#Blot-Mates Au

[the-broken-truth]

Blot-Mates: Yuu & The Overblots [Part 3]

SEGMENT: AZU

Summary: Seeing Yuu slightly overworked and complaining about his Magicless Body, Azu attempts to trap in him a contract. Will Yuu agree to the contract? What does Azu want? What are the conditions if Yuu doesn't hold up his end of the deal?

[Note: The Yuu Variant is Male with Enma Yuuken's Body Build, Yuuka Hirasaki's Fighting Skills, and Yuuta Mito's Cooking Skills.]

[Note: This Storyline will be written in Script Format.]

Parts: [Prologue] - [Ri] - [Leo] - [Azu] (Here) - [Jami] - [Vi] - [Idi] - [Mal] - [All] - [Epilogue]

[After a rather filling breakfast, Azu lounged in the large bathtub, keeping his sensitive skin and tentacles moist. Well... He was trying to relax, but his mind went to the Prefect of Ramshackle who had been taking care of all the Overblots since they were separated from their Original Bodies. Azu had been noticing how the Overblots reacted to Yuu, mainly Leo & Ri, who were rather clingy and overprotective of the Magicless Prefect. Speaking Yuu's Magicless Trait, Azu noticed how tired Yuu was after the day of attending classes with Grim and doing the Headmage's Work, as well as work around the school for the petty amounts of Madols and Thaumarks that the Headmage was throwing at him. Azu was thinking about how he could use this information to his advantage when the door opened and Yuu walked into the bathroom, covered from shoulders to feet soil and his black hair more messy than it normally was.]

Yuu (Walking over to the sink and grabbing a bar of hand soap): Sorry for coming in unannounced, Azu, but the bathroom is currently being used and I need to get washed up so I can make dinner. (Turns on the water and starts washing his hands)

Azu: That's quite alright, Prefect. It would seem that you were rather...busy. Did the Headmage have you digging new flowerbeds in the Botanical Gardens, again?

Yuu: No, I was doing something else. (Exhales)

Azu (Raises an eyebrow with a small smirk on his face): You see rather tired, Prefect. Are you certain you have enough energy to make dinner for all of us tonight?

Yuu (Drying his face and hands with a towel): Honestly, I am very tired, but I refuse to rest until all my boys are full and relaxed themselves.

Azu: 'Your Boys'? You consider us your boys even though we all tried to kill you?

Yuu: Just as I told Ri and Leo, it's not your fault you guys overblotted in the first place.

Azu (Stares at Yuu for a while): Do you think your life would be easier here if you had magic of your own?

Yuu: (Chuckles): There were so many moments where I thought life would be easier for me if I was from Wonderland or had magic of my own, but I am a simple Magicless Human and I have to deal with it.

Azu: What if you don't have to deal with that? What if you could change that?

Yuu (Looks at Azu): What are you getting at?

Azu (Smiles): Make a deal with me, Prefect.

[Just then: A Golden Contract appears in front of Yuu's face, making him jump slightly back before he looked over at Azu, who was waving a Fishbone Pen in his right hand.]

Yuu (Grabs the Golden Contract and starts reading it before looking over at the Smirking Azu): What is the meaning of this?

Azu: It's clear that you want to be like the rest of us: Magical and Powerful. I can grant you that - A magical core and magic of your own...if you can complete the terms of my contract.

Yuu (Reading the Terms with a raised eyebrow): You want a Saltwater Pool/Pond at least 7 to 8 Feet Deep, with concrete floor and walls, constructed in a timespan of...4 Days?! (Looks at Azu) Digging a hole that deep is going to take at least 2 days!

Azu (Smirking): I am a very impatient man, Prefect. I've been in this small tub for a very long time and I want to be able to swim.

Yuu (Looking at the contract): Failure to do so will result in... (Looking at Azu) Seriously? That's what you want in return if I fail to meet the conditions of the contract? That of all things?

Azu: Yes - that's the one thing I have wanted since coming here. So... (Holding up the Fishbone Pen) Do we have a deal, Prefect?

[Yuu looks at the pen for a moment...before smirking at Azu, grabbing the pen, and signing his name on the bottom of the contract before handing it back to Azu; who looks rather shocked that Yuu signed it.]

Yuu (Smirking): See you soon, Azu. (Walks out of the bathroom)

Azu (Chuckling to himself): Oh... You will give me what I want, Prefect, and once I have it, I won't let anyone else take it away from me.

Ri (Looks at everyone as he lowers his fork from his mouth): Has anyone seen Yuu?

Leo: You're right. He served dinner and left rather quickly. He didn't even want to eat with us...

Idi: Is something wrong with the Prefect? What would have him so panicked?

Mal (Looking at Azu's Smirking Face as he eats): You did something to the Magicless Child, didn't you?

Azu (Sitting in a large clay Octopus Pot that is halfway filled with saltwater): What makes you say that, Mal?

Mal: That devious smirk on your face. What have you done to the Magicless Child?

Azu: I haven't done anything to him... However, we did make a deal.

Ri (Standing up and glaring at Azu): You trapped my brother in a contract with you?! What did you offer him?!

Azu: I offered to make him like us - Magical.

Jami: You can do that?

Azu: Of course. There is nothing the contracts cannot do. I will give him a magic core and magic of his own if he can give me what I want in 4 Days... If not, well... I will get the one thing I wanted since I met him.

Leo: Are you planning to steal Ramshackle away from him, just like you tried to do the first moment you met him?!

Azu: Of course not, I'm no longer interested in Ramshackle. What I want...is something more valuable than Ramshackle or any kind of Unique Magic I could gain.

Jami: What are you after?

Azu: Wouldn't you like to know, Snake?

[Azu sat in the bathtub in his room with a smirk on his face: He just had to wait a few more hours until the contract's time limit expired and the one thing he desired would be his. Sure, he felt wrong tricking the Prefect into signing the contract knowing that he was never going to finish the task in less than 4 days, but he was doing this for his own selfishness...and the Prefect's Well-Being. Yuu wouldn't understand it at first but as time went on, he would understand and forgive him. All he needed was time. Suddenly, the door opened and Yuu walked in with Azu's Octopus Pot on a wheeled cart with a smile on his face.]

Yuu: I have something to show you, Azu.

[Azu didn't have time to question Yuu as the Prefect walked over to him, wrapped his arms around his waist firmly but tenderly, lifted him out of the tub, and placed him in the pot before wheeling him out of the room, down the hall and out the back door that led into the empty field behind Ramshackle... Well, it wasn't empty anymore.]

[There were two pools about 20 Feet wide each that too up the space of the yard and both of there were lined with lights on the concrete surfaces of each pool so people could see even if they were swimming in the dark. There was a sign near the pool on the left that said 'Azu's Pool'. Yuu wheeled Azu over to the pool and lifted him out of the pot before gently placing him in the warm water, leaving Azu shocked; it was everything he asked for but how did Yuu manage to do it with only a few hours to spare.]

Yuu: What do you think?

Azu: It's... It's perfect, but I don't understand. How did you manage to do all of this within 4 days?! I was certain that you were going to fail!

Yuu (Smiles with a raised eyebrow): Oh, you wanted me to fail, just like how you wanted me to the first time I signed a contract with you?

Azu: I... I...

Yuu: Azu, I am not angry with you. When I saw your Failure Condition, I knew that you just wanted to have something with you: Your Failure Condition was me becoming your Blood Brother.

Azu: (Looks at the water)

Yuu (Places his hand on Azu's head): You didn't need a contract for that, My Octopi. If you want me to be your brother, I don't mind. I'll be your little brother. (Smiling at Azu)

Azu: (Looking up at Yuu with wide eyes)

Yuu: Okay, let's get you back in your pot so I can go make dinner. (Puts Azu back into Octopus Pot)

Azu (Looks at Yuu intently):...

Yuu: Why are you looking at me like that?

Ri (Looking around the living room): Where is Yuu?

Leo (Looking in the Kitchen): He's not in the kitchen making dinner. Where could our little brother be?

Yuu (In the Backyard): AHHHHHH!!!

[Ri and Leo run through the house and out the backyard door to see Azu trying to pull Yuu into his Octopus Pot with his tentacles: Yuu's legs are kicking outside the opening of the pot.]

Yuu: PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP! MAKE HIM STOP!

Ri: YUU! HOLD ON!

Leo: WE'RE COMING, LITTLE BROTHER!!!

[Ri and Leo run over and grab each of Yuu's legs and start pulling him out of the pot but Azu is not letting go.]

Ri: Azu, let him go!

Leo: Give me back my brother, You Clingy Octopus!

Azu: No! He's Mine! My Brother! I am not sharing with any of you! He's mine!

Ri & Leo: GIVE HIM TO US! HE WAS OURS FIRST!

Azu: NO!!!

Yuu (Being used as a tug-o-war rope): GREAT SEVEN, HELP ME!!!

[END - TO BE CONTINUED]

[petrichorium]

sun glinting off the water’s surface, broken by a too-large tail. the roar of pouring rain upon the roiling sea. a haunting song that drifts in on the tide. the sun’s light blotted out by the churning clouds of a sudden storm. glowing eyes peering out through inky depths

this is the start of mermay.

hello all, you've stumbled across the teahouse server's mermay collab!!! the teahouse is a multifandom discord server run by myself and @sipsteainanxiety for authors, artists, and readers alike, and everything here was created in collaboration between the members ♥️ we're so excited to share our writing with you! under the cut is a collection of fics that'll come out over the course of may. many smaller unplanned works will be posted as well and added to the miscellaneous category below! happy mermay to everyone!!! hope you enjoy ♥️

𝚖 𝚒 𝚜 𝚌 𝚎 𝚕 𝚕 𝚊 𝚗 𝚎 𝚘 𝚞 𝚜 . . .

My Home Is The Sea (But You Are The Sun That Guides Me) mermaid!thoma x reader by @auraxins

Harbor Rose cove holden x mermaid!reader by @shibaraki

Warm, Soft mermaid!bakugou katsuki x reader by @petrichorium

A Fish Out Of Water mermaid!miya atsumu x reader by @shibaraki

Amphitrite mermaid!uraraka ochako x reader by @shibaraki

Apotheosis scaramouche x mermaid!reader by @auraxins

𝚙 𝚛 𝚘 𝚖 𝚙 𝚝 𝚌 𝚑 𝚊 𝚕 𝚕 𝚎 𝚗 𝚐 𝚎 𝚜 . . .

sharp teeth grazing deftly against soft skin with millions knives by @namodawrites

this is… food? for me? i can’t eat this and a cloud of blood billowing from a thrashing creature with choso by @shibaraki

If Tides Could Speak (They'd Call You Home) by @shibaraki {mature} an unlikely hero comes in the form of a barbarian. your stolen pelt is returned by his hand—but for a selkie that is more than simple kindness. it is a proposal.

bakugou katsuki x reader

accidental marriage ✧ fantasy au ✧ falling in love

“here,” he thrusts the pelt into your arms. you scramble and clutch it to your front. something inside you shifts. “this is yours, right? we took it during the raid”.

you’re frozen to the spot, mouth gaping around words that won’t come. bakugo frowns, the party members behind him glancing at each other and shrugging when they find no answer to your silence.

“Well?” he demands, embarrassment staining his ears pink.

You wet your lips, breath shaken. “Bakugo. Do you understand the significance of what you just did?”

read here

Something in the Water by @andypantsx3 {mature} as a future marine biologist, you’ve scored big on your final internship: a summer in the tropics, researching the waters off the coast of a lush, sunny island. but what you thought would be all beach days and piña coladas turns out to be the revelation of a lifetime when you haul in a handsome merprince, and discover not everything in these waters is quite as it seems.

todoroki shouto x reader

interspecies relationship ✧ mating rituals ✧ case fic

the merman’s gaze slowly trailed down your body and you fought back a strange wave of embarrassment. his fingers flexed on your ankle, those claws rasping sweetly, dangerously over the thin skin there. he pulled your leg out a little bit like he was inspecting it.

“how strange,” he murmured, his tone going soft.

you didn’t know what to think, just stared at him as his gaze roved over the bare skin of your thigh in your sea-soaked shorts.

read here

Blood in the Water by @petrichorium {explicit} in which jade leech is hungry for something only you can give him and, because he's jade leech, has a roundabout way of asking for it.

jade leech x reader

period sex ✧ established relationship ✧ pwp

“i can smell it,” jade says hazily.

“wh—what?”

“it’s… maddening. all-consuming. it takes everything in me to remain civil when you’re dry but then you bathe and it becomes agony.” his eyes seem glazed over, a look that reminds you of his erratic other half and has you feeling a little like a butterfly pinned under glass—or maybe like you’ve been carefully placed in one of his beloved terrariums. his chest heaves with a long, slow inhale. clawed fingers grip harder at the flesh of your thighs and he moves closer, lifting your knee to rest atop his shoulder. when he speaks it’s a murmur, and you wonder if you’re meant to have heard at all. “blood in the water. all of my instincts searching for the prey, writhing and helpless, ripe for the taking.”

posting: to be determined

What the Water Gave Me by @shibaraki {mature} when your sailboat is caught in a vicious storm you are saved by a whale sized mer that cannot keep his curiosity—nor his affections—at bay.

midoriya izuku x reader

courting behaviors ✧ modern fantasy ✧ macro/micro

it's a mer. it must be. mer sightings are incredibly rare— rare enough that tourists in your port town still call them myths. you’re in the palm of a legend. a giant one at that. 

what you know to be the mer’s thumb passes over you cautiously. you flinch despite his obvious attempt at telegraphing the movement. to someone your size it still happens a little too fast. the sinew in your neck hurts, wrung with tension as the thumb stops an inch short of your crown. seconds elapse. there’s a light pressure, liquid streaming down your face, a back and forth motion, a low warbling. 

the mer is petting you.

read here

My Life, My Lover, My Lady (Is the Sea) by @odieoats {explicit} your underwater home becomes collateral damage in a war waged by the humans above you—and you aren’t going to let the loudmouthed pirate captain ever forget it.

bakugou katsuki x reader

enemies to lovers ✧ pirates ✧ language barriers

“you think i don’t like books?” bakugou leers, snatching the soggy tome from your hand. the pages stick to your fingertips for just a second as he pries the book away. “just ‘cause i ain’t a fuckin’ philosopher, doesn’t mean i’m a dumbass.”

posting: to be determined

Pharos by @auraxins {mature} a sailor by nature, you’re called to the seas. when you end up stranded on an island with an ancient lighthouse, you expect the act of fixing it to bring you help—not to leave you stuck with the human vessel of an equally ancient sea god who is just as clueless on how to escape.

chuuya nakahara x reader

oceanic eldritch deity au ✧ mutual pining ✧ strangers to lovers

upon the beach stands a man. 

unremarkable in stature, yet with an aura surrounding him that fills you with a strange sort of dread deep in the pit of your stomach. 

“who are you?” you call. “what business have you here?”

“you don't know?” barks the man, incredulousness in his tone. “you summoned me here.”“i fixed the lighthouse,” you correct. “i did not summon anything.”

read here

Don't Touch the Glass by @shibaraki {mature} merfolk are otherworldly creatures that fall victim to human greed all too often. your team happens upon an abandoned aquatic theatre housing a single converted shipping container full of water — inside it is an adult siren, left behind to die.

shinsou hitoshi x reader

recovery ✧ interspecies relationship ✧ strangers to lovers

you creep onto the platform and lean carefully against the railing, scanning the area. the surface is covered in dense scum. you barely make out a silhouette in the tank, suspended lifelessly. their body twitches as the metal creaks. 

instinct puppets your limbs as you stumble back. a shout comes from the doorway. your eyes squeeze shut to the sudden splash of water, narrowly missing the clawed hand hooked in the treads. attached is a thin arm, gauzy fins protruding from the wrist upheld by chitinous spines. 

a siren.

posting: to be determined

An Itch to Scratch by @coopigeoncoo {explicit} kirishima eijiro is everything you never thought you’d find when you packed up and moved to a dilapidated fishing town.  he was handsome, funny, and kind; the sort of man who took your breath away. 

and that might actually be a bit of a problem.

kirishima eijirou x reader

medical issues ✧ interspecies relationship ✧ practical jokes

"good girl," eijiro praised, his hands like a vice on your hips as he pulled away from your mouth with a satisfied grin.  you returned his smile with one of your own; the vibrant joy that had churned in your belly unfurled throughout your body, leaving you feeling breathless and lightheaded.

"eiji," you gasped, eyes widening in panic as your lungs seemed to seize in your chest.  "i- can't breathe!"

read here

Hidden in the Sand by @smashboxgirl26 {mature} seeing your face again wasn’t something he’d ever expected: though you don’t normally think about seeing your dead childhood friend as a mermaid.

bakugou katsuki x reader

pro hero au ✧ childhood friends ✧ angst

the face it bore was familiar: with rosy cheeks from the cold, the same eyes he’d known ever since he was a child, hair curled around her face as if it were the frame of a painting.

the resemblance was uncanny. he knew her.

it all hit him so suddenly: the late nights spent under the stars, running around the forest barefoot, sneaking in through the window at night, getting drenched from the hose; secrets, stories, lies — they all came back as easily as he’d repressed them all those years ago.

when she’d lost herself to the sea and left him forever.

posting: to be determined

Rises The Moon by @petrichorium {mature} in which you find yourself torn between your dear friend, the village's strongest protector... and the very creature he's sworn to hunt, who is determined to take you as his mate.

kokushibo x reader (ft. gyoumei)

interspecies relationship ✧ courting rituals ✧ love triangle

The boat sways.

At first it doesn't faze you—like a large wave, nothing more. But then you’re rising up and the wood is dipping beneath your feet and your head snaps down to find a very large, very tripled set of bright orange eyes right in front of your face, and you’re falling.

The boat tilts entirely; you scramble for the edge of it, mindless, stupid panic gripping you with nothing in your brain except how utterly foolish it was to come out into the middle of the bay to search for an apex predator in a boat barely half its size. The water is so icy that you gasp and inhale on contact, as it surges over your head and you’re plunged into cold, endless black. Those claws find your waist and you know two things with grave certainty: it’s only been playing with its food, and you’re going to be dragged under and torn apart.

posting: to be determined

In the Eyes of the Tide by @namodawrites {teen} hoping for a quieter life, you uproot your life in the city in favor of a quaint, coastal town. but as the seasons flip, you discover there's more to it—and your new friend, oogami banri—than meets the eye.

oogami banri x reader

secret identity ✧ au ✧ friends to lovers

“oogami-san?” you resist the urge to press your ear against the door. “are you alright in there?”

his tone comes back, muffled but cheery. “no problem! don’t worry about me—those shrimp are probably ready to take out of the water by now. would you mind putting them in the ice bath for me?”

there’s a feeling in the back of your mind, coaxing you, tempting your hand to reach for the door. but you’d rather jump into the ocean on a stormy day than barge in banri in his own bathroom, and you take a deliberate step back, staring at the blank canvas of the door.

“yeah,” you say, sounding unsure even to your own ears, “yeah, i can do that.”

read here

High Tide (Came and Brought You In) by @pikatsum {teen} you’d originally rescued the injured merman out of kindness, and perhaps a healthy undercurrent of fear of what others in your town might do to the creature. 

the last thing you ever expected after returning him to the sea, was for him to want to stay.

todoroki shouto x reader

courting ✧ slight angst ✧ strangers to lovers

you‘d heard of hysterical strength before, but you’d never truly acknowledged the sensation until the soaked, dripping netting was held high above your head. but very quickly, you couldn’t process anything outside of the form that waited underneath. 

a pair of bright dichromatic eyes blinked at you through the gloom. it would be almost ethereal, if their owner wasn’t literally heaving for breath, both arms stuck akimbo in the holes of the netting. evidently, he and you had had the same idea. you gave voice to the only thought that actually did make sense in this situation.

“…what the hell…?”

read here

Melancholic by @stellamancer {mature} you were excited to return home for the summer, but all that excitement is quickly thrown out the window and you nearly resign yourself to a quiet and lonely summer.

the insufferable merman you rescued, however, has other plans.

gojo satoru x reader

roommates ✧ belligerent sexual tension ✧ interspecies friendship

he tilts his head, attempting to look innocent. and maybe his big eyes and wet, barely puckered lips would have convinced you a few hours ago, but now that you’re older and wiser you know that it’s all just an act. "oh, but—"

"unfortunately," you interject, raising your voice slightly in an attempt to establish dominance over the conversation at hand, "i'm rather uneducated when it comes to merfolk food culture."

the merman smiles at you with flirtatious ease, “i’m happy to teach you. i’m quite the teacher, you know.”

read here

[mathanlin]

// mentions of past abuse & neglect, burns

Foster AU where foster kid!Tommy’s ready to destroy the Watsons.

Not *fight* them — he’s not stupid (and… maybe he falters at their persistent kindness). But there’s other ways to get his anger out. 

Like vandalism.

And his first target is Phil’s stupid parenting book.

The stupid fucker left it out, bookmarked and all. It falls open as Tommy snatches it, intending to shred the thing.

His eyes catch a few words. Abuse. Neglect. Trauma.

But what he truly reads is the highlighted line.

“...may act aggressive or lash out to hide their fear.”

Tommy… hesitates.

No. This is adrenaline & anger, not— not fear. 

But he won’t rip the book to confetti (celebrating how he’ll surely be forced out). He just grabs a pen, scribbling out the stupid highlighted line.

And scrawls his own note. “Fuck you. I’m not fucking afraid.”

And he’s *not.*

Not when he’s driving back from school, bantering with (and insulting) the twins. Not when he strolls into the Watson’s house, laughing too loud to be safe.

Not when he sees Phil on the couch, book open in his lap.

Tommy freezes in the doorway, paralyzed as the twins tumble past him.

Phil looks up. Right at Tommy. And… maybe, just for a second, he’s afraid. 

But that’s replaced by jaw-dropping confusion as Phil just *smiles,* setting the book to the side. “Hey mate. How was the day?”

Fuck it. Tommy hates him, but he hates being confused more. (And that’s what this is. Confusion. Not fear.)

So he stays silent as the twins joke with him, as Phil makes supper, as they drift off to bed.

And the moment he’s alone, he rushes to the book & flips it open.

There’s his mess of scribbled-out lines. His note, in ugly bold. 

And… neat, small handwriting, right beneath it.

“It’s alright to be scared *or* angry.”

And next to it, a *fucking smiley face.*

Tommy’s jaw drops even before his eyes flick to the other note, a Post-It on the page.

“It’s the one-week anniversary of your first day here! We’d love to get you a gift, let me know what you’d like.” 

One week. Like he’s staying.

Like he deserves gifts, after what he’s done.

Tommy’s eyes don’t burn. He doesn’t forget to breathe, trembling quietly.

No. He just scoffs out loud. (Even if it wavers painfully, far too close to a sob.)

And grabs a pen.

The next morning, the book’s moved, sitting on the end table next to Phil’s favorite mug. 

And the next evening, there’s a stack of gifts outside Tommy’s room. (Despite his note, “I don’t need shit. Fuck off.”)

Soft sweaters. Little fidget toys. Candy.

And an annotating set.

Tommy much prefers his permanent marker — thick, bold, destructive.

But Phil never seems to see it like that. No matter how much Tommy swears or blots out the book’s sappier lines. 

And even then, he’s… talking, more. Having genuine conversations through notes in the margins.

“Which of these sounds nice?”

Tommy goes still, staring at Phil’s neat handwriting. His heart hitches at the little chart above it. Types of affection. Hugs. Compliments. Gifts.

Hand trembling, he grabs his own pen. No sharpie.

For once, he feels like being quiet.

“I don’t need any of these. I never have.”

The thought festers in his mind, no matter how many times Wil ruffles his hair or Techno’s dry remarks turn to compliments. Or how Phil looks at him, so impossibly soft.

And when Phil replies, it’s only two words. 

“Page 96.”

Tommy can barely turn the pages, his hands are shaking so hard. 

And when he does, he can hardly see through his tears.

The book’s text is neat. Scientific. Pragmatic. 

And it still tears Tommy apart.

“Every child requires and deserves affection, both physical and emotional.”

Then, a little note below it. Phil’s.

“Please let me know if you’d like to talk.”

And… Tommy wants to, if just to answer the questions crying out in his mind. 

To stop his tears from dripping onto the book’s pages. 

(If I deserved it, why didn’t I get it?)

He tucks the book under his arm, grabbing Phil’s mug from the end table with shaking hands. 

Tea. He’ll make tea. Phil’s favorite, so that even if he pushes Tommy away, maybe he won’t hate him enough to force him away for good.

(And so Tommy can calm himself. So he can stop crying, so he can talk instead of sob.)

But he never gets the chance to speak.

One trembling misstep is all it takes.

The mug tips, sending boiling water over Tommy’s desperately reaching hands. With a horrible crash, it shatters across the floor.

And the stupid fucking book sits right in the puddle’s center, no longer soaked with just Tommy’s tears. 

Right there, he gives up, crumpling to the kitchen floor despite the shards beneath him.

It doesn’t matter that his hands ache, in agony from the scalding burn. His heart hurts worse, as he finally lets himself sob, alone.

It isn’t anger. It isn’t just adrenaline.

It’s fear.

But it doesn’t matter. He won’t ask for comfort or someone to cling to.

(Even if he apparently ‘needs’ and ‘deserves’ it.)

No. He’ll stay quiet — what every foster parent had wanted of him, and what only Phil had managed to get.

He’d wanted to break everything in the beginning. To be loud, to destroy things, to hurt the Watsons in any way possible.

But now, if he’s the last thing to break? 

He’ll give no words, no written notes.

He’ll be quiet.

.

.

.

“Oh god. Tommy.”

It’s the worst thing that could’ve happened. Phil, standing in the kitchen doorway, staring at the broken porcelain. And the book, utterly ruined. 

But the things he seems most concerned with are Tommy’s hands. 

“Here,” he says, guiding Tommy to the sink and nudging his hands beneath the cold water. He obeys numbly, frozen as Phil disinfects and bandages every burn.

When he finishes, Tommy finds the strength to speak, curled into the couch like it could protect him.

“Are you mad at me?”

They’re the first words he’s spoken directly to Phil in ages. With his burnt, bandaged hands, it’s not like he can write.

(And maybe he’d like to hear Phil’s voice, too.)

Phil looks at him so softly Tommy can almost believe what he says.

“No. I’ve never been mad at you.”

“But— I broke your mug.”

“I just want you to be okay,” Phil says, glancing at Tommy’s bandaged hands like they’re hurting him too. He laughs quietly. “The mug doesn’t matter.”

“And… and the book?”

Phil goes still, and Tommy almost sobs in fear.

But the man just leans closer, ducking his head to meet Tommy’s eyes like he’s uttering a promise.

“I only cared about that book because of you,” he says quietly. “So you’d feel comfortable. So you’d ask me for whatever you needed.”

Tommy swallows, curled in on himself. There’s no time to think about his response, no proofreading like when he’d written them out. 

So when Phil quietly asks, “Is there anything you need?”

Tommy whispers, weak and desperate, “A hug?”

And of course, Phil gives it. That, and so much more.

The mug’s shards get sweeped up, and the first thing Phil makes in the kitchen is Tommy’s favorite breakfast. 

For once, he lets himself enjoy it. Enjoy *them,* their laughter and love so freely given.

And the first thing he writes after his hands have healed? 

His name. His signature, really.

Right next to Phil’s, on the final line of his adoption papers.

[placeinthemiddleofnowhere]

I’ve kinda already written about this before with the college AU I started a while ago but I have a mighty need for a life drawing workshop with Ghost and Soap.

Like maybe Soap runs some classes in a local bar venue space or something and he puts out ads every so often for models. Ghost meanwhile is discharged from the army with a shitty shoulder injury and no where to go. After going for a pint with Gaz to commiserate, and drown their shared sorrows of having to leave army life, Gaz tells Ghost about a new side hustle he has going ever since he’d had to leave months prior.

Ghost snorts out a laugh at first “are you bloody joking? You. A life model?”

Gaz pretends not to get too offended, but rolls his eyes and take a drink.

“It’s not as weird as you think. You stand in a couple different poses-“

“With your kit off,” Ghost chuckles.

“Yes, with your kit off,” Gaz huffs. “You get told how to stand and what props to use and then a bunch of people draw you for a couple hours. It’s totally painless and you get decent dosh for it. I do Soap’s class twice a month and Alex’s class three times - it’s easy money, plus it’s cash in hand so HMRC don’t have to be any the wiser bout it.”

“Hang on a minute, Soap?” Ghost says, shaking his head. “What kind of a name is Soap? He gives you props as well? What next, does he ask you to dance for him too? Give ‘im the old dazzle dazzle, do you?”

“Fuck off Ghost.”

“Aw, im only messing. ‘Sides even if I wanted to do little poses for your art class, I wouldn’t be able to. My shoulder’s buggered remember? I wouldn’t be able to hold a lot of positions for long.”

“Soap’s pretty understanding. He can pick poses that suit your body and he can adjust the times so that you don’t have to stay still too long if you can’t take it. You just have to tell him about your injury and he’ll be understanding.”

Ghost shook his head again and took another gulp.

“Fuckin’ Soap.”

“He’s an eccentric guy, but he’s cool,” Gaz shrugs. “Do you want me to speak to him for you? He’s usually on the lookout for new models.”

Ghost would say he’d need to take some time to think about it, but Gaz would take that as a yes. So a few days roll by and soon enough Ghost gets a text through telling him that Soap would be ‘well up’ for meeting him and said he should come by the next evening before class.

Ghost - I told you I’d think about it, you twat. Not to go on ahead and tell him I wanna join his little cult.

Gaz - show up or don’t, you can think about it all you like between now and then. You’ll thank me later 🤪

After that last text Gaz then sent him a picture of a wad of cash and few coins spread out over a blotted bar top. Ghost would sigh, but as soon as he saw that money he knew his decision was made. He needed something until he was able to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, something to tide him over till he received payments for his injury.

He’d turn up for Soap’s class with a flustered air around him and would step through the shadowy doorway to the bar with soft unsure steps. It was still early, there wouldn’t be many people inside. He’d ask the barman where the function room was and sullenly walk through the curtain, raising his brows when he’d finally lay eyes on Soap.

Ghost wouldn’t know what to expect but it’s not the mohawked barrel of a man that’s lugging chairs around the room and running around like a little worker ant. His eyes would linger on the muscles that were exposed from Soap’s paint and charcoal stained tank top and he’d watch on wordlessly, widening his eyes when Soap would finally notice him. He’d dig his nails into his palms to try to stop himself from blushing in embarrassment.

“You’re a bit early for the class’ mate,” Soap would huff, settling another chair around the raised stage. “Looking to join?”

“Uh sort of,” Ghost would say, frowning as he struggled to find words around the bodybuilder/artist. “My friend Gaz, uh Kyle you probably know him as - he said you were looking for more models and that I should come by…”

Soap’s eyes would light in recognition and he’d smile warmly, striding over to greet Ghost properly. Ghost wouldn’t be prepared for the warm grip in Ghost’s handshake and he especiallly wasn’t prepared for those big blue crystalline eyes to be roaming over him as if they were mentally taking him apart.

“Simon right?” Soap would say, revealing a perfect white grin. “I’m Soap, John’s my name, but I prefer Soap so you can go with that, yeah? Kyle mentioned you had a shoulder injury and that you weren’t sure you could hold certain poses.”

Ghost would straighten up then and nod, pointing out which one it was. From then Soap would take him through a few positions and would discuss the technicalities with him, were Ghost to join. Apparently it was easy to make accommodations for him, and Soap would be more than pleased to have him as a model, and like Kyle had already mentioned, the pay was pretty good.

Ghost would grow interested the more he would hear and eventually Soap would wear him down enough into taking him through a few practice ones. They would be relatively easy, and Ghost would find himself realising that Gaz was right - it was easy money. Plus Soap was no bad company either.

He’d be convinced into watching the class that night and getting to have a little taster of what he would be doing. The model that night would be a tiny little thing, a dancer, and would hold the most intricate stances for the eager artists to draw, contorting themselves into pretzel like shapes that Ghost couldn’t possibly hold. They’d capture his attention for a minute, but Ghost would always find himself staring at Soap right after.

He’d watch the way he directed the model, stroking the air to dictate how he wanted them and guiding them gently into form all without physically touching. He’d encourage the artists, complimenting a few people, and helping anyone that needed guidance. His favourite would be when the others would fall silent and Soap would take to gathering himself a pencil and paper and drawing for a little bit. The immense concentration, the way he’d clench his jaw and narrow his eyes would be so captivating and there was nothing that could stop Ghost looking away. Nothing that could stop him from wondering what it would be like having Soap’s eyes on him like that.

As it turns out it would almost steal all the breath from his lungs. Ghost would be sitting on that same stage the next week, stone faced and gritting his teeth through the slight chill in the air. He’d be used to resisting the cold, though he wouldn’t be used to all the eyes on his naked body, most of all Soap’s as his furrowed brow stayed glued to him. Ghost would swear that Soap could read his thoughts, could strip his mind just as easily as his body and he would know that Ghost was developing a stupid obsession with him (he’d refuse to think of it as a crush).

He’d look purposely look away on the next pose and would still feel Soap’s eyes on him still. They’d warm a path from the bones at his collar, all the way down the ridges of his pecs and right down to the pit of his belly. Butterflies would dance where his empty stomach should have been.

He’d love and hate it in equal measure, barely feeling the eyes of Soap’s gaggle of students because of the intensity of their teacher, but he would still show up again the next week and the next after that. Just hoping that maybe one night it wouldn’t be his own hands pulling the cord on his robe, perhaps he could embrace a pair covered in charcoal and graphite and entice them to touch instead of trace the air. He’d want to break through Soap’s page and show him new colours, tear the world as he knew it apart in only the way that Ghost could.

[violetlunette]

Quickie TWST AU!

So, I was thinking to myself that, in a way, Silver and Lilia are each other’s true (platonic) love, right? (Or at least Lilia’s Silver’s true love.) Because of this, Silver was able to wake from his blessed sleep. So, what if after Lilia leaves or dies, Silver falls back into his eternal sleep? After thinking this, I came up with an AU where Lilia dies after Malleus’ over blot and because his “true love/ soul mate” is gone, Silver can’t wake up. And so, Malleus takes Silver to his castle and does his best to look after him. Hundreds of years later when even Malleus is old and Lilia’s reincarnation shows up, his heart having been drawn to the castle and the sleeping boy.

[kiyfra]

The third and final chapter of Katatsumuri is finished! It can be read here or on A03. Pokerus AU belongs to @monsoon-of-art.

"A creature given to melancholy. I suspect its metallic shell developed as a result of the mucus on its skin reacting with the iron in Hisui's water."

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

Gaeric’s tent was still coated in ice, a thick sheet of it forming a few days ago. The warden’s remaining hand had fallen off just as his arm and leg had, this time during the clan’s communal dinner. A loud crack was heard through the dining hall and the hand shattered like glass upon hitting the ground, drawing everyone’s attention. Gaeric had solemnly gotten up and announced he was going to bed, managing his crutch as best he could and ignoring his concerned clan mates offering to help. He kept his head down and headed to his tent with a thousand yard stare.

A heavy snow storm raged that night and come morning the tent was cocooned in a dense layer of ice, separating it from the outside world. Neither fire nor steel could put a dent in it; a complete black box where Gaeric was presumably undergoing the final stages of his metamorphosis.

Shouts asking if he was alright hadn’t produced a response, indeed nothing could be heard from within the ice chrysalis. Even if Gaeric was attempting to ride it out as stoically as possible, he would have wanted to reassure his worried clan members. Either he couldn’t hear them or he couldn’t answer, neither was comforting. There was an eerie stillness in the air as the clan waited.

Lian almost envied the solitude. He spent most of his time in his tent, withdrawn into his shell, hoping to blot out the world around him. He didn’t want anyone to see him like this, slimy, immobile, unable to fulfill his duties as a warden and completely dependent on others.

He had been transformed completely into a sliggoo, the painful process finally at an end after so many weeks. It had felt like a Fox resided in him and took delight in tormenting him. Lian could imagine sharp claws slowly dragging organs into place, muscles being stretched and molded. His entire body being rearranged as it saw fit, heedless of his cries begging it to stop. A metallic shell grew out of his skin, spiraling around his lower half as his legs atrophied.

With his transformation complete the thing had gone dormant, evidently satisfied with the new arrangement. Enzymes had finished dissolving his skeleton, his flesh was gluey to the touch and muscular tissue affixed to the absurdly heavy shell.

Lian just didn’t want to think or feel anything. Not the vicious cycle of his body excreting acidic mucus when he was stressed, then the awful disgusting feeling stressing him out more. Not about how he couldn’t keep being Lord Kleavor’s warden and how he’d be stuck like this forever. If he kept trying to retreat further back and concentrate on the smooth curved interior of his shell, he could pretend he didn’t even have a body.

People still came to bring him meals and check on him before Lian quickly dismissed them. He knew if he didn’t he’d have to endure awkward attempts at conversation and answer unwanted questions.

“How are you doing? You really shouldn’t spend all your time moping. Why don’t you join everyone else for dinner?”

What was he even supposed to say to that?

The clan respected his need for space and Lian knew he wasn’t the only one suffering. Very few across Hisui had escaped the bizarre infliction turning people into pokémon; PokéRus, as the Galaxy professor called it. Those that worked closely with pokémon turned first, meaning the wardens and clan leaders, but it soon spread to everyone. Snovers, bunearys, piloswines, sneasles and an assortment of others at differing stages of transformation became a common sight at the settlement.

It wasn’t much fun turning into a quadruped, losing opposable thumbs or gaining bizarre new dietary needs. Many had been trying to ignore their newfound desires to eat grass or raw meat. Lian himself found that anything with salt made him violently ill, so that meant he couldn’t eat any of the clan’s cured meat they had stored. He had mostly been eating soup, the liquid diet being the easiest on him since his teeth fell out.

A bowl of mushroom stew sat uneaten by his bedside, having gone cold an hour ago. Lian couldn’t stand the goopy squelching noises that came from him when eating. Eating sounds had always bothered and disgusted him, but were now unbearable. He was repulsed by the urge to let his own acid dissolve the food before eating or needing to use a chitinous tongue to eat anything solid. He could barely bring himself to eat the meals brought to him, only doing so at his partner’s insistence.

Goomy hadn’t left his side since he was brought to the settlement, frequently leaning against him in an attempt to comfort him and kicking up a fuss if he thought Lian was letting himself waste away.

He knew it was wrong to worry his partner like that, especially after the stunt he pulled in the mire lands. It had given him and Calaba quite a fright when Lord Kleavor started bellowing outside Calaba’s tent, carrying him by the scruff of his tunic, half-conscious.

His partner abruptly perked up, noticing someone approaching the camp briefly before Lian did. A small dewott treaded through the Pearl Clan settlement carrying a heavy satchel. They were beating a path directly to Lian’s tent, the physical details filled in long before they approached the door.  Black nub ears poked out from a head-kerchief and a long scarf was wound snuggly around their neck. The locks of hair adorning both sides of their face like mock lop ears couldn’t have belonged to anyone else but Dawn.

She had clearly been swimming recently; water droplets still clung to her fur and her scarf was frozen stiff. Snow stuck to her fluffed up coat and ice crystals formed at the end of her whiskers. She was still pretty, even as a dewott.

A small paw rapped on the door to his tent. “Lian, can I come in?”

He really didn’t want Dawn to see him. He spent several seconds trying to think of a response, some way to send her away that wasn’t rude before she asked, “Are you okay?”

He didn’t dignify that with an answer. She seemed to realize her mistake and followed up with, “Right, that was a dumb question.”

There was an awkward pause as Dawn deliberated on what she should say or do next. No one in the Pearl Clan would take kindly to someone entering their home, their sacred space, without permission. If Lian told her to leave, there was nothing she could do.

After some deliberation, she decided to just go for it and state the reason for her visit.

“I brought you something,” Dawn announced, lifting her waterlogged satchel up. She clearly went out of her way to see him and there was no polite way to tell her to leave. Besides, Lian would be lying if he said he wasn’t intrigued by the gift and what she went swimming in the ice lands for.

His curiosity won out. “Come in.”

The dewott opened the door, shaking herself to clear the water and snow off before entering.

It was completely dark inside his tent save for the afternoon sun pouring through the now open door, giving his living space a depressing atmosphere. He was resting on the floor next to his bed, peering out over the edge of his shell self-consciously, with his partner Goomy beside him. He still wore his hat, without it he’d feel completely naked.

Lian’s tent had fallen into a state of disarray with his Pearl Clan uniform tossed carelessly onto the bed that could no longer support his weight, blankets strewn about on the floor and neatly arranged shelves of stones and minerals gathering dust. A lantern that hadn’t been used in some time sat upon a table next to his uneaten lunch.

Dawn closed the door behind her to avoid letting the heat escape, once again plunging the tent into darkness. She strode towards him before stumbling, her foot caught on one of the many blankets he had left lying around for his makeshift nest.

“May I put on a light?” the girl asked, clearly not wanting to impose.

Lian had no need for a light source in his current state and his partner was unbothered by the dim living space so it failed to occur to him that his guest would need one.

“My apologies, the lantern is on the table,” Lian said, mentally kicking himself for his lack of consideration.

Dawn stood on tip toes as she lit the lantern, the orange glow illuminating the cluttered abode.

“Please do forgive the mess. I wasn’t expecting company.”

She brushed it off as not a big deal as she sat down cross legged beside him, setting the satchel down on her lap. Goomy was happy to see her, sidling up and clamouring for attention. Dawn laughed as she pat his head. “Sorry, I didn’t bring anything for you.”

She returned her attention to the gift and opened her satchel.

“I went diving for rocks for your collection.”

He hadn’t expected that. Nobody really payed much attention to his lectures on minerals or the importance of stones. He was used to being politely tolerated when he tried to share his knowledge about ores and later admonished for boring people with long winded speeches.

“I thought there might be some interesting ones underwater you couldn’t find on land,” she explained, looking for a stone she deemed a good one.

Under normal circumstances Lian would have been stoked. He’d always wanted to investigate underwater rock formations and having a friend to spend the afternoon with, speculating about their composition and formation would have been the cherry on top.

It almost seemed cruel the opportunity would come now when he couldn’t fully appreciate such a gift with the loss of his eyesight. Never again would he be able to see the subtle flecks of mica in a sun stone or the deep blue of a water stone. Lian hoped his despondency wasn’t too apparent; it was a very thoughtful gesture and he didn’t want to come across as ungrateful.

“This one came from Heart’s Crag. I found it on the way over here,” Dawn said, passing one of the rocks over to him.

He accepted the gift and turned it over in his hands. It was a flat disk shaped stone, one that had been smoothed out by erosion at the bottom of a riverbed. A pleasing streak of quartz ran through it with a small pocket of crystals that hadn’t been worn down in the center.

Was it a pale grey, a dark black or perhaps a ruddy red? Would he forget what those looked like with time?

“So, what do you think?” Dawn asked, looking up at him hopefully.

He considered his response for a long minute.

“Thank you for the gift and for taking the time to visit me. I truly do appreciate your concern.“ Lian said finally, sounding too careful, too rehearsed.

He didn’t seem inclined to say much more, but Dawn wasn’t giving up that easily. Ignoring the implicit rejection, she searched her bag for another rock, one she brought specifically for this purpose.

Time to bring out the conversation starter.

“You know, I think I actually found gold!”

Dawn removed an ore from her bag and Lian’s senses informed him of the rigid cubes composing its shape, immediately guessing the girl’s mix up. She handed it to him for appraisal, confirming what he’d already suspected.

“This is pyrite, fool’s gold. The most obvious giveaway is the cubic structure, but if you look closely you can see striations on its surface,” he lectured his impromptu student, pointing to the parallel lines covering the exterior.

“Wow, you can tell all that just from touching it?” She sounded genuinely surprised.

“Sure I can, that’s child’s play! But this...“ he picked up the river stone to gesture with it. “I can’t tell you much besides that it’s probably igneous. The weight and density means it’s unlikely to be sedimentary and a cavity like this wouldn’t remain if it was metamorphic.”

Lian brought the stone in front of his face and squinted as if straining his eyes would cause them to miraculously start working again.

“I’d wager that a gas bubble was trapped in the quartz vein while it was still magma and a slow cooling process allowed larger crystals to form.”

It was clear from his tone that he didn’t consider the observation impressive. The girl looking up at him with wide eyes evidently disagreed.

“If you call that not knowing much then you must be a genius! It’s no wonder Lord Kleavor made you his warden!”

If the praise were coming from anyone else he would have agreed without hesitation. But praise from the girl turned dewott sitting cross legged in front of him caused his face to grow warm and he mumbled about how it wasn’t that impressive with uncharacteristic modesty.

Dawn rooted through her satchel again and brought out a handful of rocks. “What can you tell me about these?”

The two of them spent a solid hour going over the various stones collected from around Hisui, Dawn listening attentively as he lectured her about composition, formation and any other noteworthy facts.

Lian had a considerable base of knowledge to draw upon, but it was an interesting test of his abilities to identify minerals without visual information. He’d explain what he could discern about the rocks he had never seen before and account for how years underwater changed the ones he was familiar with, adding a new layer of complexity. He was surprised that he found himself enjoying the challenge.

Crystalline, gritty, porous; the shapes and textures told him a lot about their makeup and the environments they were formed in. He would speculate out loud and Dawn would interject with questions he was all too happy to answer.

A thought occurred to him. Did she deliberately choose stones that would be interesting from a tactile perspective? She’s so kind and intelligent...

Dawn finally brought out the last rock, a hunk of limestone embedded with many tiny shells. “They kind of look like helix fossils, but way smaller.”

“I wonder if they might have been juveniles of the species,” Lian pondered.

“No, baby omanytes are nowhere near that small,” Dawn said, recalling when Lucas bred one of his omastars and Professor Rowan’s lab was overrun by a swarm of the cute little buggers.

Lian looked at her incredulously. “How would you know?”

“Back home there were researchers that studied fossils. They could tell a lot about the pokémon they used to be and I was helping a professor with a research project.”

Dawn was careful not to mention she had live specimens to study. Explaining she was from a place where people had figured out how to revive species from fossils would sound far too suspicious, never mind telling anyone she was from the future.

Lian wasn’t wary or distrustful of her like some people were. There was already an amnesiac skyfaller that had been part of his clan for years, but Kleavor’s warden could still be rather prickly. A lot of people in Hisui were highly superstitious and Kamando had made it clear her place in Jubilife was conditional. No, the fewer people that knew, the better.

“I used to spend a lot of time in the Underground and I’d find a lot of fossils to bring back. I think you’d really like it there!”

Lian listened, enraptured as Dawn talked at length about the massive tunnel system that ran under her home region and how plenty of people built secret bases and went treasure hunting there. She spoke of rare evolution stones, rocks with mysterious effects on the weather, ores valued by collectors and fossils she sought after for her research.

“I’ve never found a skull fossil! My friends find them all the time, but I’ve never found one!” Dawn ranted, throwing her hands up in frustration.

Lian swung his head towards her, his eyes narrowing gave the impression he was staring straight at her.

“Didn’t you say you lost your memories?” he blurted out, his tone probably sounding more accusatory than he meant it to.

“Well, er-“

In her excitement, Dawn had forgotten she was supposed to be playing the role of a poor amnesiac girl.

“I- I started remembering some things recently!” she hastily explained.

A flash of inspiration struck her. “After my first battle with Ingo I started recalling some things about my home. Battles have been jogging my memory lately.”

Lian’s expression didn’t change. Dawn wasn’t sure if he believed the lie or not; either way he didn’t challenge her on it. It’s not like he could prove she was lying.

Itching to change the subject, she asked, “Actually, I’ve got a question. Obsidian is formed by volcanoes right? But I’ve seen scythers and gravelers carrying pieces of Black Augurite. So how does it get all the way to the Fieldlands?”

“There are large deposits in the Obsidian Fieldlands.” Lian accepted the change in topic, eager to discuss anything relating to his passions with such an inquisitive student. “That’s actually where it gets it’s name! My current theory is that they were picked up and moved by glaciers during the ice age.”

Goomy had started to doze off, content to leave the two of them to their geology lesson. A thick bubble of snot formed, expanding and deflating with his snores.

“But not all obsidian is Black Augurite. Every warden to a Noble Kleavor has to learn how to distinguish the evolution stone from regular obsidian.”

Lian had extended pretty far out of his shell, drawn up and excitedly gesturing for emphasis.

“Of course, I learned long before anyone ever considered me for the position. It was only natural Lord Kleavor recognized my aptitude and chose me to be his warden.”

He already had several pieces stored away for when the Lord of the Woods chose his heir. Lian was quite familiar with the largest and most powerful of his children, an alpha scyther that he allowed to share his territory.

They were quite an impressive specimen with a sturdy carapace and serrated scythes who the Lord wouldn’t even considered for the position, for the usual reasons alphas were passed over. Far too aggressive and preoccupied with their own standing, they held little appreciation for the duties and expectations the Noble title conferred. Lord Kleavor and his warden would just have to keep an eye on his offspring to determine which of his children was a worthy successor.

Would he ever ever get to present his Black Augurite to an heir? Lian tried to imagine tending to his Noble as a sliggoo and nothing seemed right. How could he possibly gather the plump beans for Lord Kleavor and his children, let alone present offerings covered in cold snot? A sliggoo couldn’t socialize baby scythers and get them used to humans.

Lian retreated back into his shell, his eyes barely visible from under the brim of his hat. “I might have to give mine away...” he said, his voice tiny.

“What? Why?” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise and worry.

He took a deep breath, hoping his words would convey his conundrum and testiness wouldn’t creep into his voice. “I don’t believe I can continue being a warden in my current state. Lord Kleavor deserves to have a warden that can properly tend to him.”

Dawn stared at him quizzically. “Because you turned into a pokémon? I don’t know who you think would replace you then. Everyone has been infected.”

“Someone who wouldn’t offend Lord Kleavor with offerings covered in mucus!” Lian would have grit his teeth if he still had any, feeling a surge of irritation at her failure to comprehend his predicament.

She blinked. “Then wear gloves!”

Dawn had stood up to shout, startling Goomy awake, his sleep bubble bursting with a loud pop.

Lian was running out of patience. “I have to fill and bring a basket to Grandtree Arena at least twice daily, often more. How do you expect me to carry it?”

“You can work something out!” She let out an exasperated sigh. “Lian, what exactly is your plan here? Are you just going to spend the rest of your life sulking in your room?”

By now Lian was fuming at her, gripping the edge of his shell and wishing she could feel the rage that must be coming off of him in waves, lest he say something he would later regret.

Dawn continued. “Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen, maybe you can’t be a warden anymore. But there are problems of yours that you can solve.”

He had half a mind to yell at her to get out. This sort of discussion was exactly what he didn’t want and why he had turned everyone else away. Had she planned this from the start? Lian felt a sting of betrayal at her entering his home to talk under such false pretenses.

“All of this is easy for you to say when you’re still walking around, on two legs I might add, with all your senses working just fine and your skeleton intact.” Lian started, venom dripping from his words.

Goomy shrunk in on himself, trying to look as small as possible knowing this was going to turn ugly.

“But some of us have to face the indignities of not even being able to get out of our beds or homes without assistance. Do you know that when I have to relieve myself I need to have Paulina carry me away and bring me back? So don’t lecture me on what I should be doing when you had it easy!”

Dawn stared at him in stunned silence. He wasn’t sure if his rebuke had sounded as poignant as he intended or if he had sounded petulant to her.

“I had it easy? My mom and my friends don’t know where I am and probably think I’m dead and I’ll never get to see them again!”

Lian knew he screwed up. His anger quickly fizzled away and was replaced by an uneasy regret, but Dawn wasn’t finished yet.

“The Galaxy Team decided that I had to risk my life to save your Nobles and people still think that I’m to blame for all this! Do you think I can just mope around in my room?  No, I have to work my butt off every single day if I don’t want to be left to fend for myself in the wilderness! And I've got to do all of this while knowing I’m never going to go home and I don’t even get to be a human!”

Dawn stood there with her hands balled into fists and shaking, looking like she was about to cry.

If Lian thought his ire was palpable, her rage could have incinerated him on the spot. He wanted nothing more than retreat into his shell to hide in shame.

“I’m not going to stand here and argue with you over which of us has it worse. But don’t you dare tell me I had it easy!” Her voice cracked as she finished her tirade.

Lian struggled to find the words that could properly express the guilt prickling at him. How could he have said something so blatantly disrespectful to the girl that had calmed his Lord and scoured Hisui for gifts to cheer him up? It was several agonizingly long minutes before he found the ability to speak again.

“I’ve allowed my frustrations to get the better of me and I spoke out of turn. You have my sincerest apologies for such unwarranted hostility.”

The mechanical sounding apology seemed horribly inadequate and Dawn remained impassive. He made a point of turning his face towards her to create the illusion he was looking her in the eye.

“I lost my mother too, several years ago. I understand what it’s like knowing you’ll never see someone again.” He pulled down the brim of his hat. “I’m sorry.”

Dawn sniffed and wiped at her eyes with the back of her paw as she sat back down. “Neither of us wants things to be this way, but they are and there’s nothing we can do about that. Why don’t we focus on what we can change?”

She opted not to mention her studies with Volo into the myths of Hisui’s legendary hero or both of their search for the plates. The merchant believed something similar happened long ago and the plates held the solution to Hisui’s current predicament. While Volo was convinced and Dawn was inclined to trust his judgment, she remained cautiously optimistic without much else to go off of. She didn’t want to get Lian’s hopes up in case that didn’t pan out.

“What would you have me do?” Lian asked.

Goomy squeaked for his trainer’s attention and drew itself up as tall as possible, swaying slightly before tucking his head down and performing the slowest somersault one could imagine.

Lian understood what he was suggesting. He had seen sliggoos rolling on the sides of their shells like a wheel as their primary means of traversal. It was such a bizarre form of locomotion and seemed so disorientating. How were you supposed to stop or steer?

“That’s a great idea Goomy!” Dawn agreed with his partner. “Lian, why don’t we spend the rest of the day figuring out how you can roll around? It would probably help you feel better about yourself.”

Previously, he would immediately shut down at the idea whenever he considered his mobility needs, a sheer gut punch refusal to entertain the notion. But he needed some way to get around. What other choice did he have? Besides, wardens don’t sulk.

He let out a beleaguered sigh. “Sure, might as well roll down to Avalugg’s Legacy. That seems like a productive way to spend the afternoon.”

“I’m just trying to help...” Dawn looked away, hurt in her voice.

“I-I wasn’t being sarcastic!” he clarified. “I appreciate your help and I truly am sorry for acting like such an ingrate.”

She cheered up immediately. “That’s okay!”

The dewott girl marched over to the door and swung it open, a gust of cold air sweeping through the room.

Wait, right now?

“Don’t worry, you’ve got this!” Dawn grinned as she gave the thumbs up with both hands.

Now wasn’t the time to get cold feet. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he gripped the edge of his shell and hoisted himself upright in one motion, balancing precariously on his side.

Lian had no idea what to do next and remained there, paralyzed by indecision until he felt himself starting to tip over. He gave an alarmed shout and flailed uselessly before Dawn and Goomy rushed over to catch his fall, Dawn straining under the weight as she tried to push him over with her back and shoulder.

It was clear he couldn’t balance on his side and he needed momentum, so he withdrew into his shell and took a guess, throwing himself against the inside of the shell to roll forward. He moved forward slightly, and feeling encouraged, tried again.

He started to pick up momentum as he rolled towards the door, the weight lifted off of Dawn and Goomy. He felt like he was starting to get the hang of it as he tried to time his forward pitches, his friends cheering as he gained speed. With an air of confidence, Lian rolled straight out the door and into the frigid afternoon air of the camp. As the winding path through the settlement and tents dotting the hill stood before him, he realized his mistake.

The boy panicked as he slowly rolled over the crest of the hill with no way to stop or slow down. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion at the precipice and gave him plenty of time to understand what was going to happen next. One moment he was barely moving, then all at once his heart plunged as he rapidly gained speed and was sent barreling through the camp.

Lian shouted as hard as he could to warn anyone that might be in his path, his voice echoing inside his shell deafeningly. Pearl Clan members in various stages of metamorphosis looked up from what they were doing, eyes widening in alarm and diving out of the way of the steel juggernaut heading their way.

More voices joined in the panicked shouting as he smashed through a water barrel and a clothes line, scattering clean laundry to the wind. It barely even slowed him down as he whirled past clans folk exiting their tents to see what the commotion was.

His brain was swiftly processing every bump and dip in the terrain, but he had no idea what to do with it. There was no way he’d be able to follow the footpath that wound back and forth, instead his route to the camp’s exit would take him over several harsh drops and dangerously close to many people’s tents.

Experimentally, he tried to lean to the side to turn. When that threatened to tip him over, he over corrected and added a dangerous wobble to his trajectory, swerving wildly back and forth.

The pandemonium went unnoticed by a snorunt boy only a few years older than him who was preoccupied with chopping firewood. A bolt of panic went through him and he screamed at the top of his lungs for him to get out of the way, terrified his warning wouldn’t be heeded in time.

The kid looked up and dropped his axe before throwing himself against his tent, just barely clipped by the five hundred pound armoured wheel barreling past him. The kid screamed as they narrowly avoided being flattened.

The spike in adrenaline from the close call caused something to shift in Lian’s brain, some pathway that was previously closed was now open. Lian gasped as claws raked through his mind like those of a Fox, or something equally as angry and spiteful. They gripped and dug into him to tear him away from his body, to leave something else at the helm.

The world faded away as those claws dragged him down, made him small and rendered him a passenger in his own mind. Lian tried to scream but no sound came out, his voice and psyche swallowed up by the darkness.

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

It all made sense now. He knew exactly how far to lean in order to turn, how to compensate for every irregularity in the terrain. How to work with the momentum and how he could stop on a dime. His shell wasn’t a ball and chain restraining him, it was freedom, it was movement itself. Just as his legs had been before, his shell was a natural extension of himself; a self-contained world, a shelter, a shield and a weapon.

With his mastery, he’d see prey driven before him. Unable to escape in time before he chased them down, painful squeals as their bones cracked, bursting open and steam rising from the entrails as they were crushed. Delicious meat would spill out onto the ground then he and his odd pack would feast.

His kind were not avid hunters, typically feeding on plant matter and carcasses left behind by other predators. But he was no ordinary sliggoo, he was part of a pack of alphas, larger and more voracious than other members of their species.

He’d learn to hunt and hone his skills as a predator to prove he deserved his place amongst them. Dragging back the large kills dripping with viscera would show everyone that he wasn’t a runt that constantly needed to be looked after. Tearing and battering, he’d bloody himself fending off their rivals as many times as he needed to until they never looked down on him again.

And he’d do it because he loved them.

Because he wanted to provide for his kin, to be able to protect them when needed. His body flushed with warmth at the thought of his pack feeding from his kills, growing stronger from the meat together.

And he’d do it to the impress her.

The mighty huntress whose prowess in combat dwarfed that of even the Nobles. A warrior that presided over an enormous pack that brought so many alphas to heel and a roaming territory that spanned all of Hisui.

As he matured into a proper alpha, he would approach her looking to be accepted as her mate. Already she had brought gifts for him to decorate his nest;  she was considering him as a potential suitor, he was sure of it.

They were both juveniles, but had already proven so much to their respective packs. Fearless, they defied expectations and met challenges their contemporaries shied away from, ascending the ranks.

What had he done again? It didn’t matter; he would kill and kill again until everyone had their fill, then he would start his courtship.

He would need to bring an appropriate gift to demonstrate his caliber as a mate; fresh meat from a hunt would display his aptitude as a predator and show he was worthy of being consort.

He could start with the dewott that had wandered into their territory...

“WATCH OUT!”

The shout from the Survey Corps girl snapped Lian back to reality, with such alien, animalistic thoughts already fading from memory and leaving a cold uneasy dread in their place.

He had no time to ponder what happened as he was still steamrolling through the camp, now on a collision course with Gaeric’s tent.

The frozen obelisk was fast approaching, the boy rattling inside his shell with the ground becoming more uneven. Lian remained petrified as he rocketed over a large bump and he was suddenly launched airborne. He helplessly sailed through the air like a shot put, spinning head over tail as he braced for impact.

He ricocheted off the pillar of ice with a loud clang and landed hard some distance away on the packed snow, the crash knocking the wind out of him.

Dawn trotted down the slope towards the crowd that had gathered, carrying Goomy in front of her with two paws.

“-ian! Lian, are you alright?”

He was still too dazed to process what she was saying and was busy trying to understand the strange gap in his memory. There was an odd jump where one moment he was on the foot path towards the camp’s entrance, then the next he was careening towards the ice chrysalis.

“Lian?”

Right, he needed to answer her.

“I’m okay. It just stunned me.”

“No kidding! You got quite a bit of hang time!” she exclaimed, setting Goomy down beside her.

All things considered, Lian supposed that could have gone much worse. Already he was thinking of what he could have done better. The boy turned sliggoo now had some understanding of what proper direction and movement would entail, more than his practice session alone could have taught him.

Deep down, Lian knew that if he looked inside himself he’d find all the information he needed. His body would no longer feel like a stranger to him and he would be free to use any move he had at his disposal. Everything about being a sliggoo would become second nature.

Such a deal would come at a terrible cost, one he’d never willingly accept, but Lian was beginning to suspect that he frankly didn’t have a choice in the matter.

There was a loud crack that rang through the camp that sounded like an ice sheet breaking. Lian and the rest of the Pearl Clan immediately went on the alert, always vigilant for such a sound as it signalled the possibility of an avalanche.

The mountains surrounding the camp and their slopes were shaped in such a way that they usually directed avalanches away from the settlement, having been sculpted by a Noble Avalugg long ago. The camp was not at risk of being buried, but even the small ones that came down the settlement’s side could be dangerous.

The gathered clan members were trying to locate the source as they rounded up children and elders, prepared to evacuate them to safety until a girl with buneary ears shouted “Look!” pointing to a large fracture in the ice encasing Gaeric’s tent.

D-did... did I do that?

As the minutes crawled by, more tiny cracks spread out and bits of ice chipped and broke off. Though a slow process, the shards that fell off melted supernaturally fast, gone in a matter of seconds.

Any thought of spending the afternoon on practice was long gone as the Pearl Clan gathered, barely daring to breathe as they waited to see what emerged.

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

“It has trouble drawing a line between friends and food. It will calmly try to melt and eat even those it gets along well with.”

[mice-ducks-and-blots]

You said you would info dump about the treasure island Mickey au if anyone asked. Well, I am asking. If you don’t mind :)

(for context: this au here)

I was going to talk abt it when I doodled more of it, but that might be like next year or never kjkskjs so I'll do it now!!

Ok so. It's not a Treasure Island au, just some pirate au I thought while reading Treasure Island (and listening to Shiver My Timbers from Muppets Treasure Island, that song is SUCH a banger). Though it has the same aesthetics in the sense of time period and such.

Mickey here is a famous explorer and scholar who travels across the sea and writes about its misteries, creatures, islands. He's gained quite the reputation and people say he might as well guard the whole ocean inside his brain. He lives in a house a bit far from the city at the seashore, where he keeps his studies and findings such as fossils and shells.

The Phantom Blot is the captain of the Darkenblot ship and his black-stained flag is well known across the seas as belonging to the most fearsome pirate to ever set sail on them. (Pete is his first mate, Plottigat, the medic/inventor, and Scuttle and Trudy and maybe other baddies I'm forgetting about are there in his crew too)

So, there's this legend about a jewel called "The Heart of the Sea" very creative I know that allows the person who holds it to control the winds, tides, and storms. Blot wants it, and he's convinced that that famous mouse explorer knows where it is. So he has Mickey kidnapped and taken aboard.

Mickey does know some clues to where the heart might be, but he refuses to help Blot. Aftel all, the jewel would be trouble enough in the hands of some common pirate, so someone intelligent and cruel like him could only bring disaster. So Blot gives him a few days to change his mind, or he'll walk the plank.

While locked in the ship's cell, Mickey's helped by one of the pirates, who sneaks in some food and water when he can. He's suspicious at first, but soon learn that this one pirate - Donald Duck - Is not like he rest of the crew at all.

Donald was just a simple fisherman who, out of his enormous bad luck, ended up in the Drakenblot's way while fishing away from the shore. He would have been tossed overboard, but Blot noticed something about him - an almost supernatural sense of direction, and the ability to tell when the weather would change. He was too valuable to be lost, so he was forced to become one of the pirates. Or they'd harm his family (He carried a picture of his nephews with him).

So anyways after that Idk what happens exactly. I guess Mickey and Donald try to escape and Donald is almost drowned by the pirates, but when drowning he turns into a mermaid (though the design is more like a fish monster, yknow, like the ones from Pixar's Luca) and he grabs Mickey and swims away. They find Donald's uncle Scrooge who explains that Donald was a mermaid his whole life but if he knew that, the signs of his heritage would be impossible to hide (such as markings on his skin when he was in his terrestrial form idk) and that's why he hid it from him and Della (who found out she was a mermaid and had to hide leaving her sons to Donald, as she didn't want them to be chased and hunted).

Then uuuh I guess Donald, Mickey, the nephews and Scrooge (and Goofy too I want him to be there) go find the Heart of The Sea and I think the other mermaids before the pirates do, and Magica is in the au somewhere as a cool sea whitch/monster and Mickey and Donald become a couple at some point I think that's it

Thanks for the ask! <3

[wolf-among-mechs]

Unfortuantely can't send emojis for some reason so uh, for question things, red circle, red heart, and of course, yellow heart, wanna hear about your ride -@the-tired-merc

🔴 What factions (that you do not belong to) do you disrespect? Why?

The Draconis Combine has always been my archenemy. It is not a violent, burning hatred anymore but rather a quiet unending contempt. I was born into Wolf's Dragoons. I grew up on Hephaestus station. I got a bit... Seperated from them for a while due to... Steiner politics let us say. One day I simply heard on the news that Hephaestus station had been blown up over An Ting. There are no words in any human language that can truly express the rage I felt at that moment. The feeling that everyone I knew and cared about as a child had been killed in a single instant. The dragon was to blame I knew it. I swore a blood vengeance against the dragon and for every of their warrior I would take their blade as a trophy. A fate akin to being disowned of their mechs among their samurai once upon a time.

It would not quell my anger to merely say so. At night I would take my Black Knight and wander the nights on Yance I. With the old intact Star League era Beagle probe I was able to detect their lone mech patrols, with a burst of radio waves I disguised my sensor signature and struck mechs up close at the dead of night. Overwhelming them and quickly carving up their cockpits and taking their katanas from their pilots. Sometimes I had to kill them personally but that was more than fine enough for me. I even went hunting once with a sniper rifle in the woods. It came to a head when I proposed to melt down all the stolen swords into a weapon for the Black Knight. But my lance mates convinced me that if I did they would hunt me until the ends of the universe. I slowly started to simmer down and try to learn my enemy.

I am also not a fan of the clans but that is a lot more to do with the fact that they keep calling me freebirth dezgra when I punch their mechs... And also they could not stand to listen for one second to me about trying to fight a war in the inner sphere but that is a different story entirely. It is not a seething hatred though. Just... I do not like them.

♥️ Do you have a preference for ballistic, energy, missile, or other (e.g. melee/EMP/EW) weapons?

I generally prefer energy weapons. The PPCs for preference. Call it cliché if you want but I do enjoy casting manmade bolts of lightning from afar.

That is not to say I dislike other weapons. I do enjoy volleying enough missiles at a target to blot out the sun. The recoil of an autocannon firing is very satisfying and I do quite enjoy landing shots with a ballistic arcs... Well except the gauss rifle. It does not feel well with me. I know it is effective, I know it is good and the thought of accelerating a solid slug of metal to super sonic speeds by way of electromagnets should be a lot more fun than it feels. To me anyway.

I have had a had at working with electronic warfare systems such as ECMs and active probes. I think I find probes more useful in the end.

Where I truly shine though has always been that I use the mech as a weapon. Punch, kick, tackle and landing. You name it. Making the mechs move in such ways to make the entire world tremble from the impact is a true wonder. I remember one time in my early classes to prep for mech combat we were shown a slide of a Charger CGR-1A1. The other kids laughed but I simply looked and thought to myself, I can use that. After all. Most of the big guns on the field have better things to do than to hunt a lone Charger of all things.... That is until it is suddenly appears behind your fire support and punches open their cockpits.

💛What do I currently pilot. (OOC: It gets a little time fucky wucky here since Asuka here is part of an RPG campaign that hasn't gotten to the Clan Invasion yet. But this blog is an AU where she obviously got that far. Bear with me.)

I hate to say it but I am between mechs. I am waiting on a custom part for the refit of a Kodiak. So I do not have any fun stories to tell.

Let me tell you about my Black Knight instead. It was on Yance, a bit before the news as I told of earlier. The combine had uncovered a star league cache and found an intact black knight in there. Our mercenary company sent me to disable it and claim it for our own while the rest of my lance held off reinforcements. We fought for a while until I was able to gun it down and overheat and shut down. Losing the arm of my cataphract at the time. It was an all of nothing alpha strike which knocked over the black knight and render the pilot inside unconscious. After restarting the Cataphacts reactor I parked it ontop of the black knight and climbed in and took the pilot hostage.

It took two weeks to fix her up. I decided to add a few frills to it. Like red spotlights in the cockpit as to give it eyes in the dark. A bit of effect you know. A bit of showmanship a little fun. A bit of personality.... I may also have gotten fog machines and put them inside the collar of the black knight BUT ANYWAY. Me and it became known as the Oni of Yance after the annihilation of Hephaestus station from... Well you know. It came to the point that when we left Yance, shinto priests of towns and villages were putting up wards to scare away the Oni. The garrison was paranoid and barely dared to leave on patrols without large groups which also left many many blind spots in their patrols.

Shortly after that thanks to a friends contacts in the ISF we learned that my parents were being kept on a black site in combine space along with other members of the dragoons. We hired a dropship to take us there, putting outselves in debt hoping we would be able to pay back later, this was an opportunity too good to pass up after all.

It brought me back to where I first came. Back among Wolf's Dragoons. Our Mercenary company has practically been a subsidiary or sister company since. Through that I started upgrading and refitting the black knight. Eventually leading to the Black Knight BL-6XRD designated Slayer. Short for Dragon Slayer. It had a red mech sized sword in one hand though if I am going to be perfectly honest it was more of a slightly sharp club. It also had pulse lasers and a PPC. Oh actually I think I have have a recording of it.

(OOC: Please forgive the crumminess and scuff of it. It was probably my first time animating something. It felt like a good time to share.)

That came down to the wire let me tell you. She had her engine exposed and hit, lost most of her left torso and the left arm. It took her a while to put her back together but it was probably our finest moment.

I am not ashamed to admit that when we auctioned that mech off to charity. I cried myself to sleep that night. The Slayer had served me so well. It did not feel good to let her go. But time stops for no one I suppose. The funds for it went to good causes. I hope she got a retirement in a museum or something in the end. She deserved it more than I ever will. Damn it... I think it is beginning to rain over there now that I think about old Slayer... Oh yeah... It is raining all right.

Hey. Can I buy you a drink?

[kittttycakes]

white blank page

Summary: Hob Gadling isn’t obsessed. He isn’t. Not with his flat mate, and not with his flat mate’s…girlfriend? lover? either.

Contents: Morpheus/Hob Gadling/Original Female Character (Grace Talbot), university student AU, past/referenced Morpheus/others, POV Hob Gadling, 2.2k

Notes: Written for “dark academia” for Promptober 2023.

She wasn’t even supposed to be there, Hob told himself. That was why she had crept under his skin and made something of a home for herself there. She wasn’t quite the first thing he thought of when he woke up and the last before he went to sleep, but it was a near thing. No other reason, surely, for her to be on his mind quite so much.

Of course, strictly speaking, he shouldn’t necessarily have been there, either. The university, small, private, and highly exclusive, wouldn’t have opened its doors to the likes of him had he not managed, with no small amount of cunning, to impress the admissions board and secure one of only two scholarships available. That she was the other scholarship student grated on him; that she had gained acceptance to the highly selective history concentration stung, when he had had to fight for his own place. She should have, more properly, been thrown in with the rest of the literature scholars. Instead, she had managed to impress the head of the department and been drawn into the fold at his express request.

He could sit through another interminable lecture, could listen to the sound of her voice when she joined a discussion, all of this, he thought, he could bear. What he could not bear was her presence, unexpected and unannounced, in the rented flat he shared with Morpheus. Morpheus, a fellow student of history, albeit more concerned with the ancient than the modern; Morpheus, whom he had met and fell into an instant connection with, even as they each held such wildly different worldviews and experiences; Morpheus, for whom, he was growing to realize, there was little he would not do.

She was there, in his flat, their flat, making herself tea. Her back was to him as she waited for the kettle, rummaging through the cabinets, finding first a mug and then the teabags. She was wearing the same sweater he had seen Morpheus in the day before.

This was not the first overnight guest that Hob had run into the morning after. For reasons Hob could only guess at, Morpheus appeared to be working his way through the entire cohort, small as it was. He could be patient, he told himself. He would come around. There had been Ian, first, with that smile that never quite reached his eyes. Johanna, who had stolen half of a pack of cigarettes—Hob’s cigarettes, mind—on her way out the door. Jessamy, Lucienne, Matthew, had all stayed for breakfast. And Hob waited, wanted, and watched them all.

He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t thought this would extend to Grace. Perhaps some part of himself had thought that Morpheus would choose him first, and then…Grace turned, and saw him, and barely even flinched.

“Tea?” she asked, as if she had every right to be there, barefoot and bare legged in his flat, their flat, the sleeves of Morpheus’s sweater dwarfing her hands. She smiled at him, as if they were sharing some sort of joke.

Hob was saved from having to answer—the indignity of accepting, the intentional snub of rejecting—by the appearance of Morpheus, his ink blot hair even wilder than usual, tying the belt of his robe as he made his way into the kitchen.

Grace turned towards him, still smiling, and in doing so, the neck of the sweater shifted just enough to reveal the imprint of teeth, low on her neck, just where it met her shoulder. For a moment, it was all Hob could see: the gentle bruising already rising to the surface of her skin, which would undoubtedly turn livid in mere days, but was for the moment beautiful in a way he didn’t care to name. He wanted the same mark on his own neck, made by the same teeth. He wanted to cover that mark with his own, overlapping, a second bruise deeper than the first.

“Hob?” Morpheus was looking at him in that way of his, his head tilted just slightly, a cross between avian and feline. He realized, abruptly, that he had been staring, and in that time, he had been spoken to. Asked a question.

“Sorry, long night. Revising,” he said vaguely, tearing his eyes away. “What was that?”

“I asked if you cared to join us for breakfast.”

Us. There had been no us, no we with the others. Summoning an approximation of a regret he didn’t feel, Hob made what he hoped was a convincing face and said, “Can’t, I need to run to the library to check a source before my first lecture, but I’ll see you there.”

Without waiting for an answer, he retreated to his room to dress for the day, hastily packing his bag and leaving without saying a second goodbye.

-

The earring caught Hob’s eye, not only because there was something familiar about it, but because it contrasted in a way that should have clashed terribly with her hair. The ruby nearest to him, a miniature teardrop, not unlike a drop of blood, dangled from her left ear. It swayed slightly when she turned her head, and seemed to almost trap the light it caught, rather than releasing it. He had seen Morpheus wearing it a week ago, and now there it was, in her ear, with a twin to match in her right.

Hob was struck, suddenly, by the sheer amount of rubies he had seen, of late. Ian’s ludicrous pinky ring, Johanna’s rosary, Lucienne’s pocketwatch chain. And Morpheus’s, of course. Earrings and cuff links and tie pins, all studded with little red stones. He had told Hob once that all of his siblings had been assigned a precious stone and given the matching bits of jewelry from the family collection. To ensure fairness, he had said with a slight curl of the lip. It was hard to see anything fair about his eldest brother’s diamonds and his youngest sister’s topaz.

His mind was wandering. There was no reason to think that these were in any way related. None at all. He could ask, after all. It didn’t have to be Grace.

He caught up to her as she left the lecture hall. “Can I ask you something?”

For a moment, she looked at him, slightly puzzled: had he truly never spoken to her outside of the confines of the classroom, and, once, in the kitchen of the flat? Her expression smoothed into something that was not quite a smile, but that could have very easily been coaxed into one.

“You can ask,” she replied, still walking, but more slowly than she had been before. Something caught her attention, and she looked away. It was easier, when those eyes weren’t on him.

“Those earrings. Where did you get them?”

Hob almost thought he saw her step falter, just for a moment. When she looked back at him, there was something inscrutable behind her eyes, something he could not name but was relieved to find was not pity.

“They were a gift,” she said, one hand reaching up to roll the stone between her fingers. “Not quite my usual style, but I like them so much that I had to make an exception.”

“They’re beautiful,” Hob said with a tight smile, and turned to walk down a diversion in the path. He had no destination in mind, but perhaps a walk would clear his head. Something he desperately needed, if something so small, that name unsaid but hanging between them, bothered him so deeply.

Her hand was on his arm, a warm, soft pressure. She had never touched him before. “Why don’t you come have lunch with me?” she asked. “I was supposed to—well, it doesn’t matter now, but I’d like the company, and maybe you could tell me some more about your paper. It sounded fascinating, from your proposal.”

In spite of himself, he found himself saying yes.

-

Hob wasn’t as drunk as he could have excusably been. He hadn’t drunk quite enough to laugh it off as some kind of joke, or a mistake, the fumbling of hands pulling the nearest warm body close, a mistaken glimpse of someone else. No, he wasn’t drunk enough at all.

Hob, Morpheus, and Grace were walking back to the flat from Jessamy and Lucienne’s, their hosts for the evening. It was an unexpected party; the full moon, Jessamy said, while Lucienne countered with the end of term. The entire group was there, squeezed into their flat, with the lights dim and the music loud. They had come together, the three of them, as they so often did now. Ever since that lunch with Grace, he had been pulled into their orbit, and unwilling to let go. She truly was rather lovely, and it only caused the slightest of pangs when he saw Morpheus kiss her. He had ended, it seemed, with Grace; no others had graced the flat since then, and he was only slightly jealous of it, really, although he wouldn’t have been able to say of whom, if he were honest with himself.

Grace had come to spend more and more time at the flat, and it was assumed that she would spend the night then, her own room too far away and the dormitory curfew long since past. Morpheus let them in, holding the door as they both brushed past him, and Grace immediately set herself to attempting to remove her boots. The combination of the drinks and her cold fingers seemed to conspire against her as she propped herself against the wall.

“Let me,” Hob said, kneeling down before he could think better of it, undoing the laces of her boots with only the slightest amount of fumbling. Morpheus had busied himself with shutting and locking the door, a business which seemed to take somewhat longer than usual. He drew her boots off, allowing her to rest her hand on his shoulder for balance, and when both had been removed and she stood in her stocking feet before him, still half bent with one hand on his shoulder, he smiled up at her, intending, he would later tell himself, to make a joke of it. But her face was so close to his, and all he could see was the gleam of her eyes and the shine of the rubies in her ears, and all he could smell was the sweet scent of her perfume, and all he could feel was the growing warmth of her as the chill seeped away.

Hob cupped her cheek in his hand and kissed her. She let out a soft, surprised sound against his lips but did not pull away; instead, she leaned more heavily into him, her hand fisted in his sweater, keeping him where he was. She tasted like wine, dark and red, with an almost metallic sharpness underneath, something familiar that he could not place, but that was not unpleasant. One moment, his lips were on hers, and the next, she had loosened her grip, straightened, letting the light back in.

Morpheus pulled him up, a strength well disguised by his slender frame, and for a moment, he scrambled for the words of an apology that died on his tongue when Morpheus brought his lips to his. All protest died in favor of gripping his arm, likely too hard, although he did not seem to mind, to hold him there. It was everything he had wanted since he’d met him. Did he taste like her, or did she taste like him? It hardly mattered. Morpheus’s lips were still ever so slightly chilled from the air outside, and this was enough to bring him ever closer to sobriety. He truly hadn’t had that much to drink. Not enough to excuse how he needed no persuasion to follow them both into Morpheus’s room, into his bed.

He lost himself, to the press of hands, of lips, of tongues, of teeth.

-

Hob woke the morning after with not even the slightest hint of a hangover. He was sandwiched between them, Grace to his right, Morpheus to his left, and they were both asleep, or feigning it well. He stared at the ceiling, contemplating whether he should stay or go.

“Stay,” Morpheus said, his voice low, near Hob’s ear. “Stay with me. Stay with us.” He shifted back, hand reached for the nightstand, rifling through the contents of the drawer before finding what he wanted. He held it, the weak winter light glinting off of the gold of the band. A ring, and a very old one at that, the ruby barely shaped but somehow all the more fascinating for it.

“I’ve been keeping this for you,” he continued. “A gift, for you, if you will accept it.”

A gift, Hob thought. Like Grace’s earrings. He was surprised to find an utter lack of jealousy when he thought of the others’ gifts. They couldn’t have meant half as much as this. It wasn’t a promise, not exactly, but it had weight behind it, a meaning that he could not know and would not guess.

It fit his finger perfectly, as if it had been meant to sit there all his life. When Grace stirred, she noticed it immediately, taking his hand in hers, turning it this way and that, admiring it, before placing a kiss squarely on it, her eyes looking up at him.

There was so little he would not do for them, he thought. They had him, body and soul.

[the-broken-truth]

Blot-Mates: Yuu & The Overblots [Part 2]

SEGMENT: LEO

Summary: Leo is stressed and irritated, but the Ramshackle Prefect has a plan to calm him down.

[Note: The Yuu Variant is Male with Enma Yuuken's Body Build, Yuuka Hirasaki's Fighting Skills, and Yuuta Mito's Cooking Skills.]

[Note: This Storyline will be written in Script Format.]

Parts: [Prologue] - [Ri] - [Leo] (Here) - [Azu] - [Jami] - [Vi] - [Idi] - [Mal] - [All] - [Epilogue]

[The Morning Sun rises over the horizon, shining upon Ramshackle Dorm, however, that light does not shine in Leo's Room, thanks to the blackout curtains that Yuu set up for that room. Leo lay in his bed, but he was wide awake; his mind was swarming with the screaming thoughts of the past, making his head hurt worse and worse as he started gripping his sheets with a growl until a knock on the door caused his eyes to open and him to gasp. Leo looked at the door before throwing the blanket off of him and walked over to the door, opening it and coming face to face with Yuu dressed in his Cooking Apron.]

Leo: What do you want, Herbivore?

Yuu (Placing a hand on his hip): Good morning to you too, Leo. Breakfast is ready and I don't want your food to get cold.

Leo: Why didn't you bring it to me, then, if you didn't want it to be cold?

Yuu (Holding up two fingers with his other hand): Two reasons: 1. You have no servants here. 2. No eating in the dorm rooms; I don't want bugs up here because I know Jami hates bugs.

Leo (Narrows his eyes): What if I don't feel like leaving my room?

Yuu: Then, you don't eat.

Leo: I don't feel like moving - My room is warm and my feet will get cold.

Yuu: Don't worry. I made these for you. (Reaches into his apron pocket and pulls out some black cotton house shoes)

[Leo watches as Yuu kneels in front of him and places the house shoes on the cold wood floor. Leo looked at the shoes before sliding his bare feet into each shoe; they were very warm, soft, and a perfect fit... This herbivore made these just for him?]

Leo: They... They are warm.

Yuu (Standing up): Good. Let's go, Leo. We need to put some food in that belly. (Starts walking in the direction of the stairs.)

[Leo looked down at his shoes before watching Yuu walk down the stairs - he walked out of his dark room, closed the door behind him, and followed after the Prefect of Ramshackle at a rather slow pace.]

[Leo reached the bottom of the stairs and walked into the dining room before raising his head to see the sight before him: The other Overblots were sitting at the table with a banquet of breakfast foods, such as pancakes, waffles, french toast with cream-cheese filling in the middle and cinnamon on the top with whipped cream, bacon, eggs, pan sausage, and different kinds of drinks.]

Yuu (Walking out of the kitchen with a large serving bowl of oatmeal): I got the oatmeal, everyone.

Ri (Walking behind Yuu with the plates and silverware): I got the plates and silverware, Yuu.

Yuu (Places the Bowl of Oatmeal on the table before turning to face Ri with a smile and rubbing the top of his head): Thanks for your help, Rose Bud! You're amazing!

[Ri smiles at Yuu before setting the table and sitting in his chair.]

Yuu (Looks at Leo): Are you okay? Come and eat with us; you have been sleeping for a long time and need a decent meal.

[Leo looked at the banquet of food and walked over before taking a seat on the other side of Yuu, across from Ri. Yuu says a prayer to the Great Seven and signals everyone to start eating. Everyone (Except Jami and Leo) starts filling their plates with food and their bowls with oatmeal, however, Yuu notices this and pauses from taking a bite of his bacon.]

Yuu: Leo. Jami. Is there a reason you aren't eating?

Jami: I... I am not used to having someone else cook for me. I usually cook for everyone else.

Yuu: You are not a servant, Jami, and refuse to allow you to treat yourself as such. (Looks at Leo) What about you, Leo?

Leo (Looking at the food): I... I just don't know where to start.

Yuu (Points at the second platter of pancakes): Try those. They are Pancakes with bites of pan sausage meat made into them. You might like them.

Leo (Takes 2 Pan Sausage Pancakes, pours syrup on them before cutting and taking a bite out of one - his eyes widen at the flavor): These... These are amazing.

Yuu: Glad you like them. Now, get up - you and I are sparring later.

Leo (Smirks at Yuu): You wanna fight a King, Herbivore? Are you asking to get your ass kicked?

Yuu (Smirks): Let's see if you are singing to the same tone when I kick your ass, Your Majesty.

[Leo aimed his foot for Yuu's face but it was blocked by Yuu's forearm, before he could pull it back, Yuu grabbed his ankle and yanked it, making Leo lose his balance, as Yuu spun quickly and throw Leo a distance away until the Lion Overblot recoiled in the air and landed on his feet before glaring at Yuu and charging at him again, slashing his linked claws at Yuu, who is dodging his attacks as if it was nothing]

Yuu (Grabbing Leo's Fist that was aimed at his face): You're fighting with anger.

Leo: I'm fighting with power - I'm fighting like a KING!

Yuu: If you think relying on anger for power is fighting like a King, then... (Flips Leo over his shoulder, drops him on the ground, and looks down at him) You would be a very pathetic king.

[Leo snarls at Yuu before standing up and running back into Ramshackle. Yuu stands there for a while before exhaling and walking back inside of Ramshackle - he needs to finish something and apologize to Leo.]

[Leo stayed in his room for about 3 hours until he had a taste for Cheesecake. He rose from his bed and walked out of the room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen just to see Yuu standing there with a slice of cheesecake and drizzling caramel on it. Yuu looks over at Leo, who is standing on the threshold.]

Yuu: There you are. I was just about to bring this to you. (Holds the Caramel Drizzled Cheesecake out to Leo)

Leo (Looks at the cheesecake): You... You made this for me? Why?

Yuu: I wanted to apologize. I was rude to you during the sparring match, but I was upset to see you fighting with anger.

Leo: Why? It's not like you understand why I'm so angry.

Yuu: Constantly being compared to someone older and more developed than you for your entire life, regardless of how much effort you put into something is angering enough; and completely stupid.

Leo: You... You know about that?

Yuu: I saw glimpses of your life during our battle, and it reminded me so much of my own. I was the second son in my family and was constantly compared to my brother, who excelled in academics and sports. However, I was only good at household tasks such as cooking and cleaning. The only thing I was better at than my brother was fighting, which made my relatives hate me even more. I was tired of living in his shadow, which is why I left before coming to Twisted Wonderland.

Leo: You... You understand what it's like.

Yuu: Yes, but your situation is worse. You want to be king so everyone will accept you, just as they did your older brother; you are very capable, Leo. Just like the King of Beasts.

Leo (Eyes widen): What?

Yuu: The King of Beasts was the second heir but he gained the love of his people; a love that the first king could never have. He treated everyone fairly and it's because of that he gained the throne. (Looks at Leo) Gain the love of the people, Leo, and I know you would claim the crown; Hell, I know you'd be a better king than Falena, that condescending bastard.

Leo (Chuckles): You can say that again...

Yuu: It's good to see you smile, Leo. Come on, I have something for you.

[Yuu leaves the kitchen with Leo following behind him: The two of them walk into the living room where something is covered by a massive sheet. Yuu walks over to the sheet and grabs it before looking at Leo.]

Yuu: What is a king... (Pulls the sheet off - revealing a throne, carved out of wood, painted gold, with velvet seat and back pillows, and fake gems engraved, but professionally made) without his throne?

Leo (Looking at the throne): You... You made this... for me?

Yuu: I wanted to show it to Leo for his upcoming birthday when he game to visit, but you deserve this trhone too. Happy Early Birthday, My Lion Prince.

[Leo walked over to the throne and sat on it - it was soft and strong enough to hold him. Yuu pulled a golden crown from behind him and placed it on Leo's Head.]

Yuu: There. You look perfect!

Leo: This... This crown is real... Where did you?

Yuu: Kalim gave it to me. He didn't like it but I thought it would look good on you and I was right. (Moves in front of Leo and kneels before him) I name thee: King Leo of Ramshackle! I am at your service, My King...for the rest of the day. WHOA!!

[Yuu is caught off guard as Leo tackles him and knocks him to the ground in a hug. Yuu lays there as Leo holds him, quietly sobbing to himself.]

Leo: Thank you... This is... This is...

Yuu (Stroking Leo's Hair): Shhh... It's okay. You don't have to say anything, Leo. I am here for you.

[Leo continues to hold Yuu, the Lion Prince's New and True Brother.]

[END - TO BE CONTINUED]

[keqingsfavbestie]

Can I request Leona with a lioness S!O ?

Omg.. You're my first request :D! And of course let's finish that up

Leona with a lioness S/O!

Most female animals in the wild are the dominate ones especially female hyenas, fem lions and much more

So in this case leona would be submissive to your requests or even certain private activities

But as we both know that Leona is a lazy big cat since they sleep 16-20 hours a day

Male lions are still pretty protective of their mate so he would cuddle you all day long

Mark you, put his scent on you

But the sad part is that fem lions live a bit longer than male lions so he would try to make the best of it <3

I like to headcannon that hurting women in the savanna is considered a crime

So you would pretty much gain privilege when you're in the savanaclaw dorm

If we are still in school just like the og plot and the mirror didn't pick us then crowely would just put us in the savanaclaw dorm since pretty much everyone who are beastmen (or beastwomen..) are sorted into that dorm

Princess treatment princess treatment princess treatment!

Fem lions tend to hunt more so in this AU we would be basically ruggie but only for the food, the also let their mate eat first

Imagine us bringing food and feeding it to leona omg

We can also help leona from over blotting by proving that we're gonna stay with him forever, that we're the only ones who are gonna see him and light his way, that we are his queen even if other people didn't see his worth or work

Leona would be the type to show his affectation through physical touch

For example : cuddling

He might give you a few gifts there and there with absolutely no expression on his face but those gifts are extremely expensive <3

He also might try to pay attention to things you like so he can get them for you or do them for you

It's true that lions are submissive but not as submissive as hyenas, he might ingnore you if you're in heat sometimes because he's lazy af

I dont think he's the type to want kids but if you wanted them then it's only one to also flex on his brother

Thank you for your request!

[hollowistheworld]

Freedom of the Seas

For AURoulette2023, hosted by @astriiformes. It was supposed to be 'favorite historical era' but I don't know if it counts as a historical au with this much fantasy injected into it. But in my defense, Eli works really well as a magical pirate!

Also on AO3

Gin rested his chin and his front paws along the side of the boat and let out a miserable sigh. “I hate the water.” 

Miranda set a hand between his ears. “I know. Not much longer now.” 

“You said that a week ago.” 

She tugged lightly at one of his ears. She had, that was true, but pointing out that their quarry was proving harder to catch that anticipated was neither helpful nor appreciated. “Eli can’t run forever.” 

“He can, actually,” Gin retorted. “The ocean is very big.” 

Miranda couldn’t deny that. It hadn’t seemed so large on her maps, when she’d first accepted the message to hunt Eli to ground. But not only was she about to go crazy for want of the sight of dry land, it seemed that Eli Monpress never docked, or at least not for longer than it took his first mate to resupply. No shore leave for the crew of Home, it seemed. She didn’t understand how they hadn’t mutinied. 

She barely understood how she hadn’t mutinied, and this was her expedition. She couldn’t decide if she disliked the unrelenting beat of sunlight glinting off the water or the brutality of the storms more. She was either wet or hot, and sometimes she was both. And she couldn’t even commiserate with Gin, who was equally uncomfortable and also seasick.

“Ship off starboard!” a voice shouted from the crow’s nest. Miranda straightened, hope and adrenaline rushing into her at equal speeds. 

Gin barked and dropped down to all fours, hackles raising. 

Miranda leaned forward, gripping the rail, searching for the ship. 

Instead, she found fog, rolling in quick and silent. 

There had been no fog in sight when the lookout had called out. By the time Miranda’s focus had moved to the horizon, the deck was covered in it. Thicker and thicker, blotting out the sun, then darkening the ship until it could have been night. The crow’s nest disappeared from view, then the bow, then the very railing Miranda was standing against. 

“I would say I’m flattered,” said a charming, cocky voice from within the fog, “to have another hunter sent after me so quickly, but you aren’t even making it a challenge. Not a single cannon shot before I made it on board? Really?” 

Miranda had never met Eli, but it had to be him. Charming and cocky summed up every report she’d ever read about him, and odd weather patterns had come up plenty - though she hadn’t expected so much fog so quickly. 

She leaned toward Gin, her fingers gripping his fur so she wouldn’t lose him - she couldn’t even make out her own feet anymore. “Can you get us to their ship?” she asked, voice pitched so low she was barely speaking at all. A human standing on her feet wouldn’t have been able to hear, but that was one of the many advantages of working with Gin instead of with a human. 

Gin didn’t respond aloud. They didn’t know enough about Eli’s crew, what his abilities were, what he had aboard, if someone would be able to understand him, or to recognize his growls for what they were. 

Instead, Miranda felt his muscles tense under her fingers and then they were leaping through the darkness, landing with a soft thump on another deck.

“Thank you for your help,” Eli said, flashing the mist his most winning smile, despite the fact they couldn’t appreciate it. That was no reason not to be polite. “You just let me know if you need anything in return.” 

The mist bid a polite farewell, including an affectionate ruffle through his hair, and rolled away. Within a minute, the sunlight was back, as bright and cheerful as if there had never been a cloud in the sky. 

Eli turned to Nico and Josef and clapped his hands together with a broad grin. “Well, I think that went spectacularly!” 

“Not much of a fight,” Josef grumbled. “That was pathetic.” 

“Yes, yes, they don’t make bounty hunters like they used to, I know. Nico, how much did we get?”

“A thousand standards.” 

“Really? That’s it?” 

She shrugged, apparently not sharing his distress. “It’s a bounty hunter ship that hasn’t caught its bounty yet.” 

“I think we have, actually,” said a new voice. 

Eli froze for a moment. The advantage of having two crewmen and a semi-living ship was that there were never any surprises on board, never any new people with unknown motivations. 

But now there was a furious and triumphant looking red-haired woman standing beside the main mast with an enormous dog at her side. Somehow, the dog looked triumphant as well, and more than a little bit smug. 

“Ah,” Eli said. “I thought that bounty hunter ship was a little too easy. Have they resorted to tricks then?” 

“That’s rich, coming from you, Monpress. I’m not tricking the weather into committing crimes.” 

“I am not tricking anyone. And weather spirits don’t care what rules you’ve slapped around the world. I ask them for a storm or a rush of fog and as long as I ask nicely, they’re happy to oblige.” 

The enormous dog let out a deep, grumbling noise and stepped forward. A moment later, Eli realized why. Nico had moved around and toward them, obviously intending to make a move to get their uninvited guests off the ship, and the dog had noticed. Nico looked it over, her expression calculating, and turned her head slightly toward Eli. 

He shook his head. “What, exactly, is your plan here, Ms…?” 

“Miranda Lyonette. And my plan is to wake up your ship, have it beach itself on the next bit of dry land it gets near, and have my still intact team of bounty hunters come pick you up.” 

“Told you,” Josef said. “Too easy.” 

“You always say it’s too easy. You can’t fault me for not listening anymore.” 

“You never listened to begin with,” Nico said. 

“Hush.”

“Where’s the rest of your crew?” Miranda asked, looking around, one hand on her dog’s back, obviously braced for a fight. 

“This is it,” Eli said, sweeping out his arms to encompass his two friends and the deck of Home itself. “Josef, Nico, and Home. I take it you haven’t actually tried to talk to Home yet? Because she’s very much awake already, and I don’t think she’ll be very interested in sticking herself in the sand.” 

A flicker of uncertainty passed over Miranda’s face and Eli grinned. His grin broadened when the flicker vanished again - he loved an opponent that wouldn’t roll over and be done with it. It kept life exciting. 

He could do without the big dog and its big teeth though. He wasn’t really a dog person, and one that big was worse than most. 

The deck pitched under their feet. 

“The bounty hunters are chasing us again,” Home said. 

“Your friends have a lot of faith in you,” Eli said to Miranda, whose face was tight and serious, weighing up her options as she reworked her plan with the knowledge that Home wasn’t going to be turning on him. He hoped she didn’t just throw in the towel and have her dog paddle them back to the bounty hunter ship. That would be no fun at all. 

“They know I’m good at my job,” Miranda said coolly. 

Eli grinned. “Are you now? How many criminals have you managed to catch on these seas? You look a bit sunburned, Ms. Lyonette. Typically the sign of a rookie.” 

She straightened further, which was impressive, since her back had already been as straight as a pole. Eli’s smile stretched wider. “That’s what I thought.” 

“You aren’t getting away from me,” she said. “Your flashy tricks aren’t going to be enough.” 

“Flashy tricks?” Eli cupped a hand around his mouth. “If anyone could give me a strong wind heading south, it would be greatly appreciated!” 

A moment later the wind sped up, faster and faster, until they were speeding south, Home laughing all around them. 

Miranda jumped a little at the sudden speed, but otherwise looked unimpressed. Her dog huffed. 

“I wouldn’t call that a flashy trick,” Eli said smugly. 

“I would.” Miranda and the dog stepped back to the ship’s railing. Miranda held out a hand. “Mellinor?” 

Water rushed out of her, down the side of the ship and around the rudder. 

Home stopped with an offended noise. The sails reached for the south, pushed along by the wind. Water, a lighter blue than the ocean was supposed to be, bubbled around the water and pulled it north, back toward the bounty hunter ship. 

“I prefer to do this in a way that doesn’t rip your ship in half,” Miranda said. “Especially since she is fully alive and awake. But you will be coming back with me in handcuffs.” 

Eli crossed his arms over his chest. “I will not.” 

“I don’t plan on giving you a choice.” 

Josef drew one of his swords and took a step, apparently unfazed by the growling of Miranda’s dog. Nico stepped closer to Eli. “Her water’s loyal to her,” she said out of the side of her mouth. “Attacking her will make it dig in more.” 

Eli’s mouth pulled up. “Well, alright then, Miranda. I guess things are going to get interesting.” 

[matriarchsdevotee-archive]

'Rum and Booty on the High Seas' for legendarylullaby (I thought maybe stowaway or ransom au? Could even whip out the old Selkie verse)

Pirate Au - Accepting

"We've got her, Captain Nabooru!"

"Right here, safe and sound, just like you asked!"

Safe, perhaps, but comfortable would have been a stretch of the term. The hood they'd pulled over Zelda's head wasn't tight enough to cause pain, but was dark enough to blot out the sun itself. They'd bound the girl's hands, though that was probably overkill. They'd caught her at sea, it wasn't as though the princess was going anywhere anytime soon.

That didn't mean the imperial ship hadn't put up a fight. While the first mate and bolson celebrated, a few others were tending to their wounds below deck. As it would so happen, they were the lucky ones.

Nabooru's temper was just as short as one would expect of her people, exasperated by a very stressful position in piracy. Were it not for the child present, she already would have started corporal punishments.

"You idiots! I said to leave the girl, take her father, what was so difficult to understand-!"

The hood was unbuckled, a blinding flash of daylight hiding the crew temporarily.

"Are you alright, child? They didn't hurt you?"

[kiyfra]

Another snippet of my fic Katatsumuri for WIP Wednesday! Chapter 2 is almost finished, so this one is from chapter 3. PokeRus AU belongs to @monsoon-of-art.

Gaeric’s tent was still coated in ice, a thick sheet of it forming a few days ago. The warden’s remaining hand had fallen off just as his arm and leg had, this time during the clan’s communal dinner. A loud crack was heard through the dining hall and the hand shattered like glass upon hitting the ground, drawing everyone’s attention. Gaeric had solemnly gotten up and announced he was going to bed, managing his crutch as best he could and ignoring his concerned clan mates offering to help. He kept his head down and headed to his tent with a thousand yard stare.

A heavy snow storm raged that night and come morning the tent was cocooned in a dense layer of ice, separating it from the outside world. Neither fire nor steel could put a dent in it; a complete black box where Gaeric was presumably undergoing the final stages of his metamorphosis.

Shouts asking if he was alright hadn’t produced a response, indeed nothing could be heard from within the ice chrysalis. Even if Gaeric was attempting to ride it out as stoically as possible, he would have wanted to reassure his worried clan members. Either he couldn’t hear them or he couldn’t answer, neither was comforting. There was an eerie stillness in the air as the clan waited.

Lian almost envied the solitude. He spent most of his time in his tent, withdrawn into his shell, hoping to blot out the world around him. He didn’t want anyone to see him like this, slimy, immobile, unable to fulfill his duties as a warden and completely dependent on others.

He had been transformed completely into a sliggoo, the painful process finally at an end after so many weeks. It had felt like a Fox resided in him and took delight in tormenting him. Lian could imagine sharp claws slowly dragging organs into place, muscles being stretched and molded. His entire body being rearranged as it saw fit, heedless of his cries begging it to stop. A metallic shell grew out of his skin, spiraling around his lower half as his legs atrophied.

With his transformation complete the thing had gone dormant, evidently satisfied with the new arrangement. Enzymes had finished dissolving his skeleton, his flesh was gluey to the touch and muscular tissue affixed to the absurdly heavy shell.

Lian just didn’t want to think or feel anything. Not the vicious cycle of his body excreting acidic mucus when he was stressed, then the awful disgusting feeling stressing him out more. Not about how he couldn’t keep being Lord Kleavor’s warden and how he’d be stuck like this forever. If he kept trying to retreat further back and concentrate on the smooth curved interior of his shell he could pretend he didn’t even have a body.

People still came to bring him meals and check on him before Lian quickly dismissed them. He knew if he didn’t he’d have to endure awkward attempts at conversation and answer unwanted questions.

“How are you doing? You really shouldn’t spend all your time moping. Why don’t you join everyone else for dinner?”

What was he even supposed to say to that?