#stays out of sight

[softquietsteadylove]

When Thena heard in the news about the 4th fisherman drowning out at the sea she fears that it will happen to Gil too. So she decides to do some swimming lessons for Gil to make him stronger and more secure in the water. She doesn’t tell him why all of a sudden she wants to spend time with him in the water, Only later Gil learns her true intentions.

For the mermaid one!

Gil hit the surface, taking in a deep gasp of air.

"Hm," Thena pursed her lips, swimming closer to him in a second, "that was only a minute."

"Only," he huffed and puffed.

They had been practising getting him to hold his breath for longer, gradually. Thena had been positively horrified to learn that most humans could only hold their breath for about a minute before their lungs demanded oxygen. So horrified that she had insisted he strengthen his lungs, as well as plenty of other swimming skills.

So, every night after work, they would spend a little time in the water together before he had a shower and started their dinner.

"Yes, 'only'," she huffed right back at him, circling him with ease thanks to her tail cutting through the water. "Gil, your average has only increased by ten seconds. You are a fisherman!"

"Yeah," he panted faintly, swiping water and his weighed down hair out of his eyes. "And I do my fishing up on the boat, believe it or not."

She gave him a very unimpressed look. "I met you because you fell overboard."

She had a point. Gil avoided her eyes, kicking his feet and swishing his hands to keep himself afloat. "Angelfish, I appreciate the training and all. But it's been a hell of a day, I really-"

"But-!" she started and bit into her lip with her fangs. He raised a brow, waiting for her argument. She sighed, though, swirling her tail to keep herself stationary. "Perhaps you're right."

"Thena," he sighed, watching her swim slowly over to the ladder of the dock. "Angelfish, wait."

"No, I'm sorry I insisted on doing this every night," she offered him a contrite smile, "you must be exhausted."

"Hey, c'mere," he reached for her, keeping his other hand on the ladder to alleviate his own burden. "What's going on? I asked already what this was about but something's up."

Thena dodged his eyes, moving her tail, feeling the water bending around both her movements and Gil's. Humans really did have to work so, so hard to stay afloat. All that air in their lungs and it lasted less than a minute on average. And Gil's muscle was so dense, and those strong arms of his weren't actually doing the most work when he swam.

"Cuddlefish?" he tried to persuade her with sweet words again, leaning closer and kissing her cheek.

Thena sighed, leaning into the affection and bringing herself closer to him. Even in the water, although it made his skin feel damp, he was still so warm. "I was worried."

"Yeah, I'm getting that impression," he smiled again, running his hand over her hair, the water beading and running right off. "But I mean why, though?"

She sighed more harshly, flicking her tail fins more. "You saw the news."

Several deaths of fishermen had been reported on recently--enough that the local news had announced that it was unwise to be out in open water without proper training and equipment. They were even investigating exactly why the fishermen had all met their ends, and it seemed unfortunate but natural causes due to them tumbling overboard and simply being at the mercy of the sea.

"Even the strongest human is a guppy when you're out in those waves," she frowned, pressing her forehead to his chest. "The stormy season is upon us and if you fall in, or get tangled in a net again, and-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay," he cooed, kissing beside her ear and tucking her head against him. "Nothing like that is gonna happen, Angelfish."

She bit his shoulder gently (like tugging on an ear). "Net--overboard."

"Right," he remarked, and they both had to chuckle. He held her tighter though, "okay, you got me there. But you saved me."

"And what if I'm not there to save you next time?" she pulled her head up to frown at him. She pulled her hand from the water to touch his cheek, "what if I'm too late? What if you fall so deep that even if I do get you back to the surface, your lungs are already depleted?--or the pressure has crushed you beyond repair?"

"Thena," he said more firmly, even going so far as to silence her with his lips pressed to hers. "I promise I won't let that happen."

She glared at him, letting her fangs press into her lower lip. "You cannot promise that. You do not know what can happen out there!"

"Maybe."

She huffed; whose side was he on?!

"But I can promise that I'll be careful," he smiled, hoping to encourage her into doing the same. "I keep my tether tied if the weather is bad, I make sure I'm not standing on the nets anymore. And I have stuff on the boat to help too, y'know."

She tilted her head at him, hoping to convey how unconvinced she was.

"I know you're worried about me," he sighed, pulling her hand from his cheek to he could kiss her palm. "But humans are tougher than you think. And hey, my girlfriend is a mermaid--I have more experience in the water than even the average fisherman, now."

Thena rolled her eyes; merely knowing her did not make him a better swimmer. Although she had to admit, Gil's form was better than some of the other fishing boat idiots in the area. She pouted, "swimming is not a talent that can be passed on through mating."

Gil just laughed before leaning in to kiss her again. "Maybe we'll just have to keep trying, hm?"

She attempted to remain cross with him, but it really wasn't working at all. He was far too charming for a human. She leaned in to kiss him as well, her tail taking on a mind of its own to push her closer to him so she could wrap her arms around his neck.

"And hey, we can keep swimming like this," he shrugged, running his fingers up and down her back where skin met scales. "You like it, right?--having your tail on, just swimming around for fun?"

She did enjoy it. It felt nice to have her tail on in its natural state, and swimming with Gil made her feel...closer to him, in a way. She felt more connected over the gap between human and mer.

Gil kissed her again, still holding onto the ladder. "How about this--you let me start dinner for us. And tonight, when the moon is out, we can swim a little again before bed."

Thena brightened visibly, her tail practically wagging. Two of her favourite things were promised: swimming with Gil, and sleeping with Gil. What a hopeless thing she was.

"Okay, come on," he smiled, beginning the trip up the ladder. Once he was up he did shiver some.

Thena followed him up quickly, always happy when her feet could navigate the ladder easily (one of the hardest actions she'd had to learn with her legs on). "Come on, let's get inside."

Gil pulled his towel around his shoulders, although he pulled her into him with it, both of them walking slowly and awkwardly cocooned together within the fluffy cloak. "So, what do you want for dinner?"

"Hm," Thena mused, happy to shuffle along at a cucumber's pace if it meant being tucked into Gil's side. "That rice porridge you made was tasty."

"Oh yeah?" he brightened. He liked that recipe, and although it had been a remedy for her feeling unwell at the time, she had come to like it too. "Okay, I'll add some extra seafood."

Thena eyed him, "and sardines?"

He bent his head down, kissing her forehead, "anything you want, Angelfish."

[classical-bluess]

Jotaro after he was gone for one day (he had to go to work)

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

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

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[lonelyslutavatar]

Building up from that idea of Martin being technically blind because his glasses keep fogging up, Martin can easily sense people's presence based on how lonely they are

[lerrryyyyy]

fashion disasters icons #tddk 😌💚🤍❤️

°°°

Do not edit or repost my art.

[levemetal]

Day 2: Timeloop / Xiao Qi and Jiu Ge

I am cringe and I am not even free

Feel free to reuse this idea but 24 hours are not enough for me to finish an entire comic. I could have taken the simpler prompt but nOOOOOO timeloop is too tempting. Past me why are we like this

[fishtackle1]

you guys dont think he would of visited his son at least once as a shadow

anyways quick sketch on my headcanon

[trustymikh]

where is my beach episode

[abi7100]

Tony: *In the middle of playing hide n' seek with Peter, five hours in, on the verge of tears, unable to find him*

Peter: *sleeping peacefully on the top shelf in Tony's closet*

[etsukiharu]

how many pairs of wings i can put on Sunday?

yes. happy sunday everyone :D

[sistercara]

i hate how much i have to fight that voice whenever i want to stand up for myself

[bonefall]

I’m rereading Po3 and despite its flaws I really enjoyed the introduction to the three. Jaykit isn’t mentioned to be blind in the first few chapters and instead they chose to show how much MORE capable he is compared to his littermates; until at the end of chapter 3, he brings up his blindness on his own. It makes forcing him to be a medicine cat SO much more frustrating because it really feels like they’re setting him up to be a warrior and choose his own fate (note i haven’t finished the reread this is just my first impression)

I like how you seem to take that path in BB regardless! It makes his arc so much more enjoyable

His arc in canon is super frustrating because he's such an independent character who clearly wants to make his own decisions in life, but then he just gets shoved into the medcat den. I LIKE that he ultimately goes there and that he enjoys it; but it was still really fucked up that they stripped away his autonomy in the process.

Re: they are not real, they are writing choices. Taking away the choices a disabled character can make over their own life, forcing them into a celibate nun role, and then going "awwwww dont worry see? he likes it! This was the best thing for him :)" was fucked up.

And imo it didn't have to be that way! You wouldn't have to go the FULL route I did with big changes, he could just be more involved in the descision to stop being a warrior apprentice and it would be fine. Minor change that would make a world of difference.

I do also have to interject to say though... blindness should really not be an extremely severe impairment for a ThunderClan cat.

I'm dead serious.

Whiskers are built-in sensors that tell you the exact position of everything within several inches of your head, ears swerve to pick up sound, and the jacobson's organ provides a sense of smell so keen that I have an entire Clanmew expansion draft because I needed to make WORDS describing the power of this sense that humans do not have. I cannot stress enough how delicate their other senses are, felines do not rely on their sight like primates do

ThunderClan lives in a mixed-oak woodland, where sight is already often obscured by foliage, objects are close together (for whiskers to feel), and nearly every movement makes noise against the leaf litter. RiverClan and (moor-running) WindClan cats would have a harder time with this disability than Thunder or Shadow.

Cat sight SUCKS to begin with. It sucks BADDD. They don't have color vision, they're significantly nearsighted, and they can't track up-and-down movements well. WC doesn't write realistic cats (more like small fuzzy people really) and I also work with more humanesque eyesight, but the only thing Jay should really lose is an ability to rapidly track a small animal swerving fast. Blind cats are often still excellent hunters in spite of that!

So it's an extra big waste that they railroaded him into a position he didn't choose, saying he couldn't be a warrior. This is the perfect disability to write, if you want to explore how ableism can impact the characters in this society who ARE legitimately still capable of nearly full independence, but still need to find accommodations for what they can't do.

In the same arc they're doing the dumb Cinder Reincarnation Plotline, no less!! Where SHE is also feeling like she has no choice over her "destiny," and gets a conflict over a potentially disabling injury

"Oh nooo if cinderpaw breaks her leg she wont be a warrior!"

"What the f-- Im Jaypaw and im reporting live from the scene where a Category 1 Idiot Moment is taking place. Woman breaks leg, suddenly everyone believes she is a horse, more at 11."

One of these days I should really make "herb guides" just covering how various sensory disabilities impact the lives of Clan cats and some tips for writing them as warriors, especially between Clans. Stuff you wouldn't usually consider, like how much noise deaf cats tend to make, how RiverClan would get a ton of sinus infections and lose their sense of smell, being blind in Sky vs Thunder, etc.

[nexilu]

I love time travel fanfics so much, like when one of the boys goes in their past body. I could totally see Dean waking up in his past body. He is completely confuse at first but when he realise what is happening, he takes a look at Sam and see a short boy with messy brown hair and innocent eyes free from any pain, he hasn’t saw them like that for years…

Dean gets SO nostalgic for the innocent, curious, moody kid his little brother used to be, he would want to protect him at all cost becoming even more overprotective than his past self and past!Sam would be like: wtf is wrong with you ???

[livvylubug]

I know the these characters may not exactly be relevant to your After Death AU but how are characters like Doll and Khan holding up? Did Uzi vist her colony again or did she just leave them alone?

Uzi did Indeed visit the colony to get some personal belongings before leaving the planet. but she tried her best not to be observed, Especially by her father, who didn’t handle any news of his daughter very well.

And well, with Uzi and Cyn no longer in the absolute solvers grasp, it needed a new primary host, and who better than our formerly red eyed friend?

[weirdbabs]

diversity loss! these 2 women are the same age!

[darkwood-sleddog]

more and more i become of the opinion my dogs are not reactive to strange dogs but in fact it is unreasonable to expect them to NOT be reactive when the dogs we pass are unwalked, understimulated rural hellions that thrash at the windows of their houses, bark at us and follow us for entire lengths of properties, snarl at us, run at us with tense body language etc.

is this because a neighbor (who does skijor!) moved in half mile down the road from us a half a year ago with the most polite, unreactive dog that my dogs glance calmly at as they walk by? as it is unrestrained (no underground fence) on the property? absolutely is.

is this because a few years ago a neighbor's very nice pitbull mix got out and when it walked up to us with polite calm body language my dogs reacted just as calm and we were able to walk this dog home? absolutely is.

like i am a human woman and have lived in areas with much larger populations than i do now. i remember being followed by strangers, yelled at by strangers in aggressive ways. it made me tense and yes...reactive in those moments to ensure my own safety and needs were met. but was it my fault for having to react that way? To call friends and family and be on the phone any time that i walked alone? to check in when i got to where i was going? to bring pepper spray and iron knuckles to walk less than 10 minutes away from home? I don't think it is. Rather it's the failure that allows that behavior towards me which is at fault. i should not have had to carry those things with me. or call a single soul.

same with my dogs. my dogs aren't reactive, i'm just the only person who walks my damn dogs in my rural neighborhood. even though we can walk for 4+ miles either way on safe dirt roads out of our driveway before we reach pavement. nobody else. walks. their. fucking. dogs. yes i manage my dogs behaviors, it can be embarrassing when they get riled up, but know what? it is not their fault so many other dogs fucking SUCK. and it is not those dogs' fault that they suck either. i encountered more politely behaved dogs when i lived in the suburbs and city than i do now because those dogs at least had some sort of experience with being around other dogs (passing them on the sidewalk even) out of necessity. Rural people truly just throw their dogs outside and expect that to be enough. if you're lucky they install a little underground fence that will maybe keep fido in the yard (like uwu WE don't want to have a look at a fence and we're going to make all our neighbors GUESS if our dog might run into the road at them uwu).