#one of those times he quickly swam up to me and bonked me with the roller he had

[shaw-kai]

to the guy who screamed THIS WAY every few seconds in Salmon Run in every single shift, I want you to know I think about you every day

[jusvibbbin]

One Locker Down

Kenickie Murdoch x Reader

//Grease popped up in my playlist yesterday and my childhood crush reignited itself

Senior year was going okay. Your grades were stellar, your standing in debate club was unchallenged and your personal best was improving every time you swam. But you were missing one pivotal thing to be considered the ‘complete senior.’ A relationship. You became embarrassed simply at the thought. You were cute and nice, just a bit awkward. Your social skills couldn’t hold a candle to those of Patty Simcox or the Pink Ladies. You usually preferred to keep to yourself but as senior year drew closer, you longed for more than what you had. On the first day of school you considered your options as you walked.

Are there even any options? Can you think of one person outside of your activities that even knows your name?

You were a bit discouraged walking into school as you found your way towards your locker. With your mind lost in thought, you had no time to react before bumping into none other than Kenickie Murdoch. He turned towards you directly, mouth open to begin sending a barrage of insults your way before he saw you. His mouth hung open a moment and then shut quickly. You stood there like a deer in the headlights, still waiting for the attack that was never to come. Kenickie bent down and picked up your books as you brought yourself out of your state of shock.

“I am so sorry!” You said bending down to help him, only to bonk heads with him instead. Kenickie rubbed his head and pulled off his sunglasses.

“Jesus, babe! Are you trying to send me to the hospital?”

You felt yourself blushing at what he called you and you quickly shook your head ‘no.’ Kenickie handed you your books and you went around to the locker right next to his. 

“What’s your name?” Kenickie asked suddenly. 

You stuttered out your name and he grinned at you.

“I like it,” he said smoothly. He looked like he had more to say until someone down the hall shouted for him. He gave you a wink and strolled down the hallway. You felt your heart beat wildly in your chest until you realized what had happened.

Ohhhh no. Not him. Not Kenickie. He’s a playboy, a greaser, not to mention he’s trouble incarnate. 

But it was too late. You had it bad.

--

You didn’t see Kenickie until a week later. You were at your locker packing up for the day and when you closed the door, he was leaning against his locker. You stifled a scream and put a hand to your chest. Kenickie smirked at you.

“What’s the matter? Did I scare you?” he asked, pushing himself off the wall to face you.

“Just surprised me is all,” you tried to answer confidently, but it came out very unsure. Kenickie backed you into your locker and put his left hand next to your head, blocking you in on one side. You bit your bottom lip and stared up at him.

“How is it that I never noticed you before?” Kenickie eyed you up and down. “You’re hot stuff.” You thought you might die right then and there.

Kenickie thinks I’m hot? Is he feeling alright?

“Thank you,” you said shyly, keenly aware of how close he was to you and only wanting him to get closer. 

Suddenly Kenickie moved away from the lockers and started walking away, calling back to you, “See you around gorgeous!”

You resisted the urge to dance your soul right out of your body and you headed the opposite way.

--

Kenickie’s POV:

“Kenickie who is that?” Sonny gestured to (Y/N) standing at their locker.

“Yeah, we’ve seen you talkin’ to em a whole bunch lately,” Putzie added.

Kenickie rolled his eyes and looked at the other T-Birds. 

“What are you knuckleheads doing spying on me, huh?” He started to comb his hair, slick with grease, back.

“We just wanted to know what the plan was, boss,” Doody piped up. Kenickie looked at him confused.

“Plan?”

“With the nerd! We were thinking you could leave em a note inviting them on a date, tell em to wear something real flashy, and then they show up and you ain’t there!” Doody exclaimed. At this, the T-Birds erupted into laughter, hooting and howling like animals. Kenickie shut them up with a quick smack to the back of their heads.

“Enough clownin’,” he said, putting an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

“Come on Nickie, it’ll be funny!” Sonny begged.

Kenickie thought about it for a moment or two before saying, “Gimme some paper.”

--

Your POV:

You stood at your locker, feeling flustered. You had found a note from Kenickie. You read it over again just to be sure. It said:

“Dollface, you’re lookin’ extra good today. I was thinking maybe you and me could meet up tonight. Wear something to show off your assets. See you at Frosty Palace, seven o’clock. -KM”

You didn’t know what to think. Sure Kenickie had been nice to you lately, but the T-Birds were known for pulling stunts to hurt people’s feelings. You thought about what you wanted to do the rest of the school day, through swim practice and on your walk home from school. 

Kenickie is probably just doing it to be mean. But he did say all those nice things to me… Then again it might’ve been a trick to ensure I’d come. But why go through all the effort just to stand me up? To make me look silly? 

You walked into your house, waving to your mother as you went upstairs. You laid on your bed and yelled frustrated, into your pillow. You stayed there for a few moments before you heard your door creak open. You sat up as you mother walked in and sat on your bed.

“What’s going on?” Your mother asked, running her hand through your hair.

“I like this boy, and he asked me out tonight but I don’t know if he’s just going to ditch me,” you sighed. Your mother looked thoughtfully for a moment as you waited patiently for her sage wisdom.

“I think you should go. What does it matter if he stands you up? Go because you want to. If he’s there, great and if not, you can find someone else to spend time with. You are a beautiful, smart and kind person. You can get anyone you want so show that boy that you don’t need him, but you’re willing to give him a chance.” 

You smiled and nodded at your mother and she helped you pick out a cute, but fairly modest, outfit for tonight. Then she helped you do your hair and by the time you were done, you looked great.

Kenickie, I hope you’re gonna be there. Cause I am gonna knock your socks off.

--

At six fifty your mother dropped you off just down the street from the Frosty Palace. You thanked her for everything and started walking. You hoped against hope that this wasn’t a trick. Your mother’s words had touched you, but you knew what you wanted, and you wanted him.

As you approached Frosty’s you scanned the parking lot, but saw no sign of him and your heart dropped into your stomach. You crossed the street and looked inside, but you still didn’t see him. You rounded the corner, intent on sitting on the bench so no one could see your tears, and there he was. Kenickie freaking Murdoch. He was leaning against the building, smoking a cigarette and as you walked up, he looked over at you.

“Whoa, look at you,” Kenickie smiled at you. “You look… amazing.”

You grinned at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him inside before he could even finish his cigarette. After a night of drinking milkshakes, eating burgers and playing songs on the jukebox, Kenickie drove you home. Once you got to your house, Kenickie parked and turned off the car.

“I had a lot of fun Nickie,” you said sweetly.

“Yeah, me too,” he said scooting closer towards you.

You leaned up and kissed his cheek. As you started to lean away, Kenickie caught your chin with his hand and kissed you hard on the lips. You kissed him back with intensity and wrapped your arms around his neck. His hands grabbed your waist, sliding them under your shirt and rubbing small circles into your skin. You squeaked in surprise and Kenickie took the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. You were enjoying the moment so much you could barely tear yourself away from him when he tried to lay you down.

“Kenickie,” you mumbled as he kissed your neck.

“Mhm?”

“I don’t think I’m ready for that yet,” you said gently as you pushed yourself back a bit. Kenickie begrudgingly pulled away, giving you one last kiss.

“Whenever you’re ready babe, I’ll be here,” he said, winking at you. You giggled and hugged him. He held you close, his hand running through a section of your hair. 

“See you next Friday?” You asked.

“You know it,” Kenickie smirked as you got out of the car. You waved goodbye to him and watched him speed down the road.

Oh yeah. I got it bad.

Part Two

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Hold My Phone

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): A Court of Thorns and Roses Series/Rhysand

Rating: PG-11/T- (v seductive flirting)

Original Idea: Modern!AU (kinda sorta not really)

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This one is so ridiculous. It’s basically a “Everything is Pretty Much the Same but They Have Phones” AU, not really a modern AU because I figured this would be how Rhys would handle having a phone with the High Lord act, lol

^^^^^

My phone buzzed in my pocket. In a meeting with some Autumn Court emissaries. I’m bored. Entertain me? Rhys’ text said.

Why are you texting me? Just use the mating bond, I texted back.

Yeah but I want these idiots to *know* that I’m bored of them and can’t be bothered to give them my attention.

Playing games with them?

Always.

Exactly how do you propose I entertain you?

It took his answer a few minutes to arrive. I wondered if it was because he was thinking about the wickedest, most flirtatious thing to say or something came up in the meeting that he did actually have to give his attention to.

What are you wearing right now? I shouldn’t have been surprised that was his reply.

My purple outfit. The dark purple one with the stars embroidered into it.

I’m debating asking you to send me a picture of you in it or asking you to take it off and send me a picture of *that*

I am not sending you any pictures while you’re in a meeting. I hadn’t replied to a text that quickly in a while.

His reply came quickly too, Send it down the mating bond then. No records ;)

I rolled my eyes and got to my feet. Up in our room, I stood in front of the full-length mirror, stared at myself while lowering my mental shield, shot the image I was looking at—fully clothed—down the bond, and then slammed my shields back into place.

It took seconds for an answering image of Rhys licking his lips with a feral gleam in his eyes to bump into my shield. I rolled my eyes. My phone buzzed. Delicious. As always, darling.

Happy?

Deliriously.

Go back to your meeting, you flirt. I’ll see you later.

But I’m still bored.

Don’t be a baby. I have a meeting in 30 minutes I have to get ready for with the governor of the Palace of Threads and Jewels.

What are you meeting with the governor for?

I don’t think it’s any big deal. Probably just going over some requests from patrons who have gathered together a bunch of things rather than hauling themselves up 10,000 stairs to the House.

Good luck.

You too. I set my phone down on my vanity. I hated getting rid of the loose pants and sleeves but I knew for a meeting like this that I’d need a gown.

I sent Rhys mental images of every gown I tried on before selecting one, and every hairstyle I thought of doing, asking his opinion and ultimately ignoring it when he seductively told me he liked the most revealing dress with my hair unbound. I definitely called him a name I had no plans on apologizing for before replacing my shields.

I ended up going with a modest midnight blue gown glittering with silver threads that would be appropriately formal, but not so formal it felt like an occasion. Instead of a tiara or crown or diadem I kept my hair out of my face with a comb that was made of black metal and studded with diamond dust to look like the night sky. Crescent moon-shaped sapphire taking up most of the space in the middle.

Nuala and Cerridwen approved of my choices and I shooed myself out to go see the governor.

—

I collapsed on the bed after leaving my dress abandoned on the floor. The meeting was exactly what I thought it would be and after all the requests I was tired. I genuinely cared about my people but putting forth the mental strain of trying to figure out how to fix so many problems at once I started having to pretend to be chipper.

I hadn’t realized I dozed off until a weight falling onto the bed beside me woke me up.

Rhys fell in such a way that he could sprawl his wings above me, taking up a good portion of the bed. He was in casual clothing—silver-buttoned black shirt with the top button undone to let his tattoos peek out, black pants, low black boots—but I knew him better than to think he’d gone to the meeting in them. As he fell, he sighed. “That was tedious,” he remarked, setting a hand on the top of my head and scratching my hair. His fingers brushed my comb and he stopped.

“Tell me about it,” I grumbled.

He sat up to lean over me. He gave me a long, slow kiss as he removed the comb from my hair. “You didn’t wear the dress I chose,” he teased.

“I asked your opinion, not to choose for me,” I countered. “Besides, I doubt you’d even want another male to look at me in a dress like that.”

“Fair enough,” he conceded playfully. He kissed the hollow behind my ear. “You can model it for me later.”

“Flirt,” I accused.

“Spoilsport,” he retorted.

His phone started ringing in his pocket. I recognized the personalized tone. He only personalized a few. Azriel’s, Cassian’s, Mor’s, Amren’s, and mine.

Heaving another sigh, he extracted the phone from his pocket. “What do you want, Cassian?” There was no bite at all to the words, just resigned fatigue. He listened to words I couldn’t quite make out as he fidgeted with my comb in his other hand. He rolled his eyes. “That can wait. I’ll squeeze it in tomorrow, okay?”

More babbling from Cassian’s end of the call. I thought I caught snatches of Azriel’s voice too.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll deal with it tomorrow. Bye.” He hung up, but I could still hear them talking as he ended the call. “Can never get one hour of peace with those two,” he muttered, silencing his phone.

He tossed it somewhere behind him and I heard it thunk on the rug.

“For tonight, darling, I have some much more entertaining events scheduled.” He bent over me and pressed another kiss to my lips. I kissed him back enthusiastically, reaching up to brush my fingers into his hair. He relaxed slightly, the weight of his head growing against mine as his neck tension softened.

“Let me silence my phone,” I said.

He waved a hand vaguely over his shoulder. “Done,” he said.

I smiled. “Bath before or after?”

“Hmm… after.”

“Fine with me.”

—

Both of our phones vibrating wildly on the end tables of our bed woke us the next morning. I jolted so hard I bonked my head on Rhys’ wing bone where he’d draped it over me as we slept, as he often did.

I reached out for my phone. There was no caller ID and the combination wasn’t one I recognized. That happened all the time. I answered anyway, assuming it was a matter of state, as usual. “Hello?”

“High Lady?” The voice was small and trembling. Not young, but frightened.

“Yes?”

“There’s something in the harbor.”

Before I could ask for more details, the caller hung up.

Rhys answered his phone much more lazily than I had. “This is Rhys,” he said. He never used his full given name to answer the phone. High Lord Tamlin, his enemy, could be calling and he’d still use Rhys.

He bolted up in bed so abruptly, his wing bone hit me in the back of the head. Thankfully the talon missed me. We both winced at the pain as he mouthed, Sorry, and leapt out of bed to get dressed. I figured I’d probably need to go investigate the harbor so I got up too and found a pair of pants, shirt, and overcoat. Socks and boots followed before I wound my hair into a bun so I wouldn’t have to braid it yet.

Rhys hung up. “Was your call about the harbor too?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Though, whoever it was didn’t say much.”

“Same here. Ready?”

I put the same comb I’d been wearing the day before into the top of my bun so I had some sort of ornamentation on. “Ready.”

He grabbed me around the shoulders and winnowed us out of the house.

We reappeared on the docks.

A dark shape was moving around under the surface of the water. I grabbed the railing and peered over it. “Too fluid to be a whale,” I said, noticing a small gathered crowd taking pictures on their phones, some recording videos.

Rhys’ hand settled on top of mine. It’s moving like a serpent, he said down our bond.

My grip on the railing halted. A serpent? Now? Like—like a sea serpent?

He didn’t reply. His dark eyes following where the head’s shape appeared to be.

“Hold onto this for me,” he said, pulling out his phone and holding it out. I took it out of habit, barely noticing his wings extending.

“Wait—Rhys—don’t—!” Too late. He used a powerful launch from his wings to get him over the railing before plunging into the water. As he dropped, I saw his clothes change from the casual dark shirt and pants to his fighting leathers. I wasn’t even sure any of the faeries around us noticed the change. A few of them yelped as his splash sprayed into the air.

I clung to the railing, staring into the depths.

“Rhysand…” I complained. “Stop being so reckless.”

I heard that, he teased.

I meant for you to, I retorted.

Wanna see?

I’m holding your phone. I’m not getting in that water.

You know that’s not what I meant.

I sent the sound of my sigh down the bond and felt his chuckle in return. Fine.

A crack opened in his mental shield. I slid into it, keeping a tether to get me out whenever I wanted if I got freaked out. My eyes glazed over as I started looking through his.

The harbor water was relatively clear, but a bit blurry. I—no, Rhys—flexed his magic to clear up his vision. My—his—hair drifted in front of his eyes a bit.

A large, deep red sea serpent twined around ahead, barely visible through the murk. Large fins were tucked against its sides.

Wings? I asked Rhys.

Yes. For jumping out of the water and snatching sailors from their ships. Among other things, he replied. They usually dwell in the depths. Wonder what it’s doing here.

I didn’t reply as he swam closer. Inside his mind, I could feel him dismiss his wings to reduce drag. Feel the strength in his shoulders as he stroked forward. In his mind, I had no private thoughts, so I knew he felt my anxiety. My fear for his safety. I felt him send a wave of calm through himself. He wasn’t nervous at all—for whatever reason.

The serpent caught sight of him. My breath hitched, but Rhys didn’t even flinch. Gold eyes bored into him, fangs revealed in something of a snarl.

Sorry, love, Rhys thought, I need to speak to it mind to mind, and don’t want you here for it. Too hard to concentrate on two minds at once.

Fine with me, I replied.

He shoved me out of his mind.

I shook my head, blinking, as my consciousness returned to my own body. My hands were so tight on the railing that my knuckles were white.

Something tugged on my tunic. I turned.

A small faerie child with violet skin and long silver hair was standing beside me, looking up at me. “Are you alright, High Lady?” Innocence and genuine concern were in its voice. I knelt to be on the same eye level as the child, my hands resting on the phone in either of my pants pockets.

“Yes. Yes, I’m alright. Just concerned for Rhys.”

The child looked into the harbor. “Mama says the High Lord is very powerful. He’ll be okay.”

I smiled at the child. “Yes. Yes he will.” I reached into the pocket of my tunic, pulling out one of the small candies I kept in there for when children stopped to talk to me—and Rhys usually. I offered it to the child. Everyone in Velaris knew their High Lord and Lady kept candy for children on them, so the child accepted without hesitation. They took off the wax paper wrapper and stuck the candy in their mouth before running back to their parents.

Rhys appeared on the dock behind me, dripping wet. “What’d I miss?” he asked.

I jumped to my feet and whirled around. “You okay?”

“Fine. I convinced it to leave.” He nodded toward the dark shape slithering out of the harbor now. “It was actually lost, I think. I managed to give it directions.”

I chuckled. “Never a boring day in Velaris.”

He joined my chuckle. “Not at all. Cassian’s gonna get a kick—” He swore. “I forgot. Cassian needed my help. You still have my phone?”

As I pulled it out of my pocket, he waved a hand to dry off.

He plunked in Cassian’s combination. “Hey, it’s me. I’m on my way.” He reached out a hand for me. I took it. Dark wind whipped around us as we winnowed away.

[writingforevren]

WIP Intro Coming Soon

Excerpt - The boy who fell in

POV - Eros Rosario

Words - 1761

I was twelve or thirteen when it happened; On that day I had gone closer to land. I had always enjoyed watching humans my age hang out together and have fun, though I was too nervous to talk or interact with them- which could be due to the fact I was worried they might judge me for my rather… Unusual appearance. So I just watched them and wished... and watched... and that night I was just minding my own business, floating under the water as you do, when I heard a splash. Somebody was sinking and they weren't trying to stop themselves. I swam quickly and grabbed them, bringing them to the surface. I was worried; What if he’d drowned? I mean he had sunk, so what if something had happened to him or somebody wanted to kill him or something? I had no clue but all I knew is that I wanted to help.

At first he didn't breathe. I couldn’t help but think, Oh crap did he die? Humans needed to breathe right? He was motionless. I leaned forward and gently slapped his cheek. "Are you alright?" I asked softly and watched as his eyes fluttered open and his gaze settled upon me.

"Wh- who are you?" He jumped back away from me as he caught sight of my tail. "What are you? and what're doing to me?" he asked again and I could sense fear in his voice.

"Hey it’s okay! I’m just here to help, okay? I thought you were gonna drown so-” I tried to explain that I was there to help- that I wasn’t trying to hurt him, but… he didn’t get it.

"G-get off of me you're a monster!" he exclaimed and pushed his hands against my chest, sending this feeling of pulsing pain, causing me to fall backward on the sand. My chest throbbed and it was so painfully hard to breathe, I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on steadying my breathing. "What did I just do? What did you do to me?!" He cried, his voice was very shaky and I could tell he truly had no idea what was going on.

"P-please I was just trying to help..." I stammered through the painful pulsing that ran through my body.

"I- but can't you see I wanted to sink... why'd you- why would- why would anyone save me?" As I opened my eyes, there were thick tears rolling down the boy's cheek. I felt bad…  It was obvious he was hurt and fragile so I couldn't blame him for lashing out at me but... a monster? It still hurt.

I took a deep breath and laid back on the sand as the pain subsided. "Nobody deserves to die... we are all a part of this planet and we all have our purpose, now I dunno what yours is, but I promise you whatever is going on in your life is nothing compared to the amazing things that will come in the future." I tried to cheer him up, despite the fact that’s not really something I’d had to do before. Usually I told myself those things when I felt down, I had never actually said anything like that to someone else before.

"I- what's your purpose?" He had asked.

I felt- Well I didn’t know the answer and that’s something I had been trying to figure out. But I couldn’t exactly say ‘i don’t know’ I highly doubt that would’ve worked "mm perhaps it's to help save the world..." "Or maybe it's to save an innocent life that was far before their expiration date." I gave him a warm smile.

"Are you an angel? Are you sure I'm not dead? Is this a test of some sort?" he started asking all these questions that I found himself utterly confused as to where to start.

"Uh-” I paused for a moment. “No, Yes, and No, I'm not an angel, I'm actually a siren.” I replied, I wasn’t exactly thinking, I didn’t understand that he would judge me for being a siren, I didn’t know all the false rumours that humans had spread about us, Which makes me wonder what other false information humans are taught.

"I- A siren? Holy crap a siren? PLEASE DON’T EAT ME!” He yelled and put his hands up in front of him.

"Why would I eat you? I literally just saved your life..." Obviously he wasn’t seeing the logic here, If I wanted to eat him I would’ve just waited for him to drown and then ate him. It would be so much easier than what I had done.

"Because sirens lure humans to eat them?" He answered hesitantly, looking as if he was ready to run away at any moment.

I shook my head. "No... I eat fish also fish eggs are nice they have this sort of popping feeling in your mouth and they have a really strong-”

"So you don't eat humans?" he interrupted, and seemed genuinely confused.

I shook my head again "No I dunno who would wanna eat a human- I think I accidentally bit someone one time and they didn't taste very good."

"Oh..." He looked down.

"Why do you sound disappointed? did you want me to eat you?" 

"Uh- n-no I just uhhmmmm I dunno I wasn't disappointed-" he stammered.

"Why're your cheeks red?" I poked his cheek. Once again I was naive and had no idea what a blush was considering I had never met a human or someone with pale skin; All the sirens I knew had darker skin and were at least tanned.

"This is a really weird situation- I don't know what to say… s-o I'm not dead?" He seemed to have calmed down at least a little bit at this point.

"Nope- you seem alive to me... Also why does this cloth take so long to dry and why do humans always wear them?" I leaned over and started to peel the wet shirt off of his skin.

"D-D'you think you could not do that?" He stammered and pulled his shirt back down.

"Hmm…” I ignored him and leaned closer to his face "you're a nice one~”

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" He shrank back onto his hands behind him.

I leaned forward and cupped his face, it was so soft. I briefly pressed my lips against his which were soft and warm. "I mean you're pretty and your skin is soft."

"I- uh- thanks" The boy flushed bright red and averted his eyes.

"Mhm... Wow, legs feel different than they look." I ran my hands along one of his legs "What's this hard part?" I bonked his knee.

The boy quickly retracted his leg "Ow shit that was my knee and that hurt-"

"Oh- sorry-"

"Uhm do you mind me asking what sirens actually do with humans if they don't eat them?..."

"Mm well it’s a bit different, A lot of sirens are just lonely and lure sailors to keep them company for the night. Most of the time the Sirens have no idea where they came from so they just dump them on a random plot of land which is usually pretty far from where they should've been, so a lot of the sailors are reported to have gone missing after going to these parts of the water where there are sirens. Probably some random person came up with the idea that we eat them 'cause he saw one of us and that we have sharp teeth y'know but like worse sirens do to humans is like sometimes we can leave bites- I mean I never have but sometimes there are teeth marks and pretty dark bruises.” I explained.

"Oh-" 

"Mhm..." I smiled 

"Is this a dream?..." He asked, as he looked around the beach.

"Uhm no I don't think so- why?"

"I just tried to drown myself, so technically I could be in a coma- Sirens are mythology- and also you are incredibly attractive and I feel like only my dreams could make you."

"Am I not real enough for you?" I pouted and leaned on his chest

"Uhm- I'm just really confused mate..."

"Mate? but wait, you're a human..."

"I- what?"

"Oh wait- do humans not have mates? Mm ah yeah right I should probably explain that too. Sirens generally have to choose a siren mate before they're eighteen so that we don't go extinct considering we actually don't find each other that attractive compared to humans.”

"I eh... Okay-”

"Mmm do you have a mate?"

"I- ehm no I don't- I mean I've never even- I’ve never even kissed anyone before..." 

"Never? why not? I kiss pretty much everyone I like-"

"Oh eheh- just different for humans I guess..." He laughed awkwardly and seemed to be looking anyway other than myself

"Can humans not sense when someone is mutually attracted to them?"

"No- Sirens can?"

"Mhm I mean I could tell at first you didn't like me but then you realized what was happening and you are now very attracted to me." he smiles. "That's why I knew if I kissed you, you wouldn't reject me."

"Oh-"

"Mhm..."

"So you're on land- how does that work?..." He changed the subject.

"Well I can breathe both air and water so going on land isn't much of a problem however the sunlight does burn our scales so we can't really go to the surface in the daylight also we can't really move around that much without legs" I swished my tail around in emphasis.

"Right but uhm do you need moisture to survive?"

"Mhm we have to be in water uhm I think it was at least 6 hours a day otherwise we'll start to dry out."

"okay cool- ehm..."

"Do you have water at your house?"

"Uhh I mean yeah?"

"Can I come with you?"

"As much as I'd love to say yes- no-"

"... So you have magic right- do you think you could figure out the spell to give me legs? Because I'm bored with the ocean. it's so big and all I do is swim around and eat fish."

"I have magic?"

"Well obviously you just shocked me when you got scared."

The boy was so confused, the look on his face said it all.

"The sun's gonna start coming up soon so I'll see you tomorrow night meet me here 'kay?" I smiled at him.

"Uhm alright I guess-"

"Mhm" I cupped his face and pecked his cheek before turning and swimming away back into the sea.

Thanks for reading!

This is something I wrote about a month ago and just got around to editing, it’s more to introduce you to the characters and the way that sirens work in this world. I probably won’t include all of it in the final story but I wanted to give you a little taste of the story idea.

Taglists

General Writing - @weirdfishy @wannabeauthorzofija @annlillyjose @iespeciallyme @radiomacbeth @opes-magnas (ask to be +/-)

A Song From The Deep - (ask to be added)

[friendshipcampaign]

Session Recap 10/13/18: Harmony

The next planar simulation the group found themselves in had a rocky ground and was flooded with light, so for a moment they all lay there waiting for their ears and eyes to adjust. When they pulled themselves up, a tall stone, spire full of holes towered above them. There were six conical structures on the base the party was on which was a sort of plateau that spread out and ultimately dropped into fog.

Voski, from the ground, said “Before anybody touches anything, what’s this one, and what were those other two?” and indicated Erwyn should answer, adding, “Planar guy.”

Erwyn replied that he felt confident the first one had been a simulation of Limbo, and that the second was intended to be Pandemonium, but he admitted he wasn’t entirely sure about the one that they were on. When Ditto gave him the key that had transported them there, he noted the symbol was the one that represented the Elemental Plane of Air. Soon after, the group spotted a couple of smokey, imp-looking creatures that chittered in some sort of musical language before flying away.

Voski healed Amaranth with a Cure Wounds and commented that they were only on simulation three of twenty, so they might want to consider figuring out where it would make sense to rest and recover. Erwyn spoke up, saying they all would have their dangers, but that the Upper Planes might be a better bet -- though that he still didn’t want them to trust any of them too much.

As the group looked around, Erwyn noticed a cloud moving sort of out-of-sync with some of the others in the distance and suggested Ditto might want to fly near it to investigate it further. As she did so, she noticed one area of the cloud that rose up and swirled towards her. She backed off and tried addressing it in Common, but it only hummed a series of notes back. When she tried humming, off-key, back at it, the cloud drew away, spun, and then started moving towards her with more purpose.

Voski and Amaranth had been examining the holes in the spire and conical metal tubes near them, revealing the latter could be lifted and had etched decorations around the rims. The whirling cloud that Ditto seemed to have accidentally insulted swooped down and snatched one of them from the two of them. Amaranth experimentally tried taking one of the ones that was left and slotted it into one of the holes in the spire. The wind traveling through the cone produced a single distinct note. Noting this, Voski asked Ditto about the humming she’d mentioned to the others. Ditto tried replicating the notes she’d heard using minor illusion -- which prompted Voski to point out that it was a sequence of six notes, and now they only had five cones.

Erwyn suggested that Ditto play that sequence back at the creature and she flew back over towards it, but in the process realized that it had dropped the cone into a nest of large, fledgling birs (though with little fuzzy antlers) near the top of the spire. Voski Messaged her after a bit to see how it was going, since Ditto stalled somewhat at the latest conundrum. While the group tossed around a few ideas, the wizard suggested that she could Levitate Voski up there to play some music for them. Voski pointed out they were on a plane of infinite air, and was quick to instead point out that Amaranth liked climbing.

Before sending Amaranth up the spire, the group decided to test out which notes they already had. Everyone deferred to Voski on the matter, as she was the group’s musical expert. As they tried the cones in the assorted holes, she sketched a layout of the notes. When the cones were not in the puzzle slots, Kriv tucked as many as he could carry suspiciously under his arms, watching the windy creature that had snatched the first one away.

In order to give Amaranth an advantage scrambling up the spire, Kriv put his cones down momentarily in order to launch her into the air to catch it at a higher point. The others spotted for her, with Voski occasionally Messaging suggestions about safe footholds. Once she was at the top, Ditto cast an illusion of calm baby birds over the nest using Major Image, in case a parent were to stop by. Amaranth snuck in and grabbed the cone, but bonked one of the babies’ antlers in the process, causing it to yell. Her foot slipped and she fell backwards. Ditto caught her by casting Levitate.

Once all the cones (and Amaranth) were down on the ground, the group put them into the spire one at a time, causing a single chord to play perfectly. The spire split with a rumbling noise as a hole within it expanded, revealing their next key, which the group quickly brought back to the portal in order to get through before whatever was parenting the babies in the nest returned.

The next place they found themselves after passing through the portal was a dry, baked steep slope with an ominous orange light seeping up from the cracks in it. This time, the portal didn’t remain behind them, but instead blinked itself out of existence. Kriv asked Erwyn where they were this time, and he replied that he thought it was likely a simulation of Gehenna. They could see some creatures flying above them, as well as another further up on the slope that was whirling around, though not moving with much purpose, that Erwyn was able to tell was probably some kind of yugoloth. He advised they stay away from it. Thinking on the birds above, Voski realized they were probably giant carrion birds like the sort that sometimes were written as roles in operatic choruses, and advised similarly.

“Try not to appear weak, sick, or tragically flawed,” she told the others.

“I’m going to have trouble with that,” Erwyn replied. “I’ll let you chose which one will be my undoing.”

Everyone struggled to scale the steep incline of the volcano except for Kriv -- and Ditto, who had the advantage of her flying shoes. He fed a rope down to the others to pull them along, though Erwyn struggled even with that and slipped and fell onto the rocks, eventually just resorting to crawling after being picked up and falling down again after several times. The yugoloth started moving towards them after a while, though the group wasn’t sure that they’d been spotted. Erwyn cast a fog cloud around the group and they waited for it to pass them by. Sure enough, it worked, and after Ditto poked her head out of the fog to check, he was able to safely drop it.

Before they could continue any further, Erwyn tiredly asked the group if they could take a break. Crawling up the mountain was completely shredding his hands and knees, and he found himself very out of breath. The hard going was having a very negative effect on the group in a way that seemed to be being encouraged or even planted by the plane itself -- fostering frustration and anger at the situation, and the fact that having to work together was making them all go slower. Even when they started up again, the feeling only got worse as they continued to climb. Kriv clutched at the scale gifted to him by Bahamut and ended up getting a far stronger emotional response from it that usual, lessening the feelings of frustration significantly and encouraging him to keep pushing forward as he dragged the others along.

They reached the top after over an hour of travel to discover a black river flowing through center of the mountaintop, which held a crater within it. There was an island in the middle of the river with a pedestal in the middle. Nervously, Ditto tried flying out into the middle, as it seemed like the best way for any of them to avoid touching the black water, which seemed ill-advised. As she headed towards it, Voski, who’d been keeping an eye on the giant vultures, noticed them swopping down towards the wizard. She alerted the others before hitting one herself with her small hand crossbow. Erwyn pulled out hit own bow and hit two of them. None of the birds went down.

Amaranth tried to get closer and throw a rock at them, but missed and it fell into the river, causing strange ripples. Erwyn fired another round of arrows, though this time only succeeded in making one hit, but at that point the birds had reached Ditto and attacked her. Though she weathered the double attacks from the first two, the third of the four that had spotted her hit her with another attack that made her fall unconscious. Amaranth immediately incinerated the bird in question with a Hellish Rebuke.

Casting Feather Fall on the falling Ditto, Voski managed to keep one of the other birds from getting another attack on her. It looked, however, like Ditto was going to fall into the ominous dark water. The ripples in the river from Amaranth’s rock, however, hadn’t stopped from when she threw it. A frog-like creature wearing magical shackled emerged from the center of them and caught her before she hit the water.

“Well isn’t this an interesting situation we find ourselves in,” it said. “Release me or I’ll drop her.”

While Erwyn asked the creature what they would be releasing it from, hoping to get more information, Voski immediately cast Dispel Magic. It didn’t succeed in dispelling the chains, but it still looked up at her with respect and swam over to the side of the river that the party was on. When she asked what she should call him, he replied “Elrogor” and told her that he wanted to leave. She reached for Ditto, and when he asked for proof that they would help with his situation, she replied “Sure. I have no emotional investment in your situation.”

It was enough for the fiend.

After healing Ditto with Cure Wounds (who was scooped up into Amaranth’s arms immediately) Voski asked if Elrugor could get the key from the island in the river. He held out the chains again and she examined them, asking what he knew about their construction. They were made of mithril, with Celestial incantations engraved on them, and seemed to lead to somewhere below the river. Anxiously, Erwyn asked if they were really certain this was a good idea.

“I have no emotional investment in your situation,” Elrogor said, grinning at him.

Voski tried casting another Dispel Magic but this time, said the Infernal equivalent of “Fuck off” (which Amaranth had taught her back in Auntie’s demiplane) to the chains, which grew little hairline cracks and then crumbled to ash. Elrogor fetched  the token and informed Voski that one of the black chasms (the third one to the left of where they were) populating the simulation held the portal, and while it was probably meant to be a part of the test he didn’t really like the people running it, and kind of liked her. He mentioned that in the future, he might be willing to offer a discount on fiendish services.

Before the group actually jumped down into the portal, Erwyn used his portal senses to see if he could feel anything. Elrogor seemed amused by the elf’s usual dorky posing when he tried reaching out to sense the planes, but it still corroborated the fiend’s statement. Erwyn reported that, while the simulation didn’t feel like one of the standard planes to him, there was nonetheless a similar effect, and he could tell it would take them to the simulation of the Beastlands.

Bidding their farewell to Elrogor, the group leapt down through the next portal. It took them to a patch of vibrantly green moss and wildflowers, surrounded by giant trees. Though the simulation seemed to be in a state of perpetual twilight, the chittering of squirrels could be heard around them. While he wasn’t yet fluent, Erwyn could tell from his studies that they were actually speaking in broken Celestial. The party were all lying on their backs, caught where they’d been falling, and exhausted. Deeming it a reasonably safe place to try -- and also, that they had little other choice -- they decided to use the opportunity to take a break and get in a lengthy rest. Voski cast Tiny Hut as a ritual to offer them some protection and Erwyn used Healing Spirit to conjure up a little silvery being in the shape of a squirrel to restore health to the group, as Ditto cast Mending on people’s clothes and Amaranth pulled out the magical soap in order to clean everyone up a little. Once she was confident it didn’t look like she’d been badly injured, Ditto summoned Tiktik to be around for the duration of the rest.

After a little while, the party set watches, and settled in to sleep (or in Erwyn’s case, trance). The timing meant that Erwyn was finishing the last watch of the night when the Hut disappeared and he noticed a perfectly white deer lurking nearby, the portal key hanging around its neck. Just after he noticed it, it turned and vanished. When the others awoke, he told them about the creature and they decided to do their best to find it, with Erwyn using his tracking skills to see what traces were left from the night before. Voski suggested that he and Amaranth trail slightly ahead, as they were often the stealthier two. It wasn’t long, though, before they hey a rocky area, and the tracks were no longer visible.

Casting Speak With Animals, Erwyn asked a nearby one-eyed toad if it had seen the white deer. It said that it had, but asked why it should tell him. Erwyn tried explaining the trials and his own desire to suceed at them and protect others, but that was a bit more than the toad needed. It mostly hoped that he would get it some worms. He told Amaranth they needed to look for some and the pair started searching. Erwyn ended up wildly successful at this. Amaranth did not. He gave her one of his worms to give to the toad.

The party again headed off after the deer again, making their way towards the area the toad had indicated. Though he’d been getting back into his outdoorsman headspace in the environment of the Beastlands simulation, Erwyn ended up stepping on a particularly loud twig, causing some owls to tut at him in Celestial. He waited a bit before moving onwards, knowing he’d likely startled any particularly skittish animals nearby.

The others were making much more noise. Kriv was the loudest with his heavier gait, and for a while a particularly sassy raccoon walked aside him, mocking the dragonborn in Celestial. When he noticed, he let some lightning gather around his teeth and intimidated it away. Voski noticed they were speaking a language aside from usual animal noises and cast Comprehend Languages to try to hear if they were discussing any particular dangers (and, of course, to get in on their gossip).

Eventually the forest opened up. The deer was in a slight clearing, and the group startled it somewhat as the approached. As it looked like it was going to run, Erwyn quickly cast Speak with Animals to try to let it know he would like to talk with it and see it they could get the portal key. It commented that he was a hunter, and they didn’t usually talk. He defended himself, saying he often needed to hunt to provide for himself, but seemed somewhat ashamed telling the deer that -- gently though, it said it understood, just that others tended to take a different approach. It allowed him to take the key from it, and he thanked it.

As the party headed back to the portal, Voski who was still listening in on the conversations of some of the animals, heard some bats nearby commenting on the exchange. They said they were more used to the people who passed through the simulation behaving more like wolves than deer themselves. Quietly, she gave Erwyn a slight shoulder bump and informed him that he had fans.

[tricraftbeer]

The weekend I’d been looking forward to/dreading since January has come and gone, and now my eyes are open and I’m ready to move on to the rest of the season. I started exercising in January, after having Gloria in late October, and started training with a plan and coach in February. I raced the Desert Tri Olympic distance in March, and figured May 13 was enough time to feel ready for my first IM 70.3 race in one year and 7 months. But, as the race approached, I realized that I would never actually feel ready. I felt like I was racing for the first time ever. The logistics of getting to the race with all my crap, plus all the crap needed for a 6 month old baby was daunting. And the reality of racing with my current level of training was daunting, too, mostly because I just didn’t know what would happen and how it would feel. But I really don’t want to forget any part of the weekend, since it was such a milestone for me, so I’m going to try to write it all down. The goals were to just pop the cherry and get back into racing, get new bike power numbers, and see where my fitness currently is. Also, have fun and enjoy the short trip with the fam.

This is exhausting!

We started the drive up to Santa Rosa at 5am Friday morning, right after Gloria woke up. I fed her and we plopped her in the already-packed car, and crossed our fingers. She was a dream, and fell back asleep for 2.5 hours. So we got a good chunk of the drive done early. The rest of the 5 hour trip was slow-going, as we tried to time our stops just before naps, so I could feed her, change her, and get her back in the car to sleep. She was great and the day wasn’t too bad. We arrived in Santa Rosa at 1:30pm. I had a 2pm pro meeting. Luckily everything was close together downtown, so I could register, and get to the meeting on time. 

Gloria’s first pro meeting!

After that, I had under an hour to drop off my bike at the TriBike Transport shuttle to T1. The race start at Lake Sonoma was a 45 minute drive, and we just couldn’t do that after keeping ourselves cooped up all day. After waiting in line and dropping my bike, I had about 10 minutes to get my run gear dropped off at T2, at the expo. So with all that done, I realized I had no time to exercise at all. So no pre-race ride, run, swim, etc. But we’d done enough walking and standing and sitting that my legs were sore! So we just got a pizza and beer and called it a day. Back at the hotel we put Gloria to bed and I locked myself in the bathroom with my race gear to get it ready without waking her. She was great, and slept through it all. I wish I could say the same! I got to bed at 8:15, for a 3am wake up call to get the 4am shuttle out to the lake. As is so typical for the night before a race, I barely slept at all. At least I’m more accostomed to operating on a lack of sleep now.

Race morning I locked myself in the bathroom again to eat breakfast and use the breast pump. It was too early to wake Gloria up to feed her, and I knew I’d have to pump twice before the race started to get through it without leaking :) 

Gloria and Dad around 5:30am race morning :)

The hotel was only .5 miles from downtown where the shuttles and finish line were, so again, happy for that convenience. I got to the shuttles at 3:55am, and a few had already left full of people. Leave it to triathletes to be early for a 4am pickup! Uneventful shuttle ride, and arrival at the lake around 5am. I set up my gear in the freezing (40 degree) morning, and set off with my pump again. Once I was empty, it was time to walk to the lake. I ran into my buddy Christophe and we talked about expectations. I think I told him that I expected a solid, but unsurprising and unimpressive day. And, I was worried about the cold. I don’t handle cold well. 

I got into the lake, which at 62 degrees felt warm compared to the air. The water was calm, since they rerouted the swim course into a protected area to guard against the gusty winds. We had a deep water start. I settled into a group of 4 immediately, and had a calm, relaxed swim. It certainly wasn’t fast, but I also was basically using it as a warm-up. I worked just hard enough to stay fairly warm, and stay right in our little pack. Exiting the water was when the trouble started. I had something in my right eye that was burning and blinding. And bare feet on the cold cement ramp, and around transition caused my feet to feel like swollen ice blocks. I lost the girls I swam with during this .5 mile jog. And then I lost them further as I farted around trying and failing to pulled on arm warmers and gloves. Frustrated, I finally just put on my helmet and left, after a 6 minute transition. Oooops.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

Warning - this is the paragraph where I whine. I don’t want to come across as making excuses, because I don’t think I need to. I’m not upset about how I raced. I was just miserable and want to whine as a reminder to myself to never race again when the forecast is 40-45 degrees race morning!

I had made sure to synch and calibrate my power meter before the race, but of course it didn’t synch up when I started riding. Ooops again. I had wanted updated power numbers from this race, but that was not to be. It didn’t really matter since I couldn’t read my watch, or feel any part of my body. The intense, full-body convulsions started on the first, immediate downhill and continued until about the 45 mile mark on the bike course. I had a headache, sore neck, sore shoulders and ribs from the shivering, and my elbows bumped of my aerobars twice from bumps in the road I couldn’t avoid, since I could only see out of one eye. Most of my nutrition also fell of the bike in the first 10 miles. Thank goodness for aid stations! This was, by far, the most miserable I’d felt during a bike ride ever. And that was a bummer since I heard the course is absolutely gorgeous. And it should be a very fast course as well. This was the first time I can remember looking forward to the run, and lamenting the downhills. I rode my brakes so hard, not wanting to go any faster because it was so cold. Blah, blah, whine, blah, but that’s what I was feeling at the time. The lingering soreness in my head, neck and shoulders won’t let me forget it either! I’m hoping Champion System invents a full body fleece trisuit for races like this.

Here I am getting passed by someone who got gloves on. Sooo jealous!

Ok whine over. After a fairly slow time for the course, I was so happy to get into T2. Once on the run, I concentrated on placing my numb feet correctly, one in the front of the other, for 4 miles until I could feel them. Concentrating on just that, helped me keep a nice, even pace at a very sustainable effort. Time went by quickly, and I was happy to find I could stay steady without working too hard. The main goal was to just find out what I could do at this point in training. The run was great, on a mostly flat trail through woods. Lots of shade kept it very cool as well. The first loop was somewhere around 8-9 miles, with a shorter 5-6 mile second loop. I wasn’t paying enough attention to the mile markers to remember. Coming in for the second loop was amazing, as I was able to see Artie and Gloria. Tears actually came to my eyes, and helped clear out whatever was keeping me partially blind. So that was great too. I spent the second loop just feeling grateful to be out racing, grateful to Artie for coming on the trip and making my Mother’s Day weekend unforgettable, and grateful for my sweet little girl. 

Artie claims Gloria was right behind him in the stroller at this point. Let’s hope he didn’t forget her at the hotel. Thank for cheering Artie!

For the first time ever, the run finish came around before I knew it. I’d run a solid (for me) 1:30:20, and finished in a (not fast) 4:42. But I honestly didn’t even look at those times until an hour or so later. I really didn’t care. I didn’t find out my finish place (15/23ish pros) until much later. Still haven’t looked it up myself actually. Artie just told me. This weekend wasn’t about that. My next race certainly will be. But, after the nerves and doubts went away, this weekend was a celebration of our new family and a celebration of doing what I love again. So, I obviously won! Just don’t tell Holly, who actually won by like 30 minutes. And, no-one from the race will confirm, but I’m pretty sure I won the breastfeeding moms division outright. 

The race had a free beer tent from Lagunitas at the finish, so that is obviously where we headed as soon as I ate and pumped again. We picnicked in the grass until it was time to go in search of more food and beer. I can’t think of a better way to spend the day before Mother’s Day!

Racewise, my goals of testing my current fitness and having fun were accomplished, other than the bike ride. My goal of new power numbers was not accomplished. I fear that may mean an FTP test is in my future...I also had no nutritional issues, so my improvised plan with aid station nutrition was no big deal. Good to know.

Big thanks to Skechers, Roka, Champion Systems, RIPLaces, Bonk Breaker, ISM, and Profile Design for sticking with me through the pregnancy and comeback. 

Mother’s Day itself was another story. We got up with Gloria at 5am and left right away to aim for Monterrey for brunch. Instead, we got a flat tire outside of San Jose on the 101. Two tow trucks, four hours and four new tires later, we hit the road again at 11:30am. This epic journey didn’t conclude until 7:30pm, when we stumbled home. We had each had about 2 temper tantrums, I’d had two beers, Gloria had two naps, and Artie had a cold. What an end to an otherwise perfect weekend!

Yay!

Cheer squad

Yum!

Baby’s third beer