#they had a bunch of fall fish and blue gills

[mountainmasc]

[scarred-but-still-smiling]

stress+iskall, awe and swimming, good luck >:)

"Iskall?"

Iskall knew the voice he just heard very well; looking up from where he was untangling his fishing net, sure enough he could see the friendly mermaid who called herself Stressmonster that he had befriended a couple of months ago, her full figure bobbing at the surface of the cool waters, lacy top made from discarded netting that she had unravelled and rewoven into a garment clinging to her skin above the water.

"Oh, hallo Stress!" he said cheerfully, "can I help you?"

"I guess?" she ventured, "actually I wanna show you something."

Iskall raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "Stress, the last time you said you wanted to 'show me something' you took me to a sunken ship full of corpses that gave me nightmares for a week."

The mermaid's eyes went wide, "Oh! It's nothing like that this time, I promise!" She paused, "at least I've not found any corpses yet."

Iskall rolled his eyes and laughed, "okay, okay, you've convinced me. How far is it? Am I gonna need my boat or can we just swim it?"

Stress tilted her head thoughtfully, "I think you'll be okay? Even if you're not, though, it's a bit too far down for you to be able to secure the boat to anything anyway."

He shook his head, "well I've had a busy day today so I'm not gonna be up for a bunch of swimming right now, so how about tomorrow? Gotta get ol' Bertha patched up anyway so my whole day is free."

Stress leapt out of the water with a trill of excitement, the scales of her light pink tail glinting in the evening sun as she splashed back down. "Oh that's great! You're gonna love it Iskall, it's absolutely gorgeous. I'll see you tomorrow at noon okay?"

The next day arrived, and Iskall arrived at the docks half an hour early, checking that his swimming hand was attached to his prosthetic arm properly so it didn't fall off in the middle of the ocean; a replacement wouldn't be cheap so he really couldn't afford to lose it.

To his surprise, Stress was already there, swimming in circles in a way that he likened to pacing in a person with legs.

"Well someone's excited," he teased, sitting on the edge of the docks and slipping into the water. "You remembered the potions this time, right?" She hadn't last time, and he'd had to wait almost an hour for her to go get them.

Stress gave him a friendly punch in the arm, "of course I did you plonker, here."

Iskall took the conch shell she held out to him and pulled out the stopper, glancing at the opalescent blue liquid inside before gulping it down. The feeling was a familiar one, the thick, salty potion coating the inside of his throat and the coldness that spread to the outside of his neck as the gills formed. He quickly dove underwater and took a deep breath, feeling the water pass through the sides of his neck would never not feel weird, but he was just happy to be able to breathe.

Stress spun excitedly and started to swim away, "come on, come on, let's go!"

Iskall laughed and swam after her, her energy was like nothing he had ever met in his little fishing town; no one else had that kind of a zest for life outside of the small children who were too young to know about the horrors of responsibilities yet, so it was very refreshing to meet someone his own age with that kind of eagerness.

They swam for a while, around half an hour going by how many times he needed to surface to drink a new potion, when the ocean floor beneath them suddenly plunged into darkness.

"Uhh, Stress? You did remember the—"

Stress cut him off, holding out another, different coloured, conch. "Yes I remembered the night vision potions. It's just down there, hurry up let's go."

As soon as Iskall took the shell from her she dived down, and Iskall smiled as he drank it, feeling his pupils dilate and a film of air form over his eyes to clear his vision.

He quickly dived after his friend before the surface light gave him a migraine, and as he dove deeper and deeper, something began to come into view.

It looked like a town.

Stress swam up to meet him, grinning like a loon at the look on his face. "Come on!" She insisted, tugging on his flesh arm, "It gets so much cooler."

They dove even deeper together, closer to the rooftops of the sunken settlement. Thanks to the potion, Iskall could make out colours, and he recognised the colour of the roof shingles as being identical to the ones his town used on the surface.

Even deeper, and they had reached street level; the paint on the signs of the shops had long since faded, but just from the design of the front of the buildings, Iskall could tell these were shops.

Swimming inside one of them, pushing through the hanging open door, Iskall could tell that this used to be a cobbler's; the distinct shape of the shelves to accommodate displaying shoes, the anvil covered in barnacles behind the counter, the half rotten remains of leather shoes floating around near the ceiling.

He went back outside to where Stress was waiting for him, swimming past her to a shop on the other side of the street, the rusted remains of a large oven in the back of the room telling him this was a bakery.

"What... what is this place?"

Stress shrugged, "I dunno, this ain't the coolest bit though, follow me."

Iskall did just that, barely noticing the directions they were going in. The place was so still, so silent. Like a world frozen in time.

"Here we are!"

Iskall swam directly into Stress' back, too lost in thought and awe to notice she'd stopped. Looking up he saw what she meant when he'd not seen the coolest bit yet;

In front of them was a grand building, all pillars and domed roof, like a bank from the capital city.

"Welcome to the town hall," Stress said gleefully, "or as I call it, Stressmonster's clubhouse!"

Iskall was breathless, but not only in awe; his chest was tight, and his head was beginning to pound. His eyes widened and he frantically gestured to his throat, trying to tell the mermaid he needed another water breathing potion.

"Oh crap, sorry about that!" A hand plunged inside her bag and came back out with another potion which Iskall gratefully sucked down, relief washing over him as oxygen once again filled his bloodstream.

Once she saw Iskall's expression return to normal, she grinned again, "anyway, come on, let me show you around!"

Led by the arm again, Iskall followed Stress inside, and was amazed to see beautifully, deliberately, preserved furniture in exactly the places you'd expect from a building above water.

Passing through the lobby, Stress led him through offices that were now filled with various trinkets that she had obviously scavenged from things that had fallen overboard from boats over the years, to what was probably once an employee kitchen of sorts that she had turned into her potion brewing room.

Stress took a shell out of one of the brewing stands, "you still good on your dark vision?"

Iskall made some quick calculations in his head, "yes, but I think I'm due to run out any minute now."

"Okay cool, have this then" she tossed him the shell of potion and watched as he drank it. "Right then! It's time for the main event," she took his hand again and led him out of a doorway and back into the lobby, up to a large doorway. "Presenting! The main rotunda!!"

Stress pulled him through into a colossal room at the heart of the building, the one with the domed ceiling. All around, Iskall could see, hand crafted, all sorts of furniture you'd typically find in a home; a bed, comfy chairs, rugs that she had clearly woven in a similar manner to her top.

Moving his gaze upwards to follow Stress, Iskall looked up into the domed ceiling, and gasped.

He swam up with her, and marvelled at what he saw;

Artwork.

The water was still in here, but whatever art had been there before the ocean claimed this town had long since been eaten by the salt of the water it slept in, and in its place were countless pictures, painted in what he almost immediately recognised as the same paints used to colour the hulls of ships.

"Stress, this is... this is gorgeous. It's... you did this, right? It's just gorgeous!"

And as Stress spun in a circle, making noises of delight, Iskall noticed that the paintings weren't the only piece of art in the room.

[delimeful]

neither calm nor quiet

BTHB: Trapped In A Net

warnings: miscommunication, past familial and domestic abuse mentions, injury, violence, terrible decision making skills

-

When Virgil finally decided to brave shallower waters, it had already been nearly half a moon cycle since Logan had vanished.

He’d made excuses at first, telling himself that the dread he felt was just his normal brand of overwrought paranoia. For the first few days, he was half-convinced that his curiosity-prone friend would appear at any moment, probably lugging some sort of stray litter or ‘interesting human artifact’ along with him to explain why he’d been late.

Things would be normal again. Virgil would find some rocks for them to sun on and Logan would ramble on about the potential uses of his find, and maybe Virgil would teasingly suggest some outlandish way the trash was secretly a violent human weapon, just to hear Logan thoroughly refute it.

After another three days passed with no sign of the other selkie, Virgil was forced to let that fantasy fade. Logan had never been this late before, not even that time he’d managed to carry an entire minifridge along with him for Virgil to identify.

Something had to have happened to him.

He’d spent the next week scouring the currents for any sign of his missing friend, even approaching other pods and asking around, requesting that they keep an eye out for any signs of Logan. He didn’t expect much from that; the two of them didn’t socialize with other selkies often enough to make any friends, and their two-person pod was too small to spare any food during winter, so there was nothing for the other pods to gain by helping them.

Virgil knew better than most how selfish pod politics could be.

Every few days, he would return to their meeting spot and catch a few hours of sleep to keep himself from crashing, always naively hoping that Logan would be there when he woke. He never was.

In the end, he had to face what he’d already known from the beginning: either Logan was dead, or he’d gone onland and gotten himself bound by a human.

He didn’t want to believe Logan had decided to brave the human world even after Virgil’s many, many warnings against it, but believing the alternative was even worse. So, he steeled himself to do the one thing he’d sworn to never do again, and headed for the cold, rocky shores of the nearest human settlement.

Naturally, he spent so long swimming back and forth between different stretches of beach, trying to force himself to take those literal first steps, that he didn’t notice the woven fibers dancing in the water until he’d plowed right into them.

A fishing net, dyed skillfully to blend in with the water, and large enough that when he tried to twist out of it, he only became further entangled.

Panic set in, then, clouding his mind and leaving him thrashing ineffectively like a simple animal. He couldn’t help it-- he couldn’t breathe underwater in either form, had no gills to keep him steady as he was dragged along by the current. He couldn’t untangle himself while adrift, couldn’t find solid ground while tangled. He would drown.

Between one blink and the next, he found himself in open air, gritty sand pressed against his face. Waves crested gently around him, a sharp contrast to the headache pounding around in his skull.

He never thought he’d be relieved about blacking out and beaching himself, but then, he’d never been worried about drowning in his own element before.

Okay. There weren’t any humans around to see the stupid idiot seal stuck on the beach. This was still salvageable.

Taking a deep breath, he attempted to bite through the netting with his incisors, and got a mouthful of sore gums for his trouble. The dyed fibers seemed to be woven around a base net of fishing wire, because of course they were. He let his head thunk back to the sandy ground, groaning at the new surge of pain the motion caused.

Sun-warmed saltwater continued to wash over his tail, and he blinked slowly, measuring his breaths. He could figure this out. He wouldn’t dry out. He just needed a moment to put himself back together. He could… He…

His eyelids grew heavy, and everything went dark.

-

Roman thought the guy was a pile of garbage at first, to be quite honest.

Not on purpose, of course! But, come on, when one sees a mound of mystery washed up on shore, it generally ends up being a bunch of tangled old fishing nets wrapped around half-rotted driftwood, not a bunch of tangled old fishing nets wrapped around beautiful strangers wearing expensive-looking fur coats!

His next thought, once he’d gotten closer, was that the beautiful stranger wearing the expensive-looking fur coat was dead, and that a body had washed up on his little strip of shoreline. Pallid skin, blue lips, and deep shadows under their eyes-- the beautiful stranger wasn’t exactly giving off an aura of vim and vigor.

He’d spent a few moments staring at his contact list, trying to figure out what in the world he was supposed to do about a body. Should he call 911? … Should he call Remus?

Before he could make a decision either way, he finally picked up on the shallow rise and fall of the beautiful stranger’s chest, and realized that they were still alive! Potentially not for much longer, laying out in the cold all soggy like that, but Roman could work with mostly alive!

And so, he found himself here, carefully carrying the small but surprisingly dense stranger up to his home by the cliffs, and risking looking like a total serial killer doing it.

He couldn’t help but theorize as he walked. A beautiful stranger in expensive clothing, tangled in nets with what appeared to be a head wound… It read like an old unsolved case in a detective novel, where the mysterious stranger in question got in too deep with some dangerous people and ended up clubbed over the head and dumped into a river to tie up loose ends.

“Except you managed to survive, obviously,” Roman said to them, mostly to reassure himself. He really had to stop eavesdropping on Remus’s true crime podcasts. “And you made your way to me! Excellent choice, I’m great at nursing people back to health. Probably. I don’t have much practical experience, but, you know, I’ve read extensively about this exact thing. In romance novels. As one does.”

The beautiful and mysterious stranger continued to be unconscious. Roman was starting to feel grateful for it.

His house was empty, thankfully, since his brother had work to attend to today. He fumbled with the keys for a moment before pushing the door open and carrying the stranger inside, sighing with relief at the warm air.

“That’s got to feel much better, hm?”

He sat the stranger down in the foyer, removing his shoes to go grab some scissors from the kitchen.

“First order of business,” he announced in his best announcer voice, “getting all that netting off of you. While I’m sure you could rock fishnet leggings, fish nets on their own just don’t have the same je ne sais quoi, you know? Also, they look very uncomfortable. You’re great at staying still, so just keep that up.”

He carefully cut his way through the looser parts of netting, pulling it off piece by piece until all that was left were the abrasions where they’d formerly cut into skin. Roman had no idea how they’d even managed to get that tangled up, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It couldn’t have been pretty.

In the process of removing the net, however, he’d noticed another rather pressing matter.

Going by the flash of thigh he’d accidentally witnessed while shifting the net around, the stranger definitely wasn't wearing anything under that fur coat of theirs. Like, nothing.

(Exactly what kind of situation had the stranger been in before this?!)

Even so, leaving them in a sodden coat couldn’t be good for their constitution. Or his poor couch’s upholstery.

Roman spent a few moments puzzling the situation out before coming up with a brilliant solution. He retrieved the fluffy gold comforter from his bed and draped it over the stranger, covering their front half with it. Then, he carefully worked their arms out of the coat’s sleeves, very pointedly not focusing on the adorable freckled shoulders this operation revealed. Finally, he tugged the entire coat out from behind them, wincing at the slight furrow that appeared in their brow.

“Sorry, sorry, I know the cold floor can’t be comfortable…”

Soggy coat removed, he was free to continue bundling the rest of the comforter around the stranger’s back, therefore making it easy for him to pick them up in a neat little bundle of blanket and deposit them on the couch. No nudity awkwardness required!

Pleased with his solution, he draped a fluffy towel over the stranger’s head and carefully dried some of the dampness from their hair. Next, he wasted no time in stoking the fire higher in his hearth, sending waves of warmth into the room and making it so the stranger’s skin didn’t look quite so clammy.

Once he’d cleaned up the mess left in the foyer and grabbed the first aid kit from under his sink, he planted himself in a chair next to the couch, feeling ready to handle anything.

“Okay, Google. How do I treat a head wound?”

-

Virgil felt as though he’d woken to a nightmare.

He was in the wrong body, surrounded on all sides by heavy fabric and warm air, and his coat was missing. That list of facts alone was just about as bad as any night terror he’d had.

The humming was unusual, though.

A soft tune, occasionally broken up by a half-muttered lyric or two, carried through the air, voice completely at ease. His mother had never sung to him in front of others, and it sure as hell wasn’t his father.

He tried to remember where he’d been last. The back of his head stung… he’d ended up on a beach? The tide had been turning, from high to low… He must have dried out up there, changed into his less durable form. And now he was warm and dry.

He clenched his fists weakly and grit his teeth, knowing that a human had found him and stolen him away. Just like his mother. He’d come to find Logan and lost himself before ever even starting. Typical.

“Are you with us, Sleeping Beauty?” a bright voice asked.

The humming had broken off while he was absorbed in his thoughts, and now he could hear the shift and rustle of movement next to him. He opened his eyes, already aiming the coldest possible glare at his captor.

He was sort of surprised to find that the human sitting at his side wasn’t holding his coat. His father used to make a point of handling his mother’s coat at any opportunity. He’d liked to watch his mother stare at it, resting assured that so long as he held it in his possession, she could do him no harm.

This human was much younger than his father had been, probably around as old as Virgil was now. He had dark skin and soft eyes that reflected the firelight, and he was smiling hopefully at Virgil.

“Hello there! It’s excellent to see you looking a little more lively! I was starting to think about actually calling the hospital, heh.”

Wordlessly, Virgil slowly shifted to sit up, shoving the thick blanket out and shaking the cloth from his head. He looked down, confirming what he already knew. No coat. The human hadn’t even bothered to dress him up in human trappings to ‘make up’ for the absence.

“Ah, yeah... I sort of basically pulled you out of the ocean and what little you were wearing was completely soaked.” The human rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I figured it’d be less of an invasion of privacy to just let you get dressed yourself once you woke up?”

Oh, the human was worried about his privacy? What a joke.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, truly!” the human continued, oblivious to Virgil’s rising ire. He gave a mocking little bow, pretending to respect the one he’d abducted. “My sincerest apologies.”

He was done playing along with mind games like these. Better to let the human know where they stood right off the bat.

“I’m going to kill you,” Virgil promised, and then lunged for the human’s jugular.

To his genuine surprise, he actually made contact, hands clamping onto the junction between collar and throat. The human let out a high-pitched yelp as his chair toppled over, taking both of them with it.

Virgil landed knee-first on the human’s sternum, and paused to blink down at the wheezing stranger, who apparently had been so confident in the weakness of his victim that he hadn’t bothered to bind Virgil from harming him in advance.

Unless.

His grip loosened slightly, just in time for the human’s fist to catch him squarely in the mouth. He threw himself backwards, rolling with the force of the motion to get some distance and hunkering in a crouch. It had been too long since he’d been active in this form, his sense of balance was in shambles.

The human scrambled to his feet, and grabbed the back of the chair, eyes wild. He thrust it out between them like a barrier, as though it could prevent any more strangulation attempts.

“What is wrong with you?!” he shrieked, voice cracking as his gaze flickered back and forth between Virgil and some far off point. “I tenderly nursed you back to health, and your response is to try and murder me? Unfair! Cruel! Rude!”

“Where is my coat?” Virgil replied, voice hoarse and split lip stinging. A test, because humans were tricky and loved to lie.

“Your— your coat?” The human pulled up short, head tilting slightly in a bewildered manner. A convincing actor, if nothing else. “Is that what all this is about? I put it on the coat hanger to dry! I know better than to try and wash someone’s fancy fur coat without permission, yeesh.”

A low warning growl in the back of his throat, Virgil turned his gaze from the current threat and followed the gesture the human had made.

Sure enough, there it was. His freedom, draped on a peg in the open with all the rest of the human’s fabric outer layers like some common garment.

“Do you… want me to get it— eep!” The human lifted the chair back up in paltry defense as Virgil snarled at him. He rose up and crossed the distance to his pelt in five wobbly strides, before the human could try and return it to him and lock them both into a loveless marriage.

Some of the tension eased from his shoulders as he quickly wrapped his second skin around him, that grounding weight settling back where it belonged. He still couldn’t shift back, not here, but the ocean was close enough to taste in the air.

The human was still huddled defensively by the fireplace, looking indignantly bewildered and not at all like he knew he’d just given up the perfect opportunity to control Virgil.

Which meant that-- barring some incredibly convoluted scheme-- he really had no idea. And Virgil had tried to strangle him, even if under false pretenses. He drew the edges of his pelt closer around him, rolling the beginnings of an apology around in his mind.

-

The mysterious stranger was still glaring at Roman like they were contemplating continuing to try and strangle him to death at any moment.

He’d brought a half-drowned stranger into his home and tenderly treated their injuries, and what had he received in return for his efforts? A murder attempt, which now that he thought about it was maybe an outcome he should have considered earlier. Remus would never let him live this down.

Assuming he lived long enough for his brother to give him shit about it, that was.

The stranger seemed to at least be a little calmer now that their reclaimed coat was thoroughly wrapped around them, rendering them more lump-shaped than person. Roman felt much more secure in glaring back, too.

He set his impromptu shield/chair down firmly on the floor. “I have no idea what your problem is, Gloomy B. Jones, but where I’m from, the response to someone saving you from dying of hypothermia is ‘thank you’, not a strangulation attempt!”

The murderglare intensified. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

“Yes,” Roman said, disbelieving, “because you were too busy being unconscious. On the beach. In 40-below temperatures!”

“That’s my problem, not yours,” the stranger responded snappishly.

Roman threw his hands in the air, but his impending frustrated rant was impeded by the sight of a stifled flinch running through the stranger. Feeling a stab of guilt, he lowered his arms slowly before continuing.

“It seems I made it my problem when I dragged your soggy self all the way to my house, so--”

“Great news for you, then: I’m leaving.” Baring their teeth in a distinctly unfriendly manner, the stranger turned to do just that.

“Hold it!” Roman called, alarmed. “You’re going into town like that?! People will think you’re a flasher!” Even his brother wouldn’t go out dressed in nothing but an oversized coat. ... Probably.

The stranger paused, squinting at him warily. Roman took it as a cue to continue.

“Look, clearly we got off on the wrong foot here. Several wrong feet. Let’s try again. I’m Roman Faroe, I work for the local newspaper, and you are…?”

“None of your business,” replied the stranger, with all the stubborn petulance of a toddler digging their heels in and refusing to move whilst smack dab in the middle of an overcrowded supermarket.

“Would you like me to call you ‘Almost-Corpse-I-Dragged-Off-The-Beach?’ Perhaps make up a thematic nickname or two for you? Because let me tell you, this is exactly how you get called--,”

“Hold on,” the stranger cut him off, a realization seeming to dawn on him, “did you say you worked for the news?”

“Yes, I mean, the newspaper not the news. Although I’m sure I’d make an excellent anchor,” Roman gestured to all of himself for effect, “my true passion lies in my carefully curated romantic advice column!”

“So, you get all the information in town,” continued the stranger, who had a strange glint in their eye.

“I mean, if you want to be a nerd about it.”

“How about this.” The stranger stepped forward, straightening out of their defensive slouch for the explicit purpose of being just tall enough to loom over Roman. “You want to know my name? I’ll tell you, if you help me track down something important that I lost.”

An investigative quest for a mysterious MacGuffin? Roman swallowed, feeling his heart flutter wildly with what felt less like intimidation and more like excitement. He could totally keep his cool, he just had to open his mouth and say something suave.

“I also want to know your origin story,” he opened his mouth and babbled instead.

The stranger narrowed their eyes for a moment, and Roman belatedly remembered the near-strangulation. Perhaps he shouldn't be agitating a femme fatale type, what with all the emphasis on the fatale.

To his surprise, it only took a moment before they capitulated, sticking a hand out. “Fine. After my thing gets done.”

Roman shook gladly, trying not to shiver at the cool touch. Had they checked to make sure the stranger wasn’t hypothermic yet? “It’s a deal, then.”

“Great.” They twisted on their heel, stalking to the door. “Let’s get this over with, already.”

“Hold on there, Surly Temple.” Roman called, hand on his hip. “I hate to break it to you, but if you go into town mostly naked, the only news we’ll be hearing about will be your immediate arrest.”

The stranger glanced down at his attire, and then released the door handle with a low sigh. “... Pants first?”

“Pants first.”

[bump1nthen1ght]

Deep Blue Sea (Shark Merman x Reader) Chapter 3

Pairing: Gender Neutral!Reader/Shark Merman

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Soulmate AU

Warnings: Slight mention of scars

Word Count: 3122 words

Summary: You and Cruz go for a morning swim in the reef

*Cross-posted to ao3*

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

That Friday, you stay up late, not drinking or binging a new Netflix special, but fruitlessly trying to decide between your athletic shorts are your more revealing swim bottoms. In a stroke of genius the only ever occurs to a person late at night, you wear the shorts over your swimsuit, topped off with a swim shirt.

With your water-proof swim bag, you sit at the tidepool and furtively lather your legs in sunscreen, waiting for Cruz.

Cruz swims up to the edge of the tidepool, pulling himself up and over the rocks before motioning you over.

“Okay, the cool stuff is just less than half of a klick away, I’ll be carrying you on my back the whole way, but some of it’s underwater. Would you-” Cruz stammers, “Would you mind if I took you down with me, to see it?”

You feel that involuntary smile creep up on you.

“I would love that.”

--------

It’s an odd sensation, sitting on Cruz’s back. You had worried yourself and all your gear would be too heavy, but Cruz barely seems to notice the extra weight. You're placed on the bottom of his torso, right before it connects into tail, but you can still feel it’s movements as he swims through the water. It feels almost like a python, muscles pulling and contracting, his arms reaching out occasionally for a large stroke to gain a temporary boost of speed. He’s not moving so fast that the wind or splashes of water hit your skin, but you can still feel the waves pushing over your feet and thighs. The view is breathtaking and you have a nice time looking at Cruz’s ripped back as well.

When you see some small rock outcroppings by the shore that Cruz stops and raises his head out of the water, adjusting you on his back like one would carry someone in a piggyback ride. The tips of his claws brush against your thighs. You are for sure blushing.

“We’re here. Do you remember the signals?”

You nod, responding with the Okay hand signal.

Apparently Cruz had self-taught himself scuba-diving signals, although he initially had thought they were limited to human “ocean-spies” trying to steal precious fish from the pod (“That’s what the older kids in my pod told me! Stop laughing!”). You yourself were a certified scuba diver, and had gone many times with your mother during college.

With a nod and a hand motion, you two submerge, a bloom of color all around you.

Your arms lang loosely around Cruz’s shoulders, chest pressed against his backside and legs hiked up around his hips to give him maximum mobility. A particular bright hydrocoral catches your eye amidst the rainbow, your heart leaping at the sight. You point urgently in it's direction, unintentionally clenching your legs in excitement. Cruz’s chest rumbles with a giggle, bubbles popping  through his mouth and gills. He shrugs his shoulder to bring your body closer to it.

The purple stretches across the rocks in circular bunches, with the occasional starfish interspersed in between. With a good look, you can see the tiny spines and tiny perforations on it’s surfaces. You tap Cruz’s shoulder and throw your thumb up.

Once out of water and properly breathing, you fingers tap eagerly against Cruz’s shoulder blades.

“Cool, right?”

“Yeah! I’ve never seen that kind of hydrocoral up close before. I’ve heard the California corals were beautiful but wow, those were gorgeous. And that patch was so big, it must be- I don’t even know how old! They grow extremely slow, you see, and because of excess-”” Your eyes glance over your shaky fingers, fidgeting and dancing across Cruz’s as the words fall out of your mouth. You forcibly still them. You gulp. “They don’t have those where I’m from. Sorry, I talk too much.” You force out a giggle.

You peel your fingertips away from Cruz, picking at your fingernails as your neck tints red. The heat makes you pull your arms into yourself and away from Cruz’s slick skin. Your thighs lock tight around his waist to stay on.

“Does it have a name?”

“They just call it California Purple Hydrocoral, since it’s so localized. Nothing too fancy, even though it’s so unique.” Typically, to calm yourself down, you fiddle with your clothing or whatever you have your hand on. With Cruz’s body so close by, your first compulsion is to trace shape alongside his back, map the muscle and bone’s topography. But just the idea of such intimacy sends your head in a swirl.”

“What makes them so unique? Just where they live?” Cruz playfully scoffs, “Because I’ve lived in one area for years and you don’t see me getting any trophies.” You chuckle, Cruz arching his neck to smirk at you.

“Well not not only are they super old, but most corals lose their color when they die and California Purple Hydrocorals don’t. The pigment is so deeply embedded in their skeleton, it remains even after they’re gone.” You float your eyes downwards towards the sea, in the direction where you get merely a glimpse of the bright purple mass. “It’s kind of their legacy, hence the name. That color is so intrinsic to what they are, not even death or time could take it from them.”

The water is cool and the sun is hot, beating down at the exposed skin on your neck and back while your feet mindlessly kick back and forth. Cruz’s muscles shift as he  turns his head farther back towards you. Your eyes are lost at sea, caught in the coral possibilities. There’s an absentminded smile on your face. It brings one to his.

“You’re really fun to talk to, ____.”

You’re snapped back into reality, eyes yanked out of the water and back to Cruz’s own. The inky black stares back, serious and focused.

“Wow, thank you. That’s very sweet of you to say Cruz.”

You avert your eyes in a polite gesture, rubbing the back of your neck. Cruz keeps staring. You can feel it tingling across your cheeks.

“I mean it. You’re really smart.”

“Oh, well, I just study a lot-”

“And-and you shouldn’t have to apologize when you get, y’know, into it.”

Cruz looks away, jaw clenched. “Not to anybody. Not to me, especially not to me, because you’re so-so….” He struggles with his words, chin shaking with unreleased energy, “You love it so much and that’s-you should be able to talk about it whenever. Because it makes you happy and any assholes out there shouldn’t ruin that for you, and I-” His chest heaves as he stutters, blue flushing his skin, “I-I like it, when you’re happy, I mean.” Cruz’s breaths are short and quick, his cerulean blush painting the back of his neck and crawling up to his ears. “Does that make sense?”

Words escape you at this moment, like Cruz sucked up all the energy in the moment. In a good way, he’s pulled the rug out from under you. Your eyes wander, brain turning over his words.

But Cruz can’t hear your inner thoughts, he can only feel your still muscles and the lull in the conversation.

“I-Shit, I didn’t mean-”

Your body jerks back to life as you lean over Cruz’s shoulder with a quick motion, eyes squinting in the middle distance. Cruz jerks.

“Cruz, submerge real quick!”

“What?”

You jerk your thumb down and shakily put on your goggles and snorkel with one hand. “Quick! It’s going to notice us!”

Cruz, befuddled, tightens his grip on your thighs and submerges. His head swivels back and forth, looking for what has gotten you so fussy. You extend both of your arms, pointing about 10 feet away, to the side of a bunch of coral. You then close your hands horizontally, interlocking your fingers into your signal.

Turtle!

Besides the small rock is a large Leatherback Turtle, blissfully unaware of the two creatures not too far from it, taking a leisurely swim. Your right arm wraps around Cruz’s clavicle as you lean over to get a better look, enchanted by her beautiful shell. Amidst the reef, she looks like a dolled up grandma, wrinkled and taking an afternoon continental in the garden.

Cruz ducks behind another rock as she swims closer, trying not to scare the turtle away. Your arm tightens around his shoulder, eyes never tearing from her.

You don’t notice, but Cruz feels himself falling deeper when he looks at the wonder in your gaze. Never before has he ever felt so jealous of a turtle.

She cruises along, Cruz dodging just out of her sight but close enough to give you a good view, all while giving you a spare breath whenever you gesture. As she swims back towards the open ocean, Cruz takes you both up and out of the water.

You whip off your goggles and snorkel, taking a long breathe in.

“That was- wow, that was incredible.”

“She was so pretty I didn’t think about eating her for like, forty percent of that time.”

You smack Cruz on the shoulder, but it’s light, half-joking, and an unflattering snort leaves you. Cruz shoots you a toothful smirk.

A light sea breeze rolls over you two, abating the hot sun, although just a bit. The water has thoroughly sunk into your swimsuit bottoms, pulling down with extra weight on your lower half, but you’ve never felt lighter.

In the tranquility, you rest your front on Cruz’s back, head now tucked into the nook of  his shoulder. The smell of salt and a slight tang of fish immediately washes your nostrils. Cruz’s shoulders and deltoids stiffen for a millisecond and slowly relax in another.

“Hey, Cruz?” You whisper, almost mumble into his skin.

“Y-yeah?”

“Thanks.”

----------

Your muscles slightly ache from the long swim this morning, and  boardwalk food is the perfect level of unhealthy to abade it for a bit.

As you walk back to the tidepool, arms cluttered with overpriced boardwalk food, Cruz’s eyes light up. You struggle to sit down easily, but manage to crouch down to Cruz’s level, motoning for him to grab the hotdog from the crook of your elbow.

He does, but Cruz’s eyes are locked on the two Cotton Candies which you hold in a tight grip; The water laps at your ankles and you don’t want the $7 you spent to go to waste.

“Trust me, this will be best after a full meal. Don’t want you getting nauseous.” Cruz lets out a facetious, over-dramatic sigh, but with one bite of a hot dog, his eyes alight once more. He devours the thing quickly, almost with one gulp, whipping his head around to the cotton candy. He wiggles his eyebrows and you sigh, motioning for him to come closer.

Cruz seats himself up on the rock next you, pupils sparkling as you hand him the cotton candy stick. He takes a large bite and is immediately overwhelmed by the sweetness and how quickly the sugar melts in his mouth.

“Is that supposed to happen?”

You chuckle, taking a much tinier bite out of your own cotton candy.

“Yes, it is. It dissolves in liquid, hence the ‘no water’ thing.” Cruz nods, spun sugar strings stuck to his lips as he attacks the cotton candy like a toddler. You smile, taking another bite.

The two of you continue to snack in silence. The end of Cruz’s tail flicks back and forth, stirring tiny ripples in the pool, extremely cute and reminiscent of an excited dog. After licking away the rest of your cotton candy, you lean over to the trash bag to drop off your paper stick. It’s then do you see them.

With your face up close to Cruz’s tail, you notice lines of discoloration, streaks of white, which pepper Cruz’s tail. Your eye catches one, then another, and another. By the time you pull back, you notice quite a few all near his pelvic fins, the tip of a larger one stretching to the bottom side of his tail.

Holy shit. How did I not notice those?

On the side of his tail, three marks stand out to you. Their pink, freshly healed, and rake along his skin for 2 inches.

“Uh, Cruz?”

“Yemf?” He asks, amidst another big bite of cotton candy.

“Did you accidentally cut yourself on some coral?”

About 20 pieces of coral, technically?

Cruz hesitates mid bite, sweet spun sugar and some sort of excuse on the tip of his tongue.

“What do you mean?” Cruz’s voice, same octave, is somehow quieter, devoid of emotion.

“It’s just, you have all these marks on your tail and…” You pull back and turn your back to him. Cruz averts his gaze, but the look he gives his tail is frustrated and simmering. “I got worried, that’s all.”

“They’re nothing, it’s nothing. You wouldn’t understand.” His intonation, like his furrowed brow, bristles with a hostile energy. You turn your whole body towards him, now a bit peeved yourself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I said it’s not a big deal. I just did something stupid, went somewhere I shouldn’t have. That’s it.” Cruz still refuses to meet your gaze, knuckles clenched white around the cotton candy stick. Your eyes dart back to the littered scars.

Who did this to him? Was it those mermaids I saw?

“Does that happen often? Wouldn’t your pod-”

“Can we just fucking drop it? It doesn’t matter anyway.” Cruz bites back, almost a yell but not quite. Your eyebrows furrow.

“Well it matters to me. If you’re getting hurt then-”

“Then what? Why the fuck does it matter if I get a few scrapes now and again, why do you even care, huh?” Cruz’s glare burrows into your skin, you can feel your eyes go wide. Something deep, something heated and bitter, stirs in your gut.“You don’t have to do anything. Just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean you have to pretend shit. I’m not so pathetic that you have to force yourself to-”

“Can you stop putting words in my mouth for one fucking minute!” This time, you actually do scream, which echoes off the water and the rocks. Cruz’s eyes widened, stopped in the middle of his tirade. Whatever burns inside boils over, released in hot breathes and the steam under your skin.

“Is it so hard to believe that I might care about you?” Your voice cracks with lost breath and the fast pounding of your heart. You pinch the bridge of your nose and with a deep inhale and exhale, you continue.

“My whole life, people have expected this one thing of me, and I spent so long doing everything I could to be the exact opposite. But I want-” You gesture your hands to yourself and Cruz, “-this. I want to get to know you, I want to hang out and eat expensive seafood and talk about bullshit! But I can’t do that if you won’t talk to me.” You take a deep breath, Cruz not even taking the moment to jump in. “And I get that it’s hard, that we don’t know each other yet. But I want to trust you. I want you to trust me.”

A wave breaks against a rock, the noises drowned out  in the chasm of Cruz’s gaze and the beating of your heart. You can’t read the emotions on his face, what with a thousand thoughts flitting across it and the emotion welling in your eyes. The smell of brine seeps into your skin. You tuck your hands into your elbows, hoping that will stop their shaking.

“I just-”

“I-”

You both pause, caught in the middle of your thoughts. Cruz sputters.

“Sorry, I interrupted you, you can go.”

“No, no you can go.”

There’s another pause, each of you waiting for the other to go. Cruz finally steps up.

“I’m sorry for accusing you. I was making assumptions and-, and that’s not fair to you.” He expounds in one quick breathem sucking another in before continuing. “Since we met I’ve  been….going through some stuff and I think I wanted to let it out. But I shouldn’t-I shouldn’t have, not on you, not for shit that’s not even remotely your fault, damn it.”  Cruz laments, pressing his face into his hands. He takes a deep breath in, then out, and pulls his hands away. “I’m sorry.” He sighs again, scratching nervously behind his ears.

You let the sentence hang in the air a bit, trying to consolidate your mind and think hard about what to say. It’s far from easy, trying to find the words and express them properly. But it feels good. It feels right, cathartic almost.

“Thank you. And you don’t have to tell me everything if you don’t want to. We can take our time with all….this.” You untuck your hands and wave towards the air. Cruz laughs and this time, it actually settles the butterflies in your stomach. “I just want you to know that I’m here for you, whether to talk it out or even distract for a bit.”

Cruz hums in agreement, rubbing his fingers over his knuckles.

“Thanks, for that. And I-I’ll be here for you too, i-if you need it. I mean, you know where to find me.” You giggle, a bubble of exhaustion popping out of your mouth as Cruz joins you. You feel infinitely lighter. A wave brushes against your ankle, the ocean slowly eroding the thick stress in the air.

Cruz and you stand about 1 foot apart from each other, your leftovers discarded in the plastic bag by your side. Cruz fidgets with his fingers some more, eyes glancing back and forth between you and the rocks.

“Can I….Can I hold your hand?” Cruz murmurs.

You don’t respond, just nodding and lifting out your hand. Cruz slips his in.

His skin is damp, slightly cold, and he relishes in the heat of your palm. His fingers dwarf yours as they intertwine, his long claws just barely grazing your skin, careful not to actually cut the back of your hand. You brush your thumb over his knuckles and up his palm. His hands are soft, although his palms are dotted by small calluses. Cruz scoots closer to you, both of you looking out at the ocean. With a full belly and your muscles still quite sore, you rest your head on Cruz’s shoulder. You feel his muscles tense to jerk away, but they forcibly relax as he grips your palm tight. You rub his knuckles once more.

It may not be much, but it’s a start. And you think you quite like where it is heading.

[toniri]

Uma and her life being a Cecaelia headcanons

Has lowkey breathing problems. Cecaelia have to live underwater until they’re two so their “earth lungs” can develop. Ursula had no time for that and kept Uma in a bucket filled with salt water, it’s also the reason as to why she was such a small kid.

Fangs. Cecaelia era predatory, she eats living fish right out of the water and gives 0 fucks about it. The crew finds it creepy, Harry finds it hot.

Gills. On both sides of her neck.She always hid it in an astronomical amount of pirate clothes and only Harry and Gil knew about it. Once they got to Auradon she stopped doing it since it’s ALWAYS hot compared to the isle.

Is the queen of hidration, walks around with a giGANTIC bottle of water and still complains about being thirsty 30 hours of the day

She taught the whole crew how to swim, after seeing a bunch of drunk adults falling into the water and drowing daily. It wasn’t an easy job, the waters are shark infested and she was born knowing how to swim so that makes her a pretty shitty teacher. They learned, but Gil took over the teaching job for the new members.

The isle Really fucked her over. Her magic was locked. Her legs hurt since they are not hers, not really. Her breathing sucks and everything is dry dry dry. To her, the isle makes her drown.

You cannot do shit on the docks without her knowing.Really. This girl talks to fish and has a shit ton of pet sharks and crocodiles. She knows everything.

Always knows when it’s low or high tide. Knows the coming of storms and hurricanes and earthquakes days earlier than it happens. Knows the direction of the winds and the tides like it’s the back of her hand and it makes her a pretty good ship captain.

Bioluminescence. She has scales on her neck, waist, face, legs, arms etc.. When it gets really fucking dark she will start glowing like a lighthouse. It makes her shitty at night missions but it’s a pretty cool party trick

Second pair of eyelids. duh.

When she jumped out of the boat and became a full fledged cecaelia she never felt more at home and at the same time more estranged. She is in the ocean, her home. But it’s not. Her people aren’t here, she couldn’t free them and her crew is her family and her home is where her family is. She spent the whole year trying different types of magic to bring the barrier down and getting more and more mad when it didn’t work. There was a LOT of storms that year. Harry always knew it was her.

Her only company was a lone blue whale named Alan, she used to sleep os his back and eat coconuts while complaining to him that Mal couldn’t see past her own problems

After everyone is in Auradon she takes Harry to explore the ocean EVERYWHERE. He loves it and loves her even more. They see sunkes ships, Atlantica, Deep sea creatures, the Kraken you name it. When they kiss for the first time, they are underwater.

Sleeps in the tub sometimes. It freaked Audrey (her roomate) SO MUCH the first time but eh at least Uma doesn’t snore

She HATES sea world. Ben takes everyone there once and it reminds her so much of the isle she just. walks right out. jumps into the enclosure. and spends full ten minutes talking to the orcas and running from the trainers. Known marine animal activist

After a while she takes the lost revenge, her crew and goes exploring. The sea was always her calling anyway.

Jetsam and Floatsam follow her from time to time. She doesn’t know the fuck her mom is up to and doesn’t want to know.

Is immune to human sickness and any stingray/jellyfish toxin

She has some strong trust issues with the fae. Her mom didn’t like them. Harry didn’t like them. Mal fucked her over. Maleficent was a crap leader and FG locked them in the isle. The only one she likes it’s Jane, they bond over magic.

Her moods bring over the WORST storms. Also arousal.But only Harry knows WHY some minor eartquakes happen at night.

She has Blue blood (it makes blood tranfusions,,, complicated) and 3 hearts. Octopus are really some weird fucking creatures lemme tell you.

I headcanon that every magical being on the isle has colorful hair. it’s how their magical ancestry manifests. Uma has teal hair. Mal dark purple. Evie has streaks of blue since her mother used to mess with magic (the mirror, her castle etc)

Every week she goes back to the sea Or else bad things happen

Siren song is a DEADLY thing that she had to learn how to control. Her voice has a lot of power to it.

her First friend was Mal who represented fire fire fire and she was betrayed but her Best friend was Harry and he had eyes like the ocean and she always saw it as a sign.

Can do some crazy powerful shit but the farthest from water, the weaker the magic

Creates copy’s of water. Of herself. She really hates goodness class and, more often than not, sends her copy to the class.

Crazy ass wild sea creatures on a aquarium on her room. Do not question.

She took Carlos to a see a sea turtle hatching when he was in vet school. They bond over animals.

She teaches Evie magic, Evie’s mother is a witch and while Uma’s is a sea witch, her magic is more compatible to Evie’s than Mal’s

Her mother’s necklace is NOT the source of her power. It only increases it. Also gives her legs so FG let her keep it

[kimistorm]

X Men: First Class Reader Insert || Part 4 || Path

You, Raven, and many of the other mutants who Charles and Erik had spent quite a few days traveling around looking for, were sitting in a cush room in the base of the CIA.

“We should think of code names.” Raven clapped her hands, “we’re government agents now. We should have secret code names.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little, uh, childish?” you inquired.

Raven stuck out her tongue, “stop being an old fart like Charles. You’ve been hanging out too much, he’s rubbing off onto you.”

You frowned, you didn’t think you had surpassed Raven by a huge amount of years, but apparently you had. “Fine.” You mumbled under your breath, luckily, it seemed like no one had heard you.

“I want to be called Mystique.” Raven declared. You raised an eyebrow, well that was somewhat out of the blue.

“Damn!” Sean enunciated loudly, “I wanted to be called Mystique.”

Raven laughed, “well tough. I called it.” She replied pompously before shapeshifting to look like him, which gathered a lot of claps and gasps of surprise, “and I’m way more mysterious than you.” That too caused a lot of clapping and you heard Alex say ‘woah’ more than once. “Darwin, what about you?”

“Well, uh, Darwin's already a nickname, and, you know, sort of fits.” He shrugged as he stood up and walked over to the fish tank, “adapt to survive and all. Check this out.” He submerged his face into the water and gills appeared on the side of his face. Once again, this invoked many claps and cheers. “Thank you, thank you.” Darwin shook his face and the gills disappeared. “What about you?” he looked at Sean.

“I’m going to be… “ he leaned forwards in his seat and contemplated it, “banshee.” He decided.

“Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?” Hank asked amusedly.

“You might want to cover your ears.” Sean responded as he squatted in front of the coffee table where three glass candle holders stood. He looked from side to side and then whistled, which shattered the window instead of the candle holders.

The room laughed while you cringed at the broken glass, “am I really that old?” you muttered to yourself, as you saw none of this amusing, even though you were barely older than the rest of the group.

“How’d I miss that?” Sean asked unhappily, he looked towards Angel, “your turn.”

“My, uh, stage name is Angel.” She replied as she stood up and took of her jacket, “kind of fits.” She turned around and the wing tattoos on her arms turned into real, dragonfly like wings.

“You can fly?” Raven asked in disbelief as she looked at Angel in awe.

“Uh huh.” Angel smiled and turned back to look at you guys, “and, um…” she spit and a fireball flew out of the broken window and landed on the statue outside, setting it on fire. Once again, the group laughed in the face of destruction. “What’s your name?” she asked Hank as she put her jacket back on.

Hank looked away and hesitated to answer. “How about Bigfoot?” Alex asked through a drink.

Raven turned to Hank with a passive aggressive glare, “well, you know what they say about guys with big feet. And, uh, yours are kind of small.”

“Ooh, burn.” You laughed under your breath.

“How about you, (y/n)?” Sean asked as he turned towards you.

“Um, I don’t really have anything cool to show.” You laughed awkwardly, “it’s more of an emotional thing. Pathokinesis.”

“And.” Raven prompted.

“Well, I, I can turn invisible too.” You explained and let yourself turn invisible.

“Woah, where’d she go?” Sean asked in a joking manner.

“Secret agent name?” Raven nudged.

“I don’t really have one.” You muttered.

“Invisi-girl.” Sean suggested.

You wrinkled your nose in disgust, “definitely not.” You turned off your invisible skills and reappeared, “I’ll just stick with (y/n).”

“Aww, boring.” Raven laughed as she nudged your arm, “you’ve been hanging out with old fart Charles too much.”

“I just don’t have a creative name.” You shrugged.

“How about Path? Because, pathokinesis?” Angel suggested.

“Sure.” You nodded, not willing to argue with the group.

“Alex, what’s your gift?” Darwin asked, “what can you do?”

“Uh, it’s not, um…” he awkwardly brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head, “Um, I just can’t do it. I can’t do it in here.” He explained.

“Can you do it out there?” Darwin motioned out to the courtyard beyond the shattered window.

“Why don’t you do it out there?” Raven jumped on Darwin’s idea.

“Come on.” Angel persuaded.

“Come on!” Sean pushed.

“Guys, if he doesn’t want to, we don’t need to push him.” You protested as you stood up and tried to shush the group.

“Alex.” Darwin started the chant.

“Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex!” everyone chanted as they tried to pump him up. Alex relented and stood up to exit out the window.

“That’s the spirit!” Darwin shouted happily.

“Guys.” You whined, “Alex, you don’t have to show us if you don’t want to.” You put a reassuring hand on his arm and gave a quick glare towards everyone else as if daring them to argue that.

Alex shook his head, “it’s fine.” He stepped out of the window, “get down when I tell you.”

“Get down when I tell you.” Sean mocked.

You slapped his arm, “if he’s saying that, there must be a good reason behind it!.”

The group leaned out from behind the wall to see Alex prepare himself to show his power, “get back.” He stated and the group retreated. You however, were standing far away from the window, and the rest of the group. The rest of the group leaned around the wall again. “Get back!” he demanded, when the group didn’t listen he relented, “whatever.”

Alex let a bunch of red energy rings form around him and he let it spin around before it shot across the courtyard. One of them slicing right through the statue and causing it to fall to the ground, on fire.

“Guys!” you cried out in a panic, “how are we going to fix that?”

“Relax (y/n).” Raven slung an arm around your shoulder and you were bombarded by her excited emotions, “live a little!” she laughed and then broke off to dance around.

The room quickly evolved into a party with people dancing and all around messing around. You knew in your heart that Charles would be angry to return to the seven of you having a party and making a mess, but the highly charged atmosphere wouldn’t allow it. Slowly, your frown turned into a grin, and you’re stoic atmosphere turned into a party animal.

                                                        …

“Yeah!” you laughed excitedly as you danced around with Raven and Angel. Drinks had been passed around earlier, but you insisted that you didn’t need any. Even through the highly charged atmosphere, a small part of your brain told you not to have any. It didn’t matter, just the drunk atmosphere made you seem like you were drunk. The loud music echoed throughout the room and you let out a shriek of excitement before jumping off of the coffee table you were standing on. You landed on the floor and then fell down to sit on your bottom, laughing the whole way. “Charles is on his way.” You giggled, “him and Moira.”

The entire room seemed to stop for a moment as everyone minus Raven looked at you curiously. “How do you know that?” Angel asked cautiously.

You just tapped your head, “magic.” You giggled again.

“She’s drunk, it probably doesn’t mean anything.” Darwin shrugged and then the party started up again.

“Alex! Catch me!” you shouted as you launched yourself across the room onto him.

“Woah, (y/n)!” Alex struggled to keep you in his grip and to avoid the two of you toppling to the floor.

“Whee!” you whooped.

“What are you doing?” once again the atmosphere turned on a dime, but this time, Moira was actually here. “Who destroyed the statue?” she demanded.

“It was Alex.” Hank pointed to said person who really couldn’t do much with you in his arms.

“No. Havok.” Raven corrected, “we have to call him Havok. That's his name now.”

“Can you get down (y/n)?” he mumbled embarrassedly to you, and you quickly complied, stumbling ungracefully to the floor.

Raven continued, “and we were thinking, you should be Professor X,” she turned to point at Charles, “and you should be Magneto.” She turned to point at Erik.

You accidently let out a giggle from your point on the floor which caused everyone to look at you. You smiled and gave a wave.

Erik gave an annoyed glare before huffing, “exceptional.”

“The sarcasm is strong in this one.” You mumbled under your breath.

Erik glared again before turning away and walking to wherever he needed to go. Moira quickly followed suit.

“I expect more from you.” Charles hissed before he walked away too.

“Your hair is great Charles!” you shouted after him and the rest of the gang turned to try and shush you.

“I told you she didn’t need a drink.” Raven murmured under her breath, “this is why we don’t invite her to parties.”

                                                        ...

You gradually ‘sombered’ up once the party atmosphere had left. What replaced it was a calmer, more shameful atmosphere. Especially coming from Raven.

“He’s just stressed Raven.” You gently pat her shoulder, “us having a party didn’t help him ease that stress. Especially when he’s trying to get the government on our side.”

“Yeah.” Raven mumbled, but she didn’t seem entirely convinced.

Masterlist (Originally posted in 2018)

[sonicringbond]

Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey - Scene 38

I wrote this scene at the beginning of the month, and based on everyone’s feedback was presented with quite the challenge. So much so I ended up asking the ever wonderful @cutegirlmayra​ for help. Naturally she delivered, but I’ll let all of you decide if I did in...

    ~Blister the Mouse. She’s really nice, and you’re probably wondering who I’m talking about, tee-hee~♥

    ~Anyway, while Sonic, Draw, and me were in the big plaza, a mouse lady who’s even smaller than Draw greeted us. Like us, she was interested in the big crystal rose in the middle of the plaza surrounded by the weird clockwork gizmo. It looked just like the one from my dream before I ended up with a Red Star Ring in my eye. It also made me think of the one that Ix collected when I first met him. I wonder what they are and where they come from. Blister doesn’t know either, but she wants to learn more about them, and well, Sonic has decided to hear out her offer, even though she’s not necessarily as nice as she seems.~

    “I don’t trust her, “Draw stated flatly as he crossed his arms and looked across a table of what could best be described as a hall-side bistro. The internal halls of the moving castle were as much streets as the paths on the outside. It was perhaps comparable to a shopping mall, in the form of the largest castle in history.

    The mouse, Blister, was rather much the opposite. Perhaps not even half of Sonic’s height, it seemed unlikely that the little sapient mouse woman could hold the pack of goods on her back that was larger than Sonic by quite a bit. Her white fur fell into her round blue eyes as it bundled up into a curly mane atop her head. She smiled comfortably as she responded to Draw’s bluntness in an almost sleepy sounding, deliberate and playfully, teasing manner.

    “Understandable,” Blister nodded agreeably. Tugging at the long sleeve of the white blouse like dress she wore under her blue poncho, she brought attention to the symbol on her sleeve. Like the one Rosy believed to be the Engineers, it was a wrench laid over a gear wheel. It differed though in that it was two wrenches forming an “X” under a human skull. “I am a pirate after all. Not a remarkably successful one though. I’m a far better merchant than I am a pirate.”

    “Then you should focus on that!” Rosy implored the mouse who simply smiled at her.

    “Well, my best wares I barter for from other pirates. And as a pirate no one questions me when I go looking in old ruin for even more wares. Though I’m not particularly good at that either.”

     Pulling her left arm away from her sleeve, she flexed the simple flat fingers of the clockwork hand that emerged from her other sleeve. Watching her hand, Sonic spoke up as he leaned back in his chair. “And that’s where we come in, right?”

    “Well, it’s not like you’re unknowns either,” Blister smiled assuredly. Reaching under her poncho she fished around a moment and pulled out a photograph, one identical to the one that Rosy kept in the shoulder puff of her leotard. In it was Sonic, Tails, Rosy, Mighty, Zooey, and Fang. Blister did not leave it face up however and turned it over to show the handwritten message on it from a Ring Thief named Mach Frog Gill Bradley. Rosy had read it before on the back of the photograph she carried and puffed her cheeks up in frustration.

    “I thought it was sheer chance that I found one that Gill left a message for me on. Ooh~! Not only has he caused me all sorts of trouble, but he made a bunch of copies too!”

    “A whole lot,” Blister agreed spreading her arms wide to illustrate. “And your affiliation with him and running out on the Engineers has made you an enemy of them. I’m surprised they let you in here, no less near the Rose. They say it’s the heart of an ancient type of golem known as a ‘war god’. The Engineers have been studying it and I’m curious about it too. But I can never have enough time to study it before the guards chase me away.”

    “So, what do we get if we lend you hand?”

    “Sonic!” Rosy admonished Sonic. “I know she asked for help and that we should give her a chance, but shouldn’t we address that she’s a pirate, and openly proud of it!”

    “It’s not like the Engineers dislike pirates. Ring Thieves and the Preservers are bigger threats to them. Like you’re friend Gill.”

    Rosy had no argument for that and puffed up her cheeks irritably. Blister though smiled as she flipped the photograph over again. “But I can help you find your friends. As a pirate and a merchant, I’m good with getting information. And looking at this picture, I think you’ll enjoy what I have in mind... Ms. Rose was it?”

    “Rosy!”

    ~Ooh~! I’ve really been suckered in now. But Sonic didn’t seem to be bothered by Blister being a pirate. I mean she seems nice enough, and it’s hard to think she could hurt anyone as tiny as she is. And it isn’t like she was just offering to help us find our friends. Her familiarity with the crystal rose and machines made Sonic ask her about my eye, and it even changed for her to see it. It was too convenient, but she promised if she learned anything about the crystal rose that related to it, she would let us know. That meant we had to help her.

    ~Helping her didn’t require much though. The big indoor plaza where the crystal rose was hosted a dance event almost every night. The blue glow of the crystal rose under the stars above made for a magical dance hall. Music played across a radio system in the castle and everyone generally enjoyed themselves. All we had to do was join the dancers and make a big scene. Draw thought Blister meant a commotion, but Sonic had a better idea!

    ~I bet you didn’t know that Sonic can really dance! And I mean really dance! No one could stop from watching him! It’s almost enough to make me feel jealous, tee-hee~♥ But I don’t need to since I know Sonic and I are destined for each other. Even the stars above and beyond Yolk say so. But well, Sonic doesn’t like anything that’s slow, so when the music slowed down, it was a big disaster. Especially as couples started pairing up to slow dance. It turned out the crystal rose was also a place where lovers confessed their feeling to each other. It was so romantic.

    ~Sonic wanted out of there in a hurry, but Blister signaled that she wasn’t done yet when I looked over. That meant I was going to have to make Sonic keep his promise, though Draw didn’t seem to like me taking Sonic’s hand suddenly and leaning my head into his chest. It was so warm, and his heartbeat so comforting.~

    “Awagh!” Draw blubbered incoherently while waving his arms about. “Mote! What do I do!”

    The yellow fairy looked at Draw a moment before turning its eyes towards where Blister still moved about the mansion sized crystal rose and the clockwork device that housed it. She was in plain sight, and unquestionably the guards would spot her if there was not a sufficient distraction. Rosy not dancing as a named enemy of the Engineers would surely not end well for Blister, leaving Mote to look at Draw helplessly.

    “You’re the one who told me to keep him away from her! Now you’re going to act like this!”

    Draw was not alone in having problems. A slow dance was the last thing Sonic wanted to partake in and Rosy was hard pressed to get him started. But she knew she had to try, and somehow, she felt she was getting a lending hand from an unexpected place.

    “Come on Sonic,” Rosy whined playfully as she pulled on his hand and attempted to move him from where he stood. “It’s not that bad.”

    “It’s not my thing, kid,” Sonic looked away from Rosy as she again tried to pull him in a different direction.

    “It’s Rosy! And I know, it’s slow, and it’s not exciting,” Rosy sympathized, “but you dance so well, and it keeps everyone watching us without causing any trouble. Well, maybe a little. I want to keep you all for myself right now, but I have to share, tee-hee~♥”

    Rosy looked down as she giggled and let her arms fall, though she did not let go of Sonic’s hand as she stepped in closer to him. Sonic looked down at her and sighed as she rested her head on his left shoulder. “You know I’m not yours to keep.”

    “I know,” Rosy acknowledged, though her playful tone of voice made Sonic quietly question her sincerity. But she wasn’t done talking yet and remained every bit as playful as she tried to step behind him while pulling on his arm still. Naturally, Sonic had to turn to keep an eye on her, and Rosy did her best to hide her smile and her face. “So~, what if I could make a slow dance exciting?”

    “And how would you do that?”

    “Easy,” Rosy answered slyly as she tilted her head back up just enough to look at Sonic with her left eye, the iris of which had again taken on the form of the unique Red Star Ring which crumbled at two points and revealed a gear within. More importantly however, the glow that all Rings typically cast, though red in color as to be expected. “Blister said that if this is a machine that the Engineers would want to study it. And since I’m a bad guy to them for some reason, they won’t stop from stooping below hurting me.”

    “Like I’d let them,” Sonic assured her, though his voice took on a steely defensive chill. Rosy couldn’t hide her smile and Sonic felt for a moment he was being made fun of. He couldn’t let that stand as Rosy recklessly stepped further out behind him to where her eye might be seen by more than him.

    “And what is it with you and eyes causing all sorts of trouble?”

    “Wha…?” Rosy asked curiously and paused a moment as she looked up at Sonic, allowing him to step into her and hide her eye from the throngs of dancers. “What do you mean?”

    “You don’t remember?” Sonic asked playfully and Rosy puffed her cheeks up not liking Sonic’s teasing of her memories. The lands they were in somehow seemed to steal or repress them and remembering anything over large periods of time was difficult. Even telling time over more than a few days at a time was difficult. To the people of the lands, it was normal, and they did not even see it as unusual, but to Rosy who cherished her memories it was upsetting. Even despite how much she did still hold on to while she smiled through it all.

    “Well, you were pretty adamant about how these Gaia Eyes that were like the Chaos Emeralds were asking you for help,” Sonic clarified as he stepped after Rosy when she went to move away from him. “Kind of funny though telling you a story you wanted to tell me.”

    “I don’t mind,” Rosy admitted as she stepped back in towards Sonic. “I can listen to your stories of adventure all day and night, no matter where we are. Even if it’s just you embellishing one of mine.

    “Besides,” Rosy smiled slyly at Sonic, “I bet it would make it easier for you to keep dancing without paying attention to what you’re doing.”

    There was no response from Sonic. Nothing audible at least. His mouth fell open ever so slightly, and there was just a hint of his eyes widening.

    He hadn’t even noticed. The conversation was natural. Rosy pulling him to and fro no less commonplace. But without him even noticing, she had been dancing with him the whole time and he had fallen into step.

    Moving his eyes, he looked down into hers, and past the Red Star Ring at the hedgehog girl who loved him with everything she had. Even knowing he would hate slow dancing, she had found a way to make even a few steps of it enjoyable. A little banter, a recalling of adventure, and just constantly being there knowing him and letting him be himself. He looked into her very being and perhaps, a tiny bit marveled at the side of her he ran from so much.

    And Rosy noticed Sonic looking into her eyes. She felt as though her heart stopped and that she could not breathe. Her feet kept moving in tune to the music though, Sonic now leading the dance as though to reward her affections. Slowly she blinked.

    Once.

    Twice.

    Still Sonic looked into her eyes, as though he was trying to find something in them, or perhaps that he finally recognized something there all along.

    ~It had to be all in my head, but… but, Sonic had never looked at me like this before. And it wasn’t a joke. His eyes were so serious, and curious. I think my heart reached him this time.

    ~And he knew. He had to. I always told him, but maybe. Maybe this time I won a little piece of his too…~

    The music did not stop, but Rosy did and she took a deep breath. Sonic was confused, but not as much as he was when Rosy lifted herself up with her toes, just enough to rub her nose against his.

    And there was an explosion.

    Sonic had no words for it. He was speechless, and Rosy had already pulled away. Her face was buried in her hands and there was a jubilant squeal that trailed off through the crowds as the little rascal had stolen something, or perhaps given something for the first time. Sonic couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that she was gone already, and that he had never wanted to scratch the tip of his nose so badly. But there was a still calm in him that kept him from relieving his nose of the torments of Rosy’s conquest. And as Sonic stood there watching where Rosy had dashed off, he might have for a moment feared that calm, desperately wanting anything to chase it away.

    “Wh-wh-what is that expression!” Draw asked flabbergasted at Sonic’s stillness. It was not Mote who answered him though, but rather Blister who pulled the koala’s hand down with her tail.

    “You’re too young,” the mouse squelched his question. “And looking at him, maybe he is too. How slow the hearts of boys grow.”

    “What does that mean!”

    “Nothing you need to worry about,” Blister answered obviously amused as she walked away.

    “And where are you going? You’re done, right?”

    “I sure am. But I think those two need some time to settle down. Don’t worry, they’re both too young yet for this to last. And I’ll be distracting all of you with plenty of adventures too. I may even want to learn more about all of you, and maybe see the flowers bloom too!”

Scene 38 · CLEARED Castle Rose, End

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😊💕 Huge SonAmy moment! Or at least for me it was 😁 Again a huge thank you to @cutegirlmayra​ for all of her help. Her experience and knowledge definitely allowed this scene to shine and i am so grateful! Thank you!

And I hope everyone enjoyed the scene, especially all the SonAmy fans. But that wasn’t all there was to this to scene. I also introduced my next recurring OC; Blister the Mouse. She should be an interesting one for me to learn to really write and get a feel for. Relaxed deliberate characters like her are not the type of characters I normally work with. But she’ll be an asset to everyone as the story continues, though how much is always in everyone’s hands as much as mine. Survey’s prompts, suggestions, these are all things that can affect her part in the story.

I hope everyone will enjoy Blister and will look forward to the first scene of February. Thank you!

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Scene and Character Character Consultant - @cutegirlmayra​ Special Thanks to Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song – ナラタージュinstrumental - Instrumental – Adieu – Narratage

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

[peterpan-ouat-imagines]

More Than Human: Part five

I begin coughing up water and I’m laying on my back which makes no sense because I thought I was in the middle of a transformation.  I sit up and look around and I’m in a low lit lagoon laying on a large rock that bulges into my back.  There’s a nice pristine blue waterfall and the water hole opens up so you can get to the rest of the sea.  It is so grungy with the dark rocky cliffs despite the water that almost glows it’s so blue.

I see some girls treading water and talking on the other side of the water hole where I am. I slowly sit up and slide in the water and swim over to them.

As I get closer I see they all have long greenish-bluish tails, “Ah shit!” I say a little too loud freaked out and I figure out where I am.

Mermaid Lagoon.

I heard stuff about how terrifying mermaids are but my father always told me that a petite girl who isn’t even a full fish can’t be scary so I don’t let any of the rumors get to me.

They turn from my comment, “Oh you’re awake,” this girl my age with chestnuts brown hair and body jewelry says unamused as she turns to me. Her tan skin doesn’t compliment her in the low lighting.

“Blaire don’t be rude!” This 14 year old tells her. Her long blonde waves and pale complexion with freckles on her face makes her look pretty.

“Can someone tell me how I got here? I was in the middle of-“

“Drowning to death?” The girl Blaire cuts me off abruptly, “Yeah Annabelle here saved you. Consider yourself lucky,”

“Drowning? I’m lucky? What do you mean?” I ask genuinely confused.

“Don’t play dumb, clearly your part fish or something. A real human wouldn’t have such slimy legs,” she comments and smiles rudely, “I know a thing or two about sea creatures,”

“And I know a thing or two about bitchy mermaids,” I smile mean back.

“Who are you?” The girl Annabelle asks dreamily changing the subject.

“Y/n,” I say.

“What are you though?” Blaire asks.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I smirk, “Anyway thank you for saving me but I need to go,” I turn around about to swim out.

“You’ll want to stay here,” Blaire tells me.

“And why is that?” I ask turning to face her.

“Annabelle made the mistake of bringing you in, but now that I have my eyes on you, and understand somewhat of what you are, we can use it to both our advantage,” she answers.

“And how does staying in this grungy pool help me?” I ask.

“If you stay here we can teach you how to create a fin from those legs and keep it that way,” she explains.

I chuckle, “I’m not a mermaid, and I know better than to trust one,”

“So you don’t want to get your gills back? No matter what species you are?” She questions.

“Of course I want to be myself again, but I’m not trusting mermaids to teach me. All you guys do are lie and deceive,” I explain, “What���s even in it for you guys to do that anyway?”

“That’s confidential,” she tells me with a straight face, “Anyway I guess you will remain like how you are... maybe forever,” she taunts.

I look away and bite my lip contemplating what she said. This might be the only way I can be myself again. This could be a whole lie to get something out of me or use me but it’s the best chance I’ve had of transforming since Pan banned me.

“Okay fine.  I’ll do it,” I state.

“Good choice,” she slowly smirks, “Now come with us,” the two of them start swimming to the waterfall as they separate from the others and I follow them.

“But we really do need to know what you are to move forward,” Annabelle tells me once we reach the waterfall.

I stay silent.

Blaire rolls her eyes. Annabelle just stays there with a stupid smile clearly not understanding how her kind is supposed to behave.

“Fine. But to help with transforming back into your natural form you’ll eventually have to share ,” Blaire huffs, “Now relax and listen,”

“You’re going to hold our hands and we are going to swim to the bottom of the lagoon,” Annabelle explains.

“That’s suicide!” I exclaim.

“You did it once already,” she tells me.

“That’s because!” I begin but know the truth will sound stupid and let out a sigh, “Fine let’s do it,” I huff and I grab both their hands.  Before I can hold my breath I’m being plunged under.

Luckily I can hold my breath very long but after a while my lungs start to give out. I start gagging hard and try to swim back up but they’re grip only gets tighter.  I fight and fight but it is all deja vu as my head gets light.  

I miraculously break free from one of their hands and kick the other in the face causing her to let go. I gasp for air panting as I burst out of the water.

Moments later they pop up, “Ow!  You kicked my nose!” Blaire complains.

“Don’t act like you weren’t asking for it!  You two literally were drowning me!” I exclaim.

“Well that’s just something we do, drown people,” Annabelle comments.

“How do you drown people?” I ask them.

“Why do you ask?” Annabelle answers.

“Because I’m curious,” I tell her.

“Well it’s pretty straight forward, just do what we did with you. Usually we seek out people because there aren’t a lot of visitors,” she explains.

“When I said we could help you be whatever you are we weren’t lying, we can do that and teach you how to drown or whatever you do to kill,” Blaire tells me with her hand holding where I kicked her nose.

“What makes you think I kill?” I ask.

“Your short tempered, snarky, and violent. Anyway, you seem like a smart girl, and you were able to break free from both us when we dragged you under.  That can work,” Blaire tells me.

“How do we begin?” I ask.

“Knowing how you’ve acted since you came, you clearly aren’t anything good,” she tells me.

“Excuse me?” I scoff.

“I just told you all the reasons you can’t be nice to others, do I have to repeat myself? Or show you my bruised nose as another reminder? So what are you? A siren? Kraken?” She questions.

“A kraken? That is so rude!” I exclaim offended.  I sigh, “I’m a sea serpent” I finally admit.

“A sea serpent? Interesting...” She says intrigued.

“A sea serpent? Ew!” Annabelle exclaims.

“Look can you help me or no?” I ask impatiently.

“Alright but we need someone else to come and help you, because not just anyone can deal with something that powerful.  Oh wait, you aren’t capable of being strong and powerful,” Blaire laughs, “Wait here,” 

Blaire swims off and Annabelle follows.  Five minutes later they come back with this other mermaid with long black hair and tan skin, “Y/n, this is Lola, she can best help you,” she tells me.

She looks me up and down, “Now what caused you to be full on human?” She asks.

I cross my arms slowly and pause for a moment looking down, “A stupid crush,” I mutter.

She laughs at me, “You wasted your identity on a silly guy?”

“I feel stupid enough about it already! I don’t need you to mock me!” I get angry.

“Alright don’t be such a baby,” she tells me, “Now if I can tell you how to begin our first lesson?” she looks at me and I nod for her to continue, “I want you to get angry,” she tells me.

“Angry?  You don’t think I’m not  already angry that I can’t turn back?  Or that I’m stuck here with a bunch of mean girls?” I ask heated.

“You are but you aren’t mad enough.  Keep going with this.  Why else are you mad?” she asks to keep me going.

“Because everyone I have ever loved has pushed me away and left me unwanted and I just want to be alone for once and I don’t want to deal with all this dumb bullshit you are all putting me through!” I exclaim.

She keeps pissing me off and giving me mean critiques which makes me even madder.  It actually starts helping how I feel but nothing physical happens.

Later on she starts a new lesson, “Alright, now I want you to learn how to kill.  Since you can’t do it your way you are going to do it our way,”

I panic on the inside not knowing how I am going to make this work, knowing I am about to look like an idiot.  She leads me out to the open sea and points over at a sailor alone in a canoe and tells me to watch. I watch from a distance and she slaps the boat hard with her tail several times until it turtles over and she drags the man down underneath.  She comes up a couple minutes later and swims back.

I stare in amazement, “That looks amazing Lola but you’re forgetting I don’t have gills, I can’t breathe underwater,” I tell her.

“You can hold your breath for a long time though, I heard about what Blaire and Annabelle did.  If you can hold it for the amount of time you were underwater, that should be long enough to drown someone.  I mean 4 minutes?  Now go try it on that pirate that is about to walk off that ship,” she says.

I slowly and nervously swim towards him and my body shakes.  I look back at her nervously when I’m right by him and she motions me to go on.  I yank his body down until he falls in the water and start swimming downwards, dragging him underneath.  I look back at him and see him suffocating and his eyelids come to a close and I feel horrible but at this point its killed or be killed so I keep going till I see he is unconscious. My throat gets to the point I can’t pay attention and need air and I release him. I swim up dying for air barely conscious and start gasping at the top.

When I reach above I’m exhausted and breathless panting non stop. It hits me that I actually drowned that person! That was a lot more effective than what I normally do! I feel incredible.  I swim over to Lola.

“You did alright for your first time,” she says.

Days go by and she continues training me and I start feeling more powerful. I start getting to know all the mermaids and they aren’t all that bad and I get along with those.

I’m in the lagoon treading water next to Lola one day, “We still haven’t gone over what happens once I am a serpent, how do I transform back and forth?” I ask her.

“I’m glad you brought that up, that’s today’s lesson,” she smiles with a glimmer of deviousness, “So the trick for that is you have to tune in on one emotion and that emotion alone whether it’s hate, envy, whatever,” she tells me.

“I tried that, I couldn’t.  You know I almost died trying to do it myself!”

“Clearly you didn’t try hard enough.  You have shown the past days there is plenty you are mad about.  Just use one of those to think of,” she explains, “Like that boy your still love sick over,”

“I’m not love sick. I’m just trying to get over him still,” As I begin thinking of what drives me volatile, I get picked up and dragged up on land.  I turn around and get furious.

“What the fuck Pan! Get off me!” I yell and push him back.

He lets go and I stand up, “Don’t shout at me I’m saving you! What the hell are you doing with these girls?” he demands.

“These girls are my friends, they're helping me become-” I begin.

“Become a mermaid?” he finishes my sentence.  I look confused as a school of mermaids swim over.

“Hi Peter!” They smile and bat their eyes.

I ignore them, “Pan, you’ve messed with my head enough, you hurt me, please just go,” My heart breaks telling him to leave.

“Y/n,” he takes a step closer to me, “I messed up, I know that, but you can’t deny there isn’t something here between us.  You said it yourself up at Dead Man’s Peak,”

“Wait, Peter Pan is the guy that your so hung up on?  That explains so much,” Lola says.

I stand still staring in his green eyes trying to come up with a reason for him to be wrong but my mind is blank, “Pan, I want you, really, but it isn’t right!  I’m a freaking, well you know!  And I can’t even control changing back into it!”

“So if I did this you wouldn’t respond the same?” he leans in and kisses me softly.

I try to pull myself away but I can’t help but melt into it.  His arms embrace my body.  He finally pulls away.

I look down and start getting insecure “Pan why would you like me? I’m a slimy mean creature that lurks to kill. I’m nothing classy or pretty. Hell I can’t even control my transformations”

He takes my hands in his and lifts my chin so my eyes meet his, “You’re not though. You are kind, you’re brave, and you’re not afraid to not do as I say which I have to admit is kinda hot.   I can help you with switching back and forth. Just come back,”

I turn to Lola, “What did he mean when he said that you were all going to turn me into a mermaid?”

“Nothing, he’s lying, he just wants you back,” she huffs a little too dramatically.

“I find that hard to believe because mermaids are the main tricksters I know.  I know who will tell me,” I walk over to Annabelle and kneel down to be at her level, “Do you know what the actual reason for that is?” I ask smiling.

“Yeah!  You see apparently I was taught that if someone needs help being there other half, like how you are a sea serpent, we pretend that we are helping you but really trying to turn you into a full on mermaid like us,” she smiles.

“ANNABELLE!” everyone shouts mad at her and she cowers down.

The whole lagoon goes silent for a good 10 seconds until finally Lola speaks, “Since the secret is out, I guess I’ll say she’s right, and it was awfully easy considering you share the same qualities that we do,”

I feel betrayed and it shows on my face, I thought these people were my friends but they just stab me in the back like that.

“Don’t look so surprised, you’re the one who said mermaids aren’t to be trusted to begin with,” She tells me deadpan.

I turn back to Pan defeated and hug him, “Thanks for coming back,”

“So does that mean you will come back with me?” 

“Yes, of course I will,” I smile.

“So what? Do you just want to be nothing? Just a person?” One of the mermaids ask.

I look at Pan and back at her, “I’ll be able to figure it out without your conniving help,”

I take Pan’s hand and he whisks us away to Dead Mans Peak.

“Pan what are we doing here?” I ask looking down as we are on the edge of the cliff and my bones shake, “I don’t like this! I’m afraid of heights!  You know that!”

He pulls me close holding me in front of him, “I want to promise you that I will always protect you and be there when you need me. Never forget that,” he kisses me, “Especially now I know you were hung up on me,” he adds teasing.

“Shut up,” I laugh.

He pulls me away from the edge, “Now let’s have some fun!”

[divine-peach]

past life reading for @xgrim-angelx

Memory:

It’s the sound of waterfalls that hits me first. I walk confidently beneath one, my stride never faltering as the powerful water hits my crown and thunders down on me, plastering my long black hair to my skin. I walk with grace, shoulders back and moving with power and purpose. I follow, curiously, to the disturbance within my realm, water folding open before me. My eyes adjust to the sudden light that shines through the hole at the top of the cave, catching on the greenery and colourful flora that grow there before bouncing onto the water below, creating beautiful mosaic patterns of all shades of blue. My eyes catch the disturbance among the sands at the back walls, a figure moving between the large grey rocks that take sentinel there. “Who goes there?” I ask in my mother tongue, my fins rising in defiance and anger - a threatening stance. I easily towered over the little fish, who just reached my navel. The shadowed figure stops moving, startled. I had silently crept up behind them so when they turned, I was faced with a clear view of brown eyes set upon a scaleless face. A fish-leg, I thought with some amusement as I stare down at them. They stutter, their fins [arms] coming up to cover their face, whether in shock or fear. I laugh, coming out as an amused gurgle at their antics.

“Why do you dare trespass here?” I asked, tilting my head and coming down onto one knee to see them clearly. They’re dressed in some white material, a cover perhaps, to shield their defenceless skin. It’s undone at the top and fraying [string] and ends below their [hands - they had no word for this]. Brown material covers their lower half, bunched at the top where white meets brown but then a line divided into light brown to dark brown [boots] towards the lower end, ending in fins [limbs] different to the ones on their upper half. “I.. uh... I,” the [man] stutters, staring at me. He seems lost for words, [hands] shaking in midair. I smile, skin opening to reveal sharp teeth. They stumble back in shock, eyes wide and their weird anemone [hair] on top of their head bounces with their movement. They crash onto the unforgiving grey pebbles and rocks that dot the sandy floor and I stand up in concern, unwilling to let my prey go and my curiosity to be left unsatisfied. “Care? [one word in their language which has multiple meanings similar to “how are you”, “are you okay” e.t.c.]. They [groan] in that weird voice of theirs, brown eyes closed and some brown feathers of [hair] falling across their face. I lean over, getting closer to them, enough to smell the brine coming off their skin. A fellow sea [wanderer/traveller] then.

They open their eyes and stare into mine. I see myself reflected off their eyes and I'm slightly taken aback at the wash of emotions that I feel because of it. They scramble on their dry fins [legs] of theirs to get behind the rocks and away from me and I snort in amusement. They won’t get far. I croon at them, trying to bring them out - I wish to play with them a little longer. Trembling, the figure detaches itself from the cavern walls, eyes wide and staring straight at me. I kneel on both my legs, my hair fanning out onto the water’s surface. I make myself look as non-threatening as possible, my fins on my back already lying un-presented. I’m slightly startled as they reach out a [limb/hand] towards me and I study it for a minute, watching the light make it shine. I rest my chin on it and feel it tremble, their blood pounding.

Appearance: 

You were fairly tall, the size of two full grown men. You had strong legs and your overall physique was muscular. You had long black hair that fell past your ankles, often pooling into patterns onto the water.  Your skin was blue, fading into dark blue along your back and fading into light blue/white on your front. You had dark blue spots on the sides of your body and some smattered along your back. You had fins along your back that ended right above where a human’s tailbone would have been. You could raise these for numerous emotions, such as fear, to appear threatening and I believe for romance/courting displays.

Your head was wide at the top before narrowing at your chin, heart-shaped. You had large eyes that were light yellow, which darkened whenever you felt threatened or angered or felt other strong emotions. You had no nose and gills along your neck. You had no definable lips, but you had a mouth which was set with sharp, pointed teeth.

Traits & Characteristics: 

In this memory, you were still young and fairly naive and undoubtedly, very curious and inquisitive. You were often found straying to close to the water's edge, not quite on land for you could not set foot there, but close enough to study the wildlife. You were greatly intrigued by the “other side”.

You had to be quite confident and headstrong - you had to grow up fast - and often used your wits and strength to stay on top of the food chain and survive. You were fiercely independent and fiercely protective of your domain. I sensed you weren’t one to leave home often, mostly due to these protective instincts, but that didn’t stop your curiosity for the outer world.

Major Themes:

Romance - glimpses into further memories talk of learning how to rely on another and letting someone in.

Adventure - self-exploration

Curiosity

“Lost youth” - a sense you didn’t have time for self-exploration due to having to have to grow up fast

Identity - being something more than what you were made/raised to be

Notes:

The “mother tongue” to my ears was a bunch of garbles and gurgles, like babbling water or someone gargling water. I took a few times to roughly translate what they were saying and even then it might not be the straight translation, so I tried to convey the meaning behind their words instead.

The vocab of your mother tongue was strange - you had numerous names for humans: “fish-legs, little fish, finless” which was quite interesting to hear!

You couldn’t understand what humans were saying, they just sounded like muffled birdsong to you. I used my ears here instead.

They called human hair “anemone” even though they had hair themselves - I believe they just didn’t understand the anatomy of humans and didn’t know that they could possess the same features as well.

You could not walk on land, you had to be near or with water at all times.

From your early memories, parents and childhood weren’t really a ‘thing’. They gave birth to you, raised you and taught you to look after yourself, then left you be. I sense most of your kind were independent/solitary beings.

Further glimpses into your memories reveal this man present now plays a very important role in this life for you.

[nutsdoltsberets]

Basking In The Sun

Fandom: RWBY Rating: Teen Characters: Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long No Ships Just Team Fluff Other Tags: Great Weiss Shark AU, Faunus!Weiss, Slice of Life, Beach Vacations Words: 2044 Crossposted to Archive Of Our Own

Inspired by Spudato/ @faunusrights Great Weiss Shark AU They have a Masterpost on their tumblr Faunusrights https://faunusrights.tumblr.com/post/164560451654 Summary: Team RWBY starts off a week of relaxation with a day at the beach.

 Ruby and Yang ran ahead up the small steps towards the old homely looking cabin while Blake and Weiss trailed behind them up the winding dirt road.

 “Are you sure I should have come?” Weiss quietly vents her anxieties toward Blake who trudged along quietly.

 “Of course, did you want to go home to your father for your break?”

 “God no.”

 “Do you think Ruby and Yang would rather we hadn’t come?”

 “Well. No…”

 Weiss attempted to throw up an excuse but Blake quickly silenced her by pressing her finger over Weiss’ lips.

 “Then how about we have some fun. I’m sure it’s been a while since either of us has been on the beach.”

 “Why didn’t you go to visit your family?” Weiss asks cautiously hoping she wasn’t stepping on any kind of landmine.

 “Ships to Menagerie are expensive” Blake simply shrugged and Weiss relaxed a bit.

 “Hey you two!” Ruby calls from the open door. “Hurry up! Let’s get changed so we can hit the water!”

 The two wandered into the cabin to discover it was a lot larger than it had looked from the front. Clearly more of a permanent residence than a summer retreat home. Everything about it from the high wooden, the awkward shag carpet and linoleum floor as well as knick knacks strewn across every surface they could sit screamed of some sort of eclectic homeiness that neither were truly that familiar with.

 “Welcome to our home. Our small PATCH of solitude.” Yang emphasized her terrible pun to the groans of those present, coming down a set of stairs already changed into her vibrant yellow on black bikini.

 “Wait this is your actual house?” Weiss stared around at all the strange and mishmashed furniture. “I guess that makes sense.”

 “Wait. That means-” Blake was cut off by the sound of tiny paws tapping across the wooden floor.

 Zwei rounded a corner and bolted for the group. Blake dove to the safety of a small table top and Ruby did some sort of rock star knee slide, catching the dog from below before engulfing him in her best impression of one of Penny’s hugs.

 “Zwei!!!!”

 “Don’t worry, we’ll keep him on a leash or locked in a room until dad picks him up.” Yang said tossing a small collar and leash towards Ruby who deftly locked it in place.

 Eyeing the dog Blake quickly dashed for the stairs where Yang indicated they could use the bathroom or bedrooms to change. Weiss followed a moment later giving Zwei a quick scratch between his ears as she passed.

 The two changed leisurely, Blake into a black bikini with purple accented ribbons and drapings, elegant and somewhat impractical Blake assured Ruby that no it would not get caught on anything and yes the draping fabric could be removed before swimming. Weiss on the other hand appeared wearing what seemed to be professional swimming sportswear, a single one piece covered in weird patterns with side cut outs along her sides for her lower set of gills as well as a pair of knee high socks covered in similar strange white and blue designs.

 The other girls stared at Weiss confused for a while before Yang finally had to ask.

 “So what’s up with the uhh, water stockings? Is this some weird sort of foot thing?”

 “No you dolts, it’s optic camouflage. Coco designed it and said it would keep away any unwanted sea creatures while in the ocean. Like sea grimm or sharks.”    No one really knew how to follow that up so eventually they just let it go. Yang taking some pictures to send back to Coco as part of the design deal and Ruby running off to go change herself. Returning only moment later still in the red hoodie she had worn during the car ride but now in a set of swim shorts instead of her regular skirts.

 “I know you’re fast but that was impressive even for you.”

 “Thanks Blake, but actually I was already in most of the swimsuit before we even left. I’m just super excited!”

 “Well then,” Yang called heading towards the door with Weiss in tow. “Let’s get going, no time like the present.”

 Yang lead the group down a path from the back of the house towards the beach. It didn’t take too long for the sounds of kids and adults playing in the sun to reach their ears, at which point Weiss began to look nervous.

 “Hey are you okay?” Ruby pulled her aside to ask.

 “I thought we were going somewhere private to swim. I don’t want to be seen by people. What it word gets out?”

 Ruby quickly stopped her before she started spiralling, signalling Yang and Blake to go ahead.

 “We just need to go near the main beach to reach the trails. You can wear my hoodie until we get all the way there if you want. It should help hide your gills.”

 Weiss nodded slowly and Ruby stripped off her hoodie and helped Weiss into it, fitting almost perfectly despite the age difference.

 “Thank you,” she said quietly, letting Ruby wrap her arms around her in a soft hug.

 Ruby led Weiss down the path that Blake and Yang had gone, coming out on trail in the trees just above the dunes of the beach. Hundreds of beach goers could be seen just metres away down the slope and Weiss began to worry again, however Ruby led her away from the main beach along the trail. They passed four or five paths down to the sand and then eventually staircases as the trail and dune weaved upward transforming into a cliff side trail overlooking more rocky coves and outcroppings. Almost two stories up they came out on an overlooking point, clearly eroding and ready to collapse. From atop it Weiss could see massive rocks sticking out of once again jagged like angry teeth protruding from the sandy ground, she couldn’t help but run her tongue along her own. Swinging her gaze back up she found what seemed to be a climbing path down using the very roots of trees holding the ground up as rope clearly unstable after years of wear. Noticing Weiss’ apprehensive face Ruby laughed.

 “Don’t worry this isn’t the spot, but we’re almost there.”

 Following Ruby again they turned a small corner no farther than ten feet away and came upon what appeared to be hundreds of arches ground out of some sort of bush or tree. The resulting appearance of the too perfect and out of place fauna was rather unsettling, like some path one would follow only to disappear into a world of fae and darkness never to be seen again. Crossing through however opened up to massive trees growing out of the cliff side obscuring the ground below and flanked their opposite by a long well trimmed hedge, tall enough that you could make out the top of the cabin on the far side but nothing more. Ruby took her down a small path hidden in the branches into a clearly partway down, a podium almost nestled under the roots of a tree about and above the roots of a tree that looked like it had fallen from above but decided to keep growing against all odds across the ground towards the sea. A massive gnarled hand reaching out. Another path down opened out onto a small sandy beach surrounded by rocky outcrops that ran far out into the water.

 Yang and Blake were waiting for them, just finishing the final touches on the blankets and umbrella. The only two on the beach secluded by trees, the only opening revealing the massive hedges up and behind.

 “This is amazing.” Weiss gaped at the beauty of the small area.

 “We’re glad you like it” Yang waved them over. “We found this years ago, the owner of the cabin up there is gone most of the year but the property still acts as a sort of shield from the tourists. Most people think this is either private or they’re too scared to get past the cliff.”

 “Nice bathing suit Ruby” Blake said pulling out a folding chair and book.

 “Ack!” Ruby tried to hide behind Weiss who was still wearing her hoodie embarrassed by her overly lacey black top.

 “Come on it looks fine” Weiss tried to get away from her before relenting and instead returning her top.

 “Please sis, the goth look suits you.”

 Now free of the extra garment Weiss wandered out of the small play fight going on between her teammates and headed towards the shore. Pausing to relish the feel of the water on her feet she gazed back and forth across the beach taking in the site. Blake was in her chair in the shade reading, Yang and Ruby had stopped bickering and Yang lay out to sunbathe while Ruby climbed out across the rocks of one of the nearby outcroppings. The soft sound of the surf and gulls and warmth of the sun across her back reminded her of how long it had last been since she’d been able to find peace and quiet like this. The last time she’d been able to swim openly like this, though as that was back in Atlas it wasn’t quite so warm. She swam for what felt like ages, enjoying the fresh scents and tang of the ocean brine. Diving and exploring the caves and nooks down below discovering the various life that lived within. When she finally decided to take a break she leisurely swam over to the outcrop Ruby had perched on earlier and found that Blake had joined her a fishing rod in tow.

 “Weiss!” Ruby waved. “Come check this out! There’s a bunch of baby turts over here!”

 Coming up beside the rock Ruby helped pull Weiss up and above onto the stone shelf, discovering that on the other side was what appeared to be a massive bowl filled with small fish and a pod of small baby sea turtles.

 “When the tide rises they all swim in and then when it falls again a bunch stay behind” Ruby explained pointing out various different species they could see in the remarkable clear water.

 Eventually Weiss caught sight of Blake’s lure and padded over to her pouting as Blake without looking shifted the bucket containing her gains to the far side.

 “These are for dinner. You’ll get some then.” she teased.

 Flopping down and watching the pool and Blake’s lure once more they sat in comfortable silence. Ruby joining them shortly paddling her feet in the water.

 The peace was broken by a sudden hissing sound, Blake and Weiss whipped their heads to see Yang who had finally finished with her sunbathing wading out into the water which seemed to boil and steam around her as she went. Ruby seemed completed unperturbed by the whole thing.

 “She gets hot.”

 Everyone knew that but apparently her natural body temperature plus basking in the glare of the sun turned her into walking fire.

 Finally as the tide began to creep up onto the tops of the rocks and the sky began to turn a gorgeous dark orange they decided it was time to clean up and head back. Weiss and Ruby helped carry the gear as they hadn’t on the way there, and Yang and Blake carried the buckets of fish. Blake had managed to catch a massive haul, yet they still weren’t sure if it would be enough. Tai apparently would have picked up Zwei back at the cabin and taken him over to Qrow’s where he was going to stay for the rest of the week. Something which Blake seemed quite glad of. Both as she didn’t have to stress over avoiding Zwei all week but also as it meant there was one less mouth to feed.

 The walk back seemed longer than the walk there as if the week had suddenly began to move at half the regular rate. Obviously it was just the exhaustion of the end of the day speaking but if it had been going slower none of them would have minded, everyone was just looking forward to the rest of their plans together.

[tomaiartstudio]

Zodiac Mermaid Descriptions

As I mentioned in my last post, I had found a post here on tumblr that held descriptions of the Zodiac signs as mermaids. I will be editing this and reblogging it as I post new pictures

The Signs as Mermaids

Aries- Much like Sirens, Aries’ mermaids are alluring. Though they don’t share the same genetics as the fabled Sirens, whom were part human part bird, they have similar characteristics. They have a ruby red tail that has a fan-like fin, and have many jewels adorning them. They like lavish things, and their suitors will normally try to win their favor by giving them gifts. They are the most hot-headed of the mermaid’s, causing some quarrels here and there. They are seen around South America, near the coasts of Venezuela. Aries’ usually have blonde or white hair, but tan skin. They get along well with predatory fish, but aren’t opposed to chatting with any other marine life that happens by. They are the most social of the group and are very passionate about their ideas. They like to tell stories about their adventures or of their families. When they transform their legs have a permanent stain of red.

Taurus- Seen around Europe, people think they might be related to Merrows. They have flexible tails that vary from dark greens to olive in color, and they have a extra fin on either flank of their tail. It’s translucent and is used to help them glide smoothly through the water. Taurus’ are connected to nature and often will possess great abilities to make plants grow. They use the mud from the banks to draw designs on their skin and are usually in groups of two or three. They have webbed fingers and slightly sharper nails for hunting. They don’t waste any part of their prey, and bones are used to fashion into jewelry or other accessories. They don’t like being in crowd of humans, and will venture onto land at night by themselves if they desire it. When they change, they are distinguished by their fingers.

Gemini- A love affair, these mermaids are always born in sets of two. They are from the mating of a mermaid and human, and due to this it causes a defect in one of the twins. Only one is able to grow a tail, while the other is merely human with merfolk blood in their veins. They are separated at birth, mermaid going with mermaid, and the human going home with its parent. They are raised differently, and only on their first full moon of their 18th birthday will they meet. The mermaids from this affair are varied in colors, but have never been seen with a black or white tail. They believe that is because of a force similar to yin and yang, light and dark. These mermaids are known to have powers relating to wind manipulation. Gemini’s are forbidden from going on land unless they are willing to give up their tail forever. When they change, their hybrid blood snaps into play and they are unable to return to the water, therefore stranded as a human.

Cancer- Mermaids who lives in tropical climates, like Brazil or places alike. Prefers warmer waters to cold ones, and likes playing in waves.. They are often spotted near coasts but haven’t  been caught on camera, and they seem to be more curious than anything about people. Their tails are normally white or silver, and sometimes they have foam green fins.Cancer’s tails are sleek, and up close the scales are hard and sharp for protection. These particular mermaid’s fins are smaller, but transparent towards the end and are in the shape of a crescent. They seem to bond more with animals that are on the ocean floor, such as crabs and starfish. They like to collect lost trinkets from the sandy reefs. Their gills are located underneath their jaw, and have a pink tinge to them. They don’t like going on the shore, and so they don’t transform unless they have to. Their giveaway is that their legs will have splotches of white or silver.

Leo- Similar to Sirena Chilota, they are generous mermaids. Found in various oceans, they are a peaceseeker to the inhabitants. Usually they are seen with a long golden tail, broad but beautiful that gets darker towards the fins. Their scales shine in light and always seem to be like polished gold. Leo’s are a gorgeous mermaid without doubt, and are often viewed as a beacon of self-confidence and luck when spotted. They are friendly to everyone as long as they haven’t threatened their safety, and do not fear humans. They are known to save children from drowning and bring them to the shore. When they dry, their tails turn into legs. The telltale sign of them being mermaids is that on their legs they will have small patches of shiny scales. These mermaids tend to be reasonably tall and lithe. They like pearls and will commonly use strings of them as hair accessories. Their gills are just below their third ribs.

Virgo- The most calm of the bunch, Virgo’s are freshwater mermaids. Their scales have no set color and are opal-like, showing just the reflections of light around them. These mermaids have short tails with long fins, and scales around their eyes. They have a love for flowers and will decorate themselves with any they can get their hands on. Virgo’s also have serrated teeth, used for easily eating their prey. These mermaids are the most common ones to have humans fall in love with them, and will often allow children to find their bodies of water and let them play with them or weave items into necklaces. They have an attraction to shiny objects, like bottle caps or rings. They do not change into humans, but will often put themselves on shores, rocks, or grass for the enjoyment of the sun on their skin. They are always near a water source though, and if they stay out too long they will become weak, and eventually die if not able to return to their water.

Libra- This species of mermaid is not particular about their homes, and are seen pretty much everywhere. Their tails are average size, and are various shades of blue, usually leaning towards lighter blues. Their fins are in the shape of a horseshoe, and have a clear webbing between the ends of them. Libra’s are not afraid of humans, and will swim alongside them so long as they deem it safe. They often will be heard singing around 5 in the evening, though no one is sure why they choose that time. These mermaids like to stay together, and are rarely seen alone. They’re similar to dolphins, and happen to get along well with the aquatic creatures. Libra’s aren’t the biggest fan of leaving the water, but when they do their giveaway is the clear webbing between their toes. They’re the strongest swimmers and are able to push their way through tsunami’s and other rough water.

Scorpio- These mermaids live in cold waters and often will not go to warm climates. They dwell in caverns and are seen as often transformed as they aren’t. Scorpio’s tails are dark purples, sometimes indigo, with a black stripes just above their fins, which are flowy and sometimes iridescent. This is also how they are distinguished on land, as around their ankles they will have a dark stripe on their skin. These mermaids have thin gills on their necks. They have an odd fascination with the moon, and will usually come together in groups to view a full moon and celebrate a new beginning. They like to carry a bag with them around their waist, usually tied with a reed or string of shells. They use this to grab anything that catches their eye. They are gifted with a great memory and long lifespan, taking on one lover at a time and are assumed to have at least one child. Their communication with other marine life is unknown.

Sagittarius- Sagittarius’ are the faster swimmers; they use their long tail and broad fins to streak through the water like a arrow. Their tails vary between a series of greens and yellows, and have thick scales that hunters aren’t able to penetrate with their weapons. They are wild, but still smart enough to ensure their own safety. They like hot climates best, but some have adapted to arctic waters. They have sharpened nails for protection, and their brow bones and temples are covered in scales. Sagittarius’ are normally patrolling for any signs of trouble, and are quick to ward off any predators from other merfolk. They’re quick problem solvers. They pride themselves in their ability to sustain and protect their family, and are easily one of the easiest mermaids to get along with. They enjoy looking for any items that are clunky and outrageous looking, finding them interesting to study. These mermaids will sometimes go on land, and there is no distinguishing features.

Capricorn- These deep-sea mermaids like to keep to themselves, and are said to be an omen of fortune when they are spotted. Their tails are darker, varying between black and shades of brown, and come in multiple shapes. Their bodies have evolved to their surroundings of darkness, and down the flanks of their tails they have rings that are bioluminescent. This attracts their prey, making it easy for them to acquire. Capricorn’s eyes have adjusted, and have a nightvision-like effect, but when they do go to the surface they’re close to blind. They can comfortably go to the mid of the ocean, but the closer they get to the sun the worse off they are. Many believe that these mermaids are considered one of the most dangerous if caught since they have a higher level of testosterone than others. Capricorn’s will sabotage any man-made equipment if it is uncomfortably close to them, biting through cables and scratching important devices.

Aquarius- Aquarius’ have duo-toned tails, usually between teal and pink with a flexible bottom fin. Their gills are down their ribs, and are protected by a cluster of scales. They’re the most mischievous of the mermaids, and are known to mess with anyone who is swimming near them. These prankster’s like to pinch and poke, but are pretty much harmless. Because of this as well, they will sometimes steal valuables for their own use, even if they don’t really have a use for it. But, they’re very friendly despite this. They just like to hoard things. Aquarius’ spend a lot of time out of water, and have no problem blending in with humans. Their mermaid mark when they transform is a discoloration of the skin in the shape of various seashells. They enjoy listening to music, whether it’s some radio on the beach or the singing of merfolk, it’s a pastime of theirs, though few dabble in it themselves.

Pisces- Mermaids who populate the oceans near South Asia, these ones are typically timid. They are the most fish-like of the signs, and have white and orange dappled tails, like a koi fish. Their fins are much more loose than others, making them more flimsy and dainty. Pisces’ have gills on their necks, and have little whiskers that protrude from their cheeks. They travel in groups and are thought of as a beacon of youth and beauty, and though they stray from older humans, they like to play with children. It’s said that if one of these creatures is seen on the morning after a harvest moon, the person who saw them will be given a blessing. They like to collect stones and gems, making them into accessories. To propose a lifelong partnership to another mermaid, Pisces’ will search for the biggest gem in their collection and present it to their partner. When they go on land, its brief and only for a specific reason. Their telltale mark is the whiskers on their face.

Reblog and tag your zodiac sign or your favorite description of these, and if anyone knows the original owner of the post, please let me know! I want to credit them but I can’t find the post for the life of me. .-. Send me a message for the next sign you want to see. Until I get messages I’ll be posting the signs in order. I hope you all like the pictures!

[aion-rsa]

Aquaman: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and DCEU Reference Guide

https://ift.tt/2T5hsTP

Ready to see what DC Comics and DCEU goodness is hidden in the seaweed of the Aquaman movie? We've got you covered!

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Mike Cecchini

Aquaman

Dec 20, 2018

DC Entertainment

This article contains nothing but Aquaman spoilers.

After years of development, the Aquaman movie is finally here. For a little perspective, we first glimpsed Jason Momoa as Aquaman in a brief cameo in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but he had been cast in the role as early as 2014. That's...quite a long time to wait for the king of Atlantis to ascend (or descend) to his throne, even when you take his starring role in last year's Justice League movie into account.

And just as we've seen in every DCEU movie, Aquaman is absolutely packed to the gills (sorry) with DC Universe easter eggs. With a tremendous amount of reverence for Aquaman comic book history, and a few subtle nods to the wider DC Comics world, there's a lot to unpack here.

So here's how this works. I've spotted everything I can from my first viewing. If you see anything I missed, let me know, either in the comments or yell at me on Twitter, and if it checks out, I'll update this.

Let's get our lines in the water, shall we?

The Origin Story

Let's talk about Arthur Curry for a minute. Do you know this character has been around nearly as long as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman? Aquaman first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941, where he was created by Mort Weisinger (who later went on to be a legendary...and legendarily difficult...editor on the Superman titles) and Paul Norris. 

Arthur has had a ton of different origins through the years, but this movie primarily pulls from comics published in the last decade. It's far less confusing that way.

read more: Aquaman Comics Reading Order

- Just a quick note about Aquaman's look before we dive back into the rest of the fun stuff in the origin story. While he ultimately ends up in a very faithful version of his comic book costume (and seriously, it looks amazing, doesn't it?), the long-haired, bearded, tough guy Aquaman look was really popularized when Peter David was writing the character in the 1990s, and was further cemented in pop culture consciousness by the excellent Justice League animated series in the early part of the 21st century. In fact...

- The gladiator gear Arthur wears during his first fight with Orm is reminiscent of the Peter David era of the character.

OK, back to work...

- The underwater WB logo reminds me a little of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie. That was the first time I could remember the WB logo being presented against something less traditional than the bright blue sky. There, the sky darkened to night before panning down for the opening credits. Here it's more intricate (with the barnacles, etc) but it's still very cool.

- The opening narration by Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry includes a quote from Jules Verne, one of the fathers of science fiction. Here’s the full quote:

"Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all."

While the first part of that quote certainly refers to Tom Curry and Atlanna (and perhaps Arthur and Mera), the rest of it could surely encompass the rest of the movie. The “two planets in space” is the surface world and Atlantis, and the “two enemies in a crowd” is Arthur’s dual nature as an Atlantean/human, his relationship with his half-brother, but ultimately I feel like it best sums up the enmity between Aquaman and Black Manta.

read more: Creating the World of Aquaman

- Right out of the gate, the influence of Geoff Johns on the Aquaman character is felt in this movie. The first time we ever heard of Amnesty Bay as his hometown was in the Johns-penned Blackest Night series (something that would make a fine basis for a Green Lantern movie or Justice League sequel down the road, by the way).

- On the TV during that intro sequence is the intro to Stingray, a 1964 puppet animation underwater series. Interestingly enough, the very first episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 from back in its public access days was "Invaders From the Deep," a feature length compilation of Stingray episodes. 

- In the Curry household you can spot a Fender bass and a Vox amplifier (is that a Pathfinder, amp?). While neither Tom nor Arthur Curry are particularly renowned for their musical skills, Jason Momoa does play a mean bass.

- The adorable golden retriever is most likely a reference to “Salty" (no, his name isn't Aquadog) from the Geoff Johns New 52 run. The difference there is that the doggie wasn't Tom Curry's, but adopted by Arthur and Mera after his owner had been killed by the trench.

- As an early nod to director James Wan’s horror roots during the otherwise Amblin-esque prologuge, there’s a copy of HP Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror visible on a table. That story also deals with a “half-breed” main character, although one whose mysterious origins are far less noble than Arthur’s. Its New England setting also connects with the Amnesty Bay opening sequence here.

- The scene with Atlanna swallowing the goldfish is a play on classic “fish out of water” tropes. Older fans may remember Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks in Splash, where Hannah's mermaid eats a lobster, shell and all. 

We definitely get a distinctive “vuu-vuu-vuu” sound when young Arthur talks to the fish, reminiscent of what would be heard when Aquaman would use his powers on various incarnations of the Super Friends cartoon.

Later on in the movie we also get the famed "circles" effect that would be visible when Aquaman would use his powers in assorted animation series. It's really cool to see it represented on screen.

Aquaman Villains

Let's talk about this movie's baddies, shall we?

BLACK MANTA

- The Black Manta origin story we see on screen is basically an adaptation of his most recent one (he has had...a bunch...we detailed them all here). There are some changes here, though. In the comics origin (this one concocted by Geoff Johns), Arthur killed Manta's father by mistake, as he believed he was responsible for the death of Tom Curry. Here, it's used to illustrate how Arthur needs to learn mercy for later in the film, but it's still close enough to the comics version of events.

- When we finally see Black Manta in his full costume, there’s a great vocal effect. One of the most striking things about the character when he was a regular on Challenge of the Super Friends was his voice. Unforgettable, and a nice nod here.

read more - Aquaman and the Secrets of Black Manta

- When building his technology, Manta says "I think I'm gonna need a bigger helmet," a clear nod to the famous "we're gonna need a bigger boat" line from the greatest seafaring blockbuster of all time, Jaws.

- It's interesting that they lean so hard into how well-established Aquaman is as a superhero with the Aquaman-fights-pirates scene. It helps place this movie even more firmly within the DCEU (which is not being rebooted any time soon). We already knew Arthur had been operating more or less out in the open before Justice League, but clearly the events of that movie have made him more of a household name. It's not clear how long after the end of Justice League this movie takes place, but let's just say it has been roughly a year, which gives Arthur's fame a little more time to grow.

Orm

- Orm has been around since Aquaman #29 in 1966, where he was created by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy. Like Black Manta, Orm has had several variations of his origin story through the decades, but also like Black Manta, the version we see on screen here is most similar to the New 52 version of the character introduced by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Paul Pelletier.

read more - Aquaman Villains Explained: Who is Orm, the Ocean Master?

- Once nice touch here is that they made Ocean Master a title, not a codename.

Orm's father, King Orvax is from the Geoff Johns comics, as well. Orvax was a Captain in the Atlantean army who became king by marrying Atlanna. The idea is to make sure that the royal family is always bound to military leaders. Needless to say it didn't work out well for anyone involved.

- The visual of the tidal wave coming to shore is very much like how Orm first launched his attack on the surface world during the Throne of Atlantis comics story, which this movie certainly owes a tremendous debt to. There, however, Orm actually did wage all out war on the surface world, rather than merely threaten it, and it took the full Justice League to stop him. It's too bad they seem to have used up this story here, because this story is certainly big enough, and would have made for an interesting Justice League 2.

Also, it might be a coincidence because it looks cool, but the final throwdown taking place in the pouring rain feels like it comes out of , too. It was always raining in that story.

- It takes him a while to get there, but Ocean Master does eventually wear his classic comics costume, right down to the famous helmet.

- One other random thing about Patrick Wilson as Orm. His clean-shaven, blond haired, classical good looks make him appear far more like traditional comic book depictions of Aquaman.

ATLANTIS

- The flashbacks to the dawn of Atlantis is reminiscent of the worldbuilding we saw in Wonder Woman and Man of Steel. This is a highlight of nearly every DCEU movie. I love seeing the ancient history of these societies represented on screen.

I don't believe that this particular origin of Atlantis lines up with any of the ones from the comics. One thing to keep in mind is that for years, DC had multiple/competing versions of Atlantis in their continuity, before they were finally all unified in the excellent Atlantis Chronicles limited series. You can read that on DC Universe right now, and it's definitely worth your time.

- One of the nice little touches throughout the movie is that there is a subtle but cool underwater vocal effect.

- King Nereus first appeared in Aquaman #19 (2013) and was created by Geoff Johns and Paul Pelletier. He’s played here by the beloved, awesome Dolph Lundgren. He’s a fairly different character in the comics, though, where he isn’t a king, but a soldier of Xebel. And he isn’t Mera’s father, but a competitor for her romantic interests. Instead, they made Orm into Mera's betrothed...who she ditches for Arthur. Comic book Nereus and movie Orm should go out for a beer and have a good cry together.

read more - Explaining the Seven Kingdoms of Atlantis

- Murk (played here by Ludi Lin, who we loved in the Power Rangers movie) first appeared in Aquaman #17 (2013), and like Nereus, he was created by Geoff Johns and Paul Pelletier. Later in the movie (during that amazing Sicily fight/chase sequence) he loses a hand, which is a nod to his comic book look, where he is a far more grizzled soldier with a harpoon for a hand.

The octopus playing the drums during the Orm/Arthur battle is none other than Topo! And yes, he was known to dabble in music from time to time... 

Topo was created by Ramona Fradon (a giant among Aquaman creators) in the pages of Adventure Comics #229 in 1956.

However, the New 52 version of Topo is a giant kaiju-type monster, one who looks far more like the beast Arthur brings to everyone's aid at the climax of this movie.

- So much of this movie's visual flair is reminiscent of Mike Hodges' brilliant Flash Gordon movie from 1980, and I feel like some of the underwater laser sound effects sound like nods to those.

Mera

Mera has been around since Aquaman #11 in 1963, where she was created by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy. In the comics, Xebel isn't another kingdom of Atlantis, it's an entirely different dimension. And again, it should be noted, Nereus is NOT her Dad in the comics. Because...that would be weird.

- The same way Aquaman draws moisture from Aquaman's body to activate that piece of Atlantean tech, she also can use that kind of power offensively. There's an issue of the New 52 series where she straight up dehydrates a guy to bring him down...as in, makes him feel the effects of nearly 2 full days without water. In other words, just in case this movie didn't clue you in, under no circumstances should you mess with Mera, because she will mess your life up.

Mera references the events of Justice League, and that’s about as much inter-movie continuity as we get in the movie (or need, for that matter).

- King Atlan, first appeared in the excellent Atlantis Chronicles mini-series, but like nearly everything else in this movie, what we see here is primarily from what was introduced during Geoff Johns' New 52 run on the character. His look here, and how he just kind of hung out mummified on his old throne, is reminiscent of those comics. And yes, New 52 Aquaman wields his scepter.

However, it wasn't his trident that was the ultimate "holy relic" you see in this movie, but rather a magical scepter, one far more powerful than the trident. In any case, that scepter was responsible for the sinking of Atlantis in the comics, not the misuse of technology shown in the movie.

Vulko

- Vulko's full name is Nuidis Vulko (but I don't think we ever actually hear it in the movie). The character has been around since 1967's The Brave and the Bold #73, where he was created by Bob Haney and Howard Purcell. But the character as we see him here, a loyalist to Atlanna who takes it upon himself to train young Arthur is far more in line with the New 52 version of the character as written by Geoff Johns.

- I am kind of imagining this, but the blue "deep ocean camoflauge" suit that Vulko wears while training young Arthur reminds me of a briefly used, but incredibly cool, Aquaman costume design from the 1980s...

The Trench

Honestly, if Warner Bros. decides that they want to do a smaller, more horror-focused Aquaman sequel, you could do worse than adapting the first story from Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Paul Pelletier's first volume of the New 52 series, which introduced the Trench. In that story, they basically invade Amnesty Bay before Aquaman tracks them back to their undersea lair and seals them in. 

But there's one ability of the Trench that we don't see in the movie. They secrete this substance that basically shuts down their prey's nervous system, making them easier to eat. So yeah, that's terrifying. Imagine what James Wan could do with a story like this, one far less ambitious than this crazy Aquaman movie, but one more akin to The Walking Dead with horrifying fish monsters.

Miscellaneous Cool DC Stuff (and More!)

- While Aquaman is taking out the pirates on the submarine, there’s a funny moment where he holds an unconscious guy up to a porthole in the door, in order to fool one of the other pirates into opening it. I don’t know if this was intentional or not (I’d like to think it was), but in Jason Momoa’s ill-fated Conan the Barbarian reboot, there’s a scene where he does something similar...only it’s with a severed head. I...I actually really enjoy that Conan scene, even though the rest of the movie isn’t really up to it.

This isn't the only Conan reference in the movie. Later on, when Arthur is confronting the Karathen and making his case as to why he should be allowed to take the lost trident of Atlan, he tells it (her? It's a her. That's Julie Andrews, after all. I had better show some damn respect) "if that's not good enough, then screw you!" It's like a modern version of Arnold Schwarzenegger's classic prayer to Crom in John Milius' brilliant 1982 Conan the Barbarian, where he ends with a rather pragmatic, "and if you don't listen, then the hell with you!"

- Speaking of the Karathen, while that isn't from the comics, there is a similar giant kaiju from Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier's "Sea of Storms" story, called the Karaqan, and I don't think this is a coincidence. The Karaqan is less friendly (and dignified) than the Karathen, but let's say they're roughly of the same family.

And also, the image of the "forge" for the trident seems to be inspired by a panel from "Sea of Storms" which looks almost identical, although the context is very, very different there.

- Everyone is watching WGBS in the bar. Galaxy Broadcasting System is the most famous fictional network in the DC Universe, at one point owning The Daily Planet in addition to its other enterprises. The TV arm, WGBS, employed Clark Kent as a news anchor during the 1970s and early 1980s. And the head of WGBS? That would be Morgan Edge, someone we haven’t yet seen in the DCEU, but who certainly could make an impact if they decide to do anything with him down the line.

read more: Full Upcoming DCEU Movies Schedule

- Apparently, you can spot the creepy Annabelle doll from The Conjuring stashed underwater in one scene, but I didn't see her myself on the first viewing. I'm willing to take everyone's word for it, though!

- All through Atlantis we see Atlanteans riding seahorses. But...badass seahorses. But this is especially significant during the final battle when Arthur is charing into war on the back of one, wearing his classic comic book costume. This is a nod to what has generally been the most prominent picture of Aquaman in the pop culture consciousness: a dude who rides a seahorse.

- There are two moments in this movie that remind me of a mostly forgotten chapter in Aquaman history. Keith Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming, and the great Curt Swan had a limited series called The Legend of Aquaman in the 1980s. The vast majority of this story has been consigned to the continuity dustbin of history (which is too bad, because it's really cool). But in it, Aquaman is first brought to Atlantis as a prisoner, which feels kind of reminiscent of his first encounter with his brother in this movie.

But the other is his first large scale use of his ability to communicate with undersea life comes during a massive final battle to repel invaders, where he basically gets alllll the fishies to come and kick some ass for the glory of Atlantis. There's an element of that here.

- Back to more current Aquaman continuity, though...the sequence with Arthur and Mera in the desert isn't from any particular Aquaman comics, BUT it does seem inspired by something that came at the tail end of the first volume of the New 52 series by (you guessed it) Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. There's certainly a visual homage to it, as Arthur makes a hard landing in the sand at the start of it, and he's following the directions of a piece of Atlantean tech that needs to be immersed in water to be properly activated.

- The idea of Atlanna being alive was first brought forth in Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier's "Maelstrom" which sees Aquaman and Mera travel through a kind of dimensional barrier (similar to what they have to do to evade the Trench in this movie), to a tropical world where Atlanna still lives. There, however, she's a little less friendly. But whatever.

Aquaman Post Credits Scene

- Throughout the movie we see noted scientific crackpot Stephen Shin talking about Atlantis on TV. Shin was created by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis early in the New 52 Aquaman period. What we don't get in this movie, but that could potentially be explored in sequels, is his history with Arthur, which explains why he is so certain that Atlantis exists.

- In Shin's beat-up old lab, full of newspaper clippings about Atlantis, one stands out: The Coast City Ledger! This might be the first reference to Coast City in the DCEU (please correct me if I'm wrong). Coast City is home to Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern who we’ll (presumably...eventually) see again in a new Green Lantern Corps movie, whenever that finally gets made.

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

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