#that crab had crazy energy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

palettepainter · 27 days ago

Text

To Love and Be Loved

@muletia merformers content grabbed my artblock by the throat and launched it into space. This AU is driving me crazy

I've never been the type to be consistent with AU's when making them just cuz I'm really bad at posting frequently for them, or I loose interest in continuing them, so I've only ever been invested in a few AU's online. Merformers?? I don't know WHAT it is about this concept, but it scratches an itch in my brain, so I wrote a drabble based off a scenario muletia's answered on their blog!

I'm still fairly new to character x reader content soooo please be nice,,,I actually had a lot of fun writing this, might write more! Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors

The AU belongs to muletia. I tried not to go into too much detail concerning readers appearance, but for backstory sake I made them a fisherman

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Sunlight burns behind your eyelids, even when you stubbornly clamp them tighter with a whine. You would have thrown your arm over your face to block it entirely, if everything didn’t feel like it weighed triple what it was, and if everything didn’t ache

A curious, painful numbness weighed heavily in every limb, as if your very bones themselves had turned to cement blocks. You whine again, attempting with what little reserve of energy you possessed to move

You didn’t move much, and you know you probably didn’t look very graceful doing so, but with effort, you roll onto your side

The familiar, yet undeniably unwelcome sensation of sand sticking to the skin of your cheek pulls yet another discomforted whine from you, but the very thought of trying to manoeuvre yourself so you can wipe it off - and the following realisation of how much energy it would take to do so - you abide to lay there and sulk in your uncomfortable misery instead

And then a crab walked sideways into your line of vision, about an inch away from your nose

A pity really, that you were stranded upon this island alone, scientists around the world would have been amazed at the speed in which you all but catapult yourself away with

That same startled movement however, causes you to instantly double over with a hiss and clutch desperately at your leg when an unexpected, angry flare of pain shoots up your limb. You suppress the urge to yelp, sucking air through your clenched teeth, it’s only after a few seconds that your eyes start to mist up pathetically, and you have to blink in a futile attempt to restore your vision

‘What the hell?!-’

You don’t care to glance up to see if the crab has retreated, or rub your face into your shoulder to brush off the sand that you can feel is still stubbornly glueing itself to your skin, everything else was distant, unimportant: the concern for why you were in such unexpected, such worrying pain, greatly outweighed anything else

Thanks to your clumsy flurry to get away from the crab you are at least partially sitting, so you have an easy view of your left leg from where the pain was originating from

At a glance, you are doused in immediate relief when you see your leg clearly isn’t broken. To confirm the theory, you give the limb an experimental roll and bend the knee. It was sore, but not totally painful. You practically deflate like a balloon, hand covering your heart, a broken leg would be just your luck

You can also see no visible sign of blood, which is promising

You’re no medical experiment by any means, but getting an open wound on a island you still have no idea how to truly navigate or live off of and contracting something, or having it become infected, is really not something you want to worry about

Still, if there is no sign of blood and there is no apparent bone sticking out at an awkward angle, then maybe you pulled something??

Leaving the unexplained pain only to have it come back and bite you later for not trying to soothe it is out of the question, so you reach down to peel back your absolutely sodden trousers

They’re as soaked as they are uncomfortable, exposing your cold skin to the merciless open air that has goosebumps prickling your skin in nanoseconds. Despite the clothing on the rest of your body, you feel the wind's icy hand invade up the back of your shirt and scratch at your spine, the hairs on your neck standing on end

You force yourself to ignore it, hiking your trouser further upward until it rests above your knee

There, you see your problem

Sickly yellow swirls around the lip of your boot and up your calf, it’s as unpleasant to look at as it feels

Removing your boot only further reveals the extent of the damage: the bruise is heaviest at your ankle, the flesh swollen and sore, specks of dingy purple dotting the area above the bone which is almost completely swallowed by the swelling

That...wasn’t good

Bracing yourself for the worst, for what you already know is going to be the case, you cradle your ankle and press oh so gently onto the tender skin. Each poke, even feather light, causes little shocks of agitation to flare through your muscles and draws a wince from you each time without fail

‘This is…really not good’

“Shit...” you mumble, because there was no other word appropriate to describe your situation

Quietly, you can silently concede that the situation could have been more dire, you would have been royally screwed if you had a broken leg. Heavy bruising was at least managable, annoying yes, but manageable

You’d survive at least, that was comforting, you really didn’t want swollen ankle and heavy bruising to be the cause of death carved on your tombstone

All things considered, you conclude you got very, very lucky (that or some kind of deity must have been feeling particularly merciful), of all the injuries you could have sustained, not to mention literally drowning, surviving an ocean storm with a sore leg was a blessing-

Eyes snapping open, alert and awake, everything comes rushing back to you at an overwhelming pace: the storm, the rain and wind, the pathway along the coastline, the loose rock, losing your balance, falling, water - water everywhere - all around you, in your eyes, in your mouth, suffocating you

You were going to drown, you were certain that was it

You remember being pulled under, wave after wave throttling you, hurling your small, frail body under its currents, kicking and flailing. Disorientation had scrambled your brain, and the pressure constricted your ribcage, a burning sensation climbing higher in your throat and behind your eyes

Light fading, the surface getting further and further away, you were sure you were drowning- you had been drowning! You were going to die, and yet…you’re here

Still reeling, you turn your head unhurriedly to survey your surroundings. The breeze is light and soft, just barely tussling your raggedy hair, a far cry from the ferocity of the tempest that had been set on devouring the island and its inhabitants hours ago

You were sitting on the outskirts of a lagoon, not one you recognised, you must have been washed up on an unexplored part of the island. If the circumstances which had brought you here had been anything less morbid, you think you would have found the surroundings quite peaceful

The lagoon is calm, a sanctuary held between two platforms of rock that curve around to isolate it from the rest of the sea, the only entrance in and out is a single gap in the rock formation opposite the section of beach you were resting on

Now though, in your delirious, near paralysed from fear state, the unfamiliar environment only feeds your unease

You want nothing more then to rot into the sand, to surrender to the heaviness that weighs on your shoulders and pleads for you to collapse and recharge, but if it’s the surge of adrenaline from realising you narrowly escaped sharing a handshake with the grim reaper not twenty four hours ago, or the pain in your leg the forbids you to forget it’s presence, you refuse

Inhaling a breath to gather yourself, you swallow past the lump lodged in your throat despite how painful it is to do so, and brace your hands on the sand “Okay- Okay…easy does it. One…two…three!-” not without grunting, you manage to heave yourself onto your feet unsteadily

Okay. You’re standing. That’s good. Good.

After a thorough examination of yourself, and patting around your head to check for any bumps or dried blood, you reprocess again that you got very, very, VERY lucky!

There are no weird bumps on your head and the only thing you do feel that's out of place is the odd bit of reed caught in your hair or sand stuck on your scalp, the worst of the damage is a few new tears in your t-shirt, but none that would render it ruined (not that fashion was even in your priorities)

You sigh, if you ever get off this island you were so buying a lottery ticket

“Alright then…now for the fun part” you say dismally, casting a nervous glance down to your bruised leg

With every bit of caution one would use when stepping on cracked ice, you first take a step forward on your non injured leg. One step forward, simple. Then, you brace to carefully take the next step with your bruised one, easier said than done you think

Tenderly, you lift your foot from the miniature crater the sole of your boot had left in the sand, deciding to only move it forward a few inches before you let your boot rest again on the ground

No agitated pain came to smite you, only the general soreness persisted, which was gradually becoming tolerable now that you were up and had your bearings

‘So far so good..’

Still with care, you begin to unhurriedly shift your weight from your right foot to your left in preparation for your next step-

Pain. Just- Pain. A lot of it.

Your shriek is half muffled by the sand rushing up to greet you, where you barely manage to catch yourself on shaking arms before too much splats into your mouth. You fall, and you fall hard, and in your attempt to jerk and recorrect your balance, you only manage to infuriate your bruised leg further

For several, uninterrupted beats, you lay there, defeated in a crater of your own making, content to do so until you shrivel up like a raisin in the sun and die.

However, it seems you’re not out of stubborn grit yet, because despite every blaring alarm in your head that begs you to not move because that was way more painful then you thought it would be!- you roll onto your back

You’re crying, both from pain, and the fact that now is simply the time to cry. You don’t bother to wipe the tears away, knowing more will just spill in their place

Every breath wheezes as you greedily inhale, one hand mindlessly rubbing at your leg in some weak attempt to alleviate some of the agony, it’s as successful as you imagined it would be

“Ow..” you whimper, your voice small and weak, like someone had stepped on it

“That…r-really hurt” you speak your thoughts aloud, because it’s better to focus on doing that then the aching sensation that you know now has rendered your leg near useless

You sniffle, attempting to steady your breathing by taking rhythmic inhales and exhales as you had done many times before, it was the only method you had that was somewhat keeping you from losing your goddamn mind

“So, walking is gunna suck..” you state, and you can feel your resolve fracturing as a particularly strong jolt of pain from your leg reinforces the statement “Maybe…I could fashion a walking stick out of a branch??” you continue to speak aloud “Maybe a splint? Finding a branch shouldn’t be too hard”

A pause settles, the only sound that drifts over to you is the sound of waves gently lapping at the edge of the rocks that surround the lagoon

“Hm…I should get up” you don’t move

“...I shouldn’t be putting pressure on my leg if it’s hurt, but I need to find food and water” you had managed to survive living off the land and sea, though trying to catch fish and deducing what plants looked safe enough to eat was not easy

It’d be much easier if you had your fishing rod, but after more than a week of being washed up on the island without a trace of your boat or gear washing up on shore, you had come to accept the glum fate that your beloved boat and expensive gear were long gone.

You’d never been overly fond of that boat anyway, you’d gotten it second hand for a price way too high for a vessel that had awkward steering, but if you saw that crooked old boat again you’d kiss

The only gear you had left on hand was your craft knife, which had been your saving grace when sawing through branches to construct your first shelter, gutting fish, starting a fire-....you feverishly patted your pocket

You frowned

You no longer had your knife

“UUUGH!!..”

As you begin to curse the world for your rotten luck, battling the temptation to start crying again because you know crying like a three year old isn’t going to solve your problems, much less aid you, the sound of rippling water is not lost to the sound of your own laboured breathing

You go to turn your head to investigate the sound- only to startle upward for the second time that day when something begins rising out of the water

With your busted leg you only managed to pitifully crawl yourself backwards and away from where the water meets the sand by your arms, eyes not once leaving the mass that steadily grows bigger as it comes upwards to the surface

Your nerves are shot, your heart is threatening to erupt from your chest, and you are in no condition to be running away from potential threats

If the storm didn’t kill you, you’re sure whatever creature is approaching the shallows surely will

You’re going to die alone on this forsaken island and the only acknowledgement of your death will probably be years from now on some unsolved murders podcast

If the worst is to end you then and there you don’t wish to see it, so, you throw up your arms in a measly shield, hoping that whatever creature has pulled itself up from the depths is feeling generous and puts you out of your misery swiftly

As the moment stretches on at a painful pace, breathing hard through your nose with your head ducked into your shoulders like a terrified turtle, the sound of sloshing water draws to a sudden stop, and a pitched, single chirp breaks through the silent air

Still, you can’t bring yourself to open your eyes and lower your arms, sitting stiff as a statue to the point your muscles start aching

You nearly jump out of your skin when a careful pressure nudges against your forearm, slick and cold from the water but warm all the same. It’s barely a sliver of a touch, almost hesitant in its precise delicacy

Still, you don’t move. You remain locked steadily in place, terrified that if you so much as breathe incorrectly this beast will tear out your jugular

The pressure leaves your skin, and a….pitiful churr sounds from the creature

Not threatened, not angry, not territorial, just…sad, dispirited

An expanse of your terror that sits heavily in the centre of your chest breaks away, and further chunks begin to crumble and vanish the longer you sit there unharmed, despite knowing you are well within the range of biting distance

…You cautiously peel away your arms from your face, just enough to cast a clear glance towards your unexpected company

You hoped to gain an observing glance undetected, and yet the moment your arms have moved enough for you to see, you meet a heavy stare from a pair of electric blue eyes that sit well within your bubble of personal space

They instantly widen upon noticing your revealed face, a ghost of anticipation flooding the features of their expression as you ever so slowly continue to remove your arms from your face. The blue eyes twinkle, something elated glinting in them which further settles the anxious coil that felt like it had been constricting your windpipe

The creature sinks, or at least, you’re pretty sure they do, and you’re almost certain something like relief settles on their expression once your arms have fully lowered

The baby blue eyes are familiar, combined with a complexion composed of deep navy and ruby that cuts through your paranoia, a warm wave of relief flooding in to occupy the space it had been hogging in your chest

“Optimus!..” you breath breathlessly, almost dizzy from the drop in your stress levels that his presence brings

The mer continues to stare at you unblinkingly, yet you’re too joyed at the discovery of the creature being only Optimus, a mer who had founded a curious, unexplained interest in you, that you don’t notice the way he practically glowed at the sound of your voice, physically perking, fins and all

“God- you scared me for a second! I thought you-” You don’t get to finish your sentence

Strong, solid arms wrap around your middle with such speed you almost topple backwards into the sand again. His forearms alone cover the expanse of your back, his face practically covering the length of your stomach and chest, leaving you unintentionally pinned in an embrace, which on any other occasion, you would have not minded

This time however-

“Owowow-LeglegLEG!! GET OFF MY LEG-”

To his credit, Optimus doesn’t miss a beat at the sound of the evident distress in your voice, promptly tearing himself away from you with a string of worried chirps

He doesn’t whimper or give any acknowledgment to the assault of panicked slaps you had landed to the back of his head in your haste to have him remove himself, and instead his concerned eyes flicker over your body at an alarming speed

All in all, it takes him about two seconds to process the tight lines of pain that have carved themselves into your face, the tension that hangs on your jawline, your lips which have peeled back over pearl white teeth in an obvious show of great discomfort, which pains him greatly

As you busy yourself trying to calm the roaring sensation of hot fire pain that bristles up your lower leg, Optimus’s eyes follow the line of your arms which clutch desperately at the sides of your limb, a grip which he concludes is no doubt leaving crescent moon dents in your skin

Whatever surge of delight he had felt at seeing you at last awake is instantly snuffed upon the sight of the discolouration bleeding across the skin of your calf

Once you’ve eased your breathing, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear the tears from your eyes before they fall, do you take note of the mournful slump that has overtaken Optimus’s shoulders

He wilts into the sand, his grand fins that stretch along his back and down the length of his tail that stretches into the water behind him drooping, eyes not once lifting from your injured leg, and he lets out a lone, terribly gloomy churr

His hand hovers, and without meaning to you tense at the prospect of someone prodding your very much newly formed, sore bruise. As miniscule as the action is, Optimus somehow still catches it, and withdraws his webbed hand from you

It’s both amazing and intriguing to see such raw emotions displayed on his face, knowing that such depictions of emotions had never been shown in illustrations of mermaids or sirens in the many safety handbooks you’d read

But when Optimus looks to you, in a way not too different from a worried companion would, and then back to your leg, do you see the display for what it is

He’s concerned

With an expression that gradually grows more troubled the longer he flickers his gaze between your face and your leg, your expression shifts to something more gentler: “H-Hey hey, Optimus, I’m fine! It’s just a bruise”

It’s not just a bruise, the miniature version of yourself in your brain corrects, you have most definitely sprained your ankle in some capacity and not only is that going to greatly hinder your mobility, but it’s going to take more then a week to at least be semi healed, it adds

In that moment though, you decide that’s not information that Optimus needs to know, but it seems your mermaid friend does not believe you regardless when he remeets your gaze with clear doubt in his eyes.

He casts another upset look to your leg, and you watch as his fingers dig into the sad in displeasure at the sight, the fins on the side of his head that act as ears pinning downward, only further showing how troubling he finds the situation

“Really, I’m okay!” you insist with a bat of your hand, the mermaid does not shift his focus from your leg, looking to be in deep thought if the way his brows have started to mildly scrunch together is any indication

You’re not sure what to focus your attention on more: his clear worry for your well being, or the way he quietly contemplates something you can’t pinpoint

Still, even with his worry, your legs are starting to grow uncomfortably numb from the cold sand beneath you, and you need to either get back to your current shelter or find some way of crafting a new one without the help of your knife. Perhaps you’d get lucky and find somewhere sheltered further inland, but you weren’t going to get any progress done sitting

So, against what every medical professional would tell you, you stagger to your feet.

Lightning quick, Optimus watches your movements with the sharpness of a hawk, though you feel no terror under his observant stare. You’ve known the mer for the majority of your time stranded, and have come to learn that despite what you have read, he hasn’t shown even a flicker of aggression towards you once

At first, it unnerved you, thinking that he was trying to lull you into lowering your guard. You’d read that mermaids were scarily intelligent. But that hadn’t happened, and the fear you’d felt towards his presence had gradually faded with time

Standing to your full height, you hope it isn’t obvious how little pressure you’re putting on your hurt leg “See? Totally fine!~” to emphasis, you flash him the biggest reassuring smile you can muster

It’s not very effective

Optimus remains half out of the water, his upper half resting in the sand propped up by his arms until he ‘stands’ at eye level with you. His tail twitches in the water behind him, casting ripples across it’s otherwise crystal clear surface while his mouth sets into an uncertain frown

He produces a chirp, head slightly cocked, then a few more

The language barrier does make communicating a bit difficult, but you’re fairly certain based on his expression and general feel for the sounds he just made that he doesn’t hold a lot of hope in spite of your words

You know very well that in order to demolish whatever doubts he has for good, you’re going to have to walk, the thought alone makes you nervous, let alone the idea of acting upon it. Still, with Optimus not looking anywhere close to dropping his concern, you didn’t have much of a choice…

“Welp!” you awkwardly stuff your hands into the pockets of your trousers because you’re not sure what else to do with them “It was uh…nice to see you!” you say with a nod. In your mind there is no way your laid back, casual act comes across as convincing, yet you press on

You half turn away, and Optimus’s eyes still bore attentive holes into your form “I’ll see you later I guess..” you bid farewell, throwing in a small wave over your shoulder as you take your first step forward on your good food, and then follow with your left with more caution

Now knowing what to expect you actually manage to take a step forward without falling, albeit a wobbly one which makes you bite the inside of your cheek, but you’ll count it as a win

With a bit more ease you smile, and unconsciously, you begin the movement needed to take the next step-

Three things happen in the span of two seconds: a bolt of excruciating pain slices up your calf with all the subtleness of a snapping bear trap. A yelp rips from your throat before you have a hope of muffling it, and before you can brace to make contact with the sand, there is a rapid flurry of splashes behind you accompanied by a startled trill before something abruptly stops your fall

A soaked, webbed appendage securely supports your head, the other you can feel pressing into your stomach, holding your body up from the sand. In a potent mix of fear and utter embarrassment you dare not move as you feel a surge of heat explode across your face

Optimus had stopped your fall

From somewhere behind you, you can clearly hear the sound of Optimus’s calculated, deep breathing, and you don’t need to crane your head back to look at him to know that his eyes are no doubt as wide as saucers. He doesn’t move, and neither do you

The very tips of his clawed fingers press just enough into the plush flesh of your covered stomach that you can feel them pinching the surface of your skin through your t-shirt, and so, you shove aside your immense mortification and force yourself to find your voice

“Uhm…meant to do that”

Suddenly, you’re being moved with all the grace and care one would use to handle a helpless infant. As he meticulously lowers your form to the sand, the hand on your face shifting to rest on the side of your neck do you wonder if it’s at all possible for Optimus to hear how hard your heart is thundering with his close proximity

His hands hover and then gradually pull away from you once he is sure you are steady on the floor and not going to keel over just from sitting upright

You don’t want to look at him, scared of what expression he might be wearing and dreading the thought of him seeing your own. Your own cherry red face that you know is as obvious as it feels

You want nothing more than for a sinkhole to open up in the sand right beneath you and swallow you into darkness, but alas, that pity isn’t granted

You can hear sand shifting behind you, most likely Optimus trying to move higher up the sand to be near you, the mer had a strange obsession with being as close to you as possible when he could. His form settles besides you in the corner of your peripheral vision, his shadow bathing you in temporary shade that only further confirms how close he is

A troubled chirp and a gentle nudge to your shoulder, followed by a puff of hot air hitting the shell of your ear caused your breathing to involuntarily still, and then, his troubled face is ducking down and moving into your field of vision

He doesn't look angry, or disappointed, or judgemental at all, you find nothing in his gaze to feel ashamed about

He just looks worried, a worry of such caring magnitudes it renders you speechless for a moment, totally lost on how to respond, and curiously, has the temperature in your cheeks rising higher

When you do respond, your voice is low, head still ducked as you fiddle with your fingers anxiously “Okay…maybe I’m not totally okay..”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It’s been a day since you woke up at the lagoon, and Optimus has been at your beck and call for that entire duration

He rarely leaves you, which in fairness you suppose you can’t blame him for doing, given how you told him you were totally fine and then nearly face planted the floor seconds later. You try to cut him some slack, despite how overbearing he can be

You’re certain it’s because he just wants to make sure you’re okay, but there have been times where you’ve quite literally had to swat him away with your own hand

When he does leave, either willingly or by you demanding him to - to which you swear you can hear him whimper like a kicked puppy - it’s only ever for what feels like an hour at most (you lost your phone when you first arrived at the island, so you really had no clue how long he was actually gone for at a time), and everytime he comes back he always brings you a fish

You have a small collection of fish gathered on a palm tree leaf tucked away under a small gap in the rocks, concealed from the view of any wandering birds that may have been looking for an easy meal

And of course, you’re grateful for Optimus’s attempts to help, but you can’t eat the fish without firewood, and you can’t gut the fish without your knife

The firewood part was an easy fix at least, and technically you could still eat the fish without gutting them first, but still, losing your only tool and means of general protection was pretty frustrating

It made you feel all the more smaller and helpless in the incredibly vast, uncharted territory you were stuck in

Still, even without your knife and even with Optimus’s generous aid, you didn’t want to sit back helplessly while your dear friend did all the work, so, after Optimus’s form disappears beneath the surface of the water and you watch his red and blue rippled shape swim out of the lagoon, you climb to your feet

Learning that walking was a no go, you opt to instead hop on your good leg while dragging your other. Was it the most efficient means of moving around?? Not a chance. Was it a hell of a lot less painful then if you tried walking?? Absoloutly

When you reach the treeline, where the sand gradually climbs upward and becomes obscured by a layer of dried, fallen leaves and other masses of vegetation, you begin your search for a big branch to act as a walking aid

A splint probably would have been better, but given how you have no material to secure it to your leg, a walking stick will have to do. And thankfully, with the recent storm, there are a plethora of waiting branches littering the ground for you to pick from

It only takes around ten minutes of you scavenging before you come across a branch that looks decent enough, which surprises you as it does please you

With a grunt, you haul the thing up and hold it outwards to give it a once over. It wasn’t a particularly thick branch and was easy enough to hold with just one hand, it’s shape like that of a capital Y, forming the perfect perch for you to rest your arm over

The only downside you could really label was the fact it didn’t look the smoothest, but you were sure you could find a leaf somewhere and attempt to smooth it down for convenience. Though you doubted you’d even notice the pain of a splinter over your leg

“Please don’t snap, please don’t snap, PLEASE don’t snap!..” you chant under your breath as you begin to settle the branch at your side and fold your arm over the top where it rests beneath your armpit

You stand, processing the feel, and with a final prayer, you begin to lean your weight onto the branch

It holds. Doesn’t so much as snap a creak of exertion at supporting you. Hopeful results, but you need to know for sure it’ll work

You take a step forward, then repeat with your injured leg, using the stick to carry the brunt of your weight as you use it to propel yourself forward a few inches. Again, the branch doesn’t utter a single groan of complaint

You sigh, a small blessing of good luck

“Firewood..” you mutter to yourself, already using your new crutch to turn back to the trees where you focus to gather as many small pieces of wood you can find to construct a fire

Though you know starting one will be no easy feat with the loss of your knife

You didn’t have the standard fishing knife when you’d first started your career, you didn’t see a need to purchase one at the time when you already had an old camping knife that could cut fishing line, cut bait, and prepare fish just as well

The thing had been sitting on your kitchen shelf for god knows how long until then, so it was nice to finally get some use out of it

But what you really, really missed about it the most right now, was the flint fire starter it came with

You didn’t even know it came with the feature when you’d first brought it, but man what you would give to have that knife back. Starting a fire was certainly going to be a lot more interesting without, it wouldn’t be impossible, but the difficulty had certainly amped up

And you couldn’t just simply not have a fire, it would get cold when the sun went down, and even if you hadn’t come across any dangerous predators on the land just yet, you’re not terribly keen on the idea of sitting terrified in the freezing darkness

Plus, you’re not so desperately hungry that you’ll resort to eating raw fish yet

Starting a fire with two twigs can’t possibly be that hard

After you’ve gathered as much firewood in your arm that isn’t holding your clutch as you can do you turn and begin to hobble back down in the direction of the lagoon, where you drop your supply into a pile in the sand a little ways up from the water.

It’s not much, you’ll definitely have to do a few more trips of gathering small sticks, but it was a start

“Hope the tide doesn’t come too far in..” you say as you raise your eyes to the shifting mass of blue beyond the safeguard of the lagoon's edge. The thought is instantly followed up by where you’re going to sleep tonight, since you doubt you could easily craft a shelter with a busted leg and without your knife

You consider the idea of a cave, you’d seen a handful along the parts of the island you’d explored, but you hurriedly brush away the idea, probably not wise to sleep in a cave when there was a possibility of the tide coming in

“I’ll deal with that problem later” you conclude, settling yourself into the sand with your legs either side of your pile of firewood. You look at it dejectedly, bracing yourself for whatever frustration you’re about to willing subject yourself to

“Okay!...let's give this a shot”

With a stick in each hand you begin what you are sure is going to be a laborious task that is going to eat up possibly the next few hours of your time, you don’t know, you’d never made a fire by rubbing sticks before

It's not six minutes later that your shoulders begin to cry from the repetitive motion, the ache building and building until it forces you to stop and you heave for breath, not realising you’d been holding it

There isn’t so much as a dent in your sticks, and your firewood looks no closer to being lit then it did when you gathered it

You hang your head “Nnnngh…”

The process of rubbing your two sticks furiously together, only to then stop to grant your arms some mercy, followed by repeating the process went on for several minutes, and both your sticks and firewood continue to mock your efforts

If it’s the heat from the sun, the amount of effort you’re forcing your body to produce with rubbing the sticks, or a mix of both, but you can feel a thin veil of sweat on your forehead and an annoying heat spreading on your back where the sun hits you

No fire, no knife, no shelter, no good pair of legs because the storm had to fuck up one of them!-

“UGH!”

The frustration boils over, and in a blind moment of pure annoyance, you pick up the largest chunk of your firewood and proceed to lob it as far as you’re able to into the lagoon, just in time for Optimus to move into the calm shallows where his body breached the surface

His delighted chirp of greeting is cut off as the twig bounced harmlessly off his head and then plonked into the water beside him. He blinked confused eyes, turning to watch the wood sink till it came to gently rest in the sand

He blinked again, then, turned back to you

Mortified is an understatement for how you feel

“Oh my god!- I am SO so so sorry!! I-I swear I wasn’t aiming for you!! I just-” there is no possible explanation that exists on earth nor jupiter that you can conjure up to explain your childness display of annoyance, so instead you simply sigh, for what feels like the umpteenth time that day

“I…yeah I got nothing, that was just stupid of me” you admit while rubbing the back of your neck

Though you feel your apology and flimsy excuse aren’t substantial, Optimus didn’t appear offended in the slightest, he appeared just as happy to see you as he did shortly after you had woken up

As you had come to expect, in his hand he holds a fish, one you cannot name a species too, but it is one Optimus has gifted to you before so you’re comforted with the knowledge it’s safe to eat

‘Safe to eat when it’s cooked at least’

“Thanks buddy, can you put it with the others?” you ask, waving your stick in the general direct of the current fish hoard he’s gathered for you before you resume your fire making efforts

Optimus does as you ask without complaint, as you have learnt he often does, why he is so ready to accept your requests for literally anything you still don’t fully understand…or at least, you think you don’t

An answer had begun to trickle into the back of your mind, one which fills you with an endless, overflowing surge of anxiety that thinking about it for too long has you zoning out. Has something uncomfortable clutching your heart, a crawl racking up your spine that has you shivering

A feeling that is always accompanied by a longing yearnsome stare of adoration that feels a bit too domestic for your comfort, a tender brush of knuckles on the side of your head that easily hooks your hair behind your ear and out of your face, an action that shouldn’t make your heart rate pulse the way it does

Because being friends with someone shouldn’t come with confusing, fluffy feelings you’re too scared to unpack

“Maybe he’s just trying to be accommodating” was the excuse you’d told yourself when those unexplained little bubbly feelings began to become a bit too common for you to easily brush aside, and everytime you try to pair an explanation to his nurturing, near worshipful behaviour, you believe yourself a little less

Even so, you refuse to let yourself believe for a second that Optimus is doing any of this because of some…crush on you

You were entirely different species! It wouldn’t be in his nature to pursue someone of a different biology. On the very rare chance he did see more than a friend in you (of which you heavily doubt), what on earth would he see in you that he wouldn’t find in another mer??

You couldn’t even breathe underwater for crying out loud! You had no characteristics that made you look anything remotely like a mermaid, so no, there was no way Optimus was doing any of these gestures in an attempt to impress you, to show he could be reliable, protective, loyal

Optimus was your dear friend, nothing more

He needed to be with his own kind, someone like him, someone who could thrive in the water and not tie him down to navigating only the shorelines. It wouldn’t be fair to either of you, but especially him

So no, Optimus did not have a crush on you. It made no sense for him to hold such feelings. He was intelligent, far more than yourself, surely he would see the fault in chasing after you. He was of the sea, and you the land, you weren’t compatible

Diving into those thoughts, you hadn’t even clocked how you’d fallen quiet, how your fire starting efforts had gradually slowed to a stop, leaving you to stare blankly off into the distance with an unreadable expression - but Optimus had noticed

He tilted his head, confused, assuming you were collecting your thoughts. But when a large enough space of time had passed and you still hadn’t so much as twitched, he chirped. No response

Easily sliding closer his fins lower in worry on instinct at the way you don’t even seem to notice his presence, another concerned chirp goes unacknowledged by you. It doesn’t take him long before he decides to nudge you

You straighten, blinking hard with a shake of your head as Optimus pulls you out from the corners of your mind and plonks you back there on the sand of the lagoon

Turning, you’re ashamed at the still very present look of worry on his face, worry that you’ve caused, tilting his head like a curious dog trying to figure you out

You give him a sheepish smile “Ah- Sorry! Spacing out” you assure, though Optimus only raises a brow at you

You don’t need to be a marine biologist to understand he doesn’t fully believe you, confirmed when he turns around and easily scoops up one of the fish from your pile and offers it to you encouragingly, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he churrs a soothing purr to you

The salty waft from the fish reminds you of how hungry of you, and while Optimus’s gesture is heartwarming, you’re not eating a fish raw, thankfully, you’re not that desperate to quench the miniature ache that’s building in your stomach

You push his hand aside with the back of your own, still smiling “Thanks buddy but, I can’t eat that” before his face can morph to unhappy you’re already explaining your reasoning

“I need to get this fire going if I wanna cook any of them, not that that's gonna happen anytime soon, unfortunately..” you say with a huff and a not so pleased scowl down to your pile of kindling. Even with your explanation, Optimus only continued to look puzzled, and so, you resume venting your frustrations

“Just had to loose my stupid knife in that stupid storm..” you grumble, not even trying to hide how annoyed you feel. You’re not sure if Optimus ever really understands your human speak when you try to communicate with him, but regardless, he’s an ear to listen if he can translate you or not

And man do you crave some kind of interaction, aside from when you talk to yourself to keep boredom at bay

“I could have lost my jacket, or my own shoe, but nooo I had to lose my knife!” you reshuffle the kindling into a neater pile between your legs, brows gathered like angry thunder heads and face as welcoming as broken glass

“As if hurting my leg wasn’t bad enough, losing my knife is just the cherry on top of the shitty sundae” just barely, you catch Optimus’s fin ears perking at that particular sentence, and a tiny voice in the back of your head snickered at the idea of him understanding what a swear word was

That same voice is quickly smothered underneath your frustrations however

“Can’t start a fire, can’t make a shelter, can’t gut fish..” you rant, the volume in your voice decreasing further and further as your own words reinforce just how helpless you’ve become with the loss of your blade

Even if you have no knowledge on how to survive being stranded, you’d managed, and your knife gave you a somewhat feeling of protection in the large, intimidating environment you’d been marooned on

A miniscule feeling of safety, gone just like that, all of a sudden you were back to the place you where when you’d first woken up on that island, and you hated it

Silently, Optimus regards you and your curled up posture. You can’t easily curl your injured leg up to your chest, so you set on simply hugging one leg to your chest and hiding your face in your folded arms, sighing with all the tiredness and weariness in the world

Seemed you were more tired than you thought

You can feel a building heat growing behind your eyes, and dreading the thought of crying infront of Optimus and making a fool of yourself, you refuse to look anywhere in his general direction, even when he lets out a series of soothing chirps that you know are his way of urging you to look at him

You shift your head in your arms, turning further away from him

“I-I’m okay Optimus, I’m okay!..” your voice sounds more watery then you would have liked, dammit

God you were so pathetic!

Here Optimus was, going out of his way to provide for you while you recovered, and all you can do is focus on the negatives. You have no doubt in your heart that if Optimus hadn’t chosen to be kind to you, you would be in a far dire situation, maybe even dead. You were continuously fumbling and falling, and Optimus, without fail, would always show to help you without you ever asking him to

He just would, as if doing so was as simple as breathing

Optimus truly was the best

Attempting to compose yourself, you inhale a deep breath through your nose, chest rising as your lungs inflate to their fullest, then deflate as you exhale slowly through your mouth. When you reopen your eyes again, you feel better grounded and spare Optimus a glance, and notice how the mer has turned his focus to the water

There’s a considering detail to his face, contemplative, as if he was weighing the pros and cons of something

Admittedly, the expression causes your grief to take a back seat as you hum curiously to yourself, wondering what thought could warrant such a heavy level of pondering

“You good?” you ask

The only way you’re sure he heard you was the twitch in his fin on the side of his head, like the way a cat's ear would swivel to attention

He continued to study the surface of the water that glittered beneath the golden rays of sun that reflect of it, before he then turns his focus to you

The pensive quality to his face doesn’t waver, even when he temporarily looks off to the side and his brows gather by a smidge in the centre of his forehead. You try to not grow worried, you really try, whatever it is he’s thinking about you’re sure it’s nothing serious

But to see such an intense expression upon the otherwise social mer you’d come to warm up to was…concerning

“You okay??..” you repeat your earlier inquiry, which causes Optimus to return his eyes back to you

He still looked serious, but there was something more relaxed about him, leaving you to assume that whatever debate he was having he must have come to a conclusion too. Whatever a mermaid of his size has to worry about you have zero clue, honestly you’re not entirely sure if knowing would just make you more nervous

If you wanted to know or not however, you learn that Optimus wasn’t planning to try and share

With another chirp he moved the fish into your hand, softly closing your fingers around it before you can utter a word. Then, he leaned forward until his forehead gently connected with your own. His skin was cold as it was smooth, pleasant to the touch, his rumbling churr travelling from his body to yours like a comforting hug

There's something intimate and personal about the gesture that you simply don’t have the heart to turn down, he does it every time he has to leave you, the only answer you can make is that it’s some mermaid equivalent of saying goodbye

It was oddly comforting, like a wave, passing through your body, soothing and surprisingly powerful that struck down the knot of negativity and doubt festering within you

When he’d first tried to do it, you’d thought he was going to eat you and had jumped, but now, you welcomed the gesture gratefully

He pulled away moments later, smiling down at you when your eyes fluttered back open. He offered one last chirp before he gradually began to drag himself back to the water, soon moving with graceful ease once deep enough, his grand body sliding out from the lagoon

You blinked after him, brow climbing up into your hairline

It’s only ten minutes after Optimus leaves do you throw in the towel in your fire starting efforts, all you’ve managed to create is a cramp in your shoulder

Sitting there in the sand sulking is the first thing you debate on doing, considering how done you are with just about everything, but in the end, you decide to exercise your injured leg instead

You try to keep pressure off it as much as you can, but seeing how you and your crutch are going to be spending a lot of time together as you heal, the sooner you get used to moving around with it the better. Plus, it gave you a nice excuse to explore the rest of the lagoon

Now that your earlier anxiety had worn away, you can appreciate how serene your surroundings are. Despite the storm, the lagoon seemed pretty well off all things considered. If you didn’t count the littering debris of tree branches you’d have thought the place was untouched entirely!

Walking along the rock formation that forms one half of the wall that snuggly cradles the lagoon off in a corner is much easier to walk along then the sand owning to the sturdier surface, and as you meander along, you frequently stop to admire the many smaller rock pools that had formed into the structure and the little worlds flourishing with them:

So far you’ve found starfish, shrimp, hermit crabs, regular crabs, small fish and even a jellyfish the size of your pinky. As you cross the halfway mark along the wall you stumble across a particular sizeable upturned seashell, must have been tossed there by a wave, you think

Kneeling to pick it up you’re marvelled at how gorgeous it looks, scarlet stripes painting across its shell with little darker speckles that have you thinking of the red scales of Optimus’s shoulders and back

As you think of the mer, you can’t help but also remember that he’s been gone a suspiciously long amount of time..

You hum pensively as you cast your eyes over to the sea, wondering when a blue and cool grey face with an unmistakable pair of turquoise eyes will appear

You really have no way of telling how much time has passed exactly, but the sun was high up when he was last here, and now it’s lowering. If you had to wager a rough guess, evening couldn’t be more than a few hours away

But this was definitely the longest period he had left you alone for in a while

Had you upset him earlier?

He’d been trying to comfort you, and all you’d really done was vent

Just as quickly as the theory enters your head do you dismiss it, if Optimus had really been annoyed then surely he wouldn’t have done his whole forehead goodbye thingy he was so fond of, why would he have smiled and chirped at you if your behaviour had irked him??

“Maybe..he’s out hunting??” you suggest to yourself “He’s been bringing me a lot of fish and I never see him eat any of them”

The idea of Optimus pushing away his own hunger in favour of making sure you had plenty both filled you with immense gratitude for the mer and sadness at the same time, you didn’t want him to neglect his needs for your sake. You make a mental note to discuss it with him whenever he returns, because you know he will, a gut instinct, you just don’t know when

Hopefully before it’s dark..

Reaching the end of the rock platform you carefully lower yourself to sit, legs dangling over the ledge but not so much you risk falling in. Even if the water looked peaceful, you don’t fancy a dip with a hurt leg, considering how you were only just starting to nail walking with a crutch

With nothing to do and no mermaid to occupy your attention, you let your good leg sway and your fingers brush over the rough, textured surface of your seashell. For a brief moment, everything felt still and right

Your situation still wasn’t the best, you’re still stuck on an island with no other human life, but for now, everything felt okay

With one hand holding your shell, thumb idly stroking back and forth across it, your other hand holds your face, your reflection on the water below staring right back

The water looked especially refreshing, a part of you does long to throw haste to the wind and jump in for a swim, but the more mature part of you knows that’ll only put needless stress on your leg trying to keep yourself afloat

Sometimes, if you sit still enough, a small fish will dart out from its hiding spot under the rocks before zipping away from sight, it’s like your own personal aquarium, and even better, it’s free!

A particularly large fish caught your attention as it swam along with it’s belly against the smooth sand that made the bed of the lagoon, it paused some ways directly below you where you feet dangle, giving you a nice view of it’s spotty scales that likely make it blend in well amongst the underwater reeds

Seconds later, it decides it’s done resting and shoots off towards the exit of the, swimming over the ridge of sand before it dived into the vast sea beyond its sheltered walls

You hadn’t noticed earlier, given how this was the first time you’d gotten so close to the exit and entrance of the lagoon, but where the gap in the wall had formed, the sand steeps upward into a miniature mound, cultivated through creatures big and small swimming in and out

It dipped sharply downward into the rest of the ocean, merging with the seafloor below and meshing with the rest of the rock and sand beyond

As you stare, you acknowledge again how lucky it was that out of all the places you could have washed up, you washed up in the safety of a quite lagoon….and that you just happened to drift through the only gap that made both the exit and entrance to said lagoon

In fact, it was a miracle you hadn’t sunk to the sea floor before you were carried over to the lagoon. If you’d been drowning any earlier then you might have sunk too low to pass over the small wall of sand

But, looking back, you don’t ever remember seeing this lagoon, even from the line of the coast path you’d been following before falling into the water. You’re sure you would have seen it, because before the storm had suddenly settled the weather had been relatively decent

The waves…couldn’t have carried you that far, could they??

In fact, you’re astonished the waves didn’t end up throwing you over the wall like a sack of potatoes. The walls were high yes, but not immensely so, a giant, powerful wave could have easily washed over them as if they were nothing

Really, what were the chances you’d wash up in a safe lagoon in the middle of a storm??

You can’t remember all the details very clearly, but you know for certain that you didn’t swim into the lagoon yourself, you remember the sea overpowering you, pushing you further under and fighting back against your thrashing legs and arms

You remember the fear, the blood chilling realisation that this is where you were going to meet your grave. At the bottom of the sea

You were drowning, you were going to die, and yet, despite all odds, you’re alive

Surely this couldn’t be dumb luck, it was just too convenient: the idea that the tide just happened to deliver your unconscious body into the lagoon, just happened to make you drift gracefully through the gap in the rocks rather than lobbing you over them, just happened to do all this before you drowned for real

‘Unless…it wasn’t the sea that-!!’

Your seashell numbly fell from your hand

You don’t register it falling into the water with a light splash, nor do you register the large body of colour moving towards the lagoon, not until a body of red, blue, white and soft gray surges upwards from the water and has you wildly falling onto your back

The body of Optimus looms above you, strong arms that are twice the width of your body supporting him, while the end of his tail continues to sway in the water. Your chest heaves, eyes threatening to split your face from how they seemingly bug out of your skull from the sudden closeness

He’s pinned you beneath him on the rock, and your heart does a backflip involuntarily

You forget how to breath

Water cascaded down his body and drips down his chin, splashing onto your face, which seems to be the thing to urge you to do something, aside from lay there with your chest heaving like a petrified rabbit

“Uh…H-Hi” you squeak, barely managing to move your fingers in a tiny wave

If Optimus is at all aware of your fluster he is either oblivious to it, or was doing a very spectacular job of not showing it

His mouth pulled up into a smile at hearing your voice, sharp teeth glinting behind his lips that have your face turning darker, you can practically feel the heat travelling up to the tips of your ears

You shuffle backwards as quickly as you can without infuriating your injury, coughing to find your voice “Heh, you uh..you were uhm, gone for a while” you start, completely unsure if there is even a way to smoothly transition to a conversation

Once you can comfortable sit with your injured leg outstretched, you are shocked again by Optimus when - instead of folding his arms and letting them rest on the rocky outcrop - he instead heaved his long, heavy body out of the water

Making a noise of concern you reach out and place your hand upon the scales of his arm as he settled in front of you “Wha- wait can you be fully out of the water?? Is that safe for you!”

At your touch, you instantly draw a pleased trill from him, the dominant fin that trails down the centre of his back and down his tail shivering happily. He offers you a gentle, assuring smile, before using the end of his tail to easily splash water up onto his body

You get hit by a few drops of water in the process that draws a humoured huff from Optimus, the breath hitting your face and causing loose bits of your hair to be blown back

You however, are far from being amused at his playfulness, your brain still whirling to digest your realisation

It seemed whatever expression you were wearing was signal enough for the mer to gather you had something quite heavy on your mind, and he cocked his head at you, at once his amusement subsiding

When you speak, your voice is quiet “Optimus..” the mer recognises the call of his name, offering you his full, undivided attention as you collect yourself to spit out the rest of your question

“Did you…bring me to the lagoon?”

Who else could have??

Who else would know of such a safe, secure area for you to rest when hurt?? Who else could have easily swam you through the entrance and carefully laid you on the sand far away from the merciless crashing of waves?? Who else would have gone out of there way, in a storm of all things, to ensure your safety??

You’re not sure what type of reaction you were expecting, perhaps for him to give it a nervous second thought before answering? What you do not expect, is for Optimus to respond with a genuine, confident churr

Your eyes widen all over again

Optimus had been the one to bring you to the lagoon

Optimus had SAVED you

“Y-You…You..” you tried, stammering, his churr sounding so true that it threw you through several loops and then some. On the other hand, Optimus appeared unphased, he looked at you with such fond adoration, his smile small but real, that it was almost too much for you to process

You try again to find your words, to say anything in response, but your throat continued to hold any half assembled words you’d strung together hostage, leaving you stuttering and red faced

Did Optimus understand the gravity of the deed he did? Did he know he had actually saved you from drowning?? That if he hadn’t found you, if he had been swimming at any other part of the island, if he’d shown up even a minute later then you might have..

“..Op..Optimus, I-I-”

He outstretched his hand, palm facing the sky, an object sitting there for you

At a glance, you thought it was some kind of weirdly shaped pebble, not the first of its type to be gifted to you by the mer. But when you look at it again, properly, you see the item for what it actually is

There's a tremble to your hands are you take the item slowly from him, being mindful of the bladed end against the fragile skin of your fingers

“M-My…My knife..” you say, then, you whirl your face up to Optimus

He sits in a way an eager child would after they’ve handed someone a present, anticipating your reaction with a jubilant shine in his eye

Meanwhile, yours shine for a different reason

You can’t think, can’t blink, can’t process why Optimus not only saved you, but returned your knife, the knife you had lost in the storm. How did he?!- WHY did he?!-

“You….You..” your voice is quiet, still in disbelief “Y-You went…looking for this?? Is THAT where you’ve been?!”

A collection of pleased chirps and trills is his answer, his fins raising as you clumsily fumble to inspect the handle of your knife

You miss is the first time when you try to grab for the string handle that dangles from the bottom, but you eventually manage to grasp it with your shaking fingers, pulling on it to free the flint striker that slotted into it when not in use

You can…you can start your fire with this. Prepare your fish, make a new shelter if you have to!

All because…Optimus went searching for it

He had no use for a knife, why would he?? His webbed appendages were already naturally sharp and his teeth even more so, why would he need to find a knife?? For you, that’s why

For you

…Small, damp spots form on the material of your now dried trousers as moisture begins to freely fall down your face, your cheeks becoming sleek with them in a matter of seconds

“T-This is…i-its..”

Your voice is devoid of its usually cheery quality that Optimus had come to admire so much, now, you only sound confused, sad, it doesn’t sit right with him at all

Afraid that he is the cause, Optimus ducked his head to try and catch your eye, but he barely gets a glance at your face before a broken sob rips out of your throat, startling him back

You sob, your knife clattering to the rocky surface beneath you as your hands fly up to desperately hide your face and muffle your howling. The sound of Optimus’s panicked chirps as he tries to figure out what has caused you such unexpected distress are drowned out under the sound of your gross sniffling and crying

You hiccuped, choking for air past your sobbing, body trembling. Your rocked with a wail, curling up to bury your face in your palm before Optimus can see

Your heart was flooded with gratitude, overflowing with warmth and approval for the grand mermaid the likes of which you had never felt for any other being before. But alongside it, was a just as immense sense of confusion, of astonishment, of fear

Why? Why was Optimus so-…why would he bother-

“T-This!-..T-This is-” you hiccup, sniffling loudly as you clumsily wipe your eyes “T-This is..t-the nicest thing anyones ever done for me!!” you wail, head still ducked so low that Optimus can’t see your face.

He churrs and chirps non-stop, desperately trying to figure out how he should proceed, you should say something to calm him, to promise him you are the furthest thing from disappointed at his act of kindness, but all you can think to say is:

“W-Why?..” You croak, pulling at the bottom of your shirt as a makeshift rag, wiping it across your face “W-Why are you…y-you being so..” with courage, you shakily raise your head to Optimus, who cowers with a sad whine at the disheartening look on your tear stained face

Your eyes were puffy, red, and you looked so utterly lost and confused that it caught him so off guard he almost slipped off the edge of the rock. With a trembling voice, you manage to finish your query: “Why are you being so…n-nice to me??”

Optimus found himself frozen, like ice had been injected into his being, he had never expected such an intense bout of tears from you from his gift. Was it not to your liking? Had he overstepped?? If only you could simply tell him what was wrong, he would fix it!

It took your sight becoming blurry once again, and a hiccup to escape your throat do you process that you were crying again

You knew you shouldn’t, you knew it would only make Optimus more stressed, but you just couldn’t stop it, you couldn’t stop it from building and overflowing inside you

You hugged yourself, arms tightly wrapping around your body with your head hung low. You must look so tiny to Optimus, so small and dramatic, he must be revolted at your improper reaction to his generous, meaningful gift..

A gentle nudge to the side of your head as Optimus, with all the tenderness he could muster, softly touched the side of your head in a brief nuzzle. He chirped, but you refused to abide to his wordless request, furiously shaking your head

Something woeful fell over his expression, and knowing you were the cause only makes the ache in your chest double

You just didn’t understand, why was Optimus so caring towards you?? Why you?? Why not another mer?? What made you so…special to him??

Carefully, with precise movements, Optimus slowly curled himself around you, circling you protectively with his tail. Still with care, churring sadfully at your sniffling, he laid his chin upon your good leg, staring upward at you

You didn’t want to look at him, you knew it would just cause you to break further, and yet, your head slowly turned without thought, hands moving away from your face until you meet his:

The look on his face, the way he looks at you - you feel your heart simultaneously break and swell

You were uncertain just how much Optimus was able to understand the true extent of your muddled emotions, you weren’t even sure just how much you could make sense of them. But what you were certain of was the weight in your chest, and how looking at Optimus, seeing the honest to goodness care in his eyes made it feel just that bit lighter

All for you, imperfect, messy, unique you

You reached for him, gently cupping either side of his face with your hands that looked dwarfed in comparison. He leaned into the touch, quietly churring. Tears welled back up in your glossy eyes, shivering from the intensity of your emotions

Your voice wobbled as you spoke “T-Thank you”

Without asking, your tone conveying enough, Optimus moved forward. You carefully wrapped your arms around his head, pulling him to your chest where you lowered your head into the crown of his own, sobbing quietly, soft sniffles leaving you ever now and then

An arm gently wrapped around you, his hand reaching for the small of your back where he simply supported you. After a moment, he began to churr again, the calming vibrations reminding you of a large, purring cat

Before you can stop it, you huff out a tired snicker at the amusing comparison

The length of Optimus’s grand tail curls tighter around you, safely cocooning you, you had never felt so safe and grounded then right there, in the centre of his embrace, his head nuzzling into your stomach.

You held him tightly, trying to return even a fraction of the feeling of security you felt by his presence

“Thank you..” you said again, and you meant it

#This was a lot of fun #I have honestly wanted to do x reader content before but I was super shy about it #idk I just think the idea is really sweet and comforting #like writing a drabble with your favourite blorbos interacting with you??#that's fucking adorable!#I still have transformers brainrot too so this was two birds with one stone #Transformers #Merformers #Optimus #Optimus prime #Mer optimus #not my au #fanart #writing #x reader

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lovelyyandereaddictionpoint · 1 year ago

Note

I was re reading your pool fic bc it’s one of my favourite and I wanted to ask ab how Vil would go over giving you a make over when he finds out you’re a girl or how Vil, Rook and Epel would be involved?

Would Epel finally be happy to not be the only one being tortured by Vil with his 20084 step skin care routine?

Would Vil take you shopping and go full MUA?

Would Rook stalk you so Vil can find our about your current beauty regimen?

Also I love your writing so much

Aforementioned Makeover | Yandere Pomefiore

The thing about the pool party is that everyone knew you were a girl

You had told them straight up

But they either written it off or the time you casually mentioned it or it just wasn’t a priority

Rook most definitely already knew

More than willing to share one of his extensive photo albums on you when Vil finally decides you are indeed in need of a makeover

Whether it’s through Rook or forcefully making Epel ask or just interrogating you himself

He’ll go full steam ahead once he has an idea on your situation

But it gets tricky when he realizes Rook’s has a loooonggg list of things he notices and actively updates about your health and routine

It kind of makes him jealous

So he steps up his game a little and demands your presence in Pomefiore immediately

He might wait for exam season where everyone’s on edge

And far too anxious to debate whatever craziness he’s imposing on the Ramshackle Prefect

“This is just for the time being, no need to lose your head. Focus on your exams and I’ll focus on you. Got that?”

He’s reworking your entire life routine to fit around and with him in the center

Because Rook get’s to openly patrol and monitor you he’s not upset

He also expected it’d turn out this way but that’s a discussion for another time+

Epel though is at first willing to excuse himself

Leaving you to the proverbial wolves until he realizes what this means

“After the fitting, we’ll polish their elegance training, and then after that we’ll have to do a hearty meal otherwise they’d whine all day–” “I agree!”

“But they told me that tomorrow we’d go to the racing derby together…”

“Hm, well we’ll have to cancel that then. (Y/n)’s incredibly short energy and requirements for tomorrow can’t have them waking up too early to go to that. We only have time for what we’ve planned.”

“Yup sorry, monsieur crab-apple! Now please continue Roi du Poison!”

“...”

If he doesn’t actively include himself or remind Vil of his obsession with training him

He’s going to be left out

Lose more time to get close to you

Less chances for him to win you over

Not to mention the bonding and learning he gets from just aiding his upperclassmen in their endeavors

“Now this Epel is the perfect time to ask questions. In this condition their mental state is still intact, so any questions you ask isn’t immediately going to be met with mindless and incoherent blubbering.”

“But why would I want to ask questions? What good is talking to this piece’a crap gonna do?”

“Tsk Tsk pauvre malheureux you have so much to learn! Consider this prey the beginning of a larger scheme…a member of a conspiracy against notre chéri!”

“I see…”

Unbeknownst to him he’s prepared to use it all against them when the perfect time strikes

But it’s not wise to underestimate your teachers

Where do you think that urge came from?

“We at Pomefiore value beauty above most, consider it a privilege we want to highlight yours.”

“Though the urge to lock it away is palpable; for my Roi du Poison I’ll stiffle my urges just a tad longer!”

“Don’t expect to get too far from me I’m mo’ than set onya heart.”

“Epel!”

“I know I know, geez.”

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angellesword · 1 year ago

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BAGGAGE l JJK (02)

Summary: Drowning in debt and blood, Jeon Jungkook knows he's better off alone, lest he brings people down with him.

But one drunken night changes everything.

In a blink of an eye, Jungkook found himself drowning not only in debt and blood, but also in dirty diapers and judgmental stares from you, a.k.a his long-lost love and the guardian of the son he didn't even know existed.

Genre and warnings: best friends to lovers, co-parenting, idiots in love, slow burn—really slow burn, mutual pining, angst, fluff, implied smut, kissing, minor character death, slight getting back together, cursing, blood, stabbing, loan sharks, OC cusses excessively so watch out

Pairing: dad! Jungkook x adoptive mom!Reader

Word Count: 2.6k

←Previous Chapter (01) | Next Chapter (03) →

******

Eight Years Ago; 2015

Jungkook couldn’t lie. Life at Port Mafia was exhausting him down to the bones, but he felt an onslaught of energy rush through him when he saw you leaning on your car while waiting for him.

“Oho~ Perfect timing. My best friend is here to pick me up~.” Jungkook said in a sing-song voice as he happily skipped down your car. Unfortunately, you didn’t mirror Jungkook’s glowing mood.

“Yeah, I’m here to save your shitty ass from perishing. Here—” You pushed a paper bag into Jungkook’s chest before opening the passenger’s door and shoving him inside.

Normally, Jungkook whined about how roughly you treated him, but he couldn’t ignore the savory aroma wafting from the paper bag anymore. Jungkook had no time for drama when his stomach was growling this loud.

“Crazy bastard. When was the last time you ate!?” You scowled as soon as he entered the car.

Jungkook ignored your question. His eyes glistened with crystals when he saw a container full of crab spring rolls. His favorite! He happily uttered your name and asked, “Are these for me? Can I eat them all?”

A scoff escaped your lips when Jungkook stuffed five spring rolls in his mouth in one go. His question did not need a response, but you answered anyway: “You’re the only one I know who eats spring rolls like there’s no tomorrow. Of course, you can eat them all. I made them for you.”

“Aw, aren’t you a sweetheart~?” Jungkook licked his fingers before extending his arm to demand, “Now give me a drink.”

Room-temperature bottled water touched Jungkook’s hand.

“Huh?” Jungkook didn’t accept the water and looked at you with confusion. “Why are you giving me this bland drink? I want banana milk!”

“Shut your trap!” You unscrewed the bottle cap and forced Jungkook to drink it. “You don’t eat in time and even refuse to drink water. You really wanna die, huh?”

Jungkook’s lips puckered. He breathed, “I agree on the last part, but you got something wrong. I do drink water! I just prefer it with flavor. Jimin-hyung and I had coffee earlier. Although, it’s too bitter for my liking..”

A pause.

Jungkook shut his mouth when he noticed your frown deepen. There was a limit to his jokes, and Jungkook knew this. You and Jungkook had been friends since you were five. You might curse and beat him, but you cared for Jungkook. You really lived up to being his best friend.

“You haven’t eaten all day, and your precious hyung made you drink coffee? Very good,” you said sarcastically.

Jungkook let out a breath, “Hey, it’s not like that, okay? We were busy at the office all day. You know we’re a start-up business.”

Start-up, my ass. The words died down in your throat. Some things didn’t need to be voiced out for them to be valid. One look at Jungkook, and your chest tightened. The bags under Jungkook’s eyes were deep and black. If you argued now, Jungkook would be more exhausted. You didn’t have the heart to watch your best friend suffer. You just wanted to bring him home.

“Right.” You gulped and leaned closer to Jungkook to help him buckle his seatbelt. The move invaded Jungkook’s personal space. He could feel your hot breath on his neck.

You owned a secondhand car that Jungkook helped you pick. The previous owner said it was fully depreciated, but you thought it worked perfectly fine—except maybe the seatbelt. Jungkook always lost his temper every time he fastened this ridiculous thing.

You had to do it for him.

Normally, it took two seconds or less to fasten one’s seatbelt, but for some reason, you took a long time helping Jungkook buckle up, almost as if you wanted to stay in this position for the rest of your life.

“Take care of yourself, alright?” Click. The seatbelt was locked in place. You straightened your back and drove the car.

Present; 2023

Nostalgia hit Jungkook in the face like torrential rain. As of the moment, you, although allowing Jungkook to sit in the passenger seat of your car, had no intention of getting close to him or whatever.

Jungkook heaved a deep sigh.

It was too cold inside your car. Everything had truly changed. Jungkook often complained about the broken air conditioning of your cheap vehicle back then. However, you were driving a top-of-the-line car now.

The atmosphere was awkward. If someone were to tell Jungkook that he’d one day sit inside your car in silence, he would surely call that person crazy.

There was never a dull moment when he was with you. Currently, the only sound that could be heard was the seatbelt warning signal.

Jungkook hadn’t fastened his seatbelt. It was unknown if he had forgotten about it or lost his mind, thinking he had traveled back to when you still fastened his seatbelt.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen again. The only thing you could do was remind him about it.

“Buckle up,” you clenched his jaw. ‘Buckle up’ was the second thing you had said to Jungkook after many years of not seeing each other. You two were at the facade of The Guild earlier. Jungkook was rooted on the ground for a long time, thinking he had gone insane to imagine you waiting for him just like before.

But when he returned to his senses, you were still standing before him, and then you opened your car door, gesturing for Jungkook to hop in.

Jungkook didn’t know what kind of demon (presumably the greedy one) had possessed him to enter your car.

Blame it on his brain that short-circuited, relying only on what happened years ago. He didn’t even hesitate. He just got the hell in, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

What was unnatural was how he tried to fasten his seatbelt. He was a bit drunk, after all. His brain was working slower than usual. Jungkook buckled up while wearing the thick yellow Ronald McDonald gloves.

It took him seven tries before realizing that he should remove the gloves, but before he could, you had already leaned closer, buckling the seatbelt for him.

So much for not helping Jungkook, huh?

Since you were close, your unfamiliar scent assaulted Jungkook’s nose. Gone was the soft fabric conditioner that usually stained your clothing. It was replaced by something expensive that seduced someone instead of overwhelming their senses.

Jungkook suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. In all honesty, it wasn’t just him. The strong smell of alcohol on Jungkook terrorized you—instantly turning your mood sour.

“You are drunk.” You moved away, focusing on driving once again. Your hand clenched the steering wheel tighter.

Jungkook didn’t speak. He knew how much you hated it when he drank. It brought you pain and memories from the past you’d rather forget.

Jungkook trembled just thinking about those harrowing memories. Meanwhile, despite your apparent anger, you still turned on the car’s heater when you noticed Jungkook shivering; this awakened another memory.

Once, Jungkook couldn’t stop complaining about how hot it was inside your old car, so you, completely crazy over him, brought out a folding fan to help Jungkook cool down.

It was ridiculous and sweet at the same time. Imagine driving with one hand while using the other to fan the annoying person in the passenger seat. Jungkook didn’t have the heart to see you suffer like this, so he snatched the folding fan from you and fanned himself. Besides, it was dangerous.

Looking back, you had always risked many things to make him happy. Jungkook’s heart throbbed at this realization.

So many years had passed, but you still found a way to care about him.

Jungkook found that he couldn’t take it. He wanted to get away right now.

“Where are we going?” He asked. Only now did he realize how stupid he was to get into this car.

You opened your mouth to speak, then closed it again. You wanted to say something but changed your mind at the last minute.

“Where do you live? I will bring you home.”

“No need.” Jungkook turned you down in a heartbeat. Who would have thought you would clench your jaw and disagree?

“You are drunk. I am bringing you home.”

Jungkook inhaled sharply. There must be something wrong with his head when he wished to see you. Your relationship was severed years ago. You two no longer understood each other. Just look at you—even your way of speaking changed. Jungkook’s tooth ached while listening to you talk formally.

But in the end, Jungkook told you the way home—just not his exact address.

“I’ll be okay here. The streets going to my apartment are narrow. Your car won’t be able to get in.” This wasn’t a lie. Jungkook lived in the poorest area of the city. Going there would only burden you, especially because many gangs waited there. They did not appreciate newcomers. Besides, your car was too flashy. You might end up walking home with a stab wound.

Thinking about that ugly scene, Jungkook shivered again. “Seriously. Just drop me off here. I’m not that drunk, okay?”

It was meant to be a reassuring statement, but your face turned ashen upon hearing that. The rims of your eyes even went red.

Jungkook touched on a sensitive topic that made your heart beat like a drum. He expected you to lash out just like before, but contrary to Jungkook’s thoughts, you simply pursed your lips like you were enduring something painful.

And then you finally stopped the car.

“Contact me.” You handed a calling card to Jungkook. The latter hesitated to receive it because for what? Why did you two need to contact each other again?

You sensed his hesitation. Your grip on the calling card constricted. You almost pushed it to Jungkook’s chest.

“Give me yours,” you demanded as if you knew your former best friend would never call you.

Jungkook held his sneer. He didn’t have a business card. Nobody would want them, so what’s the purpose of printing?

“I’ll call you.” Jungkook snatched the business card and hastily opened the door. He got out in the blink of an eye.

You were stunned but didn’t stop him.

“Thank you for the ride. Happy New Year. See you around.” A lie. He would not see you ever again.

It was too embarrassing. Jungkook was not used to feeling his heart beat crazy again. He was an old man now. He couldn’t handle intense emotions.

Seeing you after a long separation opened wounds he thought had already healed.

He fooled himself. He was a clown.

Literally.

Jungkook went straight to the comfort room of his apartment. His system really knew how to cooperate, huh? He was only vomiting now that he was out of your judgmental stares.

But really, could he blame you? Jungkook also looked at his reflection in the mirror, judging his clown self. He wished the brown patches in the mirror could cover it whole.

He didn’t want to see his face—didn’t want to think that he really met you while wearing the Ronald McDonald mascot costume.

Jungkook: “...”

Jungkook punched the mirror.

And then let out an animalistic groan.

Jungkook hated physical pain, but he had a rush of dopamine seeing his hand bleed.

His thought of wanting to die was unleashed. He suppressed his pain and anger for years but couldn’t hold on any longer.

Just for today, Jungkook wanted to let it out. It was New Year, after all. He swore this was the last time he’d cling to his past.

And so he punched the mirror one more time. It hurt. It hurt so much that he wanted to cry or die.

Jungkook collapsed on his bed, breathing heavily.

Breathed in.

A tear fell.

Breathed out.

More tears.

He couldn’t die, so he just cried until he fell asleep.

***

Jungkook was jolted awake the next day by the banging on his apartment door. The sound was piercing, perfectly and annoyingly matching his pounding head.

A groan escaped Jungkook’s lips. He had to drag his heavy body to open the door. His eyes were still bleary from having woken up, and before he could properly look at the person in front of him, a knife had already penetrated his skin.

“Good morning, Jungkook-ah. I’ve come collecting debts~” The person who stabbed Jungkook had a saccharine voice, but the killing intent mixed in it was apparent.

Jungkook touched his aching stomach, unable to pay attention to the intruder. He looked at his hand; two colors were mixed together, giving an illusion of something hopeless and terrifying: reddish-brown, the color of dried blood from punching the mirror last night, and now fresh red blood stained his fingers.

Jungkook had been stabbed and was pushed to the ground before he could groan in pain.

“Why the long face, Jungkook-ah? Aren’t you happy?” The intruder mocked.

Jungkook was familiar with this intruder. He was Lee Sung. This man collected debts on behalf of Jang Min, his master.

“Eh? You’re not answering me? Jungkook-ah, it’s New Year. Where’re your manners? Haven’t you learned anything?” Lee Sung sneered, hauling Jungkook to his feet only to slam him against the wall.

Jungkook cursed internally: Bastard, yes, it’s fucking New Year. Won’t you give me a break!? But as usual, he couldn’t voice out his indignation. He didn’t have the energy and power to do so.

Powerless people had no voice. If there was one thing Jungkook learned in life, it was to act according to what the one in power wanted. It would make his life easy because he didn’t see the point of fighting when he knew he would lose from the start.

“You promised to pay eleven thousand yen for this month’s interest. Where’s the money~?”

Jungkook screwed his eyes shut. He lost track of the amount of interest accumulating in his debt. He didn’t even know how much the principal amount was. How could he remember? He was drowning in debt. Would you care how many times the waves hit you? No, right? You would only think about surviving or grasping for a life jacket.

His current life jacket amounted to nine thousand yen, so that’s exactly what he said.

“I have ₩9000 with me,” Jungkook’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. Cold sweat slid down his spine. “Can I...pay the remaining amount next week? I swear I—”

Lee Sung slashed Jungkook’s exposed collarbone with a knife, possibly to get him to stop bargaining.

“Of course, Jungkook-ah. I’m a generous man, don’t you know?” The lunatic with a weapon slashed another layer of Jungkook’s skin. “But I’m afraid I must cut your skin twice. One for each won you cannot pay today. Seems fair?”

Without waiting for an answer, Lee Sung already hurt Jungkook. The latter didn’t fight back. By the time the intruder was done, he had spat on Jungkook’s face and then pushed him.

The wooden floor creaked as Jungkook’s trembling body fell down.

“See you next week. Prepare the money, or I’ll have to cut your throat the next time we meet.” And then Lee Sung was gone.

Jungkook gritted his teeth, clutching his bleeding stomach. He had to call for an emergency before he lost consciousness. Unfortunately, his phone was on the bed. He struggled to crawl just to reach for his phone.

Perhaps the universe saw how helpless he was that he was granted exceptional luck: he had managed to call for help before his hand lost all power, dropping his phone as darkness clouded his vision.

***

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A/N: Please leave a like or comment if you enjoy reading this fic. It motivates me to write faster. Thank you ~~

#jungkook fluff #jungkook angst #jungkook x reader #ficswithluv #btsjungkook #bts fic #daddy jungkook #jungkook x yn #jungkook x female reader #jungkook x oc #jungkook x you #jungkook friends to lovers #jungkook au #pseudo cheating

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thatskynews · 1 year ago

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OK SO. Lore

Krills reside in Wasteland, the place currently experiencing constant cloud cover.

krill were not there before the cloud cover was there.

Krills also reside near the top of Eden Peak.

in-between wasteland and eden lies vault...

so why havent krills spread to vault?

In the crescent oasis, krills are seen in the final quest. when a storm is raging.

ok so. krill have bad eyesight. they kill creatures of light.

but when the krill try to attack something but realize it has the Krill Juice on it (krill repellent) they fly away. Crabs just so happen to produce Krill Juice. on their bodies.

perhaps crabs (their children) get mistaken for light creatures and get attacked, but the krill's antennae detect the pheromones (krill juice) and divert before any harm can be done.

Crabs have shells, their real bodies are exposed in the bottom thats why they pull their legs in when they get attacked but not flipped and also why they hate being flipped

krills have metal exoskeletons and their real bodies are inside and thats why krill are so clink clonk

So krill are adult crabs. but why dont krill exist in the kingdom before wasteland and eden were engulfed in storm?

ITS SIMPLE

crabs can only fully mature DURING A STORM OF THAT SIZE

THE STORM HAS DIED DOWN THATS WHY ALL THE CRABS IN WASTELAND ARENT KRILLS

crabs: forest, valley, wasteland, vault, eden

krill: wasteland, eden

the crabs are everywhere but the krill are only where there was once/ is a great storm

,... if i was a spirit in sky i would be the Crazy Krillologist

putting my answer under read more as it's long -ymir

Crabs are actually have signs of being native to the realms (see: the passive crabs from Sanctuary, that iirc don't shed darkness), and seem to actively be mostly corrupted by darkness (the crabs from the shard events having active darkness on them, leading them to become hyper aggressive and those passive crabs do not attack players).

Crabs are creatures of the dark, but it is likely from the fact they're suppose to show that darkness has always been in the realms and that before what wiped out the spirits it was very peaceful (mostly). Places like Hidden Forest were darkness mining sites, and it likely made many sickly and polluted the areas leading to the rain being worse. The bells used to call the rain away and to call for the rain likely was used to try and control the dangers of this build up, controlling when spirits would have to take cover most likely.

The description of Prairie's Elder pin also pushes at it being an agricultural center for the Realms, as hinted by its landscape as well. It is VERY likely the bells used also pushed away the pollutants from hitting Prairie as heavily (but it still hit the lower regions, seeing Sanctuary's large darkness plants and pollutants.)

Darkness affects Valley less due how high it is, but it still has gotten hit due to how close it is to the center of the factories. Golden Wastelands was where a good majority of the factories were (and mostly off to the side from the main path, but WERE linked and using pipes to move around darkness), and due to this, it had become highly polluted over time leading to the dangers and likely pushing for new solutions to lead away the creatures that were becoming a problem, as well as internal fights. Wastes HEAVILY hints to it being highly dangerous but made mostly to try and protect Vault from harm and protections against enemies (in some old concept art, there's some old details of other things that was planned originally to be some dangers, but most aren't much a concern to consider due to being scrapped). There's more things about vault that makes me curious, mostly the use of HOW the archival systems work likely using a mixture of darkness that reacts to light to produce energy (which we do see in places like the abyss areas iirc and no longer simply concept art). the use of darkness here likely also caused there to have some spills or leeching to allow darkness to affect any creatures inside as well. The Ghost light creatures inside are their own curiosity to me, but not of concern here too either.

but Eden? oh boy.

Eden obviously has architecture of a very important site to the culture of the spirits at least, and it's also very likely used to be a factory of it's own or at least some sort of possible experimental grounds. (there are hints of other things, but ya know, silly lil things :)!) Eventually the eye is shown to have occurred, and is possibly shown to have started to chip off as well.

why did I write down a good summary of the lore linking towards darkness in general?(skipping over some other seasonal stuff mostly) I think the krills can be from multiple things in origins in reality.

Krills are beings that hunt light, and can still be tricked from covering yourself in darkness. The potions of krill repellent likely use darkness to make it look like it would for their vision of crabs, darkness falling off of them. it's likely made to be far more safe for skykids though.

Krills- or dark dragons, could simply be mantas corrupted, whales as well, etc. They could easily be many species put into one. They're dark creatures caused by the pollution of darkness, typically pushed on by darkness taking over an entire area, suggesting that they're an entity of darkness as a whole. They react the same way dark crystals do as well, turning red and hurting light creatures. They're simply seemingly following the dark crystals and how they react. Blue dark crystals are ones that show that they are not longer active or have reached a neutral state (likely the state they were originally mined at and then refined away from), and the skykid statues you can not help on the path at the end of Eden before the Eye's storm have these blue crystals growing on them that no longer react to skykids and you can't revive these two skykids leading to the chance of them being from the mass explosion of energy of the Eye's start.

Storm clouds are a sign of darkness in Sky, its very likely rain from before was less dangerous. Crabs being thrown FROM the shards could be crabs grown from the darkness or originally in that sacred area that ate up the remaining light left over from light creatures going to be reborn, which could be a point of them simply originally being scavengers of sorts like some real crabs.

Krill horns likely do have their own use most likely than possibly being antennae, I believe personally them being mostly for the advantage of being able to still attack their prey: making it difficult for prey to escape from flying over the head due to the krill's head without the horns being in the way. Krills metallic sounds could also be possibly connected to the darkness within them since darkness is far more solid than fluid (darkness creatures typically having sharper edges or entirely like smoke, compared to light creatures having this fluidity to them even when complex like skykids.)

Dark dragons are a curiosity though, given how they're created either way.

-ymir

#( I was here before the lore was down. I have absorbed so much sky lore for so many years. this is fun tho. miss this stuff -ymir)#(I don't remember most of the lore of most seasons after like abyss to be warned. because I am a silly guy who was burning out -ymir)#(If I get any lore asks and stuff further from this. I am gonna scruff it to my own skyblr for simplicity I suppose -ymir)#(because I don't really want to drown this blog in non-news stuff too much. but yeag. sky-poprocks <- there ya go -ymir)#(I probably have some of the lore mixed up as well.. since.. I've been in skyblr for 4 yrs and used be into the lore ideas-ymir)

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creatchie8 · 6 months ago

Text

Because I keep seeing others post, I really wanna talk about seeing Lewis and Atta Boy in Chicago <3 Also so I can look back and reread and relive how exciting it was lol

First of all, I wanna explain how DEDICATED I was to see this man. I live in a tiny town in Idaho where the local airport takes two flights per day and both of them are directly to and from SLC. So I drove 3 1/2 hours to the biggest airport in Idaho. Then, I hopped on a 1 1/2 hour flight to Seattle where I had a two hour layover then on a 4 1/2 hour flight to Chicago.

I got a bloody nose on the plane to Chicago (then on the way back I got 2 more) :) So much fun.

We waited in a super short line outside for a while and I was hyper analyzing every person who walked past us in hopes it would be a member. The one time I had my head turned a woman walked past me and I was just watching her leave when she turned her head and it was EDEN! I could have died right then, she was gorgeous, seriously the prettiest woman I have seen.

About 10-15 minutes later I saw her walking towards the line (very preoccupied, she was listening to a voice note on her phone) and finally past all the waiting people and into the venue. (Side note, she had her vape in hand and was taking a hit of it as she walked past me-when I texted my friend she was saying how lucky I was to stand in Eden's vape cloud and it made me lol so hard).

When they finally let us into the venue me and my guy beelined it to the stage. I swear some higher power was on our side that day because we got the best spot right to where the drum set was in perfect view.

Me Like Bees was great, I was dancing around to their music and I have plans to add them to my Spotify playlist, their energy was crazy!

The lights went on again as they were taking the MLB stuff down and putting the AB stuff up, Freddy and Dashel were up there helping when this mysterious man brushed up against my guy and walked up the steps to the stage. My guy whispered in my ear, "I think that's Lewis." And all I could do was nod silently.

It felt like I touched a live wire or something, my whole body was buzzing like crazy as we watched him set up his drum set. I think in another life that man was an electrician or something because he was decked out in all Carhart lmao.

Eden sung beautifully, nothing would have ever prepared me for how good she sounded. Like imagine the recorded version but just 1 Million times better. I sung my heart out on Crab Park (best song imo) and teared up when she sang Madly.

I'm going to skip some of these next few parts because it was literally just me watching Lewis go around to the people waiting to talk to him and me admiring how incredibly handsome this guy is (no picture does him justice).

Lewis shook me and my guy's hand and we all introduced each other, all of a sudden my worry went away and talking to Lewis felt like talking to a friend. I told him how my mom loves him in Lessons in Chemistry (which I explained is crazy because she has two comfort shows she likes and she hates new things but seriously is in love with LinC and begs to watch it with me whenever I visit). Lewis thought that was absolutely hilarious and was happy my mom likes it so much.

I then told him that I adore The Starling Girl because his performance was so real and raw and there was absolutely no fluff. I then said something super cheesy like, "Your performance was phenomenal." Lewis told me that he was grateful I loved it so much because he loved working on it. So that made me smile and blush like crazy.

He asked where we were from and I told him about the crazy journey we endured and he seemed legit stunned that someone would travel that far to see him and his band.

We then took a few pics and I was too dumb to remember to give him something to sign so I pulled out a $5 bill and he signed the backside of it. I then asked if I could hug him and he laughed, saying yes if I don't mind that he's all sweaty. Best hug of my life btw.

We then said our farewells and I then proceeded to get so freaked out we left the venue entirely. Looking back now I would have stayed longer and got pics with Eden and some merch so I actually feel really upset about that. And in January of 2023 I got a bull skull tattoo mimicking Rhett's on my calf that I was dying to show Lewis but I forgot. But I am looking forward to the next time I get to see him!!!

#lewis pullman #lewis pullman characters #atta boy band #atta boy #im in love with lewis pullman #lewis<3 #eden brolin #Crab Park is the best song fight me #chicago

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lovezbrownies · 8 months ago

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Mr crabs I have an idea 🕊💡💡✨✨✨ sort of!..

I’m honestly just taking on what the previous anon said about Gen’s darling matching her energy but in a diff way. I’ve been thinking of it in general for some time but how about a yandere darling. BUT hold on. Not a yan.darling who’s crazy for their yandere but for someone else.

as I already see that going around tumblr and not nearly as much as a yandere darling who’s crazy for someone else and will kill the other yandere if they even so much as try to touch them/their darling. And I’m not talking about just crazy but high up in a power scale society wise like maybe the queens descendants like cousins and such. Since strength wise doesn’t compare to status in my eyes tbh

anyways take this as how you’ll like -🌪️ after a days long vacation

oomf... OOMF.. TORNADO OOMF. HOW I MISSED YOU AND YOUR ENLIGHTENMENTS 🙏🙏🙏🙏

oomf actually i was so excited hwne i read this sorry. your genius is one i will never be able to ever reach your level of intelligence oomf... I RLLY RLLY ENJOY THAT IDEA ACTUALLY. It would be so interesting to see the craziest oc of mine (Gen though i never had to clarify) react to their darling themselves being as crazy (but better) for someone else. Gen is crazy, and would be crazier in this scenario.

Youre just like her! just as obsessive, possessive, loving, and carign!!! likeee so obv you should obsess over her right? WRONG. you end up completely in love and obsessed with another lady of the court, a baroness who is unmarried and you know shes unmarried because guess what, you're a fucking royal, a bit low on the heir to the throne chain but a royal nonetheless! and a Chief at that! you have to do something with your life, you're only the queen's cousin nothin special!

As Chief of Noble Affairs, essentially overseeing all the nobles of Xelera, making sure they all do their jobs but also provide them with the materials to do their jobs so and so forth. Which led to you and Gen meeting, you never liked her, had an off feeling from the very beginning and tend to ignore her, an impossible feat as she consistently chases after you and tries to engage in inappropriate behavior whenever you two are alone.

You once reprimanded her at that point, using your power and position against her "Leave me alone Chief Gen, or dare I utter a word of this wonderful behavior to the Queen? Shall I show her how you act around your superiors? Back off and do not approach me from now on." Since then she did actually leave you alone for a while! But Gen did watch over you from afar trying to ensure your safety and other Gen-like acitivites.

Soon she witnesses you falling for a certain Baroness, Lady Naya of Hossenberg. Becoming overly obsessed, trying as hard as you could to make sure that Naya ends up in your embrace, going to so many different lengths so she'd reciprocate. Stalking Naya and bombarding her home with loving gifts and poems, you became insane over this simple woman!

What was so attractive about Naya? Gen is strong and hot, Gen has power, Gen has the titles, and Gen is infamous for her war strategies. And Naya is a girl Gen used to bully when she was younger! Weak and pathetic, and dare Gen try and threaten Naya? Somehow you'd know, and threaten Gen doubled, threatening everything under the sun for her to fear you. How silly, Gen fearing someone else, but she will back off, only because she doesn't want to be beheaded anytime soon. She will get you, one way or another.

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silken-threads-bah · 9 months ago

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hihi! if ur comf with homestuck, could i request a longer template karkat alter? no specifications beyond that, go crazy

Sorry it took so long, college got crazy. Also, I don't know SHIT about homestuck so I just kinda went based off of vibes - K

Name: karkat, kylian, Kasey

Age: ageless (teen presenting)

Pronouns: he/it/they/ze (in that order of preference)

Gender(s): transmasc agender

Orientation: aroflux and gay

Source(s): homestuck

Role: Protector, but doesn't like to be defined by a role.

Personality: he's kind of like those stereotypical mean older brothers in the movies. Think rodrick from diary of a wimpy kid. He swears too much, drinks too much monster, and gatekeeps his favorite bands. He gets along with other edgy teens, oftentimes idolizing their bad decisions and trying desperately to conform to their actions and personalities despite saying he hates conformity. They do have a soft side though, it really enjoys watching kids shows and may find themself forced into tea parties or playing with stuffies with the littles in the system (if applicable). It'll try to say that he hates it, but he actually really likes it.

Interests: doing stick and poke tattoos (I don't recommend this.), learning electric guitar just so he can say he knows how to play, lowkey could get really into sewing and knitting.

Extra info: has a typing quirk, not sure what it is from his source but they still use that.

Likes: crabs (he finds them fascinating), bugs (only because they like to chase people around with them), guitar, monster energy drinks, cosplays

Dislikes: school, authority figures, the government

Emojis/signoff: ♋️🦀

Quirky/silly fact: ze has very sharp teeth and WILL bite. Has also bleached his hair once and patches of it fell out so ze had to get a buzz cut at one time.

Kins: this type of crab, vampires

Appearance: his source appearance, but with the addition of snakebites and gauges in zir ears.

Faceclaims:

The first is by ol1vrrs on X and the second is by idrawos on X

#alter packs #build a headmate #build an alter #plurality #pro endo

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poisonheadcrabsalesman · 9 months ago

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I am asking this only because I am genuinely curious-

You go back in time and somehow you get to change three things about Halo, be that narrative, stylization, or gameplay.

What do you pick?

Oh narrative right away. There's so many timelines we could do and stylization/gameplay has been talked to death already. I like the classic look and when the marines look more like Aliens(1986) rather than modern bootboys, but I also like what they're doing in the newer era. Gameplay is a dead horse and you asked the crab that chooses to suffer through the Halo 4 clunkiness for SpOps on purpose.

Narrative though, what if there was story in out video games. What if they did go Evil Cortana like they planned for CE? What if Halo 5 didn't just end there? What if they committed to telling stories in the universe they built?

ODST is a beloved favorite and does not have Chief in it. Reach showed them that bitches love their OCs and some rando schmucks. I'm the annoying fan who won't show up about Spartan Ops and Infinity Command. There's a fan for every side character. Comics, books, games, mobile games, animation, movies, shows - Halo has had it all and if we just had some more connective tissue or even crazy risks in smaller stories, I feel like we'd be away from the great gameplay/weak story of Halo Infinite (OPINION). Instead of wiping the slate clean and then sitting dead in the water at May 31st 2560 for 3 real world years, we could have the side stories of the Spirit of Fire/Gammas/Wherever the fucking Infinity is/Alpha Nine/ Blue Team/ Arbiter/ etc

TLDR - give me enough time and I will come around/ find positives about any and every halo game, I am cursed to want to replay the campaigns annually. As much as I critique Halo, I love it, I comment because I want more of it because its insane.

Where's Chief? Where is he?

I just want more Halo, if I had the brainpower/time/energy to change the narrative, it'd be posted in my writing tag. I'd finish my Infinite rewrite with Weapon as a baby and connect it to the wider Created Conflict since they handwaved the AI stuff away. #Halostopkillingyourwomenchallenge

#crab text #anon #asks #Thanks for the ask!#sorry you got stream of consciousness. researched and formatted responses take too much out of me nowadays

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rhythmicmeow · 2 years ago

Text

TIMING: Current LOCATION: The Magmacave PARTIES: Cass @magmahearts and Leticia @rhythmicmeow SUMMARY: Leticia follows her nose into Cass's cave. CONTENT WARNINGS: None!

It was one of those days. Energy thrumming under her skin, chaotic and wild, had her scampering through the Magmacave in a way that was a little more nymph than what she usually strove for. There was an anxiousness about her, an unease that clung to her. It was the kind of thing that was only ever made worse by the presence of nonfae, and she hated it. She hated the parts of herself that she shared with the people who’d cast her out and the way they went against the parts of herself she shared with the people whose approval she so desperately craved.

But she couldn’t get rid of it, either. And she couldn’t always fight it. Not when there was someone in her cave without her knowing it, without her inviting them inside.

It felt like an itch running down her spine, like bugs crawling under her skin. Cass didn’t mean to do it; she rarely ever did. It just… happened. The rocks falling from the ceiling, closing off the passage and sealing off the entrance. But once those rocks all fell into place and the itch was scratched, all there was left to feel was…

Embarrassed.

Cass looked out into the entry to the passageway, to the stranger she’d trapped there staring at the rocks in horror. Bad. Bad, bad, bad. This was bad.

But she could fix it, right? She had to.

A little sheepishly, she stepped out of her place in the shadows and observed the rocks as if she hadn’t been the one to put them there. “Whoa,” she breathed. “That’s crazy. Are you, um, are you okay?”

—

Truely, she should have known better. Leticia had been out, forcing herself to get closer to those strange crabs and telling herself that it was so she could spend time with Elias more easily on their future explorations. The closer she got to the crabs, the more she watched them, the more uncomfortable she was. But as she edged away from them on the rocks, she smelled something familiar. And she knew better.

She didn’t bother to resist the temptation. It would help, Leticia told herself. There was a hint of catnip on the wind. A reward, she told herself. Something to take the edge off the fear and bring the balam back to temper. There were a thousand prewritten reasons she had to justify the want. Her mother had always scolded her for the impulse, but Leticia could never find a reason that was worth stopping for. It was relaxing and she was less likely to shift despite unstable emotions. There was no downside.

But there was a rockslide.

Leticia had followed the scent towards warmth. It would have been a perfect pairing if the mouth of the cave didn’t start rumbling as soon as she stepped inside. Stumbling forward into the cave, she braced herself against the rocks and looked at the opening that was decidedly gone. “Oh, fuck me.” She took a step towards the displaced rocks and had been about to touch them before she heard someone shifting behind her.

Jumping, she spun around to see a young woman standing nearby. “Oh.” Leticia cleared her throat and then looked at the rocks again, nodding. “Could have been worse, could have been a cold cave.” A joke that walked around the question. “Uh… do you have service out here?” Even if she could let the balam out here, she couldn’t be sure the spirit would have the strength to free them. And with someone else in here? Off the table entirely.

—

She didn’t seem like a threat. Cass could tell that now, just looking at her. She hadn’t come in here to hurt anything, wasn’t looking to cause problems. She’d just… wandered in. And that made the rockslide all the more embarrassing. Would another nymph have acted so rashly here? Would someone else have let their subtle fear get the best of them so entirely? This woman looked cool and nice and fun and Cass had trapped her in a cave just because she was there. Stupid, stupid oread.

Letting out a little, mostly forced laugh at the statement, she nodded. “Yeah. It’s nice and warm in here.” Cass, of course, ran hot thanks to the magma bubbling under her skin, so she was rarely cold. And the Magmacave followed suit. There was no actual magma within it, but heat rose up from the crevices, came in through the cracks. Cass had never learned enough about what she was to know if she was the cause of that or if she’d unconsciously chosen this cave because it was already like that. She didn’t suppose it mattered much.

“There’s never any service in this part,” she replied, realizing belatedly that the words betrayed the fact that she spent an awful lot of time in this particular cave. Backtracking a little, she added, “But I had some a little ways back. Um, and I came in through a different entrance, so. I know another way out.” None of it was a lie; she had had cell service further back in the cave, both earlier today and throughout her tenure as the cave’s keeper. And she had come in through a different entrance when she’d come home last night. Twisting the truth as a fae was all about the vague details.

—

The scent was still there. No matter how Leticia shifted her posture or where she turned her head, she could still smell a hit of catnip and it was driving her crazy. A different, funnier thought occurred to her: even if she had let the spirit out to attempt to dislodge the fallen rocks, the balam would have likely followed the smell long before she focused on the matter at hand. She wiped at her nose, sniffling as she tried to dispel the scent. But nothing helped. And the warm floor was inviting too, it would have been a perfect place to relax and let the balam stretch.

Her shoulders dipped slightly before her attention returned to the other, the concern about the cave in quickly replaced with a warm smile. Even if Leticia was worried, there was no reason to drag that across to the other. “Never?” She repeated, arching a brow before softening her expression as the other walked it back. Having never been more grateful to not have been a mother in this moment, Leticia barely contained a laugh. “So, you know of another way out?” She allowed the conversation to continue, not bothering to try and poke holes in the previous statement. “Is it… big enough for me, too?”

If there was another way out, there was no reason to be worried, right? Another sniff and she wrinkled her nose. “Is it safe to assume you’ve been down here before?” Or for some time? Leticia almost provided the simple out. But the smell in the air was driving her nuts. “Have you seen any strange plants down here? It’d be like a… mint plant. But not mint. Completely different smell.”

—

The whole town smelled pretty bad right now, but Cass didn’t think the Magmacave smelled worse than the rest of it. So why was this woman wiping at her nose and sniffing like this was her biggest problem? Shouldn’t she be more worried about being trapped in the cave, anyway? Cass found that she was a little offended at the reaction, though she knew it made little sense. It wasn’t really fair to trap someone in a cave and then be upset that their biggest concern seemed to be the smell.

At least she seemed friendly enough. “Since I’ve been here,” she amended, which was still true. It was just that ‘since she’d been here’ was a little longer than the woman might assume. You learned quick, as a fae, to use the assumptions that people made to your advantage. Let them think what they think. You never had to confirm or deny it directly; you just had to say whatever truth would fit their existing vision. “Yeah, I know another way out.” She inspected the woman carefully at the second question, shrugging. “Should be, I think. You’re not very big.” Only a little bigger than Cass, really.

Another sniff. Was she serious? The cave smelled fine! Better than other caves, even, on account of Cass’s scented candles! The oread was about to say something, because it was, like, super rude to go around literally turning your nose up at someone’s home, but the woman spoke before she could. Something about… plants? “I’ve been down here before,” she confirmed, another careful truth. “But, um… Plants? What kind of plant are you looking for? There are a lot down here.”

—

Every reply came off more vague than the last, and Leticia was trying not to crack a smile. It felt familiar, like how she spoke to her parents when she was running around with her friends after school and not wanting to give up all the details. She could only imagine the gray hairs this young woman had given her parents. But whatever the truth was, it was clear she was more versed in this cave formation than Leticia was. One thin sliver lining that she wasn’t blindly trapped.

Looking toward the cave in once more, she frowned again. Had there been any warning? Would the other person know? How many questions could she ask before the girl locked down completely and refused to speak? That’s what kids did, right? Worrying at her lip, she figured she might as well ask. “Did you hear anything before the cave in? Any warning at all?” Had Leticia missed something while following her nose? As distracted as she had been lately, it wouldn’t be surprising if there had been blaring sirens that were warning her about it and she had simply run past them in her search of relief.

Pulling out her phone, she looked through her photos and pulled up one that she had of the plant. It was a cave, so it should be in its natural form. “It looks like this,” Leticia said, showing the other her phone. Pretending the SOS signal in the top right corner didn’t bother her as much as it did. “It’s kind of stinky… but tasty!” Maybe not for the other here, but she didn’t want them thinking she was an absolute nut. “You really don’t smell that?”

—

She was asking about warning signs, and Cass shifted where she stood. How could she play this without admitting that she was the only warning sign in sight? She didn’t want to tell the woman that the cave-in was her doing. It wasn’t fear preventing the confession, though perhaps it should have been. She’d been told that anyone who wasn’t fae must mean her wrong in one way or another, even if she’d never quite believed it. Cass wasn’t afraid of the woman, just as she wasn’t afraid of anyone she met out in the world.

But she was a little embarrassed.

After all, it was becoming clearer and clearer that the woman meant neither her nor the cave any kind of harm, so collapsing the entryway and blocking them off inside had been a bit of an overreaction. “I didn’t hear anything,” she replied, and it was technically true. She hadn’t heard anything because there was nothing to hear. She knew exactly what had caused the cave-in, but that wasn’t what the woman had asked. Answer only the questions placed in front of you. That was how you skirted around the truth when you couldn’t lie.

Leaning forward a little, she looked at the woman’s phone. She was glad for a change in subject, at least. “Oh!” She recognized the plant. “Yeah, I know where that grows. You eat it?” She wrinkled her nose a little bit, amused but a little grossed out. Who ate catnip other than, like, cats? That was totally weird. “No, I don’t smell it. Am I supposed to? I don’t think it smells that strong.”

—

“Well,” Leticia shrugged half-heartedly. “Shit happens, I guess.” There was no reason to think about it further, at least not to Leticia. She had been worried that it had been loose rocks outside that she had disturbed on the way inside, or that there had been some other kind of sign that she could have heard or seen before it all came down.

There was a moment of horror that Leticia hoped that the other didn’t notice when they looked disgusted at the plant. She had hoped by showing what it looked like when it was growing that they wouldn't know that it was catnip. But luck was once again against her. First the cave-in, and now some teenager(?) looking at her like she was out of her mind.

Pulling her phone back, Leticia pressed the screen to her shoulder and pulled a face. “Hey. I don’t need your judgment. We’re both hanging out in a cave, I don’t think you have a lot of room to talk here either.” It was more hostile than Letiica intended, but she was feeling a lot of unwarranted judgment. “I’ve always smelled it.” Which was the truth, but she had no idea if human noses worked the same way as hers. Most of them stumbled around in the dark and they rarely picked up the scents she did, but catnip smelt so distinct and good — how could she not smell it too? “And it’s better fresh… does it grow in here?”

—

The woman didn’t seem too concerned about her current situation, and Cass felt a profound relief at that. If she wasn’t asking questions, it meant Cass wouldn’t have to keep finding ways to dance around the truth. It always made her feel a little guilty doing that, especially when someone was nice. And this woman did seem nice.

“Oh, no, I wasn’t —- I didn’t mean to judge you.” It was stupid, the way panic clawed at her throat at that. She didn’t even know this woman, and she still needed, desperately, for her to like her. How pathetic was she that she couldn’t stand the thought of a complete stranger thinking she was rude or strange or otherwise undesirable? “I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s weird or anything.” The lie tasted like acid in her throat, but she still liked it better than the taste of rejection that it was replacing.

It was also strange that this woman could smell the catnip, because no one had ever mentioned it before. But maybe it was one of those silly things that humans didn’t often talk about; maybe they all went around smelling plants and just didn’t say anything because they thought it was obvious. Cass carefully filed this thought away into her ‘potential human facts’ database. “It grows here,” she confirmed with a nod. “Do you, um… Do you want me to show you?” Maybe that would undo the bad first impression she’d given the woman by commenting on the ‘eating catnip’ thing, or make up for the cave-in that the stranger had no idea was her fault. “You could take it with you, if you want.” Even if the thought of letting someone take something from her cave made her feel nauseous.

—

She was being polite, wasn’t she? It wasn’t the same manner as what people did back when she was in New York, trying to manipulate her into working with them — this was a different kind of polite. And Leticia wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it. Calling it out felt wrong considering how young the other looked, but there was no part of her that believed that she hadn’t been judged. But part of that was her own fault. She should have just said she needed it for the cats she didn’t have, or use the same lame excuse about making tea to sleep.

“It’s okay,” Leticia said with a shrug. “It’s a weird thing to eat.” For humans, at least. “But it does have some benefits — don’t knock it until you try it.” A poor cover, but there were some benefits. According to doctor Google at least. And thankfully there was hardly any internet in the cave so there was no way for her to Google it and find out how far she had to scroll to dig up that one fact. It had been a few pages deep, the guy who had asked her last time didn’t question it. So, with any luck, this would just be a random fact no one would care about later.

“You seem to know a lot about these caves,” Leticia finally voiced her suspicions. Not directly enough to demand an answer. “Well, if you’re going to show me around, we should probably exchange names. I’m Leticia. More into music than cave diving but…” She shrugged. She had talked about doing that very thing with one of her friends, but true cave diving took a lot of resources. And effort. And closing your eyes and pretending there was no real danger.

—

“I’ll try it,” Cass said, maybe a little too quickly. She’d eat stupid catnip if it meant this woman might like her. It wasn’t as if it would hurt her; at least, she didn’t think it would. Catnip clearly didn’t hurt humans, if this woman ate it, and she couldn’t think of any reason why it might hurt oreads. Her weaknesses were all tied to things that could hurt stone. Catnip didn’t make the list, as far as she was aware.

She shifted a little at the suspicious tone the woman’s voice seemed to take. Was she upset enough about the catnip to dig into the reasons behind Cass’s presence in the cave? Or was she willing to let it go? Desperately, Cass hoped for the latter. “I hang out here sometimes.” Again, not technically a lie. She was good at that, at saying things that weren’t lies but weren’t the whole truth, either. And that was a good thing. Cass wasn’t good at hiding the adverse effects that came with lying.

Exchange names. That was a dangerous phrasing, wasn’t it? Leticia was a pretty name, but Cass liked hers too much to ‘exchange’ it. “No,” she said quickly, “we should not exchange names. You keep yours and I’ll keep mine. But I can tell you what mine is. It’s Cass.” A little clunky, maybe, but better than having to figure out how to reverse an exchange of names. That would definitely out her; the response to the offer of an exchange didn’t necessarily. Deciding a quick pivot in subject matter was necessary, she jumped on to the next thing Leticia had said. “What kind of music are you into?”

—

There was a moment of pause where Leticia was scrambling for a reason that she shouldn’t eat the catnip along with her, but any reason she had would have negated everything she had said up until this point. They weren’t lies, Leticia reminded herself, but there was still some strain on the idea that she might reveal herself to be a bigger freak than she was if this got out. “I’ll make you some tea, if you’d like!” Shit.

“There was a place like this back home, it got closed off though. Too many people were getting… well,” Leticia waved to the walls around them that had just come down. “Someone got trapped and it was flagged as too dangerous. But it was so pretty. Dinosaur caves, they called it. Carved out by the waves of the ocean.” Thinking of home came with a hint of sadness. Places that she’d never see again. This cave was nice, but it wasn’t the same. “This happen before?” Dangerously close to telling the other that maybe this might not be the best hang out spot if she could get hurt. Especially if the wall came down without warning.

The phrasing was suspicious, Leticia couldn’t pretend that it didn’t pull away the innocent child image that she had in her mind. Then again, it could just be a kid who had dealt with the fae before. She chose to ignore it. It was for the best. Probably. Cass jumped on the music subject and Letiica was all too happy to talk about it. “Rock, mostly. Though lately it’s been ABBA. Think the entire town is on a kick actually,” she said, thinking about the upwards of fifty requests she had for Dancing Queen. “And Taylor Swift, guilty pleasure that I get a lot of shit for but eh.” She shrugged, following Cass through the cave, feeling strange as they moved. This wasn’t her element. (Maybe cave diving wasn’t for her at all.)

—

Cass was, frankly, so excited about the prospect of someone making tea for her that she didn’t even care that it was going to be catnip tea. She didn’t even particularly like tea, but the idea of someone else going through the trouble to prepare it for her was so intoxicating that she’d drink as much of it as she was allowed anyway. “Really? You’ll make me tea? You promise?” It was a silly thing to bind someone over. Cass had never wanted to bind anyone more.

“Really?” The interest was clear in her tone, fascination. It was unsurprising that the cave Leticia was referring to had been deemed ‘too dangerous’ for the general public. Most humans, Cass had found, had a tendency to overestimate their abilities when it came to spelunking. It was why there were a few scattered piles of bones in the Magmacave, why Cass sometimes had to forcibly turn people around to keep from adding to the piles. Humans were silly sometimes; they saw things out in nature, and they assumed that those things were there for them. It was never true. Nature existed only for itself. Caves weren’t for exploring. “A cave in?” She thought of the day with Leila and the others, the creature that had clawed its way through the cracks. “I’ve seen it before, yes.”

There was something kind of funny about a fan of rock music stumbling upon an oread’s cave. Part of Cass wanted desperately to make a pun of some kind or another, but she didn’t want to out herself. Leticia seemed nice, and sometimes nice people were wary of fae. If she knew Cass was one, she might take back her offer to make tea, or realize that the cave in hadn’t just been nature doing what nature did. Cass didn’t want that. “I don’t think you should feel guilty for liking things,” she replied with a shrug. “Like what you like. Forget what other people say. Right?” It was something one of the many people she’d tried clinging to throughout her years of travel had said once, and it had stuck with her far longer than the person who’d said it had. “Do you just listen to music? Or do you ever play it? I always wanted to learn an instrument.”

—

It was a strange thing to ask for a promise over, so, Leticia figured it had to be harmless. As skittish as she had thought Cass had been in the moments earlier, this proved to her she was just some kid that happened to have a knack for getting into trouble. Nothing dangerous. “Sure, I promise. I’ll make you some tea.” Though she hoped at as soon as they parted ways, Cass forgot all about everything catnip related. (She had no idea if catnip tea was actually any good, too. Which would be an unfortunate surprise for later.)

Leticia nodded her head. “Yeah, didn’t stop people from trying, of course.” Nothing stopped kids from doing anything. Leticia had been one of those very kids herself when she was younger. Funny how age had made her more cautious. “They have a staircase that is built on the side of a bluff to the beach below so you can get a better view of it. One of the most beautiful spots in California.” Her head tipped to the side at Cass’s comment. “Are they frequent here?” Maybe getting out should be the first priority.

Cass was had a point, one that she had shared with others before but like most things, didn’t apply to herself. “Yeah.” But she didn’t look at Cass when she spoke this time. Not wanting to know if the other could see right through her quiet agreement and see someone who was constantly ready to support others, but refused it for herself. Leticia, this time, was happy for the change in subject. “I play - well, I played. Started with guitar but made the shift to vocals.” And then made the shift to nothing. “What stopped you from trying it out?”

—

Pleased with herself, Cass bound Leticia to the promise in spite of the fact that it was largely simple and the fact that she wasn’t sure she even wanted catnip tea. There was something deeper to it, after all; in order to make her tea, Leticia would have to see her again. She might not be able to bind Leticia into a promise as bold as friendship right off the bat, but they could get there one bind at a time. Start with tea, go from there. Friendship was supposed to be a whole process, anyway.

“People are kind of dumb,” Cass replied with a shrug. She knew that, even if she liked people. At the mention of a staircase built into the side of a bluff, she bristled a little. The idea of someone damaging a rock structure in order to make it easier for humans to take in the view made her feel wrong, like something was crawling on her skin. Maybe it came with knowing that, if someone did something like that to her cave, it would hurt her. Had someone like her been hurt — or worse — by the decision to put those stairs in? The thought made her feel a little nauseous. “They should have just let people risk the climb the way it was. Putting in stairs was stupid.” No matter how pretty the view was. “They only happen sometimes.” Cass had never seen a cave-in here that she hadn’t been the unintentional cause of, and she wasn’t looking to cause another now that she’d decided Leticia was more friend than foe, but she wasn’t ready to say that just yet.

Guitar? She thought of the instrument she’d seen in Van’s house, of the music they’d listened to when they’d played cards. “I like the guitar. It sounds pretty, you know? And it fits into a lot of different songs. Not every instrument can do that. I bet you’re a good singer, though.” She seemed like she would be, based on nothing but Cass’s personal vibes. Shrugging, she looked down at her feet as she walked, leading Leticia through the cave. “I moved around a lot. It was hard to carry a lot of stuff with me, so I couldn’t carry an instrument.” And when you were living on the streets, there were other things to worry about. “I always thought maybe I’d learn the ukelele one day. But I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t be very good at it.”

—

There was something strange about the way that Cass spoke about the stairs in the cliff that reminded her of Teagan and the protectiveness she had for the lake. There was something nice about that trait being in a human too. Maybe if more of the kids were like her, there could be some friendships across the lines. She didn’t know how to tell her that there was beach access about a mile away, people just put in the stairs to avoid the long walk. Leticia put her hands in her pockets, and decided not to tell her. It was easier to stomach the destruction of mankind, not the laziness of it.

“Stable then, usually? Even with all the weird shit with the mines?” She was surprised. And considerably unlucky considering one of the few cave-ins had happened around her. There was a black cat joke in there somewhere. And considering her most recent luck, she wasn’t about to look directly at what might be the common denominator here.

“Guitar and piano are the best if you’re going to use just one instrument to create a full song.” Most everything could be played on either, but as much love as Leticia had for the craft, it would take a lot of convincing for her to take the drums and bass out of her music. Part of her was ready to talk Cass’s ear off about music and share everything she knew with her just for the one compliment, but she had already promised her tea. And maybe simple compliments that weren’t based on anything the other actually knew about her shouldn’t pull her in that direction. “Oh.” The single word slipped out and immediately, Leticia was looking at the ground too, ashamed that that was how she responded. “Do you still want to learn? I don’t have a ukulele at the shop, but I’ve got some used guitars.” Shrugging, Leticia continued to follow Cass, occasionally bracing herself against the cave wall. “There’s a say about that, actually. Sucking at something is the first step at being kinda good at something.” Her father had always been good at this, inspiring others to pick up an instrument or pull them out of their shells. Leticia had been good at listening. Not so much at pushing.

—

“Probably not as stable as it was before the mining accident,” Cass replied, “but I wasn’t here as much then.” She could feel the scars from it, though, could feel them in the ground of her cave as intimately as she would have felt them in her own skin. And that made her angry, too, in that familiar ‘nymph’ kind of way that she hated to feel. What right did people have to dig around under the ground for pieces of the Earth that they had decided were valuable? What made them think they were allowed? Part of her wanted to stop it, somehow, but she knew it wasn’t really in the cards. She was one nymph, small and lonely and a little afraid, and she didn’t want to hurt anyone. She never really had.

It was easier said than done, some days. She still had those instincts, the ones that came with the magma glowing under her skin or the rocks that rested on top of it. Cass might not have been a particularly good nymph, but she was still a nymph. She did still harbor those age old instincts that told her to do anything she had to do to protect her domain. They were hard to quell, sometimes.

But she tried anyway. She led Leticia through the cave, she pretended she wasn’t the reason the opening the other woman had come through was gone now. “Have you ever written a song? You sound like you know what you’re talking about.” It wasn’t the words, really; it was the tone. The confidence, the way she said it without a hint of doubt. Turning around, she blinked. It sounded like an offer. “Do you think you could teach me?” If she learned the guitar, maybe it would give her one more thing to talk to Van about. They could play music together, and Cass would be harder to forget. Maybe other people would be interested in hearing her play it, too; Nora might like it. Or Metzli, or Thea, or even Ren. “Did you ever suck?”

—

“Makes sense, yeah.” Leticia didn’t know much about caves or the systems or much of anything when it came to the landscape. This had never been her domain. The balam didn’t care much for the underground, preferring the shade and brush that came with the forests. It felt more natural to run through that then through a dark system below the surface. This, of course, wasn’t as deep as most systems would go, but this was deep enough that it wasn’t natural for her. “What drew you here of all the places in town? It’s not exactly… central.”

The further they went in, the less Leticia felt like they were finding an exit. She doubted that Cass was misleading her, but the balam was starting to stir. And how far would they have to go before the light started to bleed through the cracks? She inhaled deeply, deciding not to say anything, not wanting to put any more pressure on Cass than there already was. (She was just a kid but she moved with such confidence in the dark confines of the cave, there was no reason to worry, was there?)

“Huh?” It was a natural question when it came to discussing music, but Leticia always tripped over it in this town. “I, uh…” She scratched the back of her head, not wanting to lie to Cass but also not quite ready to show all of her cards. Mateo had told her she didn’t have to go back on stage to still be the person she was before, but she still felt strange claiming that fame when she was here now. It felt like a distant life. “Wrote a few, yeah,” she decided to admit. “I spent about 12 years in the music industry. So, yeah, I know a few things.” Stopping in her tracks when Cass turned towards her, Leticia offered a warm smile. “Only if you’re willing to work through the sort of sucking first part.” Bobbing her head to the side, Leticia eventually nodded. “Yeah. Music. I was all thumbs when I started. I could figure out how to match a note but carry a tune continuously? Nah, that came with practice. Lots of it.”

—

Cass hummed at the question. Even for a fae, honesty was never the only option. You could mislead, you could withhold. Cass had gotten pretty good at it, over the years, knew how to say things that were true without answering the questions asked of her. But she didn’t see a reason to twist the truth here, so she only shrugged. “It’s near the mineral abnormality,” she replied. “I think it’s really cool.”

She continued leading Leticia through the cave, kicking her feet as she walked like a kid going on some great imaginary adventure on a playground. The exit wasn’t far, though getting to it did require them to venture further underground. But, at the moment, the exit wasn’t what Cass was leading Leti to; she’d said she wanted catnip. Cass knew where the catnip was. She didn’t communicate this. To her, it was obvious. It slipped her mind that, to Leticia, it probably wasn’t.

“Really? Anything I would know? That’s so cool.” Though she was more interested in visual media than she was in music, Cass was pretty familiar with the latter. There was music in shows, after all, soundtracks in movies. She wondered if any of the songs Leticia spoke had ever featured in either. The idea of it felt incredibly exciting. “I can work through that,” she said eagerly. “I can definitely work through that. Are thumbs a bad thing to have?” It was a little comforting, knowing that Leticia had sucked once, too. Cass hadn’t heard her play to know that she was better now, of course, but if she’d spent fifteen years in the industry, odds were she knew what she was doing. Slowing to a stop, Cass pointed to the ground. “Tada!” She announced, kneeling down to the catnip growing on the floor of the cave beneath a patch of sunlight streaming in through a crack far above. “See?”

—

That was fair, considering that Leticia’s first instinct was to want to explore the mines the second she was settled into town. It wasn’t strange to her in the slightest that other people might want to do the same. She wondered, absently, if Cass went to the local college or not—how passionate was she about these things? But she didn’t ask. Feeling as though she was already intruding enough on the young woman’s life, she didn’t need an adult needlessly prying further.

Part of her wanted to say it outright, that yes she would have heard her music if she ever listened to the radio or if she had ever heard the Avengers soundtrack from the original movie—but part of her didn’t want to tell this kid anything. This time, not for the sake of keeping her identity secret, but because she knew that kids had a lot of opinions on music. And Cass seemed… nice. What if Cass’s opinion of her changed once she realized who she was? What if she hated her music?

“Maybe,” Leticia decided on a middle ground. “Depends on what genre you listen to a lot. I was mostly in rock circles.” And now she was surrounded by rocks. Another thing that Leticia tried not to laugh about. “Thumbs aren’t a bad thing to have, as long as you have the usual amount. But like… say you want to do something delicate? You wouldn’t want to use your thumb, you’d likely pick a different finger for delicate work because you have more control over it,” she tried to explain. The smell got stronger before the single stream of light appeared in the otherwise dark cave, it was landing on a single crack in the cave, just enough to disturb the otherwise hard ground to reveal a patch of dirt. Leticia knelt down and touched the leaves, but didn’t pull any. “I feel kinda… bad,” she admitted, looking up at the light. How hard did the plant have to fight to grow here of all places?

—

When Cass had first started venturing into the world of humans and heard that there was something called rock music, she’d been understandably excited. She’d wanted so badly to learn about the world, to fit into it, and the idea that there was an entire genre of music based around a subject that she arguably knew more about than most people could ever hope to achieve had felt like a sign that she could belong. Of course, the music wasn’t quite what she’d been expecting. There was little to do with actual rocks in the sound of it, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been a little disappointed as a result. But… it was still nice.

“I like rock music,” she said, glancing back to Leticia. “You should sing one, so I can tell if I know it. It’ll sound good in here. My friend says caves have good acoustics.” She liked the way the words didn’t come with the usual nausea that accompanied a lie, the way the lack of it meant that friend was the right word to use to refer to Van, at least to her. Believing something hard enough could often allow you to get away with saying it consequence-free even if it was a lie, but even just genuinely believing that she and Van were friends felt good.

Looking down at her thumbs, Cass bent them thoughtfully. “I guess that makes sense,” she agreed, putting them back to her side and hooking them through her belt loops as they stopped in front of the small beam of light. She leaned forward as Leticia admitted that she’d feel bad uprooting the plant, a feeling of respect flooding through her. “There’s more at the entrance,” she offered. “We could go there instead, and you could get some of that.” She seemed to really want the catnip, but Cass would prefer if it wasn’t taken from the cave, too.

—

“You know, I never have sung in a cave before.” Most of the places she sang when she was under contract had been larger—not that this didn’t have some beauty to it, but it wouldn’t hold as many attendees. It hadn’t mattered how pretty a location was or how badly Leticia wanted to visit, if the location didn’t have a number that was just as pretty to her manager, it was simply a no. “Maybe next time,” she offered. “Not sure how well I’d do acapella. It’s been a minute.” Though her heart was begging her to. “Besides, what if the cave disagrees and we encounter more falling rocks?”

The friend playing music inside the cave though… There was a worry that was building that Leticia hid under her smile now. It had started out small, a vague picture of Cass in a cave and just happening to be here and exploring it sometimes. To another person added into the picture, coupled with her knowledge of the cave systems with dexterity that she would have expected from someone who studied this place more than just briefly.

“It’ll make more sense once you start playing.” She stood up from her crouched position and leaned against the wall of the cave for a moment, looking up at the small gap that had allowed the light in. There was something poetic about it, something beautiful fighting for a chance of survival inside a place it was not meant to exist. Though, beauty might have been debated, it was beautiful to her. Disappointed, but satisfied in her own answer, Leticia nodded her head before looking at Cass again, with a new spark in her eyes. “There’s more?” Too excited, Leticia cleared her throat and then straightened up. “I mean, it’d just be a real shame, you know? It’s in very pretty lighting here.”

—

“Really? They have venues, you know, in caves. Down south in some places, I think. But… I bet it’d be more fun like this. Somewhere where you don’t have to do it for anyone but you, right?” That was when most things felt the best, though Cass rarely let herself have such experiences. So much of her life had seen her existing for other people. Cutting herself into pieces so she could fit into whatever box might see her loved. But she was learning that there was some beauty in being you, too. She thought of Nora, who was always so unapologetically herself, who saw Cass as she was and liked her anyway. That felt better than being loved for being someone else. Maybe Leticia thought so, too. “I think the cave will love you if you’re kind to it.” Caves usually did. Before coming to Wicked’s Rest, they’d been the only ones who’d ever liked Cass for Cass.

And the cave would like Leticia, she decided, because Cass liked Leticia. The way she looked at the plant with such excitement and wonder, but refused to disturb it, the way she wanted to sing, the way she said she could help Cass learn the guitar. Leticia was kind, and kind people deserved to be rewarded for that kindness.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “it’d be a shame. The stuff at the entrance is probably better for tea, anyway. Come on. I’ll show you.”

#wickedswriting #char: cass #cass: catnip and cave-ins

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