#and in some versions of his myth he did drown himself in agony and another by accident i think

[mollysunder]

Turns out a Coral Crown is also a type of narcissus flower. I can totally see Narcissus overhearing Scylla's song look at his reflection and squeal, "This song is about us!!!".

[rein-ette]

A cleaner version of my previous ask 😅

Engport, babysitting (catsitting, plantsitting etc) or fire, please?

Oooookayyyy, so. I wrote...something. It's for the engport + fire prompt, but if I'm going to be completely honest it doesn't have anything that much to do with fire, though I swear I did come up with it because I was thinking about things related to fire. And this first part of it doesn't have much engport either, though there's certainly a lot of Port. It does have a cute small animal in it, if that's any consolation.

I do also have another idea for plantsitting, so I might write that at some point, but I didn't want to keep you waiting much longer so -- please accept my apologies and this fic that I can almost guarantee is not what you thought it was going to be.

Warnings: abuse of Greek mythology and one scene from Spirited Away. Also skulls. One skull. And I guess, death? But not really.

The realm of the dead was turning out to be a lot less crowded than Gabriel had expected. Since many mortals died every day, he had imagined that the banks of the river Styx would be crowded with souls, screaming or writhing or whatever spirits did in agony as they waited for their passage to the Underworld. Instead, Gabriel stood alone on what appeared to be a train platform, in the middle of a river so still he could easily see his own reflection in it, and so wide it might as well have been an ocean. Gabriel only knew it was a river because he could sense that the water was drawn to him like a curious child to pretty flower, responding to his immortal parentage. Unconsciously, Gabriel flexed his fingers and wondered if the steaming waters of the Styx would listen to him if he tried to command it. Probably not, and seeing as he was going to be knocking on the door of her master momentarily, Gabriel did not want to be introduced as that nephew who had angered the Goddess of Hatred the moment he had woken up in the Underworld.

Fat lot of good his powers had done him anyways, since he had died at sea.

Hadn't mother always told him the Oceanids were bad shit?

Sighing, Gabriel looked around again at his surroundings. He realized with no small amount of surprise that, while he had just been alone, now several shadowy figures stood with him on the platform, the edges of their figures melting in and out in the thick fog that rose from the waters around them. He tried to examine their faces to see if any of them were the spirits of his crewmates, but whenever he thought he could make out a feature their faces dissolved back into the fog. Exasperated, Gabriel glanced back at the river, noting with another jolt of surprise that now he could see the dark outline of a set of train tracks beside the platform, about half a meter underwater and stretching away into the blackness. Not long after he registered that, he heard the rumble of a train in the distance.

I suppose that's my ride, he thought to himself. The old myths said that Chiron ferried people on a boat across the Styx, but apparently the Industrial Revolution had come to the Underworld as well. Snorting at the thought, he dug in his pocket for his gold coin, which any good sailor always kept in case the ever-capricious ocean claimed them — even semi-immortal sons of river goddesses. Clearly, this was a good habit, because being semi-immortal had not saved Gabriel from that torpedo, which had reduced his poor ship to a lump of floating scrap metal before Gabriel could call up enough power to fill a water bottle, and, oh, all those poor soldier boys who would now never get a chance to die in a gruesome war and fulfill their heroic fates —

Gabriel could not find his coin. Frowning, he searched the front pockets of his admiral's tunic as well, even though he knew he had not kept it there. When that yielded nothing, he moved on to his back pant pockets, then his boots. For the first time since he had drowned in the icy cold Atlantic (which, admittedly, was not that long ago), Gabriel felt a shiver of true panic run through him. How would he board the train without his coin? How would he enter the Underworld? How would he join the ranks of the heroes in the Elysian Fields, where he belonged? Had he perhaps lost his coin when he had rushed to the railings to survey the damage on deck and was promptly dropped into the roaring Atlantic when a stray bit of flak from the exploding engine room tore clean through his right leg?

Now that he thought about it, that seemed likely.

At least he’d gotten his leg back.

The train slid to a rippling stop into front of him. With a soft swoosh, the doors opened, and Gabriel found himself staring at a man who, despite his smart train conductors uniform, could not have been anyone but Chiron, given that his face was a gleaming skull and his eyes literally balls of hellfire. It seemed the god had tried to update his aesthetic for the 20th century as well.

Chiron proffered to him a small wooden box, in which Gabriel could see several gold coins. Desperately digging through his pockets one last time, he finally shook his head. "I’m sorry, I don’t have the fare, I —"

The doors slid closed in his face, and immediately the train began to pull away.

Muttering a few choice curses, Gabriel stumbled a step away from the edge of the platform and watched as the train picked up speed and swooped away into the darkness.

Somehow, he doubted it would be returning to this station.

In the ensueing silence, Gabriel weighed his options. He could sit on this platform and mope, possibly for eternity. He could jump in the river and hope that his aunt either saved him or tore his soul into shreds from the agony. He could try walking along the rails in the direction the train had left, also possibly for the rest of eternity, in the hopes of reaching the entrance to the Underworld eventually.

Gabriel took off his shoes and chose the last option, despite feeling that sulking for the rest of eternity held a certain amount of appeal. He was very good at sulking. Nevertheless, he waded into the water at the end of the platform and found immediately that Hatred was lukewarm, not freezing cold like he had imagined — a nasty, suffocating lukewarm which swirled thickly around his thighs with the collected resentment, broken promises, lurid thoughts and heavens knew what else of millions of miserable souls.

He had feared the water might send him immediately into convulsions of unbearable pain or suck his consciousness right out of him, but as he continued along the track nothing remarkable occured. Perhaps the Styx had sensed his godly parentage and was protecting its kin. Or perhaps Gabriel had collected so much resentment in his long life that the river didn't even recognize him as a foreign body. Whatever the case, Gabriel held his shoes gingerly in one hand and sloshed on.

Quickly, he lost all sense of time, distance, or direction. It felt like he had barely taken two steps before the platform he left was swallowed by the fog, and the tracks underneath his feet curved and meandered like a small stream itself, without rhyme or reason. Gabriel realized that even if the water had not immediately destroyed him, he could not walk forever, and when he finally collapsed from exhaustion he would either be eaten by whatever dwelled in this wretched river or drown over and over in its depths until it dissolved him like a piece of wet toilet paper.

Still, he could not turn back. There was no hope even if he managed to return to the platform, and while a lesser man might have cowered in fear on dry land anyways, Gabriel had spent most of his twenty one centuries of life fighting and wandering across the oceans anyways. Wading through an infernal river until even his immortal soul crumbled into the waves — it seemed somehow like a fitting end.

To distract himself from his happy thoughts, he began to sing. At times it was just a wordless tune, but when he felt inspiration hit he added lyrics. He sang of his birth on the sun-kissed banks of the Douro, the eldest son of its beautiful immortal gaurdian and a local Roman nobleman. He sang of his siblings, not all of whom had inherited his mother's immortality, and he sang in particular of the one brother who did and accompanied him through the aching, bittersweet years that followed. He sang of the lands he had travelled, some bursting with life and colour, others stunning in their harsh, barren beauty. He sang of his lovers, the princes and the ladies, the soldiers and the nymphs and the humble farmhands whom he had courted, bed, and occasionally wed — but never to last, for mortal lives were but a flicker in the endless night and even the immortal ones could not tether down his heart for long. The stars called him, the waves called him, and Gabriel always, always answered.

He suppposed now, though, he had finally found his last resting place.

This thought was immediately followed by a less melancholic one: I didn't know polecats could swim.

Gabriel stopped singing and instead stood and watched as the little furry animal approached, paws paddling furiously as it slipped through the water. It stopped when it neared him and splashed around for a bit, before lifting its snout and looking pointedly at Gabriel, its dark eyes gleaming and intelligent.

Gabriel hadn't known that polecats could give pointed looks, either.

He cupped his hands and extended them to the animal, which immediately scrambled on and promptly snuggled up in his palms, curling into a little content ball. Unable to hold back a smile, he stroked its slick, midnight fur with a thumb, marvelling at how soft and warm it was and how docile it seemed.

Well, he thought, at least I still sing well enough to seduce a polecat.

"You've seduced more than just a polecat, that's for sure," someone muttered.

-- part 2 is here --

[thefaithie]

WC, Chapter 6

Wrong Conclusions Chapter six: Echoed Farewells

For a long time, Raven and Robin went from roof to roof, looking for their friends. The entire time, Raven continued to tell Robin how silly he was acting and how the their friends were likely just shopping together, while Robin ignored all of her insults and unnecessary comments. Finally, after almost thirty minutes of searching, they saw two familiar figures stepping out of an amusement park. Robin stared blankly for a moment from his hiding place at the very top of a Ferris Wheel, looking around at the rest of the park.

"No wonder I couldn't reach them. All these electronics are jamming the signal," he muttered to himself before getting a closer look at Beast Boy and Starfire in particular. His eye twitch came back as he noticed that the two had even changed out of their uniforms, just like Cyborg had insisted. Beast Boy had put on a pair of normal black jeans, and a purple-and-black sweater, making him look considerably less silly than he usually did in his Doom Patrol uniform. Starfire, though she still wore her Tamaranian armor, was wearing somewhat of a light-purple sweater that reached up to her elbows instead, and a matching knee-high skirt, causing her to look considerably more innocent than usual. Even though it was actually less skin than she normally showed, Robin for some reason felt almost uncomfortable seeing her like so, like there was something private and intimate about it he wasn't supposed to see without her explicit permission.

"Okay. They went on a Roller Coaster or two. Whoop-dee-do," Raven said sarcastically from behind Robin, her hood covering her face. "Can we go now, oh paranoid leader?"

"Not yet!" Robin hissed, looking at Starfire laugh at something Beast Boy had said, and the green boy blushing a moment later. The Boy Wonder gritted his teeth, desperately wishing he could hear what the two superheroes were saying to one another...

"You did not expect for it to have been a true villain?" Starfire asked Beast Boy, hugging a tiger-plushie Beast Boy had won for her to her chest. They had been talking about the strange villain attack from the previous week, and Starfire found the story to be very amusing from Beast Boy's point of view. Beast Boy had been rather short in his official report to Robin; this version was much more interesting.

"Well, no," Beast Boy said honestly, blushing even darker than he had a moment before. The memory was an embarrassing one. "He came into the hospital and started to bother the doctors, right? So I tried t'calm the dude down! Next thing I knew, when my back was turned, I was sailing right through a wall!"

Starfire giggled once again, finding the mental image amusing, of course, knowing that Beast Boy was currently safe and unharmed. A second later, though, she paused in confusion. "Beast Boy, why is it you were in the hospital? Usually, people go to the hospital when they are wounded. Were you in pain after the attack of the Trigon?"

Beast Boy blinked in surprise, not having expected Starfire to ask such a question. Yeah, I was in pain, but not in the way you're thinking of, Star…he couldn't help thinking. For a moment, he scratched the back of his head, wondering whether or not he should tell her the truth. He looked her over for a second, trying to decide. Her green eyes stared back at him in worry and confusion, and her lips were pouting in mild distress. Without realizing it, Beast Boy's face began to grow red again, but for a different reason, now.

"...Beast Boy? Your face is turning the same tint as friend Raven's when she finds something she does not like within her room."

"Huh?" Beast Boy stared blankly for a moment, and then began to laugh, tearing his eyes away from the Tamaranian. "It's nothing, I just thought I saw something. About the hospital - I was there mostly because I wanted to go visit some sick people. I used to do that a lot before we were big superheroes and had to run around the way we do, now. But after Trigon's attack, I decided to do it again. It's made me appreciate life a lot more, y'know?" He smiled at himself, feeling proud for having done something he thought was in the past. He loved kids, and sick ones needed a good laugh a lot more than others. "It was a good thing, too, because that Vampire-dude wanted something from one of the kids. If I wasn't there, I don't think we would've made it in time."

"What is it that he had wanted to obtain?" Starfire asked. And a second later, she added. "And what is this 'Vampire' of which you all continue to call this villain?"

Now it was Beast Boy's turn to laugh. After all of the horror movies he had forced the Titans to sit through, Starfire still didn't know what a vampire was? She still ad the weirdest knowledge gaps sometimes.

Starfire tilted her head in confusion, feeling a very light blush beginning to appear on her cheeks. "I was not aware that what I had uttered was meant to be taken as something entertaining..."

"Huh?" Beast Boy stopped in his laughter for a moment to see that he had actually embarrassed the girl. He coughed for a second to try and cover his laugh and rubbed his arm a bit, feeling awkward. For some reason, embarrassing Starfire simply wasn't the same as embarrassing Robin, Cyborg, or Raven. He felt almost guilty for doing so. After all, she didn't know too much about their culture. Why should she have paid attention to any of his horror movies, anyway?

"Er, no, you didn't say anything. I just saw somethin' really funny," He lied, before beginning an explanation. "Well, I have no idea what the guy wanted, really, but whatever it was, he wanted it from a certain kid. The jerk hurt a bunch of ladies at the front, trying to get the kid's information. I gave the kid a Communicator, just in case something happens again. As for what a vampire is, they're these big myth things we have from Romany."

Starfire stared at Beast Boy in confusion for a moment. "Ro...many?"

"Yeah, Romany. It's a country in Europe or Antarctica or something, vhere dey all speek like diiis!" Beast Boy did his best to impersonate the Romanian accent. Starfire tilted her head at him.

"But Beast Boy, is that country not called 'Romania?'"

Beast Boy winced in realization. She was right.

"Well, yeah, but you can call it Romany, too!" He said, not sure himself if that was right or not, but it sounded like it must have been. He found that it was very easy to not seem like a total fool in front of Starfire. She not only believed everything he said, but she also knew what it felt like to be embarrassed for not knowing something. She was nothing like cold, cool, smart Raven, who never fumbled for a word. "Either way, Vampires have long fangs and are supposed to drink the blood of other people. Usually they have super strength and can disappear into the night and stuff. It's just these creatures based off of vampire bats, which are actually totally docile and only like to take blood from farm animals. So the real bats technically drink blood, too, but these Vampire things are totally fake. Oh, and Vampires, if they bite someone, that person's supposed to turn into their soulless zombie slave of theirs and...Star?"

Beast Boy cut himself off, looking back to notice that Starfire had stopped floating and had fallen out of step with him. She was now on her feet, shivering a bit with every word said. Her green eyes were brimming with tears of horror.

Shrieking laughter and words as cold as ice were echoing all across Starfire's mind. She remembered hands all over her body, in places she did not like being touched, and the scars they had left behind at her early age. She remembered every scar, as though they were back on her body, once again being inflicted by claws, fangs, and whips. She remembered all the horrible things she had seen within iron and stone walls, all of the horrible screams of agony and death she had heard. Tears quickly began to flow down her cheeks and her knees to felt weak. Her heart began to pound faster than it ever had before, and she began to emit whimpering sounds without even realizing it. She remembered everything, though she had spent so long trying to forget and push those memories away.

"Starfire!" Beast Boy ran back to her, feeling very confused and flustered. Great. He'd said something stupid! Augh, when was he going to learn to shut his mouth!? "Star, I'm-I'm really sorry! I have no idea what I said, but I didn't mean it, really! I'll make it up to you!"

Starfire swallowed for air, trying to find the strength to talk. It felt like she was drowning. But finally, she found her voice. It was barely more than a squeak as she spoke. "N-No, B-Beast Boy, i-it was nothing you had s-said. M-Memories of s-similar creatures plague my m-mind..."

"..Similar creatures? Star, you...you can't be serious," Beast Boy said, laughing a bit. But his laugh was more nervous than anything. After all, if huge insect-women who ate only Tamaraneans in their chrysalis form existed, why couldn't vampires? But still, it wasn't something Beast Boy wanted to accept yet if he didn't absolutely have to. "Vampire's aren't real."

"I-I know!" Starfire managed, feeling the heat from the tears on her cheeks. She felt very foolish for overreacting the way she was, but she couldn't simply shake it off. She'd managed to shake off the thought when she'd first seen the villain from far away a week ago, but now, with a description like that... "But you-your mention of the villain...H-He looks and s-sounds so m-much like one of them-!"

"Starfire, calm down...It's okay..." Beast Boy said, more quietly now, as he put his hands up in front of him to try and show her that everything was alright. "You're okay now..." As a friendly gesture, Beast Boy wrapped an arm around Starfire's shoulder. He hoped it would help snap her back into at least some form of reality. But his ears drooped a bit, as she did nothing more than shake her head to and fro, trying to force the voices from her mind.

"Star...Star, come on -- tell me what's wrong."

He whispered this closely into her ear, hugging her to him as he did so. In all of his years with the Titans, he had never seen Starfire in such a vulnerable state. She had always been powerful and giddy, or confused and curious. But never frightened to the point of crying, and in truth, it caused Beast Boy's heart to speed up in fear as well. After all, if there was something out there that could cause Starfire such horror, who knew what was in store for him or the other Titans.

"Please, Starfire, tell me..." He repeated, his green ears drooping even further.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Starfire's breath began to steady, though her face remained puffy and pink. Her shivering did not stop, but it lost some of its zeal. She took three steady breaths and gave a weak nod to Beast Boy's request.

"Y-yes, I sh-shall tell you."

The birds twittering above their heads in the orange and red leaves heard nothing. All they saw was the scene of two strange beings becoming closer, hugging, whispering to one another. And to the two Teen Titan birds atop the Ferris Wheel were no different.

"He-he's HUGGING her!" Robin shouted, surprising even himself. He saw only their backs, so he had not seen Starfire's tears. Only that Beast Boy had gotten close to her face, and then wrapped one of his arms around her. "He's hugging her! Right in the middle of the day, where anyone can see them! He probably told her something, lied to her about something! Augh, I'm going to kill Beast Boy when I see him, I swear-"

As Robin continued his threats and plans on what to do once Beast Boy returned home, Raven merely stared at the two as they slowly, ever so slowly, began to walk off, step-in-step. She felt their auras. She felt Starfire's face growing hot, her heart pounding, her gasps for breath. She felt Beast Boy's chest tightening, and him yearning for something from Starfire.

How...how could this have happened? How could those two -- of all the people in the universe -- have gotten together...?

And most importantly, why was she, Raven, so angry about it? She wasn't angry at anyone in particular. She didn't want to hurt Starfire or Beast Boy (though she felt like tearing Robin a new one if he didn't shut up soon). No, no...Raven felt angry with herself. She felt angry with herself for not having realized her feelings sooner. All of the times Beast Boy had made her laugh, all of the times he had caused her heart to freeze, all of the times he had made her worry ceaselessly, and Raven had never realized.

For a moment, Raven felt a sting in her eyes. Water...? No. No crying here. Not now. It was dangerous. She had to stay together. Together. Together.

Augh, Robin just wouldn't shut up!

"Give up!" Raven suddenly barked, causing Robin to pause his endless banter. "They're together, okay? We see that now. Starfire likes Beast Boy, Beast Boy likes Starfire. As long as they don't end up having kids running around the tower, who cares?"

Robin blinked in surprise, looking at Raven's shadowy figure in disbelief. Slowly, he turned his heel to look back down towards Starfire and Beast Boy. Starfire was so calm around Beast Boy. Beast Boy was just as calm around her. Beast Boy didn't feel ashamed putting his arm around Starfire. Beast Boy didn't feel like he was endangering the team. Beast Boy had gall that Robin had never been able to find, not even when Robin and Starfire had been alone together.

Beast Boy deserved Starfire more. Beast Boy had won.

"...You're right," Robin muttered weakly, forcing himself to look away from the two down below. The words tasted like acid. "We should let them get back to their date."

"Yeah, we should," Raven said in a moody tone.

But even though the two Titans had agreed, neither moved. They both looked down longingly at the pair below. Both of them shared feelings of heartache and self loathing in that moment, for not having realized their blatant feelings earlier. For not having said anything in time to have made any difference. For not doing anything to try and make themselves like their counterparts below.

It had been Beast Boy, after all, who had tried countless times to make Raven laugh. He had been shot down by her every time, without even a smile to keep his hopes up, no matter how Raven had felt like smiling on the inside. And there was Starfire. A free, innocent spirit who smiled at the slightest funny word, even if she didn't understand what the fuss was about. She appreciated Beast Boy rather than pushing him away like Raven did.

And Starfire had tried millions of times to get Robin to open up to her. She had made him feel awkward time and time again, and it had made Robin appreciate life all the more to know she was there. But Robin had not done as Starfire had wanted. He had refused to allow her to see any of his true emotions, his true feelings. But there was Beast Boy, who allowed everyone to know what he was feeling at all times. He was loose and didn't take life so seriously. He could enjoy a date without worrying about whether the bank was being robbed. He could make life fun for Starfire, rather than forcing her to always think of work.

As the two watched Starfire and Beast Boy walk off into the nearby, both Raven and Robin found themselves thinking the same words at the same time.

Goodbye...

Disclaimers:

Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Robin, Cyborg, Silkie, and pretty much everything but the plot at hand belongs to © D. C. Comics/Cartoon Network/Kids WB

9/2019 Update:

Whoo! I'm keeping up! It's nice to see people still like reading this fic, even years later. I think it's a good sign of how good this cartoon had been when it came out.