#Flutter ecosystem

[apptagsolution]

Discovering the Power of Flutter's Ecosystem: Unveiling Essential Packages and Plugins

Introduction to Flutter's Ecosystem

As an experienced Flutter developer, I've come to appreciate the sheer power and versatility of the Flutter ecosystem. Flutter, the open-source mobile application development framework created by Google, has quickly become a game-changer in the world of cross-platform development. At the heart of Flutter's success lies its robust and ever-expanding ecosystem of packages and plugins, which have transformed the way we approach app development.

In this comprehensive article, I'll delve into the intricacies of Flutter's ecosystem, exploring the essential packages and plugins that can elevate your app development journey. From UI design and functionality to state management and navigation, we'll uncover the tools and resources that can streamline your development process and unlock new possibilities for your Flutter-based applications.

Understanding the Importance of Packages and Plugins in Flutter

One of the key strengths of the Flutter framework is its modular and extensible nature. Rather than reinventing the wheel for every feature or functionality, Flutter developers can leverage a vast array of packages and plugins that have been meticulously crafted by the community. These pre-built solutions not only save time and effort but also ensure consistency, reliability, and scalability in your app development.

Packages and plugins in the Flutter ecosystem serve as building blocks, allowing you to quickly integrate a wide range of features and functionalities into your application. Whether you need to implement a stunning UI design, integrate with third-party services, or handle complex state management, there's likely a package or plugin that can provide a seamless solution.

Essential Flutter Packages for UI Design and Development

When it comes to creating visually stunning and user-friendly Flutter applications, the ecosystem offers a wealth of packages that cater to various UI design and development needs. Some of the essential packages in this category include:

Flutter Widgets: The core set of widgets provided by the Flutter framework, including Scaffold, AppBar, ListView, GridView, and more, which form the foundation of your UI.

Material Design Widgets: Packages like flutter_material_color_picker and flutter_material_pickers that bring the power of Google's Material Design guidelines to your Flutter apps.

Animation Packages: Packages such as flutter_animations and flare_flutter that enable smooth and engaging animations to enhance the user experience.

UI Element Packages: Packages like flutter_spinkit and flutter_svg that provide a wide range of pre-built UI elements, from loading indicators to vector graphics.

Layout and Styling Packages: Packages such as flutter_layout_grid and flutter_screenutil that simplify responsive layout management and ensure consistent styling across different screen sizes.

By leveraging these essential UI packages, you can create visually stunning and highly functional Flutter applications that stand out in the market.

Popular Flutter Plugins for Integration and Functionality

Beyond the UI realm, the Flutter ecosystem also offers a vast collection of plugins that enable seamless integration with various services and functionalities. These plugins can help you extend the capabilities of your Flutter app and provide a more comprehensive user experience. Some of the popular Flutter plugins include:

Connectivity Plugins: Packages like connectivity_plus and internet_connection_checker that allow you to monitor and manage the device's network connectivity.

Geolocation Plugins: Plugins such as geolocator and google_maps_flutter that provide access to the device's location services and enable location-based features.

Media Handling Plugins: Packages like image_picker and video_player that simplify the process of capturing, storing, and displaying multimedia content within your Flutter app.

Notification Plugins: Plugins such as flutter_local_notifications and firebase_messaging that enable push notifications and in-app messaging capabilities.

Payment Plugins: Packages like flutter_stripe and in_app_purchase that allow you to integrate secure payment processing and in-app purchase functionalities.

By incorporating these powerful plugins into your Flutter projects, you can unlock a wide range of advanced features and functionalities, elevating the overall user experience of your applications.

Exploring Advanced Packages for State Management and Navigation

As your Flutter applications grow in complexity, the need for robust state management and navigation solutions becomes increasingly important. The Flutter ecosystem offers a variety of advanced packages that can help you tackle these challenges:

State Management Packages: Packages like provider, bloc, and riverpod that provide different approaches to managing the state of your application, enabling you to maintain a clean and scalable codebase.

Navigation Packages: Plugins such as go_router and auto_route that simplify the implementation of complex navigation flows, including deep linking and route parameters.

Internationalization Packages: Packages like flutter_localizations and intl that assist with translating and localizing your app for global audiences.

Testing Packages: Tools like flutter_test and mocktail that help you write comprehensive unit, integration, and widget tests for your Flutter applications.

Utility Packages: Packages such as freezed and json_serializable that streamline common development tasks, such as data serialization and code generation.

By exploring and leveraging these advanced packages, you can elevate your Flutter development skills, create more robust and maintainable applications, and deliver exceptional user experiences.

Best Practices for Using Packages and Plugins in Flutter

As you delve deeper into the Flutter ecosystem and incorporate packages and plugins into your projects, it's crucial to follow best practices to ensure the long-term success and scalability of your applications. Here are some key guidelines to keep in mind:

Evaluate Package Quality: Carefully assess the popularity, documentation, and community support for any package or plugin before integrating it into your project. Prioritize well-maintained, actively supported, and widely-used packages.

Manage Dependencies: Maintain a clean and organized dependency structure, ensuring that your app's dependencies are up-to-date and compatible with each other. Use tools like pub outdated to stay on top of package updates.

Customize and Extend: Whenever possible, customize and extend the functionality of packages and plugins to fit your specific use cases. This can involve forking the package, creating custom wrappers, or contributing back to the open-source community.

Implement Robust Error Handling: Anticipate and handle potential errors or failures that may occur when using packages and plugins, ensuring a smooth and resilient user experience.

Monitor Performance: Regularly monitor the performance impact of the packages and plugins you use, and be prepared to optimize or replace them if they negatively affect your app's performance.

By adhering to these best practices, you can leverage the power of Flutter's ecosystem while maintaining a high-quality, scalable, and maintainable codebase.

Case Studies of Successful Apps Built with Flutter's Ecosystem

The power of Flutter's ecosystem is best showcased through real-world examples of successful applications that have been built using the framework and its extensive package and plugin offerings. Let's explore a few case studies:

Google Ads: The Google Ads mobile app, built using Flutter, leverages a wide range of packages and plugins to deliver a seamless user experience. This includes packages for UI design, data visualization, and integration with the Google Ads API.

Alibaba: The Alibaba app, one of the largest e-commerce platforms, has successfully adopted Flutter for its mobile development. The app utilizes packages for state management, internationalization, and payment processing to provide a consistent and feature-rich experience across platforms.

Nubank: The Brazilian digital bank Nubank has chosen Flutter as the primary technology for its mobile app development. By incorporating packages for UI design, animations, and database management, Nubank has been able to rapidly iterate and deliver innovative features to its customers.

Hamilton: The official mobile app for the hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" was built using Flutter. The app leverages packages for media playback, in-app purchases, and push notifications to enhance the user experience and engagement.

Birch Finance: The personal finance management app Birch Finance has been developed using Flutter, taking advantage of packages for data visualization, user authentication, and integration with financial services APIs.

These case studies demonstrate the versatility and scalability of the Flutter ecosystem, showcasing how leading organizations have leveraged packages and plugins to build robust, feature-rich, and highly performant mobile applications.

Challenges and Limitations of Using Packages and Plugins in Flutter

While the Flutter ecosystem offers an abundance of packages and plugins, it's important to be aware of the potential challenges and limitations that may arise when incorporating them into your projects:

Compatibility and Versioning: Ensuring seamless compatibility between the packages and plugins you use, as well as with the core Flutter framework, can be a constant challenge, especially when dealing with frequent updates and version changes.

Performance Considerations: Some packages and plugins, if not implemented carefully, can introduce performance bottlenecks or increase the overall app size, negatively impacting the user experience.

Maintenance and Support: The longevity and active maintenance of packages and plugins can be a concern, as the community-driven nature of the ecosystem means that some packages may become abandoned or unsupported over time.

Customization Limitations: While packages and plugins provide a wealth of pre-built functionality, they may not always perfectly fit your specific requirements, leading to the need for custom implementation or workarounds.

Security and Privacy Concerns: When integrating third-party packages and plugins, it's crucial to ensure that they adhere to best practices for data handling, user privacy, and security, as vulnerabilities in these dependencies could expose your app and its users to potential risks.

To navigate these challenges effectively, it's essential to carefully evaluate and select packages, maintain a well-organized dependency structure, and be prepared to adapt or even create custom solutions when necessary.

know more: Flutter vs React Native: Which is the Best Choice 2023- 24?

Conclusion: Harnessing the Power of Flutter's Ecosystem for App Development

In the ever-evolving world of mobile app development, the Flutter ecosystem has emerged as a true game-changer. By leveraging the vast array of packages and plugins available, Flutter developers can unlock unprecedented levels of productivity, creativity, and innovation.

Throughout this article, we've explored the essential packages and plugins that can transform your Flutter development journey. From UI design and functionality to state management and navigation, the Flutter ecosystem provides a rich tapestry of tools and resources to help you build exceptional mobile applications.

As you continue to explore and harness the power of Flutter's ecosystem, remember to stay vigilant in evaluating package quality, managing dependencies, and implementing best practices. By doing so, you can create robust, scalable, and high-performing Flutter applications that captivate users and drive your business forward.To take your Flutter development to the next level, I encourage you to dive deeper into the Flutter ecosystem and start incorporating the essential packages and plugins we've discussed. If you need any assistance or have questions, feel free to reach out to our team of Flutter experts. We're here to help you unlock the full potential of Flutter and deliver exceptional mobile experiences.

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Leaping Whispers: Voices of the Wetlands

[headspace-hotel]

Nature is healing.

I burned the Meadow a couple weeks ago. At first it looked like nothing but charred ashes and dirt, with a few scorched green patches, and I was afraid I'd done something terrible. But then the sprouts emerged. Tender new leaves swarming the soil.

My brother and I were outside after dark the other day, to see if any lightning bugs would emerge yet. We had been working on digging the pond. That old soggy spot in the middle of the yard that we called "poor drainage," that always splattered mud over our legs when we ran across it as children—it isn't a failed lawn, and it never was.

Oh, we tried to fill in the mud puddles, even rented heavy machinery and graded the whole thing out, but the little wetland still remembered. God bless those indomitable puddles and wetlands and weeds, that in spite of our efforts to flatten out the differences that make each square meter of land unique from another, still declare themselves over and over to be what they are.

So we've been digging a hole. A wide, shallow hole, with an island in the middle.

And steadily, I've been transplanting in vegetation. At school there is a soggy field that sadly is mowed like any old field. The only pools where a frog could lay eggs are tire ruts. From this field I dig up big clumps of rushes and sedges, and nobody pays me any mind when I smuggle them home.

I pulled a little stick of shrubby willow from some cracked pavement near a creek, and planted it nearby. From a ditch on the side of the road beside a corn field, I dug up cattail rhizomes. Everywhere, tiny bits of wilderness, holding on.

I gathered up rotting logs small enough to carry and made a log pile beside the pond. At another corner is a rock pile. I planted some old branches upright in the ground to make a good place for birds and dragonflies to perch.

And there are so many birds! Mourning doves, robins, cardinals and grackles come here in much bigger numbers, and many, many finches and sparrows. I always hear woodpeckers, even a Pileated Woodpecker here and there. A pair of bluebirds lives here. There are three tree swallows, a barn swallow also, tons of chickadees, and there's always six or seven blue jays screaming and making a commotion. And the goldfinches! Yesterday I watched three brilliant yellow males frolic among the tall dandelions. They would hover above the grass and then drop down. One landed on a dandelion stem and it flopped over. There are several bright orange birds too. I think a couple of them are orioles, but there's definitely also a Summer Tanager. There's a pair of Canada Geese that always fly by overhead around the same time in the evening. It's like their daily commute.

The other day, as I watched, I saw a Cooper's Hawk swoop down and carry off a robin. This was horrifying news for the robin individually, but great news for the ecosystem. The food chain can support more links now.

There are two garter snakes instead of one, both of them fat from being good at snaking. I wonder if there will be babies?

But the biggest change this year is the bugs. It's too early for the lightning bugs, but all the same the yard is full of life.

It's like remembering something I didn't know I forgot. Oh. This is how it's supposed to be. I can't glance in any direction without seeing the movement of bugs. Fat crickets and earwigs scuttle underneath my rock piles, wasps flit about and visit the pond's shore, an unbelievable variety of flies and bees visit the flowers, millipedes and centipedes hide under the logs. Butterflies, moths, and beetles big and small are everywhere.

I can't even describe it in terms of individual encounters; they're just everywhere, hopping and fluttering away with every step. There are so many kinds of ants. I sometimes stare really closely at the ground to watch the activities of the ants. Sometimes they are in long lines, with two lanes of ants going back and forth, touching antennae whenever two ants traveling in opposite directions meet. Sometimes I see ants fighting each other, as though ant war is happening. Sometimes the ants are carrying the curled-up bodies of dead ants—their fallen comrades?

My neighbor gave me all of their fallen leaves (twelve bags!) and it turns out that piling leaves on top of a rock and log pile in a wet area summons an unbelievable amount of snails.

I always heard of snails as pests, but I have learned better. Snails move calcium through the food chain. Birds eat snails and use the calcium in their shells to make egg shells. In this way, snails lead to baby birds. I never would have known this if I hadn't set out to learn about snails.

In the golden hour of evening, bugs drift across the sky like golden motes of dust, whirling and dancing together in the grand dramas of their tiny lives. I think about how complicated their worlds are. After interacting with bees and wasps so much for so long, I'm amazed by how intelligent and polite they are. Bumble bees will hover in front of me, swaying side to side, or circle slowly around me several times, clearly perceiving some kind of information...but what? It seems like bees and wasps can figure out if you are a threat, or if you are peaceful, and act accordingly.

I came to a realization about wasps: when they dart at your head so you hear them buzzing close by your ears, they're announcing their presence. The proper response is to freeze and duck down a bit. It seems like wasps can recognize if you're being polite; for what it's worth, I've never been stung by a wasp.

As night falls, bats emerge and start looping and darting around in the sky above. If the yard seems full of bugs in the day, it is nothing compared to the night.

I'm aware that what I'm about to describe, to an entomophobe, sounds like a horror movie: when i walk to the back yard, the trees are audibly crackling and whirring with the activity of insects. Beetles hover among the branches of the trees. When we look up at the sky, moths of all sizes are flying hither and thither across it. A large, very striking white moth flies past low to the ground.

Last year, seeing a moth against the darkening sky was only occasional. Now there's so many of them.

I consider it in my mind:

When roads and houses are built and land is turned over to various human uses, potentially hundreds of native plant species are extirpated from that small area. But all of the Eastern USA has been heavily altered and destroyed.

Some plants come back easily, like wild blackberry, daisy fleabane, and common violets. But many of them do not. Some plants need fire to sprout, some need Bison or large birds to spread them, some need humans to harvest and care for them, some live in habitats that are frequently treated with contempt, some cannot bear to be grazed by cattle, some are suffocated beneath invasive Tall Fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, honeysuckle or Bradford pears, and some don't like being mowed or bushhogged.

Look at the landscape...hundreds and hundreds of acres of suburbs, pastures, corn fields, pavement, mowed verges and edges of roads.

Yes, you see milkweed now and then, a few plants on the edge of the road, but when you consider the total area of space covered by milkweed, it is so little it is nearly negligible. Imagine how many milkweed plants could grow in a single acre that was caretaken for their prosperity—enough to equal fifty roadsides put together!

Then I consider how many bugs are specialists, that can only feed upon a particular plant. Every kind of plant has its own bugs. When plant diversity is replaced by Plant Sameness, the bug population decreases dramatically.

Plant sameness has taken over the world, and the insect apocalypse is a result.

But in this one small spot, nature is healing...

[thestuffedalligator]

Adventurers know that — once the mana has been used up and the potions have been drunk and there are still bleeding wounds to heal — your last option, the absolute last option is to sleep.

You shouldn’t do this, they say. This isn’t reliable and it’s a very, very bad idea to sleep if you’re heavily injured. But, they say, but — sometimes, very rarely, an adventurer with a bleeding belly who goes to sleep in the bowels of the dungeon wakes up rested and restored. Bones are set. Flesh is mended. A miracle!

Very few know why this is. Humans and halflings and dwarves have their own theories — that the gods of sleep and dreams sometimes give their blessing to the sleeping, tend to their wounds in the night when magic is at its strongest.

Elves — who can sleep, but choose not to — know better.

Because the sleeping world has its own busy, buzzing ecosystem. Dusty oneroi flutter through the night on moth wings and feed on the salty sweat and tears of the sleeping, pollinating their minds with dreamstuff. Baku slink through the dark, shoulders moving with the liquid menace of tigers on the prowl. Nightmares scuttle in search of sleeping brains to torment.

And then there are the sandmen.

Humans and halflings and dwarves know about the sandmen and their bags of anesthetic golden sand.

They don’t know about their golden needles.

And the golden forceps.

And the golden bonesaw.

And every night the sandmen ooze through the dungeons, seeking wounded adventurers to mend. Nobody knows what the sandmen get out of this. Nobody knows how they select their patients. Nevertheless, in the dark, they dutifully ply their trade.

In the dark, the dungeons fill with butcher sounds.

Elves can sleep. They choose not to. They know better.

[nctsworld]

golden hour

✩‌ mark x reader | camping au | established relationship | smut | fluff | 2.1k

SUMMARY | in which you make love with mark in a tent during the golden hour. // part of the connection series

WARNINGS | sexual content, (lovey) pwp, unprotected sex, brief impregnation fetish (breeding kink), some praise kink, oral sex (m and f receiving)

RATING | explicit

AUTHOR'S NOTE | inspirations are (besides the connection teaser vid and pics) jvke's golden hour, mark's golden hour, and this picture i stumbled upon

TAGLIST | @neocitycafe @sehunniepot

NORTH

North is home, where you left behind for this short road trip down the coast of California with the love of your life. 

During this trip, home every night has temporarily been your two-person sized tent being dragged around to different campsites.

This stop is more arid than others, with many rocks and cacti surrounding the ecosystem rather than grass and trees. Because of that and it being an off-peak period in the beginning of spring, it is likely why this campsite has no one else besides the two of you.

Although it takes some time, Mark and you finally finish pitching the tent and setting up the inside around the late afternoon. At this point, you mutually decide to take advantage of the area's solitude.

North of your bodies is also where it all starts. 

Mark and you are lip-locked between initial smiles and giggles. The oncoming sunset's rays beam through the translucent tent, creating a natural, ethereal glow around each other's faces.

There's no hurry. Mark usually doesn't hurry his kissing with you; he likes to savour every moment he can—each groan exchanged, each dip of his tongue into your mouth, and each suck you grant to his plump bottom lip.

But at some point, kissing each other's lips just isn't enough to satiate your desires.

EAST

East is where everything rises. 

Passion ascends as his mouth swerves away from yours, and instead captures the right side of your neck. You gasp sharply, eyes fluttering due to the power of that one spot. It's overwhelming, so much that it makes your knees buckle. You're grateful you're sitting on the ground with your sleeping bags laid out comfortably to catch you at the ready.

You return the favour by kissing places that make him weak—the constellation of moles on his face and neck, that one particular section behind his right ear, and right above his clavicle.

He hotly moans in your ear, letting his hands take a mind of their own. Your waist, thighs, and ass are his to squeeze, his to grip roughly. In turn, your hands latch onto Mark's rugged frame and back, admiring the firmness and contours in each muscle. Then, you begin lifting up his white tee, feeling up his fit stomach.

And at this point, because you're now straddling him, you feel his rising desire blatantly against yours.

Clothes are tossed aside to an area of the tent. Mark, now only in his underwear, aids you in stripping every piece from you, except for your panties.

SOUTH

Without a doubt, the absolute sweetest things happen in the south. 

Mark roams downward your body as you lay flat, displayed beautifully in front of him. Your lover lives up to his name, marking you with gentle kisses over your goosebumped skin. It's due to the slight bite of the breeze that enters the tent.

The sun dives further into the horizon, and your being is now enveloped in the golden hour of the hues of red and gold meshing in the sky and radiating over the Earth.

When he reaches your breasts, he imparts small licks upon your hardened tips, along with kneading and thumbing them throughout. Arching your back, you shiver, more so from his aching teasing than the breeze.

Further south, he traverses and his mouth leaves love upon your stomach before he spreads your thighs apart. He lays on his abdomen, his legs positioned awkwardly as a result of the tent's size, but all the while manageable and comfortable enough to continue.

He snakes his arms around your legs, staring up at you with his shiny, starry eyes. Mark chastely kisses your inner thighs, revering the softness of your skin, then kisses you once over your soaked panties. With that mere move, it causes you to lift your hips up in want.

Impishly, he chuckles and pulls aside the fabric to give one slow, extended lick from your centre to your clit. You gasp at the sensation, but Mark is addicted to teasing you. After he drags your underwear off, he simply continues to innocently kisses your thighs. A whine expels from you as you're about to protest, but then he dives in without warning.

Dulcet whimpers fill the air besides the rustling of the tent and the occasional sound of faraway birds. Mark prides in himself in times like this, having you prettily on display and breaking you down. You're all his to have and to hold—all for him to drink and devour to his heart's content.

Not only does he skillfully lap his tongue against your folds, but he sinks it deep into you and thumbs your clit simultaneously. Your fingers' hold tighten onto his hair the more he plays and unfurls you at the seams.

Noticing your body being keyed up by your tight hair gripping and hip thrashing, he takes you to another plane when he slips two fingers in and tongues your bundle of nerves, scissoring you into madness.

After letting you come down from your high, he pulls away and runs a hand through his disheveled hair, giving you his signature tender smile with glistening lips before it quickly fades into a sinful smirk. Just like that, with one look and a couple of minutes to catch your breath, you're ready to have more fun.

Often in the confines of your bedroom, Mark likes to stand by the bed when he watches you take him into your pretty mouth. Due to the tent's spatial constraints, he's gotten used to shimmying off his boxers and opting to do a standing kneel on your sleeping bags instead.

He strokes himself, preparing for what's to come. Inching nearer in a cat-like position with your ass up in the air, you instinctively jut out your tongue, wetting your mouth at the ready, and fixate on his desire gracing you with its presence.

At first, you stroke with him with your hand on top of his, but then he eventually slips it away and lets you do your magic.

We're back to kissing, but all attention is on his length, from the base to the tip. You dab your tongue at his tip leaking with precum, evidently worked up from before. A dab becomes two, then three, and when his tip is wrapped by your mouth, Mark dispels a high-pitched moan. All of his entirety is quickly loved by you.

Amidst the head bobbing, you ensure to also swipe at the underside of his cock, licking at a particular vein that always entices you when you're on your knees for him.

At some point, he raises an arm behind his head while the other weaves through your hair. With his possession still in your mouth, you glance up at him. Although half-lidded, he stares back intently, maneuvering your hair out of your eyes and bunches the rest into a makeshift ponytail.

“Such a good girl,” he grunts, eyes still trained on you.

Although you would never disregard his praise, you don't need him to tell you you're doing well based on how he grasps harder at the root of your hair and from the trickling of choppy, higher moans that compete with your lewd slopping.

Since you don't want it to end just yet, you draw back soon after. Giving him a sugary fleeting kiss, you then go on all fours in front of him. Taking his sopping desire, all thanks to you, he rubs himself against your folds, then eases into you.

You cry out in pleasure, and adjust to his fullness inside of you. Mark goes at a measured pace—fast enough that it gets you to the edge quicker, but slow enough to make you feel all his inches. Out of habit, you press the back of your hand against your mouth, muffling yourself.

“Don’t hold yourself back, baby,” he murmurs. “We’re all alone out here.” 

You nod thoughtlessly and comply, dropping your hand. It's an uncommon feeling to let yourself go, but you relax and try your best. Your soft moans elevate and gain traction in volume with each movement against your body.

“That’s it,” Mark says, reaching forward to caress your hair and sliding his touch downward to the small of your back. “That’s my girl.” 

Preening in the praise, you moan gutturally in response. The deep sensations enrapture you, blooming to every point of your body. Exerting the pleasure, you fall face-forward into your pillow and bunch some of it beside your head.

He continues to pound into you, groaning, “Love it so much when you moan for me...” 

A few moments later, your lover pulls you up by the arms, bringing your body almost parallel to his and picks up the pace. In this position, it's not as buried, but it's still just as satisfying, being filled with his cock like this.

When he slows the pace down, he releases you, having you land on your arms again. Kissing your shoulder from behind, he pants beside your ear, “Do you wanna switch it up?” 

You shake your head. “Don’t care”—at an unexpected thrust, you gasp sharply—“just want you.” 

Turning your head to face him, he follows-up with an ardent kiss. Despite him holding you by your chin, it's more delicate than you expect, unlike the sex so far. Mark takes a few moments to remind you how, no matter how crude it can be, sex with him will always be laced with love.

The sunset continues to fade as he removes himself from you and lovingly pats your hips, signifying you to turn around. Facing him now, you spread your legs once again for him, and you giggle as he drags you closer to him in one smooth move. He grins with his hair sticking to his perspired forehead, and once again, he lines up with your centre before gliding into your perfection.

In tandem, both parties' eyes tremble at the sensation. He fills you deliciously; for him, you squeeze around him like a vice he never wants to detach from. Hands are dragging along everywhere on each other's skin. Lips crash into the other's, then his to your breasts and yours to his shoulder. You're soon tied chest to chest, hearts racing in synchronicity.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Mark mumbles into your neck. “Love seeing you like this for me.” 

He lightly slaps the side of your thigh, causing you to moan further into his ear. Despite not wanting to, he opts to tear away from you. Readjusting your bodies, he draws you closer by a tight yank of your thigh, bottoming himself out in your crevice and uses his other hand to rub your clit.

He's on a mission to take you to the stars.

“Tell me when you’re close.” 

It doesn't take long for you to get there with how long this has been going on, nor with how skillful he is.

“Look at me, beautiful. Open your eyes,” he orders, his voice dripping with carnal assertiveness. “Look at me as I fill you up.”

You obey, snapping your eyes wide open, about to watch him come undone inside of you. You're transfixed on the point where you intersect, where he disappears so deeply in you.

But then, in a split second, you force yourself to stare down your love. Looking up at him, relishing in his pre-climactic image, you're on the verge of screaming, almost as if you're dying from the pleasure. His breathes come quicker, his facial features twisting. However, he dares not to shut his eyes, wanting to see you fulfill his command until the end of his surmise.

“That’s my good girl, such a good girl…” 

A beautiful low, drawn-out moan emits, and ecstasy permeates through the air, intermixed with the much needed cool breeze. Mark's hips jerk, then stiffen as he spills into you, painting your walls with his thick load.

WEST

And in the west, the sun finally sets almost to completion. The golden hour sinking away into the purple and pink hues of the spring sky. 

A sliver of the last light peeks through the tent's opening and lands directly over your face, the last of the golden hour saying hello and good-bye. 

With your respective sleeping bags covering some parts of your bare bodies, Mark tenderly swipes his thumb over your sun-touched cheek, admiring his angel of light that always leads him home. Just like Polaris in the night sky, you’ll always shine and guide his way back home.

You two eventually eat some prepackaged sandwiches for dinner in the comfort of your tent, but not until he kisses your temple and pulls you in for a tight hug, whispering sweet nothings and running his fingers through your hair until the sky becomes completely pitch black.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Associated Press (AP):

More than 80 years ago, a beautiful butterfly called Xerces Blue that once fluttered among San Francisco’s coastal dunes went extinct as stately homes, museums and parks ate up its habitat, marking the first butterfly species in the United States to disappear due to human development.

But thanks to years of research and modern technology a close relative of the shimmery iridescent butterfly species has been reintroduced to the dunes in Presidio National Park in San Francisco. Dozens of Silvery Blue butterflies — the closest living relatives of the Xerces Blue — were released in the restored habitat last week, officials said Monday.

Scientists with San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences utilized the Academy’s genetic sequencing capabilities and analyzed Xerces Blue specimens in their vast collection to confirm a group of Silvery Blues in Monterey County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of San Francisco, could successfully fill the ecological gap left by the Xerces Blue.

“This isn’t a Jurassic Park-style de-extinction project, but it will have a major impact,” said Durrell Kapan, a senior research fellow and the lead Academy researcher on the project. “The Silvery Blue will act as an ecological ‘stand-in’ for the Xerces Blue, performing the same ecosystem functions as both a pollinator and a critical member of the food web.”

[irisintheafterglow]

iris is missing bachira again, what else is new!!

in the limited amount of time you'd spent with bachira meguru, you learned that, with the exception of soccer, his attention span was shorter than a toddler's.

he was always fiddling with something at the outskirts of your vision, spinning a pencil or rolling a rectangular eraser back and forth. a closer look revealed an assortment of little drawings at the corners and headings of his notebook pages: little butterflies, trees, flowers, rockets, fish, and anything more you could possibly think of. you sat in the seat closest to the aisle where the teacher walked through during worktimes, and you developed the habit of tapping his side of the lab table when she started getting too close. bachira would then flip to whatever page he was supposed to be completing and put on the appearance of working hard, murmuring his gratitude when the teacher passed.

it was during a lecture about aquatic ecosystems when the first bachira doodle swam its way into your notebook. you didn't notice it at first, too focused on the presentation to see his hand quickly scribble on your paper before retreating like nothing happened. but, when you finally had a second to look down and see a fish swimming next to a crudely drawn piece of coral, the tiniest smile when you looked at bachira's face was a dead giveaway. you added your own stalk of seaweed to the picture and his smile only grew larger when you slid the paper over to show him.

over time, drawings began to include questions, questions turned to full messages, and full messages became gossip and complaints that were exchanged without any spoken words. his favorite thing to scribble was we won the game, btw :D because you never failed to giggle at his terribly drawn soccer ball next to the smiley face. his most frequently asked question, however, was a tossup between what tf are we learning and i'm so hungry. he was a distraction in class, yes, but a welcome one when you needed someone to lighten a dark mood.

you found that his bored tendencies rubbed off on you, as you were itching to write something one day when the teacher had explicitly instructed you to watch the documentary without taking notes. bachira knew that you had a hard time remembering things if you didn't write them down, and his solution startled you.

"it's okay, just write on me!" he beamed at you as he whispered over the movie playing on the projector. "you let me do it all the time, so let me return the favor."

"i let you do it because none of your pens are permanent, bachira. it's also just doodles, not full sentences," you point out, a blister starting to form on the inside of your fingers as you spin your pen. "mine are a little harder to wash off, trust me."

"as long as you don't draw a dick on my face, i really don't care," he shrugs and you scoff as he's rolling up his sleeve and presenting you his blank forearm. "your canvas awaits." seeing the hesitancy on your face, he nods encouragingly and takes the liberty of drawing a very shaky smiley face on the side of his thumb. "your turn!"

for the remainder of class, bachira's chin rests in his palm with his elbow propped on the table, his other arm extended to you as you jot down whatever you want to remember for later. bachira watches you more than he does the video, memorizing the way you bite your tongue when you're thinking and the way your eyes light up when you figure out how to paraphrase a thought. it's endearing and an odd fluttering feeling occurs in his chest as you look over at him with a grateful smile. at the end of the period, you draw a heart on the inside of his wrist before rushing off to your next subject, still expressing your thanks as you push in your chair.

later, bachira brushes off his teammates when they ask why he has pen stains all over his arm; he says he didn't have time to scrub it before the game.

---

the blue lock players begin to notice an odd habit of bachira's, a sort of ritual right before every match. he rolls up his uniform's long-sleeve until just enough of his wrist is showing, and draws something on the inside of his wrist. with the cap of the marker between his teeth, bachira obviously struggles to draw with his non-dominant hand but declines assistance when isagi offers.

when he kisses the heart on the inside of his wrist before scoring every goal, he hopes that you can feel it's for you, with a promise that he'll be back to you soon.

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)

[dropsnectar]

Pollen and Potions: Bee-men x afab!reader

PART THREE

This is a longer part than the rest, but its all necessary dialogue so it should be fine. More fluffy and romance than smut, BUT!! Their will be smut in the next section! I know I said this will only be 4 parts, but it may actually be more like 5 or 6. Anyway, hope you like!

So. You were starting to learn that using large batches of magic back to back weren't ideal for a young witch's health. It seemed like you might have overdone it, as when you woke you found you had been asleep for TWO WHOLE DAYS. So. If you were going to do magic, it looked like you were going to have to pace yourself, or perhaps use LESS magic.

You put yourself to learning more about witchcraft. The thing was, your grandmother's books didn't really go into the basics, and as witches were so rare, information was hard to find. Of course, the internet was full of supposed witch spells, or frameworks, but it was like throwing dice. Some spells didn't work. Some spells took up WAY too much energy. Some were just… fine? But not what you needed. 

Next you checked out forum sites. Maybe you could find a community through that way? But all you found were psychics and tarot readers. Nice people, but not what you needed.

Whelp. Maybe you needed to look at the issue differently. The environment used to be a beautiful, thriving area. What had changed between now and then? In order to understand a magic ecosystem, you had to understand ecosystems. So, for the rest of the week you busied yourself with ecology study. It was turning out that this project you had adopted on a whim would need a lot more time and breadth of knowledge then you originally thought.

***

When you met with Rena, under Lyith’s friendly gaze, you found that the magic you had cast hadn't waned at all. The flowers had grown beautifully and continued to give magic nectar that created the best honey. Rena was beside herself. “The elders of the hive say they haven't had honey of this quality since they were children! You are really onto something here, little one.”

Rena had now gotten in the habit of calling you little one. Sure, as a Bee-man she was slightly taller than you, but not by much. Also the constant fluttering and floating didn't help. 

“You've been given permission to test your magic on our other gardens as well. As long as we are careful and continue with caution!” Rena babbled. You gave her a small smile and felt Lyiths arm on your shoulder. He laid his head on your other shoulder, leaning his fuzzy head against yours. 

“Whats wrong?”

You wiggled a little. “I'm just having a hard time brainstorming how to do this. I know I said I'd help you guys, but I might not be able to use as much magic as last time. To be honest, I don't really know much about my mana and my limits…” you explained your situation. Expecting there to be disappointment, you were surprised to find none.

“I can’t help but think… How long will this last? One spell isn’t going to cut it for that long. I want to create something that will last for you guys, but that might take a while… and doing just this took all the mana I had. I want to do better. But I don’t want to hurt myself either, especially when I don’t know how this could affect my health in the long run…” The bee-men seemed to be catching on.

“Of course, little one. We wouldn't want you to harm yourself.”

 Lyith also popped up, his voice almost in your ear.

“Us Bee-men also have something like mana. Our magic is not never ending. We would have fixed this situation ourselves if it was.”

Rena reached forward and grabbed your hand, giving it a reassuring pat. “We don't have to do anything today. We can commence whenever you'd like. Our flowers have spread out beautifully and even this is enough.”

You frowned.

“I may have to do this every spring. Or even redo it in the summer…”

“You don’t owe us anything. You are trying your best to do us a kindness. And our hive knows and sees that. We are beyond grateful to you… Its… We’ve needed…We are truly grateful.” His expression fell at the mention of his hive, his antennas drooping. Rena moved forward and held Lyith, a sad expression on her own face.

There was a pause in conversation that grew somewhat awkward.

How do I make this better? You tried to brainstorm, but only one thing came to mind. 

You went over and gave the both of them a big bear hug. It was a tense one, but you tried to adjust your emotions, instead concentrating on how fond you had grown of the two. You tried to shout it as loud as you could through your brain at them.

This seemed to break the spell, as Rena started to laugh. Lyith looked at you affectionately. 

“I know we haven't known each other long, but I just want to say, you can count on me. If you ever need to talk about anything let me know. I'll listen.”

Rena and Lyith hummed in response, returning your group hug with a long squeeze.

Long hugs. The favorite actions of a Bee-men.

After some quiet reassurances, the two of you decided to idle while the two foraged on the edge of the Wood. You walked with them and asked them as many questions you could think of. How old were they? Were they able to do other magics? You had thought Bee-men to be isolated. How come they knew so much about human culture?

Lyith was the one who answered you most of the time. It seemed that bee-man typically lived double the life of a human, with Rena and Lyith being about 45, and 51, Lyith being the oldest. They were in the same season of life as you though!

Bee-man could do some other magics(they didn't go much into what), but they specialized in making their magical honey, which fortified the health and wellbeing of a Bee-men. 

They didn’t say it outright but it seemed like the dip in magic had affected the nutrition of their food source. They kept their own bees and shared honey, but it still wasn't enough, so they had ventured out into human society to buy fruit when it was necessary. They also did trade with neighboring beast-men, the Wolfmen being happy to share their fruit for their Bee’s wax waste. I 

“What exactly do you guys do for fun though?” You asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Lyith smiled. “Late night flying is fun.”

Rena snorted. “You mean late night spying. Lyith has a habit of looking through people's windows.”

Lyith wrinkled his nose at Rena. “If they did not want to be seen they would have drawn the curtains. It's not strange, I am just curious about human life is all.”

Rena reached forward and pinched Lyiths nose. “Poor thing. So bored he must make mischief.”

You looked at Lyith with surprise. His big eyes grew in concern and he pouted at you.

“You are not going to tease me too are you? I promise, I never see anything scandalous. I'm a good little bee.” He fluttered his eyes at you.

You giggled and pushed his shoulder. 

“As long as you're not spying on me I guess it's harmless.”

Lyiths expression shifted to one of his dopey smiles. It always surprised you how innocent he could look despite his size. Was it maybe…

“So… I may have read that you guys are telepathic right?” 

Renas face changed into a smirk. 

“Yes, and?”

“ Well, have you guys ever… used your powers on me?” 

Rena snorted. Lyith gave you an unreadable expression. “We Bee-man are very particular about sharing our heads outside of our hives. But no. We haven't done anything to you if that's what you meant…”

Oh. He was pouting now.

“No! Thats not what I meant! I just… i feel so comfortable around you guys it's almost supernatural. I just. Idk. Wanted to know. Please I didn't mean anything by it!”

Lyith wrinkled his nose at you and Rena continued to seem amused. You felt helpless and got a bit upset with yourself. You did your best to calm yourself down but you were upset. You had so few friends here and you were afraid you blew it. A wave of loneliness swept through you.

Lyith was watching you the whole time, before sighing. “All will be forgiven if you give us some of those fruit tarts you made yesterday.”

You looked at him, shocked. 

“I thought you said you didn't spy on me!”

“I wasn't spying, I just happened to be foraging by the window, and smelled something amazing. It was all incidental.”

“There's sugar in the crust. Won’t your tummy get upset?”

He just smiled. Rena laughed. “He named his price. For offending us, we must get fruit tarts.”

Finally feeling better, the three of you walked(they let you walk!!!) Back to your home. You served them up your tarts, when finally the questions started coming about you. Why did you move here? Do you have any siblings? What were you like as a child?

This went on until dinner time, at which point you decided to shoo your new friends away. “ I'll be back to do the flowers tomorrow. We… we will see what I can do.” You admitted. The two of them smiled at you, hugging you tight for a good three minutes. They always lingered, nuzzling your face and hair, as if they were getting a whiff of you. You could smell their own perfume and tried not to think too much. Their goodbyes always felt so intimate. 

 Rena decided to pepper your face in kisses before they left. Lyith just rolled his eyes at her. When they drew apart you felt empty, like some piece of you was going with them.

***

As always, Lyith picked you up that morning. This time, you made sure to bring a scarf and hat, alongside emergency snacks in your bag. Where he was taking you next was a little longer of a trip, a whole ten minutes to the usual six. That was a long time when you were hurtling through the air.

You were surprised to drop into a small crowd. There were ten Bee-men present besides Rena, who seemed to be communicating silently with them. The air was full of bee noises; humming, purring, the fluttering of wings. The air smelled amazingly fresh, floral and syrupy. It was an odd smell, but it seemed to put you at ease somehow. And maybe a bit peckish.

A Beeman a whole foot and a half taller then Rena fluttered towards you. They bowed, of which you awkwardly returned before they reached forward and took your hand gently. Lyith started,

“This is Elder Bisou. He is the eldest of our hive. He is showing you respect.”

Elder Bisou smiled at you. “Little Witch, I welcome you to our territory. My human is a bit… unused. Please receive our thanks for your efforts.” He took your hand and leaned down so that it met his temple. You could feel the rush of his magic, like your mind was a fish bowl and he was putting a gentle hand on the glass. You could feel his warmth, his deep gratitude through it. 

Your back straightened and you felt water prick your eyelids. You gave him a slow nod, becoming acutely aware just how serious this whole situation actually was. Rena and Lyith had been dancing around it, but the Bee-men must be slowly starving to death. That was the only explanation for the depths of what you had felt.

“I will do my best.” Was all you could reply. 

Lyith, acting as your translator, took you to each Bee-men he could and introduced you. It seemed that some of the elders, as well as some of those who had free time had come to watch the “little witch” work. Most took your hand gently, and sent you a ghost of what their emotions were. There was a sort of film around the emotions, a barrier of sorts. Whether this was on purpose so you wouldn’t be overwhelmed, or just how their telepathy worked, you couldn't tell. 

You did your best to not let your nerves get to you as you dissected the sections of the field where you would be doing your experiments. You didn’t know how these particular flowers would take to your spell, so it was still best to be cautious. The bee-men looked on with interest.

You did your chants in a loud booming fashion, and channeled in as elegant a fashion as you could. Like always, the magic came, and the spell did its work. These flowers were different, like rainbow colored lavender. Rather than letting the magic gush through you, you let it gently trickle out, pacing yourself. When the deeds were done, you still felt sore, and you still held a headache in your temple, but there was no nausea, so growth! 

Once you were done with your work, there was a large excited buzzing throughout the forest. There was clapping, dancing, stomping of feet, pumping of many hands, whoops from Rena and Lyith. One Bee, a worker named Aidenn held a small wooden instrument in his hands and started to play. This triggered a chorus from the Bee-men. There was a harmonizing among the crowd and they started to circle each other, laughing and dancing. A circle of flying, spinning Bee-men formed.

Rena grabbed you by the waist and hoisted you onto her shoulder before joining in the circle of the dance. You giggled as you spun, feeling the giddiness in the air like it was laughing gas. That same pressure filled your mind and a part of your heart started to soar. It was intimate, but not stifling and you loved feeling so close to everyone.

You lifted your hands and, feeling in the spirit, decided to hum along. At some point Rena had taken you in her arms and held you close as they continued to fly in a circle, spinning and perrying, and switching. It was similar to square dancing, where there was a pattern to it. 

At one point, the tune changed and Lyith swooped down from above and grabbed you out of Rena’s arms. She snorted at him but let it happen, joining hands with another passing Bee-men. When Lyith gathered you in his arms, he cradled you as close as possible, surprising you. One hand was gripping firmly around your waist and the other crushing you to him. He landed on the ground, and the rest of the bee-men followed, causing something of a ballroom dance. 

“You did wonderfully today.” He breathed in your ear, causing them to redden. You pulled yourself back a bit to see his face and he was looking at you with such pride and affection it felt like a weight crushing your chest. You moved your hands from his shoulders to reach his own hands. You were shaky, but you wanted to return his feelings somehow. His palms were soft.

This caused him to laugh, a purring sort of trill coming from his throat. You couldn’t help a silly grin form on your face.

“I’m glad you came to my garden.” Was all you could think to say.

He looked at you, with those big black eyes, then reached forward and kissed you on the lips. It was only a peck, but you could feel his joy through it. 

Something complex within you, a mix of happiness, excitement, hope, all of your feelings rose up into your throat. Unable to find the words to express yourself, you took all of those big heavy emotions, wrapped them all up together and kissed him back, right there, in the middle of your makeshift dance floor.

When you pulled away Lyith looked shocked, his bottom lip hanging open. Adorable as usual. 

Rena hollered from the otherside of the gathering, sending out a big whoop. There was laughter, buzzing and an echoing whoop from some of the younger bee-men. Elder Bisou made some clicking sounds, but the sides of his mouth were slightly upturned.

It occurred to you then that you were in the middle of a group of very telepathic monster people. Your cheeks grew hot in embarrassment and you pulled away from Lyith a bit. Your shoes suddenly became very interesting. 

Lyith eventually turned your chin back up to face him. He held a small peaceful smile, before bumping his forehead to yours. He didn’t share his emotions but the affection was still there.

After you grew too tired to dance, you took a seat under a tree, munching on a granola bar. Another one of the Bee-men, a younger drone named Haven, made his way to sit next to you.

“I don’t know if it was mentioned, but honey production has picked up enormously since you agreed to help us. I haven’t felt this great in… well ever! Thank you little witch!”

“I’m not little, but thank you for saying so.” You were starting to get a bit lightheaded now, and not from the dancing. It was possible that some of the symptoms of mana sickness were surfacing a little late.

“You are strong! That is true! Even elder Bisou has said he hasn’t met a human or beastman with mana like yours!” Haven turned his voice down to a whisper, as if he was sharing a secret, “Your magic smells so much like flowers, really, its a huge blessing! In fact, I would eat you up if I could!” He laughed as if he had made a joke. He sighed and looked up dreamily at the sky. “Alas, I am saving myself for when we find our queen.” He wrapped his arms around himself, as if to fend off imaginary suitors.

You wrinkled your nose. “Queen? You don’t have a queen? Isn’t that super bad for bees, I mean bee-men?” 

Heaven tilted his head at you, reminding you of Lyith. 

“Of course. That's why we are all so small and weak.” You stared at him in shock. He put up his hands. “We are doing well though! It's been 20 years since our queen died but we are still here! Oh! There is a hive up north! Any day now, one of their queens' daughters might descend and bless us! Or.. Or we--”

“Little One! You seem like you're getting sick!” Rena Descended from above and put a hand to your forehead.

“You are far too warm! Haven, mind if I take her out of your wings?”

Heaven looked up at Rena, his face a mask of confusion. He eventually gave in though and stood up.

“I should check on Elder Bisou! He might need something!” His voice was flat, obviously fake, but he ran away- flew away with gusto.

Rena took your face into her hands, tilting your head back and forth. Your lightheadedness turned full on dizzy. Rena’s face screwed up in an annoyed expression.

“You overdid it. And after that whole speech about not knowing your limits too..” She gently put a hand on your back and picked you up princess style. You would have been embarrassed, if your brain was functioning properly. Instead your gaze fixed on Rena’s beautiful iridescent wings. The lights were so lovely and they helped ground you. Honestly, everything about Rena was lovely. Well, maybe lovely wasn’t the right word. She was rough around the edges. A tease and a know it all. But she doted on you so, it made you feel a bit overwhelmed. Your gaze shifted from her wings to her lovely nose, pretty sharp for a bee-men. 

Rena started conversing with Lyith about you, pointing her jaw and humming. Huh. Rena was actually incredibly attractive. You had known that before. Maybe it was something about how dizzy everything was. The last time you had felt this way she had been kissing you, her textured tongue pushing nectar down your thoat-

“Little One”

Your mind immediately focused. She was using a demanding tone. 

“Lyith will take you home. Next time, we will only do one spell at a time.” She leaned forward and placed her cool lips to the side of your mouth. Making you blush. Well your face was already heated so you would have blushed. “I will see you again soon. Rest.” And she was off.

You were in Lyith’s arms again. A place you were starting to get comfortable in. He stared at you for a moment, his lips pursed, then sighed loudly. He held your gaze for a moment.

“I do not like this habit you are forming. You will not get sick again, understand?” 

You nodded at him, mind hazy. Sleepy. You were sleepy. 

You didn’t register the fly home, only that the coolness felt nice. You were carried from the porch, into the living room, up the stairs, and laid on your bed. You were covered in warm, delicious blankets. 

You never saw Lyith leave before you passed out. Probably because he tucked himself in right beside you, the cool air washing over both of you from the open bedroom window.

[6saints]

Delicate

Yandere! Merman x Reader

18+ - gore and smut

Chapter two

—

It is in human nature to be deleterious. To be a cancerous leech plundering on the natural resources Earth had to offer. Human nature entails dominance over any being deemed inferior, to find amusement and comfort in the technology the big bad business men advertise. They are wolves selling a fallacy of hope to the selfish humans who pray for an advanced civilization; all while stuffing their pockets with gold and giving blessings to the sick.

That homeless man may have been right about the end of the world, or those hippies chaining themselves to trees or even those laughable metal straw ads everyone would skip. Had anybody listened to the fanatical people of the early 70's, perhaps the state of the earth would never have gotten so dilapidated. Magazines and newspapers were thrown out for billboards, projectors and little technological pockets of information. The news always the same, yet always afflictive to the weak little hearts of the people. Every day was a new animal, new country, new city being destroyed by one man made thing or the other.

That was how he was raised. To despise humans and their technology, the same filth congesting his oceans and killing any and all marine life.

His first encounter with humans had been just a decade ago. Fishing vessels weren't common near Silnich shores therefore, his entire childhood had gone relatively unoccupied. Socialization was rare, even amongst his own species, so when a Trawler spurred against empty waters the half-fish was naturally whelmed with vague interest.

It was a melancholy night; ashen clouds covering the darkness. The waters were desolate, a lonely ambience surrounding the waves and empty sky. Zero lights, he had thought to himself, his diaphanous tail swishing beneath himself. Occasionally, if he was lucky, yellow, red, purple and even blue dots would scatter behind clouds and a pale moon would situate itself at their side.

He recalled an old friend, a merman and traveller, had once mentioned calling them stars. That humans could see them up close, that they could dance and fly among them; a laughable notion considering only birds could do such a thing. Humans were widely regarded as stupid and rather begrimed; a soiled species responsible for the odd materials destroying underwater ecosystems. He never understood his friend's peculiar way of regarding them, almost as if with an admiration of sorts.

"Alright boys, what we catchin' today?" A loud, booming voice sounded atop the boat.

Two other voices had joined in, southern and thick. "How bout a shark?"

"Shut up, Randall," laughed one of the men, "Let's catch some fish fore' the boss rings our neck."

A thunderous whirring came from a machine attached to the boat, yellow and rusted with a net attached to the bottom. It sunk beneath the inky waters, the boy following after with pure curiosity. He noticed a school of fish swimming closer, their delicious forms becoming entrapped within the roped net and struggling to swim out. Their meager bodies flattened against each other, fins frantically fluttering back and forth in a futile attempt at escape.

Did humans also eat fish? He wondered.

He hadn't gotten a look at what the men's physical appearances were. How big are they that they need so much fish?

He swam closer, using his taloned fingers to scratch at a piece of the net, allowing for one of the fish to plop out into his webbed hand. Easy hunt, he thought to himself, swallowing the fish whole before reaching in to grab another.

This time, however, the whirring sound seemed to grow louder and the net began oscillating at a rapid rate. Before he could push himself away from the machine the net clasped around his tail and arm, forcing him into place with the rest of the fish surrounding him. He struggled, contorting his body forward and backward venturing to free himself.

SMACK!

All his sensitive skin could feel was a cold, damp metal beneath his limbs, fish jumping to and fro around him as the light from the boat blurred his vision. The slits in his eyes became thinner, almost nonexistent, when one of the men flashed something strikingly bright into his face. Two of the three voices now had a face and body, each distinct and rather ugly. The larger, burley man had no hair atop his head yet his arms were covered, a complete contrast to the smoothness of a mermaid's upper body. The one flashing an instrument in his face was rather lanky and petite, a beard cleanly growing across his chin and ending just above his collarbones. He couldn't find the third one, he didn't know if he even wanted to.

The bulky man had thin lips curled into an odd smile, like two sea worms bent in an odd angle, a tooth sticking out the side of his lip curiously. "What the hell am I looking at?" His voice was painful up close, the boy's finned ears twitching as they continued speaking.

"Certainly not a shark," the other whispered, a shocked expression painting his unkept features.

"Say, you a fuckin' mermaid?" He asked. The man took a thin metal rod and poked his tail.

"Mermaids are females, boss."

"Merboy?" He corrected himself sarcastically.

The fish-boy didn't speak, tightlipped and glaring at the men hovering above him. Occasionally, a frantic fish would slap him on his face.

"Well fuck me I guess." He rolled his eyes. "What should we do with it?"

"I don't know, boss, maybe we-"

A voice from behind the boy cut the lanky man off, "We make some money off of him."

He jerked his head back, staring wide-eyed at the new voice that had appeared. A light flashed, the man carrying a square box with a whitened piece of glass just over his eye. The third man, round and clean, looked like an office worker dressed up as a fisherman. "What?"

"You ain't hear me the first time?" He walked up to the boy, hands pulling at his tail just to check for any hint of falsehood. He growled at him, exposing two rows of sharpened teeth, the canines especially long. "Woah!" He stumbled back before recomposing himself. "How much money you think people would pay to see a mermaid?"

"It's a boy."

"Same thing." He shrugged.

"Probably a lot," the bigger man muttered, pondering for a moment. "What you say bout' bringin' him with us?"

"Where we gonna put him?"

"I can free up space in one of the barrels back at the yard. Some water should keep it alive." The lanky man walked closer to the boy, bending forward with a confidence only an idiot could sport. "You got lungs, right kid?"

These are the things that can fly like birds? He bitterly laughed to himself, as if!

The fish-boy hoisted himself up, lunging at the man and just barely grazing his left shoulder. His tail caught on the net, forcing his body back into the metal floor brutally.

"Shit!" The man whimpered, clutching into his shoulder feverishly. "The kid's got a bite to him."

"Grab the extra netting from the back." Ordered the hairy man immediately, that odd smile of his disappearing into a frown.

The men began tying him up, repulsed expressions covering their faces as they got a closer look at the struggling being. He was snarling, animalistic eyes wanting nothing more than to kill them for touching him with their filthy human hands. These men are exactly as the stories portrayed them! Absolutely abhorrent and disgusting!

Unfortunately for him, these men were massive, towering at 6 feet.

Mermen on the other hand didn't reach full maturity until age 20 and the majority of their size would come from the length and girth of their tail, not their upper bodies. Though, he imagined he would look significantly better than these rotten humans once he did reach adulthood.

He glanced at the fish and then at the hairy man. He was the one that would put up the most fight, he figured. The lanky one was weak and rather easy to overpower and the round one was a coward. If he could get rid of the one threat he would be free to escape.

"Please don't hurt me," he blurted, skin paling further and his body forcing a shiver.

"The little shit speaks!" The lanky man laughed.

"Aye kid, we're not gonna hurt you, sailor's promise." His target stepped forward.

Just a little more, he thought.

"I'm sorry for scratching you," he looked up at the men, big doe eyes pricking with non existent tears.

His new bald headed prey walked forward again, kneeling down and holding out a fish. He wondered if he was overselling the helpless child trope a bit too much, recalling how orcas would do something similar in the wild.

Whatever the case was, the man was within reach. He extended his webbed fingers, slow and innocent-like, but instead of grabbing the puffed fish he imbedded his talons into the man's eyes, pulling him on top before quickly searching his pockets for anything that would free him.

The men behind were bellowing out curses and shouts, petrified of the scene in front of them. As he suspected, the larger man ran back to the edge of the vessel, whitened knuckles grasping onto the metal in a horrified state. His fingers prodded and poked until something sleek and flat made contact with his palm. He fumbled with the edges of a strangely ornate and intricate design, swirls of flowers and odd vinery leading to a sharpened edge.

Just in time too, considering his friend, though weak, had garnered the courage to defend his crew imperishably.

He pushed the man's body forward, tripping the other while he made his escape over the edge of the boat, both screaming incoherently about one scary thing or the other. The boy allowed his no longer confined body to sink to the bottom of the ocean. He could still view the top clearly and hear the men's belting, unlike the darkness and comforting silence the ocean usually offered him. Their voices began to wane, signaling their exit. He was exhausted, hurt, and dejected.

And this interaction only proved to him the cruelty that human beings harbored within themselves.

Since that day, humans never made an appearance on Silnich waters again. Perhaps he had instilled a fear into them, a sense of self preservation that he knew only a selfish human could harbor. The humans must have warned the others, fed them stories about the attack of a crazed sea monster, who was really just a scared boy.

He was 24 now, a grown merman protective of the colony he had single-handedly protected. The fish were his to eat, the sharks and dolphins were his to play with, and the sky was entirely his to look at.

Until it wasn’t.

“Slow down you crazy child..”

The melodic harmonies began playing a soft tune.

“Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while...”

It was a male singing, perhaps a siren? Though he had never met a male siren before.

“It's alright, you can afford to lose a day or two...”

The closer he swam to the shore, the more he could pick up on other voices.

“When will you realize…”

And there they were, long limbs swaying cautiously against each other, dull teeth hidden behind soft smiles and innocent laughter. Their feet were hidden within the ocean despite the light splashing.

And there she was, (h/l) (h/c) hair bouncing idly and her fingers interlacing with another of her species. She was rather beautiful, he thought for only a moment.

“Vienna waits for you...”

More humans came running into the water, two males and a female. And the merman's hazy thoughts were replaced with something more sinister.

Intruders, he told himself, in my waters.

[roanniom]

iii agree!!! frazzled eddie is so important to the ecosystem!! esp. because he’s so head over heels for you that any little thing you do could make him a stammering mess. like if he’s distracted after a week of long busy days and you catch him off guard with some bonkers lingerie and he’s just a goner when you take control 🫠🫠🫠

Vixen

Eddie Munson x Fem!reader

Warnings: NSFW, 18+ ONLY, PIV sex, teasing, lingerie, not exactly Virgin!Eddie but def inexperienced!Eddie

I’ve said this before, but Eddie Munson acts like he’s been shot if you surprise him with something sexy. Like he smacks his hand over his chest and drops to the fucking floor gasping. But that’s when he’s more used to it. After you’ve done it a few times and his confidence has built up.

The first time you surprise him with lingerie, the man stops breathing. You’ve only hooked up twice before, only one time ending in sex, so things are still really new. The two of you are making out on your bed when Eddie’s fumbling fingers begin undoing the buttons of your shirt. You take this as progress, because the last two times you’d had to divest yourself of your own clothing because Eddie had been so nervous and hesitant to overstep.

When he reveals the lace of your bra, you feel his entire body seize and his eyes go wide taking it in. You wait for him to do something but when he doesn’t, you laugh.

“Something wrong, Eds?”

“Is…is this…?”

“You’ve seen me in a bra before, Eddie,” you tease, wrapping your hand over the back of his to encourage his palm to grasp over your lace-enclosed breast. Eddie’s eyelids flutter but he continues trying to make his point.

“Yeah but this…this is…”

“Lingerie? Yep!” you say brightly. He swallows thickly and you can’t handle it. His reaction is so adorable you need to mess with him a little. You lean up and whisper in his ear. “And it’s even part of a set.”

You lean back to watch his brain short circuit. Eddie tries to take a breath but it’s shaky. So much for him undressing you himself, but then again, this is so worth it. You reach between the two of you and shimmy out of your shorts, revealing a pair of matching lace panties. Eddie’s gaze slowly travels the length of your body to take in the second part of your set and then his eyes snap back up to yours.

“O-ok so you just wear this around the house, or…”

“Eddie. I wore this for you. I knew you were coming over. I wanted to have sex. I put this on so you - Eddie Munson - could see me in it.”

“Oh I see you, Princess,” Eddie practically moans in appreciation.

His hands fidget at your sides, fingers pressing into the curve and flesh of your waist as if he doesn’t want to do the wrong thing.

“Good,” you purr as you peel his hands from your sides and place one over your breast and bring the other down to your mound. “Now take it off me.”

Eddie swallows again and shifts so that he’s able to to take in the full length of your lace clad body. He swipes a hand across the exposed swath of skin between your bra and panties before dipping back down to firmly cup you between the thighs.

“Is it weird if I ask you to…can we keep it on?”

The use of ‘we’ has you giggling, but you think it might also be a build up of horniness and fondness that’s tipping you towards hysteria.

“We can do whatever you want,” you reply with a smile, reaching up to touch his face. The grin he gives you in return is so dazzling that you feel like you stop breathing, a feeling compounded by the way he immediately yanks you into a lung crushing kiss.

It’s like a switch has been flipped after that. Eddie’s hands become more sure, more solid in their grasp. And grasp you he does. As his tongue plunders your mouth his hands navigate your every dip, curve, and plane. He squeezes, too, paying special attention to the places that make you squeal and gasp appreciatively against his lips.

Eddie drags his teeth down the gauzy strap of your bra and runs his tongue over the flimsy, unpadded material that covers your nipple. This causes you to convulse under his hold and soon you’re scrabbling at his shoulders, trying to haul him up to you.

“Alright alright, c’mon just…” you huff against his lips, trying to reach further than you really can in this position to push his sweatpants off his hips. Eddie chuckles but you can tell he’s flustered as he reaches down and helps you, letting his cock spring up so fast it smacks against his abdomen and bounces back to tap on your lace covered cunt. You let out a moan and lift your hips to grind up against him as best you can.

“It’s like you fucking watched my dreams or something, Princess. How are you so - fuck.” He cuts himself off when you take hold of his length and press the underside against the length of your slit, giving yourself something solid to grind on. The fabric is rough against his sensitive skin but it’s soaked through with your slick and he finds himself groaning with full throated abandon.

“So you don’t want to take it off, you want me like this?” You ask, sliding the gusset of your panties to the side and giving him full view of your wet pussy. You’re not even teasing or trying to wind him up at this point. You’re just so turned on and you want to get to it - but you also want him to have exactly what he wants.

“Jesus H Christ yeah, c-can I? Can I just…oh god…” Even as he asks, Eddie glides his tip over your wet folds, losing himself in the feeling of you so much so that his eyes roll back.

“Yes, please Eddie,” you clarify, pulling at his inked biceps in an effort to get him to push in, but your sweet boy hesitates. He blinks open his eyes and furrows his brows.

“Y-yeah but I have to get you ready first…right? Want to make sure it feels good and that I don’t - fuck! That I don’t hurt you.” He keeps losing his train of thought as you grip his cock in an attempt to line him up with your entrance, but he keeps his hips lifted so you can’t push him further.

Your entire body melts at the sentiment, warmth blooming in your stomach and spreading through your bloodstream. It’s more than fondness you feel for the flustered, considerate man above you. You thread your fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck and pull him down for a blistering kiss.

“You’re a good guy, Eddie Munson,” you breathe against his lips, and you practically feel the heat radiating off him as his blush spreads further and deeper, as though he doesn’t already have his cock in your hands and his body mashed to yours.

You take advantage of this moment of distraction to throw your leg over his and roll, flipping the two of you so that his back hits the mattress and you’re straddling his hips.

“I promise, I’m more than ready. And this will feel good. For both of us.” And with that you sink down onto his cock.

It’s a stretch and it aches, for sure. For the most part his instincts and worries were correct. He’s big. But you were also correct in saying that you were ready. You’re dripping and clenching and you need him. He’s inside you but it’s not enough. Especially not when he’s grabbing your thighs in order to stay grounded and squeezing his eyes shut against the pleasure, gasping.

When you start to move, Eddie looks like he’s lost his mind. He gazes up at you, eyes darting as if he’s not sure where to look - starting at the place where you’re joined, where your pussy takes him in until your hips roll up and expose the shaft of his cock, gleaming with your slick. He looks at your lips, parted and plump, taking in gasping inhales; your eyes which watch him with lust and wanting.

But Eddie settles his gaze on your breasts. Encased in lace and bouncing as you bounce on his cock. He’s biting his lip so hard you worry he’ll bleed, and his fingers are making bruises in your thighs from the force of his fixation.

“Here,” you say, prying his hands from your thighs and bringing them up to support your breasts. His eyes go wide and he squeezes as a reflex, watching your plush flesh dimple beneath his fingers, threatening to spill for the cups of your bra.

“What are you thinking about?” you ask, breathless, laughing at the fact that he looks almost in pain.

“I’m thinking that you can’t be real. I read one too many dirty magazines and I smoked a bad strain and - oh god.” Eddie throws his head back against the pillow in ecstasy. You follow him down so he doesn’t lose purchase on your breasts. Bearing your weight down on him with your hands anchored on his chest you roll your hips, moving up and down on him faster. Eddie struggles to continue his train of thought.

“I’m worried I’m high out of my mind and that I’m hallucinating you. A vixen my - fuck! A vixen my masochistic mind made up to terrorize me.”

You laugh at his dramatics and lean further down to mouth at his jaw. He shudders beneath you and you clench, making him moan.

“Yeah? Worried you’ll sober up and realize you were humping the bed?” You tease. You slide a hand down his chest, over his abdomen and to your clit, inhaling sharply at your own additional stimulation. “Or that you’re tugging on your dick by yourself?”

“Jesus f-fuck,” he grits out.

“Well you’re not, Eddie. I’m here and you’re fucking me,” you whisper in his ear, relishing in the way goosebumps spring up noticeably on his skin. You speed up your ministrations on your clit and your voice hits a higher pitch to match the desperation in your pistoning hips. “You’re doing so well, Eddie. You make me…oh.”

Eddie’s hands move to your ass now, taking over in a way he hasn’t before. He grips your curves and pulls your pelvis against his, lifting up to rut deep into you so that you cry out. Your eyes widen as he starts to thrust his hips up into you, setting a new pace that’s entirely his own. Your jaw drops and he swallows your gasps when you realize he’s now in control.

“I didn’t thank you for the surprise,” he whispers hoarsely against your skin. You can’t reply to ask him what he means. Not with him now repeatedly hitting that spot deep inside you that has you seeing stars. Thankfully he keeps going. “Dressed up all pretty for me.”

“Oh god, yes Eds. Just for you.”

Eddie pulls you up by the back of the neck gently so he can look into your unfocused eyes.

“For me? All this, just for me, yeah?”

The words are teasing. The nature of the words send a thrill up your spine as you realize this is a glimpse of what he might soon become when his confidence grows and he becomes more comfortable with being intimate with you. But you can still hear the sincerity of the question. The need for confirmation and validation.

“Yeah Eddie. It’s all yours,” you confirm with a frantic nod. Eddie’s eyes get impossibly darker and he groans. His eyes flash down and he grabs one of your breasts.

“Your tits? These mine?” He asks and you buck down into him at the way he squeezes the flesh, rolling your nipple.

“Yes.”

“What about this right here?” he asks, sliding down to your pussy. His hand nudges yours away and he swirls his finger around your clit making you cry out.

“Oh god yes!”

His hand goes up to your throat and pulls you down then for a deep kiss full of longing and questions and answers and you lose the conversation for a moment, just feeling Eddie and your impending release.

When he pulls back his thumb presses against your wet lower lip.

“These?” He asks, swiping over your lip. You can only nod.

It’s then, under the pressure of his eye contact that you fall apart. You ascend, calling out his name and arching back, trying to push him as deep into you as possible to ride out the contractions of your orgasm.

In the fog of your come down you vaguely register him rolling you onto your back again, thrusting hastily till he’s outwardly panting.

He pulls out of you too soon, leaving you empty and aching, but you smile wide at the look of pleasure and agony on his features as he pumps his own cock.

“Oh god oh fuck,” he slurs as he finally cums, his release painting across the lace of your panties which he’d hastily pushed back over your wet cunt.

He hangs his head when he’s finally milked himself dry, holding himself up with his hands on either side of your waist. Panting as he tries to get control of his breath.

When he finally speaks, he gives you a sheepish smile.

“I…I think I ruined it,” he says, gesturing to your messy lingerie. You laugh and pull him down ontop of you, pressing the mess of your pelvises between you.

“Good. You owe me a new set Munson. And I think I like having you in my debt,” you tease, nipping at his ear.

“I’m always in your debt, my vixen,” he mumbles, kissing you on the neck.

~*~

Taglist: @sacklerscumrag @millenialcatlady @theoncrayjoy @cowboy-kylo @copycatkillerfics @boomhauer @boostilinski @wroteclassicaly @eddiesprincess86 @bambigoth-sims @chaoschaoswriting @lassie-bird @softpshycopath @katsukis1wife @spookyreidd

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What native Gallifreyan species are there?

Gallifrey has a diverse range of fauna, both native and introduced. Despite claims of minimal ecological impact, the installation of the Eye of Harmony and millions of years of Time Lord civilisation have significantly altered Gallifrey's original biosphere.

🦋 Invertebrates

Beatitude Flies: Begin as maggots and pupate into golden-winged nocturnal insects. They use nectar to create helium in their bellies and are attracted to light and decay.

Butterflies: Various species flutter across Gallifrey.

Bees: Essential for pollination.

Gullet Grubs: Likely to live in digestive tracts of larger mammals, or similar environments.

Blossom Thieves: Possibly insects that steal nectar or pollen.

Scrubblers: Likely small, cleaning insects.

Neversuch Beetles, Sandbeetles, Waspbeetles: Various beetles.

Dustworms: Likely live in dry, dusty environments.

Scissors Bugs: Possibly predatory insects with sharp mandibles.

Flutterwings: Gigantic insects (3 meters by 25 meters) that never land. Five races include Wild Endeavor, Mandrigal, Silver-Band, Blue Crystal, and Perdition.

Snails

Water-Sligs: Likely aquatic or semi-aquatic molluscs.

Web-Spinning Insects: Including spiders about an inch long.

Other dangerous invertebrates: There are also nasty creatures that live beneath big stones.

🐟 Marine Life

Singing Yaddlefish: Notable for their song, and they can be eaten.

Kittensharks: Hatch from eggs and presumably grow into Catsharks.

Axolotl Salamanders: Amphibious creatures with regenerative abilities.

🐍 Elapids

Taipan: A venomous snake, 10 metres long.

Venal Snakes: Possibly nest-stealers or highly venomous.

Bat-Snakes: Presumably flying snakes.

Dinosauria: 20-meter-long reptiles resembling brontosaurs with thick chitinous scales and serrated teeth.

🦅 Avians

Owls: Symbol of Rassilon.

Flurry Birds: Likely small, fast-moving birds.

Trunkikes: Game birds whose eggs are often eaten.

Air Diamonds: Fly in the upper atmosphere, possibly crystalline or bioluminescent.

Song Birds: Various species.

Gargantosaurs: Dinosaur-like creatures, twice the size of a hab-bloc, with two legs, vestigial wings (with purple and white feathers), and four eyes.

🦣 Mammals

Plungbolls: Thumbnail-sized furry creatures living in mountains, attach en masse to warm objects.

Taffelshrews: Edible rodent-like mammals.

Fledershrews: Bat-like, mushroom eaters, nearly extinct.

Cobblemice: Mice that sprout wings.

Rovie Mice: Field-dwelling, long-lived if kept safe, sometimes pets. They have short memories.

Moss-Rats: Possibly rodents that live in marshes with moss-like camouflage.

Vex: Burrowing animals.

Gallifreyan Womprats: 1-metre-long rats with fifteen legs.

Pig-Rats: Inhabit the Drylands, presumably combining porcine and rodent traits.

Rabbits

Flubbles: Small six-legged koalas.

Unnamed rounder rabbit-like creatures

Ounce-Apes: Might be tiny monkeys that are particularly agile.

Sealak: Perhaps a kind of seal, often eaten.

Bear-Ass: A donkey-like animal with bear-like qualities.

Horse-Cats: Probably a horse/cat hybrid-like species.

Sagittary: Horse-like creatures.

Elephants

Pig-Bears: Can be trained as pets.

Wolf-like Creatures: With long snouts and black-and-white striped fur, almost as big as adult humanoids.

Broakir: Live in foothills, often hunted for food.

Baanjxx: Arboreal browsers that like to eat hallucinogenic cerub nuts. As a child, the Doctor was kicked by one in the head, apparently.

Cows

Walrus

Gallifreyan Marlot: Purple and unique in all of time and space. Probably a bit cat-like.

House Cats: Revered as symbols of intelligence. Traditionally, Presidents kept them as pets.

🐱 Killer Cats (C.A.T.S)

Killer C.A.T.S: These sapient creatures possess instinctive precognitive powers and cat-like physiology. Known for their lethal gladiatorial contests, they despise Time Lord traditions and live in the Gin-Seng Sector of Southern Gallifrey. Their culture includes mercenaries and oracles; they are telepathic.

🏞️ Ecosystem Preservation

Though Gallifrey's outer ecology has suffered, the Time Lords have used technology to preserve many species. Extinct species have been collected, ensuring none become completely extinct. The more fearsome creatures are contained in the Death Zone, while xeno-zoos hold alien species from other worlds.

🏫 So ...

So there's your whistlestop tour of the species on Gallifrey. One day, I'll try to put these onto a species distribution map. Oh, by Rassilon's Beard, I just gave myself more work.

Related:

How is Gallifreyan geography different to Earth?: The landscape of Gallifrey.

Factoid: The Fruits of Gallifrey

What could be some biological traits of Gin-Seng cats?: Looking at who the Gin-Seng cats are, their biology, and their place on Gallifrey and in society.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired😴

[spindrifters]

I've been doing battle with my internet all day to get this up for Lynxmas. I would not be bested!! I refused and I persevered!! So a very happy birthday from me and the rowdy 11 year olds to our favorite barwench humble forest cat @lynxindisguise!!

There’s a peculiar shuffle to sharing one’s room, a frenzy of activity when it comes to four boys squashed into a rather small circular dorm that puts Remus—not only used to the solitude of his own little cottage bedroom, but raised without so much as a single other child his own age for at least ten miles in each direction—decidedly on edge.

It’s a continuation of the chaos from the welcoming feast, where the newly-sorted Gryffindor boys had quickly found their stride and accompanying role in the ecosystem. James and Sirius, no longer competing over who could eat more chicken thighs but still loudly trying to one-up each other’s boasts about feats of accidental magic. Peter, scrabbling to get a word in while his eyes gleamed with excitement each time one of them noticed. And Remus, the impulse to join in the fun warring with Dad’s gentle word of warning before he climbed on the train earlier in the day—can’t be too careful, lad.

He pushes that to the side, focusing instead on finding his plush grindylow Raccoon at the bottom of his trunk. It’s a poor replacement for Jeff, the very real grindylow who lives at the bottom of his garden pond and who he already misses something fierce—and he is not going to let the other boys see that he brought a stuffed animal with him to school, thank you very much—but still. It helps to know that Raccoon’s there. It helps to know he'll have at least one friend at school.

Because Peter’s nice, but he and James are already friends from growing up, and Sirius and James… Well, he supposes they mean well, but with their shining black shoes and posh accents and the way they barrel loud and bright through a conversation like nothing in the world could touch them, Remus can’t help but be intimidated. For Merlin’s sake, Sirius has silver monogrammed cufflinks on the sleeves of his school uniform. Even if Remus does manage the courage to ever string more than two words together in front of his new dormmates, he can’t imagine they’d ever want to be friends with someone like him.

There’s a flash then, followed by a bang, and Remus becomes briefly distracted by a whirling firework escaping from James’s trunk. There’s laughter at that, a slight salve to his fluttering, nervous gut when the other boy winks at him from behind square-frame glasses, but then James turns back to say something to Sirius instead and stops. He gapes.

“Why are you wearing a dress?”

“It’s not a dress,” Sirius sniffs, looking affronted at the very idea. “It’s a nightshirt.”

Well, whatever it is Sirius has changed into while the rest of them weren’t paying attention, it certainly looks like a dress. It’s white, and ankle-length, and buttoned all the way up to just beneath his chin. Also, it’s frilly. Very frilly. If anything, it looks like something out of Ma’s old and battered copy of A Christmas Carol, like he should really have a long nightcap and candleholder to go with it.

Remus can’t help it. He snorts.

Sirius snaps his gaze over, steel grey eyes boring holes into him, and Remus wants to melt into the floor beneath his feet. “Well, what do you wear to sleep, then, if it’s so funny?” he snaps.

“Not my gran’s nightie,” Remus replies, feeling he ought to be congratulated, actually, on such a witty remark. Only Sirius’s eyes flash at that, and immediately his jaw clamps jaw shut.

But then James is cackling, and Sirius seems to take in his new dormmates for the first time since they all began changing for bed. James, in a vest and Quidditch shorts. Peter, in a matching set of broomstick-patterned pyjamas. Remus, in a pair of joggers and the oversized green jumper that still smells like Dad. A red flush creeps up Sirius’s pale cheeks. “Oh.”

It occurs to Remus then, that this wasn’t at all what he wanted, either. He didn’t want to make Sirius feel bad about it. He hadn’t wanted to embarrass him.

So it’s a poor offering, maybe, but he finds himself digging out another jumper—orange, this time, but a nice soft one, and not too oversized or nubby—and says, “D’you want to borrow it?”

A moment passes, then two, and then Sirius is smiling wide. “Cheers, Lupin,” he says, a shine in his eyes of something Remus doesn’t quite know how to place.

In future days he’ll come to understand that that look is the surefire sign of Sirius about to do something that’s not the done thing—not by pureblood standards, anyway, whatever the hell those are. All he knows right now is that Sirius isn’t yelling at him—or worse, ignoring him—and then James is throwing an extra pair of Quidditch shorts at Sirius’s face and saying no one wants to see his skivvies, and then Peter is breaking out a massive bag of Bertie Bott’s to share, and maybe it turns out that Remus can have friends, actually, after all.

[ofmonstersandlovers]

*slams fist on table* HASSIAN CONTENT HASSIAN CONTENT HASSIAN CONTENT

more specifically: how about Hassian arriving at his grove for the evening and finding the player already there, with a homecooked meal waiting for him? (Sernuk steak and roasted potatoes)

*throws table* HASSIAN CONTENT

Just For You ♡

TW: sfw, cute shit, domestic(?), gender neutral reader, Hassian being a tsundere like normal, mentions of the mayor and Reth (my love), chapaa hate from hassian lol

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

The sky gradually darkened with hues of dark blue as nighttime approaches. The familiar sounds of the Grove accompanying Hassian as his feet crunch leaves with each easy step he takes. It wasn't a successful hunt today, leaving him frustrated and tense.

It did not help that the mayor still continued to boast about the prospects of the Chapaas being suitable pets. Despite the wretched things multiplying at a dizzying rate and threatening the balance of the ecosystem. A fact the hunter consistently brings up, and it consistently falls on deaf ears.

Well. Not all ignore his loud concerns - Y/N takes his words very seriously. When they choose to, that is.

It seems so long ago since the human came to the small village. A phenomenon that has been happening all over Palia - the resurgence of humans long since thought to be a legend.

Who would've thought Hassian would be close to a species one considered lost to time?

Adjusting the strap of his quiver, he sees the sights of his home, the Grove. His body sags as he enters the area restricted to most of Bahari Bay and Kilima Valley residents. Though, to his surprise, a savory scent greets him along with the foliage.

There, he sees Y/N, plating up something from the camp fire with a content expression. One that turns to a beaming one as they glance over to notice his presence. Such unfiltered delight stutters his heartbeat. His grip tightens on his bow as he strides closer.

"What is it that you're doing?"

"Well, hello to you too!" The human chuckles as they finish up one of the plates. Straightens from their crouched position to move closer to the Majiri. Allowing the other to see exactly what they were up to. "I wanted to have dinner with you, so I made something! I got the recipe from Reth."

Hassian's gaze lowered to the offered plate - beautiful seared Sernuk steak with honey glazed potatoes greets him. The aroma arousing his stomach, which he was not aware was empty.

Yet what really caught his attention was the gesture. Y/N made him something for them both to enjoy after a long day that felt like hours of agitation.

Hassian coughs, hand raising in a loose fist up to his mouth as he averts his eyes. Feel the sensation of his face warming alongside the loud pound of his pulse.

"You didn't have to do this." Is what leaves him instead of a simple 'thank you'. Needing a moment before he lowers his fist to gingerly take the plate from the human's hands. Peering down once more at his dinner.

"But I wanted to," Y/N shrugs as they made their way back to the campfire. Confident that the Majiri would follow them. And they were right - he follows obediently without complaint. Settling on a log next to them as he forks up a small bite of the potatoes.

The honey flavor mixed with the freshness of rosemary and thyme refreshing to his tongue. Bringing a low rumble of satisfaction from his chest as he forks up a much bigger bite. Unaware of the proud grin that's bright on the human's face as they plate up their own food and eats along with him.

It's... nice.

It's hard to truly describe it, the comforting feeling that settles over them as they eat together with the added lights of the paper lantern bugs fluttering about. Vastly different from sharing food with his mother or trying one of the many new concoctions Reth creates.

He wants this to be a daily thing. Something to consistently come home to.

Oh.

Hassian pauses as he swallows a bite of Sernuk steak, peering timidly over to Y/N who chats about their day. The light of the flickering fire dancing across their faces, bringing illumination to their beautiful features. A sight that not even the greatest poet could properly capture into words.

"Hassian?"

The Majiri blinks out of his thoughts, caught staring silently at the other who only tilts their head curiously at him. Eyes still soft as they gaze at him.

"Everything okay?"

Flustered, he scoffs as he tears his gaze away. The warmth to his face now a burning heat to trails to his pointed ears as he busies himself with another bite of food.

"The food isn't bad," he grumbles around the mouthful, shrugging with his left shoulder as he gestures with his fork. "Continue - what happened with Tish?"

Y/N is quiet for a second before laughing underneath her breath. Continuing the story of their day with animated expressions and gestures.

And as they share the night together, Hassian subtly suggests another recipe that involves Sernuk meat for them to try together.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

[undertopiatales]

Devotion

Warning(s): Kidnapping, Implied cheating, Angst(?), Mentions of fighting, Sexual themes, NSFW

Pairing: Arlecchino x Female Reader

Darkness. That's the only thing you can see. Your mind is fogged and unable to think straight. Are you perhaps dreaming?

You feel empty. Why are you feeling this unpleasant emotion? Did something unfortunate happen? Did you perhaps encounter misfortune?

Unfortunate? Misfortune?

As your mind lingers on those words, a memory of you crying and screaming at anger and regret flashes through your mind. Why are you crying like a child? Why are you screaming like it's the end of the world? Why? You don't know, but you want to know.

A deafening silence slowly makes your mind regain consciousness and stirs you awake. As your eyes flutter open, you find yourself in a bed inside a dimly lit room. The air feels cold and damp. Your eyes struggle to adjust to the only light source inside the chamber.

You start asking yourself "Where am I?", "How did I end up here?", "What happened?". As your mind continues to process all the questions you ask yourself, you try to sit up, only to stop for a moment as you feel a stinging pain in your head. Did you have an accident? Did someone knock you up?

Your body feels heavy and sluggish, and your breathing is ragged and shaky as you start to panic. You also find out that both of your wrists were tied up on each bedpost, which makes you panic even more. You tried to take a deep breath to calm yourself down. You also tried to scan the room as your eyes started to adjust to the darkness.

"You're finally awake."

Your breath hitches when you hear that familiar voice echoing through the room. You try to search for the source of the voice until you spot a figure not far away from you. You squint your eyes only to see the figure start to move and walk in your direction, which makes your heart stop beating.

Every time you hear the figure's footstep clacking through the wooden floor of the room, your chest tightens up. Once you can clearly see the figure's body, your body stiffens up. How could you even forget about her anyway, especially with those eyes of hers? It's like it could kill you if you dare to stare at them too much.

"How do you feel?" she asked you.

You didn't answer her; you just glared at her instead. She slowly walks to where you are and sits at the edge of the bed. You follow every movement of hers, and as long as you stare at her, your mind starts to remember what happened.

You were part of the Forest Rangers from Sumeru. As a forest ranger, you're responsible for helping travelers as well as preserving the ecosystem of Sumeru's rainforests. You also have a lover who's loyal and devoted to you—or that's what you thought.

It was a normal day in the forest. You were helping travelers as well as reporting about withering zones in the forest. It was a completely normal day; it was supposed to be.

You quickly finish your job for today so you can surprise and spend time with your lover; it was your anniversary today after all. After you reach your shared home, you quickly twist the doorknob, but it is locked. You were confused because your lover was supposed to be here. You tried to call for your lover, but there was no response. You tried to open the window, and you thanked your archon; it worked.

After you use the window as the entrance, you are greeted by a dark hallway. You try to search every part of your shared house to find your lover, but you fail. You sigh, but you remember that you haven't checked your bedroom.

You wish you had never done that. You wish you had never opened that door that ended your world. As you twist the doorknob and open the door, you find your partner hugging another person. They're both sleeping naked and snuggled up underneath the blanket.

You don't know what happened next after seeing that; you're probably blinded by your rage and hatred, but you're sure about one thing: It broke you.

It's been a month since that unfortunate event. You decided to leave your shared home and live alone. You started to drink at the bar just to drown out those feelings and fill that emptiness inside of you. You don't know why your ex-lover did that. As you continued to drink, you thought you were doing something right. You thought everything was fine.

You feel funny. Now that you're alone with nothing, you don't know what to do. You don't even have the guts to break their ties. Another month has passed, and you are slowly getting back at yourself now. Even though you still feel empty inside, you managed to pull yourself together. You managed to get back to work and promised yourself to devote yourself to much better things, like your nation.

One night, at your shift. You heard a group of people not far from your position. When you start walking to check it out, you find yourself catching up to them, and you weren't expecting who they were. Fatui.

You hide yourself in the bush, trying to understand what they are doing. As you continue to watch them, you have come to the conclusion that they are experimenting with something dangerous that can cause destruction in the forest.

You want to run. You wanted to run and call for help, but your pride and your stupid devotion got the best of you. Even though you only have your bow, a couple of arrows, and a dagger, you ignore them.

You start to take them down one after another. Even without vision, you managed to hold your ground against them. It's probably the adrenaline rushing through your veins, and your devotion to Sumeru is the reason why you are standing there and fighting countless Fatui members.

You remember the only thing you could hear there was your war cry, your speech for Sumeru and Fatui members falling into the ground, and that caught one specific member of the Fatui. It's been almost half an hour now, and you're still high on adrenaline. You thought to yourself that you'd be a worthy hero, a hero that would finally be acknowledged by Sumeru, but it all came crashing down when you got blown away by an explosion.

You collapsed there, unable to move your body, but your eyes were still locked on them, especially at one person who was staring back at you. You stare at her as she orders her men to leave those Fatui members you took down. When she's about to leave, she gives you one final glance before walking away.

You thought you were just an insect for her to step on before leaving, and that pisses you off so much. You try to stand up, ignoring all the pain from the injury you got from the explosion earlier. You wanted to destroy that face of hers. Out of rage, you manage to grab your dagger and charge towards her. You managed to make a small cut on her cheek before you got blown away again and hit your head on the ground.

After you lose your consciousness, the next thing you know, you're here, at the woman you have lost.

"Speak. You're not a mute, right? I hear your little speech when you're fighting. So you better start answering my questions before I lose my patience, got that?"

You nodded immediately. As you scan her, her face remains the same. Unfazed.

"Again, how do you feel?" she asked again.

"I'm fine, I guess. My head and body still hurt, but I'm fine," you answered.

"You must be wondering why you are here, right? You must be wondering why I didn't leave you to bleed and die, right?" she asked in a cold way.

"You need something from me then..." you mumbled.

"I do. You intrigue me. Your devotion, your guts, it intrigues me. Even though you have no vision or any powerful weapon, you managed to defeat my men. Why didn't you run? What made you push for that stupid little stunt of yours?"

You don't know what to say. Was it because of your loyalty? Was it because you wanted to save Sumeru? Was it to save people's lives?

"I don't know," you muttered.

"Tch, I should have warned you about hiding the truth. Well, it's my problem that I forgot to say something about lying."

"I..." Before you could even speak, she stopped you.

"Hush now; you don't need to answer it. It's not like I don't know everything about your miserable life."

Know everything about you? At first, you didn't believe her until her mouth spilled out your name.

"How did you know?" Before you could even finish what you were going to say, she stopped you again.

"Just like I said earlier, you intrigue me. You piqued my interest. Fatui are experts when it comes to gathering information, and in your case, a lowly forest ranger would be an easy target." She grinned at you.

"I know everything about you: your name, your age, family members, everything."

She looked at you and saw your scared expression, which made her grin more.

"I also know your little tragedy of yours." That line alone made you shiver down your spine. You want to forget about that. You want to forget about that and never look back.

When she saw your troubled and hurt expression, her smile widened even more.

"It looks like the information about your ex-partner having an affair behind your back is true."

You don't want to talk about it. It's making your heart ache. The hole inside you that you're trying to fill is slowly opening, but the girl beside you seems to be enjoying it. Seeing your hurt and regretful expression only makes this interesting to her.

She slowly leaned in your ear and whispered, "Do you want to know a secret?" She pulled away from your ear to see your face.

"Do you know your ex-partner has been lying to you?"

What does she mean by that? What do you mean by lying?

"Do you know when you caught them sleeping together, that wasn't the first time they did that?"

Your heart dropped at her statement. You don't want to believe it. Of course, you're angry with your ex-lover, but when you find out that they've been doing this behind your back for a very long time, it makes your heart ache.

Your vision starts to get blurry as tears from your eyes start to fall. You don't want to believe in her, but it's no use. She knows everything about you, and she already proved it once. You just need to accept it.

Your tears start to pour more from your eyes, as if the damn inside you had been broken down. The woman beside you was amazed by your expression; watching your tears of regret and sorrow slide down from your cheek to her bed made it more interesting to her.

A moment later, when you calm down, your eyes are red from crying, and the pained expression of yours is fully presented to the woman beside you.

"Are you done crying now?" she asked with a grin on her face. "That was an interesting play."

"Are you done toying with me?"

"Pretty much so."

"So what now? Are you going to dispose of me?"

"Didn't you just hear what I said earlier? You piqued my interest; why would I discard you?"

At this point, you don't know what to expect from her anymore.

Her gloved hand slowly reached for your cheek to brush off the tears from earlier.

"I want you to join me. I want you to join Fatui," she said while cupping your cheeks.

"Why do you want me to join you? I'm weak. I have no vision or anything."

"I thought it was obvious by now?" she said as she slowly moved her other hand to your thighs, surprising you and making you look her in the eyes.

"I want your loyalty, I want your devotion, I want everything from you. It fascinates me how devoted you are to your partner and your nation, even without getting anything in return. I want that to myself. I want your heart to worship me instead. I want to show your stupid ex-partner of yours what they wasted."

She brushed her gloved hand on your lips, and your body instantly leaned into her touch.

"Well, would you look at that?" she teased you as she felt you starting to melt on her touches.

"I want you."

You couldn't resist yourself anymore. You wanted to admit that you had already lost yourself to the woman right in front of you.

She cupped your face with both of her hands and leaned down to capture your lips. It was a gentle and soothing kiss. The kiss lasts for a moment before she pulls away. She starts to leave open kisses on your exposed neck, leaving marks and hickeys all over it.

You can't still move because of the restraint on your wrists. If you weren't tied right now, your hands would be all over the woman in front of you right now. You're going insane with her kisses alone. After marking your neck, she pulled away only to crash her lips against yours, but this time it was more rough and dominant than the last time.

You moaned into the kiss; the growing heat between your legs was starting to take over your senses. You want to get touched in that place by her. She pulled away a few moments later, allowing both of you to breathe.

"Please... touch me," you desperately begged for her.

"The name's Arlecchino. I want you to say it. I want you to beg for it with my name on it."

"Please touch me down there, Arlecchino."

"I knew you'd fall for me," she laughed. She finally had you in her grasp. You were finally hers, like she wanted.

She freed your hands from the restraints before taking off her glove and sliding her hand under your pants. Her fingers brushed against your wet entrance. You moaned as you felt her two fingers slide inside you, pumping in and out.

You were hers when you reached your climax with her fingers. You were hers when you jumped into her warm embrace. You were hers when you both spent the night full of intimacy. You were hers the moment you both fell asleep on the same bed.

You were hers when you wore your Fatui uniform and mask after the night that changed everything. You were hers every time you visited her chamber every night. Every time, when just the two of you are present, she makes you feel loved because she knows how much she has grown to truly love you.

You were hers at that time.

[minty-mumbles]

LU Mer AU - Harsh Reality

Summary: The story of how Wild's fins got scarred

TW: Violence and blood

AN: @breannasfluff some fish for you 🐠 🐟

(Read this and the rest of the AU on AO3)

~~~

Ever since Wild and Wind had joined up with another loner- an octopus Mer named Hyrule- things had been smooth sailing. It still wasn’t exactly easy, but with two hunters in the group instead of just one, it was significantly simpler to fill everyone’s bellies. 

With Hyrule there, Wild didn’t have to leave Wind alone when he went to hunt. Hyrule also had magic, a fact he’d hesitantly revealed to the pair three weeks after joining them in their travels. Wild was hesitant to ask Hyrule to use his magic, as he didn’t want to frighten the octopus away, but when one of them did get hurt, there was less for Wild to worry about than before. 

Not having to worry so much about getting food or any injuries they might acquire had lulled Wild into a false sense of security, something he wouldn’t realize until it was too late. 

For the past day and a half, the three of them had been traveling along a sharp drop-off that led to the deep waters Wild himself had been raised in. The cold waters that rose from the depths were rich in nutrients, which allowed a flourishing ecosystem to thrive along the cliff’s edge. It was more than enough to sustain at least a small pod, but the cold waters chased away many nearby tropical Mer pods that might have been looking to expand their territory. 

Wind was amusing himself by seeing how far he would dare to dart out over the open waters before getting too nervous and fleeing back to the safety of the cliff. Both Wild and Hyrule were keeping a lazy eye on him while chatting about their next move. Wild might be comfortable staying here for a while, but the cold water wouldn’t be good for Hyrule or Wind long term. They would have to move on eventually. 

But for now, it seemed safe enough.

Being able to reassure himself that there wasn’t any danger of attracting unwanted attention from other Mer put Wild’s mind at ease. Probably for the first time since he had found Wind. he was truly relaxed. 

Dropping his guard was a mistake, one he didn’t recognize until their peace was broken by Hyrule letting out a warning screech that had Wind darting toward the relative safety of the cliff. 

Wild was caught off guard by the warning call, twisting in the water to try and pinpoint what Hyrule was alerting to. It didn't take much time to locate the threat- rather, it didn’t take long for the threat to locate Wild. 

A sharp blow to his side sent him flying into the side of the cliff. Stunned for a moment, Wild opened his mouth- to shriek, or call for Hyrule, or something- but all the water had been knocked out of his lungs. A sharp edge of the rocks dug into the gills on his chest, making it harder to breathe. Slowly, he rebounded back away from the wall, unable to control the direction he was drifting. 

Gills fluttering, he desperately tried to reorient himself. Slowly, the world came back into focus, and now that he could breathe again, other things started to filter back into his awareness. Hyrule yelling, Wind wailing, and a deep, unfamiliar snarl. 

“We’re sorry! We didn't know this was someone’s territory! I swear we’ll leave right away, we’re sorry!” Hyrule’s attempt at placating the strange Mer was lost to Wild as he managed to twist around to take in the threat, wincing as his ribs screamed in protest.

Before him, Hyrule had placed himself in between Wild and the new Mer, and was staring them down. His arms were spread out to the sides as if to block the larger Mer from swimming around him to get to Wild and a faint green shimmer in the water told Wild that Hyrule was casting a shielding spell as well. Thankfully, Wind was nowhere to be seen, and had stopped wailing after seeing that Wild was still well enough to move on his own.

For a moment, Wild could only feel gratitude that Hyrule would throw himself in the path of danger for Wild, someone who he’d only known for a few months at best. That feeling was quickly shoved aside. He would have time to be thankful after they got away. For now, he had to focus. 

He swam up behind Hyrule, presenting a more united front. The other Mer seemed hesitant to attack right away when they saw Hyrule’s magic, which gave Wild enough time to observe them. 

They were clearly a deep sea Mer like Wild, with a black tail with jagged stripes of dark purple covering their fins. The most important thing about them though, was how large they were. They were a fully grown adult, likely over seventy based on their size alone. 

And they did not look friendly.

Oh, that’s not good, Wild thought. He might have even said it out loud, but it was lost as the Mer seemed to grow tired of hesitating. In a swift movement, they twisted their body, coiling up tightly and then striking out with their tail against the barrier Hyrule had erected. Hyrule’s magic was no match for the harsh strike, and the green glimmer in the water shattered upon impact. 

That must have been what they did to me, Wild realized absently as he grabbed Hyrule and dove straight down, out of the way of the strike. He propelled them down- five feet, then ten, then twenty. 

When he finally let go of Hyrule, they were a good twenty-five feet below the other Mer, who had twisted to watch them move further away, but didn’t pursue them. Their eyes glinted harshly in the low light, and Wild shivered as he realized that the only reason the Mer wasn't following was because they were heading deeper into the Mer’s territory. There was no reason to follow because they were running away. They were just heading into more familiar waters to the other Mer.

Wild gave Hyrule a shove to get the octopus to stop clinging to him. Hyrule withdrew quickly but with clear reluctance. Quietly, Wild hissed, “Stay here. If things go bad, take Wind and get as far away as you can.” Hyrule looked like he wanted to protest, but he gave Wild a firm nod and a sharp click of agreement.

With Hyrule’s confirmation that even if things went south, Wind would still have a chance, Wild darted back up through the water toward the larger Mer. 

Attacking from below was hardly ever effective unless the one you were attacking didn’t know you were coming, and the other Mer definitely knew Wild was coming, but there wasn’t much to do about that. He had to distract them for long enough for Hyrule to slip around the side and find where Wind had hidden himself. Wild was under no impression that this would go well for him. The other Mer was half again as long as he was, and clearly much older. Wild would need a miracle to fight them off. 

As he swam upwards, he stretched out his fins as much as he could. The drag of the extra width slowed him down a little, but he knew it was worth it for the effect.

Wild knew from experience that his larger-than-average fins gave even the largest Mer pause when they saw his threat display. This time was no different, the other Mer’s eyes widening for a second. They righted themselves quickly, preparing for the initial clash, but that split-second delay was just what Wild needed. It threw them off balance, making it easier to predict their next move. 

They curled up again, clearly trying to use the same smacking move they had used to break Hyrule’s shield, but Wild was prepared, ducking around their tail. He reached out a hand toward the other Mer’s chest, claws bared, aiming for their gills. Injuries to the gills were a quick way to incapacitate someone. It was usually considered a dirty move to go for the gills, but Wild couldn’t afford to fight fair.

Border skirmishes were quick and violent affairs, and usually left one party grievously injured, if not dead. Wild knew he couldn’t hold back. He had to use every trick in the book to get the upper hand. 

His slash was knocked off course by the Mer swinging an arm out, catching Wild in the shoulder and swatting him away easily. The strength of the blow made pain bloom in his shoulder, and he hissed loudly, drawing his arm close, cradling it to his body.

The pain distracted him, and his hiss quickly turned into a shriek of agony as new pain bloomed along his fins. 

Blood flooded the water as he quickly retracted his fins toward his body, twisting around to face his opponent again, who had moved off a few feet. The Mer grinned at him with a mouth full of sharp teeth, looking not at all sorry. The claws on both hands glistened with blood- Wild’s blood. 

Wild’s dorsal fin and one of his pelvic fins burned. Every movement through the water caused the pain to flare up further. 

This time the other Mer moved first, no doubt thinking they had just guaranteed their victory. Wild wasn’t ready. He felt like he could barely move with the burn in his fins, but he didn’t have a choice. 

He waited until the last second, then flung himself out of the way of the blow, using his momentum to drive his claws into the Mer’s hip- then rake them halfway down their tail before his momentum pulled his claws right out of their flesh. The Mer howled as blood flooded the water. 

It was coming faster than Wild expected, even with the long ragged cuts his claws had left. Had he hit an artery? 

The other Mer seemed to have the same thought, hands coming to cover the wounds, their face shifting from a victorious smile to a horrified wide-eyed look. Their hands did nothing to stop the outpouring of blood. 

Abruptly, they turned and dove, sinking faster and faster through the water. For a moment, Wild was worried they were going to go after Hyrule where he was clinging to the cliff, but they fell straight past him. 

In moments, the murk of the depths obscured them. There was startling silence, unsettling after the shrieks of battle. The only proof there had been a battle at all was the blood lingering in the water and the wounds littering Wild’s body. 

He hesitated for a moment, staring down into the darkness. He half expected the other Mer to come barreling back up out of the depths, but they didn’t. 

It felt like an eternity later when a soft touch on their arm shocked them out of their staring contest with the abyss. Slowly, Wild turned to stare at Hyrule. Hyrule looked worried. His arms were full of a nervously clicking Wind, who WIld noted looked blessedly unhurt. One of Hyrule’s tentacles was stretched out to caress Wild’s shoulder.

Still, Wild felt frozen. He couldn’t move, couldn't speak. He could feel himself slowly drifting downward as he continued to not move, but he couldn't convince his body to move. 

Slowly, he could feel more of Hyrule's tentacles wrap around him, as the abyss rose up to consume his vision and the sweet blackness of oblivion washed the pain of his injuries away.

[jcxbliss]

Song Of The Deep

Pairing - Lee Seokmin (Siren) x Female Reader (Researcher)

Genre - Fantasy, Angst, 18+ Themes

Word Count - 4k

Warnings- So far none

Author's Note - Hi guys, please be kind I haven't written in a while, I want this to go a bit slower and have no set date on when it will be done. This will have a few parts and will have both your (the reader <3) POV and Seokmin's POV, Please enjoy <3

(ANYONE CAN JOIN THE TAGLIST)

Tags - @hipsdofangirl

Part One: Assignment

Sat in your cluttered office, surrounded by towering stacks of research papers and half-empty coffee mugs. The soft hum of the fluorescent lights above was the only sound accompanying you as you focused intently on your computer screen, your sharp eyes scanning the latest data. Just as you began to lose yourself in the labyrinth of entomological charts and graphs, a gentle knock at the door disrupted your solitude.

"Come in," you called, your voice carrying a note of impatience.

The door creaked open, and Dr. Michael Bennett, the esteemed head of the entomology department and your mentor, stepped inside. His typically crisp, businesslike demeanor was tinged with an uncharacteristic glimmer of excitement. In his hand, he carried a thick manila envelope, the edges slightly crumpled from the journey.

He placed the envelope on your desk with a flourish, the muted thud of paper against wood breaking the quiet. "Good morning," he began, his eyes sparkling with barely contained enthusiasm. "I’ve got something special for you."

You tilted your head, curiosity piqued. “Special? Do tell.”

Dr. Bennett eased into the chair across from you, leaning forward slightly as if to share a secret. “You’ve been selected for a new research project—one that will take you to Italy.”

Your eyes widened, reflecting a mix of surprise and delight. “Italy? As in, the Italy with the pasta, the art, and—?”

“Yes, that Italy,” he confirmed, his grin widening. “But it’s not just any location. You’ll be heading to a quaint village near Naples. Your focus will be on a particularly elusive insect known as the lacewing. It’s a species not commonly found in Europe, which makes it an exciting subject for study.”

A flutter of exhilaration danced in your chest. “Lacewing? I’ve read about them in journals, but I never imagined I’d get to study them. Though it is strange that they are located there aren't they typically a Northern American insect, not to mention basically wiped off the face of the Earth?” 

Dr. Bennett’s expression grew more animated. “Precisely. This is a rare chance to contribute to our understanding of a species that has been largely overlooked. The unique ecosystems around Naples provide an ideal setting for observing these insects in their natural environment. You’re on the brink of a groundbreaking study.”

Your mind raced with the possibilities. Italy’s sun-drenched landscapes, the promise of discovering a rare insect, and the thrill of venturing into uncharted scientific territory—it was a dream come true.

“Thank you, Dr. Bennett,” you said, your voice trembling with a mix of gratitude and excitement. “This is incredible.”

He rose from his seat, offering a supportive pat on the shoulder. “I knew you’d be thrilled. Start preparing; you’ll be flying out in a few weeks. And remember, this could be a significant breakthrough. Make the most of it.” As he turned around to walk away he stops and turns back around to you. Your eyes glance back up to him and raise an eyebrow. 

‘I also failed to mention that you will have three other researchers with you, so play nice.” As Dr. Bennett left the room, you stared at the manila envelope on your desk. It seemed almost to hum with potential, a tangible symbol of the new chapter about to unfold in your life. The thought of embarking on this adventure to study the lacewing in the enchanting surroundings of Naples filled you with an electric sense of anticipation.  

A few weeks later, you and three other researchers touched down in Italy. The plane’s wheels touched down with a gentle thud on the tarmac at Naples International Airport. The early afternoon sun bathed the landscape in a warm, golden hue, and you could already feel the excitement bubbling within you.

The four of you gathered your belongings and navigated through the bustling airport, the aroma of fresh espresso and pastries filling the air. The group comprised Lee Seokmin, a tall Korean researcher with dark hair and an ever-present, disarming smile. He had a way of making everything seem effortlessly friendly, even in the most stressful situations. Azail Michaels, on the other hand, was a tall, lanky figure whose baby face belied an air of quiet intensity. His reserved demeanor made him seem as though he was guarding some personal mystery. Lastly, there was Lucy Appleton, a shorter woman in her 40s with a relaxed demeanor and a quiet intensity about her work. Her laid-back attitude seemed to contrast with her meticulous approach to research.

“Welcome to Italy!” Lee Seokmin said, his voice brimming with enthusiasm as he clapped you on the back. “Can you believe we’re finally here?”

“Not quite yet,” you replied with a grin, scanning the lively scene around you. “But it’s starting to sink in.”

Azail, who had been quietly observing the surroundings, adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “Let’s not get too distracted. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Then Lucy who was busy checking the details of your itinerary, looked up and gave the group a reassuring smile. “Relax, Azail. We’ve got plenty of time to get to work. For now, let’s just enjoy the journey. We’re in one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

With your luggage in tow, the group made its way to the rental van. The drive through the Italian countryside was picturesque, with rolling hills and vineyards stretching out under the clear blue sky. As you neared the small village near Naples where you would be based for the next few weeks, the landscape became more rustic and charming.

Once you arrived at your accommodations, a quaint bed-and-breakfast nestled among olive groves, you were greeted by the warm hospitality of the host, who provided a brief orientation. The place had an inviting, homey atmosphere, with a cozy garden and views of the surrounding countryside.

“You’ve all got your rooms ready,” the host said with a smile. “Feel free to settle in and get comfortable. Dinner will be served around seven.”

After a quick unpacking session, you and your team gathered in the common area, sharing a relaxed moment before diving into the research ahead. Lee Seokmin was already chatting animatedly about his plans to explore the local cuisine, while Lucy was making notes about the schedule and tasks for the next few days.

Azail, having found a quiet corner, was absorbed in examining a map of the region, his thoughtful expression revealing a deeper level of concentration. You could tell that, despite his reserved nature, he was deeply committed to the project.

“You think we’ll find anything unusual?” Seokmin asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

“I hope so,” you replied, feeling the weight of anticipation. “This is a rare opportunity. I’m eager to see what we can uncover about the lacewings.”

Lucy nodded in agreement. “And let’s not forget to enjoy the process. We’re here to make discoveries, but we should also savor the experience. Italy has so much to offer.”

As the sun began to set, casting a warm glow over the village, you felt a sense of optimism. With a dedicated team and a beautiful setting, the journey ahead promised to be both challenging and rewarding.

After excusing yourself to bed, you slipped quietly back into the bed-and-breakfast. The tranquil night was a stark contrast to the earlier excitement, and the comforting warmth of your room welcomed you as you entered.

The bedroom was a serene haven, softly illuminated by the warm, amber glow of a bedside lamp. The walls were painted in a soothing, muted cream, and the wooden floorboards were covered with an intricate, hand-woven rug that added a touch of coziness. A gentle, floral scent lingered in the air, blending with the faint aroma of the earth from the gardens outside.

The centerpiece of the room was a large, inviting bed with a sturdy, wooden frame. The bed was adorned with a soft, deep blue duvet that had a subtle sheen, hinting at its plushness. The pillows were arranged neatly, their crisp covers offering a promise of comfort. The bed was flanked by two wooden nightstands, each holding a simple, elegant lamp with a soft, gold shade that cast a gentle, ambient light.

Opposite the bed, a wide window framed a view of the moonlit garden. The window was adorned with thick, velvet drapes that could be drawn for privacy but were currently pulled back, allowing the cool, silver light of the moon to spill into the room. The gentle breeze rustling through the sheer curtains added a sense of tranquility.

A small armchair sat by the window, upholstered in a soft, patterned fabric. It was a cozy spot that invited you to sit and relax, but tonight, you were drawn to the comfort of the bed. Nearby, an antique wooden dresser with brass handles held a few personal items and framed photographs, adding a touch of personal warmth to the room.

You moved to the bed and pulled back the covers, feeling the cool, inviting texture of the sheets. Slipping under the duvet, the warmth quickly enveloped you, contrasting with the chill of the night air that lingered on your skin. The bed was soft and cradling, and the gentle hum of the house settling around you created a soothing backdrop.

You positioned yourself comfortably, nestling into the plush pillows. The soft, rhythmic sound of your breathing, coupled with the occasional rustle of the curtains, created a calming, almost hypnotic atmosphere. Your mind began to quiet, the day's activities and the remnants of the dream fading into a distant haze.

As you closed your eyes, the peacefulness of the room wrapped around you like a gentle embrace. The soft light and the comforting warmth of the bed lulled you deeper into relaxation. Gradually, the world outside faded away, and you surrendered to the soothing pull of sleep, your body sinking into the mattress as the last threads of wakefulness slipped away.

As you drifted into a deep sleep, the serene ambiance of your room enveloped you, and the boundary between wakefulness and dreams began to blur. The peaceful darkness of your bedroom was soon replaced by the vivid landscape of a dream that unfolded with the intensity of a midsummer night.

The sky was ablaze with hues of amber and violet as you stepped onto the soft, sun-warmed sand of the beach. The golden light of the setting sun kissed the waves, transforming them into a shimmering tapestry of liquid gold. Each step you took felt like a soft whisper against your skin, the warmth of the sand sinking into your toes, creating a sensation of perfect tranquility.

The distant sound of the ocean was soothing, but it was the melody that captivated you—a hauntingly beautiful song drifting through the twilight. It seemed to rise and fall with the rhythm of the waves, weaving an enchanting tale that promised secrets and stories hidden in the fading light. You felt the magic of the moment enveloping you, the song beckoning you towards the water.

Compelled by the melody, you ventured closer to the shoreline. The cold nipped at your toes as you crouched down to dip your fingertips into the water. The sensation was both startling and alluring. As you pushed your fingers deeper into the mud-like sand, something caught your gaze—a movement in the deep liquid in front of you. You squinted, trying to make out what you had seen, and briefly glimpsed a pair of sharp, watching eyes. You blinked, unsure if this was a figment of your imagination or something more.

"Join me," a voice whispered through the twilight, its tone both alluring and urgent. It was a haunting melody carried by the evening breeze, seductive and mesmerizing. The voice wove through the air like a silken thread, its lilt rising and falling with the rhythm of the waves. As you listened, the call seemed to pulse with a hidden promise, drawing you deeper into the dream's embrace.

Rising to your feet, you began to step into the water. The sand shifted beneath your feet, warming them briefly before the cold of the ocean settled deep into your bones. The waves lapped around your ankles, and you felt a chill run up your spine. Despite the chill, the pull of the melody was irresistible.

“Y/N!” The voice cut through the enchanting melody like a lifeline, sharp and insistent. The familiar sound yanked you back from the edge of the water, pulling you away from the haunting song that promised mystery and danger. The clear, commanding tone reminded you of reality, urging you to turn away and step back onto solid ground.

You glanced back over your shoulder into the water, where you had once seen those piercing eyes. Now, all you saw were the undulating waves, reflecting the fading light of the sunset. The alluring song had faded to a distant echo, its spell lingering but no longer as potent.

“Coming,” you murmured, your voice soft and distant, as if still wrapped in the remnants of the dream. Though you turned away from the water’s edge, each step felt heavy and slow, as if you were dragging yourself from a deep trance. The dream’s enchantment clung to you, making the world around you blur and waver, reluctant to fully return to the comforting reality of your bed.

As you continued to walk, the dream’s spell slowly released its hold, the last echoes of the melody fading into the background. The boundary between the dreamscape and the waking world grew clearer, but the lingering sense of mystery and the haunting melody stayed with you as you gradually returned to consciousness.

The dream had left you restless, and as you slowly emerged from sleep, you found yourself wrapped in a disorienting haze. The remnants of the haunting melody still echoed faintly in your mind, and the serene stillness of the night seemed almost too quiet in comparison. The soft rustling of the olive trees outside your window and the occasional chirp of a cicada were the only sounds breaking the silence.

You sat up in bed, your heart racing with a blend of curiosity and unease. The dream had felt so real, so urgent, and the remnants of its allure clung to you like a whisper from another world. The familiar surroundings of your bedroom felt oddly distant as you rubbed your eyes, struggling to shake off the lingering effects of the dream.

With a mix of apprehension and determination, you quietly slipped out of bed. The cool night air, seeping through the open window, kissed your skin and invigorated your senses. You pulled on a light jacket, the fabric feeling reassuringly familiar against the chill of the night. You crept through the house, each creak of the floorboards beneath your feet adding to the tension that had built up inside you.

The moon cast a silvery glow over the landscape as you stepped outside, the darkness pierced only by the soft light of the moon. The path leading from the bed-and-breakfast to the beach was bathed in a shimmering silver light, and you followed it with a sense of both trepidation and resolve. The path was quiet and undisturbed, lined with the occasional whispering olive tree that seemed to sway gently in the breeze.

When you reached the beach, the scene was eerily tranquil. The gentle lapping of the waves against the shore was the only sound, a soothing counterpoint to the haunting melody still echoing in your mind. You stood at the edge of the water, the sand cool and slightly gritty beneath your feet. The ocean stretched out before you like a vast, undulating expanse of darkness, its surface reflecting the pale light of the moon.

You hesitated, the coolness of the water contrasting sharply with the warmth of the sand. The sensation of the waves brushing against your toes sent a shiver up your spine, and the cold seemed to reach deep into your bones. The memory of the sharp eyes you had glimpsed in the dream flashed before you, adding to your growing sense of unease.

Just then, the whisper of the dream echoed through your mind again: “Join me.” The voice was softer now, almost like a distant murmur, but it still held an alluring quality that was difficult to ignore. The pull was almost irresistible, drawing you further into the water with an almost magnetic force.

You took another step forward, the water lapping around your ankles and seeping through your shoes. You crouched down, the water rising to your knees as you dipped your fingers into the cool, liquid embrace. The sensation was both thrilling and unsettling, the contrast between the cold water and the warm, dreamlike allure creating a bizarre, hypnotic effect.

As you pushed your fingers deeper into the sand, a cloud of fine particles stirred up, and you caught a fleeting glimpse of something shifting beneath the surface—a glint of something that seemed almost too deliberate to be a trick of the light.

The dream’s whisper, now more insistent, filled your ears: “Join me.” The voice was clearer, more urgent, and it sliced through the dreamlike state, yanking you back to reality with a jolt. You blinked, your vision clearing as the enchanting melody faded away like mist. The beach was quiet and empty, the dream’s mystique replaced by the calm, familiar surroundings of your temporary home.

The sound of footsteps approaching from the path drew your attention, and you stood up, reluctantly leaving the water. The cold had seeped into your bones, and each step away from the shore felt like a battle against the lingering pull of the dream. The disorienting feeling of being torn between two realities clung to you, making your return to the waking world feel heavy and slow.

As you turned back to look at the water one last time, the waves were undisturbed, and the eerie sense of being observed was gone. The beach was now a tranquil, ordinary place, and the dream’s allure had dissipated with the night’s chill.

The footsteps grew louder, and Lee Seokmin soon appeared, his face a mask of concern, looking at him you stared for a moment as the wind whipped his hair against his forehead. “Y/N, what are you doing out here?”

You shook your head, trying to dispel the remnants of the dream. “I couldn’t sleep. I just needed some fresh air.”

Seokmin looked at you with a mixture of relief and curiosity. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s get you back inside.”

As you followed him back to the bed-and-breakfast, the last echoes of the dream’s melody seemed to fade away. Yet, the sense of mystery and the haunting allure of the night remained, leaving you with an unsettling feeling that something more awaited you in the depths of the Italian night.

Seokmin Point Of View 

Seokmin leaned against the doorframe of his cramped office, the soft hum of the air conditioner providing a steady backdrop to the quiet, late afternoon. The cluttered desk was strewn with research papers, equipment specs, and a half-eaten sandwich. He rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the fatigue from the day's work, when his phone buzzed with an incoming message. The notification drew his attention, and he opened it with a weary swipe.

The email from the research coordinator detailed their next project assignment—a field study on the elusive lacewing in the coastal region near Naples. Seokmin’s eyes narrowed as he read through the message. The project promised to push them into less charted territories—both scientifically and perhaps in ways he hadn’t fully anticipated.

He leaned back in his chair, his gaze drifting to a weathered map pinned to the corkboard on his wall. It showed the southern coast of Italy in intricate detail, with the area near Naples marked with a small red pin. His finger traced the coastline, lingering on the narrow stretch of water that seemed to beckon with an almost magnetic pull. It was a familiar sensation, one he couldn’t quite place but had always felt when near certain waters.

A fleeting memory surfaced—an old conversation with a local fisherman during a past expedition. The fisherman had spoken with a tone heavy with caution. “The waters around there... they’re known for more than just fish,” he had said, glancing over his shoulder as though afraid the sea itself might eavesdrop.

Seokmin had dismissed it as local superstition at the time, but now, as he considered the project’s location, the memory took on a new significance. The fisherman’s cryptic words lingered in his thoughts, intertwining with the legends of sailors encountering strange and mythical creatures. He recalled the tales of sirens—their songs that could lure sailors to their doom, their presence a haunting echo in the depths. The stories had always seemed like mere myths, but they resonated with a strange familiarity.

He sighed and shook his head, brushing aside the unease that crept up on him. There was no room for such distractions. The reality of the project required focus, and he quickly composed a response to the email, finalizing logistics and making sure the team was well-prepared. As he sent the message, he couldn’t help but glance out of the window at the darkening sky, a subtle shiver running down his spine.

The upcoming weeks promised adventure, and he was certain the research would be challenging. Yet, deep down, a part of him felt an almost personal connection to the project’s location. As if, in some inexplicable way, the tides and the legends called to him in a language only he could understand.

He prepared for the journey with a sense of quiet anticipation. There was an old, forgotten part of him that felt a strange kinship with the sea, a sense that the waters near Naples held more than just insects waiting to be studied. And while he hoped the legends remained merely stories, a small, hidden part of him couldn’t ignore the possibility that the myth and reality were more intertwined than anyone might suspect.

As he packed his bags, the distant sound of waves crashing against the shore seemed to hum with a familiar resonance in the back of his mind. It was a sound that stirred something deep within him, a reminder of an ancient allure he could neither fully embrace nor completely escape.

Seokmin moved quietly through the dimly lit house, careful not to disturb the silence that had settled over the sleeping quarters. The moon hung low in the sky, casting a silvery glow across the landscape as he made his way down the narrow path from the bed-and-breakfast to the beach. The night air was cool and carried the faint, salty tang of the sea, heightening the sense of anticipation and unease that lingered in his mind.

As he approached the shore, Seokmin’s ears caught a faint, melodious humming drifting on the breeze. It was a sound so gentle and haunting that it seemed almost otherworldly. His heartbeat quickened as he followed the melody, the sound growing clearer and more compelling with each step he took.

Reaching the water’s edge, Seokmin’s breath caught in his throat. There, standing by the water, was Y/N. Her figure was barely illuminated by the moonlight, her movements fluid and graceful as if she were in a trance. The sight was both mesmerizing and deeply unsettling.

A wave of panic surged through Seokmin, but he forced himself to maintain a calm exterior. His mind raced with questions. *What is she doing here at this hour? Is she in danger?* The dream he had had, the fisherman’s cryptic warning—all of it seemed to converge on this very moment. The almost magnetic pull of the scene was disquieting.

Seokmin took a deep breath and forced himself to approach cautiously. He needed to intervene without startling her or making the situation worse. His footsteps were soft on the sand as he moved closer, each step measured to avoid drawing her attention abruptly.

The melody continued to weave through the night air, soothing yet ominous. The sight of Y/N, entranced by the water, made Seokmin’s stomach churn. Is she hearing the same thing I did?. The thought made his pulse quicken.

Reaching a safe distance, Seokmin observed her intently. Her eyes were fixed on the water, her expression one of serene focus, as though she were communicating with something beyond normal perception. The allure of the water, combined with her trance-like state, made him uneasy.

*Stay calm. Don’t let her see you’re worried. She’s just caught up in the moment. There has to be a rational explanation for this,* he thought, though the legends and warnings he had heard seemed to loom over the scene like a dark cloud. The melody seemed to underscore the tension between myth and reality, heightening his sense of urgency.

Seokmin approached her with deliberate steps, his voice steady but soft. “Y/N,” he called out, hoping to break through the trance without startling her. “What are you doing here?”

As he spoke, he saw her startle slightly, her gaze shifting as if emerging from a deep, dreamlike state. Seokmin hoped his calm demeanor would guide her back to reality, away from whatever had so completely captivated her.

In the back of his mind, the haunting melody lingered, a persistent reminder of the thin line between legend and reality. Seokmin’s resolve hardened. Whatever had drawn Y/N to the water needed to be understood, and the growing sense of urgency only deepened his determination to protect her from any unseen dangers.

As Seokmin approached Y/N, his heart pounded in his chest, a mix of concern and an odd sense of duty driving his actions. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her gently away from the water’s edge. His touch was meant to be comforting, a reassurance to guide her back from the trance-like state she seemed trapped in. Yet, as he guided her, his gaze flicked back towards the water, drawn by an unsettling sensation.

The moonlight cast a pale glow over the ocean’s surface, and Seokmin’s eyes widened as he saw it—a figure rising slowly from the water. The being was barely discernible, a shadowy form that seemed to shimmer with an eerie, otherworldly light. There was no mistaking the anger that radiated from it, a palpable wave of resentment that seemed to ripple through the air. The figure’s presence was charged with an intensity that made Seokmin’s skin crawl.

His breath hitched, and an involuntary shiver ran through him. A familiar sensation began to stir within him, a deep, primal instinct that he had tried to suppress. Seokmin’s vision blurred for a moment, the world shifting as his eyes flickered. For a brief instant, his gaze was no longer human—his pupils narrowed, a strange, luminous glow casting an ethereal light. The siren within him stirred, sensing the challenge from the creature in the water.

Seokmin tried to rein in the transformation, but it was a struggle. The sharpness of his senses heightened, and he could feel the shift in his own nature—a stark contrast to the calm façade he maintained for Y/N. He could feel the intensity of his gaze locking with the figure in the water, a silent exchange of hostility that left him feeling vulnerable yet defiant. The anger from the figure was unmistakable; it was as if it knew Seokmin had disrupted a delicate balance, an unwelcome intrusion into its domain.

Y/N was oblivious to the silent confrontation taking place just beyond the water’s edge. Her attention remained focused on the reassuring presence of Seokmin beside her, her face still tinged with the remnants of her trance. Seokmin’s grip on her shoulder was gentle yet firm, a steady anchor pulling her back to reality. His other hand clenched slightly, the tension in his muscles betraying the struggle to keep his siren nature in check.

He dared not look back at the water again, afraid that the intensity of his gaze might provoke the creature further. Instead, he guided Y/N away with careful steps, trying to ignore the surge of anger and resentment that seemed to follow them from the ocean.

“Y/N,” he said softly, his voice steady despite the turmoil within him. “Let’s get back inside. It’s too cold out here.”

As they moved away from the water, Seokmin felt the pressure in his chest ease slightly. The figure in the water seemed to recede, its presence growing fainter with each step he took. The siren’s eyes—his own eyes—slowly returned to their normal state, the glow fading as he forced himself to regain control.

The night air was still, the melodious humming now a distant echo as Seokmin focused on leading Y/N safely back to the bed-and-breakfast. The encounter had left him unsettled, a reminder of the thin veil separating the world of legends from reality. And as he glanced back one last time, the ocean was calm once more, but the lingering sense of unease made it clear that the mysteries of the night were far from over.