen. Who needs that many husbands, right? But the city states and rulers of every realm just keep sending her more for her favour so she just puts them in a huge garden and house and mostly leaves them to their own devices. Her husbands are creatures of all kinds, fae and centaur, nymph and harpy, but only one of them Dream finds chained in the back of the garden, where it's the most sunny. He can't see it because it hides in a dark alcove and won't come out. The others tell him that this one can't speak their language because it was brought from a far away land over the sea, but Dream's gift is that he can speak with everything, be it animal or human. No matter the language, he can understand it. A gift from the gods, presumably, and a reason why he was chosen by his people to become the goddess' husband. He carefully makes introductions and tries to coax the strange creature out of it's hiding spot, without success. Only when Calliope comes to choose one of them to entertain her for the evening and she calls out "Hob", the creature stirs and reluctantly leaves its alcove when she pulls on its golden chains. Dream is immediately fascinated with the naga, golden scales glinting in the light and a diadem like the sun sitting on the man's dark-haired head. He looks unhappy despite the goddess being clearly very enamored with him and Dream decides that he'll find out more about this "Hob."

I hope I got most of the stuff we came up with in the server, i tried to remember but maybe I missed some of the ideas. Calliope isn't evil, but she can't let her "presents" go or there'll be trouble so she's in a bit of a pickle I suppose. There's room for a redemption arc if someone wants to write this. For the Monsterfucktober Bingo square "naga", the Sandtober prompt "celestial" and DN House of Horrors prompt "chains".

[monstersandmaw]

Male drider pirate captain x gn human (mild nsfw)

Disclaimer which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

___

Surprise! A story out of the blue! Hope you like it.

Content: a human who faces daily discrimination for being one of the only humans in a relatively isolated society of non-humans, non-explicit/detailed mention of unwanted sexual/physical contact (it’s brief, but it’s in there - paragraph beginning ‘Still, they couldn’t be any worse than the naga...’), a reader who was orphaned at a young age, a dread pirate captain who’s actually a total softie, a motley crew of pirates who are also all secret sweethearts, and a tiefling friend who wants the best for you. And a briefly spicy ending. Enjoy? Wordcount: 8710

___

For all its pretty beaches and steady flow of gold and goods, Cutthroat Cove was hardly the kind of place that people aspired to reach, and it wasn’t the kind of place people lingered once they washed up there, humans least of all.

To get off the island, you had to find a pirate ship willing to take you, and the price of passage was usually dearer than it first appeared. Most of the crews didn’t like humans aboard either, which was another odd stacked against you.

“To the Empress!” A shout went up from the furthest corner of the dingy tavern, and tankards were raised in a jeering chorus of howls and inhuman noises. You glanced up from where you’d been drying off the wooden mugs that Harrow had just finished washing, and you watched as the crew of the Blackbird, flush with fresh plunder, began a familiar toast. “May she continue shitting out shiny gold coins for us to keep plucking out of her fat little merchants’ hands!”

Their laughter filled the small, low-ceilinged common room and made your ears buzz. There must have been a siren among them, you thought distantly as you shook your head to clear it. No one else seemed affected, but a nearby patron — a triton leaning heavily on the wooden bar — leered toothily at you and flared the fins on the side of their head in a mocking sneer.

As you turned away to diffuse the situation, your elbow caught a bottle of rum on the edge of the counter. It teetered and would have smashed had Harrow not grabbed it with his prehensile tail and shunted it back to safety. He shot you a warning look and rolled his dark eyes affectionately. A creased dimple appeared in his cheek and the tiefling smirked a fanged smile at you before throwing a wet dishcloth in your face. “Watch it, clumsy,” he snorted playfully. “Honestly. What are you like?”

“Thanks,” you mumbled and tried not to watch too closely as his purple tail uncoiled slowly from the bottle. Perhaps it came from being raised on a mostly non-human pirate ship, or perhaps you’d just been made differently, but your fellow humans had never done much for you, and in fact, the less human someone looked, the more likely you were to find yourself tripping over your feet around them.

With another sigh, you turned to see to a goblin with blood red hair who had just leaned over the bar to yell an order at you above the clamour in the room, a gold ring glinting in her nose, when the door flew open and a small harpy boy flapped inside, with his feathers all ruffled and his chest heaving from a wild flight up the hill to the tavern.

“The Widow’s Web docked down on Rum Quay fifteen minutes ago!” the boy panted, wide eyed and sweaty faced. “And they’re coming ashore!”

For a moment, the entire, packed tavern went completely still. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Someone set down their tankard with a loud clunk but for a good ten seconds, that was the only sound in the whole room.

“The Widow’s Web?” someone finally hissed. “She never docks anywhere. What the fuck is she doing here?”

“Maybe they need to resupply?”

“They don’t resupply ashore,” someone else scoffed. “They just take what they need off the Imperial Navy and keep on sailing!”

“Maybe one of them is sick?”

“Or they’re looking for new crew?”

“I heard the captain wraps people up in his webs to eat later…” came a nearby, dark muttering.

“Or maybe —”

“— Maybe they just want a good drink for once, and find Her Imperial Majesty’s rations perennially disappointing,” came a deep, smooth voice from the open doorway behind the harpy boy.

The poor lad squeaked and puffed up in surprise, floundering out of the doorway in a twittering spray of mousy feathers and gangly, avian legs, and everyone stared at the figure who had melted from the darkness beyond to fill the doorway completely.

It was impossible not to stare. You’d seen driders before, but you’d never seen one like him.

He moved on seven dark legs that were armoured with a natural carapace like a crab, with pointed spikes at the joints that glinted in the low light, and the eighth was a prosthetic, replaced below the articulated ‘knee’ joint of his right front leg with a shining, steel limb that had been sharpened to a point to match his other limbs, and which clinked softly when he walked. He had to duck almost double to squeeze through the tavern door that had been built wide and tall enough for even a draft centaur to get through.

As he leaned down, his straight, white hair fell forwards around his face like a shroud, momentarily concealing his slate-grey skin that was tinged with purple. He had four eyes, all completely black, and dark mandibles at the corners of his mouth, and as he entered the tavern, he took off his cocked hat and hooked it casually over the upward turning spikes on his left foreleg.

His spider’s body was huge and pendulous and black, covered in a downy fur that shifted like moonlight and spread up his human back, vanishing out of sight beneath a heavy, black coat with silver buttons and emblazoned on the back with the silver web of his ship’s emblem, the Widow’s Web.

Someone dropped a glass in the silence of his arrival, and you startled a little at the sound. Beside you, you heard Harrow inhale slowly. “Holy shit,” he hissed, and his dark, cloven hooves made a soft clopping against the flagstones as he sidled up to you. He was shorter than you, and you glanced down to find him looking up at you with wide, worried eyes. “That’s… That’s him…”

“Capitan Steelsling…” you whispered. “I thought he and the Widow’s Web were just… a myth? You know?” you added, glancing between Harrow and the pirate captain.

Behind Steelsling, a truly colossal, silk-white bison minotaur dipped her horns beneath the lintel and surveyed the room. She had red eyes and a pink nose, and was almost as legendary as her captain, and together, they made their way towards an empty table near the bar.

“Good luck, mate!” Harrow elbowed you in the ribs and ducked away with a mumbled lie about checking the stock.

You could hardly hear anything through the fear that had started a pounding at the back of your skull. You were going to have to go over there.

Still, they couldn’t be any worse than the naga who’d grabbed you with their tail and coiled around you tightly enough to make your ribs creak last week, only releasing you when the laughter of their companions had faded and you’d nearly passed out. Or the gnoll who’d tripped you into her lap and laughed about you being a soft little human while her claws had picked through your shirt. Or the siren who’d made you take your top off and dance a jig on the table with their hypnotic voice, to the rabid amusement of a packed bar. You’d endured a thousand humiliations in your life at Cutthroat Cove, and you were certain that you could weather whatever this dread pirate could dream up for you too.

Squaring your shoulders, you set the damp cloth down on the bar, wiped your hands on your trousers, and strode across the room towards the newcomers, with the eyes of the entire tavern on you.

The captain watched you approach with an unnerving intensity in his four, jet black eyes, but his minotaur first mate seemed entirely bored and unimpressed by the entire establishment. You included. Clearly you posed no threat to her or her captain, so she ignored you for the time being.

You drew to a halt in front of their table and looked up into the captain’s inhuman face. He was sharply handsome, with the hard, cut-glass plains of his cheeks and jawline thrown into start relief in the low light of the bar, and the thick, black, curved talons at the ends of his mandibles glinted in the lamplight like pieces of obsidian.

He tilted his head in a manner that might have been either patronising or curious, you couldn’t quite tell, and blinked his black, almond-shaped eyes slowly. The two pairs moved slightly out of time with each other, the smaller, lower outer pair starting first, followed by the larger inner pair. Holding his gaze for long though was like trying to hold an oil slick in your hands.

“What can I get for you?” you asked, cursing the way your voice cracked a little.

Conversation began to pick up hesitantly around you, and in the far corner, someone got out a tin whistle and began to play a well-known and popular song. The captain smiled when he heard it, his mandibles chittering briefly, and he leaned over to his first mate and grinned, “Remember when Keel played this and Harrik fell overboard trying to impress him?”

She snorted suddenly, her wild, white mane of curls bouncing and her large, fluffy ears flicking back and forth. “How could I forget that?” she chortled. “He looked like a wet rat when we hauled him back on deck. Couldn’t look Keel in the eye for a week!”

You stood stock-still while they reminisced, wary and patient and silent.

The captain turned sharply back to you and twitched his head a little. “My apologies,” he purred. “We are still waiting for a few more of our crew, but I know what they’ll have to drink at any rate. Perhaps you could bring a couple of pitchers of your finest ale over, and six tankards?”

You nodded and paused just long enough to see if they were going to add anything else to their order.

The first mate leaned forwards towards you, resting an elbow on the thick tabletop. It groaned under her muscular weight. “What’s in the kitchen tonight?” she asked. Her voice was rough and deep, but her tone was gentle enough.

“Roast pork,” you said quickly. “And boiled vegetables.”

The captain nodded. “We’ll wait for the others to order food, I think. If that’s alright with you?”

You blinked. “What?” you said before you’d thought about it. “I mean, of course. I’ll be right back with the ale. Excuse me.”

And with that, you bolted back to the bar, sweaty and a little shaky. They hadn’t been at all what you’d been expecting, and they weren’t like the usual patrons of the Salted Kipper.

Harrow had emerged by the time you returned, and he shot you a look. “Well?” he asked.

“Well what?” you snapped, distracted.

“Well what’s he like? I heard from Maggie that Steelsling ripped a human’s head clean off their shoulders just for looking at him too long, and one time, he used that legendary ‘steel’ web of his to garrote the commander of Port Liberty, but the thread was so fine the man didn’t know it had happened til he was bleeding out on the marble floor. And his first mate is hardly any better. I heard —”

“You shouldn’t listen to what people say,” you said with a frown as you fished the enormous pitchers out of the cupboard under the bar and turned to fill one from the barrel on the wall behind you. “You know how much bullshit gets peddled through here in a single night — how much sailors love to exaggerate.” In truth, you didn’t want Steelsling to overhear Harrow’s words and think you were gossiping about him.

“Yeah, but… no smoke without a fire, right?”

You just shook your head and concentrated on filling the pitcher without creating too much of a foaming head on the ale.

With the two pitchers set on a wide, wooden tray, along with the six empty tankards, you set off for their table again. En route, someone with sharp claws grabbed a fistful of your arse and you had to step over the swaying, serrated tail of a lizardfolk at the table next to the drider captain’s. She cackled a laugh at you when you nearly spilled the pitchers because of it. One slid a terrifying couple of inches along the tray as it tipped, and you wobbled in a desperate attempt to stop it sliding all the way off.

You cursed as you staggered, completely off balance, but something solid caught you at the hip and buttressed you up. Cold relief sloshed through you as you saved the pitchers from toppling off to make an ungodly mess all over the floor, only to look up and find that the drider captain himself had jutted out one of his huge, armoured legs to steady you. It was the steel prosthetic of his right foreleg, you realised, and you could feel its coldness seeping through your clothes the longer you stayed pressed against it.

All the blood drained from your face and you felt your jaw go slack. “I’m so sorry,” you blurted, and you almost leapt away from the contact to set the tray down, hoping to disappear as quickly as possible.

“It’s no trouble,” he said in his oddly polite, lyrical voice. You’d expected something coarse and harsh from the legendary sea captain, but he was refined and softly-spoken. “Does that happen often?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Uh…” you swallowed, stepping back with the tray held in front of you a bit like a shield. “I mean… I’m pretty much the only human on the island now, so where else are they going to get their fun, you know?”

You’d said it with a false lightness to your voice, hoping to make him smile and say ‘fair enough’, but his expression darkened and his eyes glittered dangerously.

“It’s fine,” you babbled. “Really. It’s harmless. They’re just blowing off steam, you know?”

That also didn’t help.

He glared around the room and you got the vague impression that the people who had been staring, hoping for an impressed reaction from him, suddenly looked away in shame.

“Excuse me,” you said again, and fled.

The rest of his crew arrived not long after that, and they were an equally odd mix of people: another drider, though she was stocky and built like a tarantula, and her arms and torso were thickly muscled where Steelsling’s body was lean and wiry; a delicate cervitaur who looked about as unlikely to find a home on the sea as the Empress herself, with a white coat and white antlers and a dancing, graceful way of walking that wouldn’t have been out of place in a palace; a rugged, crab-like merfolk who was armoured to the nines in his own orange chitin and had pincers for hands and a sour look on his face as he squeezed his bulky carapace between the tables; a forest naga with a rainbow shimmer to her tail and dreads that fell to her waist; a tiny, waifish, hummingbird harpy whose iridescence matched the naga’s in vibrancy if not in hue; and finally… a human?

Yet again that evening, you tried not to stare, but it was so unusual to find a human among a crew of pirates in these parts that you weren’t the only one taken aback. People hissed and whispered behind their mugs, but no one tried anything with the other human in the room. They saved that for the one they knew was alone and largely unprotected.

As you worked the other tables that night, dodging wayward hands and sneaking trip hazards in a familiar dance, you caught glimpses of the way the crew of the Widow’s Web laughed and joked among themselves. They were clearly close as family, the realisation of which struck you to the core with something akin to genuine, physical pain. The other pirates who frequented the Salted Kipper were business partners and tight-knit groups, but there was always something festering away beneath the surface — some jealousy or scheming distrust — but the Widow’s Web crew touched each other frequently with a friendly nudge or a playful shove, and they laughed. They laughed until they cried and fell about on each other’s shoulders over something and nothing, and even Steelsling himself seemed amused. He kept a little back from the others though, as though he wasn’t quite a part of it, and he kept his four eyes roaming the room every so often too, as though keeping watch for trouble. Wherever he looked, people looked away, uncertain.

Frequently, his glinting gaze landed on you. When that happened, you ducked your head and busied yourself with another task, but you felt the weight of his four eyes on you as you crossed the room all the same.

If the scattered crumbs of gossip were to be believed, which they rarely were, that night was the first time in six years that the Widow’s Web had formally put to shore, and no one expected to see them again for another six at least.

And yet, a month later, the door opened and in strode the hulking form of the first mate, accompanied by her eight-legged captain and a few of their crew.

You served them ale, and he asked you how you were as you set the pitchers down. “Fine, thanks,” you mumbled, head down.

It seemed to irritate him that you were so deferential, and he sighed sharply.

“You?” you added, glancing up as you tacked the question on as an afterthought.

His mandibles twitched in what might have been an arachnid smile and his shoulders dropped a visible inch. “I’m well, thank you. We had a successful couple of encounters on the Whale Road Shore lately.”

“You went all the way to the Whale Road Shore?” you gasped, staring openly at him. “But that’s… that’s at least a two week sail from here, even with the winds in your favour? How did you make it there and back in so little time?” Distances, maps, and charts had always fascinated you, the way a caged bird dreams of open windows.

Across the table, the first mate chuckled, and with a jolt you remembered yourself, and your place, immediately.

“Forgive me,” you said quickly. “I didn’t mean to pry. Enjoy your evening.”

“Wait?” came Steelsling’s soft, rich baritone. He didn’t speak loudly or harshly, but the simple, politely uttered question stopped you in your tracks. “You weren’t prying, and I don't mind. We have a wind witch aboard. Makes things much easier and faster.”

“Oh,” you breathed. A wind witch? Was there no end to this crew’s mystery?

“They’ll be here any minute,” Steelsling said carefully, deliberately, pointedly. “If you want to meet them.”

“Oh, no… thank you,” you said, despite the way your heart ached to meet a real wind witch. It was a particular talent that only humans had, though other species had similar gifts with the weather. It might have been nice to talk to another human after so long. “No, that’s alright. I don’t want to intrude, and I… I should get back to work.”

The captain just nodded, but he didn’t speak to you directly again that night. The human on his crew — the wind witch — did show up a little while later, accompanied by the pretty cervitaur and the fiery-looking orange merfolk, and the crew lost themselves again in their food and drink and conversation. All but one of the crew, you realised after they’d been there an hour. The captain himself was sitting back, resting his humanoid upper body against the wall of the inn, his spider legs tucked up tightly around him, almost like a cage of spiked, black steel with one silver bar, and he had his arms crossed over his chest and a dark glower on his face. You tried not to look at him when you discovered him already watching you, and you traded a week’s worth of floor scrubbing with Harrow to avoid serving their table again.

Month after month, the crew of the Widow’s Web returned to the Salted Kipper, and month after month, the captain watched you.

He watched you dodge the other patrons, sloughing off their insults and jibes and clumsy, pawing attempts to get you into their lap, and each time, his expression grew darker and more severe. He stopped taking part in his table’s merriment, glowering in the corner like a monster from a fairytale while his crew carried on around him. Only his first mate would frown at him and try and get him to engage, but he never did for long. You started to think you’d insulted him by refusing the honour of a conversation with the wind witch, and he was concocting a truly venomous revenge for your rudeness.

Then, after six straight months of visits, they vanished.

No one saw the black and silver sails of the Widow’s Web for months, and gossip about them erupted.

Rumours circulated like gulls on the wind: they’d been sunk by the Empire; they’d been swallowed up by a kraken who’d been hunting Steelsling for years after taking his right leg off; there’d been a mutiny and they’d all killed each other in the process; they’d strayed off the edge of the world; they’d strayed off the edge of the world and then returned with some mysterious illness; the captain had eaten his crew one at a time while stranded in the doldrums… Each theory was more ridiculous than the next, but you came to miss the crew’s polite presence in the corner of the inn. The lowering eyes of the deadliest pirate in the known kingdoms had gone some way to lessening the way you were treated as a human among so many of what the Empire called the ‘monstrous species’ and the ‘beast folk’. Monstrosity was a relative thing, you’d found.

One morning, after preparing the inn for the day, you headed down alone to the harbour to stock up on supplies for the kitchen. The folk who ran the market were used to you, given that you’d been on the island since you’d washed up there at the age of eight, and they’d stopped trying to fleece you on each purchase you made for Silas, who ran the inn.

You’d just added a box of smoked salt into the groaning basket on your arm when a gasp went up from the nearby shoppers and you turned to see what had snagged their attention. The elegant and eerie prow of the Widow’s Web — a series of carved, black spiders crawling up a cylindrical spar — and the furled black sails of the legendary ship as it was towed into port drew the attention of everyone in the harbour-side market.

You’d never seen them outside of the inn, and you watched as the small, efficient crew scuttled around making last-minute preparations to the lines and the sails before docking, and there, leaning his weight casually against the taffrail with his white hair streaming out behind him like a banner, was Captain Steelsling himself. Your mouth went dry at the sight of him and you stared openly, drinking in the contrast between the curve of his dark spider’s body and the angular lines of his slim, armoured legs. They looked like they could puncture the hull of a warship like a harpoon, and his prosthetic caught the sun and flashed blindingly for an instant.

You watched in awe as he left the deck and scuttled up the rigging with enviable ease to talk briefly to the figure tucked away in the crows nest. That done, he fearlessly descended the rigging and joined the others on the main deck. Just as he turned to give an order to someone on his left though, he froze and you looked on with an odd mix of trepidation and delight as he noticed you.

For a long time, he stared at you. Then, finally, he inclined his head and went about the business of making port.

You had intended to be gone from the market by the time the lengthy process of bartering for better docking fees was over, but fate it seemed had other ideas. You were halfway through haggling with the knife-sharpener for a more reasonable price for her services when she looked up and she dropped the small paring knife she’d been using as a prop to try and frighten you into giving in and accepting her price.

“Captain Steelsling…” the skinny naga exclaimed, and then she hissed at you. “Get out of the way, you little bilge-rat. Don’t you know who this is? My apologies, Captain, my apologies. How can I help you?”

“I know who he is,” you said carefully, turning and smiling shyly at him. His dark mandibles hitched up on one side and he crossed his arms. His long, white hair was plaited back off his face in a series of intricate, interlaced designs, cascading down over his trademark black coat with its silver buttons, and he looked so dashing that your heart skipped a beat. His captain’s hat was nowhere to be seen and he carried no visible weapon, but the authority washing off him was enough to make people skirt around him with their eyes averted.

“Good to see you again, and in daylight this time,” he said, and the knife-sharpener sputtered something unintelligible behind you while he ignored her completely. “How are you?”

“Well, thank you,” you replied. “You’ve been gone a long time…”

A sad expression flickered across his face. “Yes,” he sighed, and his posture sagged. “A sad business, but it’s over now. I’m glad to be back. I’ve grown rather fond of a certain inn here in Cutthroat Cove after all.”

“You have?” you asked, astonished. “I thought you only came to the Kipper because your crew like it. You always look so miserable.”

The knife-sharpener gasped audibly at your bluntness and started to titter something about offering him whatever he wanted, free of charge.

“I didn’t come to talk to you, and I sharpen my own blades, thank you,” he snapped at her, and turned to look over his shoulder, away from the market square. “Will you walk with me? I have a hankering to stretch my legs after so long at sea.”

“Uh…” You would expected back at the inn soon, but there was little you could do if the king of pirates himself wanted a moment of your time. “Sure.”

He smiled again, and held out a hand. “Let me take that for you.”

Still a little stunned, you mutely handed the creaking basket to him. He took it like it weighed nothing at all and hooked it over his other arm so that it was in no danger of swinging and accidentally clocking you around the head. He was massive on his stilt-like legs, after all.

You walked in silence for a little way, along the waterfront towards the old Imperial fortress that had been taken over by the Raven Queen - the local pirate power in these waters. She, ultimately, deferred to Steelsling though, as most pirates did. And there you were, trotting along at his needle-like heels while everyone stared.

“Why would you think I’m miserable when I’m at the tavern?” he asked after a while.

“What? Oh… I didn't mean to offend you,” you said quickly. “I’m sorry.”

He sighed at that, and you got the feeling you’d said the wrong thing. Instead of pressing the issue though, he paused at a bend in the fortification walkway and looked directly at you. “Why do you stay here?” he asked.

You frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“If you’re so unhappy here — treated so poorly — why do you stay?”

You scoffed a little laugh and turned to look out at the bright blue sea.

A strong wind was whipping the peaks of the waves to foam and the gulls dipped and soared on the currents, buffeted this way and that and seeming to love every minute of it. Further out, near the cliffs off Needle Point, gannets speared straight down from the clear sky with barely a splash as they disappeared into the waves, chasing the fish that glittered and flashed beneath the surface.

Salt air filled your nose as you inhaled and you shook your head. “Don’t have much choice, I guess. I can’t afford passage on a ship — not at the prices they charge a human — and… I have nowhere else to go anyway.”

“No family?” he asked carefully.

You shook your head. “No. My parents were killed when the Albatross was captured.”

You caught the soft inhale of shock from the drider captain and turned to look up at him. His solid, black eyes were wide and his mandibles had parted to reveal soft, almost human-like lips behind, and a row of sharp, white teeth. The soft, ombré shading of grey that spread up his jaw, fading from almost coal black around his mandibles to a heather grey around his eyes, was almost mesmerising enough to ignore the look of open horror on his face. “Your parents were on the Albatross?” he whispered at last.

You nodded. “My da was the cook. Ma was a gunner.”

His black eyebrows rose at that. “But you survived?”

“Got washed overboard,” you shrugged. “I was eight.” You fought down a tide of sickening memories and rested your forearms on the stone wall of the old fort.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “My first mate, Ellary, led the mutiny against the captain of the Bloodcrest after what he did to the Albatross. She killed him herself.”

“Good.” Somehow, that did bring a bitter kind of consolation, and you managed a smile. “Anyway,” you said. “When I washed up here, Silas took me in as a pot-washer and floor-scrubber at the Salted Kipper. It’s not so bad…” you said, but you didn’t sound convincing, even to your own ears.

Steelsling shot you a flat look. “I’ve seen the way they treat you there,” he growled. “I’d have cut off their hands if they tried to touch me like that.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t all shoot barbed wire out of our bodies, can we?” you said, speaking yet again without thinking first.

Instead of being insulted though, the captain laughed loudly and freely. “I suppose not,” he said when the sound faded naturally, like a retreating wave on the shore. “Listen, there’s an opening on my crew. It’s nothing exciting, but we’re a soul down now, since Tammas had to go back to his family on land, and I’d like to ask you to join us.”

You blinked at him. “Me?”

“Yes.”

“But… Why? I haven’t been at sea since I was eight. I’d be no use to you.”

“I know for a fact you can cook, and I bet you’re just as capable at mending and fixing things. Besides, I think you’d make a good fit in our family.”

Sure, you’d grown pretty handy in a number of areas over the years, but you were hardly a sailor. “You’d do better to ask around the market,” you said, fighting down a wave of anxious pressure in your chest. “I — Thank you, for the offer, but I should get going. They’ll be wondering where I am.”

You turned without another word and walked away before you’d even realised he still had your basket over his arm. Seconds later, he scuttled up behind you, his needle-like legs making scarcely a sound on the stone, save for the single steel pin of his prosthetic, and he darted in front of you, blocking the way with his body. Your breath caught as a moment of panic flared and dissolved almost immediately. He held the basket out to you but didn’t relinquish it once your fingers gripped the handle. “Think about it,” he said. “The Widow stays here for a week, but I shan’t push you.”

And with that, he let go and stepped to one side, and you fled back to the tavern with your heart pounding.

You dropped three tankards that night, tripped over two tails that weren’t even in your way, and nearly landed in a slime’s lap before Harrow pulled you to one side and asked if you were coming down with something.

You shook your head. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just… distracted.”

“What’s going on?”

With a sigh, you told him, and he gawped at you like you’d grown another head when you got to the part about being offered a spot on Steelsling’s crew.

True to his word, Captain Steelsling and his crew stayed away from the tavern until the very last night that the Widow was due to stay in port. When Ellary opened the door and stepped in, the usual hush descended on the common room, and Harrow shot you a look. ‘Do it’ he mouthed at you along the length of the bar, and you sucked in a huge breath for courage and held it til your lungs burned.

When you made no move and looked like you might possibly throw up instead, Harrow marched over to you and poked you right in the centre of your chest, none too gently. “Fucking do it,” he said. “I’m going to miss the hell out of you, but if you don’t take this chance, you’ll never get off this gods-forsaken lump of rock. Plus, he fucking likes you.” When you frowned, Harrow rolled his eyes. “The dread pirate Steelsling, who famously never comes ashore, takes one look at you and comes back here to this shitty tavern once a fucking month for six fucking months, apologises for being away for so long without telling you, threatens to personally skin anyone who lays a hand to you, and —”

“— wait, what?”

“Oh.” Harrow’s dark eyes widened guiltily. “You didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t know! What the fuck?”

Harrow shifted his weight. “I only learned about it when I overheard Lannicka grousing about how she wanted to teach you a lesson but didn’t want to wake up in a fucking web, dangling off a spar on her own ship…” He cleared his throat and glanced at the floor between his dark goat’s hooves. Behind him, his tail swished back and forth. “Turns out your captain overheard someone a few nights ago down at the docks laughing about getting you to spill ale all down your shirt, and he let it be known that the way people treated you was… ‘unacceptable’…”

“I wondered why people had backed off a bit this week,” you muttered. “I just thought they’d finally had enough fun and got bored with picking on the human.” You wanted to be angry with him for doing it behind your back, but it had made your work noticeably easier.

Harrow looked across the common room and his tapered ears pulled back suddenly, his multiple earrings flashing in the lamplight. “His first mate’s looking at you. She just pointed at you and beckoned you over.”

With a sigh, you turned your back on Harrow and looked at Ellary. She cocked her head to one side in a silent, expectant question.

“Go,” Harrow said. “I’ll miss the fuck out of you, but —”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” you laughed, already taking your apron off. You hugged him and he hugged you back. “Thank you for taking care of me,” you said. “You could have been like everyone else, but you weren’t, and I’ll always love you for that.”

He squeezed you more tightly. “Don’t forget about me, alright?”

“Never,” you promised, and set your apron on the counter top. “And thank Silas for me too,” you said. “He could have turned me away.”

“Still could have treated you better,” Harrow growled, canines showing.

You shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now though, does it?” you said, and grabbed the small bag you'd packed earlier and stowed beneath the bar. “Take care, alright?”

He nodded. “You too.”

When Ellary saw the bag in your hand, she grinned and stood up. Beside her, the delicate cervitaur rose from the soft cushion they’d been seated on — or, more appropriately, draped across like a slightly wilted lily — and flicked an ear at you.

“You’re coming along, then,” Ellary said, clapping you on the shoulder hard enough to send you staggering. You reeled backwards and found yourself righted by the crab-folk merman, who laughed like an open drain.

“I hope your sea-legs are better than that, friend,” he guffawed, snapping his pincers like percussion instruments.

“Last time I used my sea legs, I was eight,” you said, embarrassed. “I’ll be lucky if I’m not throwing up over the sides before we leave port.”

“Ah, Anneke has a potion or concoction for everything, seasickness included. You’ll be fine. Come on,” he said, and he chivvied you out of the tavern amid a forest of astonished gazes from the patrons.

When you reached the harbour, with the small fishing boats gently bobbing and the larger ships creaking and swaying at their stone quays, you had begun to wonder what you’d got yourself into. Ellary had strode along on huge, near-silent hooves, her scarlet coat flapping open to reveal only the thick fur of her pelt and the vaguest impression of her physique underneath, and Macs, the crab-folk — who apparently never shut up unless Ellary threatened to put him in a cook pot — had talked himself hoarse about their plans for the coming weeks’ sailing, while Phlox, the cervitaur, had tittered at almost every joke Macs made. You snorted softly through your nose when you realised that the most fearsome and mythical pirate crew of the era were actually a bunch of kind-hearted dorks.

“Something funny, human?” Macs asked, glancing sidelong at you while you all headed along the stone dock towards the sleeping figure of the Widow’s Web where she rocked quietly in the darkness.

“You know what?” you said, “I was actually afraid of you lot when you first walked into the tavern.”

“Ha!” he barked, and elbowed you in the ribs so hard you actually tripped over your feet at last and went sprawling sideways onto the stones. Or at least, you would have done, had Ellary not anticipated it and grabbed you at the last minute and hauled you up again with her huge hands.

“For fuck’s sake,” she muttered. “Can’t even take you to collect a new crew member without you causing physical harm to someone, Macs,” she said, and then looked at you. “He’s our master gunner, believe it or not.”

You raised your eyebrows and he clacked his pincers together. “Ain’t no one able to make a shot like me, human,” he grinned. “You can bet your unarmoured hide on it.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“I’ll show you, soon as we clear the reef tomorrow,” he said, puffing his chest up enough that Phlox giggled again and he looked mightily pleased with himself.

“I live with a bunch of buffoons,” Ellary said dryly and ushered you up the gangplank ahead of her, probably so that if you tripped, she could catch you before you toppled head-first into the salty, sloshing muck of the harbour at high tide.

A flap of dark wings from the rigging above made you look up once you were aboard, and a black-feathered kenku dropped to the deck. In Ellary’s own voice, using what was clearly a carefully-curated selection of her own words, parroted back at her, they said, “About time you got here. Captain’s gonna start spitting webs in a minute.”

Ellary snorted a laugh and turned to introduce you to the kenku. “This is Specs,” she said, gesturing at the avian creature. “Lookout and navigation.”

“Pleasure,” you said, muttering your own name.

In Macs’ voice this time, Specs cackled, “Nice to have new blood aboard.”

“C’mon. I’ll show you where to put your stuff, and we’ll find our illustrious, brooding captain, shall we?” Ellary sighed.

Knocking on the carved, ebony door of the captain’s quarters a short while later, Ellary didn’t wait to be called in, barging her shoulder against the salt-warped wood and stepping in with the familiar ease of a lifelong friend.

Part of you had expected to find webs slung in the corners and the carcasses of dessicated animals dangling from the ceiling, but of course, it was just a simply but comfortably furnished cabin, with a large desk smothered in charts and navigational instruments. The captain himself was standing behind it, his body little more than a dark silhouette against the large window at the rear of the ship, and his silver hair dangling like a drifting ghost in the light breeze that wafted in with Ellary.

The minotaur shoved you into the room and saluted the captain without a word before leaving, closing the door behind her.

“You… You decided to come?” he faltered, sounding unsure of himself for the first time.

You nodded. “I do have a bone to pick with you though, Captain,” you added and he cocked his head.

“Oh?”

“What’s this I hear about you threatening to flay people on my behalf?”

He did have the good grace to look embarrassed about that, and dropped his onyx gaze to the floor. “I apologise,” he said. “I lost my temper with someone in the docks, and did nothing to stop the spread of the rumour once it started.”

You shrugged. “Figured that was how it had gone.”

“Did Ellary show you your quarters?” he asked, as much to change the subject as to find out the answer.

With a nod, you looked around his cabin. “Nicer than a mouldy mattress in the Kipper’s storeroom,” you said. “When do we sail?”

“With the tide,” he said. “I’d almost abandoned hope you were coming with us.”

“Why did you want me, really?” you asked with narrowed eyes.

He sighed and came around the desk to stand in front of you, his prosthetic making a soft ‘pinging’ noise on the wood as the wickedly sharp tip pulled free with each step. You wondered, not for the first time, how he’d lost the limb, but didn’t ask.

“I warmed to you the moment you spoke to me,” he said simply. “You were afraid, but you still came over, and you were… yourself. The others… they all know my — our— reputation, and that changes how they speak to me, how they act around my crew, but you remained yourself, and I admired that.”

Swallowing, you tried not to choke. Other than Harrow, no one had ever made you feel like you were worth more than a passing moment their time, but here was the most successful pirate captain in the known kingdoms, telling you he thought that who you were was valuable to his crew. To his family.

“Look, you must be tired,” he said, clearly reading your emotions and not wanting to overwhelm you. “Why don’t you settle in for the night? We’ll sail within the hour, but you don’t have to do anything. Of course, you’re welcome wherever you like on the ship, but no one will ask anything of you just yet.”

Blinking through your tears you nodded and choked out a vague ‘thank you’ before vanishing below.

It was three days before you felt like you could contribute anything useful, and, just as he’d promised, no one asked anything of you until then.

After three months as part of the crew, you knew you were never going to set foot on land again willingly, and you understood why they just kept sailing from prize to prize. It was bliss. Even in the worst of the weather, you felt safe. Anneke, the weather witch, kept the most violent of storms from touching the ship, and the crew knew their business, tightening and trimming the rigging and the sails til the ship fairly thrummed with the joy of being at sea.

Ellary, you came to learn over the course of many an evening, had a dry sense of humour that left you breathless before guffawing a great laugh that would have made you self-conscious before, and Macs was just as bad. He was a practical joker, but never in a way that made you feel small or embarrassed. You met the other elusive members of the crew as well — those who had not felt confident or comfortable in coming ashore — and you fell slowly in love with all of them in their own way. Minal, an aqrabuamelu with a scorpion’s body and a human’s torso, was the cheery chef of the ship, and Gráinne, a selkie with a voice like singing glass and a burn scar across her face, was the ship’s quartermaster. Others on the crew included another minotaur named Wilf, a huge but incredibly sweet gnoll with a habit of giggling at the most inappropriate of moments, and a twitchy werefox named Keel who still treated you with suspicion, even after three months.

But above all, you found yourself drawn back to the captain. He stood on the deck with the wind in his hair and a smile on his handsome, inhuman face, and he looked truly relaxed. His strange body absorbed the motion of the sea and the rocking of the ship, and he would just as happily spend the morning dangling from his webs amid the rigging, scouting the horizon with Specs, as on the solid deck below, but oddly enough, when he seemed most happy, he was with you.

He taught you to read the charts properly and to map the course of the sun, to plot the stars and read the ocean currents and the patterns of the birds. He introduced you to the colony of orca merfolk who hunted just off the shore and provided information on the movements of the Imperial navy. He ate with the crew on the deck on warm nights, laughing shyly and encouraging them to play their instruments and dance and sing. Keel was a talented violinist, and Harrik, the gnoll, would always watch him with wide, dark, bashful eyes. It was unbearably sweet.

One night, as you leaned back on your hands and tilted your face to the stars while the others continued their revels, you caught a huge sigh from the captain, and glanced up just as he looked away from you and rose to stalk away towards the stern of the ship.

With a little frown, you noticed the way Ellary shook her head too, and when you met her gaze she rolled her red eyes and said under her breath so that no one else would hear above Keel’s lively gig, “Go after him, for pity’s sake.”

You nodded, and slipped away from the others. Climbing the stairs to the deck above the captain’s quarters, where you weren’t really supposed to be, you found him staring out over the ship’s wake, leaning his forearms on the taffrail and resting his great spider body on the boards of the ship’s deck. He looked small and sad and deflated in a way you’d never known, and it sent a frisson of worry through you.

“Captain?” you asked.

He startled a little despite the noise your boots had made on the stairs, and he twitched around to look at you. His breath caught audibly in the moonlight and you watched him swallow. “Yes?”

“Are you alright, Captain?”

His large eyes turned especially glassy for a second and he looked away. “Yes,” he lied.

“Captain, you —”

“It’s Ruven.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Ruven.”

“Oh,” you breathed, wondering how you’d gone so long without learning it. Then again, everyone called him ‘captain’ with the same affection they called you ‘human’. “Can I join you, Ruven?”

Slowly, and with an unbearable sadness in his eyes, he looked back over his shoulder at you. He was wearing only an undyed linen shirt, and it flapped loosely around his lean torso in the breeze. It made you want to touch, to draw it up to expose the musculature and chitinous plating underneath, to explore his body with your hands. “Yes,” he said quietly.

You approached on his right side and watched as he drew his long legs in a little closer to his body, as if to welcome you further into his space. You leaned your weight carefully against his steel prosthetic, knowing it could take it, and he let out a shaky breath.

He towered over you but you’d never felt more at ease with someone, and he nestled a little further down to accommodate your height. You smiled at him. “Thank you, Ruven,” you said, trying out his name again and enjoying the sound of it on your tongue.

“For what?”

You shrugged and stared out at the dark sea, a little overwhelmed. Little flashes of phosphorescence danced on the ship’s wake, like a heartbeat in the depths. “For giving me a family again,” you said with a glance back at the crew who were capering about on the deck below. “For making me feel loved.”

“You are loved,” he said without hesitation. He exhaled your name and leaned down to take your fingers in his dark grey hands. “You are loved,” he said again with sincerity burning in his black eyes. “Never doubt that.”

You smiled up at him, and gently tugged one hand free of his, then reached up to cup his sharp face in your palm. “I don’t. Not now.” You ran the pad of your thumb along his right mandible and he shuddered bodily, eyes rolling shut with a rasping breath. “You’re so beautiful,” you whispered.

A second or two later, a large, slow tear rolled from one eye, down his cheek to splash onto the deck between you.

“Ruven?”

“No one has ever said that to me,” he croaked, nudging his cheek further into your palm without opening his eyes again. “Terrible, monstrous, ruthless… but never beautiful.”

“Always beautiful,” you said, and he picked you up.

He held you to his chest, supported by the knees of his forelegs, and hugged you. His hands began to wander and you gasped, arching into his touch.

“Take me below,” you whispered and he smiled. “I’m yours.”

He didn’t linger, scuttling silently down the gangway to his cabin and closing the door behind him.

He laid you down on his large, soft bed and took you apart with slow kisses and lingering touches until you were moaning his name and shaking with a pleasure you never dared dream would be yours.

“Come over me,” you gasped as he kissed you where you were most sensitive, enjoying the taste and feel of you. “Please, I need —”

“Don’t encourage me,” he laughed. “I’m so close, and I’m making such a mess…”

You looked up at that and saw that he was dripping clear fluid from his abdomen onto the floor beside the bed.

“I’ve never made such a mess,” he laughed again.

“Please…”

He shifted his legs, looming over you again, and he rubbed his sensitive core over your legs, enjoying the slide of your bodies together at last. In three strokes, he came undone and cried out, arching his human spine to bring his spider’s body close to you, and he came with a yell in a wave over your lower body, his legs twitching and his body convulsing.

When he was utterly spent, he lay down beside you on his back and you curled up next to his cool, human torso, tracing the lines of chitin plating where his abdomen blended into the soft, moonlight fur of his spider’s body. He twitched occasionally but otherwise lay still and stared at you with his black eyes.

“I love you,” he said, apropos nothing.

You kissed him and let his mandibles rake tenderly over your cheeks while he kissed you back. “I love you too, Captain,” you smiled and he groaned into the kiss. “I love you too.”

__

Thanks for reading this story, and I hope you’ll consider reblogging it (as well as leaving a like) if you enjoyed it, as that will help others find it.

Take care, and I hope you have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and whenever you read this.

Masterlist | Ko-fi (tip jar)

[palesweetscherryblossom]

The Rainforest..

Warning: Kidnapping, platonic Yandere, Shiggy being creepy as fuck, non consensual hypnosis. Reader Chan is around 10 to 12 in this fic.

You were honestly regretting your decision to venture alone into the jungle without your brother’s assistance or guidance. Izuku was quite great at navigating through these harsh environments. You were always fascinated with the various plants and animals that roamed the forest, not to mention your occasional curiosity about the various mythical creatures.

But, that withered away when you entered the forest. Anxiety and fear creeped up your spine as you wandered through the aimless foliage and jumped at the slightest of sounds.

“I should’ve stayed home.” You muttered quietly, jumping at the sound of some crows cawing. You continued venturing deeper into the depths of the jungles, maybe you could come across some merciful creatures.

You heard from your brother that some merciful Bakenekos roamed the area and a nice naga girl. Little did you know something was peering from you through the trees, piercing eyes as red as rubies and blood.

Shigaraki was looking at you through the leaves as his chapped lips quirked up into a grin. The naga and his mate always desired a hatchling to raise as their own and a little man cub just strolled in.

Shigaraki followed you through the trees, his eyes slightly giving a look of pity at your little jumps and whimpers from everything that went bump in the night.

His poor little baby, all alone and no adults in sight. Well, that was going to change, that’s for sure. Man does play a cruel trick, Shigaraki felt his rattle slowly come to life as he hissed lowly. Oh how he loathed man.

Filthy, disgusting and pathetic creatures. But they did provide some amusement to the blue haired naga, how they swung around their guns and weapons, boasting how they’re going to slay the beasts.

Then they end up with Shigaraki’s scales digging into their necks and his venom slowly melting away their skin. Or how they spasm or jump around after Dabi’s venom settles in their bloodstream. Like little rabbits.

“I-is someone there?” Shigaraki was pulled out of his sadistic woolgathering at the sound of your voice. He must’ve been chuckling again, which often sounded like a raspy hiss.

Shigaraki took the opportunity to collect his little hatchling, a jaguar or a man eating harpy is bound to eat you up.

“Hello there, little one.” Shigaraki’s low and raspy voice filled your ears as he slowly revealed himself from the trees. You jumped slightly at hearing his voice and quickly turned around to see him.

You swallowed nervously and stepped back a bit, especially when you saw his tail. “H-hello.” You managed to get out without stuttering much. Shigaraki gave a little grin before slinking closer.

“Say now, where are your parents? It’s not exactly wise for such a little cherub like you to be out this late.” He said. You didn’t respond, you were too horrified by the fact that the creature before you was half serpent.

Izuku told you stories of two vicious nagas who had a penchant for human blood. It didn’t help that the naga who was currently talking to you fit the description perfectly. Shaggy blue hair, cracked lips and wrinkles around his eyes, a rattlesnake half.

“Don’t mind the tail hatching, I know it’s a bit off putting at first.” Shigaraki said, as if he recognized that you were, rightfully terrified. He inched closer, gently but firmly grasping your chin. You flinched as he observed you more.

“What pretty eyes you have! You know, I had a relative who had the most gorgeous eyes!” Shigaraki observed, slowly but steadily leading you into his hypnotic allure.

Shigaraki frankly enjoyed his ability, he loved toying with his prey and luring them into a state of vulnerability before completely eating them.

But for you, it was keeping you calm and compliant. Shigaraki didn’t want to frighten his hatchling! He knew that it was going to be a major change to your environment and sense of living. He was probably going to have to get Dabi to collect more furs and fruit, you were a growing child after all.

Unfortunately for you, the hypnosis was taking affect. You didn’t want it, you wanted to tell Shigaraki to stop, to go away. You wanted Izuku but that thought was quickly wiped away from your mind. You attempted to speak but all that came out was a distressed whine of fear and defiance.

“Oh hatchling, don’t be scared. It’s just papa.” Shigaraki softly purred, his voice like honey and sugar. He gently lifted you up into his embrace, your face leaning against his chest. Shigaraki gave a little laugh at your weak

squirming and weak whines. “You’ll probably be woozy for a while, but I’m sure your daddy wouldn’t mind.” He assured. Dabi would probably be quite thrilled at the idea of them finally being parents. Shigaraki cuddled you closer as he slowly slithered to the way of your future home. “H-home?” You managed to get out. Shigaraki smirked before kissing your forehead.

“Yes my little fawn, home.”

[craycray-wolf]

OKAY BUT Y'ALL. I'm genuinely curious. About the Monster Falls au. Fyi this post is going to be me throwing crap at the walls to see what sticks.

When it comes to Monster Falls...why has no one ever suggested a Harpy or Werecat for Mabel?? I feel like these monsters also fit our Mabes. Now the question for Werecat Mabel- is her body like that of a faun or a tuar?

I mostly agree with the main cast's monsters (erm Deer-per is precious??) aside from Mabel even if Merm/Unicorn her is cool

Also Wendy is usually a werefox but I feel that a werewolf also fits (especially considering how hairy werewolves are. Who else is hairy? Oh yeah! The Corduroy men)

According to the GF au wiki Soos is a clay golem. It works! I think we can still get creative with this! He could be a slime or alien (I'm picturing Toy Story lmao. "You saved my life dudes, I'm eternally grateful") or robot or faun or really any monster lol. I suppose he's of Mexican descent and therefore could be a Mexican creature! Maybe HE'S the unicorn because he's pure of heart...🥺 He could also still be a human super hyped that his friends are now monsters. What we think y'all I'm stumped.

Again going by the wiki Pacifica is either a gorgon or unicorn. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE IDEA OF GORGON PACIFICA I just wanted to propose a nymph as an idea. Do I want gorgon or nymph...

"Old Man McGucket is usually a scarecrow, warlock or a demon." - GF AU wiki. Ehh idk about these. Maybe McGucket is the slime? A cow creature or smth? A Kill Billy? Oh, he's a Kill Billy I found it! EUREKA!!

Now that I'm thinking about it Gravity Falls/Journal 3 specific monsters could be included in the ideas. Soos is another Abominable Broman haha.

Gideon is said to be a vampire, which just makes sense (bloodsucker lmao). I purpose an alternative: gnome.

Once again according to GF wiki Candy is a kappa. I say no. It's a cute idea but I'm also iffy about it considering the fact that Candy is of Korean/Chinese descent and a kappa is from Japanese folklore. That's not to say species/monsters can't cross nationality/ethnic boundaries, I'm just saying why not a Korean or Chinese monster? For example a g/kumiho (Korean) or qilin/kirin (Chinese/Korean)!

It also says Melody is a Harpy. Approved. She can apparently also be a ghost which is fine but Harpy Melody is adorable thx. I suppose maybe she's the mermaid of the bunch but now I'm team harpy

Is Tad Strange still a human? Or a piece of bread? IS HE THE SQUARE VERSION PEOPLE THEORIZED ABOUT

Maybe Tyler Cutebiker is half werepuma half werepanther...or a bunny or smth

Okay I'm going to stop now before I list the entire town of Gravity Falls.

General ideas for grabs for anyone: fairies, ghosts, skeletons, nagas/lamias, mummies, angels, demons, nephilim, dragons, ANY MONSTER REALLY.

I haven't had proper progress on my initial GF askblog BUT I'M GONNA MAKE A MONSTER FALLS AU WHY THE HELL NOT. Stay tuned! I'll be adapting an existing but inactive blog of mine for these purposes.

Thanks for coming to my (frankly unhinged) TEd talk it's been lit fam 🤙

[blood-grove]

MASTERLIST

Call of Duty

Kyle Gaz Garrick

unnatural bleeding — a mer!gn!reader x human!gaz | ongoing fic

werewolf bites — gaz trying to help you recover from a dog attack | ongoing fic

magical accidents — who were you to say no to your mage boyfriend innocent request for you to try a potion?

scar trails — you and your older brother try to survive the apocalypse and try and make a few friends..or enemies!

John Soap Mactavish

shapeshifter! child! reader & soap — a alt version of another random thing i wrote about a shapeshifter reader :3 tws in fic

the hunt — a medieval fantasy soap x male reader! | ongoing fic

solar and lunar marks — werecat reader and werewolf soap shenanigans w 141

Simon Ghost Riley

dog au! ghost & child reader — this one is so old!! + old dog au intro!

the devil comes in pairs — :3 fic i wrote based on a prompt! , cowboy au

animals grind there teeth at bars — fic idea :3 monster circus au?

mistaken sacrifice — turns out your loyal worshippers are batshit crazy but ghost seems alright maybe in need of saving.

John Price

dog au price & child reader — another oldie </3 + old dog intro

labs and speedsters — taking in a new stray cheetah shifter (you) riddled with anxiety and price sees to help you.

old man — random anxiety hole you've dug yourself into has you now overly worrying about growing. (me projecting)

Multi + Parings

adoption au dad! simon & soap + adopted reader (school fights)

shapeshifter reader + 141

avian/harpy ghost & soap + child naga reader - tws in fic

jungle book au - upcoming

Other

dog au art ! — ghost and soap , graves , price 1 , price 2 , graves 2 ,

König — dog au intro! (old)

i may give him this own section but for now im not rlly focused on him kinda...

a/n; will be making separate master list for when i write for my fandoms :3 this is my first masterlist so please excuse my inexperience...ALSO IM MY ASK R OPEN AND ANON ON PLS

[bucketsofmonsters]

This ain't a request or anything but I think it's super funny if the “Im gonna eat you!” dynamic gets flipped. Merman getting yelled at and threatened to be turned into a Red Lobster/Captain D's combo when his human gets pissed off. Or you start yelling about seal jerky when you selkie partner is hassling and prodding you bc they're bored. Food places with python meat and rattlesnake menu items getting pushed to your naga boyfriend for dinner options for date night. God forbid your harpy partner starts acting up. It literally doesn't matter if you're 7 ft tall and 20X stronger than me, don't be annoying me bc I WILL start talking about how you taste breaded and fried.

It is kinda a power play. I am incredibly partial to this in either direction, having to recognize the humanity of what you’ve been viewing as food is one of my fav things to play with I love it

Also what would these even be compared to I can’t stop thinking ab it. Like eating a snake for a naga would be maybe like something eating monkey for a human??? Is that the closest comparison??? Like they’re not the same species but the meat composition is the same, it’s very strange

[kinderartifact4]

I need help assigning species to characters for a different version of my magic AU I’m working on.

Most of the characters are staying the same, I just need help reassigning the characters that were labeled as human for the original Magic AU. I have some figured out, but not all of them.

I just want these all figured out soon because I’m working on an introductory fic to the AU. Which is admittedly going to take a while.

(This is technically a repost, but I truly need help, I’m struggling to figure out anything for those listed)

Characters that need reassigning:

+Don ✔️

+Leshawna ✔️

+Geoff ✔️

+Beth ✔️

+Staci (I might not even include her tbh) ✔️

+Sugar ✔️

Species you can choose from:

+Angel

+Satyr (and most available subspecies)

+Merfolk (can include a specific subspecies or certain fish)

+Drider (basically a Spider Centaur thing, for those who don’t know)

+Elf

+Demon (subspecies will be listed at the bottom)

+Naga (and most available subspecies)

+Centaur (and most available subspecies)(ie. certain breeds, other hooved creatures, unicorns, kelpies, etc.)(though maybe not unicorns, they’re very rare to see at this point in the AU)

+Neko (I don’t know what else to call them)(they’re stereotyped as thieves if that helps)

+Harpy

+Halfbreed (a cross between any two species, sometimes more but that’s a little rare)

Demon Subtypes:

+Zjarr (Fire)

+Ujë (Water)

+Tokë (Earth)(Rock or Plantlife)

+Ajror (Air, only demon species with wings)

+Dritë (Light)

+Hije (Shadow)

+Vetëtimë (Electric)

+Akull (Ice)

+Any combination of the listed subtypes

The RR cast humans aren’t listed because that cast isn’t really important to the AU, same with the Reboot Cast.

[voidandabyssal]

Below the Ice thoughts:

So as I've been writing the 14th chapter of my fanfiction, (Below the Ice, check it out) I've been thinking on some worldbuilding.

So I thought, whelp, maybe people here will enjoy it.

Cryptids:

In this world Monsters and humans get along. There wasn't any war thus no Underground where all that sweet, sweet magic was kept. Because of this, the world remained saturated in magic.

Cryptids are the result of magic coalescing in specific places until eventually new species are created. Most of the time this just results in a funky new plant or a new type of Monster. But somehow, mixes between animals, Monsters and humans were created. These are Cryptids.

Cryptids usually share the upper half of either a human or a Monster. The lower parts change with what type of Cryptid it is.

There are five currently known types of Cryptids, Naga, Drider, Moth, Siren and Harpy. Though it's possible more are around and we just don't know about them.

All Cryptids tend to prefer places that are heavily isolated, dark caves, forests, jungles, the ocean. You likely won't find a Cryptid anywhere near a city unless it's deadly ill or injured enough it can't hunt any challenging prey.

Cryptids are extremely dangerous! If you see one, slowly back away, don't take your eyes off of it and just pray you can get back to civilisation as quickly as possible.

Cryptids are one of the few creatures that will actively hunt humans and Monsters. So beware.

On that note, the intelligence of Cryptids is something that is very heavily debated on. Some Monster scientists believe that because they were created in a similar way to Monsters, then they should have the same levels of intellect. Other scientists believe that with no firm evidence, then they are more akin to intelligent animals that just happen to somewhat look like us.

Some Cryptids are known to mimic the human language (cough, Sirens, cough) but again, scientists aren't sure if their actually understanding what their saying or if their only capable of the mimicry and maybe a surface level understanding, like parrots!

It's most commonly believed that Cryptids are just intelligent animals. (Like the Cryptids are going to correct them on that though)

---------------------------

Anyways! those are just some thoughts! I'll probably expand on them a little more later, but if anyone has any questions then feel free to send a ask and I'll do my best to answer!

[sapphire-heart-tippy]

YESSS THE FANTASY AU GROWS!!!

I was thinking for the part 5 guys:

Bruno: some kind of forest spirit/dryad

Abbaccio: drow/dark elf

Mista: a faun or satyr maybe?

Narancia: harpy/birdfolk

Fugo: perhaps also a naga like Bel

Giorno: a fairy or elf like Dio?

Trish could be a sphinx and Diavolo could be a chimera with Diavolo as the lion head, Doppio as the goat head and King Crimson as the snake tail xD

Oooh yeah!! These are really cool 😎✨

[a-twistedheartslonging]

How exactly does clothing work for the monster guys in your inhuman AU? Is there anything like specific means of dressing or accessorizing? For centaurs, nagas, driders, harpies, etc. especially. Clothing and accessories would have to be tailored around the parts of their bodies that are inhuman.

Ah, I've talked a bit about this in another post's reblogs.

@fidenciothecryptidgent said-

"My personal theories would be that the majority of day to day clothing is fairly loose with straps to help adjust to go over tails or wings or spines and plenty of clothes tend to have backless versions or even what's basically a removable back but maybe fashionably hidden (maybe buttoned down or kept tucked etc). Wide bottom pants might be favored depending on how clawed everyone is in the non human au (firmly believe Lion claws on feet will shred up any pants that are tighter than regular fit or boot cut)

I always imagined the equivalent of low back pants with ribbons/ties to go over tails as the standard for day to day outfits for folks with tails

Backless stuff for the wingeds or those with back ridges and a not so small amount of tube top type of clothing for ease (depending on floof on shoulders and chest cause having hair etc stuffed under clothing is uncomfortable) or just sleeveless shirts with wide arms for some since there's probably plenty with ridges, feathers or spines or even wings on their arms and if you need something to keep your arms warm then you'd get the appropriate thing.

Fancier stuff is gonna have to be fitted and tailered

But that's just personal opinions and theories lol"

Which makes a lot of sense. Now as for something like a drider or a centaur, it will only be the human part covered. Something like bottoms would be too much effort to make and wear aside from something to just keep their junk covered.

Also, for things like shoes he once again added-

"The world is likely fairly catered to getting battered from foot traffic and having to tough out strong nonhumans. I imagine depending on the feet such as hooves they'd probably wear something like large booties (think those giant dog shoes etc) but with good sturdy layers. Sturdy rubber sole, stiff middle layer to help with support so that the rubber sole isn't worn down too quickly while added support plus a cushiony layer on the inside for comfort and to make sure the middle layer isn't crunched on from the weight.

I wonder if due to the difficulty of trying to cater to so many different body types there would be a greater variety of accessories but for functionality. Like spray on rubber for shoes if you need better traction (similar to spray on waterproofing you see in hardware stores and outdoors supply stores), ways to add straps (basically broad straps/sashes that can kinda button/pin to stuff if the clothes don't quite fit or have enough strap etc). Basically just way more ways to help things fit."

So yeah, the custom clothing business would be making big bucks since there would be a lot of different body types needing clothes.