#and made all sorts of octopus stuff

[decapod-appreciator]

got a bit carried away with wonder woman redesigns.

[mikimakiboo]

Mermay day 5 - Precious

Here we go again with Cross boy

- Leviathantale -

Cross shows Nightmare a new ship that has just sunken with lots of cool stuff inside.

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The thresher shark had to stop to turn around, his excitement making him forget the octopus following him wasn't as fast of a swimmer as he was. It wasn't often that Nightmare was in his small form, but when he was he was much slower than in his big form, so Cross had to be careful not to go too fast.

There had been a storm, one that hadn't been caused by the leviathan but had been strong enough to sink a ship not far from their nest. The others were on hunting duty but Cross, still being quite new to the oceanic life, couldn't come yet, so instead he explored the surroundings and discovered the ship. Inside were lots of treasures, shiny things and materials they could use either to decorate the grotto or to hunt, Cross knew horror liked to use an enchor, maybe the others would like to have something too ? He would have to ask them when they would come back, but for now he wanted to show the shiny things to Nightmare, as he knew the octopus liked these sorts of stuff. He wanted to please him, he was kind of the boss here, it was thanks to his brother and him he was alive now: Nightmare had accepted him into the group, he would have died if the Leviathan didn't decide to let him stay in his nest and later let the other sharks teach him everything he needed to know to survive. He was deeply grateful for all they had done for him, and wanted to repay them in his own way. He couldn't hunt yet, but he could find pretty gifts ! And right now, he had gifts for Nightmare.

- We're almost there ! The shark informed. I promise it will be worth it !

- I don't doubt it, Nightmare reassured.

Once the octopus was next to him Cross swam again, leading the way until they arrived to the new ship: a wooden one with sails, quite a rare sight as they were getting less popular among land walkers. Nightmare tilted his head.

- Is that what you wanted to show me ? 

Nightmare had lived for a long time, he had sunken many ships, a lot like this one too, so to see it on the sea ground wasn't what he would call an unusual sight. He could probably eat it, though, his stomach could digest anything and wood was more tender than steel anyway. He looked at Cross, the shark seemed excited. Right, it was probably his first time seeing a ship like this, it was still very new to him.

- Actually the surprise is inside, but the ship isn't too bad either, no ? But anyway ! Come inside !

Cross went to grab Nightmare's hand but stopped right before he could reach it, looking unsure.

- I mean.. if.. if you would like to see it.. ?

Nightmare smiled, holding out his hand for him.

- I would love to, please do guide me.

Cross smiled too, barely hiding his excitement, and finally took the leviathan's hand to lead him inside. Most lights were still on, enabling them to clearly see everything as Cross swam in the hallways. The ship looked old from outside, but the inside was obviously new and well cared for. Nightmare let his tentacles explore the surface of the furniture as Cross made sure to slow down to give him time to explore.

The wood was varnished, is was soft, a nice touched that pleased Nightmare as he was too used to have splinters in his flesh whenever he had to sink a wooden ship. Splinters were very annoying to take off and he always had to ask his brother and mates to take care of it, a thing he disliked as he didn't want to burden them with this task. Getting pampered when he was in his small form was something, it was a nice treat, but having them lose their time for some splinters ? He didn't like that. So the wood being soft ? Very nice.

They eventually arrived in front of a door.

- Okay it's- it's behind the door, close your eyes ! Cross semi-ordered.

Nightmare looked at the door for a second before closing his eyes, listening to Cross open the door and move some stuff before coming back next to him.

- You can look now.. he sounded nervous.

Nightmare opened his eyes, looking at the new room in front of him: there were boxes full of golden items, some contained shiny stones and crystals, others had planches with landscapes and people drawn on them, others again had what looked like the stuff land walkers wrapped their body in, clothes if he remembered correctly ? Nightmare entered the room, looking through the first box and letting his tentacle take out a golden stick that was probably used as a scepter, he inspected it for a moment before taking something else and repeating the process. Cross was waiting not too far, fidgeting with his fingers, clearly nervous.

- Do you like it... ?

Nightmare thought for a second.

- There are some pretty objects... I quite like the stones, they would look good in our nest, don't you think ? He asked the shark as he turned to look at him.

Cross quickly nodded.

- Yes ! That is why I wanted to show you ! There are so many pretty stuff and I thought you would like to chose the most precious one to bring back to the nest !

Nightmare hummed.

- The most precious, you say ? He asked, approaching the shark.

- Y-yeah ! You know a lot more than me about these things so I didn't want to take something that would have been worthless by mistake and... Cross stopped, a tentacle having wrapped itself around his tail.

He looked down at the appendage before looking back up at Nightmare, confused. The octopus smiled at him, pulling him closer.

- You said I could chose the most precious thing in this room, I think I have found it.. he purred.

Cross stayed silent for a second before the information hit his brain and his cheeks flushed a pale purple.

- I-I.. !

Nightmare chuckled, nuzzling his cheek.

- Thank you for the surprise Cross, you're one very sweet shark.. He murmured, giving him a little playful nip before backing up slightly, not wanting to overwhelm his newest mate.

Cross blushed more, stuttering a "you're welcome" as he looked to the side to try and calm himself down despite Nightmare's gaze planted on him.

Could you blame Nightmare ? The thresher shark was adorable when blushing, and so easy to fluster. He loved his new mate.

He would look great with some nice shiny stones on him too. And gold. And everything in this room. Cross hadn't been with them for long but he already knew what the Leviathan liked.

[yuri-is-online]

Hi hi so can we have an expansion of middle school Floyd completely being his unfiltered self around yuu (maybe even octotrio going like "Oh please don't believe that merculture is like this" because middle school Floyd is embarrassing them in front of their crush) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Hmmm

So Floyd says morays are cowards right, but my experiences with little kids tell me that they don't always have the best sense of self-preservation. I picture little Floyd as one of those kids on crack. He thinks this human is cute! Especially because they don't have the sense to be afraid of him at all and are calling him cute, that's real funny. What if he just takes a big chomp outta ya, will you still think he's cute? As for the embarrassment, well...

Azul

It comes from how blunt little Floyd is.

He's got even less patience for Azul's plans than big Floyd does, and the complete inability to see the value of waiting for the pay off. He's actively getting angry at him and throwing temper tantrums every time Azul tries to smooth things over with Yuu.

"No you can't get the ability to breathe underwater from kissing a mermaid Floyd is making that up. And no not all merfolk are obsessed with legs that's just a him thing-"

"Nah Azul really likes your legs and pretty much everything you do with them!" Little Floyd is loud enough that other people than just you are looking at him in confusion (Azul is convinced it is overwhelming judgment) because he's choking on a mixture of spit and air because how did he pick up on that already?!? Azul thinks he's so subtle when he admires you, he's got to be so you don't think he's weird.

He can't wait for this to be over, he can handle being made fun of by the twins now since they've got a good rapport and he can give as good as he gets but little Floyd is like a sea otter with a clam, he just won't let this go because he thinks octopus courtship is boring and he's not above saying that. Outloud. In front of you.

Jade

It's from how willing he is to throw Jade under the bus.

Floyd knows Jade pretty well, even if it's a younger version of him so he knows just how down bad stupid Jade is within 15 seconds and he is determined to "help."

Said help is mostly just humming a very specific song while swimming around you in circles and doing little tricks to "set the mood." Or asking you what you think about Jade when he thinks he's out of earshot, something he's never once been since little Floyd got summoned.

He thought this would be fun, Floyd is always so delightfully unpredictable and now there's two of him! But instead of bothering Azul he's decided to torture Jade and ruin his carefully cultivated image instead. He sort of gets why Azul was so determined to get rid of all his childhood photos now, you're never going to look at him the same after this.

When his efforts don't work because Jade is too much of a coward little Floyd starts just telling you a bunch of stuff they got up to as kids in an effort to embarras him. It clearly works from how quick Jade is to shove him to the side but you're polite enough to keep the laughter to a minimum. For the most part

Floyd

It comes from how much of a coward he is.

Floyd is waiting for the right time to speak with you, when he's extra sure that you feel the same as he does. When he knows you'll accept everything he wants to give you and more.

But no. Little him has to say everything that comes into his mind. "Are your legs soft? Why are you leaking seawater? Do all humans really only have ten toes and can I count them-"

If you find this funny, I think it might depress him somewhat. He wants you to see all the ways he's smart and not brush him off as an unserious joke. If you think it's cute, well that's a mix of emotions. He doesn't want you to see him as cute now, but it's ok if you find morays cute, and even nicer if you find baby morays cute. That thought alone perks him up.

Until little Floyd starts telling Yuu he thinks they're cute. Then he gets possessive and starts competing with himself like a looser. Probably by picking Yuu up and carrying them away since his legs are longer and he can get away faster.

[devildomwriter]

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause | Diavolo x Reader

900+ words | GN reader | warnings: Diavolo and reader have a child

The towering pine tree shone brightly in the ballroom of the castle. Barbatos had given in this year to Diavolo’s pleas for an unreasonably large Christmas tree and now you both got to enjoy it reflecting the ornaments across the room.

“I told him it was worth it,” Diavolo, dressed as Santa, grinned proudly. Barbatos sighed and brought in the last stack of gifts you’d prepared for everyone.

“This is all of the gifts. Are you certain you won’t be needing my services anymore tonight, Young lord?” Barbatos asked Diavolo with a worried frown.

“Yes, ___ and I can handle the rest. You like organizing the gifts right?” Diavolo double-checked with you and you nodded enthusiastically.

Diavolo chuckled and Barbatos bowed and made a swift exit, ready to turn in for the night.

“Okay, so they’re in different wrapping paper for different people right?” Diavolo asked and you nodded and began sorting them.

“Where’s Luci’s pile?”

“The dark blue ones with peacock feathers.”

Diavolo started laughing and began to guess the others. “Golden ones for Mammon, Ruri-Chan for Levi, Christmas Cats for Satan….let’s see, the pink ones with kiss lip stains must be Asmo’s. Where did you find such perfect paper?” He asked as he looked everything over.

“The internet.”

“Yes that would make sense…no food ones for Beel?”

“Not all his stuff is food and we don’t want him eating it. The perishables are in the walk-in freezer.”

Diavolo nodded, agreeing with your choice. “So…his paper must be Devilcat? Wise decision! He truly loves that mascot, doesn’t he? And Belphie here must be the clouds, right?” He continued talking to himself as he delighted in the choices of wrapping paper.

He burst into laughter as you handed him one of Luke’s gifts, wrapped in chihuahuas of course.

“Thirteen is the octopus one, Solomon is the magic wands, Raphael is the music notes, Simeon is the quills, Mephistopheles is the My Little Pony—“

“Bahahahahahaha,” Diavolo burst into laughter strong enough that tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Lastly, Barbatos is the British tea set paper, mine is the royal cats, yours are the cutesy animals, and—“

You reached for a gift simultaneously, touching hands. You smiled and took the gift and placed it in the nicest pile. “And these, are Chao’s.”

Diavolo smiled and pulled you into his chest as you sat on the large tree skirt.

“He’s gonna love them,” Diavolo smiled and kissed your forehead.

“It’ll be hard to top Barbatos, I don’t know how he does it,” you sighed. Chao may be yours and Diavolo’s son but every year Barbatos seemed to outshine the two of you gift-wise.

“Barbatos is still hiding his gifts in his room for Christmas morning,” Diavolo shook his head. “He really won’t give us a chance to outdo him, will he?”

You shook your head in agreement, “he’s currying favor already,” you joked and Diavolo laughed and kissed the back of your neck.

You eyed Diavolo up and down, letting your eyes linger long enough for him to notice and he grinned playfully.

“Done delivering gifts for the night?” You asked him sweetly and he nodded, got to his feet, and pulled you up with him.

“There’s just one more thing I want to do for the very special person at the top of my nice list,” he whispered into your ear. “Can you guess what that is?”

You blushed and nodded, “I think I can.”

Diavolo leaned in to kiss you when you both heard an ornament jingle and fall to the floor. Diavolo turned around to investigate and you followed but saw nothing.

Diavolo smirked and chuckled. “I think someone’s being naughty, should we go and see?” He asked and you shook your head.

“No, I’d rather have Santa to myself right now,” you teased and he nodded eagerly as you both left to your room.

Meanwhile, Barbatos, settling into bed was disturbed by the tapping of quick footsteps and loud banging on his door. He sighed, slipped on his shoes, and opened the door to see Chao looking frantic. His eyes shone like his mother’s and his hair was red and messy like his father’s.

“Oh my, whatever are you doing up at this hour Young prince?” Barbatos asked, feigning concern.

“Out there! Out there! It’s Mommy,” he sputtered in between gasps. Barbatos picked up Chao and prepared to investigate when Chao revealed his secret, “Mommy was kissing Santa! I saw it! We have to tell Daddy!”

Barbatos stopped in his tracks and started laughing. “Oh my, is that what happened? Don’t worry, I’m sure Daddy doesn’t mind a greeting kiss.”

Chao looked even more concerned, “Does Daddy like that kind of stuff?”

Barbatos’s eye twitched. “Whatever could you mean by that…”

“Uncle Asmo said—“ Barbatos covered Chao’s mouth.

“Listen to me Chao, this is very important.” Chao nodded, hand still over his mouth. “We will never ever listen to anything Uncle Asmo tells us. Understood?” Chao nodded again. “And if Uncle Asmo tells you anything weird, come tell me, okay?”

Chao nodded again and Barbatos took his hand away. “Now then, why don’t we get you back to bed, we have a busy day tomorrow, six of your uncles will be here for their gifts from you and we want you looking your best.”

“Don’t you mean seven uncles?”

“No, I meant six. Now let’s tuck you into bed little one. it’s nearly Christmas Day.”

[jacenotjason]

using my "Hand Theory" I sort of accidentally made a theory that Mr. Wonder is in the cult

this was the other day but i uh hu

okay so in SM6 Wonder leaves the house at the beginning of the ep right

there he goes

blahblah all the stuff happens Wonder is absent for the episode, gregor gets fucking GOT by cultists

literally RIGHT AFTER we watch Gregor get... uh.. eaten or something, we cut back to the Wonder house with Pump coming home and Susie yelling at him.

THEN in the middle of that, Wonder comes back home.

dawhh look at him ^_^

WHAT WAS HE OUT DOING?! Buying Pump a gift? nO YOU FOOL SHUTUP

HAND THEORY . LOOK

BOTH WONDER AND THE CULTIST HAVE THE ROUNDED-EDGED FINGERS.

NOT TO MENTION THE GIFT HE GOT FOR PUMP IS A GREEN OCTOPUS.

NOW. I FIND IT SO SUSPICIOUS. THAT WONDER LEAVES THE HOUSE WITHOUT TELLING HIS KIDS, WHILE HE'S GONE A CULTIST WITH HIS HANDS KNOCKS TF OUT OF GREGOR, AND THEN HE COMES BACK WITH AN EYES LOOKING FUCKIN THING.

wonder cultist. i do whatever i want!!!!

[enden-k]

The new info about the things this fear did to everyone at the cult? OUCH. AND EW. HANDS OFF. Tentacles? Tentacles off

First of all something tells me that poor Yx's body might have been desecrated in front of Saran (really hope not-) or at the very least Saran was forced to look (probably by the entity. Kinda like 'look what happened just bc someone didnt fulfill their duties correctly. Daddy shouldnt have sheltered you so much') and really take in what had happened

Or maybe he wasnt forced by the entity but something still did happen bc it is mentioned he was made to look. Had no choice. Nightmares about it

Also, the part that really stumps me is how did Saran go from 'probably standard manifestation of a murder victim' into mutating enough to reach category of 'greater evil'? Something is odd here

The while thing with purification and stuff- Saran probably had some energy/fear stuff inside if he had done his first exorcism by then bc i highly doubt the entity purified him without the whole offering thing and i doubt even more Yx let him offer his body. So maybe that mutated him somewhat but, enough to fuck up big time stuff?

Also, in all this, is the fake god even still alive? Is it still messing stuff and people up in what remains of the cult? Trying to latch onto a new bloodline?

Something tells me its no longer in play. Something tells me Saran might have gotten (or tried) to get rid of it (or fuck forbid maybe consume it and thats why he's so similar). Not quite on topic but it will be VERY funny if he did indeed eat it or a part of it in the context of the doodles of him eating the octopus little ball thingie (or was it just a tentacle? Cant remember the doodle)

Or maybe he's working with it. This one is least likely. Specially in light of what happened to Yx

I make myself sad just thinking about this all. Poor Yx! He did all he could but in the end Azai's greed-

New thought but Entity wanting to break Yx and fucking up his body and cursing it bc he was its fav and it wanted to break him and Azai fucking up Saran with the intention of being able to keep him to break him? Too many parallels. Maybe this is why Yx knows so well what his intentions are on sight in the canon Universe, and kills him before he can try

Azai your other blog self can NEVER stop me from hating. Ever. I will remain a hater this is both a warning and a threat

-🦜too many thoughts atm. Still sorting through

yeaaaa lots of questionable things. but it really thrived off the fear and discomfort it induced in its servants

anw alright, im gonna reveal some more in this ask since you already got pretty close anyway (and i revealed tons of stuff anw so akjscbk)

the act of desecration wasnt done in front of saran but the entity did show saran the damage to cause distress and generate more negative energy to feed off, mocking him for his attempts to undo the damage, mocking his own death, mocking and disrespecting yuxuan and blaming saran for everything. it underestimated the power of emotions though

yuxuan was perfectly balanced and constantly unbothered, always keeping his negative energy and emotions in check. saran never really learned this and its what turned his overwhelming emotions, his fear and grief and horror and erverything into pure violence and hatred, mutated it. the entity basically meant to fatten his negative energy up so it can devour him and become even more powerful but all it did was create a vengeful creature losing control on a destructive scale, too big to gobble up. saran lit became smth similar to it but the more powerful one between them won

the entity is no longer alive. its bc saran devoured it. he became one with it, making it a part of himself and not it making him a part of itself. he inherited traits and appearances, like the lust to devour other fears and energies and his soul-snatching cursed eyes. sometimes his viciousness is a shadow of the entities personality. but other than that saran is fully conscious and himself. he cant lose control in this destructive scale like he did after his death when he devoured the entity bc a certain energy within him that was consumed w the entity makes sure he keeps his calm. like a father calming his upset child

[marlynnofmany]

Simulated and Domesticated

Kavlae was laughing at me, shaking her head so her blue frills flapped. “Of course you found animals,” she said.

I objected, “It’s not like I went looking! And they’re not even real ones.”

Paint inspected the sign for the holographic zoo. “This station probably wouldn’t allow permits for real ones,” she said, rubbing her knuckles together thoughtfully with a click of scales. “And there would be logistics trouble with all the food they’d need, and disposing of waste…”

Wio waved a tentacle from where she sat on a rented hover stool. “I’ve visited stations that were very creative about waste disposal, but yeah, this is by far the easy route. Smart of them. I’m in! Nobody’s going to step on me, even if it’s full of you tall folk.”

I smiled and waved my coworkers forward, all of whom were shorter than me. Kavlae was close, though Paint was child-sized, and Wio looked like an octopus. A very clever one with a love for speed. While most Strongarms made a point of tentacle-walking everywhere just to show that they could, she was having a great time zipping about on the hover stool.

Wio and Kavlae were the pilots of our courier ship. Sometimes it was easy to tell.

Making a mental note to see if the space station had anything akin to bumper cars or VR racing to try next, I followed them into the holographic zoo with high hopes.

I wasn’t disappointed. The place was bigger than I’d expected, with a series of dark-lit rooms where tourists could feel surrounded by imitation nature scenes. Some were from planets I’d never visited, a couple were from some I had, and down at the end I found a section from Earth.

“Look, look!” I said, pointing. “You’ve got to see these. Too bad you can’t pet them. I saw another setup like this once that had imitation furs and stuff so you could pretend you were touching the real thing.”

Paint held her hands close. “That sounds alarming! I’ve heard plenty about the predators from your planet. I wouldn’t want to feel like they were any closer to me.” But she walked forward eagerly enough, eyes wide.

Other tourists moved past us in both directions, going from one exhibit to another. None crowded terribly close, though with the dimness of the hallways even between exhibits, I was glad for Wio’s hover stool. A peal of laughter from human children made me keep a surreptitious eye out for anyone likely to step on Paint’s tail or otherwise crash into somebody.

I spotted the kids as we stepped into the Earth area: a couple of teenagers and three younger kids with a puppy in a training harness. They all looked calm enough, and likely even responsible sorts if they were training a service animal. I kept an eye on them anyway.

The rest of my attention was busy with the series of objectively awesome rooms we walked through. Jewel-bright butterflies fluttered among flowers, swirling around us. Tropical fish swam by in even wilder colors, along with jellyfish and manta rays and one distant shark. A cluster of baby crocodiles learned to hunt minnows, making their adorable little ray-gun chirps while their massive mother looked on. Paint had something to say about that, possibly related to their resemblance to her own lizardy species, but it was drowned out by the adult crocodile scaring off something that was looking to eat the babies. I missed it; possibly a snake. One deep-throated roar like that was enough to scare off most things.

Including the puppy behind me, who was whimpering and hiding behind his humans’ legs. I didn’t have too much attention to spare for that group, since I was concerned that Paint had been frightened, but I needn’t have worried.

“So rude!” Paint laughed. “That almost sounded like a word in the old language we had to learn in school. I’ve forgotten most of it. Your Earth animals are fascinating!”

I agreed, and didn’t let on that I’d expected her to be scared. We moved forward to the next room, and I was happy to go.

The next room was wolves.

Behind me, I heard child voices talking about how much the puppy would enjoy this one.

“Look, Arrow! They’re like you!”

“See the little ones, Arrow?”

“Oh wow, look how big the leader is! I thought wolves were the size of your friend’s Husky!”

“Nah, real wolves are massive. Look, those ones over there are going after a moose!”

While my alien coworkers were making similar appreciative noises, with Paint keeping her distance from the toothier holograms, I spared a glance for the puppy.

Not good, I decided, given the wide eyes and the way the various humans were all looking in different directions. The kid holding the leash had it wrapped around their wrist tightly, but there was enough slack for some chaos. And nobody had a hand on the harness’s safety handle.

I stepped closer and opened my mouth to say something tactful, but that was when the holographic wolves broke into a dominance battle.

Paint squeaked and jumped away from the display, bumping Wio’s hover stool into Kavlae, who stumbled and waved her arms for balance. The puppy made one high-pitched bark, then lunged.

I lunged faster. I didn’t know if it was aiming for tail, tentacle, or other, but it didn’t reach it because I grabbed the handle and held the poor little guy down while he flailed and tried to bite me. Good thing his neck was too short.

“This is too much for him,” I said over all the exclamations and snarling. “Take him back to the butterflies.”

The oldest teenager saw the wisdom of this immediately, and tugged on the leash with a firm command for Arrow to calm down and c’mere. The kid holding the other end of the leash objected and made a big show of comforting the puppy, who had thankfully settled into whimpers. I let go. Multiple hands scooped him up, two people thanked me, and the group of them skedaddled back toward a quieter room.

I took deep breaths and turned back to my friends.

They hadn’t even noticed.

“I am very glad that is a hologram!” Paint was saying. “Those are terrifying! Even the little ones!”

Kavlae said, “I’m amazed that your people domesticated something so fierce.”

I laughed quietly. “Well, it was a lot of work.”

“Very impressive,” Wio said, testing the height setting on her hover stool. “Hey, after we’re done here, I want to see how much it would cost to buy one of these. The rental place was selling some sporty models.”

Kavlae peeked through the doorway. “I see one more exhibit, then the exit. Lots of feathers in this room.”

“By all means,” I said, “Let’s look at the birds, then go get Wio a sporty model.”

I was very relieved to find songbirds, ducks, and parrots in the bird room. No owl sneak attacks, no wingspans longer than Paint, and no domesticated predators about to lose it in the shadows.

The talking parrots were entertainment enough.

~~~

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book.

Shared early on Patreon! There’s even a free tier to get them on the same day as the rest of the world.

The sequel novel is in progress (and will include characters from these stories. I hadn’t thought all of them up when I wrote the first book, but they’re too much fun to leave out of the second).

[instantpansies]

top sfth couples/ships bc it's 2:49am and im thinking about them again

oopsie daisies (marianne and jacques, oopsie daisy bulge). idk if anyone else calls them that but they're my oopsie daisies and i love them so much. if oopsie daisies have 100 fans im one of them if oopsie daisies have 1 fan it's me if oopsie daisies have 0 fans im dead. they make me ill. handsome butch mayor and her pretty scientist husband.....they love their town and their kraken and ethically dubious transhumanism!!!!! and i am patting them both on the head and tucking them in. i am making this post so i can ramble about them but it felt weird to just do that so i made it a list. they're childhood friends to lovers, marianne definitely got all embarrassed giving jacques flowers after school, they prob graduated and were friends for a while and then decided "wait duh of course we're gonna get married" so they dated for a while and then marianne ran for mayor so they waited on the wedding until after she won and then they honeymooned the next town over bc they couldn't bear to stay away from le bulge for more than two weeks and they bicker and marianne brags about being the mayor and pretends to know what jacques is talking about when he's explaining his genetics work. and they're always working together bc jacques' tech is their main line of defense and she sits on his lap during briefings and all 12 of the other residents are a little annoyed when they enter a room both bc marianne is kind of bossy and needs total focus when she's addressing a room and bc jacques is just staring at her and zoning out and thinking about cell division the whole time. and jacques probably only sustained mild injuries from that gunshot wound so he's fine. he's fine and he definitely didn't die. because that would be silly and pointless. but marianne THINKS he's dead or dying so she harnesses her grief and rage to literally snap the neck of the king of england and tbh i think that's very sexy of her. what am i talking about again

pergephone (persephone and geoff, wild wet and worrisome). i love their dynamic so much, the pining is both silly and very earnest, and i have a bunch of headcanons about what happens when geoff leaves but feels like there's something missing....i like them very much. especially if persephone has some monstrous stuff going on, like huge sea beast or fanged and clawed siren. that's the shit.

ditch (derek and titch, the unrelenting aubergine). derek i love you so much, never stop being yourself. it's requited unrequited, it's got drama and pacing, it's sweet and hits home. what more could u want (except maybe a half mime half giant octopus)? they're the most popular ship in this fandom for a reason. and i concur. titch struggling with his feelings, derek setting boundaries and giving titch time to work out his shit on his own, margaery doing her best to sort out their drama. wonderful

[fernsplaysthings]

Wilds is definitely scratching the monstie hunting itch.

Finished the story, enjoyed the lore implications. Disliked how much hand-holding bits and long-winded dialogues there were. I'm glad it was a little bite-sized, lore heavy main story.

Some spoiler bits below.

I don't think I saw Quematrice's promo art if there was any (I avoided spoilers and betas and stuff) but man I love this chicken. It reads as chicken at a glance, in the middle of a hunt it is a black rooster, but up close I love how it's a chunky dinosaur with frills. It's just the right side of goofy.

Nu Udra might be one of the coolest monsters they've made. It's brilliant. I very much enjoyed 'Right Middle Arm broken'. Idk where it's getting cerebralspinal fluid from but, you go big octopus.

Arkveld? Beautiful. Pain in my ass. I love the flying wyvern shape anyway and it just has some gorgeous design points.

Zoh Shia is stunning and some sort of fucky angel thing and I want to make it into gear so bad.

And like the sound design as a whole, holy shit. Rey Dau especially, but all of the monster sounds are amazing.

[marisol-000]

The Sandbox Scientists ch. 3

Sooooo I may have been off about how long this would take, in my defense this is only my second multi-chapter fic! My solution to this is to stop guessing when things will be done so you get ch. 4 when you get it <3

Something I realized when double checking the opening scene is that I accidentally made it very unclear which Henry is narrating XD, I’ve decided to leave it that way

Big chapter this time! I thought about splitting it up but that's lame so you get what you get <3 Happy Thanksgiving!

(a03)

Henry was over the moon.

The adults liked science!!!

The adults like science the way they liked science!!!!!

They weren't mad or grossed out at all! Like the other grown ups and kids were when he talked about it.

The “Lodgers” as they called themselves had shown him and the other him all sorts of cool stuff! Like a GIANT octopus, and a metal man with glowing eyes, the biggest telescope he’d ever seen in his life, and even mice that were invisible!

There were so many labs here that were used for all sorts of things he didn’t understand yet!

Mr. Sinnet even let them hold his flamethrower!!

Not even his mother liked when he showed her his ‘science projects’. But these guys! They let him put his hands in the dirt and pick up a plant that moved!

Other Henry touched some slime that didn’t stick if he was fast enough!

And one of the lodgers gave them candy!

Whatever this place was was the best place EVER! He hoped Momma would let them come back sometime.

Archer, their new friend, leaned next to them while they tried the big lollipops someone named Doodle gave them.

“So, what kinda science is you two’s favorite? Neuroscience? Engineering? Cryptobiology?”

No one ever asked Henry what kind of science he liked! He also didn’t know what those words meant but he couldn’t wait to find out!

“Potions! I like to make potions with stuff I find outside! Oh and monsters! When I grow up I’m gonna be a monster doctor so I can help monsters when they get sick!”

Other him jumped in at this. “Yeah! I’m gonna make potions that bring people back to life, like Frankenstein!”

Someone nearby gasped. A hushed mutter ran through the crowd at this. Lodgers who had started to drift away and chat with their neighbors were suddenly pulled back into the boys’ conversation.

Archer straightened, and had an odd spark in his eyes.

“Sooooo, you like Frankenstein then?”

They nodded, “Mm hm! He’s the coolest scientist ever! I wanna be just like him!”

The whispers grew louder, with people giggling and nudging each other.

“You don’t say? Then I bet it’d be <em>really</em> cool if I were to tell you about a certain someone who’s in town.” Archer mused.

Henry paused in trying to bite his lollipop, “Who?”

Surely they couldn’t mean…

“Oh no one special,” he said, someone snickered behind them, “It’s just that we just so <em>happen</em> to have a certain… mad scientist in our attic right now.”

The boys froze where they were. For a moment Archer got a little worried.

“FRANKENSTEIN?!?!?!??!?!??!”

Frankenstein was having a quiet day.

She’d had her fair share of that in life, living in the wilderness, distancing herself from society. Hell, even before everything she had isolated herself from the world, driven everyone away lest the small minds find out about her incredible experiments.

Which was fine, she didn't need anyone else. So what if the lodgers had barely stopped by to talk to her all day? It didn’t bother her at all! It wasn’t like she took the slightest indication that she was being ignored with anything less than the <em>utmost</em> grace and dignity.

She huffed into her book and pretended not to be eyeing the door instead of it’s pages. Glaring as though hating it personally. As if her lovelies were just on the other side waiting to see her and this stubborn door was the problem.

Creature, the stone wall, was as content as ever with the silence. Enjoying a book of his own in the corner, likely philosophy or something.

Although constant companions and wholly comfortable talking to each other, the two had worn out their conversation topics years ago. Either agreeing on certain things or tired of arguing in circles on others.

There were days when they'd debate for hours about something she was <em>clearly</em> right about and days where they pretended the other didn’t exist.

Lately he often mocked her about her ‘adoring fans’.

Judged her for how greedily she drank up the attention like a surgical sponge. Languishing in the first shreds of approval she’d had in decades.

Well, he hadn't actually said any of that, but he was thinking it! She knew he was!

She could just feel his disapproval in how easily she was letting herself get attached as if it were her own…

Bah! What does he know?

She hears them before she sees them, WAY before she sees them. The gaggle of lodgers charging up the steps with almost as much enthusiasm as they did on her first day awake.

The woman straightened immediately, practically tossing her book aside and giving her full attention to the door.

Finally, Frankenstein’s day was resuscitated as a crowd of almost every lodger in the building burst into her room. All chattering and shifting and even waving at her like her prison of a bed was a grand stage or operating theatre.

They kept a respectable distance considering how small the room was with so many people in it. And she preened under their attention, ignoring creatures sigh at his reading being interrupted.

“Frankenstein! Frankenstein!” everyone called out excitedly. Eagerly talking over each other.

Everyone was smiling and leaning around each other to get a better view of her. All their words blending together. 

A hearty laugh bubbled out of Frankenstein’s chest. They were so energetic and curious, smart and idealistic. They were perfect scientist material!

She wanted to put them all in her pocket and take them with her on her travels, tell them stories, show them the world.

Oh, how she resented that idiotic Doctor Jekyll for keeping them in a box. The way he had them eating out of his perfectly manicured hand, thanking him for their gilded cage.

Well it was about time they bit that hand!

Couldn't they see how the world was not in their books and manuscripts, it was out there!

Frankenstein held her gloved hands up to quiet the noise, taking a big breath for what was sure to be a rallying speech that would finally convince the so-called lodgers to fight for their freedom.

“Frankenstein! We have some special guests who want to meet you!”

She was cut off by a few of the lodgers. Fighting their way through the crowd, they were ushering someone to the front, entirely hidden behind the energetic scientists.

Frankenstein blinked in surprise as there, pushed out of the huddle as though in offering, were two…children.

She froze.

A cold wind rushed through her, instantly snuffing out the spark she’d held seconds ago. Cutting through her coat to her core.

The two boys in front of her were distinctive in appearance, it nagged at her, distantly. But all she could see was William.

“These are our newest recruits! Henderson and what was it? Benry? Yeah Benry.”

There was no way anyone named these unfortunate children that, unless London had gotten weird while she was gone, but the two seemed too entranced with her creature to correct them.

The boys weren't even looking at her like everyone else was, eyes instead on the homunculi like he was some celebrity they got backstage tickets to see.

“We found them snooping ‘round our labs!” “Cripes they were hard to catch.” “These two are gonna be fine scientists someday!”

The creature that had killed her youngest brother.

She understood why he did it.

She understood it was her fault.

It was her fault. For making a monster with such strength, just to see if she could. It was her fault for abandoning it, leading to the resentment and hatred for all like her. All Frankensteins.

It was her fault he was dead.

No! It was the price one paid for Science, she was wrong to have attachments then and she would not let herself get attached to these kids now. Not when it meant people got hurt. Not when - aannnnnnd Creature was letting them climb on him like monkey bars.

To her shock Creature was holding perfectly still, staring in utter befuddlement at the small things crawling on him like bugs.

As hesitant as he looked, he wasn’t stopping them. Merely watching.

It was… odd.

This had never happened to him before. Fully grown adults who were hardened from life and trained to deal with criminals turned tail at the mere sight of him, yet here were two children, gazing up at him with round eyes like he was Santa Claus.

“WOW, you’re Frankenstein's monster?!”

“Did you kill Frankenstein?”

“Are you gonna kill someone else?”

“How did Frankenstein make you?”

“Can we be friends?”

“Do you wanna play doctor with us? Mr.Tanis gave me a scalpel!”

One of the lodgers yelped, “What!? I most certainly did not!”

The way they were looking at him…

The lodgers looked at him the same way. At first he had taken it with suspicion, as he did all things. Assuming that their looks were of scientific curiosity, and that they were imagining all the ways they could dissect him. Take him apart and find out how he ticked, just like Moraue longed to.

But now, it was obvious, they were looking at him with childlike wonder.

Creature stared mutely as the lodgers wrestled the knife from the boy with brown hair, not quite understanding it yet.

The blond’s hair tickled as it brushed against his shoulder, though he did not react to it. The two children were being surprisingly careful where they placed their hands, taking care to not pull on any of his seams.

Creature watched as the little one slipped off, landing back first on his lap with an “oof”. The fall wasn't tall enough to knock the breath out of him though, so he seemed fine.

Creature lifted him up, holding the boy in one palm. He giggled in response.

One of the lodgers whose name he didn’t know called out to the boys.

“Hey! Didn’t you want ‘ta meet Frankenstein?”

The man was standing by the bed, gesturing to his creator with a smile.

The two boys gasped and scrambled to her.

The woman seemed almost startled to have her name called, snapping out of her trance.

Frankenstein shook the clashing thoughts out of her head. The two children at her bedside were staring at her, opening and closing their mouths like they couldn’t grasp what question to ask first.

She looked at the one with brown hair. She had snorted instinctively when he pulled an actual scalpel out of nowhere. A fine scientist indeed.

The blonde one had eyes like she’d never seen before. Perhaps he was some sort of creature? Or a descendant of one at least. No humans eyes produced light like that for no reason.

They looked at her like she hung the stars, like she held the secret to life itself. Which she did of course. 

No wonder these boys had snuck into the society just to see her! Why, who wouldn’t want to see the infamous Dr. Frankenstein!

And what's more, these precious children were untainted by Dr. Henry’s lies! The false ideas of what a mad scientist should be, reliant on his wealth and equipment.

Victoria had always seen herself as Job, a man who had everything taken from him, everything he loved and everyone who loved him, only to be rewarded for his faith.

She’d always seen the advancement of science as her reward for carrying out her experiments, a higher plane of understanding, the closest a human could come to godhood. But… hadn’t Job’s been everything he’d lost twofold?

Maybe, when she and Creature left London, they wouldn’t have to leave alone.

[I was struck by LIGHTNING when writing this sentence. All of the sudden a whole new plotline was open to me. One where Henry stays with the society and Edward is offered the chance to leave with Frankenstein to the _ forests.

It reminds me of gravity falls when the twins argue over Dipper taking Ford’s internship.]

Frankenstein puffed up her chest and launched into a story.

When Lanyon returned he waltzed through the kitchen door, swinging it open dramatically.

“Rachel, I'm back! I told the tailor Edward lost their bags on the trip here, so they need a new wardrobe.” he crowed, only to see an empty kitchen.

Hm, not in here. He wandered out again, peeking down random hallways.

He hadn't really told them that. As soon as he’d handed off the note and the words “childrens clothes” were out of his mouth Lady Beatrice and Lady Kimberleigh had practically mobbed him. Gushing and asking if he and Everly had finally had luck with a baby. He nearly had to beat the women off with a clothing hanger!

He shuddered at the thought of what rumors would come of this.

Regardless, the outfits were ordered and they could pick up a set in the morning.

“Rachel! Henry! Where in the blazes are you?”

“Robert!!”

He paused in the middle of the hall. That was Rachel. But he’d never heard her shout like that. She sounded almost scared, Rachel never sounded scared! Not even when Hyde disappeared after the fire.

He turned around and was surprised to see her running up to him with wide eyes, her hair a mess like she'd been running her hands through it. Her eyes red and puffy.

“Robert I’ve been looking everywhere and I <em>can’t</em> find them I can’t I've looked everywhere please tell me you know where they are.” she gasped, skidding to a stop.

His eyes widened, heartbeat picking up, “Know where- what?! Rachel you were the one who claimed <em>I</em> couldn't handle them, don’t tell me you’ve lost them already!”

The day manager tried to catch her breath, swiping a lock out of her eye.

“I was-! I took my eyes off them for just a minute! I left them to get changed while I made some sandwiches and I told- I told them to come to the kitchen after but they didn't and I went back for them but they- Robert they weren't there and I’ve <em>looked</em> everywhere oh what if they’ve left the building? Robert I <em>can’t</em> lose him again! I can’t!” she cried.

Lanyon had <em>never</em> seen her like this, she was always so sure and confident, it honestly made him nervous.

She reached out to him for a hug and he flinched back like her arms were livewires.

“Er, Well!! They can’t have gone too far! I’m sure they're just hiding or something. Kids do that, I think. Surely there's some nook or cranny you haven't checked yet!” He was stone stiff oh god where was Jekyll when you needed him, he can't comfort this poor girl!

Rachel just shook her head, curls flying, “No no I checked my room, Henry’s office, I checked all the labs and rooms and bathrooms I can’t think of anywhere else <em>to</em> look!”

“Well, they’ve gotta be here, can't the lodgers whip up some sort of, I don’t know, finding device?” He peered down the hall, hoping to flag down the nearest one and get them to deal with this. Unfortunately it seemed like he was on his own for this one.

“I don’t think that's how it works Lanyon, besides it’d take far too long, what if they're hurt?”

“Well they should at least <em>try</em>.” He huffed, “It wouldn't hurt to have more people looking either. Where are the lodgers anyway?” Now that he thought of it he hadn’t seen anyone besides Rachel since walking in.

Rachel sniffed, rubbing her face and breathing more evenly.

“Oh yeah, they were all running around earlier, some sort of emergency.

I think Griffin finally turned invisible and they lost him or something.”

She looked around, just noticing how empty the halls were.

“Uh, that was a while ago actually. They should have found him by now.”

Lanyon shifted uncomfortably. First Henry and Edward, now the whole society? Whatever was going on couldn’t be good.

In fact, it was almost suspicious how everyone had gone missing at the same time while he was gone…

“Wait. Oh god, What if the lodgers have them? The lodgers hate Henry! What if they took him away? What if they’re experimenting on him right now to find out why he’s small?!” Lanyon yelped.

Rachel frowned at him, “The lodgers do not hate Henry.”

“Oh yeah? What about the exhibition they’re all refusing to take part in? You’ve heard what they're saying about him, that he’s somehow corrupt and ‘rotten’ just because he hasn't gone off the deep end and killed anyone using science or something!”

“They're just going through a bit of a rebellious phase right now.” she defended, “And besides, even if they did, they love Hyde, they drink and play games all the time! They wouldn't hurt him.”

“That's worse!” Lanyon cried. He resisted the urge to run his hands through his styled hair, “Hyde’s planning on killing Jekyll for his will! What if the lodgers are in on it? What if they know he inherits the society? Now would be the perfect time to do it, they probably took him off to Queen Frankenstein while he’s small and defenseless!”

“Edward is <em>not</em> plotting to kill Jekyll!” Rachel shouted, “Would you give that a rest already! As for Franken..stein…”

The two looked at each other with wide eyes and bolted for the stairs.

“And that's when the beast pounced! I dropped my torch and rolled out of the way, I heard it crash into the brush behind me and took the chance to make a break for it. I ran all night, struggling to see my way in the dark and knowing it had no such human limitations. 

Miles away from civilization I knew my only chance was to somehow find Creature in the snowy woods before the beast found me.”

The lodgers gasped quietly and whispered to each other, sitting criss-crossed on the floor.

Both children were sat on Frankenstein’s lap, enraptured by her tale. They looked up at her with wide eyes, hanging on her every word.

“At one point I stumbled my way into a clearing, the…vollmond shining down on me. It was close behind, I could hear the thing snapping branches like twigs. I knew the only way was forward and started running. I could barely breathe, my legs felt like lead, with every step I took it only got closer, bounding after me on all six legs. It’s wide maw-”

The door slammed open with a bang. Everyone jumped, some people screaming in surprise.

Everyone whirled around.

At the door were two figures, hidden by the shaded doorframe.

Frankenstein huffed, more annoyed than anything. 

“Really doctor, this is the second time you've interrupted my tales for your insipid formula…Oh, the other one.”

The doctor coming toward her was not Jekyll, as she assumed, but Lanyon. The purple man was trudging through the crowd on the floor, stepping on hands and nearly tripping over people in his haste.

She crossed her arms, huffing, “Really, you and your-”

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

As soon as he was in range Robert snatched Henry off her lap. Earning a startled yelp from the boy.

Frankenstein jolted, confused. She hadn't seen this man much and while he was never the most agreeable person, she'd never seen him so furious.

She sputtered as he held the boy to his chest the way mothers did when she and Creature walked by. If she were in a better mood she’d get a kick out of the gentleman fearing her more than her creation.

“What in the world do you think you're doing? Grabbing this boy like you own him when I was <em>clearly</em>-!”

“What are you doing to him? Huh? Putting ideas in his head, trying to make him mad like you!” he accused, holding the boy tight while he squirmed uncomfortably.

“I bet you people are trying to brainwash him! Get him involved in unnatural things and mad scientist nonsense!”

Rachel, who was much shorter than the doctor and was caught behind the now-standing crowd of lodgers, tried to call out to him. “Er, Robert! I don’t think-” 

“Hey! What's your problem?” “We’re having storytime here!” “You're in the way!” “Leave him alone!” “Frankenstein ain’t done nothing wrong!”

Lanyon turned on the crowd with a snarl.

“Nothing wrong? Are you people crazy? She hit him!!”

Everyone gasped at the wild accusation. Of course they were on her side! Nevermind that Henry was just trying to help her when she hit him! Nevermind that she didn’t even have the grace to apologize!

One of the lodgers he did recognize, Helsby, immediately jumped to the quacks' defense.

“How <em>dare</em> you say that about Frankenstein! You rich pricks are all the same! Slandering good people's names when it suits you!”

“Frankenstein would never do that!”

“Yeah! We’ve been here the whole time and she never hurt him at all!”

Frankenstein herself looked unbelievably offended, her face a likely unhealthy shade of red for someone her age. “Dr. Robert I’m aware you disapprove of my presence here but I have NO intentions of hurting any child.” she spat coldly.

“Oh yeah? Even if that child is Jekyll?” He challenged.

“I- what on earth are you talking about you simpleton, that's not doctor Jekyll thats…”

Frankenstein looked at the boy squirming in his arms, <em>really</em> looked at him.

The smaller boy was still on the bed with her, pulling on the brunette in Robert’s arms. The brunette reached back, holding onto the other, looking at him with red eyes… he had a rather hooked nose…

The lodgers took up her rebuttal with vigor.

“What? Lanyon, did you hit your head man?”

“Yeah obviously that's Benry!”

Robert stared incredulously at the room full of scientists and doctors. Jaw hanging wide.

“<em>Are you telling me not a single one of you realized they're Jekyll and Hyde?!</em>”

Every person in the room stopped still.

“<em>WHAT???</em>”

“What did <em>Jekyll</em> do to get on Ito’s bad side?”

“Wait, you guys didn’t know that?”

“You did??? Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“I thought we all knew and just weren't talking about it!”

“WHY WOULD WE DO THAT?!”

“Oh, I thought they were Jekyll and Hyde's secret love children.”

“<em>What?!</em>”

“What, you think one of them's a girl? And besides, Hyde's only worked here the past two years, these guys are older than that!”

“So? Are you saying Hyde didn't exist before then or what? You think Hyde spontaneously came into existence two years ago? Huh?”

“Are YOU saying only girls can give birth? Some gals are guys!”

“Sure but Hyde??”

“He <em>is</em> rather short for a man his age.”

“Actually I was thinking Jekyll, he seems kinda feminine doesn't he?”

“Maybe Hyde knocked Jekyll up and recently found out about them! And he stayed to be a good father!”

“Pfft! Hyde? A good father? Now you're talking crazy.”

“I bet <em>that's</em> why Jekyll’s kept him around so long! He's the father of their children!”

Lanyon felt anger and disbelief rush through his whole body. He worked his mouth trying to say whatever was on his mind that wasn’t straight cussing.

“I - I - NEITHER OF THEM ARE WOMEN AND THESE AREN'T THEIR SECRET LOVE CHILDREN WOULD YOU LOT SHUT IT ALREADY”

Robert held a hand to his temples, his face screwed into a scowl.

“We suspect they were testing some sort of potion and something went wrong, turning them both into children.”

“Both of them drank it?” “What kind of potion?” “Wait but why don’t they remember us?” “Are they stuck like this?”

“Stuck like what?”

He stiffened. For a moment he’d entirely forgotten he was still holding Henry in his arms.

The boy was looking up at him, wide red eyes searching his face for something.

“Are-are we, we didn’t…?”

Suddenly Lanyon realized they had been hiding it. He and Rachel hadn’t mentioned who they were, why they knew them, or the real reason they couldn't go home. Hell they had even left the kitchen earlier to talk out of earshot.

They hadn’t meant to keep it from them. Honestly hiding it hadn't crossed their minds, but, neither did telling them. 

It felt wrong somehow. Like they weren't planning on having them around long enough to have the need to explain it to them. 

The boys hadn't asked why they knew them, too young to really distrust them. They just assumed all adults knew everything.

Before he had to answer and make everything worse, Rachel cut in. Now free of the jostling crowd and finally making it to Frankenstein’s bedside.

“Er, so, you remember when we found you, and we knew your names?” she asked.

The boys nod slowly, quietly looking at her.

“Well, nobody told us your names, we know them because, well I guess you told us.

We’re friends. We have been for a while, but, you two are supposed to be adults. Like us. Your names are Edward Hyde and Dr. Henry Jekyll. And you work here at the society, like we do.”

Henry tightened his hands on Robert's sleeve, face unreadable.

Edward gaped at the woman, still standing on the bed.

“But- but we’re not, we didn't drink any potions. We were at home!”

“I know, I know this doesn’t make any sense, I’m sorry for that. But, this isn’t so bad is it? We can take care of you! We’re gonna find a way to fix this. Right?”

She glanced at Robert, who was tight-lipped and looking at his friend with a distracted look in his eyes.

“Uh, right.”

“That-That’s ridiculous!!”

Right. Frankenstein was still there.

Robert slowly composed himself, the smugness he felt in realizing the woman had been speechless that whole time fueling his salty soul.

As mad as she had looked earlier, it was a cold sort of anger. This? This sputtering rage was fuming.

“This boy cannot be Dr. Henry! He is a scientist! That blasted doctor is nothing but a-a-a shameful fake and a stain on the name of science itself! Henry Jekyll is a disgrace of an alchemist and false idol of respectability and hollowness!

I detest that horrible man!” She gestured to the boy in Robert's arms, “How dare you make the wild claim that he is…that…”

Her eyes widened as she saw the expression on said boy's face.

Everyone in the room stared in horror as both kids BURST into tears.

“What is <em>wrong</em> with you??”

Rachel grabbed Henry from Robert. Who was holding the sobbing boy as far away from himself as he possibly could. Then snatched Edward up under her other arm. Storming from the room in a hurry.

She could hear Lanyon and Frankenstein start shouting behind her, quickly joined by everyone else. 

Rachel kicked the door shut behind them and sprinted all the way to Jekyll’s office.

When they got there she had to put the boys down to open the door. 

They had stopped crying by now but were eerily silent. Both looking down at their feet.

“Don’t listen to Frankenstein, both of you. That old hag's hated Dr. Jay since she got here for no reason at all! She isn’t even a real doctor!” she huffed.

Her voice hammered through the silence in a way that almost made her regret speaking at all. But the boys didn’t so much as flinch.

Creasing her eyebrows in worry, Rachel led them to the side room she knew Jekyll usually slept in instead of his own house. She's not sure exactly how old they are right now but they were definitely young enough to need a nap after all that.

As the boys walked past her she snatched Edward up into a hug and <em>squeezed</em>.

He startled, kicking his legs around. “Hey! Stop doing that!”

“Goodness sakes you two! Do you have any idea how worried I was when you ran off? I have half a mind to lecture you for leaving like that! But…”  now wasn’t a good time to scold them, “ I’ll let it slide if you chickadees lay down without a fuss.” she promised, nodding to the bedroom.

Henry looked around the room, there wasn’t much to see. More red curtains blocking out the light, a single bed pushed up against the wall, and a rather large wardrobe. Like the office, there were a lot of books, either on shelves or just the floor. There were many frames on the walls but it was too dark to make out many details.

They didn’t have shoes to remove so Rachel set Edward down on the bed, Henry hopping up next to him.

Sniffing, the two nuzzled into the pillows quietly as Rachel tucked the blankets in around them. 

Rachel is leaning against the doorway between Jekyll’s office and room when she hears the doorknob rattle.

She startles a bit, instinctively reaching for the kitchen knife in her pocket. <em>I swear to god if that wretch hobbled all the way here just to-</em>

The office door swings open to reveal Lanyon.

He blinks when he sees her, but doesn’t look too surprised. Mostly he just looks tired.

Behind him was Ito, who followed him into the room silently. She nodded at Rachel in acknowledgement, who nodded back.

Rachel peeked into the room, still asleep.

She pushed off the doorframe and with a final glance back, gently closed the door.

Lanyon sighed, stopping at Jekyll’s desk.“I talked to the lodgers, they're not to tell anyone outside of the society about this. Ms. Ito has volunteered to take a look at whatever potion they drank.”

Ito, who had been drawn by the shouting, had been given a rundown by the other lodgers. And, unamused at the grown adults all talking over each other, waited politely til Lanyon was done to offer her services.

“Dr.Jekyll taught me everything I know, if anyone can figure out what went wrong it would be me.” she stated.

“Alright, we think this is the potion they took.” Robert grabbed the glass container lying on the desk to hand to Ito, “It was the only one out of place when we came in, though neither of us actually saw them drink it.”

She nodded, taking the glass and holding it to the light.

There was very little liquid left. It looked to be a dull brown at first but when she tilted in one way and the other there was an oily red and green residue around the edges.

She sniffed at the potion, the smell alone almost made her gag. An unholy mix of so much salt she could smell it and residual fumes that made her head spin. Frankly she's surprised the two men managed to swallow this at all. Though with the things she’s seen Hyde eat maybe she shouldn’t be.

Ito sighed, “This just doesn’t make any sense, Dr. Jekyll would have measured out exact amounts, and certainly taken it one at a time if they were testing something new. Unless it had a delayed reaction.”

“What if it wasn’t something new?” Rachel suggested, “What if they did this a lot and were more casual with it?”

“Maybe, but what would they be so casual with? Do they take the same medication?”

“Mm, not that I know of. Maybe not medicine then? I know Edward drinks random potions sometimes for the hell of it.” she laughed quietly, “One time he vomited some sort of green goo in my sink and ran all the way to Jekyll's office.”

“Not to mention we practically have to force Henry to take medicine when he <em>is</em> sick.” Robert offered. The only thing he knew of Jekyll self-medicating with was wine, and it didn't typically de-age people by almost thirty years.

Ito poked around the desk in silence. She knew Dr. Jekyll was usually a dedicated note-taker, but again, if this was something he did often there would be no reason to.

Frustratingly, the habit of putting ingredients away after herself that the doctor tried so hard to drill into her was working against them now.

Usually it meant that volatile materials weren't lying around waiting to be knocked over and cause messes, or even small explosions. But in this case it meant she had no idea what ingredients were used in this experiment.

Dammit. She sighed and turned to Rachel and Lanyon.

“Alright, so basically I have no clue what this was originally supposed to do, much less how it went wrong, much less how to reverse it. 

I can take a closer look at this with some equipment but this isn’t a lot to work with.”

The two looked at her in shock, like she’d grown another head.

Robert bit his lip, tiredness quickly replaced with nervous energy.

“Can’t you just, give them a potion that makes them older?” he asked.

Ito made a face. “I…don’t think that would be a good idea. If we forced them to grow up they still wouldn't have any of their old memories, they'd just be adult-shaped children. And that's <em>if</em> something like that would work and not mix negatively with whatever they've taken. For all we know this could be a temporary side effect, and changing anything would mess everything up.”

“So they just, won’t remember us? Everything we’ve done together, everything we’ve talked about, all the time we spent together is just gone?” Rachel cried, “There's nothing we can do to get them back?”

Robert clenched his fists on the desk.

Ito sighed, “I know this isn’t what you want to hear but I think the best thing to do is just try to wait this out.”

She refused to say something so terrible out loud, but there might not be a solution to this.

Lanyon’s expression is blank with shock, then twists into anger.

“Well are we just supposed to wait forever?! Wait for them to grow up naturally? What about our friends? Our- our-!”

Ito clenched her jaw, “They’re my friends too.” she snapped.

“Look, there’s not much I can do with the information we have, Dr. Lanyon.

Even if I knew what went wrong and how to reverse this we'd need a ton of body parts. One of the most basic rules of alchemy is that mass can't be made or destroyed and I’m not even sure where it went when they shrank!” she said, throwing her hands up.

The neo alchemist took what remained of the potion and walked out of the room, leaving the two leaning over the desk in despair.

“I'll keep working on it but please, don’t get your hopes up.”

She closed the office door behind her to give them some privacy.

[writingattemptsxx]

Claws and Fangs; Tentecals and Ink; Together a Deal

Jade was shunned by all and just wanted to curl up and cry, but a weird octopus changed that.

—

The octotrio is fun to write for and imagining what kid them would be like is even better.

—

Tw: Quick mention of blood

—

These halls felt cold. They were probably physically cold. Rock and shell walls underwater in the north couldn’t be warm, but they felt more emotionally cold and intimidating. They were the walls that housed the truly scary things.

Jade had never been the one to go out of his way to talk to people. That was his twin brother, Floyd. He was the one who clung to his parents and didn't want to leave their side. He was in middle school now, so he was at least used to being on his own, even in a crowded school. But, it didn't mean he liked it. Even worse, the ones he was supposed to interact with, to build friendships with, painted him as a monster purely because he existed.

Both he and Floyd were overly familiar with the whispers. “Look at their teeth.” “Their claws will rip you to shreds.” “They can dart after you in seconds. They'll get you before you know it.” “I think one of them looked at me! Am I going to die?”

They even changed their approach depending on which brother they were gossiping about. Floyd, the curious and hyper one, was said to be someone who would chase down any prey and show off his teeth just to mess with it. On the other hand, Jade, the anxious wallflower, was painted as a manipulator who was always scheming in the shadows.

Right now he just wanted to find his brother. Floyd always swam away the second classes were out, finding something new to look at or mess with. Even just yesterday, he darted off to mess with some shells he found. And all of that would be fine if he didn't leave Jade alone with these disguised sharks. He was going to cry if he couldn't find him soon.

“Where are you?” His voice was already wobbling. It wasn't until he turned a bend that he ran into Floyd, literally.

“Hey!” Floyd turned around. “Oh, hi Jade.” After recognizing Jade, he turned back around, paying him absolutely no mind. Instead, he peered back into a random classroom and stayed mostly hidden by the wall. He seemed so interested, which wasn't new, as if he didn't know his very own twin was anxiously scouring the whole school for him. Knowing him, he probably genuinely didn't know any of that.

“What are you looking at?”

“Some kid in here. He looks cool. Usin’ all his arm… limbs? What do you call them again? Whatever. He's using them to look and write at like a hundred things at once!”

Jade followed his example and peered into the room through the gap of an entrance. It was another mer their age. If memory serves, he was in their class going back a few years. He was an octopus merfolk all alone in the room. He was sitting mostly turned away from the door and to a round stone desk. He was inside some sort of pot or cauldron with a lid settled next to it. All his tentacles were just spilling out of the pot bushing themselves writing, just as his hands were.

His hands were leaning a stone slate on the edge of his desk to write on. Each of his tentacles were also scrawling out something on different slates and even some parchments, most of them were on the desk, but some had to be placed on the floor likely to prevent things from getting in the way of each other. He was scratching notes into the stone with hard fish bones as well as using what looked like octopus ink and thin bones to scribble on the parchment.

How did he even get those? The stone slates and fish bones were used often enough underwater, especially in school, but the others were shocking. Ink could be expensive with how hard it was to get usable stuff from anything that made it. Paper and parchment could be even worse with how much work went into making it waterproof and writable.

Jade was studying the unaccompanied mystery until he realized his brother was lazily swimming toward him. “Floyd!” He was trying to keep hidden and quiet as to not draw attention, but he didn't want to be alone again, so he quickly swam after him.

“Where’d you get this?” Floyd suddenly grabbed the ink pot. The octopus jumped back and Jade wanted to die on the spot.

“What?! Give that back!” He reached out with his arms and tentacles only for Floyd to dodge every attempt.

“This stuff’s expensive, so where'd you get it? Did you make it? Octos can do that, right?”

“No?! I bought it. But anyway, it's mine! Give it back!” The octopus sounded like he was fuming. At least if he attacked Floyd, Jade would have time to escape.

Jade tried to sneak around to check the notes. He might not be as adventurous as his brother, but some curiosities screamed to be answered. The second he touched one of the stone tablets, a hand swatted his away. “You too. Stop messing with my stuff!” Instantly being scared off by Mr. Octo, he swam behind his brother.

Now he was staring straight at both of the twins. After getting a better look at him, he had quite an interesting look. He was mostly black except for his chin and up which was an ashen gray. His eyes were a striking blue that looked as if they would scare you away from him alone. His hair was a shining silver coming down to his ears except for one lock on his left side that curled down to his chin. He was round and looked squishy and soft. Even his cheeks were puffy as they kept in black ink-filled tears seconds away from being shed.

“Just give it back! I'm not going to do anything ‘funny’! I'm not your little twerp to mess with!” His voice was shaking and he sounded like he was holding back a gasp for air. As he slid further into his pot, one of his tentacles suckered onto the lid and started to lift it.

“What?”Floyd was probably starting to panic with how he reached back for Jade. It seemed neither of them knew what to do and what he was on about. “I just asked where you got this. I didn't say any of that.”

Octo paused for a second, his eyes just above the entrance. His voice even echoed into the pot. “I know what you're thinking. You aren't unique picking on me.”

“Sevens, ... I'm sorry?… I didn't wanna make you cry…” Floyd lightly put down the ink in front of the pot and started to slowly inch away.

Jade couldn’t help but feel bad as he also inched away. He was going to cry, himself, about a minute ago, and from the sound of his rant, it seemed like they had the same culprit as to why. Both bullies and Floyd.

Jade made it about halfway to the door and Floyd a bit closer to the door, before the hideaway octopus spoke up. “If you weren't here to mess with the ‘octo-twerp’, what were you doing?” His eyes were still just above the pot entrance and he looked like he was going to kill them both with his stare alone. He didn't trust either of them an inch.

“You just looked cool… I'm sorry I messed with you. Didn' want you to cry or anythin’, just… I can leave…”

“I looked cool? I want to know why you stole my ink then. You, yourself, said it was expensive.”

“Yeah. Cool, neat, that stuff. Seeing you write all that at once seemed interesting. I stole it to mess with you, sure, but I just wanted your attention. I planned on givin’ it back.”

Mr. Octo’s eyes marginally softened and he rose from the pot ever so slightly. “Just don't steal my stuff. Who even are you?”

“I’m Floyd.” Floyd swam up to Jade and put his hand on his head. “And this is Jade. He's kinda shy, so he doesn't talk a lot.”

What? How dare Floyd speak for him? With a pout, Jade tried to whack Floyd’s arm away.

The hidden octopus gave a small chuckle as he rose to rest his arms on the pot rim. “I’m Azul.”

—

Jade silently snuck through the halls and right before he turned to the corner to the unused classroom Azul stole to make a study, he flipped the direction of his black hair strand.

Both he and Floyd were almost identical. If you weren't paying attention, you might confuse them, but at least they thought it was obvious who was who. They looked like mirror images of each other. Their bodies had mostly blueish-green skin except for lighter bits on their chest and head and darker bits as their fins and stripes that scattered around their body. They also both had ear-length turquoise hair, sharp facial features, and a long eel body with a tail about two-thirds their total length. Their easiest-to-notice difference was that Floyd had a golden eye and a long black lock of hair on his right while Jade had the same on his left.

He turned right into Azul’s room and snuck behind him. He waited one more moment as the other was distracted with a few pages and stones. With a jump, he covered Azul’s eyes, even tilting his head so his newly placed hair would be felt.

Azul didn't even waste a second before placing his hands over Jade’s. “Hello, Jade.”

Jade gave a pout as he swam to the other side of Azul’s stone desk, lowered himself to eye level, and gave him a very unhappy glare as he fixed his hair.

“Don’t look at me like that, you sore loser. If I was genuinely Floyd, I would have heard him.” The three of them had only been talking for a month or two, yet Azul could read them almost exactly. His eyes still read of distrust, but he never did anything to show that and talked to them pretty well. Even so, Jade had a hard time getting past Azul’s suspicion and hasn't said much, mostly communicating with body movement or through Floyd. What he's said verbally could probably be counted on one hand.

“Where’s Floyd?” Jade gave a small shrug making Azul sigh as he turned his attention back to whatever he was doing before. “If he barges in here shouting or touches my stuff again, I'm going to kick him back out. I need some peace.”

Jade looked over all of his things and noticed that amid his usual marked beige parchments was a mostly clean golden one. It had barely any writing on it and what was there looked intentionally placed, as if there was a pattern he was following. There was even a very slight glow to it. It was placed right in front of him and any added writing was made by a fish skeleton dipped in ink. Jade gave a small point to the new thing.

“This? It's just something I'm working on. I’m-”

“-Guess what!” As predicted Floyd came bursting in shouting. He held up a small red crab, held by a grip on its pincers. “I found something!”

“Floyd! Can you come in here without belting at the top of your lungs?!” Azul put down the skeleton in his hand, folded his arms, and gave the boisterous intruder a grimace.

“It's a crab!” He bolted and stopped right in front of Azul’s face. “Look!”

“I see it?…”

Floyd shook the crab before placing it on the far side of the room. He immediately swam back to them and pointed at it. “Crab! Imma call it…” He paused for a second. “Snappy!”

Jade lazily floated over to his twin and gave a similarly lazy smile. He waited for a second before bringing Floyd a headlock and giving him a noogie with a pointed grin. It earned him noisy protests.

“Look at the ink-spewer and his monster guards!” The trio looked over to see a group of roughly five mers, some from the grade above. They all look like the stereotypical mer. The kind you'd see everywhere. Fish-like tails of various bright colors. Similar colors scattered their hair as well. Even their skin had varied shades from pale peach to a deep brown. The one who specifically spoke had a purple tail and hair with tan skin and freckles littered on his face and shoulders.

If you were to ask a young Jade, there wouldn't have been any difference between them. They looked different, sure, the others even looked different from each other, but they were all mers, but now it was quite obvious. They were the standard and the trio were animalistic monsters with their claws, fangs, tentacles, and ink.

The second Jade loosened his grip on Floyd, Floyd darted to the middle of the room, putting his arms out to cover Jade and Azul. Jade, on the other hand, swam to hide behind the pot with Azul ducking deeper inside it with a tentacle lifting the lid. “Just shut up! We weren't doing anything to you!”

“Aww, not anything? Doesn't that defeat your whole purpose?”

Azul was almost completely hidden by now, the lid was over the top of the pot, but was tilted slightly up so he could just see outside. “Just ignore them, Floyd.”

This time another mer came forward. He had light brown skin, dark blue hair, and a green tail. “Aww does the crybaby wanna curl away in his pot? Are you going to stain it with ink?”

“SHUT UP!” Floyd was mad. His tail flocked from side to side as his shoulders rose up and down with each attempt at a deep breath. Even Jade was starting to get upset. If he didn't think Floyd would snap soon, he might snap himself.

“What? Does it upset you that we call a crybaby a crybaby?” The first met to speak swam up in front of Floyd, intentionally invading his space. With that, a slap came down, hitting him in the face.

“That’s it! You wanna see claws?! You’ll get claws!” Floyd lurched forward and Jade instinctively closed his eyes and Azul closed the lid to his pot.

The next thing he knew was screams and the iron-rich scent of blood diffusing through the water of the room.

—

Both Floyd and Jade got in trouble. Despite Azul specifically saying Floyd’s name, apparently, ‘someone could have been lying and it could have been either one of them’. Jade wasn't even shocked. It's not like he didn't notice even adults looked at his fangs and claws before his eyes.

Luckily, it came to light that they were bullying Azul and it was self-defense, so with the anger of both their and Azul’s parents, they got off with only being suspended for a bit. Jade and Floyd were going to mention they were bullied as well, but the mess was already too big. They already wanted to hide away. They didn't need more attention on them.

Today was finally their first day back after being doted on by their parents. Mom and Dad weren't happy Floyd attacked another, and they certainly weren't happy that Jade got punished for doing nothing, but they were proud that they stood up for someone else and were worried about them being attacked first.

They went back to school expecting it to be mostly normal, except for more fear and rumors around then. That was true, but there was something else that was swirling around too. Gossip that was different from the usual rumors around the eel twins.

The entire day they heard whispers of many people's skills going missing as they gained something else. Someone gaining a girlfriend but losing their smooth voice. Another gaining a smooth voice but losing their speed in the water. Multiple similar events had gossip swirling.

Both Jade and Floyd were discussing the rumors as they were passing by Azul’s room, and before they even looked inside, something wrapped around them and pulled them inside. The next thing Jade knew, they were both in a big hug.

“Are you two ok? Especially you, Floyd?”

“Wha-” Jade was extremely confused. Confused enough to try pulling away to look Azul in the eyes, but he was squashed back into Azul’s chest with double the strength. He tried to mumble something into his chest, but even he could barely understand himself.

“Azul! Too much!” Finally, at Floyd's words, they were both let go, allowing them to take a second to take in some breaths again.

“Sorry…” Azul’s voice was small and he even shrunk back slightly. He had ink-filled tears diffusing into the water around him. “You two got in trouble because of me. I'm so sorry.” He was barely able to sob out his words, gasping for air every other second.

Floyd went up to him and roughly gave Azul’s hair a rub, completely messing it up. “Nah, they were just stupid. Couldn't have done anything to me.”

Azul looked at Jade. He had the same puffy eyes as the first time Jade saw him tear up, but it was missing something. He couldn't find the distrust in his gaze. It made him feel oddly fuzzy. Jade was barely able to utter anything, and even when he did, his voice was still small and barely audible. “I’m fine. I didn't even fight.”

Suddenly Azul’s eyes widened and he took in a gasp. “Oh, right! Jade, you remember that golden paper?” Jade gave a nod. “I finished working on it!” He opened his hands in the space between all of them, and a glowing golden scroll was summoned. “I call it ‘It’s a Deal’! I can trade anything I have or can get, magical or not, for the same with someone else! All we have to do is agree on the terms and have them sign on the bottom line. With this, all three of us can be everything we wanted. I don't have to be a loser crybaby and you don't have to be feared monsters.”

All of that could come from this scroll? They could all have what they wanted? Jade looked back at Azul who looked practically beaming. “Really?” His voice was still small, but it grew with hope as the fuzzy feeling in his heart grew.

“Absolutely! I can give us all exactly what we wanted, all I need is your backup. It may not be easy and we might even need to play into some things, but at the end of it all, we’ll have what we hoped for and more.”

“I’ll do it.” Floyd brought attention back to him as he gave firm words.

“Do what?” Azul looked completely confused scanning Floyd's face for some hint.

“Your deal thingy. I'll do it.”

“You don't have-” Azul paused for a second. He took a deep breath. “No. Let's do it.” The golden page’s glow suddenly got brighter as the words started to rewrite themselves to say exactly what they talked about. In exchange for not attacking Azul or leaving his side for another, they were to be given a share equal to Azul’s and stay his right hands, him never choosing another before them. Once the words stopped two fish skeletons, already ink-dipped, were summoned. One in front of Jade and the other in front of Floyd.

Neither of them wasted a second. They both scrawled out their names on the bottom lines. Floyd Leech. Jade Leech. The skeletons suddenly disappeared and the contract curled up as Azul grabbed it. “It’s a Deal!”

—

“Jade?… Jade!” Azul’s voice shocks him back to the present. “Are you ok? You aren't one to daydream while doing work.”

Looking at the desk in front of him, Azul’s right, he is supposed to be working. The log book for Monstro Lounge is sprawled out on the desk in front of him. To his left is Azul sitting at his mahogany VIP room desk and in front of him is Floyd sleeping and taking up the whole couch. Jade himself was sitting on one of the chairs for the glass table with a marble rim they nicknamed the ‘deal table’.

“Sadly, no, I am not, Azul. I am horribly bored. I might as well just leave. The exam and thus the results are way too far away.” Jade is giving his fake customer service smile, something he knows Azul can see right through. They just made a bunch of deals for students not willing to truthfully attempt the exam, and they need to wait for the results to come back to have their fun with those not able to hold their end of the bargain. Some part of him wonders if any of them will actually succeed, the question is just screaming for him to find the answer.

“You can't walk out! That's a complete violation of your contract! Also, the exam is two days away, with the results about three days later. You can wait.” Azul’s flustered face will never not be funny. It‘s a nice return to who Jade originally met, that emotional octopus. He has been a bit overzealous in his work and contracts recently. He needs to relax a bit.

“If you look back at it, it is not in contract violation. My side of the contract is to not attack you or turn on you for another, not that I have to stay and do grunt work.” With that, Jade earns a small huff from Azul. Who mumbles under his breath before returning to his work and silence with Jade doing the same.

After a few minutes of sulking, Azul looks back up at him. “You two are extremely stressful, you know that.” Azul sighs. “Don't answer. I am well aware you do it on purpose. I swear I might be the next to overblot. There have already been two.”

Hearing that, Jade also looks up, giving Azul an upset glare.

“It was merely a joke. I have enough control to prevent that.”

Comments, likes, reblogs, and suggestions are appreciated. 🩵

[queenjunothegreat]

Seeing as Tumblr only wants to give me UGLY links, have a tangentially related image instead! (•̤̀ ‸ •̤́๑) I had YET ANOTHER day at work where I decided I should be paid to write the dumbest fanfiction you've ever read, and @demigod-shenanigans was once again ready to come in with the fic prompts <3

So, without further ado, here is Glucose and Galactose

The back of his neck prickled and his hairs stood on end. Someone was watching him. He flicked his gaze up to see Jason sitting across the table from him. He had his chin cupped in both hands and an almost drunken smile was curled across his flushed cheeks. His eyes were half-lidded and sparkling in a dopey kind of way, but Leo could practically see the love hearts in them anyway. His chest suddenly felt a little tighter and he bit his lower lip trying to hide his own smile. “And just what do you think you’re doing?” “Admiring fine art,” Jason said immediately, tone matter of fact and completely shameless. Leo choked and spluttered for a moment, cheeks vermillion. “Jason!” “Yes?” “You can’t just say stuff like that, oh my god,” Leo chided half-heartedly. “That is, like, the cheesiest thing I've ever heard and you've said a lot of cheesy shit.” Jason widened his eyes, face softening with earnestness. “Oh, are you lactose intolerant? I’m sorry. You never told me that.” *** Gross established relationship flirting and NOTHING else. <3

Leo stuck his tongue out as he very carefully clicked the last LEGO brick into place. Before him sat a little conglomeration of all sorts of bits and bobs he'd unearthed from the goldmine that was the hallowed kitchen junk drawer. Rubber bands and bread bag twist ties and LEGOs and popsicle sticks and even a couple of Bionicle pieces from his brief phase a few months prior had all come together to create a wind-up toy helicopter that actually managed to hover in place for a couple seconds before falling back to the table. Leo picked it up and studied it for a moment, already thinking about how he could use the axis he'd used for the propeller to make a scuttling mechanism for a bug. Mind made up, he started disassembling his latest in a string of contraptions, all so he could make something else. 

Then the back of his neck prickled and his hairs stood on end. Someone was watching him. 

He flicked his gaze up to see Jason sitting across the table from him. He had his chin cupped in both hands and an almost drunken smile was curled across his flushed cheeks. His eyes were half-lidded and sparkling in a dopey kind of way, but Leo could practically see the love hearts in them anyway. His chest suddenly felt a little tighter and he bit his lower lip trying to hide his own smile. “And just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Admiring fine art,” Jason said immediately, tone matter of fact and completely shameless. 

Leo choked and spluttered for a moment, cheeks vermillion. “Jason!”

“Yes?”

“You can’t just say stuff like that, oh my god,” Leo chided half-heartedly. “That is, like, the cheesiest thing I've ever heard and you've said a lot of cheesy shit.”

Jason widened his eyes, face softening with earnestness. “Oh, are you lactose intolerant? I’m sorry. You never told me that.”

“Shut up, you absolute loser Dorkatron,” Leo giggled, smacking his hands to his flushed cheeks. “I hate you, like, actually.”

Jason just arched his eyebrows as he got to his feet and rounded the table to stand next to Leo. He reached up and poked Leo on the tip of his nose, grin widening when Leo crossed his eyes. “That's not what you were saying last night,” he sing-songed.

Leo scoffed so hard it actually kind of hurt his throat and turned back to his project, picking it apart piece by piece. “You're such a fucking loser, I hope you know that.”

“Me and the bad bitch I pulled by being a fucking loser,” Jason replied immediately, draping himself over Leo’s shoulders like a very cuddly octopus turned blanket. Still, he managed to wrap his arms around Leo in a way that wasn't a hindrance to tinkering, so Leo figured it was fine. Besides, he’d be a big fat liar if he said he didn't love every second of being the object of Jason’s overt affection. Jason pressed his cheek into Leo’s curls and sighed softly. “I love when you do that.”

“Hm? Do what?”

“That.” Jason gestured at Leo's fiddling as a way to explain himself. “It's amazing.”

Leo’s breath hitched in the back of his throat. “Yeah?”

“Mhm,” Jason agreed. He pressed a kiss to the side of Leo’s neck and spoke right next to his ear. “I love watching you. I love the way you tear things apart and then piece them back together, better than they were before. Every day you manage to amaze me further.”

That was more than Leo could stand, so he abandoned his project and turned around in his chair so he could fling his arms around Jason. With him sitting and Jason standing, his face was pressed directly into Jason’s stomach, but he didn’t mind because it was a quite frankly magnificent stomach. “I love you,” he muttered quietly, his words muffled by Jason’s cotton dress shirt.

Jason heard him anyway and gently combed his fingers through Leo’s curls. When he spoke, Leo could hear the hearts in his eyes. “I love you, too.”

After a moment, Leo huffed out a contented sigh and craned his neck to look up at Jason. “What are you up to, anyways?”

Jason looked confused like he also didn't know what he was doing before he had his light bulb moment. “Oh, right! I wanted to know if you wanted to go on a date. With me, I mean. Not somebody else.”

“Hmmm… Do I want to go on a date with my boyfriend of a year and a half? That's a pretty tricky question, Jace.” Jason puffed out his cheeks in a pout and petulantly tugged at one of Leo's curls. “Fine, fine. I'll go on a date with you. Where are you taking me?”

“Swanky new place that just opened up called the living room,” Jason said. “It's not quite ready yet though. Do you know where the lighter is?”

Leo narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him. “Why do you want to know?”

“So I can light candles? Why else would I need it?”

“Absolutely not,” Leo said flatly. “Last time you tried to be romantic with candles, you nearly burned down the apartment, and I had to stand outside in my boxers in front of everyone in the building while we waited for the fire department to show up.”

“If it makes any difference, they were very cute boxers.” Leo pinched him and Jason let out a surprised yelp before pouting again. “Okay, fine. No candles. Ruin my vision. It's fine. I don’t mind.”

Leo giggled at him, heart melting and fluttering and tap dancing and just about everything it could think of other than beating normally. Still, he was adamant that Jason was not allowed near fire. There was a reason he was the sole keeper of matches and lighters in their house. “Compromise: Piper bought some emergency lights for when the power goes out, but they're not very bright and they kinda flicker. Would that work for your cheesy ambiance needs?”

Jason's eyes brightened and he stooped down to press a line of kisses across Leo’s nose and cheek bones. “That's perfect. You’re perfect. Where are they?”

“Under the kitchen sink,” Leo reported dutifully. He screwed his eyes shut and puckered his lips. “Kiss.”

Jason immediately did as he was asked, his big hands cupping Leo’s jaw like he was some delicate, precious thing. When they finally broke apart, he pressed their foreheads together and stared at Leo, eyes bright and full of adoration. “Will you go get changed for me while I finish setting up the living room?”

Leo arched an eyebrow and smirked. “Should I wear my cute boxers, or something a little more formal?”

Jason responded by playfully nipping him on the tip of his nose and standing upright. “Wear something you'd wear to the movies.” Then he very obviously checked Leo out, head to toe. “Do wear the cute boxers under it, though.”

Leo laughed, the sound loud and bright and echoing off the tile of their kitchen as he threw a LEGO at him. “Pervert.”

“I prefer to be called an opportunist.”

Leo rolled his eyes and stood so he could wrap his arms around Jason's neck. “So, am I allowed to come out once I've dolled myself up for you, or should I just sit there and wait?”

“Well, it's only polite to pick your date up when you take him out.”

“Oh? Gonna drop me off afterwards, too?”

“Actually, I was kind of hoping this goes well enough that you invite me home with you. Not sure where I'm gonna sleep if you don't.” Leo's laugh turned into a near cackle until Jason kissed him to shut him up. “Go on. I'll come get you in, like, five minutes.”

Leo grinned at him, and he could feel the hearts in his eyes. “Looking forward to it.”

[yanderepuck]

Kinktober Day 11

AND WE'RE BACK FOR A FOURTH TIME. It's that lovely time of the year where I write mediocre smut with no plot for a whole month. So sit your ass down and take a few minutes to read some smut.

As always, kinktober is held by our local Napoleon simp, @xxsycamore

If you'd like to read the last three years, go here

Remember to reblog and tell me what you think

Wet Dreams | Sexual Fantasy

Writers note: yeah yeah this is normally at the end but I REALLY NEED TO PREFACE THIS. I COULD write a real fic for this OR I COULD COMMIT TO THE BIT. That being said this is like.. a joke..and not TRULY smut. I just really need to commit to the bit, especially since I know I could probably never really write tentacle porn. It's also sorta both prompts

~~

"Do you have any sort of fantasies?"

"Fantasies? What do you mean?"

You're in Drake's room, sitting on his lap while he is laying in his bed. As far as you can remember, he has never told you what he is into, and you wanted to be able to surprise him one of these days by fulfilling it. As long as it's not too weird.

"You know. Sexual fantasies. Things you want to do with your partner." you take his hand in yours and end up playing with his fingers. His hands are much bigger than yours.

"Oh, those kind. Yeah I have a few."

Is he not going to elaborate? You give him a look as if trying to tell him to go on.

"Why don't you tell me some of yours," he slides his fingers in-between yours.

"Mine? I-I don't think you want to hear mine," you start to get embarrassed. Your face flushing up. You already know he's going to push for it so you try thinking of something to tell him.

He chuckles. "Whatever you say I'm sure will be a lot tamer than what I'm about to say, little fawn."

Somehow you do and don't believe that. You take a deep breath. You are the one who asked after all, you should have seen this coming.

"I am really into this thing called petplay. I want to be put on a collar and leash, you can wear ears and a tail too," you catch yourself looking down rather than at him, not wanting to know his reaction to this.

"I guess it's sort of degrading but also being treated like an animal. Being given orders and your owner training you to do things how they want."

You aren't sure what else to say, or if you've said too much.

"Huh.."

You just move your eyes to look at Drake, your head still down.

"And you settled for me and not Theo?"

"Shut up!" he laughs as you push his hands off of yours.

"I'm just saying. He does call you a dog and gives you orders," he tries teasing you.

You cross your arms and pout. "I told you mine. Now tell me yours. Is mine still tame?"

"if you ask Galileo anything is tame in comparison."

He has told Galileo his fantasies? You know they've spent some time together but they don't actually seem that close. You also can't see Galileo talking about that stuff.

"Okay. Now tell me."

Drake sits up, putting his arms around you so you don't fall back.

"It started back when I was a pirate. I was out at sea a lot. Some days there's nothing to do but stare out into open water."

"I don't need your whole life story. Just answer the question."

"The Kraken."

It falls silent. You're looking at him confused, but he seems to be serious.

"Okay...maybe I need the story..."

This better not be a similar trick that Dazai pulls with his stories, where he tells a very detailed story just for it to be fake and he made it up on that spot

"That's what I thought. Anyway. You have a lot of time to just think. I had heard a story about a GIANT sea monster called the Kraken. The story has changed over time, but basically a big sea monster that attacks ships."

You've heard about it, but you let him continue.

"I think it's comparable to a squid or an octopus, but it's MASSIVE. It can crush a ship no issue. So I get to thinking about it, wondering what the odds are of ever seeing it and suddenly I start thinking 'id fuck the kraken'. The idea of being wrapped up in the tentacles-"

"You were out at sea for way too long," you are so blunt with it.

"That's what my crew said."

"You told them?!"

"I accidentally said it outloud," he chuckles. "They thought I was in the sun too much and needed water."

"I'm thinking that!"

"Okay, but mermaids."

His arms tighten around your waist so you don't try pulling away from him.

You sigh. "I'll hear you out on that one."

"They have beautiful voices, and they are absolutely gorgeous."

"Are you saying you want me to dress as-"

"The thought of getting my throat ripped out by one is hot."

You pause again. You thought you knew where that was going. Again, he doesn't seem to be joking.

"You...want a mermaid to rip your throat out..."

"It would kill me anyway. I can only hope it likes me enough to have sex first."

You go quiet again.

"But the kraken? Ungh, that would be hot. I hear they are a little slimy, and the suction cups on their arms can stick to you."

He keeps going despite the look on your face. He's trying to get you to understand but it's not working at all.

"You know what? I think I do like Theo more."

"Nooo," you try getting out of his arms, but he holds you tighter. "Why don't you just be my mermaid?" He kisses you softly.

You kiss him back, putting your arms over his shoulders. "I think I can do that. And if you start talking about that again I might rip your throat out."

"Mmm, sexy~" he chuckles and you kiss again.

[yuri-is-online]

I kinda wanna hear more about Azul! Yutu if you are willing

Very. He is long overdue for a proper post. I'm going to skip over some of the stuff that happens while he is in the bad future as I am a big fan of what Archivist has been writing, and would encourage you to look at their posts (here, here, and here) They've been a huge inspiration for this ayuu and finally gave Yutu some friends! I am really really attached to them and their dynamics with the various Yutus and might have written some stuff where they hang out but didn't post it because idk if you folks would be interested...

notes: they/them used for Yuu, for context on the fyuuture kid au can be found here and here. You can find even more stuff for it on my masterlist under the series section.

Yuu started removing mirrors from the house when he was around nine. They did so slowly, and Yutu had been avoiding them for so long he barely notices when their gone. It's not like he was born hating himself, he remembers playing with Yuu in the garden hose or the bath tub and feeling... happy. But that was when he was a little kid, he's almost double digits now he shouldn't be feeling sick to his stomach about this. It feels hard to walk some days, like his balance is wrong and his body is made of the incorrect material. It isn't normal for a kid this young to hate his own bones because it is the bones isn't it? They're hard until their not hard enough and he's stuck in a cast for the summer. Yutu tries to be grateful it's on his arm and not his leg, but it doesn't keep his mind off of things. He feels unwhole every time he tries to walk, and he has no words to express what's missing other than to say he feels unsafe. And it's hard to say that when he knows there's no solution you can give him for what he's feeling. If you could cut off your own limbs to make him whole you would, but then that would leave him just as alone wouldn't it? The last cost Yutu wants to pay to fix himself is the life of parent who loves him.

But that's what the price ends up being. And as he lays there trying to scream only to be rejected by the air he'd spent so much time wasting as his body churns on the floor into the form he'd spent so much time dreaming of he has to wonder why he ever thought the outcome would be different. He should have known that he was never meant to be anything other than alone.

Yutu was a chunky baby, and for the first bit of his life no one minded that at all. He was so cute, Yuu had a bunch of pictures of their precious baby boy and even though there were questions about how he came to be those were sort of shoved to the side in favor of cooing over his cute nose and chubby cheeks. But the cooing turned to concern when he started having some problems reaching his developmental milestones; it took forever for him to learn how to walk, even when Yuu helped guide him through the motions it somehow just didn't seem to stick. Talking was difficult, he'd learned how easily enough but he just preferred not to, wanting to communicate through noises and looks instead. Yuu would try to calm their worries and focus on how he at least slept through the night, but they never did get a solid opinion on why Yutu was so slow to learn from any doctor they saw.

His slow development cause Yuu to really focus on going over his lessons with him at home, it fosters a love of learning in him that evolves as he grows. At first it's very innocent, his eyes are wide with childlike wonder at the world around him and his smile is as bright as his eyes. "Unfortunately" (because it's not truly unfortunate that his parent can still afford to feed him) he's still a chubby little boy, and one who is missing a parent so he's an easy target for his peers to isolate and tear into. He feels like a beached whale, or a dried up octopus, his self esteem is severely hurt as is his outlook on the world. Yuu feels like they are seeing a familiar sight when their child hiccups through recounting his day as they desperately try to hold back their anger and think of a way to deal with this logically.

"Your daddy went through this too." Yutu blows into the tissue you hold for him and tries to hide his surprise. He's always eager to learn about his father, you wish you could think of more to tell him but the words you're saying don't fully feel like you are thinking as you say them. It's like you are briefly being possessed by someone else, just that the "someone else" is... yourself from when you were whole. "He was really hurt by it, and he was one of the strongest people I knew. So it's ok if you need to cry about how you feel."

"I dooon't want to feel." He pushes his face up against your chest like he's a baby again trying to soothe his nightmare against yoru heartbeat and you squeeze him as tight as you can. "I want it to stop, can daddy tell me how to make it stop?" Your mind screams that however daddy handled it must have been bad, it turns to look at someone, you can just see the outline of him. He's handsome, well put together and he's... worried.

"I don't want them to be scared of everything; suspicious,̸̮͉͓͔͎̭̜̦̽̄̆̇̿̈́̍̉̽͌̍̕ͅͅ ̶̰̙͔̝͕̞͍̭͙͕̇͆͌̋̿̌͐̂̿͘̚͝y̷̨̪̳̳͉̮͚̅͗͗̽̔̂͐͌̽͠ę̶̩̣̤͚͎͔̯̖̭͐̃̏̓͐̾͐̓̎̇̅̊͐̕s̸͚̖͙̗̣̩̼͎̼͇̝͂̿̉̌͛̈͜ ̴͔̟̤̩̗̯̦̀͐̄̽̊͛͑͋͊͒̓̕͝b̵̧̧̡̰̪̫̤͔͚͕̝̠̹͈́̀̈́͌̄͋̔̿́̕͘ǘ̵̢̼͖̪̱͖̼̼͎̲͈͙͆̀̎͌̍̎̂͐͗̇͌̎̊̚ț̶̛͖̹͚̾̆̂͑̌̊̕ͅ ̴̢̛͇͙̱͇̝̺͇̗̫̘̥͛̀͊̅n̸̢̥͕͗̓e̴͙̹̹̘̮̫̦͐v̶̡̡̧̡̛͓̮̝̺̮̜̳̠̜̅͊̒̄̔͂̋͋͋̊̔̈́͆͘ë̷̟̳̲̰̗͉̬̘̘̣̳̼͙́̑͜ŗ̸̳̹̺͔̦͔̮̖̔͆̊̈́͆̈̔̊͠ ̶̧̢̩̺̗̗̲̠̬̰͇̣̦̈́͑͜͜p̶̱̗͔͔͌a̴̰͓̎͂̅̓̈̎͝r̶̯̰̪̟̾̾̓̂̈́͆̈̀̒̓̕͠ ̴͇̖͉̯̖̞͍͐́͊͛̐̂̐á̵̢͎̙͎́͝ ̸̨̙̞̙̩̮̺̦̻̗̭̩͉̱̠̐̓̿͘ń̷̡̡̡̧̨̪̜͕̠͐̄̉̐͝͠ő̸̥̹̣̙͛̏̏̃̋̍͝͠ḯ̶̢̛͍͔̯̤͊̈́̉̑̂̈̐͊̚̕ḋ̸̦̘̮͍͙̜͈̙͉͖̭͚̊͌͗̊̊̈̾̄͌ͅ ̵̛̛̠̫͙͎̘̣̘͕͗̒̈͒̓̅͊̔͘͝"

Yutu's silence brings you back to reality, he's mercifully fallen asleep against you and missed the aftershocks of your migraine. It's nothing new, but somehow this little scenario makes you feel that much more tired, and that much more alone.

I've mentioned it before but Yuu decides to enroll Yutu into martial arts classes as a way to help with his self confidence and the bullying. In my mind the end up doing it out of a worry that the bullying could get physical, and in the hopes that maybe Yutu will make friends with the kids in his class. It sort of works, Yuu enrolls them in a parent-child class and they certainly make some connections. Yutu finds some inner peace from the class, but his experiences at school make him very shy and keep him from truly opening up to the people around him. The friend groups he finds his way into never seem to fully accept him, a lot of it comes down to petty rivalries over sport and school. Yutu is smart sure, but he knows that no amount of talent makes up for hard work and he's a very hard worker. He's too proud to do something like throw a match or fail a test just for a little social acceptance, and not afraid to say as much.

That's not to say he doesn't want to be accepted, he does. He really deeply does he just doesn't think he could live if that acceptance was fake. Part of that, not that he ever tells Yuu this, is fueled by their descriptions of his father and of how much they loved him. If his dad was in the same position and found you then one day, he hopes, he'll find someone who accepts him too. And he'll make sure to stay alive and do all the little things with them they have ever wanted to do, no matter how out of his comfort zone or weird he finds them to be. Azul! Yutu is a bit of a hopeless romantic underneath his jock appearance, so he's one of the yutus that assumes his dad died in a tragic accident that left your memories in shambles. He's willing to fight people on that point, but Yuu made him promise not to and while he's fussy about listening to other people, he always listens to Yuu.

Which makes the trip between worlds that much harder on him. He might have been alone, but he wasn't exactly lonely. Not when he had a home to come back to and a parent who loved him, he could handle waiting for people who would accept him when he already had someone who did but now... It doesn't help that from his perspective he immediately does something stupid by getting put in Savanaclaw. Crewel already told him his dad was the dormleader of Octavinelle, that he was an exemplary student but not very... athletic so why would he be any different than anyone else. This isn't helped by the reception he gets from his dormmates. Yutu never starts fights, but he sure as hell finishes them and the amount of people left on the floor by the end of his first week makes everyone aware of that.

It earns him respect, and it would have immediately made him his first friend if he had been willing to take Sav at his word when he asked him to show him how he fought so well. Instead he insists on acting like Saitama and making the guy "prove" himself, something that Crewel watches from the sidelines with a weary expression. So his grandson wasn't lying, he really does take more after his dad than you.

He does not so much make other friends as they do make him theirs... two Heartslabyul students and an overly enthusiastic gamer from Ignihyde who sticks to him like a wet cloth and he hates the realization that he's worried about these guys. Sav, Thrush, Fiore, and... Mori. He loves these people. He hopes they never die, but everywhere he looks he sees omens. It hurts, he never knew he had three hearts or that he could fill them up with so much love that it wants to bleed out of him but he refuses to let it. He's learned that he's stronger than he ever thought possible, he'll squeeze a good outcome out of this, for you and for them it never had to be one or the other.

Traveling back in time and being separated from his friends terrifies him. Sav is always refusing to use his brain, what if he got lost because he decided not to read a sign somewhere? Fiore is a little shit and Thrush can't be assed to keep his brother in line what if they get thrown in jail and Yutu has to actively stop himself from thinking about Mori. The muscles in his chest go taut and he forgets to breathe until little black dots prick at his vision from all the ways things could go wrong for the self proclaimed "white mage of the FC party." The guy is just too much of a flight risk... he needs to fix this fast.

But does he? Having you alive again is like a dream, sure you're younger now and don't know him from a hole in the ground but he gets to see all of the memories he was so curious about. He's especially happy to have met Ace and Deuce, they remind him of his own Heartslabyul friends. His world feels a bit more full when he sits to eat a meal with you, guys who he guesses he'll probably end up calling Uncles at some point, and Grim. He's got mixed feelings about Grim, but the little guy really seems to like him now and it's funny to think about whether or not he's the older or younger brother. He's starting to remember what it's like to have a family again, speaking of which...

"Aww looks like you're a real dorm leader now ain't ya shrimpy?" Floyd's voice sounds fun, and it's all Yutu can do to keep from smiling. He instantly understands why Jade must have missed him so much, they looks alike but the difference in tempo is apparent from their stance and dress, and just looking at the younger version of his Uncle he can see how much more alive he feels.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Yutu was it?" Jade's smile suggests danger, he thinks the name is funny that's his guess. The glint in his eyes suggests he wants to tease, and Yutu prepares to make some comments of his own before he notices that his Uncle's attention is not on him but rather- "Floyd told us about your unexpected arrival," he has been avoiding this for so long he almost didn't see the familiar stranger next to Jade, the rest of his words are heard but not noted as he looks directly at his father for the first time. What a painful realization that is.

"Hey hey grouper, you ok?" Floyd's tone very much does not suggest worry but it brings him back to the present. Or would it be the past?

"Grouper? Might regret calling me that pool noodle. Yeah I'm fine, just surprised you came over here yourselves. I thought I was doing good keeping my nose where it belongs." Yutu swears Azul looks genuinely hurt for a second, but it disappears under his glasses and his patented grin.

"Well you certainty don't pull any punches do you?" If Yutu didn't know any better he'd assume his dad was... excited.

He is, he's very excited. Yuu is a kind hearted person and Azul loves them for it, but Yutu has some of that hater energy he knows he can work with. A second set of eyes on Yuu's world is just what Azul needs to win their ha- expand his business, so he keeps finding ways to talk to Yutu. He ends up learning a decent bit about him despite Yutu's best efforts: he's lying about his unique magic to catch people off guard when he uses it, he's not a muscle head nor does he take particular pride in his physique despite the intense amount of effort he puts into staying strong. It's interesting to watch the sort of things he likes to eat... sure a lot of it is healthy food but none of it is health food. That ends up being the first real conversation they have and it throws Yutu for a bit of a loop. It reminds him of that conversation he had with Yuu all those years ago when he was crying about being bullied. About how his dad gone through the same thing he did and suddenly his dad seems a bit more like a person and less like a shadow that's haunting him.

The way his dad looks at Yuu is breathtakingly soft. Azul is ambitious, talented, hardworking, and oh so desperate to impress that Yutu finds it hard to hear their doubts about the way he feels because he can see all of the signs clear as day about how Azul feels about Yuu. Uncle Jade's stories about how Azul was silly in his affections, the little ways he got excited when Yuu complimented him or how much of a show off he insisted on being around them are happening right in front of him and while he wonders about that little thing he always tried to avoid. The "could have been." Would his dad have agreed with Yuu's decision to enroll him in martial arts? Or would Azul have put him in a different school, would that even have been nessecary or would people be too afraid to make fun of his son? That promise Jade said Azul made to Yuu about never having to go hungry again... would he have kept it? Yutu never starved but he knows his parent did, what would Azul say if he knew? Would it break him? Would he even care?

These thoughts take a toll on Yutu. He can't keep pretending he isn't worried about his friends when he is trying to avoid thinking about his parent's relationship, and vise versa so he puts more effort into finding them. Thrush and Fiore are the easiest, they made their way to Craneport and established a base pretty quickly and are surprisingly not complete shits about him taking his sweet ass time to find them. Sav is though, the Scalding Sands is a long way away and getting him to Sage's Island proves to be tedious and expensive, of course he's going to complain and pick a fight when Yutu shows up again. He hates to admit it but it feels good to have his sparring partner back, it perks up his mood a tiny bit. But time beings to drag on with no signs of Mori, Yutu is getting more restless in his worries and clumsier in hiding where he's going. Sure he knows how to shake off a tailing eel, but an octopus? The only one he's ever known is himself.

Azul learns from his various contacts that Yutu has friends. He keeps his appearance under the hood, but his friend group is close and clearly working towards some sort of goal. None of the names he gets show up in any systems he has access to, Jade does his best to find a shred of evidence that these are people who exist and can't. It worries all three of the octotrio, this is a problem they need to get to the bottom of and fast. But before that can happen another one of those portals opens, this time outside Ramshackle Dorm while Azul is trying to spend some precious alone time with you. And the thing that comes out of it is terrifying.

The blot phantom is unlike anything Azul has ever seen, not in a textbook or in person. It's a misshapen mass of a person, clothing real but foul smelling and stained with ink.

"Use my phone to call the twins and get out of here as fast as you can." Azul doesn't like his chances alone, but he likes yours even less. You don't run, it brings just a bit of a smile to his face, but you still call Jade as Azul weaves ice around it's legs to try and keep it down. The monster howls squirming against the ice and screaming at him like he should understand what it's talking about. Azul tries to stare it down, tries to appear like he's a mage that belongs on the front lines and not a support. The best support but still, he's slow. Too slow to dodge the vine that whips out of the creature's back and speeds towards his heart but fast enough to catch the scream that tears from Yutu's throat.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY DAD YOU FUCKING PIECE OF TRASH!" Eight cosmic tentacles rip out of the ground and tear into the monster, Yutu's chest is heaving with the strain of bringing his full strength to bear as Azul pauses to collect himself. As Yutu finishes off the monster he goes over what he knows, looks at the boy in front of him and traces parts of himself in him and forgets his previous plans to expose him to Yuu as a fraud. When his child looks back at him, disguise knocked off and fear clear on his face the reason for the previous distance Yutu has been trying to maintain suddenly makes sense. Before Azul overblotted he was quiet. There's a similar quiet over him now, a similar look of tense surprise, but Yutu- no- his child doesn't know that. His child is looking at him in fear, in worry for his reaction or his safety he doesn't know but he knows the way those tears start to form. Azul knows the quiver of the lip and the shriek, of all the things he could have passed on to such a treasure.

"You deserved better from me." Because it's true. He might think of himself as a work in progress but he still thinks he has quality; he would have done research, read every book he could get his hands on, taken classes, anything he would need to do to be a good father, a worthy partner. Anything. "You deserved to have the world within your grasp, not whatever shadow of a future and a father I left you with. I am so sorry." He does not expect Yutu to grab him and hold him like he's still somehow worthy of his love, but Azul can't fight the urge to grab back, to stroke his son's hair and let the tears fall on his suit without any care at all. I'm here. It's ok, daddy's here, daddy's got you, he won't let anything happen to you.

Azul likes to make plans. He planned how he would confess to Yuu (it did not go as planned but he still planned it) and he has clear ideas about the future he wants to have with them. Yutu was already a part of it, he's dreamed of having somewhere safe and full of love to come home to since he realized what his feelings for Yuu were. So to see that dream come to life, to have it crying in his arms about how someone else corrupted it into a nightmare and stole what he'd worked so hard to earn- Oh Azul is a petty and vindictive little bitch once he has gotten his own tears out of his system. He's extremely proud of all the work Yutu has already done towards ending the bad future, and while he is disappointed that he didn't think to ask for his help he is understanding. If he was in Yutu's position he doesn't know how he'd react, but he could see himself making similar choices.

He insists on having a family dinner so he can get to know all of the real things about Yutu from him instead of just observing them. He wants the three (and a half since Grim's there too) of you to cook together and just talk before getting down to the sad business that's brought Yutu here. Some of it's instinct to feed his child, but mostly he wants to prove to his son that he's worthy of being his father. That you chose him out of everyone for a reason, something Yutu sort of knows already but he's wanted to have his father in his life for so long that he plays up his nerves just a little bit so he can be spoiled by him.

Azul's reach is long, and combined with the twins finding where Mori is should be much easier. What worries Azul is the bad future and the little information Yutu tells him about how it started. He's never had any real reason to doubt what he knows about overblots, or to distrust the Headmage, or to think Grim could kill him. But if the world ends the economy does too, and he is not about to die before he's achieved everything he's been dreaming of. His ambition is almost scary, but Yutu can't bring himself to be afraid. This version of his father is the nicest one he's seen yet, and if it means anything to anyone, he'd like to keep him just as much as Azul wants him too.

[pocketmania]

umm, hi! first time anon here, and also first time requester, i've been reading a lot though, i fucking love blogs like this ❤

splatoon 🎨🔫hurt/comfort, sfw (but it can be suggestive...) acht (or any other idol, but my brain keeps swinging back to acht) x human! reader? i'm a sucker for existential comfort like that, (and it's so incredibly hard to settle on a character since all of them have a unique perspective or attitude one could use as a lens for that kind of thing, aughhhh 💥💥💥) everything loved and known to you is dead and forgotten, but something just as, if not more, worthy of that love and memory can be found in it's place i'm trying to write stuff in that vein myself and i don't see enough of it...

Aaa hi! Thank you for consulting me to write for you!

I'm gonna go with Acht on this one (again, this marks my 4th time writing about them) since they seem to be familiar with existential dread lol

I'm also sorry if this is bad or not what you wanted! As you can see, I'm not the best at writing lol (at least not without making it too long)

Now onto the thingy

‎‧₊˚✧[ Alternan Survivor ]✧˚₊‧

(🎨🔫🤬❤️‍🩹) - splatoon comfort

‧₊˚ ⋅ 𓐐𓎩 ‧₊˚ ⋅

- - - - - - -

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" You screeched, holding out your hand in case of an attack and backing into a corner, absolutely helpless.

Okay, time to back up. 'How did you get here?' You woke up from some sort of capsule in a dark, damp room. You managed to exit the room but were, unfortunately, met with an equally dark and damp corridor. All the doors, save one, were locked. You opened the door, closed it behind you, and began to rummage around, hoping that there was something to help you understand what was going on.

All there was was a bed, a DJ turntable, a minifridge, a desk with a laptop on a composing software, and some other stuff. You decided to check the desk first since it seemed the most useful. You were rummaging around in it, but you nothi-

Click.

You heard the door open and immediately snapped your head around to find who opened it. It was this.. green, octopus humanoid. Its tentacles were red and blue, but most of them were covered by its headphone-hat combo. It had mirror shades, knee-high boots, and a black tank-top dress. Its fingertips were also red.

You were mortified at the.. thing before you, and you screamed at the top of your lungs. You somehow tripped on your own feet, knocking a bunch of things off the desk on your way down. You scooted to a corner, your heart in your mouth.

The creature pulled up its shades, revealing yellow eyes. Yellow eyes that looked sad and tired. Yellow eyes that looked concerned. It held out its hands to show that it posed no threat to you, but you were still incredibly nervous.

And that's how you got to where you were now. The thing attempted to speak to you, but it was nothing but gibberish to your ears. You squinted, trying to make out any words that would make any sort of sense to you. It still didn't.

The octopus-humanoid realized that you couldn't understand it, so it went over to its laptop and began to type something out. It cautiously brought it over and crouched so you could see it better.

Some sort of article was pulled up, but, of course, you couldn't read the writing. However, a specific picture stuck out to you.

A photo. A photo of many human bones found underground. Next to a rocket.

Suddenly, everything made sense. The capsule, being underground, the creature standing before you.

Humans were dead.

Memories suddenly came flooding back to you; Alterna, Judd, the sentient Telephone. You put yourself into that capsule somewhere far away from Alterna as you didn't trust the younger scientists and their ambition. The rocket launch everyone had been talking about must have failed. You didn't know how long you had been asleep, but the article answered that for you.

Twelve thousand years. It was impossible. Well, it obviously wasn't since you were sitting there right now when you should've died twelve thousand years ago.

You looked (and felt) defeated. You held your head in your hands, and you began to sob violently. You couldn't understand anyone.. you didn't know where you were.. your entire kind.. ceased to exist..

The thing crouched beside you and rose a hand to pat your back. You found it oddly comforting, despite not knowing whatever was comforting you was. After about ten, maybe fifteen minutes, your sobbing slowed. You sat in disbelief.

The creature spoke to you again. You still didn't know what it was saying, but you could tell it felt bad for you. Then, it stood up and held out a hand. A hand for you to take, for you to rely on, for you to trust.

You hesitated. All of this was happening so fast in such little time. But.. the creature didn't seem to pose a threat. It helped you understand and even comforted you (to some extent).

You took its hand and stood up.

Everything was still over your head, especially the new life that had emerged while you were asleep. But you could trust that this.. person.. would help you. "Thank you," you said, sniffling and rubbing your eyes. They smiled.

They, at least, seemed to understand your thankfulness.

- - - - - - -

‧₊˚ ⋅ 𓐐𓎩 ‧₊˚ ⋅

[songbirdsanctuary]

List of Animus Objects Written by Zombie Cleo

I never used my magic for anything massive—no castles, no towering monuments or sky-scraping statues. That stuff’s cool in theory, but I’ve always believed there’s something more meaningful about making things by hand. There's a soul in handmade work, even when you're capable of literally breathing life into inanimate objects. My magic was always small, personal—something I kept close.

Honestly, I didn’t even want to make this list. Feels weird, like showing off. But Joe kept pestering me, saying it would be “cool” to have a record of everything I’ve enchanted. So fine, here it is. A record. A story of sorts. Of all the things I’ve made.

Before Joining

Food-Seeking Ruby-Embedded Dagger The first thing I ever made. It would slip out of my room every morning before my mother woke up, find something edible—rabbit, bird, rat, whatever—and bring it back. I never had to go hunting for breakfast, not once. It became part of my routine, like brushing my teeth or pretending to study. My mother found out eventually. She snapped it in half and buried it in the forest. I cried over that one.

Loaf of Banana Bread We didn’t have banana bread often. It was a rare treat. So when I finally got a loaf, I enchanted it to regenerate every time I took a bite. It worked, at first. A slice here, a nibble there. But I got greedy. Ate the whole thing in one go over the course of a month. It never came back. Lesson learned: moderation matters, even with magic.

Paper of Royal Truths This plain-looking sheet of paper would automatically list the current Queen of every tribe. Not something I really needed at the time, but it felt like a test—to see how specific I could get with enchantments. It was finicky, though. Sometimes it listed dead queens. Still, it helped me learn control.

Healing Silver Snake A small silver serpent, no bigger than a bracelet, that I made to coil around my sprained ankle and heal it while I slept. It worked like a charm—until it got mixed up in my mother’s things. I never saw it again. I hope it found someone else who needed it.

Season 2

Eagle Meal Found a dead bird on the road. Didn’t want it to go to waste. Turned it into a fully cooked feast with roasted meat, herbs, even side dishes. It was delicious. Maybe a little too perfect. Still makes me wonder how much of it was the bird, and how much was just magic playing chef.

Endless Inkwell Made for Joe, of course. He was always running out of ink and smudging things. This inkwell never runs out, never spills, and he can just whisper what color he wants and it shifts instantly. Still one of the prettiest things I’ve made—sleek, black stone with a shimmer like starlight.

Season 3

Hidden Tunnel Xisuma’s only real request. A hidden tunnel that only dragons officially recognized as “Hermits” by Xisuma can find. It lets us travel from island to island, stretching farther and farther away from the mainland without being tracked. The tunnel is living—it can move, if a Hermit flies far enough and summons it. It’s one of my proudest enchantments. Quiet. Powerful. Invisible to those who shouldn’t find us.

Sea-Creature Paperweights Joe gave me a bag of sapphires and jade and asked for “something pretty.” I turned them into paperweights shaped like sea creatures—an octopus, a narwhal, a few jellyfish. They’re heavy, magical, and hum faintly when it rains.

Season 4

Super-Growth Seeds A small enchanted satchel filled with wildflower seeds. The moment they hit soil, they grow within minutes, bursting into full bloom. Some of the flowers are taller than me. Great for decorating, not so great for stealth.

Moonlight Glass Globes A wooden box filled with glass spheres that glow softly, like the moon-globes the IceWings and RainWings use. Mine don’t float like theirs, though—I haven’t figured out levitation enchantments yet. Still, they’re beautiful, and they make any room feel calm.

Sapphire-Embedded Knife (Dagger 2.0) I made this for Mumbo when he got sick. It was like my first dagger, but smarter—it would only hunt when Mumbo was too weak to do it himself. It brought back warm food every time, and never anything cruel or unnecessary. It understood the difference.

Season 5

Re-Enchanted Sapphire Dagger Updated the previous enchantment. Now it listens for anyone who is too weak, too tired, or too sick to hunt and only acts if they ask it. It’s my version of kindness. Consent matters, even in magic.

Whisper-Torch A simple torch that lights on command. “Fire,” and it burns. “Out,” and it’s cold. Great for camping or being dramatic.

Perfect Pot An ordinary-looking cooking pot that perfectly cooks anything you put in it—soups, stews, even cake. It senses temperature and time, adjusts itself, and never burns. Etho tried to steal it once. I hexed it to bite anyone but me.

Alright, happy now, Joe? This took way longer than it should’ve, and I’m not updating this again. Probably. Maybe. Okay, maybe if something really cool happens. But no promises.