#wait do they hav a ship name

[highoncatfood]

do not be fooled i dont go here

[waterfire1848]

Ship prompt

31. prostitute/client au

Jinzula (Jin x Azula)

Hello, anon! Thanks for the ask!!

Modern AU setting by the way

Jin couldn’t believe she was doing this.

How did they get here? Okay. She knew how they got here.

When Jet first proposed the idea, Jin instantly said no. They’d gone out for a night on the town after Jin’s girlfriend had been found cheating on her. Jet said she needed to cut loose and be able to just sit back and relax for a night. What did that mean? Hiring a prostitute.

Jin instantly said no. She was angry at her girlfriend, yes, but that didn’t mean she wanted to hire a prostitute. Maybe going to a bar or out to a movie with friends? Jet, respecting her wishes, agreed to the bar which is where they all went. They drank, had some food and drank some more, and more, and more.

“Okay! Let’s do it!” Jin yelled to Jet, “Let’s hire a prostitute!”

That was how Jin found herself in her home with a Honda car outside. She was alone now, everyone had returned home and Jet just told her to text if there were problems, and incredibly nervous.

A knock at the door got her attention and forced her to the door. Standing in the door way was possibly the most beautiful woman Jin had ever seen in her life. She had long black hair, beautiful golden eyes and pale skin. She wore a red dress with heels and had a purse with her.

“Hello.” The woman grinned, “Nice to meet you.”

“N-Nice to meet you too.”

The woman chuckled, “First time?” Jin only nodded, “Okay. Here’s the deal. Your friend paid for the full night and that’s what you’re getting. The time is all yours until 9 am in the morning.” She stepped into the house, “Bedroom down the hall?” She asked.

“Y-Yeah.” Jin managed to get out. The woman nodded and made her way to Jin’s room.

Well, this was it. She would walk into her room where a prostitute….No. No, what was she doing? This was such a bad idea! This was illegal! She could get in so much trouble if anyone found out about this. Maybe it was because the alcohol was starting to wear off or because she was actually here and it was getting real now but Jin instantly decided she wasn’t doing this.

“What am I doing?” Jin grabbed for her phone to call Jet. He had to call this off. He could tell her that Jin didn’t want to do this anymore. She’d even let the woman keep the money for coming all the way down here but she was not ready to spend the night with a prostitute.

Jet didn’t respond, not surprising given that it was 1 am, so Jin walked to the bedroom to tell the woman to leave. However, when she opened the door Jin practically shut down.

“There you are. I was getting worried.” The woman was completely naked from head to toe and, when she saw Jin, sat up. She began to crawl across the bed over to Jin, “You want to start standing up?”

“I ummm…I-I think-“

“You don’t have to think. That’s my job.” She said.

“No. I-I mean…” That’s when Jin saw it. It was small but she definitely saw it. A tattoo, “What’s that?” Jin asked.

The woman turned her shoulder, revealing the lantern tattoo, “Oh. It’s an old tattoo I got with a college friend. You know, most clients don’t really look at my shoulders first…or at all.”

“Wait…Azula?” Jin asked.

“How do you know my name?!” Azula demanded, now standing up.

“It’s me! It’s Jin! I was with you when you got the tattoo.” Azula’s eyes grew wide. Memories of that day flooded her mind like a flood. The two had stayed up late that night, studying for some kind of exam, then, after finishing, went into town and dared each other to get tattoos. Jin made Azula get a tattoo of a lantern and Azula made Jin get a tattoo of a blue flame.

“Jin! It’s so great to see you! How have you been?” Azula asked, getting out of the bed.

“Great. I…Actually I’m not totally great. My girlfriend cheated on me.” Jin admitted.

“I’m so sorry.” Azula said, “I assume that’s why I’m here. To soften the pain.” Azula pulled Jin towards the bed, her fingers moving against Jin’s clothes.

“Wait! Hold on. Why are you here? You have a degree in law and policy. How’d you end up in this…I mean doing…” Jin began to blush and stumble over her words more and more. If Azula was being honest, she found it kind of cute.

“You don’t have to pretend, Jin. I know you know why I became a prostitute. Faking ignorance doesn’t make me feel better.” Azula told her, “Can we just do what you hired me for?”

“Wait, what?” Jin asked. Her eyes were wide and filled with confusion. For a moment, Azula grew annoyed. Was Jin really sticking to this act? Everyone knew what happened.

Although, Jin not knowing would explain why she had never texted her after the incident to offer condolences or support. It would also explain the truly lost expression she had right now.

“You didn’t know?” Azula asked, realizing the truth.

Jin shook her head, “A year or so after we got the tattoo together, my boyfriend said he wanted to take our relationship to the next level. Like an idiot I agreed and he…he posted pictures of me everywhere.” Jin’s eyes grew. She didn’t know any of this, “My father deleted them and sued Chan’s family, so he lost a lot of money which is the only positive part of this story. Because of the pictures the university kicked me out, my father disowned me and hardly anyone would hire me as a college dropout with nude pictures of myself all over the internet. Even my father’s last name couldn’t help me. So…I changed my name and do this now.”

“This can’t be a great career.” Jin said.

Azula barked out a laugh, “No. I love having strangers practically throw me out the window because their wife is home or being treated as a tool more than a person.” She scoffed, “The first night was the worst. I had no clue what I was doing and everyone was yelling at me. I got better over time but…I’m better now! That’s the point. Now, enough about me.” Jin let Azula take her shirt off but stopped her at that. Azula looked at her in confusion.

“Azula, wait. I-I can’t do this with you.” Did she have a minor crush on Azula when they were in college? Yes. Was Azula still as drop dead gorgeous as she was 7 years ago? Absolutely. But that didn’t mean she wanted this.

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s…you! I know you! We were friends! I-I mean….we sang karaoke together, we made up dumb jokes, we watched horrible movies and laughed our head off! I can’t do this!” Jin yelled. She couldn’t bring herself to stand up or put her shirt back on so she just stayed on the bed, looking away from Azula.

“You paid for a night and I need the money.” Azula told her, “So, let me do my job.”

“I’m not doing anything, Azula, and you don’t have to either. We can just sit and talk.” Jin offered.

“Sit and talk? Jin, if you’re not going to pay then I have to go. I have other clients who will pay hundreds of dollars for me tonight and I need that money to, you know, live.” Azula stood up and began to grab her clothes. Jin really didn’t know why she was so focused on having Azula stay. She had no intention of sleeping with her but the idea of practically kicking Azula out seemed heartless. Plus, she hadn’t seen her old friend in a while.

“Azula, Azula, don’t go. Come on. You can go one night without-“ Azula rolled her eyes.

“No, I can’t. I need the money, so if you won’t pay me for my job then-“ Azula was surprised when Jin jumped in front of her, blocking her way out the door.

“I’ll pay for us to talk.” She said.

Azula raised an eyebrow, “I’m literally in your bedroom, naked, and you want to talk. That’s it?”

“Did Jet pay you or…?”

“I get half at the beginning and the other half when we finish up. It’s a way for both me and my clients to feel some ease.” Azula explained, “Your friend paid the first $500 and is expected to pay the other $500 in the morning.”

“$1,000?!” Jin yelled.

Azula just shrugged, “That’s what my services cost, but, if I leave now, I’ll be nice and only keep $500 because I drove over and you were the one who called it off.” Azula said, “It’s $1,000 if I stay and we talk.”

Jin didn’t say anything. She just walked off to another part of the house. Azula took it as a sign and dressed herself back up. She took out her phone and called up another client that had asked for her.

“Wait!” Jin yelled as Azula reached for the door, “$500! In your account.” She held up her phone for Azula to see and, sure enough, there was the money.

“You…would really spend $500 just to talk to me?” Azula asked, hearing the client’s voice on her phone but ignoring it.

“I would.” Jin said, blushing again. Only this time it wasn’t because Azula was naked. Azula looked to her phone and turned it off.

“Okay. Let’s talk.”

[princess-of-thieves-id]

2

Further discussion between Captain Noar and Arik reveal more about the situation at hand...but not all are clued into what is transpiring...

"Fine.  Then you are both going to tell me the truth of what is going on.  Aren't you Miss. Renisa and Mr. Arik?" 

“Let. Her. Go. First.” Arik slowly enunciated each word, pushing the tip of the blade harder against Noar’s back. A spot of red appeared, he’d pay for that later, but it would be worth it. 

Noar released the woman’s neck with a growl in his throat, and held his hands out to his sides. His jaw was clenched and he was lightly shaking his head.  If he wasn’t so pissed, he might have had to hand it to Arik for having balls big enough to hold the Captain of a vessel full of mercenaries at knife point.  However, he was thoroughly and completely pissed, so all he wanted to do was turn around and hit Arik till he was unconscious again.

“She’s free.” Noar said as he moved then side stepped twice to get out from between them.  Arik at his back with a sharp blade was not something he wanted to continue allowing.  He’d prefer no one get injured, but if someone had to, he really preferred it not be him.  

“Turn around,” Arik said to Inara.  Once she did, he sliced through her bonds and then motioned for her to get behind him.  This had Noar’s brow raising as he considered why the knight would do that.  Who was this woman?  Something was wrong with this whole scenario besides his best friend pulling a knife on him.

“Now, she’s free. I’m over here.  Can one of you please tell me what the fuck is going on and why you both are on my ship?” Noar gave them a sarcastic smile and tried his best not to shout at them. His head tilted to the side as he waited.  

Arik was about to tell one hell of a huge lie and he hoped he and Inara could pull it off.  The male in front of him finding out the truth would cause another issue for them he didn’t want.  The truth would come out in time, but by that time hopefully the man in front of him would be a fuck ton more calm.   “My previous mission had a rather catastrophic issue, which had me exiting the castle far in advance of when I was to have.  As I was doing so, I ran into Renisa who tried to help me out of sympathy, pity, or the goodness of her heart.  As I now have a price on my head , I couldn’t just leave her there, so I brought her with me as I ran, Captain…”  He had no idea what name the man was going by now and had been unconscious if there had been an introduction when they were brought into the room.  He reached behind him and took Inara’s hand.  He had no doubt after what had just happened she’d play along.

“Captain Noar,” Inara started, getting the idea that wasn’t his real name since Arik obviously knew he had a previous injury but not knowing his name.  “There are Tribaldi soldiers who are searching for us.  I do not know what the outcome would be if they found us.  I’m sorry for the trouble we have brought to you, we just were trying to get out of the kingdom and to the next unnoticed.”  She was almost trembling, but Arik’s hand tightening on hers helped calm her some.  She was surprised he had defended her the way he had, and still was.

“Arik, put the damn blade away.  If I’d wanted to fight you, I’d have tried to disarm you when you were behind me.”  Now Noar had a droll stare as he looked at the two.  What the fuck had Arik done?!  “How much danger have you put me and my crew in with Tribaldi?”  He looked at the two of them and sighed.  

Arik turned and looked back at Imara, he couldn’t tell her how bad this situation was.  He couldn’t tell Noar how bad it was either.  He would ask what more could go wrong, but he didn’t want to chance the universe deciding to tell him. When he turned his head back to face Noar, his face was grim.  “They would spare Renisa’s life, but I would face beheading.” 

“Motherfucker!” Noar swore, and he saw Renisa move closer to Arik’s back, which meant he was scaring her.  He held up his hands.  “We already have Coaltmor legions after us, so it’s not like we’re not running as well.”  He closed his eyes and shook his head, his arms coming up so his hands could pull his hair back and wrap a leather thong around it to tame it while he thought on what they were going to do now.  One armada after his ship was one thing, now they had two.  “What did you do, Arik?”  

Here went nothing.  He was going to be honest-ish.  “There was to be a wedding in Tribaldi.  I was to guard the Princess from murder.” He saw Noar’s jaw go slack and was glad, what he was hoping to imply was getting across.  “She did not make it to the wedding.  It did not happen, she was not there.  By the time the ceremony was to be, the legion was already hunting me.”  

Noar turned away from Arik and scrubbed his face with both hands.  He should have been there.  His mother had always told him his selfishness would one day cost someone their life.  He was going to be sick.  At least he could save Renisa, that would be his penance.  He stood staring at the wall in front of him blinking slowly, trying to get a grip on himself. 

Arik watched Noar and immediately hated himself.  He knew how Noar would take it, but he could not reveal who was behind him.  And he couldn’t let Inara know who was in front of them.  The situation would go from a shit show to a full blown cataclysm; it was bad enough as it was already.  Inara had a deathgrip on his hand and was pressed against his back gripping his shirt, what he assumed was her forehead was against his shoulder; it was not pointy enough to be her chin and she was shorter than he was.  He could have sworn he heard a sniffle a time or two as well, he hated himself.

“Did she suffer?”  Noar had not turned around, he couldn’t face Arik.  He was still dealing with the news, and not well.  What. Had. He. Caused? 

“No, she went very quietly.  Not a sound was heard.”  Arik answered.  It wasn’t a lie exactly, she had escaped without making a sound.  If Arik hadn’t been in the room, hiding in the shadows, he would have missed her escape completely.  He was hating what Noar was thinking.

Turning around to face the couple, Noar thought for a minute.  “I will find you a room to share on the ship.  You will help with the tasks on board.  We are all fugitives and pirates, so you will be in good company.”  He took a deep breath, “Renisa,” he waited for her head to rise and for her to move so she could see him, “I am sorry for my behavior earlier.  Our departure from Tribaldi was stressful and I was shocked to see the state Arik was in.  You did not deserve that. I hope in time you can forgive me.”  He inclined his head towards her.

Inara nodded but said nothing.  She was still in shock and slightly terrified of the Captain and confused about what was going on between him and Arik.  The one thing she did know was that Arik was ready to commit violence to keep her safe, so until they were alone, she was going to be quiet and stay right next to him. 

Arik let go of Inara’s hand and slid his arm around her waist to pull her next to him.  The Princess was trembling, and he wanted to comfort her.  He couldn’t really blame her for her fear.  Noar was intimidating when he wasn’t completely pissed off.  Six four, broad shoulders, dark eyes, and an overall demeanor that made most people uneasy.  When Arik was around him, people tended to scatter, so the fact Inara was almost clinging to the six foot two, even darker complected in all ways Arik he found ironic.  The fact he hadn’t had her up against the wall by her neck probably factored into that.

Noar was still trying to figure out this dynamic and it was not computing for him.  Walking over to the door, he opened it about six inches.  As he suspected there were several of his men out there, he closed his eyes and shook his head with a wry smile.  “Will one of you please take the lovely Miss Renisa to one of our empty rooms with the larger bed, get linens, BE. NICE.  Also, get some water, see if she’s hungry.  She’s a personal guest at this time.  Got it?” He raised his brows and got nods all around.  

Turning back to where the couple stood.  “You will be safe.  No one is going to harm you.  I need to speak with Arik privately.  He will join you shortly, I promise.”  Noar hoped she’d go on her own.  Having one of his men pick her up and carry her would just make everything ugly again.  No doubt someone would get stabbed, most likely him. “Renisa, it’s ok.  I’ll be there in just a minute.  I know Noar.  He’s an asshole, but he doesn’t lie.  If he says you’re safe, you are.”  Arik nodded at her and kissed her cheek softly as he pulled her in tighter.  “I told you I’d keep you safe, I’m not stopping that now that we’re on the boat.”  He met her eyes when he pulled back and she nodded, Arik was thankful she trusted him.  It was a small blessing.

“Thank you, Captain Noar.” Inara said as she passed him.  He nodded, and felt horrible for what happened earlier.  She was gorgeous and now seemed like a frightened kitten.  While he didn’t mind intimidating his crew, and those he needed to, he normally didn’t go around attacking innocent women for no reason.  The fact she was with Arik made it even worse.  

As soon as the door closed, he turned to Arik.  “How fucked are we?  Be straight with me.  Does she have any clue who I am?”

[twilightofthe]

okay i put all my cranky thoughts into a separate post that's now drafted and it made me feel better so i'll be able to watch this episode now lol but if it gets me worked up again i'm posting the rant i'm sorry i cannot be helped or changed or saved <3

ANYWAY AHSOKA EP 2

also i forgot to say so last episode but kevin kiner my ABSOLUTE BELOVED the return of the king is real so happy to have you here my dude the ending and full theme was absolutely gorgeous

anywayyyyyy so i am guessing sabine did not make like satine and survived her shish kabobing

well there's ahsoka

oh yeah there's bean she's fine she'll be fine xD

damn filoni really gave more handwaving to having a character survive a major impalement vs me twisting myself into fucking knots writing anakin getting run through lmao

ahsoka sorry but actually i'm gonna blame u for this you still kinda seem like a mess and i don't think you were a very good teacher to sabine and now ur dropping back in on her when she's convenient to you?

well at least we know why she's so adamant against training baby yoda lol

ope here's goth girl and the fuuuuck is his NAME again i keep calling him fucking bryan

i like the fancy sithy-looking sundial tho

pfff second ep is "toil and trouble" guess we're getting witchy!

OH YEAH WAS SABINE'S KITTY OKAY

THEY BETTER BE OKAY

I SWEAR TO GOD

yea ahsoka what happened to showing up in the nick of time and saving kanan and ezra from inquisitors in rebels u were slowwww girlie

OK GOOD THE CAT IS OKAY

that's all that matters

ope one more droid hanging around ezra's place

GIRL UR SITTING UP ALREADY?!

GIRL HOW CAN U BREATHE

we do love the mechanic girl of my heart

sabine does love her explosions

no huyang hera just likes explosions

sabine works best under explosive pressure we LOVE HER

ope back to corellia i guess? we can reuse the old solo sets?

sabine

you were just

impaled

"but she's not the one who needs to hear it right now" ahhh there's the sabine and hera dialogue. ugh but i'm still not used to natasha and mary i can just hear tiya and vanessa doing it instead :(

WHY DO Y'ALL KEEP MAKING SABINE AND AHSOKA ANGRY EXES TF

"ancient ppl from a distant galaxy" waaaaaaait are they bringing in those eu dudes

no wait i think i remember something about these guys that was mention as the big bad in the canceled animated rebels sequel

or it could just be the chiss lmao

that could be it too, makes sense why they'd want thrawn

ok that is some real cool galactic map visuals i am an absolute sucker for a good starmap

ok but wait how the fuck did y'all get a map to thrawn anyway did the space whales write it

also sorry morgan but i don't personally think thrawn would go for u nothing personal you are hot but you don't quite seem his type

waaaait is fucking thrawn gonna have force sensitivity now THAT would be absolutely hilarious and he'd hate it so much

who's marrok i have no memory

y'all you can't just make thrawn work for you didn't he only work with the empire cuz he had to because it would advantage his people somehow (has read zero thrawn novels and only seen rebels)

please tell me sabine is in the fucking vents of ahsoka's ship

THERE'S THE GHOST WHERE IS CHOPPER

I AM NO LONGER FUCKING ASKING

okay so i think my issue with Mary is she doesn't have any of the same authority and purpose Hera's meant to hav

CHOPPER

CHOPPER

MY MURDERBOT

MY SON

MY ANGEL MY EVERYTHING

Anyway

yeah

oh yeah harping in that the new republic is a total fustercluck

ew a capitalist

bro you know hera used to steal from people like you for the rebellion

sdlkfjsdk omg sabine's mom needs to talk to the teacher to keep her from getting expelled

but also y'all sabine is like 25-30 right now she's not a kid

@ ahsoka bitch you have no fuckin clue what you're doing doooon't talk about readiness

y'know maybe the imperial era just advanced medicine so later impalements don't kill people

oh oh so it IS ezra's!

sabine go find luke he'd love to have you

STOP WITH THE GAY DIALOGUE

ok so yeah she likely doesn't have force sensitvity

goddammit huyang neverMIND

so sabine IS force sensitive :) and kanan and ezra just never brought it up :) great :)

hera my beautiful ship nerd ily

bitch do NOT fuck with hera she has more presence than anyone ever

hera my dude you know better than anyone that if a ship wants to take off you gotta go try and stop it in person

ah i have been waiting like 5 long years to watch hera best pilot there was kick aerial ass

we STAN

chopperrrrrrrrr

oh yeah ahsoka's fighting an inquisitor too lmao

CHOPPER GET THEIR ASS

CHOPPER ADD TO YOUR KILL COUNT

ok this hera and chopper banter is perfect i do love it

VICTORY FOR MY GHOSTS

oh and good job ahsoka lol

aghhh sabine and her therapy cat i'm ;_;

theeeeere's sabine's mando armor

SABINE AND KANAN'S FUCKIN KNIFE I'M GONNA EVEN IGNORE THE BAD MULAN HACKJOB ATTEMPT

okay it seems like mary's kinda on and off for hera so far, she has her moments but she can't hold them

rosario keeps losing me i'm sorryyyyyyyy

natasha is doing GREAT

aaaaaand we redoing the end of the rebels epilogue!

god this makes me miss zeb

and kanan obvs but i've come to accept his death

zeb's still hanging around where is he!!!!!

ah all is right

sabine has her gay haircut back

here we go gay roadtrip to find ezra time

alright so i'm still not really vibing with jedi!sabine at All but i have concluded that this show is watchable but honestly not that good, writing-wise, sorry dave, so i think i'll be able to watch it with my brain turned off

goddammit first i thought the holograms visiting morgan were nightsister witch ghosts xD

RIGHT RIGHT HIS NAME IS BAYLAN NOT BRYAN

morgan stop simping for thrawn i guaranTEE he's not your type

oKAY

we are through with the two episodes! it is very late for me so i'm gonna sit and think on what i've seen so far and shitpost a little. i did really like seeing my rebels blorbos again even if the live action actors don't quite have their groove yet. obviously very excited to retrieve ezra <3 so yeah that was that and i'll be back for more next week!

[13uswntimagines]

Your Ass Is Out of This World (Kelley x Reader)

Request: alex or kelley or sonnett x reader where they've been dating for a few years R is an astronaut for NASA and she gets to go to space

Author’s Note: Special thanks to @literaryhedgehog​ cause without her, none of this would have happened. 

Kelley wasn’t quite sure how she had ended up standing next to a dive bar sipping a lukewarm beer on a Friday night. In her defense, Ali and Ashlyn had convinced her it would be fun and had promised to pay for the Uber rides both ways. It had been fun for a while, dancing with them to some old 70s songs on the light-up dance floor, but half an hour ago they had disappeared off into a hallway somewhere, and she had no intention of third-wheeling (she knew she should have convinced Alex to join them). But she also wasn’t going to leave without them, because she wasn’t convinced either of them were sober enough to take any kind of transportation safely (someone needed to be there to make sure they didn’t puke in someone’s car).

So here she was, standing by the bar waiting for her friends’ sexcapades to be over, nursing her drink. The clink of a glass settling in front of her caught her attention. She blinked at the bartender. “I didn’t order another one,” 

The man’s lips ticked up and he shrugged. “Lady on the end paid for it. Said you looked sad,” 

Kelley looked up, following the man’s eyes towards a woman standing a few seats down the bar from her. She was also standing alone but was dressed as though for a different event altogether. Kelley had embraced the 70s theme of the bar slightly, wearing a jumpsuit and a scarf around her head, but this woman had just thrown a white NASA shirt--like the one Kelley got for her little cousin at Target-- over a pair of black jeans. As she bobbed her head to the music she met Kelley’s eyes and smiled. 

Kelley took that as her invitation to approach. Kelley’s eyes traced her form, lingering on the white material. She didn’t know those came in adult sizes...

“You must be a star, I can't stop orbiting around you” Kelley smiled charmingly as she approached you, setting her beer on the bar beside you and settling in the seat to the left of yours. 

“I do believe I was the one to buy you the drink…” you said, your lips twitching as you tried to keep a serious expression. “Shouldn’t I be the one throwing pickup lines here?”

“You bought me the drink, so I get to be the one to woo you. I’m Kelley, are you from Mars? 'cuz I wanna explore you with curiosity.” Kelley said, wiggling her eyebrows at you, enjoying the light blush coloring your cheeks. 

“Oh my god,” you groaned, “that was terrible. I mean really good but absolutely awful.”

“At least I got you to smile, but you still haven’t told me your name.” Kelley laughed, taking a sip of her beer. She was prepared to lay on the horrible pick up lines for your entertainment. 

“I’m Y/n,” you said, putting down your drink and holding out your hand, “pleasure.”

“They call me the milky way...Pleasure You Can't Measure,” Kelley smiled, shaking your hand as you laughed and pulling you a little closer “Why look at the moon, if I can’t touch it? Why look at your lips, if I can't kiss them,” she said, winking so you knew she was completely joking. 

“How do you know so many of these?” You said, shaking your head in awe. “ All I know off the top of my head is ‘do you work for NASA? Because you’re out of this world!’”

“Ah, a magician never reveals her secrets,” Kelley whispered conspiratoryly, bringing her hand up to cover her lips. “but my team and I have definitely had flirt offs for bonding nights,” 

“Your team?” 

“Yeah, I play soccer for the US and Washington,” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a huge accomplishment. 

Your eyes widened and you nearly spat out your drink. “Didn’t they, like, just win a World Cup?” 

“Yeah, No biggie,” Kelley said, side-eyeing you as she took another sip. 

“No biggie?  I’m surprised you don’t have a swarm of paparazzi shadowing you, that’s incredible! Weren’t the USWNT like the most successful US team in soccer?’

“Hm, there’s not enough drama for them, but we don’t mind. How about you? What do you do beautiful?” Kelley hummed. 

“Oh. I work for NASA,” you said, gesturing at the shirt. “I can’t wait to bring some of those lines back to work.”

“What??” 

****

“So do they at least give you a good choice of flavors? So you don’t get bored and stuff?” Emily asked from across the table, licking her dripping I cream cone. 

When your girlfriend decided to introduce you to the team after their match against Colombia, you were quite surprised she had chosen an ice cream shop as a venue. But with how food motivated the youngins seemed, you realized how appropriate it was. 

“I mean,” you said, your spoon suspended in the air as you blinked at Emily, “ice cream isn’t the only thing we will eat. I’m going to be on the station for like 8 months. Ice cream is not a balanced diet.”

“But it’s the only one they sell in the stores. You don’t have to lie cause the veggie lovers are here,” The defender said, leaning across the table, as though it would prevent the rest of the table from hearing her. 

“Babe, you literally love most veggies too,” Lindsey rolled her eyes, using her thumb to wipe a spot of chocolate ice cream from Emily’s nose. 

“Actually, I heard they’re a pretty good selection of dehydrated fruits and veggies and MRE’s and Tortillas and stuff. Plus I get to take a few things from home…” You mumbled, leaning back. 

She couldn’t be serious right? There was no way she thought you were supposed to sustain yourself on horrible freeze-dried dairy products for that long. Not to mention, freeze-dried ‘astronaut’ products for the most part weren’t actually possible to bring to space, with how crumbly they are. You were more likely to eat actual ice cream on the space station (less chance for an errant crumb being inhaled or destroying an important piece of equipment) than that gift shop garbage. 

“Oh yeah, MRE sounds way more likely than just eating the stuff they literally label as being for astronauts…” Emily said, rolling her eyes. “What does that even stand for? ‘Must reject Emily?”

You opened your mouth to answer, eyebrows furrowed, only for Kelley to nudge you softly. 

“It’s not worth the fight babe, trust me. Not the brightest lighthouse if you know what I mean,” Your girlfriend made a swirling motion with her finger next to her temple. 

You leaned in closer so your lips were nearly touching her ear. “She’s not serious right?” 

“I never joke about ice cream,” Emily answered seriously. 

You blinked at her, looking to your girlfriend who just shrugged and raised her eyebrows. 

“I’m, I’m not sure if they have a flavor rotation system for ice cream flavors. We haven’t been… briefed on that yet,” you nodded seriously. 

…...

“Can you hear me?” Kelley said, tapping her fingers impatiently as your face appeared in the video call. 

“He- -utiful,” You smiled through the glitchy computer screen. Your waving was broken up like a bad claymation. You leaned in to make out the fuzzy figures standing behind your girlfriend, assuming she was at camp or something. 

Normal long distance sucked, but literally being off-planet really made things difficult. It wasn’t like Kelley could just text you when she missed you, or randomly call you when she missed you at 3 am. Sure, she could email and you made a tremendous effort to schedule calls once a month, but it was still incredibly difficult (and slightly weird that a NASA tech dude had to monitor each call to make sure the connection stayed up). And sometimes even the best video-calling technology had issues. Like today (when a giant satellite or piece of space trash would block the signal). 

“Are you hav- -un at -amp?” You asked, grabbing your floating water pouch pushing out a sip sized water drop. 

“Yeah, it’s great,” Kelley said, watching you munch on your water. When you first got on the station you sent her pictures of artwork you made out of different drops of colored water- specifically making a giant water ‘soccer ball’ for her. Then you tried to boop it around and ended up losing control, amusing all your crewmates who watched you trying not to run into too many walls. “We’re looking forward to playing against Brazil on Friday, should be brutal.” 

“We’re set to be ov- Florida on -day, so I’ll try and tune into the ga-. Catch a nice - view,” You nodded, wiggling your eyebrows (which looked more like you having a seizure due to how badly you were pixelated). 

While Kelley wasn’t entirely sure what you were saying, she went ahead and nodded. “Let me know what you think!”

“Wh- color -it are you w-ing? Y- look -uper s-xy in the -ue,” you said, floating up in a ‘draw me like one of your french girls’ pose. 

“You’re favorite one,” Kelley said, winking at you. 

“-es!!” You cheered “-ake p-ture -or -“ the screen flickered dangerously for a second. Before a wobbly picture returned. 

“Babe you’re breaking up, I can’t tell what you’re saying. Y/n. Are you there? UGh. I love you! We’ll talk soon.”

“-ove y- -oo” 

Kelley blew a slow kiss to her camera before she heard a deep voice saying “Sorry ma’am. The connection was lost. Y’all still have five minutes on your scheduled call- Want me to try calling again? See if the signal improves?”

“Yeah,” Kelley shifted, rubbing the bridge of her nose as typing sounds echoed through the speaker. How she was going to make it through four more months of this she had no idea. 

“What if like the ship was attacked by aliens or something,” Sonnett whispered from her left, staring at the blank screen with real trepidation. 

“Not possible ma’am,” she heard him laugh. “But I doubt I would have the right level of security clearance to know.”

“great.”

Kelley grabbed a pen and marked a day off the calendar hanging on her wall. So much for ‘phone call with Y/n.’ She sighed. Just a few months to go. 

****

Gravity fucking sucked. It was disorienting and heavy and made you sick to your stomach. Space station alums always talked about re-entry and how bad that was, but you thought sitting in a NASA hospital bed while your equilibrium readjusted was way worse than your fireball craft plummeting into the ocean. 

“This fucking sucks,” You groaned, again throwing your hand over to pull out the IV. You hated how hard it was to move (and how you actually had to hold up a cup of water to get a drink but that was beside the point). 

“Whoa babe, I know you’re a little out of it right now, but that has to stay in. Just try and relax for a little while,” Kelley said, grabbing your hand and kissing the back of your knuckles. 

You frowned at her through heavy-lidded eyes. “Don’t wanna be here. Wanna be home with you.” 

“I know, but you gotta stay here until the re-entry symptoms have worn off a little more,” She said again. She knew that you weren’t going to be 100% when you stepped out of the spacecraft, but she hadn’t expected you to be so out of it. You were sick to your stomach and entirely unable to walk without assistance. 

The doctors assured her that you would be fine (residual effects from not being in gravity for so long and the impact of the landing or whatever), but it was still difficult to watch. It didn’t help that you were a horrendous patient. 

“Just watch the game. The US is even in Blue,” Kelley tried to coax. Even she was beginning to grow restless. But you couldn’t leave until you could keep down solid foods. 

“I don’t want to watch. You’re not in it,” You said, grabbing the remote from her and turning the television off. Then you tried to set the remote in the air, but instead of hovering like it should have done, it dropped to the ground. 

“Alright, commander Y/l/n. It’s dinner time,” one of the NASA hospital nurses said, bringing in a tray for you. Kelley thanked them as they left since you were too dazed to think of it.  

“God this food sucks, I hate jello ” you grumbled, lifting the spoon in front of your face (fully expecting it to float so you could take your bite) and dropping it as you want to open the pudding packet instead. “I just want a big juicy cheeseburger. With bacon and onions and-“ You trailed off, your mouth watering at the thought. You hadn’t had proper food in 8 months, and it had been your major cravings food. 

“A side of diabetes” she scoffed, picking up the discarded remote and spoon, “And are you going to keep dropping things everywhere?” She asked, carefully filling a spoon with chocolate pudding and guiding it to your mouth. 

“Fuck Newton. Things are supposed to float,” 

****

You loved the soft skin behind Kelley’s ear. It was so smooth, and it always smelt like a mix of her perfume, shampoo, and something inherently Kelley. It was a bonus that your exploration of the area always sent a shiver down her spine. You ran your nose along the skin there, nibbling on her ear before moving down her neck. Leaving little kisses along your path. Kelley sighed, sleepily scratching your scalp and tilting her head to the side to encourage you to continue. 

“You,” Kelley said. “ I like you.”

“Hm, I’m glad. It would be kinda scary if you were doing this with someone you didn’t like,” you mumbled against her skin, unwilling to part with it for even a moment. Kelley giggled at the tickling sensation. How you still had so much energy after you had thoroughly worn her out getting… reacquainted she would never know.

 “But what do you like most. Tell me, babe,” You said, moving your lips a little lower, towards where her shoulder and neck met. 

“I love… your ass. It’s out of this world.” She said sleepily, reaching around to grab her favorite asset of yours. 

“Well, it has been,” You laughed, pulling away reluctantly so you could look her in the eyes. 

“Shut up you goof,” She rolled her eyes, grabbing a pillow and whacking you lightly. You fell over dramatically, pulling her so she was on top of you. 

“Hm, I’m your goof,” 

“Yeah. You are. And babe?” She smiled down at you, leaning down to press a kiss to your lips. 

“Hmm?” You hummed against her lips. She leaned back to look you in the eyes, one forearm across your chest and her other hand beside your head supporting her. 

“No more space travel for a while?” 

 “Pinky promise,” You said, wiggling your hand so your littlest finger connected with hers. 

“Good. I can’t believe I was dating someone from TEXAS for a while.” Kelley pretended to shudder. “Jus think, one of your coworkers might have been a Houston dash supporter!”

[comradebezukhov]

uhh can we get pierre x napoleon for the my immortal style fic please (not nsfw)

Ask and you should receive. Here we go:

Ship: Pierre Bezukhov x Napoleon

Themes: Vampires, vampire hunter, betrayal, hurt and comfort, eventual angst

Word count: 523

My name is Pierre Kazookid amd I am a vampirw hunter from Russia. I am currently dating a Frnech vampirw named Napoleon so it's all forbieen love amd styff. He murders ppl in wars qnd drinks there blood and everything. He also has the auperpower od communicating with furniture. Right now he is away fighting some other countrys and taking war prisoners and drinking thwir blood, leaving me alone with my BFF Andrei Colonoscopy, who is also a vampire hunter.

“Pier we have talked about this,” says Andrew, “you cannot date Napoleon becuz he is a vampirw and we are supposed to kill him. One day he will drink you as well and you will die.” As you can see Andrew doesn't really like Neopolitan. He has thinks he is some evil fucking bitch or something.

“Its ok Andrei I know Nemo will never betray me after all we are in luv," I say, “right now I need to write him a letter.”

I opened the drawer to dicovwr thwt I hav ran out of paper so instead I went to Nemo's room to borrow some. I open his drawer and find.............. a stack of letters from Tsar Alexander, another vampire!

I gasped as I read the letters. They are very amorous and graphic. Tsalamder even attach a portrait of his wenis in one of them. This made me so angry and depressed, so I drink a bunch of ethanol and made Andrew drive me to kick Salamander's ass, but not before I put on my neom pink tyrannosaurus onsie.

We arrive at Salamander's palace soon after. I kick open his door and screamed, “SALAMANDER YOU PIECE OF TRASH I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU STOLE MY MAN.” I threw a Bible at him, killing him instantly. Nikogay, his no.1 fanboy was crying and being annoying, so I yeeted a Bible at him as well. That didn't kill him tho because he is a human but that sure as hell shut him up.

Then we go to kill Napoleon. He is very surprised to see us, “Pierre dear what are you doing here—”

“YOU CHEATING PIECE OF SCUM I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU WERE HAVING A THING WITH SALAMANDER,” I yelled, picking up a table to yeet on him.

The table fkew avross the room but stops mid-air because Napoleon asks it to. I picked up a chair to yeet at him but he stops me, “Wait Pierre I can explain!”

“Well explain then!”

“I am only flirting with Salamander to trick him!”

Andrew frowns, “Trick him for what?”

“You know, to invade Russia later amd end serfdom and start a revolutiom and stuff?”

It sounds so touching I start to cry, “Awww babe thank you! You know it is what I have always wanted!”

We start smacking our lips into one another like toilet lid and the toilet seat, almost strangling each other in the process.

Suddenly, Neopolitan collapses. Behind him stands Andrew, who has stabbed Nemo with a cross.

“I am so sorry Peter, this is for greater good,” sighes Andrew before shooting me with a Nerf gun, and I died in Nemo's arms.

[luminescentauthor]

random fun RatLD hcs

you came here for RatLD shitposts and that’s what you’re gonna get!

SPOILERS AND LOTS OF THEM BELOW THE CUT, IF U HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET PROCEED AT UR OWN RISK.

I refuse to post about this movie without acknowledging the cultural significance of the first SEA disney princess and I will continue to do so until people on this website start remembering that this movie is about amazing cultures and trust and overall a WHOLE lot more than just the sapphics (as great as they are.)

anyway, so, headcanon time, my dudes!

The Next Adventure

Talon is a total mess after everyone gets un-stoned. (Ok so just for posterity, my marvel fan brain just went “un-snapped” on instinct and I hate it here.) The two chiefs are fighting for control, and Noi, being a baby, is not really in a position to help (unlike Raya, Naamari, and Tong.)

As such, the crew has to go undercover in Talon to try and, you know, stop the chiefs from destroying their people with their infighting. Tong insists on coming. Naamari happened to be in Heart and gets dragged along by Sisu and Raya, complaining the whole time, but everyone knows she doesn’t mean it. Boun also shows up and exactly no one is surprised.

During this misadventure, Noi’s mother names Tong as Noi’s godfather/honorary uncle/whatever, undercover Naamari and Raya go “noooooo, we’re not the princesses of Fang and Heart, what on earth are you talking about???” on at least five separate occasions, and the crew discovers that Noi inherited her sticky fingers from her very clever mother. She’s basically a grade-A spy and thief but she’s also just like, genuinely a very nice woman.

Rayaari!

Raya and Naamari take a long time literally just figuring things out and reconstructing their friendship, because really, as much as I love sapphics, there’s also a whole lot of messy there, and because these are my headcanons, they work out their problems and have a healthy friendship for a couple years before any romance happens, because that’s how Real Life works and I don’t believe in ignoring those Pretty Important Things in fiction.

They do eventually start a relationship, but they take their time. A bit into it, Benja accidentally mentions that Raya told him she liked Naamari when they met. Naamari’s like “ha you did?” and Raya goes “BA NO.” Then Virana immediately says “oh yes, Naamari also liked her, she didn’t stop crying because she thought Raya turned to stone for like three days” and Raya goes “you did, hmm???” while Naamari turns bright red.

Before they start dating, as their feelings grow, they start calling each other “dep la” more and more and everyone is just kinda of like “oh my GOD just date already???”

Eventually Raya and Naamari get married and become the leaders of Kumandra. No I Won’t Change My Mind.

Unification of Kumandra

The unification of Kumandra felt a bit shoehorned, and I suspect the nations aren't united under one leader(s): it's more that they're now becoming close-knit again. Perhaps they have a meeting council of all their leaders that makes decisions that affect the whole land, otherwise that probably becomes a thing at some point.

When Kumandra eventually becomes totally unified, the capital of Heart (which I believe is on the island we see on the map of Kumandra) eventually becomes the capital. It still has five provinces/states, though.

Fang and Heart

Heart and Fang help each other out a lot with recovering from the “most of our people got turned into the statues” stuff. Heart has more resources, but most of its people have been stone for 6 years. So the two states/countries are both capable of different things.

Of all the kingdoms, Heart and Fang have the most to rebuild: Fang’s only standing city was destroyed in the finale of the movie, while Heart has been growing over for six years. Sure, Spine’s been stone for a while, and some of Talon’s docks and water ships and whatnot collapsed when the water vanished, but it’s still significantly easier to repair than “six years of overgrowth and rot and rust” or “literally the ground collapsed underneath us and wow um I don’t think that’s reparable.” So they really team up to fix it, and the others help them a lot.

The actual leaders stay in their capitals to lead until things have calmed down a WHOLE lot, so Raya and Naamari travel around Kumandra on their parents’ behalf a lot, and wind up going between Fang and Heart a lot to establish diplomatic relations and also to help with rebuilding.

Over this period, and while doing diplomatic meetings later on, Virana and Benja come to realize that the other person is actual quite decent. There’s some mess and distrust because of Virana’s thing with the Dragon Gem, but it eventually gets worked out. (Virana’s reaction is “yes that’s fair. In my defense, I was trying to do what I thought was right for my people, who were starving, but Yes, That’s Fair.” Benja’s reaction is “honestly if your people were starving from famine and you thought the Gem would help, that makes more sense.”) After a while, they become pretty good friends.

And suddenly Raya and Naamari regret everything. See, Naamari mentioned that both parents make terrible jokes. The girls are Suffering. Help them.

Sisu loves the bad jokes. Sisu also makes bad jokes. Raya and Naamari are silently dying.

It’s silly, but I like the idea that 3-4 years down the line, Virana and Benja consider getting married just for political reasons (alliance and all that) (they’re not actually interested in each other, it’s just practicality) and Naamari and Raya, who are not dating but are definitely in deep for each other at this point, are immediately like “NO. NO. DO NOT MAKE MY CRUSH MY STEPSISTER. DO NOT.”

Virana and Benja (mostly Benja) tease them by “considering” it for a bit longer, but they don’t, since they talked about it and both kids are uncomfortable with it. (”They like each other, don’t they?” Virana asks dryly. “Ohhh yeah,” Benja replies.)

Music? Music!

I was listening to a youtube mix this morning and “Too Far Gone” by Hidden Citizens popped up and it just reminded me of Raya’s attitude towards Kumandra at the start of the movie. Also it’s just a beautiful song.

“Knife in my Back” by Alec Benjamin is Raya @ Naamari before they figured things out, change my mind.

Other Stuff!

We can guess based off how long it took the crew to get from Tail to Fang even with side adventures (I think it was 3-4 days max, I wasn't totally paying attention) that one can navigate from one end of the river to the other within a couple days even in a boat like Boun's, and the royal families probably have even faster modes of transportation. (I.e. Naamari got from Tail to Fang in a couple days, then to Spine, then beat the crew back to Fang. On land.) Therefore, unlike I was originally thinking, it's actually totally realistic for the crew to be visiting each other once or twice a month.

It's even more realistic for Naamari to crash Raya's place on a weekly basis, since that's probably like six hours on cat at max.

I don't know what the cats are, so I will be calling them saber-cats until someone corrects me.

TUMBLR JUST MYSTERIOUSLY STOPPED ACCPTING MY "E" KY HLP I HAV TO US COPY PAST

Wait I think I fixed it. Crisis averted! Sorry about that.

Because Naamari is in Heart half the time, Virana visits quite frequently too. It’s not a long trip, anyway.

Virana is not straight (haircut) but I can’t decide if she’s a lesbian or what. She doesn’t have a spouse and never did. Only those Virana closely trusts know who Naamari’s dad is. Naamari does know and she’s met him, because Virana figured she had a right to. He and Virana never had a relationship, Virana just sort of needed an heir and a trusted personal friend offered to father the kid.

Tong’s wife is a total badass and instantly fits in with the crew. She and Noi’s mother quickly become very close friends.

Noi and Tong’s kid also immediately get along. As in, they constantly throw things at each other while giggling madly and both love the Ongis, and -- are they whispering to each other in that corner?? They might be conspiring to take over the world. Who knows.

Noi learns how to talk and becomes about 5 times more chaotic. Everyone is Regret (except Tong.)

[just-asks-and-beats]

Land Ho!

Water. That was all Gray could see.. for soooo long. He just wanted to pass out. His body felt sluggish, it was getting harder by the minute to sit up straight, and his head was pounding. He tried to ignore it, but it really seemed like karma was beginning to catch up to him. It certainly didn’t help to be in the presence of Ship for the whole ride… they were too damn happy, too damn hug-y..? Is that even a word..? He didn’t know, didn’t care. He just wanted them to stop hopping around the ship hugging everyone and get to the volcano already. As a gentle sea breeze ruffled his cloak, he took a moment to let everything that was happening set in… Big mistake. He felt sick, guilt coming along with his realisations. Oh, how he didn’t want to have to face Barracuda.. but what other choice did he have!? What would everyone do to him if they found out who he really was…? He wished he’d died in that final fight.. he hardly even remembered what happened, just how much it hurt. Nobody had ever accepted him, and he was sure there were no chances at a happy life for him now. He’d ruined every chance he had. He let out a quiet sigh as he looked down at the water below…

Darkness. That was all Lycan- or Lichen? Was he still using the code-name? He didn’t remember… Anyway, it was dark. Way too dark. For soooo long. He hated being stuck as Gray’s body, it was getting hot being covered up in fabric the whole time! They wished Ship had a motorboat so they could just speed over to the volcano instead of this. It was hard to see, hard to breathe, and getting tiring holding Gray up. He wanted to complain about it, but alas, giving away both of their identities would mean quite a bit of trouble. He’d just have to complain to Barracuda when they got there. He began thinking of the volcano, how nice it would be to stay there again. Sure, his last visit ended in disaster, but it was the fun kind of disaster! He truly didn’t care about being corrupted, he just liked having the extra sass and slight power boost! Sure, they weren’t as much of a threat as they were when they’d first been corrupted, the treeangle shard greatly powering up the volcano, but they could still kick ass! He wondered how Bareacuda would react to seeing them both… a question entered his mind. Should he tell Barracuda that Gray is really Blixer…? Well, if Ship said he hadn’t been in a good mood lately, then the answer was probably no. He would just have to wait until Barracuda was feeling better to speak about it with him in private! …He hoped everything would go well when they arrived at the volcano…

The sea, the sky, the beautiful clouds, the shining sun, oh how Ship loved it. There was nothing better to them than setting sail, gazing out over the horizon… this “Gray” was quite the character. Gray top, blue bottom, they’d never seen another shape like him, but they certainly weren’t judging. They liked Gray, even if something about him seemed… off. They couldn’t quite place their finger on it, but they figured it best to let sleeping dogs lie, and let him live his own life without asking too many questions. Ship took out their telescope and pour it to their eye, getting a better look at everything. The telescope was a family heirloom, passed down through quite a few generations, and always kept on tip-top shape, just like their ships. As they gazed through the glass they took in a deep breath, letting out a hearty

“LAND HO!”

Gray had practically jumped right off Lycan- or Lichen? Were they still trying to convince everyone that sorry excuse for a lie was their name? He wasn’t sure. Anyway- he’d practically jumped right off their shoulders as Ship’s call rang out across the waters. He saw the volcano in the distance, quickly getting larger and larger. Finally.

Lichen sat up straight, fully alert. What was going on? He couldn’t see a thing and he felt too nervous to try and peek out.. Maybe the volcano was close! He really hoped so… luckily his guess was correct as he heard Ship began to speak about things like “droppin’ ye off ‘ere” and “dockin’ the boat”. He quickly told up, hiding his paws in the cook and holding onto Gray to keep him steady as he hopped out of the boat onto the volcano’s island.

“Alrighty, I hope everythin’ goes well for ye here, and I really hope ye can get that grumpy lad t’ be a bit more cheerful! I’m surprised he hasn’t “unleashed his wrath” on us yet! Well, maybe he just recognises ye! I wish ye the best o’ luck, I’ll be takin’ me leave now!” And with that, Ship began sailing away, leaving Gray on the island to try and help Barracuda. They waved to him as they sailed off.

“Ah, thank you ever so much for your generosity!” Lycan did his best to sound mature once again, speaking so Gray didn’t have to. He waved back where he’d heard Ship’s voice come from, hoping it was at least general the right direction, since he couldn’t see all too well. He heard Gray sigh.

“….Alright… let’s get goin’ I guess….” His voice sounded weak, and quieter than usual. Lichen felt a bit worried about the poor guy.. They peeked out of the cloak and began to walk towards the tunnel leading into the volcano. As they entered, Lycan finally looked out of the cloak completely, then kneeled down to Gray could get off of his shoulders. As Gray climbed down he really wasn’t really to hav to hold himself up completely on his own, and almost fell over, doing all he could to keep his legs from giving out entirely. He leaned against a wall of the cave, trying to be as nonchalant about everything as possible, but Lycan knew something was wrong.. Gray’s condition was getting worse.

“Uh.. you stay here! I’ll try to find Barracuda! I don’t think you’d do too well climbin around the rocks n stuff over the lava. I’m used to it though, or at least I was getting used to it when I was here for a bit… Whatever, I’ll be fine. See ya!” And with that he ran down the tunnel into the main area of the volcano.. Where was Barracuda? If he was apparently making such a fuss over here, then why wasn’t he there to greet them? Lycan scaled a rocky wall, climbing up to a ledge and jumping onto another rocky platform.

“HEY BARRACUDA!? I BET YA RECOGNISE MY ANNOYING VOOOIICE! DID YA MISS ME?” He called out, hoping for any kind of response.. Barracuda was the only one he knew that might be capable enough to help B- Gray without maybe also wanting to kill him. He needed to find him. He continued searching, leaping from place to place, his attention shifting more to the search than to his surroundings… He called out again to Barracuda, his voice echoing throughout the cavern. He hardly noticed a slight trembling of the rock beneath his feet. He walked to the ledge, ready to leap to a rocky wall and grab on when suddenly, just as he was about to jump, the rock broke beneath him. He yelped as his plunge to the lava below began. No! He didn’t want this to happen again, it hurt! He braced himself for the intense burning sensation when suddenly, he stopped! Something had grabbed him, a long tail of some sort curled around his torso, it’s grip tightening as he was slowly hoisted back up to a stable ledge. He gripped the ground below him, trembling slightly before shaking his head and trying to stand up… but he couldn’t. He noticed the tail was still tightly gripped around him… wait.. this is-!

“Just what do you think you’re doing here…?” A cold, stern voice asked. Lycan looked up to see none other than Barracuda glaring at him… suddenly he felt a lot more helpless. He stammered a bit before being cut off by one of Barracuda’s dramatic sighs. He pulled his tail closer to himself, bringing Lycan along with it. He took the time to inspect the pink splotches making their way into Lycan’s complexion.

“…I see the corruption hasn’t quite treated you well, has it? Let me guess, you’ve come to run from your problems..” His voice was calm, yet accusatory in a way. Lycan looked a bit uncomfortable, staring at the ground.

“…I.. I need your help.. we need your help. I have someone with me that.. isn’t doing too well.” He shrunk back as he noticed how infuriated Bareacuda looked.

“What do you think this volcano has become, a hospital!? Why do you think I would ever care about some stranger, and some annoying pup come to ruin my only chances as finding a sorry excuse for peace!?” Lycan gave a small whimper as Barracuda’s grip on him tightened as he got angrier, which seemed to make Barracuda let go of him altogether. He gave an almost apologetic look before curling his tail around himself and looking away.

“….Lycanthropy, I just want everyone to leave me alone. I have… much on my mind currently, and as you can tell i’m horribly irritable. So if you could just… leave. That would be ideal.” He tried to make “go away” sound a eloquent as possible.. Lycan seemed to get the message, but he had no other options.. he couldn’t leave.

“…I’m sorry for being so annoying and I promise I’ll try not to cause any trouble but please! Please let us stay, we don’t even have any way to leave and even if we go leave we have nowhere to go! Shapes started freaking out when they saw the pink growing back on me! And- and Gray is… I.. I’m worried he won’t last for much longer without any help and I don’t know what to do!” He looked at Bareacuda, desperate for any kind of look of pity. He got a flash of one, but Bareacuda quickly composed himself and returned his stern gaze.

“I have no help to give. I’m sorry. I can temporarily fix the bridge to this island so that you and this “Gray” may leave, but that. is. all.” Barracuda may be stubborn, but Lycan was too. He decided it was time for the final trick up his sleeve… the puppy eyes. He did his best to look as pitiful as possible, his big eyes shining as he did his best to convince Barracuda one final time to let them stay…. Eventually he got up, looking sadly at the way back down. He tearfully nodded as he climbed down, slowly making his way back to the tunnel where Gray was waiting. Barracuda felt… guilty. Did he really just deny a kid and someone who is potentially deathly ill from taking shelter here…? He didn’t want to think of himself as a bad person, but… this was certainly a new low. Oh how he hated this feeling, but… he couldn’t force Lycan and his friend to leave, his conscience would never recover.. He slowly slithered down, as he reached the bottom he used his magic to transform his serpentine bottom half back into normal legs. He ran into the tunnel after Lycan.

Gray has been sitting here alone for quite some time.. where was Lycan.. was he hurt…? He hoped not, he’d never forgive himself if he got this kid into even worse trouble… His head was foggy, thoughts swimming around and crashing into one another, he could hardly even stay awake. He didn’t notice the sound of footsteps approaching until Lycan was standing right in front of him, he sleepily looked up, slightly relieved to see him ok. Lycan began to speak to him… what was he saying…? Something about… Barracuda… guilt-tripping….? He had no idea what was going on… He noticed Lycan looked worried.. they knelt down in front of him and waved a hand in front of his face… what were they doing…? He just grunted and shook his head, he didn’t feel well.. Lycan backed off, but still seemed troubled as he stared at him. Then, Lycan looked over down the tunnel, he smiled a little and got up to greet someone… Gray did his best to see who it was…. it was Barracuda.. he really was here… he was staring at him, did he do something wrong…? He… wasn’t sure what expression Barracuda even had… he felt nervous, guilty… He felt so tired… Barracuda was here.. that was good…. he’d help… good… that means Gray could just… close his eyes… for a minute…

“D-DID HE JUST DIE!?” Lycan exclaimed, looking at Gray who practically just passed out. He looked over to Bareacuda for some kind of reassurance, but all he got was silence.. Barracuda was still staring at Gray, why? Was he that upset a stranger was here..? Lycan watched as Barracuda picked Gray up and walked away with him, taking the time to look back and make sure Lycan was following, which he was. Barracuda had changed his normal legs into a serpentine tail once again to scale the rocks, and had eventually lead Lycan through a small crevice, which lead into a larger cavern area, illuminated by a mixture of candles, lamps, and glowing mushrooms. Oddly enough, there was furniture here. There was a couch, a table and chairs, a laptop, and a whole bunch of boxes filled with all sorts of different things all neatly organised. There was a fire going, a pot hanging above it on a small rack, the smell coming from it made Lycan’s stomachs growl. He hadn’t eaten in a while and whatever was in there smelled great. Barracuda placed Gray down on the couch, grabbing a blanket and putting it over him, then going into the boxes and pulling out two bowls and spoons. He grabbed a ladle resting by the fire and used it to serve two bowl-fulls of a mushroom stew. He handed a bowl to Lycan, which quickly sat down at the table and began to scarf down his meal. He also took his bowl to the table and began eating in a much calmer manner. He looked up at Lycanthropy who clearly seemed to me enjoying the meal and slightly smiled to himself… maybe he could get use to these two idiots staying for a while..

[thesconesyard]

Boaty McBoatstory

Part 2

“Is that supposed to be singing?” McCoy asked as they entered the dining room for dinner.

“I think we’re table 37,” Jim said to the crew member inside the door.

“Name sir?” she asked.

McCoy ignored the exchange as he watched the man onstage. He shook his head. If the singer kept going McCoy might lose his appetite.

“Come on Bones,” Jim said and grabbed his arm.

He followed along behind Jim and the crew member to their assigned table. There were already people at the table as they drew near. McCoy stopped as he recognized the mess of floral at the table. It was the man from poolside. No. He couldn’t be assigned the same table, could he?

“Thanks,” he heard Jim say to the crew member.

He had to move. He forced his feet to go.

“I’m Jim, this is Bones.”

McCoy glared at Jim.

“No. I’m Leonard,” he introduced himself to the others at the table.

Jim had taken the seat next to a pretty, dark haired woman, leaving McCoy the chair next to the floral shirt.

“I’m Uhura,” the woman said.

“I am Spock,” the dark haired man next to her said.

“Ye can call me Scotty,” floral shirt said, “and this is Keenser.” He indicated the shorter man next to him, who nodded in greeting.

“Nice to meet you,” McCoy responded. ‘Don’t stare, don’t stare,’ his brain chimed in.

“We were just saying what brought us all onboard,” Scotty said to McCoy and Jim.

“This was the only cruise available,” Spock said with a slight grimace.

“We needed a vacation,” Uhura said.

“Are you two…?” Jim asked.

“Oh no,” Uhura laughed lightly. “We’ve been friends since we were little. We run a sign printing shop and translation business.”

“Uhura speaks many languages,” Spock added.

“And you Scotty?” Jim asked.

“Aye, Keenser and I work at the shipyard that built this bonnie lass.” He gestured to indicate the ship around them. “Same as you two Uhura; we needed a vacation and the shipyard has good discounts for employees. I didn’t care where, but Keenser insisted on this one. The wee man’s on to find love.”

Keenser smiled at this and the group around the table chuckled.

“What about you two?” Spock asked.

“I won a contest,” said Jim. “And Bones hasn’t taken a vacation in what? Thirty years?”

The table laughed again.

“Shut up kid,” McCoy said. “At least I would have told you before we boarded it was a singles cruise. He waited until we were onboard.”

“Are ye taken then?” Scotty asked.

McCoy tried hard not to blush.

“Bones?” Jim answered with a chuckle. “He’s as single as they come.”

“I’m busy,” McCoy answered gruffly.

“You’re grumpy,” Jim grinned.

McCoy glared at Jim again. He wanted to crawl under a rock or escape. He wanted to look at Scotty next to him. Trying from the corner of his eye wasn’t working, but he didn’t want to outright stare. He began to feel heat crawling up his neck.

“We’re engineers,” Scotty indicated himself and Keenser, “you two own a business,” he waved at Spock and Uhura. “What about you two?” He asked McCoy and Jim.

“Astronomy professor at our local university,” Jim answered.

“Interesting,” Spock said.

“What do you do Leonard?” Scotty asked.

McCoy’s stomach flipped. There wasn’t anything special about the way the man said his name, and yet, his pulse picked up.

“I’m a doctor.”

“Geez Bones, don’t sell yourself short!” Jim snorted. “He’s head of neurosurgery at our hospital and a leading researcher in brain injuries.”

This time the flush did reach his face.

“He was being modest,” Uhura spoke up.

“Thank you,” McCoy said to her. “It’s not hard to research brain injuries when you’re always getting them,” he smirked at Jim.

Scotty chuckled next to him and his heart skipped at the sound.

“Can I get your drink orders sirs?” a crew member asked, interrupting McCoy’s thoughts.

Jim ordered something fruity and the person turned to McCoy.

“Whatever top shelf bourbon you have please, neat. And a glass of water.”

“Aye, good choice Doc,” Scotty said. “Though a good scotch is always my pick.” He lifted his glass for a sip.

“I’d rather enjoy the taste than have it masked with loads of sugar,” McCoy smiled, throwing a look at Jim. Jim didn’t notice because he had begun a separate conversation with Uhura and Spock.

“Ye’ve known each other awhile?” Scotty asked with a nod towards Jim.

“College,” McCoy said. “He fell asleep, drunk in my room and never left. Wasn’t even supposed to be there. He was looking for someone else.”

Scotty laughed again, and McCoy felt a smile pull wide across his face. The man’s laugh did something to him and he wanted to hear more of it. That thought made the heat rise on his face again and he turned to look at the singer to hide it.

“He’s not going to be on the whole meal is he?” McCoy asked.

He took a deep breath and glanced towards Scotty. His next breath caught as he saw the man was staring at him. He couldn’t… no. That couldn’t be possible. That would be too convenient, too easy?

“One can hope not,” Scotty replied and he quickly looked away.

McCoy allowed himself a small grin as he noticed the color creeping up Scotty’s face. Maybe…

“Hello!”

Everyone at the table glanced up at the young man dressed in a crew uniform standing between Spock and Keenser.

“Sorry. I’m Pavel Chekov. I’m the activities director. We have quite a day planned for tomorrow onboard and would love for you to join us. Or, of course, you are welcome to do whatever you’d like. Each day’s activities will be posted to your cabins each evening.”

McCoy tried not to frown at the young man’s speech. The words had tumbled out over each other quickly and the man seemed quite nervous.

“Thank you Mr. Chekov,” Uhura said politely.

“Thank you miss. This is actually my first voyage as activities director.”

That explained some things McCoy thought to himself.

“I’m sure you’ll do great lad,” Scotty said, with a friendly smile.

“Thank you,” Chekov blushed lightly. “If you need anything, please let us know.”

Heads nodded around the table and Chekov moved on. A moment later, McCoy and Jim’s drinks appeared.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Just Fine

Prompts: I just finished your Merlin fic Not Bad, and was wondering if we could have something of a sequel to it, if you're willing? Thank you either way! - anon

hi omg i absolute love your works on ao3, you're such a talented writer! i'm in love with your touch starved! merlin fic on ao3 and if you're still writing merlin fics and if you wanted to write it i would love to see a second part! (i've never used tumblr before so i don't know if this is where you even take promps/ requests but i figured i had to try, i love your works so much!) - anon

So many people asked for a part 2 so now we have a part 2 yay

Read on Ao3 Part 1

Warnings: this chapter is fluff all the way down, folks

Pairings: platonic merlin & everybody, can be merthur if you want I don't care

Word Count: 4729

Healing isn't supposed to be easy, but maybe the others can help make it easier.

He did say he was going to be pulling Merlin into his bed to cuddle with him in the mornings.

The sunlight is a menace, Arthur’s sleep-slack brain decides one day as it slices knife-like over his eyes through a slit in the curtains. He furrows his brow and turns, nuzzling his face into his pillow and doing his very best to ignore the fact that it’s morning now which means he’ll have to get up and do things. He’s royalty, he shouldn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to.

…well, okay, maybe that’s not true.

Arthur muffles a snort into his pillow.

That should show how much Merlin’s been rubbing off on him since he came to Camelot, Arthur before Merlin would’ve huffed in that arrogant prat way—he’s not too proud to admit he has his moments—and said that he gets to decide what he wants to do, no one else. Arthur after Merlin knows that he’s his people’s servant as much as they are his. He may not have had the words to express it before Merlin but he’s always felt that way. Seeing someone so blatantly defy the status quo—and by extension, Uther—helped bring that out of him.

See? This is why he’s tired and deserves more sleep. He’s already waxing poetic about Merlin. He turns over in bed again and resolves to try and get a little more sleep.

Of course, as soon as his head hits that side of the pillow, the door opens, and in come Merlin’s footsteps.

The curtains are pulled open and Arthur winces, the light beaming onto the back of his head. Merlin putters around, probably setting up breakfast going by the smell of sausages, and then there’s a tug on his blanket.

“No,” he mumbles, holding it closer to his face, “lemme sleep.”

“You have to get up, Arthur,” comes Merlin’s amused snort, “you’ve got a meeting with Leon in a few hours.”

Arthur grumbles, refusing to open his eyes. “Then why can’t I sleep until then?”

“Because if I don’t get you up now, you won’t have enough time to wake up properly.”

“But it’s just Leon!”

“Yes, and you know he has this annoying habit of looking pristine even when he’s covered in mud.”

This is true. Arthur sighs, cracking his eyes open, and is immediately greeted by a wonderful sight.

Merlin, his Merlin, is standing in the sunlight.

It felt like a knife on Arthur’s face, but on Merlin, it looks like a cloak. A cape. Something to be worn with pride. He glows, that’s the only way to describe it. Even his eyes are shining.

How can anyone believe that Merlin isn’t magic?

…yeah, he must be really tired.

“Arthur,” Merlin calls, and only then does Arthur realize he must’ve called his name a few times, “you okay?”

Arthur nods dumbly, still grinning dopily up at Merlin. Merlin looks warm. Warm Merlin. Merlin should be warm. Warmth is good for Merlin.

Something cold ripples through his chest as he remembers how cold Merlin was the first day he let them hug him.

Merlin shouldn’t be cold.

“Arthur?” A gentle tap on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Arthur blinks and holds his arms out. “C’mere.”

Now it’s Merlin’s turn to blink. “What?”

“Come here,” he insists, reaching for Merlin, “just come here.”

Merlin’s face flushes an adorable red. “Arthur, I—“

“I’ll get up in a minute, I promise, but come here first.”

Merlin sighs. “Alright, you big baby.”

But Arthur can see the way he trembles with uncertainty as he sits down to take off his boots. He can see the way Merlin’s brow twitches and how he isn’t quite sure of himself as he slides under the covers.

Well. Can’t have that.

“I said come here,” Arthur murmurs, gathering Merlin into his arms, “there.”

“…’rthur?”

“There,” Arthur sighs, snuggling into his new Merlin-shaped pillow, “perfect.”

Merlin’s tunics are scratchy. He’s a bit elbows and knees. He doesn’t seem to know what to do with all his limbs.

But as Merlin’s arms shakily come up to hold Arthur back, a contented rumble comes from Arthur’s chest.

Merlin is warm.

Yeah, they’re not getting up for a few hours. Leon will understand.

2.

Merlin doesn’t like going hunting, which is fine, which is why they’ve affectionally renamed it ‘a woods trip.’ Actually, he’s pretty sure Gwaine calls it ‘get Arthur out of the castle so his prat nature doesn’t consume him,’ but everyone gets the point.

The point is that it’s one of the few times where they can just be a group of men, bit worried about getting stabbed by bandits, yes, but not worried about the rules and hierarchies and eyes of the city on them all the time. They can mess about and joke and partake in the bizarre sense of humor they all seem to have without any of the guards looking worriedly at each other when they think they won’t be seen.

Honestly, most of the guards at this point have just…accepted it. Arthur will never quite get over the one time he overheard a conversation with one of the new guards outside his room.

“Shouldn’t we tell someone that the servant is conspiring against the King?”

There had been a scoff from the older guard, Kodi. “You must be new.”

If Merlin had wondered why Arthur was muffling snorts into a napkin when he returned, he didn’t ask.

The woods aren’t exactly safe, not like Camelot is, but as Leon says, the safest place for a ship is in the harbor but ships were made to sail.

It’s what he tends to pull out whenever one of them complains about camping out for a night.

“Come on,” Gwaine mutters as he tries to get the fire to start, “come on, you bastard…”

Merlin glances over and hides a smirk. “Need a hand, Gwaine?”

“No.”

After a few seconds pass, Gwaine stifles a sigh.

“Maybe.”

Merlin stands, takes the flint and steel from him, and crouches down. He strikes it once and there’s barely a spark. He frowns. Another try yields another failure.

“What’s wrong with this thing?”

“So it’s not me. Great.”

“No, it’s—did someone leave this out?”

“Ah—“ Percival raises his hand— “that might’ve been me. One of the canteens spilled over the pack that it was in.”

“Well, yeah, that’ll explain why the—yeah, that’s it.” Merlin sighs. “Okay, well, um…”

“Can’t you just—“ Lancelot snaps his fingers— “you know?”

Merlin stiffens.

“Hey,” Gwaine murmurs softly, resting his hand on Merlin’s shoulder, “Merlin. Hey, Merlin, look at me.”

Merlin turns, his mouth a hard line.

“You have magic,” Gwaine says gently, “we know. We don’t care that it’s illegal. You’re not bad for having magic and we won’t punish you for using it.”

“…thanks.”

“Anytime.” He nods toward a scrap of kindling. “Now come on, I’m hungry.”

It gets a weak laugh out of Merlin as he stretches his hand out and mumbles something. A fire sparks into existence and roars merrily. Gwaine smiles and wraps his arms tightly around Merlin.

“Good job, Merlin,” he says quietly as Percival drops a hand onto his shoulder and rubs, “good job.”

“…really?”

“Yes.” Percival gives his shoulder a squeeze. “Good.”

3.

New rule they figured out: Merlin isn’t allowed to go near bodies of water unsupervised.

It’s the end of winter and the trees are just starting to grow their leaves out again. The grass is turning green under the lumps of snow that still remain and the birds have started to sing. All around them is the sharp sweet smell of new, the soft cracks as the ice melts.

Soft cracks, mind you. Not big ones that mean someone is about to fall through a thawing lake.

He didn’t actually fall through, but it had been a close thing.

Elyan had fretted for a good few minutes as Merlin’s teeth chattered until they figured out the poor man had just had a clump of snow fall on top of him, he hadn’t fallen through the ice into the lake. He gets a half-hearted scolding as they whip up a fire and a warm drink, quickly replaced by questions of whether he’s okay, is everything still attached to him, is he hurt?

“I’m fine,” Merlin insists, huddling by the fire, “just a bit cold.”

“You’re still shivering,” Elyan points out quietly, “give me your hands.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m going to make sure you don’t lose circulation.”

Merlin frowns but lets Elyan take his hands. The knight begins to rub his fingers in a pattern Merlin recognizes from Gaius, stimulating blood flow back into the digits to ensure that everything is working properly.

Elyan works patiently for a few seconds until he realizes that Merlin’s eyes have glazed over.

“Merlin?”

Merlin blinks and seems to snap out of whatever daze he was in. “Sorry, sorry, I just—um—“

Elyan tilts his head, Merlin’s hands still cradled in his lap as he struggles for words. Absentmindedly, he swipes a thumb over Merlin’s palm and Merlin bites back a whimper.

“Merlin, am I hurting you?”

“I mean…yes? But no, no wait, I don’t want you to stop, I just—it—“

“Shh,” Elyan says, “it’s okay. Tell me what hurts.”

“I just…you’re really warm,” Merlin mumbles, “and I guess I’m just not used to…to…to touch yet.”

“Ah, I see.” Elyan moves his hands slowly, seeing the blood flow is mostly back to normal as he cups Merlin’s hands between his own. “It’s still warmer than you’re used to, right?”

Merlin nods.

“Can I keep holding your hands?”

“Mhm.”

Elyan holds Merlin’s hands in his own until they deem it safe for him to ride back to Camelot.

4.

If Lancelot knows the secret to getting Merlin to feel a little more comfortable in his own skin, it’s to have him hold something.

He’s not sure why it takes Merlin’s mind down an edge as he begins to fiddle with whatever’s in his hands, but it does. The worried furrow in his brow softens into one of concentration, the anxious twitches of his fingers grow more fluid, more relaxed as he twists and turns the thing between them. Over the years, he’s gotten good at figuring out what Merlin needs to be holding, if he does say so himself.

When Arthur has an important meeting that makes Merlin’s eyes dart around the room, Lancelot hands him a shirt that needs to be repaired. Merlin’s hands navigate the stitches with ease as he makes sure Arthur’s got his armor of a different sort.

When there’s a tournament full of knights coming from far away that Merlin can’t trust quite yet, Lancelot hands him a pouch of seeds to sort, collected from one of the children from the flower store. Merlin sorts them deftly, putting each group into a little envelope to be returned, using it to hone his eye.

When there’s a terrible thunderstorm and Merlin can’t sleep, when Lancelot finds him wandering the castle late at night, he gives him a little plush toy. It’s a small thing, stitched together from remnants of clothing, and something that the servants pretend doesn’t exist. But if you know where to look, and who to talk to, there will be a little stuffed toy sitting on your nightstand if you ever need something to hold. Malwen raises an eyebrow when he asks for one but once she knows it’s for Merlin, Lancelot has it before the day is out.

As he watches Merlin fiddle with the toy, twirling one of the buttons around and round its thread, he wonders.

Is this the only form of physical comfort Merlin has ever allowed himself to have?

The answer is an incredibly disheartening yes, and Lancelot resolves to always give Merlin what he needs to help himself.

Then there’s a moment where Lancelot has no idea what Merlin would want to hold.

It’s a visiting lord, because it’s always a visiting lord when it’s not bandits or a visiting knight. They storm inside—Lancelot hadn’t bothered to remember his name—and pronounced that he missed Uther’s way of doing things. That when Uther was in charge, Camelot was strong, that there were roots of evil snuffed out at every turn.

Of course, he was quickly glared into submission by Percival and Arthur had cooly informed him that evil was snuffed out by not giving it an environment to grow, not futility ripping weeds from the soil.

But not in time to stop the lord’s words from getting to Merlin.

Lancelot finds Merlin on the balcony that isn’t a balcony, an abandoned training ground far above the rest of the city. He sits on the old stone, swinging his legs back and forth, staring at the ground with a glazed expression. His hands twist and turn over each other and his breathing is a little too controlled to be safe.

“Merlin,” he calls softly, not wanting to startle him, “Merlin, can I come sit with you?”

“Mm.”

“Thank you.” Lancelot eases himself down onto the stone bench, speaking softly as if he’s trying to soothe a wild animal. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

Merlin isn’t hurt, good. Lancelot glances down at his hands. They twitch and knead at the fabric of his tunic. They clench into fists only to open a few seconds later. They look like they hurt.

They’re trembling.

Lancelot takes a deep breath and carefully, oh, so carefully, takes one of them in his.

Merlin goes limp, all but slumping into his shoulder. His hands are so cold.

“I’m right here, Merlin,” Lancelot murmurs, giving the hand in his a squeeze, “I’m right here.”

Slowly, he reaches out to take the other, feeling Merlin’s hands twitch lazily in his. Every so often, Merlin will squeeze and he will squeeze back. Merlin’s head tucks itself under his chin and the warm rush of his breath hits Lancelot’s arm. His hands stay safely in Lancelot’s grip.

Lancelot will always give Merlin something to hold. It’s no accident that includes his own hands.

5.

Not many people in Camelot know that Leon isn’t just Arthur’s right hand, but the closest thing Arthur had to a brother.

They grew up together, in the streets and fields and halls of Camelot, running around with sticks before they got given swords, fighting dragons and monsters before they battled the real ones, helping each other in secret before they rose to places where no one could hurt them.

Leon remembers holding an Arthur too young for any of this as his father raged, as the swords clashed too close to his face, as a peaceful village burned around them. He remembers a younger Arthur holding onto his cloak, his sleeve, his hand, always asking, asking, asking Leon to be there, just to be there, the way he didn’t feel anyone else was.

They’re older now, and now Arthur is a man Leon is proud to know. He asks Arthur for things now, for help dismantling the things they hated as children, for help finding ways to take care of the knights when he doesn’t know what to do, for help figuring out what to do in this world where things are starting to make less and less sense day by day.

Arthur is his brother, his friend, and his King. Leon is Arthur’s brother, his friend, and his Knight.

To most others, Leon is nigh untouchable. He is the longest-serving knight in Camelot, he is almost royalty with how close he is to the Pendragon family, and he is near unmatched on the dueling grounds. He has the ear of the King, the unwavering loyalty of the knights, and the faith of the Council.

There is a short list of the few who know he this is not all he is.

There are a few children in the lower town who know he is a kind man before he is a great knight, that there are scrapes and bruises they receive running from something only to be protected by a red cloak and a calm voice. There are a few servants who know that his presence as they walk to Gaius is an impenetrable shield on one side and the softest guiding hand on the other. There are a few stable boys who know that they will never again be beaten for who they are because he is just like them.

But Leon has not truly cared for someone younger than him since Arthur was little. Not the way he used to.

Of course, as he is with most things, Merlin is the exception to this rule.

Merlin, with all his magic and baffling charm and bumbling wisdom, worms his way into Leon’s heart by the time he gets assigned to be Prince Arthur’s Manservant. From there, it isn’t hard for Leon to watch with a certain glow of pride in his chest as Arthur starts to change, from the hardened fist Uther wanted him to be to the man the little boy he grew up with was supposed to be. He keeps his words to himself about how kind Merlin is, relentlessly so, and smiles quietly when Arthur begins to clumsily mimic the acts of kindness. He grows to care for Merlin quickly, making room next to his heart for one more, nestled close.

But it isn’t until he has a chance to comfort Merlin properly that he begins to think of him as a brother.

Don’t get him wrong, Merlin is his brother the same way the knights are his brothers. But Leon hasn’t loved someone the way he loves Arthur in a long time.

He receives a call from Gaius and responds, hurrying down to the physician’s chambers to see Merlin’s face is awfully flushed and his eyes red-rimmed in tears. He hurries faster to Merlin’s side, asking what’s happened, what’s wrong?

It seems Merlin has been fixing something wrong with the magic of this bracelet Gaius shows him, a silver one with a big amber stone in the middle. It looks familiar, it reminds Leon of Morgana for some strange reason, but he can’t quite place it. But it seems something went wrong and now…now poor Merlin is upset.

Leon knows what to do.

He guides Merlin carefully into his room, stopping to remove his mail shirt and leaving him in the softer under-tunic and cloak, and sitting Merlin carefully down on the bed. The poor man looks cold, small, like a scared dog.

“Merlin,” he says softly, “Merlin, I’m going to sit next to you now.”

He eases his weight down onto the bed and waits. Waits for another tear to roll down Merlin’s cheek to let out a soft noise of concern, melting at the sight of someone crying.

“Come,” he murmurs, opening his arms, “shed your tears, Merlin.”

And oh, he hasn’t seen those eyes for a very long time. Not since little Arthur had looked up at him, shining with undisguised hope and want but holding himself back, like a starved puppy too scared to eat. It breaks his heart and he lets out another low noise, reaching for Merlin.

“When Arthur was little,” he murmurs, his voice low and soothing as he begins to gather Merlin into his lap, “he never used to like sleeping alone when his father was away. He said the castle was too big, too empty, even with all the people inside.”

He takes Merlin’s hands and guides them around his neck.

“I never liked sleeping in the castle either, it was too quiet. I didn’t know where anything was, except for Arthur. One night, he came into my chambers and all but tackled me in a hug.” He smiles fondly at the memory. “He insisted I let him stay.”

“St-stay?”

“Yes, Merlin, stay. Stay with me, let me hold him until we both fell asleep. He pulled himself into my lap—yes, just like this, your legs over mine—and wrapped his arms around my neck—there you go, just here, that’s it, you hold onto me now—and we stayed like that until we fell asleep.”

Merlin’s hair ruffles as he settles, Leon’s breath warming the top of Merlin’s head as he tucks the poor man close. Merlin’s hands are ice around his neck.

“And when the nights got cold, we would wrap ourselves up in the blankets,” he continues, beginning to swaddle them both in his cloak, “until we were bundled so tightly together that even the coldest night wouldn’t get it. It was warm, I remember being warm, there, in the bed, in the blankets, safe…and warm…”

There’s a quiet sigh against his neck as he wraps the cloak around the both of them. It’s warm, a perfect little nest. Merlin’s weight settles against his chest and part of him that’s been suppressed for many, many years starts to warm.

“He stopped coming to me when he got older,” he murmurs, “whether because he didn’t need it anymore or if he got too big. Between you and me, I’m sure it’s the second one. He’d still try if he weren’t worried about hurting me. I think he misses it, sometimes.”

He pauses, then leans closer and tucks his face against Merlin’s temple.

“I know I did. I still do, every now and then, but I know Arthur feels safe now in a way he never did when we were growing up. And most of that is thanks to you.”

“M-me?”

“Yes, Merlin,” Leon whispers, “you. You make him feel safe, make the rest of us feel safe. You’re a good person, Merlin, and we care very deeply about you.”

“…you do?”

He can hear the sleep coloring Merlin’s voice. He hushes the poor thing, cuddles him close, rocks the both of them closer to slumber.

“Of course we do,” he whispers to his brother, “of course we do.”

+1.

Sometimes Merlin has good days. Days where he’s smiling and laughing and joking with the knights. Days where he’s bantering back and forth with Arthur like it’s nothing. Days where he uses his magic the way he always has, like it’s a part of him.

Sometimes Merlin has bad days. Days where he’s quiet and they can’t get him to smile. Days where he is every bit the perfect servant for Arthur, which means he’s about as far from Merlin as he could be. Days where he seems to want to pretend he’s never had magic in his life.

Today is a bad day.

Merlin doesn’t talk until one of them asks. He goes off on his chores and they don’t see him for hours. Gaius is worried. Leon is worried. Lancelot is worried.

Percival is angry. Some of the new knights believe Merlin is a traitor—for whatever reason—and spends time educating them on the training fields.

Elyan is afraid. Gwen came to him and said that she hasn’t seen Merlin all day, which means Merlin is avoiding the servants as well as the knights.

Gwaine is upset. Because he can’t find Merlin anywhere and the longer he stays away the worse he’s going to be when he comes back.

Arthur walks into his chambers at the end of the day and sees Merlin sitting on his bed.

He stuffs away the outrage at himself for not thinking to look here first, stuffs away the fear and sadness that Merlin is upset, stuffs away the need to order him to Gaius and have him looked over, and replaces it with a soft call of: “Merlin?”

“Sire.”

Oh, no.

“Hello, Merlin,” Arthur says softly, “can I come over to you?”

“If you like, sire.”

“I would.” Arthur crosses the room slowly, wary of Merlin’s reaction, until he can stop within arms’ reach. “Hello.”

“Hello.” Merlin looks up at him. “May I ask you for a favor, sire?”

“Of course, Merlin, anything you like.”

“…m-may I have a hug, please?”

Arthur’s heart shatters.

His face must do the wrong thing because Merlin flinches, withdrawing into himself. “I’m sorry, sire, that was rude of me to ask. I’ll leave you be, now.”

“No, no, no, Merlin,” Arthur stammers, “no, that’s not what I meant, stay, stay, Merlin, of course you can have a hug, come here, come here—“

He gathers Merlin into his arms, to his chest, wrapping him up as snugly as he can.

“You don’t need permission for a hug, Merlin, that’s why I was upset,” he mumbles, “I don’t want you to think you have to earn it, you don’t—“

It seems his ramblings, however embarrassing to him, are helping Merlin calm down. Or at least get over his fear enough to wrap his arms around Arthur too. Arthur squeezes him tight and is content to sit there for a moment to let Merlin have what he wants, but then he feels something tug at his chest.

Tug, tug, tug.

Arthur frowns, tries to tug back, only for the tugging to grow more insistent. He follows the tugging to scoop Merlin into his arms, carry him to the bed, and lie down beside him. As the tugging persists, he tucks Merlin’s head under his chin and pulls him closer, threading a leg through his. One last tug and oh, oh, he understands now.

“You’re not bad,” he murmurs, ruffling Merlin’s hair as he talks, “you’re not evil. You have magic, Merlin, that’s alright. You’re my Merlin. I don’t want a proper servant, I don’t want a normal servant, I want you. You’re my Merlin.”

There.

Whatever wall there is crumbles as Merlin begins to sob desperately into his chest. The tugging renews, guiding him this way, that way, to hold Merlin close, to pull back and let him gasp for breath, to murmur reassurances in his ear, or to roll a little and hold Merlin down as he seizes with the force of the cries.

And through it all, Merlin never stops asking for comfort.

His fingers never loosen their grip on Arthur’s shirt. His legs never let go of the one Arthur wraps through his. His nose never strays far from the crook of Arthur’s neck. He never stops pushing himself into Arthur’s chest, almost as if he’s trying to climb inside and make a home for himself there.

He already has one.

Arthur realizes the wordless asks and answers, holding him as tight as he wants, listening to the tugs in his chest to take care of his Merlin properly, never stops murmuring that yes, this is good, this is alright, Merlin can have whatever he wants, Arthur’s here, he’s here, he’ll take care of Merlin.

He’ll be here. He’ll always be right here.

After, Arthur will ask him softly about the tugs, and Merlin will blush and realize that his magic was asking for help when he couldn’t. Arthur will smile and ruffle his hair and tease him about his magic liking Arthur better than him. The smile will soften when Merlin shakily admits he’s thought the same thing.

After, Merlin will start asking for touch more. He’ll brush his hand against Lancelot’s, sit a little closer to Gwaine or Percival, start accompanying Elyan on his daily walks, or find himself reaching for Leon’s cloak only for Leon to bundle his hand in his and keep it safe.

After, Merlin will slide into bed the moment Arthur opens his arms, letting them both sleep in a little more and enjoy the feeling of warm, warm, warm.

But right now, Merlin is crying in Arthur’s arms and Arthur isn’t going anywhere.

He’ll always be right here.

[themarauderstheoutsidersandpeggy]

Hey, small request. How would the marauders feel about a shy hufflepuff wanting to gain their friendship by baking them stuff? Like she'd just approach them and try to say hi and end up giving them the sweets and getting really nervous when she does but she wants to make them happy so they'll be her friends? Sorry if this is too specific, I love your writing!

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Bruh I’d be way too socially awkward to do this heck I’d just live forever knowing that I might have been able to be their friend if I had just talkeD to them instead of sitting aloNe but whatever I’ll do my best :’)

Also I’m gonna combine this with your other request ;)

I think Remus would react the most to the succulents (from your other request)

I think he’d be so touched and be like this,,,,

This is my bab

Is plant bab

And he’d eventually have like a whole arsenal of lil tiny plants and he takes sucH good care of them 

One day James accidentally knocks one over and Remus’ wrath is unleashed

He gets so mad

He almost hits James over the head with the pot

But he refrains

He’s like chill,, ur chill

every time you give him a new one or leave it on his desk he’s like aw heck

Want to friend

How friend

So you rope Remus in first

He catches you one morning in a tiny lil garden where you’re groWing these lil babies and he’s like omg there’s so manY

You sit and garden with him for hours oh my god

You end up naming all of the plants

And you inevitably name one of them james and one of them sirius

And you’re like wait!!

I’ll give james and sirius to james and sirius!!

Remus is like they will not survive if you do

you’re so sad but then

Remus decides to take care of plant james and sirius just like he does real james and sirius

So he puts them on his windowsill and waters them when they’re Firsty ™

And James and Sirius always peek at them like,,, where did you get those,,,

Remus is like >:( they not for u

One day Remus is in the great hall and james and sirius are there too because when are they ever not with remus

And Remus sees you coming with your arms full of something

He’s like :o more plAnts??

But then you get there and you just kinda walk up to his side and hand him a tray of cookies

And they’re so cute omg they’re red and gold frosted and he’s like omg :’)

James and Sirius immediately are !!!

Half because visitor and half because sUgAr!!!

James peeks over Remus’ shoulder and looks at you like “who are you???”

Sirius gets up and reaches for one of the cookies and Remus slaps his hand away skjgnadnf Remus is like be p0lite and asK you heathen >:(

Sirius looks at you like :’) plz giv cookie

You nod and he grabs one so excited sdgbkanfadf

James is allowed a cookie too :)

From then one you are

Cookie Puff

Remus is like n0 plant puff and James and Sirius are ??!!

“They gave you the plants??”

Remus nods and James and Sirius feel so betrayed they are like were they,,, scared of us

Remus is eating one of the cookies and is like lol probably y’all are wild

So for the next few weeks whenever they’re outside of the dorm they try to calm themselves as much as possible like James will get an aWeSoMe prank idea but then he’ll look over at you from across the classroom and be like no,,, must refrain,,, do not want to scare

And you notice that they’re not wreaking havoc over the entire school anymore and you see them sitting under a tree on the grounds one day

So you go up to them and you tug out a bag of brownies from your backpack and hold them in front of you like henlo frends hav sweet plz may i sit

James grins at you because he loves brownies more than anything how did you know and is like yEs plz do sit 

James starts up a conversation and Sirius prefers to sit back and observe but then you end up making a joke that Sirius did not expect and he was just :o

And James points at him like smh this fool and you kinda giggle and he’s like omg :’) frend :’)

Slowly you start integrating yourself into their circle more and more and then it’s less of you inviting yourself in and more of them being like yes!! There u are!! We were waiting for u!!

And you’re sitting there like :’) I did it

I friend

James is always looking out for you dude like that man has an arm around you 24/7 just in case something happens

Sirius is more subtle in the ways that he looks after you but he’s really talkative once he realizes that you don’t judge him for his family and he likes holding your hand :’)

One time a ravenclaw came up to you like haha loser puff and Sirius broke their jaw :))))

James saw you cry once and omg he still hasn’t recovered

Remus is kinda sad at first because hey!! My friend :(((\

But then when you start spending more and more time with them and he realizes that you didn’t just use him to get to James and Sirius then he’s super happy because omg there’s someone else on his side

James and Sirius go to pull some idiotic prank and you and Remus are like smh we’re not bailing you out again

Except you literally always do smh

Happy birthday love, I hope you enjoyed!

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[mycatshuman]

My Jolly Sailor Bold

Happy Birthday Virgil!!!! Sorry this might not be that good, I tried but toward the end I got bleh. Anyway, thank you for being my comfort character for these past few years!

Warnings: fighting, angst, death, both Virgil and Roman will still be alive at the end so don't let the death warning discourage you!😇

🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️

Upon one summer's morning...

Early morning fog crept along the cold waters of the North sea like a cat stalking its prey. The waves lapped along the port of a small town in Great Britain as they continued to bring in the ominous fog that had yet to disappear. The sun had yet to rise, most of the sky still dark. Only the horizon slowly brightened as the sunrise inched closer. Most people were still in bed this early in the morning. Still, there was a single soul pacing rhythmically back and forth along the deck of a ship docked in the small port, waiting for the rest of the ship's crew to return from their night on the town. 

The man, who went by the name Virgil, was anxiously swabbing the deck, well aware his fellow crewmates wouldn't be back until well past the sun's rise, and took advantage of the lack of foot traffic to clean the deck. Of course, his captain could rouse them early but those days were rare and few between. 

Virgil was a unique one. First off, he was a pirate. Second, he rarely indulged in the drinks and ladies like some other pirates, simply preferring to stay on the ship than to go into town. He would like to say he was more of a sensible pirate, which had to have been the reason he was made the first mate. 

Virgil had, of course, already gotten himself ready for the day. He had messily smudged black kohl underneath his eyes to help keep the light out of his eyes once the sun rose and he even cleaned his shirt for the day. He was a bit of an early riser when they weren't at sea. The fact that anyone could just walk on board made him uneasy. Although, when they came to this town, he slept a little easier. It was a bit of a remote town and most pirates tended to go to more lively places. 

Before long, the sailor was finished mopping and put away the mop and bucket before moving over to the railing along the side of the ship facing the open sea. He leaned against the side of a barrel with a sigh. Virgil took out his dagger and a small log of wood and began to whittle to keep himself occupied until the crew returned. 

I carefully did stray

Out in the sea, far from the ship, a head popped up above the water. The head had a pair of eyes and the eyes narrowed in on the lone sailor aboard the magnificent ship. The head quickly rose until the top half of a broad chest rose above the water, but no further than that. This, obviously, was not a human. If it had been a human, it would have drowned, but it wasn't and so it didn't. Most humans would probably call this being a mermaid, although that wasn't quite right either. 

This being, whose species was not quite common knowledge to humankind, was named Roman. And upon catching sight of him, a spark twinkled in his eye and he swam closer, unbeknownst to the sailor who had caught his eye. Roman didn't concern himself with humans too often. Only ones he found particularly interesting. And this sailor was a particularly interesting one. 

Of course, Roman couldn't let this sailor see him coming so he called upon his power to create more fog and make it near impossible for most to see five feet in front of them. And as he swam closer, the fog followed until it caught the notice of the sailor aboard. 

Down by the Walls of Wapping

When Virgil noticed the thickening fog, he frowned. The fog didn't usually get thicker as the sun rose so this was an anomaly that was a bit alarming. He set down his work and put away his dagger as he stood and moved to the railing. He looked over and tried to peer through the fog, he had a sneaking suspicion as to what might be causing this. He kept his hand on his dagger as he looked. After all, he was one of the most superstitious and anxious sailors alive. And he was very nervous at that moment. 

Slowly, he withdrew his dagger from the worn leather holder that was hanging from his belt. He flipped the dagger around in his hand, posed at the ready. Virgil wasn't going to let anything surprise him. Not if he wanted to stay alive. And he very much wanted to stay alive. 

Where I met a sailor gay

As Virgil cautiously peered over the ship's railing and into the fog, he jumped as he noticed a pair of glowing eyes staring at him from the water. "Who there?!" He shouted in a thick Irish accent. He couldn't let the creature know he was scared, after all. Slowly, the eyes grew larger as the face moved closer. A smiling figure emerged from the fog as whoever was staring at him climbed up the side of the ship. Virgil yelped and flung himself back, away from the railing and the creature coming closer as they pulled themselves on deck. "Stay back!" Virgil yelled as he swung the knife out in front of him. 

The being smiled, it made Virgil's stomach feel weird. "I've never met a sailor as handsome as you before." His voice was smooth and velvety to Virgil's ears. Alluring and enchanting. "I'm Roman, and you are?" 

Virgil narrowed his eyes at the being in front of him. "Not telling you my name." Of course, the creature wasn't a fae if the large glittering tail was anything to go by. But Virgil was still an anxious fellow. 

Roman chuckled and even his laughter sounded like music. "Aren't you gonna ask what I am?" He gestured to his long red tail as he lifted his fin and waved at the sailor. 

Virgil scoffed. "Oh I already know what you are." 

Roman smirked. "Oh really," he purred and crossed his arms and leaned on an overturned barrel. He liked the snark he was receiving from this one. "Do tell."

Virgil suppressed a shiver at the other's voice. "A siren."

Roman's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Ah, so you're a smart human." The siren grinned. "That's hot." 

Virgil blinked and dropped his fighting stance. "What?" Was this siren trying to flatter him? 

Roman opened his mouth to respond only for the sound of crewmates clambering up the ramp to reach them. Virgil turned to glance behind him, surprised. He wasn't expecting them until later. By the time he turned back to Roman, the siren was already over on the other side of the railing. He grinned. "I guess I'll talk to you later, sailor boy." And with that, he let go of the railing and dropped back into the sea. 

Virgil rushed forward just in time to see the last of Roman's tail as he swam away, the fog retreating with him.  He shook his head in disbelief as he watched the siren go. "Well, that was an experience." 

Conversing with a young lass

Since their first meeting, the sailor and the siren met up as often as possible. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they just sat together and watched the stars. They mostly only talked when the crew was off the ship, so no one could see Roman or hear them talking. But that only happened when they were docked. The rest of the time, they just stared at the stars while Virgil was on watch. Of course, they still talked when they were out at sea too, just not as freely as they did when in port. 

To keep Roman from being seen by other crewmates, Virgil had to signal to the siren that it was safe for him to climb aboard. So, he would sing a small song for him. Roman still couldn't get over it. Of course his voice was beautiful, but it had to be in order for him to use it to lure sailors to their deaths, but Virgil's, his voice was like a warm hug. And the siren was absolutely addicted to it. 

Honestly, Roman was so glad that he could turn off the enchantment on his voice and back on at will. It was nice to have a friend that he could talk to like Virgil. Something that would be a lot more difficult if he couldn't talk to him. When he talked to Virgil, he didn't feel so lonely anymore. Even just spending time with Virgil made him feel warm and happy. It was a strange feeling, yet he craved more. 

Who seem'd to be in pain

Once, when Roman was following Virgil's ship because he knew they were going to dock soon, he waited until he saw the crew leave and then climbed aboard. But when he climbed over the railing, he found the sailor slumped against a barrel, a bottle of something that smelled strongly of alcohol, something he knew the other preferred not to drink, in his hands. The siren frowned and reached forward to grab the bottle from Virgil's hand. "Are you okay?" 

Virgil shook his head as tears began to spill over onto his cheeks but stayed silent. "You don't want to say anything about it?" A quick nod. Roman hummed lighty. "Alright, that's okay." He was silent a few moments more before he began to talk about his day, his voice soft as he tried to comfort his friend. And Virgil cried quietly as Roman spoke. 

Before long, after Virgil had stopped crying, he cleared this throat and Roman went silent without being asked. "I-I don't know what to do. The captain died and now I'm the fookin' captain but I'm not ready for this! I'm not ready to be a leader!"

Roman hummed thoughtfully for a few moments before he replied. "Not that it helps, but I think you'll be a great captain." 

Virgil turned his gaze to Roman as his tears began anew. "But how can you be sure? I'm probably going to end up getting us killed!" 

Not like I'm gonna let that happen, Roman thought. "You are the most cautious and careful person I know, you can do this." Roman laughed. "You drew a knife on me when we first met! You even knew that I was a siren. If anyone is good enough to be a captain, it's you." 

Virgil went silent. It wasn't until his tears dried that he spoke again. "Thank you, for everything." 

Roman smiled. "No problem." 

Saying, William, when you go

"Where are you going this time?" Roman asked, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. 

Virgil sighed. "We're going to try and take down the one trading spot in the Caribbean." He scraped his arm. "I just have to hope I don't run into any ships from the Royal Navy." 

Roman bit his lip. He knew what Virgil meant. If he was captured by the navy, he would be hung for his piracy. In truth, he was scared. He had a bad feeling in his gut, one that sent shivers down his spine and plagued his mind. "How long?" 

Virgil shrugged. "We should be able to take it down in one day so long as there are no hiccups." 

Roman hummed. "And you won't be able to talk for a few days after that?"

"Right. We can't risk running into any royal ships so we'll be going as fast as we can and it'll be nearly all hands on deck until we're far enough away. And we gotta lie low for a bit too." 

"When will you leave?" 

"The day after tomorrow."

I fear you'll ne'er return again

"Virgil, I don't think you should go on this mission." It was the next night. Last night they would be able to meet up for a while. Roman could hardly sleep that night, he kept being awoken by frightening nightmares that ripped through his heart without mercy. 

Virgil's head whipped over to look at Roman. "What?" 

Roman bit his lip. "I don't think you should go." 

Virgil frowned. "Why not?" 

"I have a bad feeling. I-" Roman paused anxiously. "I fear you'll never return." 

Virgil bit his lip and turned away from the siren. "Well, that's-" he sighed. "I'll make sure to be careful." Virgil then turned back to the sky, the conversation was over.

For some reason, Roman felt like he was on the verge of tears. He wasn't sure why, but there was something in him warning him that something bad was going to happen and he could feel fear mocking him. You won't be able to save him. The siren steeled his nerves. Well, he was just going to have to see about that. 

My heart is pierced by Cupid

Virgil was well aware of his feelings towards a certain siren. He wasn't that oblivious. And if he ever shared anything with anyone, it would be clear to them who the siren was considering he only had ever met one. So yes, Virgil was very much in love with Roman. 

Maybe it was a foolish thing to hope that the other shared his feelings. They were two totally different creatures. Him, a human and Roman, a siren. But Virgil often had unrealistic dreams. And he was content enough to keep dreaming. After all, there was no harm in it. Was there? 

I disdain all glittering gold

He was quite a peculiar pirate, Virgil was. He was not as greedy as some others, he just liked to piss off the royal navy. It was his favorite pastime. Of course, this was quite a dangerous hobby. The royal navy often hung pirates they caught, so if Virgil were to ever get caught, it was time to say goodbye to the sea forever unless he went down with his ship. 

So, yes, Virgil did not like gold, it wasn't his motivation for piracy. However, after he met Roman, he found he quite liked the idea of stealing a gold ring or a gold necklace, anything gold to give to the stunning siren who had captured his heart. With this thought in mind, with the idea of giving his love a gift, Virgil decided that he would steal something gold for Roman on this new mission. And if he made it, he would give it to Roman, and maybe he would reveal his feelings. Maybe gold wasn't so bad.

There is nothing that can console me

Roman was scared. He was petrified.  He had been sitting on a rock. Not quite knowing what to do with his day considering he normally just followed Virgil's ship so they could meet up every night. But he wasn't going to be meeting up with him tonight. So he was at a loss of what to do. 

But then he saw a ship sail by, on its way to what he could assume was the very island Virgil was planning to attack. It was a Royal Navy ship. Roman was sure his heart had never beat so fast in his life. As fast as he could, he leaped from his rock and plunged into the ocean, and began to swim the fastest he has ever swum in his life. He couldn't let Virgil get hurt. 

But my jolly sailor bold

He barely arrived in time. By the time Roman arrived, the two ships were in a grand battle, cannons firing left and right. They smashed through wood and debris scattered the sea between them. The siren paid them little mind. His attention only focused on finding Virgil. 

"Fire!" 

There! Virgil was standing at the helm amidst the chaos aboard the pirate ship. He was drop-dead gorgeous in his element. But Roman didn't have time to appreciate Virgil's beauty. Not now. Not with Virgil's life in danger. He'd rather never be able to appreciate the beauty of Virgil ever again than to never be able to talk to him ever again. 

His hair it hangs in ringlets

Roman swam as fast as he could towards Virgil's ship. But it was hard. Debris littered the sea between the two ships and he still had to avoid getting seen. But Roman had never really been a careful person, he was more reckless than an ambitious youngster. 

The siren was hardly noticed as he zipped to Virgil's ship faster than either ship could sail.  He was at the side of the ship in record time and paused. What was he going to do now? He let out a huff and peered over at the opposing ship. He could very well bring down the ship all his own. He had brought down many ships over his time and this one would be no different. 

His eyes as black as coal

Roman couldn't do it. If he were to use his voice to enchant the other ship's crew,  it would bring Virgil's crew down as well. He couldn't risk the other's life like that. And so, the siren found himself stuck at a stalemate. Unsure of what he could do, he bobbed in the rocking waters beside Virgil's ship. 

He didn't know what to do. What would Virgil want him to do? He frowned. Virgil would want him to stay away and out of danger. He couldn't agree. Virgil was in danger and he didn't want to be stuck on the sidelines. If Virgil got hurt…. 

My happiness attend him

Roman had felt many emotions over his time alive. Joy, sorrow, anger, jealousy, but he had never quite felt love. Sure he had experienced attraction to different sailors over his time but never love. He supposed he would never feel love. He was a siren and most people didn't even believe in sirens let alone fall in love with them. Of course, there were other sirens but none of them really liked him too much. He was too interested in humans. The other sirens preferred each other's company over humans. 

Which Roman understood, after all, they didn't have much in common. And sirens often preyed on humans, luring them to their deaths with their voice alone. But, it wasn't as if they were doing it for the fun of it, it was just to protect themselves. After all, humans tended to be brutal with precious things. Roman may have agreed, but he still was fascinated with the human world. He could have never imagined getting into the situation he was in now. 

Wherever he may go

He understood now. He understood it all. How had he found himself so enchanted by this human that he would follow him anywhere? Why was he so terrified that this battle would go wrong? The old Roman wouldn't understand. He would ask what was so important that would drive him to this extreme for some human. 

Love. The one thing he never thought he would experience. Love. It could be enough to move mountains, enough to inspire, enough to create. And it was Roman's love for the sailor, his sailor, that would create a storm of fury to protect him. He would happily follow this man anywhere. He would do anything for him. 

From Tower Hill to Blackwall

Roman finally decided what he was going to do. He quickly swam over to the royal navy's ship and began looking for any weakness in her hull. If he was going to do anything he could at least try and weaken the enemy's ship. 

The siren dived below the surface and swam underneath the ship. He curled his hand into a fist before reeling back and punching the hull. His first bounced off and he snarled at the ship. He threw another useless punch at the hull before resurfacing as a loud cannon blast sounded. 

Roman flinched and watched as a cannonball flew from the ship beside him and smashed into the deck of Virgil's. His heart leaped in his throat but Virgil was okay. The ship was still standing and the siren could still see his love aboard the ship, shouting commands to his crew. 

He let out a sigh of relief and turned back to the ship behind him. Roman suspected the vessel before him with sharp eyes. There had to be something he could do. Soon, an idea hit him. The siren turned to the ocean surface in between the two vessels and quickly zipped through the debris field until he found a sharp shard of a wood plank. He quickly swam back to the ship and rammed the sharp end into the ship's hull. 

"YES!" Roman exclaimed. The wood plank had pierced the hull. He ripped the plank out of the hole and watched as water began to pour into the ship. He had done it! He was helping Virgil! 

KABOOM!!

It appeared Roman's was short-lived. 

I'll wander, weep and moan

The Royal Navy had blown another hole through Virgil's ship. It was the final blow. The ship was sinking, and quickly. "NO!" Roman's scream pierced the air. The siren shot over to the other ship. "Virgil!" He watched as the ship quickly began to disappear below the surface. "No no no no no no!" 

The siren came across other pirates as they quickly latched onto anything that would keep them afloat. Roman only felt a little bad as he bypassed them. But his mind was on Virgil. His moments with Virgil flashed through his mind. He couldn't lose him. He just couldn't.  Not when he just accepted his feelings. 

Then he slammed into a hard stop. He breathed out one heartbroken word. "No…" Roman moved forward and slowly moved the planks of wood off of the sailor. Virgil was laying on a column and must have become trapped between the two pieces of the ship and drowned. His sailor was dead. 

All for my jolly sailor

Roman gathered Virgil into his arms and held him as he cried. His sobs echoed loudly through the air, catching the attention of the remaining ship. 

"Woah! What's that?!" 

Roman looked up at the opposing ship, tears spilling over onto his cheeks. They dripped down onto his sailors' face. A face that would never smile at him again. At that moment, all his anguish, all his rage, spilled over into his throat and he unleashed his voice onto the royal navy. 

Until he sails home

The royal navy ship had run aground. Most of her crew haven jumped from the deck and into the churning waves. the rest went down with the ship. A storm had quickly moved in with the force of Roman's voice. The wind was harsh, the rain no gentler, and in the middle of it, all was Roman and his love. His cold, dead love. 

Until he wasn't. 

My heart is pierced by Cupid

To be clear, Roman was not aware of all the magical properties that he possessed. And to be quite fair, most sirens were not aware of this ability they possessed either. After all, they hardly ever had a need for tears, such was their life that they hardly experienced such sorrow. That and they spent most of their time underwater where the current carried away their tears. 

The situation that needed to arise for a siren to discover the magical power their tears held had never arisen for Roman before. Perhaps if he had known, he wouldn't have become so overwhelmed with sorrow. Although, even if he had known, one could assume that it would still hurt just as much. After all, nothing could really lessen the pain of losing a loved one. 

I disdain all glittering gold

Roman's sobs had quieted down, and with it, the storm calmed until it was just a memory.  His tears still flowed freely from his eyes as he looked down at Virgil in his arms and let out a broken sob. "I'm so sorry." The siren bit his lip as he sniffled and reached a hand forward to push some of Virgil's hair out of his face. He caressed his cheek and drew in a ragged breath. 

"I tried. I really tried, Virgil." Roman sniffed. "I just wasn't fast enough." He adjusted a necklace on Virgil's neck. It wasn't something he had seen him wear before. It must have been something he just got. He let out a loud cry. "Maybe you would have told me how you got this...if I had been just a little faster-" he broke off with a hiccup and pressed his forehead to Virgil's and continued to cry. 

There is nothing can console me

Virgil was very confused. The last thing he remembered was foggy and incomplete. He could only remember how he felt. Cold and scared. But now, he felt warm and safe. He shifted and felt arms around him, holding him. He slowly blinked his eyes open only for his vision to be filled with Roman. 

Oh, no wonder he felt safe. His face flushed as he realized the siren was holding him. Gay Panic™️ would have set in if he hadn't noticed the grief on Roman's face. He frowned and tried to move his hand only to realize it was trapped in Roman's hold. He opened his mouth to speak only to realize his tongue felt like lead. But he pushed through it. 

"Roman?" He had to comfort his siren. 

Roman's eyes flew open in alarm as he jerked back. His jaw dropped as Virgil fought to pull out his arm, it felt heavy, but he had more important things to worry about. "What's wrong?" 

"I-" tears sprang anew and Roman's mouth clamped shut. Virgil frowned and glanced around only to find debris floating all around them. The two of them were on a rock a little bit away from the shore of an island behind them. And it all came rushing back. 

The mission, the royal navy ship, the battle, the final blow, being crushed underneath parts of his ship, and finally the burning of his lungs as he drowned. He could only guess what happened next. "Ro, what happened after….?" 

Roman sniffled. "I- I did what sirens always do." 

Virgil hummed. "Do you think we can move to the shore?" 

Roman nodded and held Virgil tight before he shot over to the shore. The two dragged themselves ashore and Virgil sighed. He took off the necklace and handed it to Roman. "Here, I uh, I grabbed this for you." 

Roman's head shot up and he looked over to Virgil and the necklace he held in his stretched out hand. Gingerly, he took the necklace and tied it around his neck. It didn't stop his tears though. "Thank you." 

Virgil smiled at the siren. "You're welcome.” He knew they still had a lot to talk about. But right now, Roman just needed someone to comfort him. Specifically, he needed Virgil. So Virgil scouted closer to the siren and wrapped his arm around him and leaned against him as Roman cried. 

But my jolly sailor bold 

The sea had been merciful. Virgil was given the power to transform his legs into a tail at will. He was the first-ever merman. At least that was the name Roman had come up for him. And Virgil loved Roman so of course he fondly accepted the name. 

Together, the two of them lived in a small island with a cave that led to the water and allowed them a cool place to relax when it got too hot. They had their happily ever after. 

Currently, the two were cuddled on the beach as the sunset and they watched the stars as they revealed themselves. "I'm so glad I met you," Roman murmured. He pressed a kiss to Virgil's head and gave him a light squeeze. 

Virgil smiled warmly. "And I'm glad I met you, I love you." He turned his head to press a quick kiss to the siren's lips before returning to his previous position. 

Roman grinned. "I love you too. " 

Neither Roman or Virgil would give this up for the world.

🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊🧜🏾‍♂️🌊

Taglist: @misery-killed-me @superwholocked-for-life @mirror2thespirit @aroundofapplesauce @lyditist @little-euro-girl @unicornofdarknessstuff @alias290 @odette-ssbu @ray-does-stuff

Let me know what you think?

[xmalereader]

Modern! Ben Solo X Sith! Male Reader

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|| Masterlist ||

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Requested: Hi! So I'm a huge fan of your modern!reader writings, and I was wondering if you would be interested in doing that, but the positions are reversed? Where Ben more or less is having a hard time just naturally fitting in on Earth and Reader somehow contacts him through the force and eventually convinces Ben to come with him?? Idk this has been kn my mind for a while.

Warnings: Slight angst, Modern Ben solo, reversed roles, dark lord reader, innocent Ben, slight fluff, Bi Ben.

@lea-the-foxe

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“Supreme leader, we have arrived. Would you like us to prepare your ship?”

“Yes, please make sure that no one follows me and don’t send anyone unless I say.”

Hux gives his supreme leader a small bow. “Yes supreme leader.” He says as he exits the large room as y/n glanced outside, just a few miles away was Earth. A planet that took him months to find, it was a very well secured and hidden planet that y/n had to make sure that they scanned the whole galaxy to Just find this one planet.

He hasn’t heard about this, ‘earth’ but he does know that the population of humans don’t know anything about them so He order his people to make sure that they stayed hidden below radar, not wanting to cause any alarm on earth. “Make sure that everything is in control, I’m counting on you Hux.” He says through the force bond that he has created with Hux before leaving his own thrown and heading towards his chambers, getting himself ready before landing.

He’s made some research on earth, making sure the blend in well with the proper dressing and material he would be able to blend in with the crowds. He’s been sensing a force on earth and it has been calling out to him and he’s been trying to search for months but came up with nothing until now, he figured out about earth a while ago and has ordered his people to search everywhere in the galaxy. He’s been feeling this pull for awhile and now that he’s here he can finally search for the person responsible for this urgent tug.

As y/n finishes dressing up he gives himself one last look in the mirror, adjusting the black jacket and fixing up his hair, trying to make it look a little less nice and more modern looking. “Supreme leader.” He jolts in fright as he glares over at Hux who has re-entered his chambers. “Your ship is ready.”

“I’ve told you to knock several times.” He hisses out and ignores Hux. He grabs hsi saber and tucks it underneath his jacket before leaving his room, brushing past hux as he makes his way towards the shipping area. “While I am gone, I need you to make sure that no one is to disturb me, if we suddenly get pulled into danger then you send a holo.” He instructs as he climbs inside his ship and checks the controllers.

“I’ll make sure that nothing happens while you are gone, but for now focus on your own mission.” Said hux as y/n grins at him and closes the cockpit. He makes sure that he is ready to launch, strapping hismelf in as he sighs deeply and looks up ahead. “Lets do this.” He whispers to hismelf.

—

“Ben, you haven’t eaten anything since you’ve returned from your uncles.” Said Leia as she watches her son. Ben was sitting on the dining table as he stares out the window, he was looking at the sky with curiosity. “I’ve already eaten, uncle gave me some of his weird cooking.” He says as he turns his attention back to her.

Ben has been spending time with his uncle constiantly since his parents were still arguing with each other, reaching the point of Ben not being able to stand their bickering. His uncle was nice enough to Lend him a room, allowing him to stay as long as he wanted, but he knows that he would have to return back home and make sure that his parents haven’t killed each other.

“You’re Uncle isn’t feeding you properly.” She mutters out as Ben chuckles.

“Old man is lonely, he cant cook well but he’s learning.” He stands up from his seat, taking one last look outside before helping his mother clear the table. “How’s Rey by the way?” Ben freezes up at the mention of her name, walking towards the kitchen as he sets his plate inside the sink. “She uh—“

“She’s a very sweet girl.”

“Yeah about that,” he began to clean his dishes as he spoke. “We broke up a long time ago, I don’t think I’m ready for a serious relationship, you know? Just need time on my own and finding a new place for myself.” He shrugs a little as he turns off the sink water and cleans his hands with a dry rag.

He hears his mother shuffle close to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “That wasn’t the reason.” She whispers as Ben bites his lip. “You still hear them.”

Ben flinches away from her touch. “I haven’t been hearing it lately, it’s not bad and besides its going away so I’m fine.” His mother was talking about the voice that had been talking to him for awhile now, it’s been years, to be exact three. It started when he was at work, working on one of his big projects when he suddenly heard a soft whisper. He thought that it was one of his co-workers talking to him but when he turned around he saw no one. He thought it was his imagination until it happened again, but this time he heard it loud and clear, he thought he was going crazy at first.

But he had tried to ignore, blocking it out as he continues on with his life. But it only got worse as months went by so he had no choice but ot tell someone and that someone was his mother. He loved her so much that he wouldn’t do anything to upset her, so the day he told her—he expected her to freak out and send him to a therapist but instead she stood by his side and told him that it would all be over and to not listen, so he did that.

He’s been keeping it undercontrol, but he can’t help but feel a sudden tug in his chest. A feeling telling him that he didn’t belong here. He’s been struggling already with his own problem that he almost missed the times that his parents argued with each other and having to deal with a relationship that didn’t really feel real anymore. And his Job was only becoming stressful, the new interns were getting on his nerves, to the point where he would want to smash their face through a computer screen but he had to remain in control.

So he changed some things, he began to visit his parents separately and try to help fix their relationship while he visited his uncle Luke who he had tried to convince to help him out with his mother but his uncle refused to get involved, leaving him on his own. His break up with Rey didn’t end well, the two were out together when she suddenly brought up their future a topic that he hated talking about. He was polite to ask her to stop but she didn’t causing him to snap at her and dumping her on the spot.

He was already struggling to much, he just wanted a new start and far away from all of his problems.

“Ben you should really see a therapist about this or a doctor.”

“I said I was fine!” He slaps his mothers hand away from him as he grabs his coat and makes his way towards the door, leaving the house in a hurry, not wanting to get anymore upset with her.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

“Get out of my head.” He growls out in anger, walking a little faster as he heads towards an empty park.

“I can feel your anger, you’ve been angry for years now.”

“Shut up!” He grips his head, he can’t give in.

“It’s okay to be angry and upset, so let it all out no one is here to judge you.”

“What do you want with me?! You’ve been pestering me for years now! So tell me, what do you want!?” He circles around, checking his surroundings as he pants heavily. He can’t allow this voice in his head to mock him, “I just want you.” Gasping he turns around to see a strange man standing a few feet away from him. “Hello Ben, I’ve been waiting for you.” That voice, he recognizes that voice from his head.

“Who are you and how were you talking to me just now, in my head?” He asks as the other gives him a grin. “You don’t know do you?”

“Know what?!” He shouted back, expecting the other to get frightened from his anger but he doesn’t flinch nor does he move. “You see Ben, me and you are alike. You just don’t know it.”

“What—?”

The other approaches him slowly, causing Ben to stumble back. “Have you ever done something that was considered impossible?” He asks. “Have you ever felt another’s emotion or hav been so angry that you may or may not have moved an object, or maybe a voice in your head telling you what to do?” He cocks his head and smiles at Ben.

It wasn’t a warm smile but a wicked one.

“How do you know all of this?” Ben glares at the other as he sighs deeply. “Because I’ve been watching you, the force led me to you and it want me to take you in, to train you to make you stronger, wouldn’t it be nice to just start over? To learn something new?”

The offer sounded tempting to him but he couldn’t, his parents were here and hsi whole family, he can’t jus leave like this. “Who’re you?”

“I’m y/n, but where I’m from I prefer others to call me Supreme Leader, but if you agree to follow me then ill allow you to call me whatever you like.” He adjusts his hoodie and reaches under his hood to take out a cylinder like rod, it was black with a sigil on it.

He could feel a sudden tug on the object, like it was calling out for him. “You feel it don’t you?” Ben snaps his eyes to y/n as he holds out the object towards him. “go on, take it. I know you want too.” He whispers and takes a few steps forward, causing ben to realize that he was slightly taller than the other. By instinct he takes a step back, “Go on.” He hears y/n say again. “take it.”

Ben glances back down at the object, slowly reaching out to take it into his own hand. At the sudden touch he feels a strong powerful feeling, causing him to gasp and drop the object. But before it could hit the ground it froze in mid air, his eyes widening as the object slowly floats up and into the hands of the other. Y/n grips onto the saber and eyes Ben. “Shame you didn’t get to use it.” He says with a small pout, almost making it look like he was making fun of him.

Ben could only glare at him. “Don’t tease me.”

“Oh but I like teasing, its the only thing I’m really good at it.” Y/n admits as he clips the saber back on his belt and turns back to face the other. “I know you felt a strong force when you held it, it was calling out ot you. Telling you that you belonged somewhere else and not here.”

Ben breaths out nervously, he wasnt wrong. He’s been feeling unimportant around others that maybe disappearing wouldn’t matter to anyone.

“Join me, I know you want too.” Y/n extends his hand out, offering it towards ben.

Ben gives his hand a glance before looking back up to face the other. “I can train you, make you a better person. You can become someone a lot better—“ Ben inches closer as y/n slowly smiles. “I can take you away form everything.” He whispered out as Ben takes his hand, wrapping his fingers around his hand.

Y/n’s lips twitch up into a smirk as he tugs Ben forward, placing his other free hand against his forehead, showing him various visions before he falls asleep. Y/n uses the force to keep him from falling, reaching into his pocket he takes out a com, a holo of hux appearing as y/n speaks. “General, prepare an extra room, Will be having some company.”

[lady-divine-writes]

Never Have I Ever

A demon, an angel, a witch, several bottles of whiskey, and a 6000 year old secret. What could possibly go wrong? (2848 words)

“Never have I ever …” Aziraphale glances around the table, pausing on Anathema, poised with shot glass in hand, then Crowley, sinking into the yellow-and-brown paisley tablecloth, having already polished off an entire bottle of whiskey on his own and starting in on a fresh Jack Daniels “… plotted to overthrow King Richard the III!”

“Jesssusss Chrissstmasss!” Crowley hisses, picking up his shot glass and throwing back his whiskey, filling it immediately after and throwing that one back as well.

“Wait!” Anathema says. “You only have to take one shot for that!”

“Technically, I have to take three since that’s how many tries it took to dethrone the bastard.”

Aziraphale giggles as Crowley sloppily sucks down his final shot. He’s slightly less sloshed than his demon compatriot, but only just. Crowley’s eyes have begun to cross, and he’s toppled out of his chair twice.

A dozen more shots and Aziraphale may succeed in knocking the idiot out.

That would be a first.

“You know, I appreciate the fact that the two of you have been around since the dawn of time, but the things you guys pick are both obscure and bizarrely specific.”

“So …?”

“So, the point of Never Have I Ever is that you choose things that could apply to anyone. But the two of you seem to be on a vendetta to get one another wasted.”

“Fine, book girl,” Crowley drawls. “Let’s try this one on for size. Never have I ever … finished college.”

Crowley and Aziraphale both turn to Anathema - Crowley grinning like a jackal, Aziraphale with a snarky eyebrow raised. Anathema rolls her eyes and downs her shot. “Touché.”

“Congratulations! Ya got one!” Crowley says smugly. “May we continue? Never have I ever ...” The demon’s eyes glow with delight as they bounce from Aziraphale to Anathema … then back to Aziraphale “… sunken a ship!”

“Wha---what the Devil are you talking about?” Aziraphale barks, but he quickly reconsiders. “Are we talking a rowboat? Or an ocean liner?”

“Steamship.” Crowley pops the p, making Aziraphale’s head ring.

Aziraphale peers into Crowley’s eyes, silently enquiring, but he tuts in disgust when he figures it out. “You’re not going on about the Waratah, are you?”

“Oi! That was mah ship and you sank it!”

“I did no such thing! I commandeered it because I knew you were going to sink it!”

Crowley drops his head back on his shoulders and groans loudly – too loudly for drunk Aziraphale. “I already told you! No one would have gotten hurt!”

“No. You were going to do what you always do! Abandon those poor men on some deserted island with no way off! It was the 1900s! They had no cellular phones! No one would have known where they were!”

“And …?”

“They had families, Crowley!”

“Their fault. Not mine. What did you do with them anyway?”

“I reunited them with their loved ones, wiped their memories, and reassigned them to secure locations. It all turned out fine.”

“Still …” Crowley sniffs “… seeing as no one’s ever found the wreckage, it’s considered a sunken ship (hard k and another popped p).” He crosses his arms over his chest, affecting a superior pout. “Drink up.”

“I don’t see how that works in your favor but whatever helps you sleep at night. But you’d better take a shot, too.”

“Why’s that?”

“You mean to tell me that in 6000 years you’ve never sunken a ship?”

Crowley’s eyes pop slightly. “Quite right, quite right. Forgot about that.”

Aziraphale downs his shot, then reaches for the whiskey to refill it. He grabs the bottle around the belly and lifts, nearly tossing it across the bookshop when it comes off the table too easily. He brings it up to his swimming eyes and peeks around the label to get a look inside. “This one’s empty, I’m afraid.” He puts it back and rises unsteadily to his feet. “We’re going to need another.”

“Hold up!” Anathema grabs Aziraphale’s wrist and stops him. “We need to change the parameters of this game somewhat if we’re going to keep playing! I’ve taken maybe three shots to your, oh, let’s call it one-hundred-and-fifty!”

“You’re just sore … because you’re losing,” Crowley accuses with a belch in between.

“Wait wait wait …” Aziraphale slurs.

“Wait what?”

“Are we sure she’s losing? What exactly is the object of this game? Does the first person who falls down drunk win? Or does the person who remains sober win?”

“I …” Crowley squints his eyes painfully as he gives it a think. “I think it’s … it’s probably … oh, I don’t care! She’s being a sore loser! That’s why she wants to change the rules!”

“But you don’t even know what the rules are!”

“Don’t care. Things were going fine before she (*mumble mumble mumble mumble*) sore loser …”

Aziraphale surmises that his demon friend is grumpy because he thinks he’s winning, but Anathema has a point. They’re supposed to be having fun, and a game isn’t fun if you don’t get the chance to play. “Change how, my dear?” he asks her in an attempt to smooth things over.

“First off, anything that happened before the 90s is strictly off limits.”

“The 1790s?” Crowley asks, swaying like a snake as he tries to figure out which of the three Anathemas he’s seeing is the real one.

“The 1990s.”

“Pffft! The 1990s were dull!”

“Plus, be vague. I mean, believe it or not, there are things I have done in the broad sense that you may not have …”

“Not likely …”

“… but never have I ever …” She rolls her eyes to the ceiling, trying to come up with the most ridiculous thing she can think of in short order “… sold Napoleon Bonaparte’s dismembered penis on the black market.”

“Ha! Cheers!” Crowley crows, snapping his fingers to refill Aziraphale’s glass. They hold up their shots ceremoniously, then drink them down, slamming their empty glasses on the table in unison when they’re done.

“Good lord! You two can’t be serious!?”

“I sold it first,” Crowley admits. “But he sold it by accident trying to return it.”

“How do you sell a penis by accident?”

“It’s a long story,” Aziraphale says sternly, the thin line his mouth makes clearly translating his distress at the mention of his faux pas, “and I’d rather not go into it. But all right. From now on, we’ll be vague.”

“Great!” Anathema smiles triumphantly. “Let’s start over.”

“In that case, it might help if we were a little less sozzled,” Crowley suggests.

“Right.” Aziraphale clunks a second empty whiskey bottle on the table beside the first. “Fill’er up, Crowley.”

“What?” Anathema watches wide-eyed and grossed out as Crowley strains, bending over at the waist, white-knuckling the seat of his chair between his legs, making the most revolting noise imaginable, the level of the liquid in the bottle rising with every grunt. Aziraphale, in contrast, is much quieter with regard to his own evacuating, but the whole process between the two is far too reminiscent of something else entirely.

It almost puts Anathema off her drink.

“That’s your guys’ bottle now,” she says, getting up to retrieve a brand new bottle from a nearby shelf.

“Obviously,” Crowley grumbles.

She cracks the cap on a fresh bottle of Jack and returns to her seat. “Okay, since I’m still not convinced you guys fully grasp the concept of this game, I’ll start.” She sits up straight and clears her throat as if preparing to make an important announcement. “I’ll make it simple. Never have I ever been rock climbing.”

“Ugh!” Crowley drinks his shot, revolted at how banal her selection is. Of all the things she could have chosen, she went with rock climbing. What? Did baking seem like too much of a stretch?

When he’s done with his drink, he notices Aziraphale’s glass has gone untouched. He glares at the angel, who stares back in confusion.

“What?”

“You’ve been rock climbing. Take a drink.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Whaddya call that big stone gate ‘round the Garden of Eden?”

“A gate, not a rock.”

“If it’s made of rock, I’ll allow it,” Anathema declares.

“But I didn’t climb it.”

“You were on top of it.”

“Yes, but I just sort of … appeared there. And after I gave away my sword, I miracled my way back up.”

“Ya climbed a rock. Take a drink.”

Aziraphale sighs and raises his glass. “Whatever.”

Anathema beams. “There. Isn’t this fun?”

“Loads,” Aziraphale says. Crowley sputters obscenely in response.

“I’ll pick another one,” Anathema offers. “Never have I ever stolen anything.”

“Oi!” Crowley gestures at Aziraphale after he sucks down his shot and the angel hasn’t moved. “You need to drink!”

“Whatever for?” Aziraphale asks, righteously offended.

“You’ve stolen stuff before! I’ve seen you!”

“I’ve acquired. I haven’t stolen.”

“Same diff! Right, book girl?”

“I’d say so.”

“Name one thing I’ve stolen. Go ahead.”

“You stole that … that … wooden chalice thingy from the Knights Templar! And they were on your side!”

“I’ll have you know that wooden chalice thingy, as you so smartly put it, was the Cup of Christ! And I was moving it to a safe location. I tried to explain that to the chap on duty, but he couldn’t hear me.”

“He was six-hundred-and-seventy-three years old! He was deaf as a stump!”

“Yes but he looked amazing for his age, didn’t he?”

“After you took the cup, he died!”

“It was in the job description. He understood his fate,” Aziraphale says, dismissing the demon’s commentary with a wave.

“Right. And I’m sure that was a huge comfort to him!”

“I couldn’t say. Anyway, you haven’t proven anything. I have not stolen.”

“Fine,” Crowley growls, pouring his shot. “My turn. Never have I ever killed a six-hundred-and-seventy-three year old knight!”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Anathema waggles a scolding finger. “That’s against the rules!”

“It’s necessary.”

“Of course it is, you sour serpent,” Aziraphale mutters, draining his glass. “My turn. Never have I ever nearly mowed down innocent pedestrians whilst behind the wheel of a vehicle traveling 90 when it should only go 30 tops!”

“What did we say about specific?” Anathema says.

“I don’t know. I think that could apply to anybody,” Aziraphale returns icily. “Have you seen the way you ride a bicycle?”

Crowley drinks his shot, mimicking Aziraphale while he does. When his glass hits the tablecloth, Aziraphale refills it. “Good of you to take your medicine, my dear,” he says. “Now whose turn is it to think of something?”

“I will,” Anathema says. “Someone needs to get this game back on track. Never have I ever worn high heels.”

“How high?” Crowley asks.

“I’ll say … four inches.”

With shaking heads and irritated sighs, Aziraphale and Crowley take a shot.

“Never have I ever ridden bare back,” Crowley says. This time Aziraphale and Anathema drink.

“Never have I ever eaten a rodent,” Aziraphale says. Crowley drinks his shot, snickering into his glass.

“What’s so funny?” Aziraphale asks.

“You picked one you’ve done, so you have to take a drink, too.”

“What? I’ve never eaten a …!” Crowley nods through Aziraphale’s protesting and the angel goes pale. “When?”

“1683. At that little restaurant in Naples. That crooked asshat of a chef wat served everyone rat and claimed it was chicken?”

Aziraphale goes numb, jaw slack, the abject horror growing on his face making Crowley snicker more.

“You had seconds,” he reminds him.

“Oh my Lord, you’re right!” Aziraphale’s lower lip trembles as he drinks his shot. “I’d forgotten. Though I think I forgot on purpose, to tell you the truth.”

“Don’t blame you.”

“Yikes. Okay. Never have I ever …” Anathema bites her lower lip, hemming and hawing between two questions - both of them fairly blah, she has to admit - when a third pops into her head that’s too good not to use, if for no other reason than to possibly get back at these two imbeciles if it lands the way she hopes it will “… had a crush on my best friend.”

Anathema half expects glaring yellow eyes behind dark lenses boring through her skull as a sulking demon reluctantly takes a drink, but Aziraphale downs his shot before anyone can reach theirs, leaving Crowley and Anathema looking at him strangely before he realizes what he’s done.

“Oh!” he squeaks when he sees two sets of eyes trained his way. “I … I was … I was in a rhythm. I don’t think I was paying attention to the question, I …” Aziraphale gulps, wiggling nervously in his seat. “Come again?”

“Oh, well, that’s all right,” Anathema says, pretending to believe him. She refills his glass and pushes it in front of him. “We’ll call a re-do. Do you want to do the honors, Crowley? Or shall I?”

Crowley doesn’t answer her. He leans towards Aziraphale, as amused as Anathema but much more invested in Aziraphale’s answer. “Never have I ever …” he says slowly, chewing each word thoroughly before it leaves his mouth, drawing Aziraphale’s full attention to it, “had a crush on my best friend.”

He stares Aziraphale down, unblinking, the angel shrinking farther and farther back as the demon inches closer, eyes locked so hard on Aziraphale’s, he can feel their hold on him like physical hands keeping him rooted to the spot. Crowley’s eyes don’t unnerve him. Not in the slightest. It’s the idea that the secret Aziraphale has held on to the longest is about to be unearthed, and by virtue of a common, vulgar drinking game.

Whose idea was this anyway? he thinks, mentally side-eyeing Anathema before he comes to the sobering realization that, in truth, it was his. He’d seen it on a TV show – the first TV show he’d watched in decades. He’d fancied it, thought it could be a lighthearted and fun way to pass the time, get to know new friends.

Ha.

But the longer Crowley stares at him, the more the expectant grin on the demon’s face begins to wither, and if there’s one thing Aziraphale doesn’t want, it’s Crowley’s feelings hurt.

This had to come out sooner or later. Might as well be now.

Aziraphale grabs the glass and throws it back, grimacing at a burn on the finish that has nothing to do with the alcohol. “Happy? Now you know.”

“Ecstatic.” Crowley bypasses his shot altogether, grabbing the closest bottle by the neck and downing what’s left in a single impressive chug.

Aziraphale gasps. “Are you … are you serious?”

“Absolutely.”

“How long?”

“How long do you think?”

Aziraphale’s eyebrows shoot up with the outlandish suspicion that he knows exactly how long. That he’s always known. “That long?”

“Yes, Aziraphale. That long.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think I was being subtle about it, really.” Crowley fidgets his fingers, worrying the thumbnail of his left hand with the index fingernail and thumb of his right. “I just … I figured that if you didn’t say anything about it then you probably didn’t … you know … feel the same.”

“But I did,” Aziraphale says softly. “I … I do. Feel the same.”

Crowley’s face lightens, something resembling hope lifting the corners of his mouth into a cautious smile. “Really?”

“Really.”

Crowley rises from his chair and saunters over to Aziraphale. Aziraphale starts to stand but stops when Crowley gets down on his knees, removing his glasses and tossing them aside to get an unfettered view of him as if Anathema isn’t sitting mere feet away.

“I … I thought …” Crowley starts, interrupting himself with a bittersweet cough of a laugh.

“Oh, my dear.” Aziraphale runs a soothing hand through the demon’s hair. “What do we do now?”

“If it’s all the same to you,” Crowley whispers, “I’d really like to kiss you.”

“I think … I’d like that, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

Now that he has permission, Crowley wastes no time capturing Aziraphale’s lips with his own. After 6000 years, he’s tired of being subtle. From now on, he’s going to lay his feelings for Aziraphale on the line, out where the angel can see, and pray the important ones find their match alongside his.

Feeling like an awkward third wheel on a broken velocipede, Anathema begins gathering her things. “I’m just gonna go,” she says quietly, hopping out of her chair while demon and angel continue kissing. “Have some important, you know, witch business to get around to. I’m going to leave you two alone to … ahem … talk. But we should do this again some time. It was … educational.”

“Mmm … mind how you go, my dear,” a breathless Aziraphale mumbles between kisses.

“Right,” Crowley concurs, his hand sliding up into Aziraphale’s hair and pulling him deeper.

“Okey-dokey then.” It takes several tries before Anathema verifies she has everything, hugging books, a newspaper, a scarf, and her coat to her chest as she scurries away through the stacks and shelves with a laugh in her throat when the moaning begins.

[thebibliomancer]

Song of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 5

Song of the Dark Crystal by J.M. Lee because it’s dinner time!

Last time in book: Kylan and Naia have joined forces with Rian to overthrow the Skeksis. Rian’s plan is to go to the All-Maudra with his claims and a vial of Mira goo. To kill time before dinner with Rian’s family, Kylan reads a bunch of rocks and Naia has a nap.

Chapter 5

Dinner is awkward for everyone. Then the plot comes knocking. Rian, Kylan, and Naia make a game plan.

Oops, this is a slightly bigger chapter that ruined my one week streak! But its also a really good chapter that I quite enjoyed!

Mythra leads Kylan and Naia into the kitchen and introduces them to mom Shoni and little brother Timtri.

Like most Stonewood Gelfling, she had long dark hair, and her soft wings were brown and red, with two large black eyespots accented by other dappleso f orange, gold, and tan.

Shoni pretty.

She stops preparing dinner to greet the guests.

Shoni set down her chopping knife and rounded the table to cup Naia’s face and then Kylan’s. Her hands smelled of spices and carrots. It was a warm gesture that Kylan had seen many mothers do, although he couldn’t remember much about his own mother, and certainly Maudra Mera would never have done something so kind to him.

OH MY GOD

Shoni pls adopt this boy right now!

That’s the relationship I ship, Shoni adopts Kylan.

Because, geez, the more Kylan and Mera’s relationship is expounded on, the sadder I feel.

“Hello, my sweets. I’m glad to finally meet you. Please, sit down. Ignore Rian if he’s cold to you. Rian! Fetch our guests something to drink, would you?”

“I can do it, Mother,” Mythra suggested, but Shoni waved her away.

“I want him to do it. It will be good for him.”

Wow. Savage. Rian is having a bad time in these opening chapters.

So, dinner is served on a stone table that seems to be growing out of the ground, leading Kylan to wonder whether the hut or table came first. Dinner is nuts, spiced peach-berries, and diced root.

I wonder if Stone-in-the-Wood doesn’t eat a lot of meat or whether this family doesn’t. Probably meat is a special occasion food.

Shoni asks about how far they’ve traveled which starts a conversation about Landstriders which makes Kylan feel like crap because he’s bad at all the Spriton things.

[Kylan] didn’t want to tell them about his brief foray into riding, the majority of which involved falling off, spooking the beasts, or a combination of the two. Galloping across the plains was one of the many Spriton traditions Kylan had seen much and done little of. There was that, and spear mastering, and bola throwing...

Geez. Kylan needs a hug. And some self-confidence. And another feel good day full of reading.

Actually, its an awkward dinner for other reasons too. Naia mentions that she’s thankful Kylan was good enough at riding to guide them away from the castle and Rian, grim boy that he is, mentions its good because if they didn’t have a Landstrider they would have been caught by the Skeksis.

“Rian!” Shoni scolded. “Now’s not the time. Can’t we enjoy one meal as a family without mentioning... that?”

“I don’t know, Mother. Can we even call ourselves a family when Father -.”

“Enough.”

o_o

Wow. I guess Skeksis are the politics of Thra and discussion of them will just ruin dinner. That and Ordon is hunting down Rian for the Skeksis. Imagine thats contributing.

Rian just bringing it up like that smacked me in the face though.

Shoni flicked her wings once, shrugging off the little argument

Wiiiiiiiing body language! I loves it!

Shoni switches the conversation to safe small talk and asks what the Drenchen do for fun, leading Naia to an enthusiastic explanation of various fun swamp activities.

Here’s one I like.

“When I was younger and argued with my sisters, my mother used to throw gems into the deeper parts of the swamp and make us find them before they sank into the mud. If we couldn’t find a gem, we had to do chores under Great Smerth, cleaning mites from the roots and such.”

That’s good swamp parenting.

Everyone is getting into the conversation about swamp activities. Kylan thinks that Naia sounds like she’s bragging, but in an endearing way. Even Rian seems to be listening to the conversation.

He jumps in to mention that Gurjin told him about the bola tourneys held and starts discussing comparative bolas with Naia. How the Drenchen bola uses shorter rope so it has more force and less chance to tangle.

And Naia gets into the topic of bolas and tries to bring Kylan in to talk about Spriton bolas.

Kylan shrank a little into his shoulders. He appreciated her attempt to include him, but the truth was, he didn’t know how shorter or longer rope changed a bola, or whether smaller or larger stones would be better in the field or forest. He didn’t know, and a part of him didn’t even care. He shrugged.

“I guess,” he said.

His contribution was so small and green, it almost killed the tiny flame of conversation entirely. Naia was ready with kindling words.

I really like that metaphor. But also, wow, this is like every awkward family dinner smooshed into one.

“Kylan is a song teller, and a dream etcher. A very good one! And even so, he can still throw a bola. He struck skekMal the Hunter square in the face.”

Again, Naia was only trying to help, but to Kylan, it sounded less like an endorsement and more as if she were trying to excuse him. As if being a song teller explained his athletic ineptitude, and his single victory in combat redeemed him.

=(

I don’t know how many ways I can say wow what an awkward dinner. Poor Kylan.

Rian grunts approvingly of Kylan bonking the Hunter and adds that he’d love to do that himself one day.

Then the dinner gets EVEN MORE AWKWARD as Maudra Fara shows up. (Fugitive Rian of course hides while she’s visiting.)

An older Gelfing stood outside, dressed in indigos and greens, her dark burgundy-and-gold wings folded along the length of her back like a cloak. From the beads and ornaments woven into her dark hair, Kylan realized who she must be.

Maudra Fara is also pretty.

But she’s here on business. And for Kylan, specifically. She saw a Spriton on the rise and figured hey, a Spriton. Then she received a note about a Kylan.

She tells him “Before you wonder -- it is bad news.” Just ripping the band-aid off. That’s the Fara I know!

To my maudra sisters:

Take note. Lords skekLach and skekMal arrived early this morning. They sought one of mine, a runaway named Kylan. They say he is a traitor. When they did not find him, they took three others as collateral. If you know of Kylan’s whereabouts, send him to me, and I will take responsibility for him.

In Thra’s song,

Dream Stitcher Mera

aw crap Kylan is a fugitive now too.

(I wonder what skekMal’s title is when he’s not being a serial killer. He can’t go by Hunter because that’s his secret identity.)

Naia gets rightly offended at the Skeksis, pointing out that they’re not even hiding their cruelty and accuses them of taking hostages for snacks.

Maudra Fara tells Naia not to talk like that but out of fear instead of loyalty. When Naia keeps talking, Fara just. Pretends she’s not.

Fara is median cool. She’s clearly not willing to risk her village by sticking her neck out and probably wouldn’t back up Rian if he went to her, just as he feared. But instead of capturing Kylan, she gives him this headsup and a head start.

“If Shoni has welcomed you to her home, I won’t betray her hospitality tonight. But the Skeksi are looking for you, and my duty is to my clan. By the time the suns rise, you must be gone from here. Go to your maudra or do not. Go anywhere but here. I’ve got enough on my hands with Rian missing in the woods we share with the Skeksis. I can’t risk the safety of my people any more. Please understand.”

=(

Kylan understands logically but still feels like a kick in the gut to so suddenly be kicked out. And its not explicitly stated but since he is half Stonewood, Kylan has basically been alienated from both of his homes. If he goes to Sami Thicket, Mera will turn him over to the Skeksis. And Fara has made it clear that she won’t risk her people for him.

Even if he hadn’t chosen to continue the quest earlier, he’d be stuck with it.

This is just a huge bummer of a dinner!

Kylan throws the note into the fire but since the paper was enchanted to resist the heat of dream-etching, it takes some time to burn.

H-hey! A neat trivia about dream-etching!

Naia gets mad on Kylan’s behalf who is too kicked in the guy and worried. But Rian comes out of hiding with a more different take. Or at least acceptance.

“She would have sent me away, too, if she’d known I was here. I can’t fault her for it. It’s her duty to do what’s best for the entire clan, not just one or two, or even three of us... The Skeksis will eventually come here, and they will do what it takes to scare the others into giving us up. The only thing that may save us is if no one knows our whereabouts and if we reach the All-Maudra as soon as possible. We should do as Maudra Fara says and leave. Tonight.”

Kylan is too focused on who the Skeksis took from Sami Thicket and whether attempting to rescue them would be a waste of time. And when he comes out of his musing he’s arrived at a different conclusion than Rian.

Not that they don’t need to leave but that heading to the All-Maudra isn’t a good enough plan. Because the Skeksis won’t stop preying on Gelfling or coming after Kylan and Rian and other Gelfling are going to get caught in the crossfire.

Kylan thinks that they should let all Gelfling know the truth so that they can take precautions to protect themselves. But he also gloomily thinks that maybe people will be unwilling to listen to the truth, like Maudra Fara.

Naia sides with Kylan.

“We will tell the All-Maudra,” Naia announced. “But Kylan’s right. The rest of the Gelfling need to know, too. If we focus all of our efforts on reaching the All-Maudra and waiting for her decision, many of our people could be taken by the Skeksis in the meantime. We have to find a way to spread the message faster, and sooner. Like dreamfasting.”

But even with Naia’s Super Cool Dreamfasting it would take too long. They’d have to touch hands with EVERY GELFLING.

Its just not practical and its not like there’s some kind of fire skype! The Gelfling are still in the courier stage of communications technology, drat it!

Shoni pops in and mentions that they could take the path to the High Hill making Rian groan that Aughra will be no help.

Blowing away Kylan that Mother Aughra, huge figure in Gelfling culture, is just casually an option here.

Aughra who is probably as old as the suns, called maudra Thra, lived through the only two conjunctions, and knew the world before Gelfling existed.

That Aughra. Is casually an option. And just casually lives nearby!

“Her home is near our wood, though few make the trek to see her. Even those who arrive often do not find the answers they are looking for... Some find nothing at all. But I think, given how empty our table is, even a crumb would look like hope.”

A rebellion resistance is built on hope!

I’m intrigued that she appears to not be napping forever in this version which makes one wonder why she hasn’t gotten involved because even at her movie grumpiest, she wasn’t callous. She saved Fizzgig the Fizzgig to no benefit to herself.

So what’s her deal in this continuity? And is she as grumpy?

“She’s nothing but a mad witch spouting nonsense and riddles,” Rian grumbled.

“You’ve met her?” Naia asked, as surprised as Kylan but more practical about how the news could serve them. “So you know the way! We can ask her if she knows how we can send out warning.”

“She won’t help!” Rian snapped, his voice escalating suddenly. When Kylan and the others fell quiet, he tried to settle down. Still, his fingers twitched and his thick brows drew tight. “She’s existed since the beginning of time, and the years have eroded her mind. She’s not interested in us. In the Gelfling. She won’t help and I’m not about to waste my time on her.”

That sounds like there’s history there that I’d love to know.

And sounds like if she’s not as grumpy as in the movies she’s at least as difficult.

Did Rian go to her for help after fleeing the castle to no gain? Or did he have a different reason for visiting?

Aughra wasn’t senile in the movie so I don’t think she’d be senile here so what’s her deeeeeal?

Anyway, Rian argues that showing the All-Maudra the vial of Mira goo is the best plan. And Naia argues against putting all their hope on one plan. So Rian says cool I’ll go alone like I wanted to. And Naia says hey buddy this is a team effort.

And Kylan finally points out that they should split up because they’re both basically saying that but arguing about it.

They should split their efforts and making it harder for the Skeksis to catch them.

“We need to work together, apart.”

Oh, I love that turn of phrase.

Kylan shrugged, in case they didn’t like the idea. They were both leaders, and he was a follower, but they weren’t looking at the big picture. To his surprise, though, the suggestion brought a calm to the room. Naia nodded at Kylan, a flash of respect in her eyes.

This is funny for a kind of meta reason. Rian and Naia are both protagonist but Kylan was a supporting character last book but protagonist of this one and he needs to speak up and protag.

Also, Rian and Naia are a bit in the way of being stubborn.

Rian agrees, insofar as he doesn’t think it will matter because his own plan is going to 100% succeed and it gets them out of his (blue-streaked) hair. He even offers to take them partway to High Hill.

Kylan then decides that they should go immediately.

Though he wasn’t eager to forsake the warmth of the stone hut for the cold wilderness of the wood, he felt it was the right thing to do. He had wanted to rest, but it seemed rest was a luxury for which they would find less and less opportunity. Knowing that Maudra Fara thought they were endangering all the Gelfling of Stone-in-the-Wood -- and that they were under orders to leave -- robbed the warm hut of much of its comfort.

=(

That’s a bummer ending to an awkward dinner party.

[meshedfabric80fr]

Watching the 1992 Newsies movie for the first time. It’s... interesting so far, the choreography is wonderful but the different dialogue is unsettling

What happened to the rooftop? :((

God, Medda looks so different, this is so weird

My first reaction to Les pretending to cough was like “cough into your elbow, what are you doing?!?” “You should be wearing a mask, honestly!”

Wow Davey, it’s only been one day and your already introducing him to his parents :))))

The actor who plays Sarah, Ele Keats (I think), would make a good Cosette idk

Ahhhh poor Jack. I actually kinda like this version of Sante Fe. That hat tho? He just carries it around? :))) the choreo in this is amazing omg what is happening! He’s riding a horse! He’s riding a horse!

Ok watching this I ship Javid more then I ever have watching the broadway version

Jack and Davey’s hair is just perfection

Brian Denton. Huh.

“Jackie Boy”

Is it just me or does Davey sound so unenthusiastic in the call and response? Also I will watch this a thousand times over just for the choreo

Crutchie is such an adorable pure little boy omg he is so innocent and eager and he is basically Jack’s little brother but like in the best way possible

Omg Brooklyn has slingshots, they all have slingshots, this is one of the best things I hav ever seen

King of New York feels so weird without Katherine, these lyrics. God, this feels so wrong

No! Crutchie! Ahhhhhhh!!! He is so pure.

Sarah coming in for the second time and we’re an hour and six min in and she’s doing absolutely nothing. Katherine or Davey would be (is) a much better

Wait his real name is Francis Sullivan? Francis?!?! Is this is the musical?!? Jack’s real name is Francis? I am so confused

Wait, Medda gets another song? Huh, this is weird

Oh no racetrack! Run, Jack, Run! They are all drowning in newsboys

Wait they actually go to court???

Brian to the rescue!

Omg they are calling Jack “cowboy”

Wait so according to the internet Bryan is late 30s mid 40s. Wow. That makes this so much weirder.

Love is in the air, all this sexual tension I swear to god. Javid is apparent in this, screw Sarah

Omg Crutchie is back! I would die for this cinnamon roll

No Jack!!! How could you! Ahhhhh!!! No Davey ahhh I’m going to die!!! No!!! I’m crushed! Davey is crushed! How could you break his heart! This. This scene is so good, Les is so pure this is heartbreaking omg

He just went out the window! Omg lol, yes Davey

I honestly thought going into this I would just being making fun of the different lyrics and Bryan and stuff but oh no! This is actually really good and entertaining and heart breaking and omg

K so I thought David was Sarah for a sec cuz I forgot she exsisted and I was like yes! Javid moment! But then I was like oh and all my dreams were crushed

Crutchie is a savage omg

Don’t leave them no Jack ahhh no! Not the trainyards!!!! Don’t abandon them again!

No Les is crying! :(((((((((

Jack is back! OMG JUST KISS HIM ALREADY JACK WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!! Ahhhhhhh

That was amazing I am so glad I watched that