#bc. I want to write these two. I think. it's funny.

[landfilloftrash]

Some years before the High Seas campaign…

It was bright. It was relatively early. And Enososin had barely just woken up before she was surrounded, as per usual, by the chatter of her siblings uncaring about her wanting to continue sleeping, and the quieter sounds of her mom and her mama cooking and herding her siblings.

Man. Can’t she sleep for a few minutes more?

Apparently not!

Because as she sleepily pouted and pondered about it— She squawked loudly as her twin [for lack of better terminology, since she and Ahkrin were the closest in hatching age compared to the other five] stepped on her back— right below the base of where her wings were growing steadily— knocking the air and sleepiness out of her and started a tousle between the two for the rude awakening.

(She ignored the fact she was already awake, it was the principle of the thing, y’know?)

She grabbed his leg and pulled him backwards to make him either trip on his face or be forced to come back and fight her. It was a mix of both as he fell but fell backwards onto her in anticipation of the fight to be. There was grabbing clawfuls of each other’s feather and pulling as they rolled onto the floor and mutual squawked out attack cries and triumphant little calls of victory when they perceived the upper hand— and especially pushing each other’s faces until it was facing the ceiling or the floor, respectively, and out of eyesight range so neither could really see what they were hitting at. Eno herself got in a good whack with her wings at some point during a changing of positions, but Ahkrin was faster with his claws and got a good scratch on her arm past her downy feathers.

But her world of winning a wrestling cage match was quickly interrupted by Kinzon, as he was the one who pulled them apart and snapped at them with his beak, the tufts starting to grow in flicking in what everyone else called ‘eldest child annoyance’ [Kinzon looked closer to mama, a ‘great horned owl’, rather than their mom’s pure white and snowy pallet] and both her and Ahkrin met each other’s eyes in a small consideration of teaming up on their older brother. But before they could fully decide on whether or not to turn their tiny fury onto their rapidly growing brother, the chatter and hoots of the household’s own version of common eased out as their parents called them over to the table to start eating breakfast.

Eno was the youngest, so she got served first, bread and some bacon, and always finished first.

Which meant…

Playtime.

Being the youngest of seven owlin children, ranging from looking like pure great horned owls, pure snowy owls, or caught somewhere in between, her mama and mom couldn’t always entertain each and everyone of them; they tried, but it was simply easier to give them all a time to come back to the house at and let them roam free. Trouble was most definitely included; the main rule amongst the seven was “don’t get caught”.

And being the smallest, that was nothing short of easy.

The days of play consisted of three main things; hiding, pranking, and wrestling with the other kids who roamed the streets. Most of the time, this didn’t include her siblings for some reason. 

“Don’t like the cut of their jib, y’know?” Zofaas, the third eldest, once answered to her questioning chirps. “And it helps that they don’t like most of us. But they like you, and Odus, so don’t worry too much about it. Go on and play, Eno.”

Odus said she was playing with Ahkrin, Frul, Riik, and Zofaas— probably— today, anyways. So she was off to the streets of all the districts.

Zofaas tended to waffle between staying with Kinzon at home with their parents or playing with the rest of them. You’d think that being only a month or so apart in age from the eldest of them to the youngest would make them see eye to eye, but to Eno, that was an eternity, and she could not stand staying still.

Hunting down the other kids itself was a game; they did not like being found, and she stuck out with her downy grey feathers and bright yellow eyes. So she had to chase them first before she could join in; once she did, they’d laugh and welcome her back before resuming their games, as to which she either picked the rules up as she went, or remembered from whenever they last played, and tried to trip up the older kids.

This time, they really did not want to be found; this she quickly learned was because they had already started hide-and-seek.

One of the Dragonborn kids— someone she found easier to hang around rather than the more humanoid races— shushed at her when she called out a delighted “Rovena!”

“Shhh, Eno!” already starting to move towards her and extend a hand from the rafters of a building’s ramshackle roof, “I’ll get caught if you do that!”

“I didn’t see any’ne else!” She chirped quietly— she couldn’t quite fly yet, but she had enough power in her tiny little wings to help her jump pretty high, and grab Rovena’s already very strong hand. “Only you!”

“How?” She hissed, putting Eno behind her dark blue scales, “I’m in the shadow!” 

Eno pointed at her own eyes in demonstration, extending the pupils to completely cover the color of her iris, “You’ve got bright bright eyes!”

The only reason the owlin knew she was blue was due to everyone’s descriptions of her; but she knew light when she saw it, and Rovena’s eyes were always bright. Rovena’s eyelids shuddered and soon the bright eye lights were dimmed considerably. “That better?”

She gave a thumbs up in delight. When they got caught, she hoped they’d be one of the last ones.

Alas, it was not to be.

A half-wood elven kid Eno could never quite get the hang of’s name, affectionately nicknamed ‘Bell’, was the one to find them; they were about midway through finding everyone, and had to deal with a grumbling owlin about it. 

Hiding was for games, whether or not they included the shiny guards was up to the day’s pleasures. Today it was simply hiding from each other; the entire city was their playground and it took until the late morning before everyone had been found and all the street kids of their sector pondered on what games they should play next.

“Handball?”

“Nah, we broke a few windows last time; I’d rather not run away from the shinies on an empty stomach, y’know?”

“Marbles?”

“Did you bring yer freakin’ marbles? Say ‘aye’ if ya did, ‘nay’ if ya frickin’ didn’t.”

A chorus of ‘nay’s and ‘nah’s rippled through the lot of them. Eno didn’t have marbles so she ‘abstained’. That’s what mama called it when the rest of them tried to get her to do something mom didn’t want them to do, at least.

“Hungry snake?”

“Ooo. That’d be fun.”

“Yeah but that needs a rope— do we have a rope?”

“No- I had to give it back to the sailors.”

“Damn it!”

That was a swear. She wasn’t allowed to use those. But it was funny seeing her elder peer do it with no consequences.

“How about a ‘Scavenger hunt’?”

“What did Lily just say about running away from the shinies??”

“Oh, right sorry. I mean some of us could scavenger hunt—?”

“It’s not as fun without everyone doing it— makes the shinies have to scatter pretty thin to actually find any of us.”

Eno wasn’t sure why they called it a scavenger hunt, because they never really returned their hunted items, but it was really fun! She wished everyone had been up to playing that one.

“Sardines?”

“Too close to hide and seek.”

“But it’s easier!”

“Shelve it in case we can’t decide?”

“Fine.”

“How about kick the can?”

“Again. Really close to hide-and-seek. And besides, that’s such a lame game, though.”

“You take that back.”

“No— because it is!”

“I’ll frickin’ skin you.”

“Guys, stop using frick, just say f—”

There was a chorus of shushes and hissing from the various beast-and-non-beast children. Eno swiveled her head around at the snakes that decided to become her surroundings. Why’d they do that? 

She thought she saw Bell pointing at her, specifically, but she wasn’t sure, because as soon as she looked over, Bell wasn’t even looking in her direction. 

Suspicious.

“Well, we could always just play another round of hide and seek, I guess.”

The chatter got loud at that suggestion. “Dude that would take soooo long.” 

“Yeah, it took hours alone to find everyone this round.”

“I’d rather sardines if that’s what we’re doing.”

A small chorus of ‘yeah’s rang through the rest.

The ringleader of their little band sighed and pinched at their eyes; if Eno remembered correctly, they were fifteen. Eldest friend they had aside from their parents. “Alright then,” asked the Yuan-ti, “who’s gonna be the first fish?”

Eno raised her hand in excitement along with a few others. Pleeeaaase I’m really good at hiding! She mentally pleaded.

There was a moment as the troupe leader started muttering under their breath, eyes flicking between all of them with their hands up multiple times, and then landed on Eno.

“Alright, brat, you’re up. You’ve got a 3 minutes head start before we start comin’ after you. No Diamond District this time; we almost got caught during the earlier hide and seek segment getting a few of the others.”

She nodded in earnest listening. That she could do! She stuck out too much in the Diamond district anyway with her raggedy hand-me-downs and too bright an eye for the shinier things.

Bolting down a few alleyways and scrambling over a couple of rooftops, she made it as far as her little claws could carry her over the top of the buildings before she had to duck back down to the streets. She forgot to start counting, but there were enough nimble-footed and winged kids amongst them that staying on the roofs for too long was a bad idea.

Eno ended up much closer to the docks than she was expecting. She debated briefly of hiding on a ship, but the idea of suddenly setting sail and having no way to get off frightened her too much to put much true considerment into. 

Ducking more towards the shadier side of things she found a tight little hole in a wall; after checking to make sure no rats would jump her (she was big enough to kill them, but she got scared usually first and let out a really high pitched scream if unprepared. She didn’t want to get found that easily.) she dropped down to her hands and crawled into the space. It led to the back room of some building filled with barrels and crates and she grinned like she’d struck gold.

There she found the darkest corner she could, and settled in.

Again, she wasn’t counting, but it was awhile of sitting in one place (enough so that she got pretty fidgety) before a head poked through the crawl space and coughed at the dust.

Surprisingly, it was the yuanti! Or maybe it was unsurprisingly… she wasn’t quite sure.

Eno was careful not to make a sound, or exude fear (or excitement for that matter), but it didn’t matter in the end, because they started sniffing, and spun their head towards her hiding place.

“There you are, brat.”

“Tracking me wi’h your nose is no fair,” she whispered, as snake eyes settled into her corner along with her, “the others can’t do that.”

“Well that’s their problem, eh? Let’s see how long we last before the name of the game really starts impacting us.”

Eno found out she’d been hiding for around an hour before they found her, and slowly the minutes ticked by. At around an hour and a half, Rovena came in, followed closely by Bell and a dwarven kid a few short minutes later. 

They had started chattering about nothing in particular or listening to stories from each other at about two hours in before five more in quick succession joined them. It was starting to get quite cramped in the small corner, and Eno made a point to comment on that, being dog piled as she was. They all just snickered and hushed each other. No one really knew what this building was but they weren’t inclined to get kicked out of their hiding place.

A few more kids filed in at around the third, third and a half hour, citing exhaustion from searching everywhere for them, and how it was almost lunch time.

Lily was the last one to find them at nearly four hours.

“Guys, you suck,” the human girl hissed, crawling through and space and immediately clocking them, “You all suck diseased moose wang.”

“Lily!” Rovena hissed as everyone started chuckling and crawling out of the space.

“What?” Lily groaned, “She doesn’t know what that even is! Let me use it.”

Who didn’t know what was? It might be her. She didn’t know what ‘wang’ was. It might be a swear by the indignation from Rovena. Rovena probably used worse than this new word when she thought Eno wasn’t listening though, so the little owlin thought it was a little weird to bash someone for that when you did it too.

From the looks she was given while looking around to see if anyone would tell her if she was correct in her guesses, she was correct on both accounts.

“Well, you’re the new first fish Lily.”

“Can we do that after we eat or something?”

“Thought you didn’t want to scavenger hunt?” Bell asked.

“I don’t care at this point. I’m tired, you were hard to find, and I’m hungry. So after we eat, I’ll be the sardine; happy?”

Eno was also hungry. She debated on heading back to her house to get some food, but she weighed that with having to find everyone again, and decided she’d hang out with everyone else to get food. Dinner time was the time that was ‘mandatory’ or ‘must do’ as it’d been explained to her. She didn’t mind that, gave her a vague idea of when to start getting nervous about getting back, but she’ll skip out on being heckled by her siblings for this lunch time.

She grappled for purchase on Rovena’s back— to a familiar growly, grumble of surprise— before settling on the dragonborn’s shoulders. Rovena could move a lot faster with her longer legs, and she didn’t want to be left behind on this one. Scavenger hunts were fast, and involved a lot of running and hiding. Rovena was usually the one to keep an eye on Eno anyways, and often used the small owlin in pranking and hunting schemes. It was fun! 

And besides, the Dragonborn never left her out to dry like a couple in this small gang she could name (her gaze involuntarily flickered to the yuanti).

This particular hunt was faster than usual— all of them saying a lot of words Eno didn’t understand; not because she didn’t know them! She knew common! But this wasn’t common. So she just hung onto Rovena’s horns and watched the older kids plotting. But the ringleader nodded after a point, and they all scattered to the winds. Some quite literally, like Rovena, who spread out her wings and started flying high into the sky towards wherever she thought she’d find the item assigned.

“What’re we lookin’ for?” she called into the wind.

“Fruit— nothin’ hard this time!”

“Oo! D’ya think we could get some of those— uhm, little oranges like last time?”

“They’re out of season- I think. I haven’t seen them in the shops.”

“Awww.”

“How about we snag some pomegranates?”

“Pom—” she broke off at the new word. Full of new words today. What in the world was that? “Pom???”

Rovena laughed a nasty laugh; it wasn’t mean, it just didn’t sound nice, but it made Eno smile because it meant her friend was happy.

“Oh, well now we gotta snag ‘em. Let’s so, birdy!”

It was a few more minutes before Rovena started to do a dive, and the reason Eno knew she was going to do that was because she pulled the maneuver that Eno loved— the small owlin felt the sensations of being pushed off the Dragonborn’s shoulders and being dropped from the safe spot between Rovena’s shoulder blades as she briefly free falls. Eno twists her whole head around backwards to see as the other girl repositions, causing Eno to position herself in response, both of them becoming smaller very fast, and then just as quickly, Rovena catches her quickly in a hug as she starts to dive like the peregrine falcons Eno sometimes sees with her family.

The whole time, she’s giggling in delight.

Rovena huffs as she catches her and grumbles familiar draconic words— Enososin may not know the language, but she’d heard this kind of tone from adults before to know she was muttering kinda mean things about how reckless Eno was, and how she played with fire too much.

But they’re once more diving Eno once again twists her head in a way to be able to see where they’re going, and sees the Diamond district’s market stalls approaching rapidly.

“They said no Diamond district!” She called— curious at the rule break; Rovena tended to follow very closely to what the yuan-ti laid down as rules, even if Eno tended to. Y'know. Not.

“This is the only place we’re gonna be getting pomegranates from,” Rovena crowed back, “and besides; they’re definitely not following that rule.”

At that, she pointed off to some other alley way as they flew, and she saw a familiar scaled form as they whooshed by.

Huh. Well then.

Landing on a roof before scrambling into an alley by the small market was easy, finding the stall that they wanted? Not so easy.

It took them a few minutes of quiet debate as they ducked and weaved to keep out of as much view as possible before Rovena made a noise that sounded like rocks grinding against each other, and pulled Eno close to a wall with her. 

“There— y’see?”

Enososin looked where she was pointing and saw— finally, dang it— the fruit stall. There were tons of different varieties of fruits there, most of which Eno had absolutely no idea what they were. But Rovena kept turning Eno’s head towards a round fruit with a weird little pointy top. She looked up at Rovena. “The weird apple one?”

“Yea— those are pomegranates; think you can grab some?”

Eno looked around assessingly. “Too many people,” she mumbled, “need you to do a dance.”

“The stage is set, the dancer about to take position; get to work little side character!”

Eno nodded and casually headed closer to the fruit stall, like she was meant to be here, and watched out of the corner of her eye what Rovena was doing.

The dark blue dragonborn headed out from their spot, walking a little bit out of the way of it, and then sprinting towards a booth, slamming her body into it like her life depended on it and looking like she had tried to skid to a stop before hand.

Well. Eno blinked. That. That was a distraction for sure. Eno was distracted. 

But so were the rest of the adults at the commotion; she may be pretty young, but she noticed that adults loved distractions just as much as, if not more than, her.

Making sure the fruit stall tiefling was distracted by whatever the meats stall seller was snapping at her friend, she slid behind them all and started reaching for the targeted food.

This part always felt a little strange to her. She wasn’t quite comfortable with taking things that definitely weren’t hers. Her siblings did it to her sometimes, but they always gave it back after a time; that was never the case with scavenger hunts. But they were fun, so Eno didn’t complain too much. Out loud, of course. And she thought nasty thoughts when she complained so mind readers wouldn’t like her.

She grabbed a few of the round, magenta fruits and stuffed them into the small sack as Rovena distracted people, and when she saw people starting to turn away, she sprinted back to where she and the dragonborn had landed to make their escape. This place always felt like eyes watched her, and she wanted out anyways.

Rovena did a cursory apology as she started hustling away— to the sound of the angry market stall keeper— towards Eno, who hopped from foot to foot with anxiety.

“C'mon c'mon c'mon!” She chirped to the dragonborn who decided instead of letting Eno try running with their haul, picked up her charge and set off at a dead sprint before springing into the air and zooming off to the woods.

Rovena landed them both near the woods with praises for her speed and amused chirping back.

“You did good kid— how many did you grab?”

“Not too many; I feel like it’s cheating to grab too many and not give them back.”

“Meh,” Rovena dismissed, “they can afford to import this stuff, they can afford to lose some of this stuff.” 

Eno had absolutely no idea what ‘import’ was but it sounded close enough to simply ‘getting’. Strange, but alright. “Well, I got.. uhm.” she counted under her breath. “Seven!”

“Nice!” The dragonborn grinned, “but knowing this lot they’re not gonna let you have one, so let’s have you and me crack one open before heading back, yeah?”

“Do we tell them we had one?”

Rovena looked at her strangely, but shrugged “If you want to, sure, why not. I’m not gonna. But what are they gonna do? Take it from your stomach? Nuh uh. Worst they’ll do is not share some stuff for awhile.”

At that declaration, Eno shrugged and eyed the fruit in question. Wasn't really made for a beak, but that had never stopped her before; she started digging into it a little bit with her beak when she heard a rushed, but laughing cry for her to stop.

“Nonono-!” Rovena laughed, “you don’t bite the outside! I did that too the first time; the outside isn’t tasty.”

Eno frowned. “Then what do you eat?”

Rovena reached out for the pomegranate as Eno handed it over. The girl bared her teeth and bit quite gently into it with the side of her mouth— ripping a small chunk of the shell off and spitting it off to the side. Then using her claws, she cracked it open like an egg, and showed the inside treasures to Eno standing on her tip toes.

It was— weird looking inside. The shapes of the encasement resembling cobblestones pressed not tight enough together, but the little round things that shined in the sunlight and looked like jewels embedded in a rock? Well, and delighted her to no end.

“You eat the seeds.”

Taking half of the pomegranate from Rovena, Eno sat down and used her tunic to help her catch the pieces that fell as she bit into tiny juicy seeds and pried open the inedible shell surrounding it. Rovena joined her and ate the seeds by taking the chunks out of the main shell, and simply eating them with the thin wrapping around them. Eno tried it once after watching her, but quickly decided that, no, she’d rather just eat the seeds by themselves, as the bitterness of the shell ruined the taste.

It was a very messy time spot of the day, laughing as they munched on a pomegranate together. After that though, they made their way back close to the docks on clawed feet, sticking close to the shadows so they wouldn’t get the shinies on their tails. Er— tail in Rovena’s case; tail feathers in her own.

Eno was the first to spot their crew, and tugged lightly on Rovena’s elbow as they walked— Rovena then changed course as they both headed over to a few others with a vast arrangement of goods.

“So,” called a few of the human, and half human, kids “how’d it go?”

“We got some pomegranates,” Rovena preened, as Eno lifted the bag with their find in delight. 

“Sheesh!” Lily called, smiling, “Hope I get one!”

“There’s only six,” said the dwarf, “so unless you’re sharing half or a quarter with someone so the whole crew can have some, it’s gonna be a free-for-all.”

“Toss me one then— I don’t wanna share.”

The kid shrugged and tossed her a pomegranate. “Five remaining.”

That’s why Rovena worried Eno wouldn’t get one. Huh. People were weird.

It took only a short while before the rest filed back; sprinting or sneaking, they all shared their food with each other and shared how they got it. Eno’s personal bias had her preferring Rovena and her own story, but everyone else’s was just as entertaining.

****

After the scavenger hunt, it was mostly doing simple games. Someone had found a rope so they did hungry snake, and one of the human kids who’d suggested marbles had brought a big enough bag for the rest of them to start a mini-tournament where some adults even came over and gave their best attempts. Some of them made it pretty far before getting their behinds handed to them by either Bell or the human kid in question. 

She lost track of time as the sun lowered in the sky and she simply had fun with her friends. That was until the dwarven kid— their name was Soir, or something close to that, but her pronunciation was never right, so she usually spelled it instead so she didn’t misname her poor friend— nudged her and looked at the sun with a pointed glance. She looked up in response and realized; oh it was late. 

Dinner time would be soon. Uh oh. She didn’t want to get yelled at.

Scrambling her marbles together and handing them back to the human kid, she waved frantically as she started hustling away. “I gotta go!!”

“Ah— dinner time?” Bell asked.

“Yeah—” she nodded rapidly, “see you guys later?”

There was a call from a shadow; “That’s if you can find us again, brat!”

She giggled as she ran away to the chorus of kids laughing with her. They always said that, and she always did. 

Her clawed feet clacked against the cobbles as she raced down districts to where she lived, and crawled through small spaces to get to the stairs, hidden away behind a usually locked door. She did some small hop-flying as she jumped up the stairs and ran towards her home.

Eno grabbed the door handle with a small jump and leaned her momentum into opening it and stumbled in— “Not late!” she called, heaving for breath as she started closing the door behind her, when she finally looked up and paused.

The room was empty.

She trilled in confusion as she closed the door. That’s.. that’s not right. 

Doing a quick sweep through the rooms, checking the nooks and crannies and under things (despite the small space), before standing in between the ‘living room’ and ‘dining room/kitchenette’, puzzled.

She wasn’t very good at puzzles. 

Eno was here, but her family was not? She spun around in place as if that would summon them; it didn’t, to her disappointment.

She huffed an unamused trilling hoot and went over and sat on the large comfy seat they all shared. Well. She would wait then! Show them that she could be patient as the rest of them were late.

As she sat, she thought about today with a smile. Ooo she couldn’t wait to shove the fact she’d tried pomegranates today in Kinzon and Ahkrin’s beaks— it’d be so funny. She’d bet they didn’t even know what those were! She sure hadn’t, so it must be the same, otherwise they’dve gloated about it too. 

Frul and Odus wouldn’t care— they didn’t really care about what food they got, only so much as they could eat it. The weirdos. She was always horrified when they started eating things with those horribly mushy textures. She hated those the most— how did they do that??

Zofaas would be the only one she wouldn’t boast to; they liked learning, the big ol’ nerd. She’d tell them every little thing about the weird fruit and watch them sit and listen to her every word. It was nice having their sibling’s attention like that, because she’d let them talk too and let them have the same attention.

Her stomach growled and she startled from her daydreams. She peeked outside and frowned at the darkness surrounding the streets. She’d come when the sun was nearly set, and now the sun was gone.

She was hungry.

Well— that wasn’t completely the truth; she was always kinda hungry. Her older siblings said that was normal, though. They lied to her though. Was this a lie? No, because she was always hungry; it was a truth. 

Speaking of truth, she continued picking at her feathers as she tried to remember if her parents had said something about leaving? Maybe? She didn’t pay attention like she should to them sometimes when she wanted to play, and this could be one of those times… Something at breakfast maybe? Did any of them mention leaving?? No because when she dashed for the door, someone would have stopped her to remind her— they knew how her head worked. She was five! They kinda had to at this point.

But it was really hard to ignore the fear making her belly flip flop like she was getting in trouble. She hadn’t done anything this time! She came back on time even! She was the only one here on time! 

She kicked at the ground. This was stupid. Stupid and dumb. She was smart! At least her mom always said so— even if it was with a weird expression on her face. So! She had to prove her right! She was Enososin Folook! Of course she could manage something as stupid as dinner! She’d seen her parents do it plenty.

Standing up determinedly, she marched over to the kitchenette and assessed the situation.

She was gonna need the chair.

After some near mishaps that were common for her, and some maneuvering to find the things she saw her parents use for food, she looked at them critically. Didn’t they have a cookbook? Another 30 minutes of attempting to find that, quick flipping through to find something that had the meat she had at hand (it smelled like turkey, so she was gonna hazard a guess and say it was that), and a meal name she actually recognized. She stumbled across “turkey pie”. She remembered there being pastry dough left over from bread making yesterday in a jar— would that work? She only needed to make one for herself; so she’d try this one. There was a very long hour of sounding out words and trying to find them on the little bottles and attempting to understand the instructions of what to do with the knife and stove.

One near burning of the house down later, she had a meal. It was very dark out now, but she didn’t really need the sun to work to be able to see— but  now to see if she could actually eat it.

It didn’t taste too good, the texture of the dough being off and a little too gooey, but it was food, and she devoured the whole thing.

Her parents would’ve made her go to bed by now, no matter what kind of prank they’d be playing. She wondered if she should stay up longer and see if they’d show up, but to be truly honest, she was super duper tired, and she’d squeaked her honest to freaking stones frustration with everything on more than one instance as she attempted to cook. Bedtime.

Hopping off the chair, she looked at the door. Lock it? Yeah. Lock it. Mom usually did that before she and her siblings went to bed. 

Scrambling with the door, she fiddled with the locks before stumbling back down and crawling into her nest of blankets. Usually she’d be surrounded by her noisy siblings. She waffled between feeling so deeply sad at them not being here and an amusement that she was going to finally sleep as long as she wanted. 

She landed on the former option and curled up on her stomach as she fell asleep.

****

Her anxiety had calmed after the first night because it wasn’t the first time she’d forgotten something— maybe they were on a short trip! She hoped they were having fun, the forgetful dumbies, they had left her behind! 

So she stayed at the house most of the first day, searching for clues in her house as to where they’d went. It couldn’t be too hard— there weren’t many places to look!

Scattered clothes, that was normal, nothing out of the ordinary there; no new claw marks so a scuffle hadn’t made them have to go to the hospice— they’dve been back by now anyways if that were the case. Everything looked like it had been left in the middle of things being done. Did they all up and vanish? She knew magic people could do that, but was it to play a prank on her? If so, it wasn’t funny! And she said so, into the empty air. Nothing responded, and it left her feeling so very alone.

She knew she was small, it helped with games where she needed to hide, but she also knew when everyone was home, it was cramped. She was small enough to duck through legs and wings and the cacophony they made in their house but not everyone was so lucky to have her dexterity and ability to squeeze past everyone. 

But nothing— she even hyped herself up to duck into her parents’ room (very not allowed) to see if she could find anything that could help her there. Zilch. 

That night she was once again careful with the food she made. She really only knew how to make breakfast, and so that’s what she made that night. She ate it by the window in hopes of seeing something out there. The stars were her only companions.

The second day, she went out and about; confused and the fear coming back. Surely they’d come back once they realized they’d forgotten her? But they knew she was smart— so maybe they trusted her? But mama always said she was too young or small for some things. Her mom usually echoed those sentiments. Her siblings were less. Nice. About it. Runt was the word they liked tossing around. And annoyingly energetic. Also brat. Brat was common for her. One letter away from rat was what Kinzon said once. But runt just meant she had some wiggle room, which she was very clever with!

So she tried to be clever. She was careful through the days like how her mom and mama were with the food. She wasn’t sure why but they were: so would she! She asked the other packs of kids who played in the streets with her if they knew; most shrugged, some frowned and said they’d look into it— those were the older kids who only sometimes played her, like her siblings. The yuanti ‘tsk’ed at her. Rovena, Bell, and the dwarven kid banded together with some others to try and find information. The next few days were filled with shrugs, more ardent declarations of trying to find them, and looks that looked close to sad for her. She didn’t like that expression. It made her belly flip flop.

She still played everyday, sunrise to sundown, but it wasn’t enough to distract her anymore.

It was at the end of the 10th day that there was no more things in the cupboards anymore, nothing she recognized as edible by itself at least, and her family still weren’t back. 

She couldn’t deny it anymore. She was scared. She was beyond anything she’d felt in her life. She’d once thought that having to face mom after accidentally snapping her grandfather’s timepiece was the scariest thing she’d ever have to do. She was so, so very wrong.

She stayed in the house, most of the time, too scared to go out. Rovena had figured out where she lived some time ago, and came by every so often with a few others to keep her company and bring food. They offered to bring her with them so she wasn’t alone. She refused. ‘Politely’ she thought, but she wasn’t really in the mood to try and ‘do what other people wanted to hear from her’. 

She just wanted her family back.

****

It had been just a little over two weeks since her family had simply fallen off the face of the earth and she felt like she’d aged a lifetime. 

After the fifteenth day she finally regathered her faltering courage and went outside to try again. 

She asked sailors, they cited a bunch of kids had been asking similar questions; they hadn’t seen anyone fitting the descriptions given. She asked some of the homeless that hung around her area if they remembered anything. Most shook their heads. Some claimed a large ruckus happened that day, but aside from that, they didn’t really remember it.  She even snuck into the Diamond district to ask the desk lady in the shinies’ place the same question. The desk lady had shaken her head and asked Eno to “wait right there”. 

This little owlin didn’t trust like that.

She ran.

But the thing is, when you have nowhere to run and hide, where do you go?

She wandered through the district and ended up in the woods. She liked the woods. The trees were big and nice to hide in. 

Sometimes she and her siblings went deep enough that they came out the other side, but that was only if they started really really early. And Mama and Mom had to come, they didn’t let the seven of them do that alone, to the consternation of the rest of them.

Now she would give her shiniest trinket for that opportunity again.

She gently clawed at her leg with her foot as she antsed around— a bit of a dance like hopscotch, but more anxiety filled, and went up to a tree and started climbing, grabbing branches and vines when available, and using her little claws to dig into the surface level bark when necessary. She liked the trees. She didn’t wanna hurt them.

Climbing as far as she could, she started hopping from branch to branch, tree to tree, each level she tried to get high enough to get above the canopy of leaves, taking the low road only when there was no other option. 

Eno finally popped her head out of the leaves and peered around at the town partially below and the sea out past that. She wondered if she’d have to sail to find them. That would be a cool adventure to tell them all, that she, the youngest of them, hunted them down across the many seas and lands she’d never seen. 

She sat there above the canopy, watching the day pass; tiny ants of people moving around the town and the leaves rustling pleasantly as she stared unblinkingly. 

The sun was finally beginning to set when Eno ducked her head below the canopy once more, and clambered a few layers down, once more going deeper into the forest as she leapt.

And then she heard noises that were not from her, nor any animal she recognized.

It was humming.

She blinked as she held onto a trunk of a tree she was about to leap from and peered around to see where it was coming from.

It didn’t take too long for her to spot the perpatrator; because they were coming from the brush like a statue from the castle come to life to roam the earth.

Huge.

That was her first thought on seeing the figure and she immediately puffed up upon seeing them.

Huge person. Bigger than her mom, and mom was giant. But instead of feathers and wings making up their body, they had the familiar grey skin every humanoid had and bright red hair in a very, very long braid. She didn’t think she’d actually seen anyone with that long of hair. And the only reason she could tell it was red was because she’d once seen a book with the same shade of grey, and people said it was ‘red’. Their back was to her, so she couldn’t really see their face, but she was almost sure that there had been bright red lines disappearing under their clothes. They looked super strong, and they were carrying a weird shining stick to walk— Eno fluffed up even more as she realized her mistake— giant glowing hammer. 

She watched them intently. Why had she never seen this person before? Did they not come into town? They couldn’t do it regularly if so, because Eno would definitely remember this person. Her memory wasn’t very good, except for shiny things, food, and games. This person had a big shiny object— she’dve recognized them.

Eno realized she must have been staring a bit too much, making the big statue to have the thing that happens when you feel someone staring at you too much happen, because they’ve stopped walking, and tilted their head very very slightly behind them before fully turning their head around. She watches as their eyes are glancing around before— Oops. They spotted her. The big grey person started blinked rapidly a few times. And looked around like he was looking for something attached to her. 

They seemed.. confused? She wasn’t good with the nose people expressions yet. Their postures were all wrong for her to completely get what they were doing. But he was doing that almost scrunchy move with the eyebrows and mouth, so she was deeming it ‘confused’ until proved otherwise!

“Hello, little one...”

Whoa. Big voice. She clutched instinctively at the tree tighter. It made sense— of course!— big big adult means big big voice ! Even if the big man seemed to be trying to… not. Do that. 

It shook her. She valiantly attempted to stomp on her fear. That didn’t stop it from making her feathers fluff up in response. 

Watching them carefully, they seemed to watch her back. She had absolutely no idea what to make of this person and that unsettled her. She didn’t like being unsettled. Her wings tended to fluff up even more when that happened and flutter in distress. She couldn’t 100% control that movement yet, and it always gave her away when she said she ‘wasn’t scared’ when one of their parents told a scary story.

This seemed to make the big person start moving towards her, an expression she couldn’t really understand on their face as they came closer– what–?

Then she realized she was suddenly being grabbed oh no oh no— she squeaked out a jumbled call of “back up” and “I’m fine”. She continued to get pulled from her perch— the big man was saying something as he started pulling her down but all she could think was “let go” and nothing coherently came out in common.

Starting to panic, she squirmed and let instincts take the reins. She felt something warm and smelled weirdly similar to how she imagined a wet copper piece to taste like in her mouth all of a sudden and a sharp inhale and slight shake from the big man; it took a moment for her to realize her beak was embedded in something. That’s a very large finger. She had bit him. 

Uh oh. 

She was about to get yelled at or he was gonna take her to the cops or maybe hurt her or— in Oh no oh no she was so dead she was so dead why did she do that?!? She knew biting wasn’t allowed why did she bite?! She was so dead this big man was gonna kill her and she’d never be able to say sorry to her parents for forgetting—

She had started squeaking in fear while her brain raced like a horse— and she felt the world kinda rush down in a way that made her already twisted tummy start sitting in her throat as the big man bent down and gently put her down, releasing her but keeping his hands close.

“Hey, hey,” said the big voice again, actually making sense to her this time, gentle and a little rushed, “you’re ok, you’re ok, sh-sh-sh-sh— I’m sorry, I thought you were stuck, that was my fault, you’re ok, you’re ok, I promise. I’m so sorry, little owlette, that was my fault.”

It took her longer than the pride every five year old carried like a trophy would ever allow her to admit for her to calm down from squeaking noises only her missing family would recognize and physically crying in the middle of the forest. The whispered apologies and reassurances helped, but everytime she thought a little bit about the fact the big man didn’t know what she had been calling out in her panic and that made her start crying all over again. 

At some point during her meltdown, the big man had stopped crouching and instead was sitting crossed-legged, and very, very gently petting her head, humming some sort of tune instead of words. She noted he had a very warm hand. 

Once she stopped shaking so hard she felt that warm hand move away and she felt a loss. She missed her mom. She wanted her mama. She wanted to hug her siblings even if they made her angry. She didn’t know how to convey all that to this weird big man she had bitten. She just looked up at him miserably waiting for the chiding to start. 

But it didn’t. He just looked back down at her in concern, and she noted idly as she sniffled that the big man had eyes the same shade of grey as the leaves in the trees. Was he a tree spirit? A protector of the trees? The hammer would make sense if so.

“Child, are you alright?”

She always heard people say ‘yeah’ or ‘I’m fine’ to this question, but she really did not feel alright. “No.”

The man tilted his head at her in assessing concern. “Are you hurt on your body?”

She shook her head. She didn’t think that the heavy weight in her chest was real otherwise the big man might’ve had a bit more trouble picking her up.

“You feel bad?” He asked.

She nodded miserably.

He ‘hmm’ed in sympathy at her nod. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know where my family went,” she squeaked out— her voice was quivering so bad and she wanted to kick herself for it, but just like that she was on the verge of tears again, “they just went poof like a magic show and they’ve been gone for— for two weeks. ’M good at — at finding things but I don’t where to look anymore. They lef’ me behind.”

The man’s eyebrows had risen, eyes widening a small a bit at the start of her reason and had shot to his hairline by the end of it. She didn’t know what she did that was so bad she’d been left behind and she stubbornly refused to cry again. 

It was really hard not to.

“Dear child— what’s your name?”

Mom always told her telling her name to someone was dangerous, especially if you didn’t know what they could do with it, but she didn’t really understand what that meant. She closed her eyes really tightly for a moment so she didn’t cry. “Enososin.” She replied, blinking her eyes open again and remembering to add— “Folook.”

“I am Saint Rollo,” he introduced, bowing his head in a nod, and now that he mentioned it, she spots the symbol on the weird pointed cloth thing that priests wear with the symbol of what mom called ‘the blood clerics’. Oh. She knew that was important, but she didn’t know why. “And if you don’t mind me asking, would you like some food? A place to stay while we look for your family?”

“I have a house..” she mumbled. She felt bad— what if they came back when she wasn’t there? 

“Forgive me, as I’m sure you’re extremely good at taking care of yourself, if you have for this long, but it’d ease my heart if you were somewhere with people who will support you.”

“Th.. the older kids help.”

Something seemed to occur to the ‘Saint’ and he murmured something about something explaining a few things. She was tired, so she didn’t really feel up to asking what he meant. She’d ask later if she remembered.

“Here— I’m sure, your friends help enormously, but perhaps some adults who have more reach in concerns of missing people?”

“No cops,” she immediately squeaked. “I don’t wanna go to jail.”

The Saint laughed, baring his teeth gently at her. A big smile. “No no, definitely not. I won’t let you go to jail. I was referring to the church.” He pointed off towards the towering… tower. She didn’t know what else to call it. It was a really big tower that peeked through the leaves. Her parents didn’t go to church, said it wasn’t really their ‘thing’ whatever that means. “We’d only need to go to the church down that way, and get you some clothes, some food, and maybe some sleep?”

She thought about how tired she was. “Yeah. Sleep sounds nice.”

He nodded at her assessment gently, and seemed to be pondering something. She looked up at him as he blinked back at her. She always won staring contests with other people.

“If I may— may I carry you over there?”

She blinked. Immediately the fluttery heavy feeling in her stomach was back. “I’m sorry—”

He raised up a hand— not the one she had bitten, that one was still bleeding through some cloth he’d at some point wrapped around his hand— and shook his head. “Don’t apologize. I was in the wrong. You reacted correctly in that situation. But the question stands; may I carry you, or would you prefer to walk?”

Eno shuffled her claws as she thought. Her legs ached and her wings couldn’t really carry her anywhere. Yeah. Ok. She nodded after a moment and raised her arms expectantly.

There was a brief look that flashed on the giant’s face before it was replaced by the content expression he’d been wearing before he’d spotted her. She was once again lifted into the air and placed in the crook of his right arm, as the bandaged hand picked up the hammer, and they started towards the church.

[beanghostprincess]

Usopp obtaining Conqueror's haki makes so much sense to me and I genuinely think he deserves it on Elbaf please please please

[necrotic-nephilim]

I started in DC by reading fanfics, but as I began to read actual comics, I started to be unable to read the actual fanfic that got me into it in the first place because it's so out of character.

But there are still some stories that I love to read because I love the found family trope so much, even if it isn't really accurate to the source material.

As a comics purist (sometimes), are there tropes that you like enough that you'll still enjoy a fic even if it's not accurate to canon?

oh my god this is SUCH a fun question. bc while i started with the comics, there were certain characters and/or character dynamics where i was exposed to the fanon before the canon (just bc it's hard to read everything when you start out just to read some fanfic) and so i've definitely experienced the fanon to canon transition. (*especially* with Jason Todd. i had only read 80s/90s stuff where he was already dead or the New-52 bc that was on-going when i got into comics and man. the fanon misunderstandings i had about him before i got frustrated and sat down to read all his pre-Flashpoint stuff were absolutely bonkers.) and aside from that, whilst i tend to prefer canon over fanon, i'm not past giving fanon its flowers for occasionally having really interesting insights. occasionally. so some of my fanon "guilty pleasure" tropes would probably be

Morally Grey Tim Drake - this is one where if you try to back it up with canon, i *will* get salty about it. of everyone in the Batfam aside from maybe Bruce and Cass, Tim has the *most* black and white morals. often his internal conflicts are routed in such an inability to compromise his moral views and it can cause him to clash with other characters. he's *very* stiff and rigid in his beliefs and is *rare* to compromise in even the smallest ways. i mean, DC has repeatedly used Tim Drake of Tomorrow/Savior/Gun Batman!Tim for a reason. it's to demonstrate that of everyone, Tim *cannot* have his morals compromised. there's no grey area for him. he's zero or a hundred, so if he tips over the edge of "too far" he tips *all the way*, and doing so is one of his worst fears, how he could go "too far" if he let himself. a couple panels out of context from Red Robin (2009) (which was a grief spiral for Tim to begin with) don't change that. now that said. if it's done *right*, i sort of love Tim being morally grey in fanfic. it takes a specific flavor for me, and it's incredibly important to include that mental spiral along with it, of him struggling to justify it. i don't have any interest in "Tim Drake is loosy goosy with Bruce's morals and has the highest kill count and no one knows teehee" bc it doesn't play with the interesting parts of making Tim morally grey, which are fracturing his psyche. but all in all, i think it's fun to put Tim in a morally grey area and i will read it in fanfic and i enjoy writing it a lot

Joker Junior!Tim Drake - i've not written it on this account (yet) but on my main ao3 account one of my biggest fics surrounds this concept. this is one of those "well *technically* it's canon but only in a specific very divorced from the comics universe and would not work at all in the main timeline" so, i categorize it as fanon in that 95% of fics exploring the concept are not doing so within the Batman Beyond universe, but the main timeline. i just love it. I'll take any excuse to whump Tim, but this concept is so fun. psychologically breaking Tim will always be my favorite pastime. there are so many ways to explore the long-term effects this could have on him, how it could affect the Batfam. i'm not a fan of it being used as a "gotcha" to Jason or Babs' trauma with the Joker to paint Tim as the Ultimate Victim, but it is fun to see how their relationships would be affected by being mutual victims of him. (i have a vague JayTim idea where TIm fully retires from being Robin after being Joker Junior and killing the Joker, making Steph Robin for most of his typical Robin era and Jason still tracks him down out of curiosity bc he wants to know what happened and all. very underbaked but i've got thoughts.)

Renegade/Apprentice of Slade!Dick Grayson - this is another one where yes, this happened *sort of* in canon, but i highly doubt most people writing Renegate!Dick have read or are actually pulling from Nightwing: Renegade. it's just an exploration fo the concept fo Dick being Slade's apprentice and i will always eat it up in any capacity. whether Dick grows up with Slade from a young age, or chooses Slade for whatever reason later in life. it's not anything that works in canon bc it compromises Dick morally (similar to the above with Tim) and therefore will always come across incredibly fanon in most fics. but i can't say i don't enjoy it. it's fun to make Dick a little morally fucked up and see what you can make him under Slade's tutelage.

Jason & Damian Meeting in the League -there's no world where i believe this could work in the canon comics. (maybe in the Young Justice cartoon i suppose, but even then i think it's iffy) i would go as far to say it's wildly unrealistic. i don't see a world where Ra's would let Jason anywhere *near* Damian, bc Jason was Talia's pet project that he didn't approve of. that all said, there's something very interesting about how they *could've* met and them potentially bonding during that timeframe. them being somewhat brotherly during this time because Jason sees Bruce in Damian and sort of latches onto the kid and Damian is full of wonder hearing real stories about Batman and Robin, then that getting violently ripped away by Jason leaving the League is fun to me. it's fun how that could affect them within the Batfam and all. it's super fanon to me, but i do not care. i will eat it up

Bad Dad Clark Kent/Good Dad Lex Luthor - i will admit as a late, i've been less and less kind to this particular fanon bc of everything i've argued with people about, *this* one seems the most pervasive as misunderstood fanon. i don't mind when fanon exists, my gripe is when ppl try to claim it's canon. and the *arguments* i've had over this with people who can never seem to cite an actual comic are... frustrating. but that said, i think there is something fun to this strictly in fanon. the duality of who you expect to accept Kon and who you expect to hurt him being flipped is just sort of fun for the occasional guilty pleasure fic. it can make Kon's internal conflict a bit more interesting. the same goes for the Jon favoritism from Clark, it's not a canon thing (and i rlly wish ppl understood how complicated the timeline of Kon and Jon is and any distance from Clark toward Kon isn't malice, it's that Kon is from a timeline that Clark does not remember in the current canon so Clark just straight up doesn't know the poor kid.) but it's sort of fun to give Kon that complex of being overlooked and forgotten sometimes. making Kon just a *bit* more Luthor than Kent will *always* appeal to me in fanfic, especially if he *knows* it's wrong but craves approval from anyone who will give it.

Good Dad Bruce Wayne - i'll die on the hill Bruce is canonically a shitty father. maybe not to the extreme some people write him as, but he's not great at it. that said, i enjoy it in fanfiction. sometimes, i just want silly fluff or hurt/comfort where Bruce finally gets it right and manages to comfort whatever Batkid is in the fic. one of my favorite fics of all time is hinged on Bruce being a good dad, so i think it's just fun to explore how good the relationships *could* be, if Bruce was slightly less of an asshole. i usually prefer him as an asshole, but there are times i want low stakes nonsense.

Gotham Rogues Having Soft Spots for Robin(s) - just about every Rogue in Gotham has done something absolutely irredeemable, and most of them don't like or care about anyone in the Batfamily. but if there's a fic where one of the Robins inexplicably is sort of close with a Rogue and they have a cute silly relationship out of it? I'll eat it up i fear. Steph and the Riddler are besties? I'll believe it. Tim and Scarecrow get along pretty well? give me ten of these. Rogues protecting Robins just hits a spot. the unexpected nature of the relationship, as well as the fact they see each other regularly, can make a lot of good fodder.

[theprinceandthewitch]

TOH is so incredibly fanficy, despite being an original show.

I really won't get over how they made Huntlow a thing and wasted a full hourish episode to make it happen.

Frankly, it's nbd for Willow to date someone by the time the story ends. Her dating someone doesn't kneecap her story. But Hunter dating her definitely kneecaps his, because Willow is not relevant to the whole Caleb/Evelyn and Philip drama like Luz is.

It makes no sense, from a narrative standpoint, to have Hunter like Willow. It feels like they really wanted to give Willow a love interest and Hunter was the only option they had to work with.

With Hunter it's like... him getting a witch love interest is something that pretty much needs to happen from a narrative standpoint.... but Willow isn't that LI. The only character who fits Evelyn's themes is Luz. He and Luz are the "Caleb" and "Evelyn" in this story - no other character's fit these roles like they do.

"But TOH is a tragedy -"

"But TOH is a subversion of romantic-"

TBH I really don't want to hear how TOH is a romantic tragedy or a subversion of romantic expectations because... it isn't. I have read romantic tragedies and subversions and this isn't paced like either. They also put a whole ass Lunter kiss in a spoiler episode, so I really don't think they were planning on making TOH a subversion of romantic expectations or writing Luz's and Hunter's romance as a tragic one.

See, this pairing is extremely confusing to me, because if they actually were planning on Hunter and Willow being a thing from the beginning and not Hunter and Luz, then Willow would have been written into all of Luz's and Hunter's episodes - which just so happen to be his important character arc moments [ST, HP and HM].

But... they don't do that, like at all lmao. I'm also not a fan of Hunter's friendship with Willow and Gus, but that's a discussion for another time.

[princess-of-purple-prose]

Fish, 7 (For your prompts! ❤️)

Hi, anon!! Thank you for the prompt, you were the very first one to send one in! 7 was, again, the wildcard, so I randomly generated a different number to land on Yue Qingyuan (from Scum Villain)! I have no choice but to dedicate this to @bytedykes, because I told her about this prompt and she said “yqy pet fish mental health speedrun” and we went, uh, a little insane about it. Enjoy some yuefang, folks!!!!

“Mu-xiong,” Yue Qingyuan says. “I’m sorry to bother you. Are you available?”

“Yue-xiong is never a bother,” Mu Qingfang says warmly. “And I am, actually, yes. Is everything okay, Yue-xiong?”

“I think I need help.” A bit dramatic, perhaps, and Yue Qingyuan hates to trouble Mu Qingfang on a rare day off, but Yue Qingyuan and impulse have never been the best combination, and he would appreciate a second opinion.

Mu Qingfang’s voice turns hard. “Where are you? I'll come right away.”

“What—?” Yue Qingyuan stares at his phone like the blank call screen will tell him why Mu Qingfang suddenly sounds so serious. “I'm at home, but—”

“I'll be right there,” Mu Qingfang says, and hangs up.

Yue Qingyuan stares at his phone for another second, then lifts his gaze to his sparkling new aquarium. His new betta, white and black and resplendent of fin, stares back. Was his crisis of faith about his viability as a fish owner really so deserving of such urgency…?

—

“So,” Mu Qingfang says. “This was your emergency?” He looks about as unimpressed by the betta as it does by the two of them.

Yue Qingyuan feels obscurely like he’s being scolded. Mu Qingfang is one of the nicest men he knows, but that just means that his censure takes the form of a blunt instrument of mass disappointment.

“In my defense,” he points out meekly, “I didn’t say there was an emergency. Mu-xiong just assumed.”

“That’ll teach me,” Mu Qingfang huffs, but at least he looks amused. “Yue-xiong should get used to asking for help more so this gege doesn’t have to panic every time he does ask.”

Yue Qingyuan’s mouth almost drops open. He can only hope his cheeks aren’t as red as they feel. “Er—well, I asked this time, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Mu Qingfang allows, looking something horribly close to fond. Yue Qingyuan swallows and tries to hurry on.

“So—not an emergency, but I do want your opinion,” he coughs out. “I’m having… doubts. About the fish.” Mu Qingfang’s eyebrows contract. Yue Qingyuan rushes it out. “Do you think I should keep it?”

“Yue-xiong…” Mu Qingfang looks politely incredulous. “Why does my opinion matter? The fish is already yours, isn’t it? If you don’t think maintaining its upkeep will be feasible, that’s one thing, but… Surely Yue-xiong did the research before getting it?”

He doesn’t sound judgemental, but Yue Qingyuan feels his cheeks warm. “I did, but I wasn’t planning on getting a fish; I was only admiring the tanks. There was a salesperson who was… very insistent.”

Mu Qingfang regards him doubtfully, which is fair. Yue Qingyuan towers over most people he meets, and his bulk only further adds to the impression of immovability. It’s only when he opens his mouth that it becomes clear how spineless he actually is.

Yue Qingyuan falters. “I had thought… I thought it might be nice.” The bettas had seemed so majestic in their tanks, iridiscent monarchs of false grass and plastic coves, and Yue Qingyuan had thought, wildly, that one might be rewarding to keep, might breathe a touch of life into his immaculately sleek living room. The whole affair hadn’t even been expensive by his shiny new standards, forget difficult to physically arrange. It was only when installation and set-up for his new aquarium had finished and he was left to watch that jewel-bright being swim disaffectedly through its new home that doubt had seized him, all-consuming and black. He had, admittedly, panicked a little after that.

(Yue Qingyuan’s apartment is very large, and very clean, and very empty. It holds the barest amount of decoration and muss to qualify as lived-in rather than a snapshot from a magazine ad. The fish may, in fact, be the only thing in the entire place which really qualifies as his. No wonder Yue Qingyuan wanted to jettison it from his life as soon as he got it.)

Mu Qingfang’s expression hovers between concern and simple confusion. “I’m sure Yue-xiong will be a more than adequate caretaker,” he says, more gently than Yue Qingyuan and all his neuroses probably deserve. “What’s this really about, Yue-xiong?”

Ah. There it is. Being the mildest person of Yue Qingyuan’s admittedly sharp-tongued social circle doesn’t preclude Mu Qingfang’s wit from being as keen as the scalpels he works with.

“I don’t…” Yue Qingyuan falters. How to express to Mu Qingfang how manifestly unfit Yue Qingyuan is to care for any living creature at all? He changes tack. “I think he hates me,” he admits dolefully.

Mu Qingfang stares at him for a long time, long enough to imply that he’s reevaluating certain opinions about Yue Qingyuan’s intelligence. “Yue-xiong, with all due respect to your new pet—it’s a fish.”

“Fish have emotions!” Yue Qingyuan argues. He flushes at the volume at which it comes out, and at the way Mu Qingfang’s eyes go wide-eyed in startlement. But the salesperson had been very insistent about that, as well. “Bettas are intelligent animals. They dislike certain colors, apparently, and they’re very sensitive—ah, to environmental disruptions, that is. And—”

Mu Qingfang’s eyebrows are still high, but his face has relaxed into a smile. “It sounds to me like you like it quite a bit already. Isn’t that reason enough to keep it?” His tone curls with sudden mischief. “Have heart, Yue-xiong—you’ve hardly known each other for a day! Give it time to adjust to you, and I’m sure you’ll win it over as surely as you do everyone else.” And he grins, sure and easy in his trust that Yue Qingyuan won’t fumble and shatter something so small and monumental as a life that he could cup in his palms.

While Yue Qingyuan is still dazed by that, Mu Qingfang’s eyes alight with interest. “Ah, Yue-xiong—what have you named it?”

“...”

Mu Qingfang’s face falls as devastatingly as it had lit up. “Yue-xiong…”

“Mu-xiong is aware that I was unsure of whether or not I’d keep him!” Yue Qingyuan is terribly aware that his ears are now heating up to match his cheeks. Mu Qingfang’s ensuing laughter does not help with that matter.

Yue Qingyuan is not very good at holding onto things. More often than not, he makes a mess of whatever he’s set his clumsy hands to, lets it fall right through his scarred fingers. But Mu Qingfang’s words ring through his head: Isn’t that reason enough to keep it? And, well, isn’t it? Surely Yue Qingyuan is adult enough to follow through on this. Maybe happiness can be look like his new betta swimming up to the tank to observe the new colorful form moving in front of it, can come as easy as Mu Qingfang quipping that his knowledge about fish is clearly lacking and vowing casually to read up on bettas to be a better fish uncle.

Yue Qingyuan buries a smile and walks over to let Mu Qingfang know that bettas can be trained to follow fingers around. The betta’s clear preference for Mu Qingfang over Yue Qingyuan is as good a marker of intelligence as any fun fact the pet shop worker could have given him. Yes, Yue Qingyuan thinks with a smile—he thinks he’ll be keeping this after all.

[hella1975]

you ever have a fic get you in such a chokehold you start pacing your room and talking to yourself

[rosykims]

do i make ashara more devoted to mythal post trespasser or do i alienate her from the evanuris entirely. is she immune to propaganda by virtue of how badly solas damaged her ability to believe in anything or is she especially vulnerable to it now bc she still WANTS to believe in anything. is she sporting subtle mythal details in her costume design or is she not

[cream-and-tea]

[ID in alt]

pallas + giftgiving ❤️

[batemanofficial]

i must not quit my job. quitting my job is the income killer. quitting my job is the little-death that brings little caesar's and tap water. i will face the urge to quit my job. i will permit it to pass over me and through me. and when it has gone i will blog angrily about it and see its path. when the urge to quit my job has gone there will be nothing. only a weak resolve to suffer through one more pay period will remain

[insecateur]

Me, looking at vulgar french words for penis: Oh neat they also have Verga

Also tbt to the time a teacher of mine said "Le bilo bitte" instead of Bic and we spent a full hour laughing

"verge" is commonly used in french smut and is at least marginally better than "membre" which is a nightmare imo. "organe" is another euphemism which i feel like you need to be very confident in order to pull off. i haven't written smut in french in so long i'd like to write some this year

"bite" is always funny altho i do think going a step further and reaching for "teub" gives it a real special flavor

[seventh-district]

.

[bragganhyl]

well... despite my best efforts i sure as hell managed to land Berci in the middle of a love triangle ✌️

which is both very funny bc pffff lmao imagine fighting over him but at the same time it's really frustrating bc... yeah

[ragnar0c]

I can’t actually get over how Hana and Alope become friends bc they don’t really know they’re friends until one of them is sad and the other says something stupid like this.

Or someone asks and they just go “I’m not real sure….”

but they do become friends. They’re shaky at first, but arguably even after chapter 3 you could call them that. They’re just not very good friends until after chapter 15. And even after chapter 15 they have attachment issues so they’d rather just do nice things for each other to prove they are friends rather than claim it.

[hungwood]

/ ANYHOW! look at p.uppeteer's character design sheet !

[soo-won]

Il like yeah I don't like Suwon because of his vibes and because his 8 years old ass won't put my daughter above the country my grown ass is unable to rule decently :/ But what I find curious is how no one ever ask why Il didn't, just maybe, prioritized his nephew, that he's the only adult relative of now(because of who i ask you!!) just a bit more ? like you know. He's supposed to be his uncle. God forbid this child have other priorities than his cousin in life but the adult in his 40/50s has a free pass to not be a responsible adult with his orphaned nephew.

If Il had lingering resentment over how Yuhon planned to kill Yona and felt like it was only fair he wouldn't treat his brother's son as family either, that could have been something interesting to explore. but it doesn't. And instead of being honest about the reasons why he "just can't do" with Suwon, he blames it all on Suwon himself. Who again is a child that just lost his two parents and is holding a faction of people that would very much commit a regicide immediatly if he wasn't holding them by the scruff of the neck.

[silverislander]

have discovered a new enemy while doing research for the honours essay. why are you pretending to understand psychology and BLATANTLY misinterpreting actual terms and concepts in order to tear down a movie aimed at teenage girls, my good bitch. i'm going to start biting