#original characters mentioned

[hannahhook7744]

Are You, Are You, Coming To The Tree?

Summary: Grin and bear it. That was the mantra Harriet kept repeating in her head.  Grin and bear it.  Trigger warnings: Inhumane conditions, swearing, perceived discrimination, drinking, childhood trauma, etc. Merry Christmas @panthera-tigris-venenata .

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It would come as a surprise to absolutely no one that Harriet Hook hated Christmas. 

Christmas on the isle was cold and dreary and it usually snowed horribly or hailed—making it harder to find edible food and durable shelter for those of the isle who had nowhere else to go but the horrid great outdoors. 

Many didn’t survive the long winters. 

And while the isle mourned and fought amongst themselves, Auradon showed cheerful movies about reindeer, talking snowmen, and Santa Claus—movies that were chalked full of things the isle kids would never have like unspoiled eggnog, freshly baked christmas cookies, gingerbeard men, and presents in good condition handed out by smiling parents who loved their children and had the means to give them such things. 

Harriet hated the holiday. 

And she didn’t believe in Santa. 

At least, not the version presented in the cartoons and movies they would show. 

In her mind, it was all bullshit.

The real Santa Claus wasn’t a kind man who rewarded truly good children. No, the real Santa Claus was a holier than thou bastard who only rewarded children who were perceived as good—not accounting for the abused or neglected children who would never be considered good by those around them or for the children who had no choice but to be bad by society’s standards to survive. 

He didn’t care about any abused children in Auradon, if there were any left and he certainly didn’t care for people like Harriet. 

The real Santa Claus hated Isle kids and that was apparent. 

Harriet was almost eleven by the time the Isle’s Santa started distributing presents to every living kid on the isle and fixing up the graves of the dead kids after all. Old enough to know that The Isle Santa wasn’t the real deal. 

She’d had several Christmases of disappointment by then.

Several Christmases of the adults in her life barely being able to scrape by and find enough food to keep her and her siblings alive. Christmases that usually ended up with them all getting drunk till they passed out when they thought she and her siblings couldn’t hear. 

Her and Harry and CJ had all gotten presents, sure, but it wasn’t anything magical like what was shown on TV—no, it was just stuff they needed and if they were lucky, a toy that wasn’t too far damaged when it was donated to the barrage. 

Her dad was always drunk in the days after. Ashamed, angry, and bitter about the fact he couldn’t do more for them. 

By the time the fake Santa started leaving gifts, Harriet was able to tell that the gifts weren’t from a workshop in the North Pole but handmade by someone inexperienced or fished from the barrage and the ocean. 

All it only made the pirate captain hate the holiday more.

Why wouldn’t it? 

Harriet only had bitter memories of the holiday. 

Memories where she knew Santa  and Auradon hated her. 

Harriet hated Christmas. 

But if there was one thing that could make Harriet celebrate it?

It was her crew. 

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“I’m sorry. Did I just hear that right?” Sammy asked, staring at her—and for some reason, he looked a bit nervous. 

“I need your help to make Christmas special for the rest of the crew, the twins, and Owena—the kid Uma’s crew took in.” Harriet gritted out. Eye twitching slightly. 

She didn’t like having to repeat herself. 

Especially not when it came to this situation. 

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the only one who can keep a secret.”

Sammy snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “that’s what you think” but Harriet didn’t question it because she was nowhere near drunk enough for that conversation. 

“Now. Do you have any ideas or not?”

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“How the hell are we supposed to hide a whole ass tree from the entire crew?” Harriet asked, taking in the tree Sammy had apparently chopped down with her eyes. 

It wasn’t a pine tree. 

Not like the ones on tv anyway. 

Nothing on the Isle was anything like it was on Auradon TV. 

The tree was long, skinny, and battered with sparse, discolored leaves that were just barely hanging on and looked like it had been dying long before Sammy or her was born—which, since it had been growing on the isle, it probably had been. But still, it would be heavy and if it was just going to be the two of them carrying it then it would be hard to sneak it onto the ship without anyone noticing. 

“By carrying it in when everyone is out.” Sammy said blankly, as if it was obvious—shaking a can of green spray paint before he started spraying the tree. “Now. Keep an eye out so we don't get jumped.”

Harriet bristled slightly. “How, exactly? Someone's always on the ship. Nikita, Raymonda, Na’vi, Nova, Henry, and Anais live on the ship, and it's a coin toss on whether your brothers or any of the crew’s siblings and cousins will be on the ship or not. Not to mention our actual crew and don't even get me started on the youngin’s in Harry's crew.”

It felt like the ship was never empty these days. 

“Which is why I called in a favor Homicide, Kai, Ula, and Uziel owe me and got them to agree to distract everyone for a couple of hours starting at exactly 6:00 O’Clock.”

Harriet raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. “And why exactly do three of my cousins owe you a favor?”

Sammy let out a long suffering sigh before giving her an unimpressed look. “Do you really want to know or do you want results? I can only give either or. Not both.”

“Just shut up and paint the damn tree.” 

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Grin and bear it.

Grin and bear it.

Grin and bear it.

That's what Harriet had to do. 

Grin and bear it.

Grin and bear it.

Grin and bear it.

GRIN AND BEAR IT. 

‘It was for the kids and for the crew,’ Harriet reminded herself, grunting as she backed up the gangplank with the top half of the tree gripped firmly in her hands. Trying her hardest to keep a decent grip on it knowing that it was likely to break into pieces if the damned thing was dropped—it would be the luck of an isle kid, after all. 

It was for the kids and the crew, and Harriet was not going to quit until the stupid tree was hidden somewhere in the ship and decorated so nicely that all of her friends would weep in delight from the sight. Achy back and creaky neck be damned.

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The tears the crew of the Queen's Fury and the children would be crying would not be tears of joy. 

Of that, Harriet was sure, as she looked at the newly decorated Christmas tree with a barely disguised grimace. 

Sammy had managed to dig up three Christmas bubbles (two of which were broken) and some flickering fairy lights in the barrage but that hadn't been enough to fill the tree. 

So they'd had to take some…. creative…liberties. Like tapping a couple of lanterns to a couple of the branches and breaking into Madam Medusa, Eq, & Cruella’s jewelry boxes for the best earrings the isle had to offer to hook onto the tree next to shiny bottle cups, broken glass bottles, and fish bones. 

They'd thrown one of Harriet's old hats on the top as a tree topper and used a moldy bite ridden rope as garland. 

It looked more like a crime scene than a Christmas Tree and joy was the farthest thing from what the pirate captain felt when she looked at it. 

And Harriet could just tell by the look on Sammy's face that he hated how it looked too, no matter how much he tried to claim otherwise. 

Christmas was going to be a disaster.

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“What are you lot doing here?” Harriet asked with an exhausted stare, too tired to speak above her ‘inside’ voice. 

Homicide (Morgie's eldest son) shrugged, a big red sack draped over his shoulder.

Behind him were Kai (Morgana of the sea’s daughter) and Ula & Uziel (the son and daughter of Uliana), all three with big red sacks of their own as they walked up the gangplank.

“We owed Sammy a few favors.”

The raven haired girl just let out a long suffering sigh, deciding that she just didn't want to know why that was at this point. Harriet wasn't scared to ask, per say (lie), but she figured that this whole thing was likely something she would need deniability on. 

Even if she'd end up stuck dealing with the fall out regardless.

“That doesn't really answer the question but come aboard, I guess.”

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Presents and enough food that they could have a feast. 

That's what Harriet’s cousins had brought on Sammy's behalf.

“You crazy son of a bitch, what do you have on them?” Harriet’s eyes didn't stray from the pile of presents tha nearly filled the storage room they'd hidden the tree and food in. 

Christmas was in the morning. 

Sammy definitely had to be blackmailing them. 

The blonde didn't even deny it, not looking away from the (mostly canned) food he was looking over. “You don't want to know.”

“Sometimes, Sammy, you scare me.”

“Not enough to keep you sober, apparently.”

Harriet snorted. “No one scares me enough to keep me sober.”

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The next day the pirates of the Queen’s Fury and the Lost Revenge came together and feasted on badly made Christmas cookies, crepes, slightly used candy, rum, slightly out of date eggnog, and much more.

They danced, they sang sea shanties, they told stories, and they laughed when the roughhousing broke out. 

Nobody had cared what the tree looked like and Diego had even laughed when he recognized some of the earrings on the tree as his aunt’s. 

It was a good night.

Harriet would even call it a merry one. 

It was the best (and even only, for some of them) Christmas any of them had ever had. 

[dreaming-for-an-escape]

New Daniel/Armand fic!

Title: Jacket of my Beloved

Summary: Armand sees Lestat wearing one of Daniel’s band tees. Naturally he gets jealous.

“Just what do you think you’re wearing?” Armand hissed, glaring at the pompous blond who’d been irritating him more than usual these last couple of days. Lestat had been staying with Daniel and him after having another dispute with Louis.   A timeout as Lestat told them after interrupting an intimate moment between Armand and Daniel. After the initial crossness passed, Daniel for whatever reason (Armand wagered it was pity), had cooled it with the derision, allowing his stay.  Armand, on the other hand, wanted Lestat out since day one. Now more than ever after seeing his beloved’s clothes on him. Armand was tempted to set Lestat on fire, though that would’ve ruined Daniel’s band tee.

[shellshooked]

to bury a goddess

[marciaillust]

trapped in amber

[12neonlit-stage]

STH //: The TRUE Ultimate Lifeform

based on this bg character from idw 72

[haliaiii]

reading up on argenti’s lore

[wandering-pegasus]

pumpkin brew and skitters are already ready for halloween!! 🎃🖤

[dammarchy211]

Sorry I live in oc land. Yay yay yay yay yay yay yay

C.R.I.M.E. Gets a style guide though isnt that cool wooaaahhh.

Now that they have a different logo tho I should definitely remake the psycho-portals. The ones that aren’t Wanda’s look like ass (Cheri’s a psychonauts one but it also looks kinda good)

[cupcakeshakesnake]

Fake screenshots and character designs for aforementioned school project.

I'm still thinking about the title, but the plot is basically "Monster gets pissed at rude man who also happens to be a terrible father and adopts his abused kid by force".

[capricoopla]

normal sisters

[transingthoseformers]

Decepticon propaganda play: a romantic tragedy where Orion Pax/Optimus Prime is a beautiful rich mech who breaks megatron's heart. The audience boos whenever he shows up. There's a scene where megatron is talking to his fellow miners and going 'you don't understand, impactor, i just know pax isn't like those other upper-caste mechs' and audience is freaking out like NO MEGATRON ITS A MISTAKE

the average decepticon does not enjoy sitting down and shutting up for an hour and a half so all decepticon plays have maximum audience participation

They put it on every other year and starscream always shows up to see the scenes where megatron's actor breaks down crying

Tarn desperately wants to play megatron but also staunchly refuses to even pretend to be in love with optimus prime

Thundercracker wrote the play

My phone froze up funny in the middle of writing up a response but I'll condense it into two main categories:

Who pitched the idea of the play first, Megatron or Thundercracker?

I need Optimus to find out / see it

[slaughtersafe]

Mirror might steal your name

[lovesick-joey]

another dc oc... yes that is a horse you're looking at

[snekberry]

Hmm...

[s0upjuice]

Question that has been bouncing around in my brain this morning: How did Lily feel about Cresselia during the infamous dark crater escort mission?

she didn't have a great time

lily is pretty meticulous with inventory, but also very stingy with items. she hates wasting things. even in very important, world-saving missions, she'll only bring about 3 reviver seeds, and wants to save them all for the boss, meaning the dungeon needs to be cleared deathless. not easy when cresselia loves gobbling up those reviver seeds...

(james, of course, gave up complaining a long time ago and is just happy to be there)

thank you for the ask!

[dissvicious]

following months on the victoria punk gonna be funny