#but this was some cool light around the water in first forge

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon forbidden west | aloy 119/?

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Can I request headcanons for Dammon, Rolan, and Zevlor react to his gn s/o admitting that they have suicidal thoughts?

A/N: Oh, nonnie! *Hugs* This ask was perfect timing because I was struggling with suicidal ideation last week- big time. Me and the kitchen floor were very well acquainted last week. So trust me, I know it’s not easy, but please try and hang in there. These feelings and thoughts, as awful and all-consuming as they are, are still temporary. They will pass. Everything passes eventually. It can’t stay the same forever. So if it’s bad now, just know it won’t always be this way. And in the meantime, I hope these headcanons bring you some comfort. 

TW: Suicidal Thoughts, Mentions of Suicide, Suicidal Ideation 

The BG3 Tiefling Boys Reacting to Their S/O Admiting They Have Suicidal Thoughts 

Dammon: 

Dammon’s taken aback when you tell him. The two of you being a couple has made him so happy, and he’s told you as much. In his enthusiasm, Dammon simply assumed you always felt the same level of elation he did. The fact that you have these sorts of thoughts is all news to him. 

He’s immediately concerned for your safety, worried that any second the thoughts may become too much to bear, and you’ll feel no other choice than to act on them. He contemplates speaking to someone older, someone wiser for advice on what he should do to be a supportive partner. He just wants to get this right. He doesn’t want to add any stress or difficulty to what you’re already going through with any of his reactions or fears. 

Dammon starts checking up on you more often, at random times throughout the day. He’ll take a break from his forging and pop his head inside to find you, wherever you are. Some days he sits with you and talks about the current projects he’s making. Other days the two of you sit in silence, sipping cool glasses of water. Dammon wants to ensure you don’t ever feel as if you’re going through this alone. He wants to show you that he’ll always be nearby, should you need him. 

Dammon will also make you random presents whenever he has a little extra time. It’s not much- a pendant here, or a broach there, a bunch of little things to remind you of him when he can’t be there. 

Dammon suggests you try writing your feelings out in a diary of sorts. And he promises not to peek- it's for your benefit only. His sketchbook helps him so much in trying to overcome a design flaw or difficulty. He thinks, perhaps, if you had more space to expand your feelings and thoughts onto paper, they wouldn't feel as oppressive in your mind.

You find his tail always wrapping around your ankle, or even your waist, when you're at his side. It’s like his tail is telling you what echoes in the subconscious of his mind: Dammon can’t lose you. He’s been through so much already. You have brought so much light and joy into his life. He couldn’t bear to let you go. 

He begs you, to please come to him if you should ever get to a point where you don’t know what else to do. He doesn’t want to lose you. You mean so much to him. Please, let him in. The two of you can weather this together. 

Essentially, Dammon becomes all the more attentive and upfront/vocal about his affection for you. He hopes to shower you in so much love, that the little voice in your head has no chance to bring you down. 

Rolan: 

Rolan is sickened, and just a teensy bit angry. Not at you, but at himself. Hearing you confess to having such thoughts makes him all the more concerned about you. But of course, being the stubborn tiefling he is, Rolan doesn’t know how to say it without sounding like a dick. 

Rolan first considers looking into a spell or enchantment that can do away with such feelings, before you explain to him that, even if that were possible, in the long run, that’s not how these things work. These kinds of things can’t be fixed by magic. And even if there was a spell that might work, it’s not the kind of thing magic should be used to interfere with. This makes Rolan more irritable about the whole thing because he’s spent so long studying, building up his skills to be a wizard. But he hasn’t spent the time working on his emotional intelligence or intimacy prowess. And now, he fears that lack of proficiency may cost him you. 

But he tries! Oh boy, does he try! He’s constantly sending either Lia or Cal to check up on you when he’s too busy to come see you himself. It becomes a bit of an inside joke between the three of you, how large that one vein in Rolan’s forehead becomes whenever Cal or Lia report back to him about you. 

Once Rolan comes to understand you didn’t tell him so he’d be responsible for keeping you under watch, but because you just wanted him to ‘get it’, he becomes much less overbearing in his instructions. Instead of ordering you to go outside for some sun, he’ll offer to take a stroll with you around Sorcerous Sundries. Rather than forcing you to eat every couple of hours, Rolan will show up in your room some night with a select baked goods he picked up from a street vendor for you to share over tea before falling asleep. 

He has difficulty talking about it most days, but he does hold your hands and tell you once, very passionately, that he cares for you, deeply, and he hates to think you were hurting all this time in silence. He asks you to please, please keep sharing your feelings with him. He knows his reactions aren’t always the most encouraging, but he swears that no matter his initial reaction, he will always be on your side. 

Deep down he does want to take care of you, he feels responsible for your well-being. It’s rather similar to how he feels responsible for providing for Lia and Cal. But with you, it’s all the more profound. There’s no point in him studying to become the greatest wizard in Baldur’s Gate if you’re not at his side. Without you, very little would seem worth it.  

Zevlor:

Zevlor is alarmed, and immediately all the more worried about your well-being. Zevlor was already anxious before about the two of you being together, thinking of himself as undeserving. He felt he was too old, too damaged, and too changed to be a man worthy of your affections. Becoming an official couple quieted most of those doubts but hearing you confess that you harbor such thoughts brings all his insecurities back to the forefront. 

Is it something he’s done? Is it something he didn’t do? Is it his fault? He’s already apologizing profusely before you can even get a word in edgewise. You are so incredible, he thinks you’re so brilliant. The fault must lie with him. 

Once you explain how it’s not anybody’s fault, neither his nor yours, Zevlor seems to settle a little. He still worries a great deal about you, probably the most out of all the tieflings, because he knows the exact desperation you’re feeling. He’s felt it before. He’s felt it a few times throughout his life actually. 

As a Hellrider, Zevlor saw a great deal of conflict. And when Elturel fell into Avernus, he was forced to endure even more. There’s so much pain and suffering in the world that when you’re stuck in the middle of it, it often seems like there’s no way out. 

Because Zevlor has felt such lows before, he also knows there isn’t always much you can do to stop it right away. Yes, you can meditate or talk your feelings out or perhaps write them down in a journal or log, but there’s no quick fix. It’s a heavy burden you must carry, even as you look out into the coming horizon. 

The one thing Zevlor knows he can do is help you carry the load. Zelvor reminds you that you are not alone in this fight. Granted, he may no longer be the paladin he once was, but that will not stop him from aiding you the best he can. He’ll pay you extra attention, and spend more quality time with you. He’ll sit with you and rub your back as you cry. And on the days it's all just too much to take, Zevlor will stay in bed with you, his tail curled around your leg, his claws scratching gently through your hair as you lay there hiding away from the world. 

If your feelings ever get worse, Zevlor might consider recommending you speak to someone who perhaps can help, more than he can help you alone. A cleric or a monk, a druid… Anyone. Zevlor knows from his fellow veterans- there are more people out there living with the exact same feelings as you. Perhaps being able to attend a group setting to talk, as he does on occasion with his former Hellriders from Elturel, would help strengthen you on your continued journey.  

Zevlor approaches the situation with much more wisdom and understanding. He works to comfort you the best he can, but he also possesses enough humility to let you grieve as needed. 

[beyondtheglowingstars]

Breather

Pairing: Four x GN Reader Word count: 2.4k WARNING(S): NSFW MINORS DNI!! | Established relationship, kinda detailed handjob, a bit of a subby Four and a pinch of praise (sorry if I missed anything). General info: Four has been really busy the last couple days, you haven't been able to spend as much time together as usual, so you give him a hand and help him relax.

Brows were furrowed in concentration as Four fit the blade’s tang into the handle, hitting it against a table to fully secure the wooden piece. His fingers securely wrapped around the back of the blade and his other hand held a strong grip on the handle, he harshly tugged the metal outwards after making sure he had a steady hold on the knife; the construction didn’t budge. Satisfied with the work, he hummed in approval with a smile and put the blade down in a visible place on his work table.

Four directed that smile your way, letting you know that the knife you helped him make proved to be a success. It was nothing intricate or fancy by any means, but it could be considered your first completed blade even if your boyfriend walked you through some of the process and used his hands every once in a while to demonstrate a technique. A pretty good first completion compared to your true first attempt at a blade, that one didn’t even get the right to have a handle. Only thing left to do was to sharpen the edge refine the handle, but you had plenty of time to do that tomorrow.

You motioned for Four to come closer to the corner of the forge you were seated in, having brought some cookies as a snack and water to help him cool off. A thankful grin spread on the hero’s face as took off his work gloves and munched on a cookie, sitting on the table you placed the food on.

“You did a great job!” He congratulated you with a radiant smile, more than happy that you showed some interest in blacksmithing. He was very proud and really meant it when he said that you did great.

“I’ll be making swords and tools with you sooner than you think.” You confidently stated, placing your hands on your hips.

Four took a sip of water and then put the cup down, giggling with nothing but pure joy as his smile warmed you up more than the furnaces inside did.

“If you keep doing this well, you definitely will.” His eyes locked onto yours with a tenderness so great that it put your mind at peace.

The scene plastered in front of you so fascinating, deliciously enrapturing and you couldn’t stop yourself from engraving it into your mind; it would have been more than worth it to have it made into a painting for you to hang in your room to look at every time you woke up.

The remaining embers still lit in the furnace cast a warm light that framed Four’s features in the most perfect way. His silky, golden locks looked the prettiest they ever had, his cheeks dusted with light pink from the previous closeness to the furnace and the light came from such an angle that the shadows on his figure showed off the muscles on his toned body. A few of his delicate strands of hair stuck to his forehead from the sweat, the skin on his arms sported black spots from the coal he handled earlier, the fabric of his sleeveless shirt was also stained from past and recent contact with coal and also hugged his body, accentuating his physique.

What would be considered imperfections were no such thing to you, they only aided in displaying some of what you loved most about Four. Your eyes couldn’t stop from appreciating what was in front of them and they wandered, and your boyfriend took notice of those movements.

“Are you done looking? Or would you like to take more time?” Four teased you with a smug smile. Though his comment was meant to get a reaction out of you, if his cheeks hadn’t already been pink, they would be now.

Your trance was broken and you lock eyes with him again, fully conscious this time as blood rushed to your face.

“You just looked great.” You stood up and walked the separating distance between the both of you and placed your hands next to his thighs, leaning down slightly and smiling brightly at him.

Four’s eyes slightly widened in surprise, searching your face to make sure there wasn’t a hidden hint he might’ve missed.

“Even now that I probably look like I’ve never bathed?” He was honestly taken aback, an eyebrow lifted in confusion.

Though he was flattered that you found something to like about him even in his less-than-presentable form, he really wondered what you admired so much right now. You firmly nod, and he places a joyous kiss on your forehead with a giggle. Standing up to your full height, cupping his cheeks with your hands and lightly tilting his head up to look at you; even after sitting on a surface taller than a chair, you still had a bit of height over him. Four melts from the touch and leans onto one of your hands.

You dip down to place a deep kiss on Four’s lips, he hadn’t expected you to kiss him like that right that moment, but reciprocated without a second thought. You part and stay looking at each other with many emotions and thoughts hidden behind your eyes, too many to pick out all of them, but a particular one stood clear and was shared between the both of you; passion. This time, the hero is the one that initiates the kiss by placing his hands on the back of your head and inclined your face closer to his. You kiss him again, growing bolder and making your tongue tap his bottom lip.

Four opens his mouth and is immediately met with your tongue inside, he playfully fights back but doesn't resist much. The kiss was filled with accumulated hunger and feelings you've been meaning to share, but hadn't had the chance to; your partner was happy to get a real taste of you again after so many days without one, since this week had been awfully busy for him. Your mouths part and the sound of your pants reverberated across the room as your breaths recovered.

"I've missed doing this with you." Your thumb slowly rubs Four's cheek and your other hand drifts lower to rest on his thigh.

Your boyfriend could feel electric sparks run through his veins at your touches. He gently grips the wrist from the hand holding his face, a sad smile on his lips.

"I know. I miss doing this too, but I'm working my hardest to be done with all the work in the next days."

A genuine smirk replaces his previous sad expression as he imagines all the things you two could do once he was done, a flame had ignited and spread warmth inside of him. Your mouth inches close to his ear, and you whisper to him.

"That's what worries me the most. You've done more than just push yourself, so let me take care of you right now."

Excitement travels through Four's body at your words, leaving goosebumps in its wake and increasing the heat at the front of his pants. Your lips kiss his jaw and underside of it, sucking marks into his skin and awakening a new wave of desire in him. Your boyfriend moves his head back to facilitate your access, and he lets out a pleasured sound when you locate one of the many sensitive spots on his neck. Fingers tangle in your hair, encouraging you to find more of those sections on him that made him sing and go crazy.

The hand you placed on Four's leg began caressing his inner thighs, and after long enough of your continued attention he let out a needy moan, you knew perfectly well what that meant. Swiftly undoing his belt, you push his upper body closer to your shoulder so he could get a good hold on you as you lifted him up slightly to slide his pants and underwear down, placing him down to his previous position when you were done; his short stature and light figure made it possible to pull it off without trouble.

The hero let out a sigh of relief the instant his cock was no longer constricted under fabric, his cheeks and part of his ears turned a vibrant red. He anxiously watched your hand advance towards his cock and place itself on the side of his length, fingers rub on his skin very slowly and he jolted from the touch. The strength of your grip lightly increased and your thumb ran from the base of his dick, over his frenulum until it reached his tip; spreading a bead of pre over the exposed part of his glans.

Four’s hips jerked forward involuntarily, his breathing ragged as he looks straight at you with a lustful gaze, pushing your head down to share another needy kiss. You begin to jerk him off slowly and a moan is released right into your mouth.

When your mouths separate you brush Four’s bottom lip with the hand that wasn’t occupied, his eyes half-lidded and his breathing not having stilled. He had fully given up by now, mentally affirming himself to having submitted to you entirely and being at your mercy. He liked to do that, he liked when you played with him and brought him to the edge enough times to drive him crazy, but you weren’t intending on doing that today. All you wanted to do was to help him blow off some steam and give him distraction from his work before he rips his own hair out from the crunch.

“Do you want more?” You ask him in low volume, Four couldn’t find the words to verbally reply so he settled for a vigorous nod.

The energy in his movement had you smiling and you didn’t think twice about complying, you settle on a steady pace that lead to Four’s back arching a little, shutting one of his eyes and voicing a surprised ‘oh!’ as his sight followed the movements of the hand that worked on him. The palm of your hand took advantage that his glans were no longer covered by foreskin to rub on his tip in circular motions as you kept jerking him off, Four groans as his hips suddenly bucked and his hands clenched into tight fists.

“How are you always so good at this?”

“I pay close attention.” And you weren’t lying when you said that.

You always took note of the little reactions in Four based on how and where you touched him, and your observations were always rewarded whenever you got Four to break under your touch; though, you suspected the reason he was squirming so early on today had to do with how it had been a long time since you two had done anything close to this.

He was so pent up, so responsive to your touch as if he were a virgin again. What wouldn’t normally bring such a big reaction out of him made him writhe this time, and you were fully meaning to take advantage of that. Your mouth shamelessly attacked his neck again, resuming the search for those spots that made Four sing. A guttural sound rumbled from deep within his chest, pleasure plastered on his face.

Teeth drag across his skin and he lets out another sound of surprise laced with lust in it. Your hand picked up speed and he whimpered at the unexpected change, losing himself more to the sensations in the process. You leave his neck alone and in turn, look at the lewd expressions you brought out of Four.

“You look so cute like this.” The compliment left your lips and with the smallest shard of conscience still left in him, Four felt some embarrassment and averted his eyes.

His lips met yours soon after, holding him closer and whispering praises into his ear sent him straight to cloud nine. All his blurry mind could register was your presence and how good you made him feel. Your words dissipated all his worries and stress; you always managed to make him feel the best he ever had, bringing a sense of familiarity and comfort to him even in the most perverted nights you shared.

It was delectably intoxicating, and he could never get enough of it.

He no longer processed your words as he concentrated on controlling his breathing pattern. Your repeated motions and variety of touches to his tip proved to be effective as the hero began exhaling sharply and grunting often in a matter of minutes.

“I’m close!” He told you as his head was thrown back and his mouth hung open.

This was your cue. Your hand grips the back of his head and brings him forward once again, roughly capturing his lips one last time. He was in such a haze that he couldn’t even kiss back, his hands flung to your shoulders and clutched the fabric from your shirt. You increased the speed on his dick and bring him to his sweet release in just a few seconds.

Four convulses under you, his moan muted by your lips as his lower abdomen flexes and his hips shoot up against you. Your hand stops moving and you let him ride out his orgasm, his eyes roll to the back of his head and you can feel his cum run down your hand. You let go of his lips for his own good, he pants loudly and looks at you with eyes half-closed. You lick a small amount of his seed off your finger and clean the rest with a seemingly forgotten rag nearby. Placing the piece of cloth down, you cup Four’s face with a grin.

“How was that?”

“Amazing, thank you.” He replies in between breaths with a weak thumbs up, breathily reiterating what he said.

“Thank you so much.”

You place a short kiss on his nose and walk towards the exit of the forge.

“I’ll wait for you with dinner ready, don’t take long.”

“I won’t!” He replies to you, having recovered enough by now to give a proper answer.

You enthusiastically wave at him and leave him to his own. Four was overflowing with relaxation and joy as he re-dressed himself, finished what he could for the day and gave the place one last, quick checkup to make sure he could close until tomorrow. He could no longer wait to see you again, so once he locked the door to his forge he practically ran to your shared house with a smile that no one could wipe off his face no matter what. Goodness, he really felt lucky to have you, convinced that you were a gift from the Goddess herself.

[mostmouse]

Glistening Scales and Sea Glass

You've known Cove since you were both children, and him being a mermaid never bothered you. Now, years down the line, you're ready to go all the way with your inhuman lover - though there are a few surprises.

(mermaid!Cove x f!reader, explicit, 7,700 words, oviposition)

Dark, deep waters surrounded Cove as he made his way through the depths, searching for the perfect shells and sea glass to gift to you on your date tonight. It was going to be a special night, he was ready to go all the way with you. The two of you had gotten handsy before, and neither of you cared about the different anatomy than would have been expected of the other.

He smiled as he grabbed a few more bits from the ocean floor, swimming his way to the surface in no particular rush. You would meet in the tide pool caves at sundown, and currently the sun was still high in the sky. He would be there early, of course, just to spend one more second with you.

The two of you had met purely by chance almost ten years ago. You had been walking on the beach as a young child, and he had snuck away from his dad to see the stars. Unfortunately, the tide had been stronger than expected and he had been swept to the shore. He was terrified at first, never having been so potentially close to humans, not since he had touched a boat and the propeller had scored his arm badly.

But there you were, kneeling next to him and babbling in your human language. You were so concerned for him, he could see it on your face. It was all he could do to not blush and try to swim away. His dad had come close to the shore as well, entirely prepared to fight any human with ill intentions towards his pride and joy.

However, when he had found the two of you, his dad said there was something special about the human who found you. His dad knew some human language, and had said you were asking him if he was okay, or if he could breathe without being in the water. Once his dad had collected him, you were star struck, but still managed to tell them that you’d never tell a soul and they could trust you.

Cove had sought you out after that, he didn’t get along with the other kids his age, and none of them had ever looked at him with such a warm and concerned gaze. When you had said goodbye to him that first time, your smile was just like starlight, and suddenly he found himself seeking you out instead of the stars.

It wasn’t hard to get away from his dad, he was always careful to leave after he went to sleep and arrive before he awoke. He and his dad were mostly solitary in the beginning of his life, he didn’t get along with anyone and had no interest in spending time with his dad. As he got older, spent more time with you, learned human language, and came out of his shell, he forged stronger connections with those around him as well as his dad.

He had confessed to sneaking out and associating with you, even though he was a mermaid and you were human. To his utmost surprise, his dad wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, he had told him, he could hear him practicing human language in the daytime, and noticed early on that he was sneaking away to go to the shore. Especially considering how sad and apathetic he was in the winter months when they migrated away from the cool waters, and how he was right as rain once they returned.

In fact, his dad remarked, he had followed Cove many times before and had watched you two interact. Once he was sure the path Cove took was safe, you had kept your promise of not telling anyone, and that there was no harm in the meetings - he had overlooked the entire situation.

Cove smiled at the memories, floating atop the waves and allowing the sun to warm him, his scales catching the sunlight. His tail was magnificent, almost twice the length of his torso - which was already taller than average. He was proud of their sheen, how they caught the light and glistened. The scar on his arm was almost nonexistent, having healed and grown with him. He wasn’t over his fear of boats however, and refused to go near them.

Sharp teeth caught the sunshine as he grinned, splaying his muscled arms on either side of him, floating happily. The wide fins on either side of his head allowed him to listen to the fish and dolphins swimming around him, their almost inaudible sounds calling out to him. His scales trailed up to his cheeks and around his torso and his gills that curled around his ribs, the teal outshining the other beachy colors.

Letting himself sink into the water, his slitted eyes sought out a small snack of fish. Keeping the small knapsack close to his waist where it was tied, a gift from you from years earlier, he expertly swam and caught a small fish. Humming happily to himself, he tore into it, breaking the bones easily as his slightly rough tongue scraped the meat from them.

Rising back up to the surface, he threw the uneaten pieces out away from him, letting other ocean feeders eat the leftover portions. Swimming back down, he surveyed the coastline. Crystal clear vision seeking out any treasures to gift to you. He managed to find a few pristine shells, as well as more sea glass. Lighting up, he dove down, careful not to scatter the sand as he plucked a shark tooth from the sediment.

Humming in delight, he added it to his haul, tossing out the now undesirable pieces in exchange for the prettier treasures. He combed the floor and sands for more bits and bobs until he noticed the sun sinking. Sharp teeth shone in the sunlight once more, an unintentional threat for other sentient creatures that weren’t you, and made his way to the tide pool caves.

Avoiding the jagged rocks and ridges of the pools, he made his way deeper inside. Finding the spot the two of you had made into your hideout, he hauled himself up, resting his chest on the sandbank and letting his tail splash idly in the shallow waters.

Every now and then, he’d flick his tail up and splash himself with water, basking in the cool air and the setting sun. His fins perked up as he heard footsteps approaching, a rythmic knocking on the stone alerting him it was you before the steps resumed once more. Suddenly, nervousness rose in his chest. What if you rejected his advances? What if between the last time you were somewhat intimate, you had decided you wanted someone more… human?

He knew you had other friends, other humans. He had seen them on the beach before when he visited without warning, and you had told him all about them - even showing him pictures on your phone. He tried to stamp down the anxiety, you had told him you loved him, that he was the only one for you, and every time he doubted that, he doubted you.

Releasing a heavy breath, he slipped onto his side, the position more awkward than when you did so considering he didn’t necessarily have a pelvic bone like you. However, he adored your hips, how they were so grabbable and so easy to manhandle you by. Perhaps tonight, he could sink his claws into you, bucking his cock inside of you.

He shuddered, covering his face with his hands, willing the heat and throbbing sensation within his vent to quiet down. Swallowing thickly, he eagerly watched the mouth of the small cave, grinning and brightening when he saw you. Calling out your name, he lifted himself up more, the curve of his spine transitioning into his tail accentuating his muscled abdomen.

Your eyes found him easily, his scales and eyes glistening in the setting sun. “Cove! You’re early!” You laughed joyously, hopping around the tide pools nimbly after so long of meeting here. He tried to not eye your bouncing breasts, or your exposed legs in the dress you were wearing.

Clearing his throat nervously, he smiled at you. “Hey! I haven’t been waiting long, it's okay.” You smiled softly, coming to rest beside him and kissing him softly on the lips. You sighed against him, moving to pull away before his hands came up to hold your cheeks.

You eagerly kissed back, your hands moving to brace the both of you considering he couldn’t exactly sit straight with his skeletal structure. Though, you were hopelessly in love with every bit of him, including every inhuman aspect of him. Breaking away, he peppered kisses all across your face, nuzzling your neck and inhaling your scent.

Lifting one hand, you pet his wet hair, kissing his exposed shoulders and scales scattered around him. “I missed you so much… I love you.” You could feel his lips still on your shoulders before a sudden warmth joined the sensation. “You’re so cute when you blush, my little fish.” Your shoulders shook under his lips as you giggled.

Huffing against you, “You can’t even see me!” As that did nothing to stop your laughter, unsurprisingly, he bit you instead, careful not to bite too hard with his sharp teeth. He was surprised, however, to hear such a wanton moan fall from your lips.

In his pause, he felt you stiffen, covering your mouth with your hand and trying to push him away. However, he was pure solid muscle from his life in the ocean and constantly moving against the gravity of the waves. You knew it was pointless, but you couldn’t help the embarrassment swelling inside you.

“S-Sorry! We haven’t even had a proper conversation and I’m-” You groaned, choosing to not finish the sentence and instead press your face into his hair next to you. Cove swallowed, mind working overtime at how you could’ve finished that sentence. Were you embarrassed because you were as needy and desperate as he was? Could you tell what his big plans were tonight, how he planned to share your first time together?

Pulling away from you, he chose to not comment on it, “It’s okay, here, I brought you something.” Untying the small woven waist bag, he loosened the top, motioning for your hands. You sighed, relieved that he chose to not pursue your wording.

“Aw, Cove… I didn’t bring you anything.” Your dejected tone didn’t stop your eager hands from receiving the gift he brought.

Smiling softly, he kissed your nose, “I don’t bring you things because I want something too, this is just because I love you. I didn’t even have to look that hard.” It was his second lie of the night, and the both of you knew it. He was always early to see you, and never gave you halfassed treasures from the deep. He prided himself on everything he could find, and only gave the most perfect specimens for you to keep.

You hummed thoughtfully, cooing at the cute shells, aww-ing at the perfectly clear sea glass, and squealing as he showed you the shark tooth. “This is so cool! Oh my gosh, look how big it is! That’s insane!” You turned it over in your hands repeatedly, dragging your fingers against it lightly. “I… Well, I sort of lied earlier. I do have something for you… I hope you like it!”

You blushed as you reached for the bag you had tossed aside, and Cove found himself getting excited again. Peering over your shoulder, he tilted his head at the sight of a thick blanket. You had stopped bringing blankets years ago, used to the feel of the sand by now. He blushed as he thought of why you might’ve brought it. Shaking his head, he backed off as you grabbed something and cupped it in your hands.

“Now, remember… If you turn this down, I’ll cry, okay?” Despite the warning that had him balking for a second, your face remained lovingly bashful. “I searched for the perfect beads, and finally got the thread to be the right texture and tightness I wanted. There’s no way this’ll break.”

Uncurling your hands, Cove stared delightedly at your gift. It was the orange shell you had shown him years and years ago. It was his favorite out of your collection, but had always refused when you offered it to him. Here it was now, wrapped in gold wire and connected to a threaded necklace, other shells and beads complimenting the orange swirls of the shell.

His mouth dried up as his eyes watered. Looking at you with shining eyes, he held your hands in his. “T-Thank you, I- I don’t even know what to say. I love it, it's perfect. Thank you so much.” He let you tie it around his neck, tightening it so it wouldn’t fly off of him. Once you finished, he grabbed you around the waist, pulling you in close and hugging you to his bare chest.

“I love you. Oh my god, do I love you.” You smiled softly as he cried into your hair. Rubbing his back, you felt him slowly descend, pulling you down with him so your legs were to one side of his magnificent tail and you rested on his scaled chest, his gills flaring with what he was about to say.

“I- I love you. So much.” He pet your hair, fins flickering as his shining ocean eyes searched yours for something. Tentatively, his hands drifted down your side as your breathing hitched. “I want you.” The both of you watched each others’ eyes, waiting only a moment before you grinned, a warm blush covering your face as a bright red one scattered across his cheeks.

You kissed him, tongue pushing past his lips and sharp teeth as he moaned at your boldness. Petting his tongue, you licked inside his mouth before breaking away, panting slightly. “I want you too, please. I’m ready for us to go… All the way.” You grinned suddenly, squealing as you hid your face in his chest. He laughed loudly, petting your hair and nuzzling you, his tail splashing happily in the water.

“I love you, I love you, I love you.” He accentuated each declaration with a gradually suffocating embrace, kissing the crown of your head. You laughed breathlessly, tapping his chest in a call for mercy.

“I love you, too, Cove!” Wiggling free of the vice grip of his arms, you leaned forward and kissed his collarbone and the underside of his jaw. Sighing happily under you, his hands grabbed and groped your body, anywhere he could reach - which was most of you considering how big he was.

You flushed at the thought, wondering how big he actually was, he was easily over ten feet in length, his tail being most of it, but you couldn’t help but wonder where exactly his equipment was. You had been handsy with each other before, but that was mostly you being in various states of undress, you hadn’t had a chance to play with or see Cove.

His hand grabbed one of your thighs, moving it so you were straddling his tail just beneath where it fully began from his tummy. He looked up at you, hands holding your cheeks. Blushing, you nuzzled his palm before kissing him there. He whined adorably, the fins on either side of his face pulling in and covering his rosy cheeks.

You giggled softly, letting his hands go just to curl your own palms around the back of his head and scatter kisses across his face and chest. “You’re so cute!~” You couldn’t help but gush, letting his arms wind around your waist and pull you close, face resting on your chest. Whimpering helplessly, he squeezed you tighter to him.

“I- Would it be okay if you, uhm, if you-” He peered up at you from his hiding place, iridescent blue eyes practically hypnotizing you if you weren’t already madly in love with him, “If you uh, s-sat on my face, again?”

His heavy blush spread down his neck as you grinned at him. Pulling him away from where he hid his face in your chest, you kissed him slowly. Breaking away just to nibble on his lower lip, you smiled sweetly, “Of course! I’d love nothing more, baby.” He blushed at the pet name, leaning back on his forearms while he watched you strip off your dress and bra.

Licking his lips, he shamelessly raked his eyes over your body. He loved you so much, your perfectly soft body complimenting his hard cold one. It always seemed that no matter how much he basked in the sun’s rays, you were always burning him with your heat. Not that he was complaining, he loved how your skin felt against his.

Once you were done tugging off your panties, you hovered over his chest for a minute. Cove moaned at the feeling of your heat radiating on him, gills flaring as he scented your arousal in the air. You wore a coy smile, hands petting over his chest and drifting over his gills. A loud moan stuttered from his mouth, his gills being particularly sensitive. He brought his hands up to your thighs, cupping the backs of them and gently pulling you.

You smirked at the nonverbal plea, how he desperately wanted you to get closer so he could taste you. Laughing softly, you ran your fingers through his seafoam hair, the color complimenting the skin tone of your hands. “Hmmm? What is it, sweetness? I’m not a mind reader, you gotta use your big boy words.”

Your precious mermaid lover whimpered beneath you, eyes shyly meeting yours before he looked away. You smiled, petting his hair before moving down and tracing the edges of the fins on either side of his head. Usually you had infinite patience and could make him downright beg for you, but the anticipation of him being inside you tonight had you a bit more heated than usual.

Licking your lips, you slowly slid closer to him, listening to him moan as he readjusted his arms, curling them under your thick thighs. “P-Please, I want you. I wanna taste you, please let me, please.” His words were quick, not taking a breath between them as he dragged you closer slowly.

You admired his self restraint, you knew he was impossibly stronger than you, his rippling muscles taunting you with their strength. You grinned, biting your lip before you caressed his face, petting the scales that were scattered about. “If you want me, you’re gonna have to take me, Cove.”

His slitted eyes watched your expression carefully, not seeing any hesitation or apprehension, he grinned. Nails biting into you slightly, you cried out as he easily lifted you and dragged you so you were over his face, your hot wet cunt surrounding him with your scent. Moaning loudly at just the smell of you, he leaned his jaw up while pulling you down, kissing your plump lips and moaning at the wetness that clung to you.

Crying out at the touch, you rested your hands in his hair, bucking your hips slightly. “C-Cove!” He basked in your voice calling his name, his cheeks flushing as he pushed his long, rough tongue inside you before dragging it up your slit. Your thighs jumped at the sensation, his expert mouth finding your sensitive spots.

Nipping and licking you all over, he finally slipped his tongue between your slit, licking your clit gently, not pressing too hard with his rough tongue. You shuddered at the feeling, pulling his hair as your back arched, pressing your cunt tighter to his face.

You were so thankful his gills were on his ribs as he shoved his face tight against you, tongue dipping inside you before teasing your clit once more. He didn’t need to breathe while he was between your legs, which sometimes was a curse, considering he never really wanted to stop. Moaning softly, you sat back a bit, hands over his as they rested on your thighs and rode his face in a slow, lazy rhythm.

“Mmm~ Cove, fuck, your mouth feels so good, baby.” Panting, you rocked your hips. His tongue pressed inside you deeply, moaning as your taste flooded his mouth. “Fuck! Cove~ G-Good boy, eating me out, such a good boy.” Cooing at him, you squeezed his hands, feeling his grip tighten as he tilted his head up more, jaw pressing into you as his tongue lapped at your clit.

Crying out, you curled forward slightly, hearing your lover growl lowly, moving up to grip your hips and readjust you to where he wanted you. You moaned wantonly, his manhandling and mouth making you hotter. “C-Cove! Touch me, please, I need you!”

You grabbed at his hair and the sand behind his head, trying to anchor yourself as one of his hands slid under and between your legs. Spreading them further apart, you almost felt embarrassed at how you were likely spread wide open, rubbing your wet cunt across his entire face.

However, it was easier to be shameless and let him pleasure you, two fingers slipping inside you as he wrapped his lips around your clit. Crying out, you straightened back up, arching your back and resting your palms on his tummy behind you. “Cove! Fuck! J-Just like that, baby, ahh!”

His digits tapped against your gspot, feeling it swell against the pads of his fingertips. Your clit pulsed on his tongue as he sucked tightly, petting it at an even pace. Unable to contain your pleasure, you cried out, rolling your hips and fucking his face. “Cove!~” Panting hotly, you felt him press another finger inside you, his sharp nails careful to not cut you.

“Ahh! Fuck!” Your own nails bit into his skin, and you whimpered as he moaned around your clit. His fingers pressed harder and faster, your orgasm approaching quickly. “Ahh! I-I’m gonna cum, fuck! Cove- Cove!” Your thighs seized up, your climax washing over you as you felt yourself squirt across his face.

Whining and whimpering, you felt his digits leave your wet cunt just for his tongue to slip deep inside you. Moaning wantonly, you felt your legs spread wider as your weight sunk into your knees. Cove’s tongue slipped deep inside you, petting your sweet spot and drinking in all your cum. You could feel him moaning against your cunt, his hands keeping your legs spread wide and supporting your weight.

Your knees jerked in his hold, his tongue overstimulating you, and you tapped one of his hands. “N-No, please! Fuck! Cove~ It’s so much!” However, you didn’t tug your hips away, instead rocking them and humping his face. “Ahh~ Cove~” Your voice was music to his ears, his cock hard inside his vent. He focused on pleasuring you, trying to keep himself contained for the time being. He didn’t want to break the spell he had you under.

He was a bit surprised you finished so fast, and squirted so easily. However, it had been a while since he was able to touch you like this - did you not pleasure yourself at home? The thought of you not being able to get off without him puffed up his ego. Thrusting his tongue inside you, he curled one hand around to pet your clit.

Basking in your wanton moans and cries, he felt you tighten around his rough tongue. Moaning as your thighs squeezed his head, tight enough to where he could hear your blood pumping, he pressed his lips tighter against your plump cunt. His arm wound tightly around your thigh, his free hand teasing your clit softly, not wanting to make you sore before he had a chance to sink his cock inside you.

You cried out again, your voice dripping with pleasure as you fought against his hold, “Cove! Ahh!~ F-Fuck! Please, please, I’m gonna cum! Wanna cum for you, please!” He whimpered, your voice muffled from your thighs wrapped around his head, but still clear enough to have him drooling.

Your cum spilled into his mouth, moaning at the taste and how your cunt wrapped tight around his tongue. Loosening his grip on your legs, he pulled away from your clit. Kissing your slit, he moved his head side to side as you shakily rose up, kissing your inner thighs and nipping in some places.

Squealing, you slid back down his chest, resting your heated cheek against his cooler chest. Your eyes were closed, panting as you stayed on his heaving chest. You could feel one hand resting on your head, the other covering his mouth as he moaned and whispered in his own language.

You had asked him once what he was saying, the gutteral sounds of mermaid speak being too difficult to pick up as easily as he had learned human language, but he had told you with a blush once that it was mostly him whispering how he couldn’t believe what just happened had just happened. You found it insanely cute. He blushed all the while, but you loved to hear him have a little episode about how euphoric he was at getting to please you.

Cracking your eyes open, you pawed for your bag, trying to grab the blanket you had brought. Cove, peering at your hands and what was next to him, smiled softly. Reaching his much longer arms out, he grabbed the blanket, spreading it out the best he could, and laying it directly next to him. He would always opt for the sandbar, being comfortable in the grains. Though he understood how it could become irritating for your own soft skin.

You hummed softly, whispering your thanks as you made no move to get off of him. You took the quiet recovery time to think about how it would work out between the two of you. He didn’t have knees to kneel on, or hips really to thrust against you. How exactly would this play out then?

Blinking up at your lover, you smiled at the blissful look on his face. He was just as happy to please you than anything else. You asked once if you could return the favor but he had been a bit skittish at the prospect, and so you backed off. You knew he would let you when he was ready.

Stroking his chest, you wiggled up a bit higher, kissing his scales and licking him. “Cove~” Your voice brought him out of his thoughts and he jumped slightly. Leaning up a bit, he rested on one forearm.

“Are you okay? You seemed a little out of it.” His bashful tone had you grinning in disbelief.

“You say that as though you weren’t solely responsible, Cove Holden. You just ate me until I thought I’d pass out!” Your teasing voice had him blushing, but soon you felt the heat on your face as he licked his lips, eyes flicking down to your chest that was pressed against his belly.

“You finished so fast. Has it been a while since you last got off?” You balked at the bold question, his now wide eyes watching you carefully. You could feel the tense mood in your chest, and you couldn’t contain the excitement.

Blushing, you lifted yourself higher, crawling up his body until your breasts were in his face, his gaze half lidded as he moved forward to take one of your nipples in his mouth. Sighing at the feeling, you let one arm cradle the back of his head as you held him to you.

“Maybe… It’s just not fair when I’m home and all I can do is think of you. I can’t make myself feel as good as you make me feel. You’ve ruined me for anything else! I always need you.” You felt him whimper against you, hands moving to grip your hips and squeezing them tightly. You moaned at the contact, rolling your hips against his tummy.

“I want you, Cove, please let me feel you.” Your needy tone had him writhing slightly. Popping off your flushed peak, his shining eyes looked up and met your gaze. You moaned at his expression, lips rouged, eyes lustful and half lidded.

“I- Can I be inside you, please?” You moaned once more at his question, nodding vigorously with flushed cheeks. “Let me know if it’s too much or if I’m too big, okay?” You whimpered, wiggling your hips in his hands and he couldn’t help but laugh softly. “So excited… Have you been fantasizing about this like I have?”

You nodded, leaning higher up so he could adjust himself under you. Your eyes flicked down towards his waist, scales glittering in the moonlight that shone into the small cave. “I- uhm, I’ve been really curious, too. To see what you look like. No matter what parts you have, I know I’ll love it!”

You smiled as he blushed. Leaning up to you, he kissed you softly. Using one hand that was still on your hip, the other propping himself up on his palm, he scooted you back a bit. Blushing, he pet your thigh, looking at you timidly. “Please don’t be scared. I know it’s not what some humans have, really, but-” You cut him off with another kiss, moving to kiss his cheeks, nose, and forehead.

“I’m ready, Cove. I want to make love to you, no matter what you look like.” Swallowing at your words, he let himself relax, blushing heavily as his prehensile, inhuman cock began to slip free from his vent. You squeaked as you watched, his eyes watching your face.

Your eyes got wider and wider as he slipped free, resting against his tummy. His cock was gradient in color, from a deep blue - almost violet - base, to a tapered aqua tip. He looked to be relatively squishy, thick at the base and thinning out as he went higher. You swallowed thickly, eyes taking him in. He had some sort of ridges along the underside, and the edges of his vent were a deeper emerald as compared to the teal, blues, and greens of his scales.

He watched you as you looked at him, the blush on his cheeks darkening as he watched you slowly lick your lips, eyes raking over him lustfully. “Y-You can touch me, it’s okay.” His words seemed to snap you out of your reverie, looking up at him quickly.

“Sorry! I’m not staring ‘cause I don’t like it, I think you’re very beautiful!” Your passionate declaration had him balking slightly, speechless. “I just- it’s obviously different, but I’m very excited!”

Your unwavering eye contact had his cheeks rosy red, hiding his face with his fins again. Giggling bashfully, you ran your hands over his chest, “Sorry, that kind of came out wrong. I’m just excited!” Laughing as he blushed harder, he moved one fin and peered at you.

“You really like it? It’s okay?” Squeaking as you grinned wolfishly, he jolted as you leaned forward. Kissing him while maintaining eye contact, he moaned against your mouth before letting his eyes slip closed.

“I like it a lot, I’d even say I love it. I love every part of you. Let me know if I hurt you, okay?” Feeling you pull all the way back, your weight comfortable on his tail, he nodded quickly. Opening one eye, he watched as you lovingly reached out for him.

One finger traced his shaft, pressing gently into the soft, slick skin. He moaned at the gentle exploration, reminded of how he had taken his time getting to know your most intimate parts as well.

Circling his tip, you drifted back down to his base before tracing the edge of his vent. Moaning loudly, Cove tipped his head back, body shuddering. You licked your lips excitedly, shimmying down his tail and running your tongue along the edge instead. A hand clapped over his mouth as he cried out. His voice was muffled as he spoke beneath his palm, eyes watching you closely.

Whimpering as you saw his cock stand up, curling in on itself slightly, you focused on licking his base and vent edge, listening to him as he gasped and panted for you, hand fisting in your loose hair. “F-Fuck…” His hazy gaze watched you as your tongue lavished him. Panting, his fist tightened in your hair, pulling slightly before loosening up again. “Tighter, fuck, please! Your m-mouth, fuck!”

You smiled, humming happily and opening your mouth and tilting your head sideways and sucking the base of his cock. Licking his smooth skin, you moved lower, tongue flicking out and licking his vent. “Ahh~ Ah!” Panting hard, Cove pushed you tighter, the soft squishy skin pressed against your tongue. Moaning, you blushed as you felt the underside ridges get harder, the rest of his cock staying mostly pliable.

Pulling away, you left your mouth open, tongue out, as you moved towards his tip. Body shaking, his hand held the base of your head as his cock unfurled and slipped past your lips. Moaning as he easily filled your mouth, you pressed your tongue against the hardening ridges. You whimpered as he pressed deeper, hand on the back of your neck holding you still.

Panting and moaning, Cove let his head fall back once more, cock pulsing in your mouth and gagged as he pressed deeper down your throat. You choked slightly, hands wrapping around his base and playing with his vent. His moans and cries drowned out your gagging, his cock fucking your throat.

He pulled you closer by your neck, shuddering as he cried out. “Fuck! F-Feels amazing, ahh!” Your eyes watered, hands remaining gentle even as he got rougher with you. “Take my cock, ahh! S-Such a good girl, sucking me off- fuck!” His shaft swelled in your mouth, muffling your whimpers as tears fell from your eyes, breath coming in quick puffs from your nose as he fucked your throat.

“I-I’m, fuck! Gonna cum- ahh~ C-Can I please finish in- ahh! Y-Your mouth, fuck, please!” He heard and felt you moan around his cock, and took that as your assent. Gasping and moaning, his cock thrust faster inside your mouth, stretching you out further as it swelled with cum. Crying out at the discomfort, you felt him release down your throat, eyes fluttering shut as you felt his cum fill your belly.

Your jaw popped as he slipped his cock from your mouth, gasping for air and coughing roughly. Swiping at the wetness by your mouth, you blinked at the inky color on your fingers. Catching your breath, you looked up towards Cove, who was splayed out on his back, arm tossed over his eyes, chest heaving for hair, gills straining.

Coughing still, you moved off of him, his pulsing cock resting on his belly once more. You noticed the rosy rim of his vent was looking more like a forest green than before, and even after having your mouth fucked harder than you’d ever imagined, you felt heat pooling between your legs and your mouth watering.

Leaning over to your bag, you grabbed a small little plastic pail. Usually for kids and sand castles, you filled it up with cool salt water and dumped it on his chest, letting the water run over his muscled sides and refreshing his gills. Repeating the action a few more times, you watched as his breathing calmed down. Smiling gently, you laid down on the blanket next to him, ignoring the wet edges.

“All done?” Your voice was raspy, though you weren’t surprised. Caressing his tummy, you hummed as your lover gathered his barings.

Looking over at you, you moaned and pressed your thighs together at the dark look in his eyes. “N-Not if you aren’t. I just- I’ve never felt that good before. Thank you.” His hand cradled your cheek and you giggled. “I was- I shouldn't have been so rough, I just, uhm, got excited… I’m sorry.”

Smiling, you kissed him softly, leaning up on your arms. “Don’t be sorry, I’m glad I could make you feel so good! Next time I’ll be more prepared.” He blushed at your words, cock throbbing at the thought of next time. You bit your lip, eyes flicking down to his cock as it curled slightly, “I still wanna, you know, go all the way with you… If you want to?”

He nodded quickly, then blushed and looked away. “I- yes, please. I really want to.” You giggled, hiding your face in his chest. He laughed along with you, petting your hair. “I promise to be gentle.”

You nipped his chest, peering up at him, “Well, not too gentle, okay?” He couldn’t help but grin, leaning up and helping you sit right above him, straddling his tail once more. You anchored your palms on his firm chest, lifting yourself up slightly. Shuddering and moaning as you felt the slick tip of his cock trace your cunt, you made eye contact with Cove’s perfectly clear gaze.

Grinning at him, you leaned back, letting him watch as he slipped his cock into you, the both of you moaning at the gradual stretch as he sunk deeper inside of you. Wiggling your hips, you whimpered as you sat fully on him, hard ridges stroking you as he moved his tip inside.

His hands were covering his mouth, cheeks hot as tears rimmed his eyes. “Fuck! You- fuck!” Resting his palms above his head, he panted hard, gasping for air. You moaned at the feeling, none of your toys comparing to his texture or feel. Gasping in short breaths, you cupped his cheeks.

“Feels so good, baby~ Ahhh~ I don’t think I’ve ever been, ahh! This full before.” Your voice was strained, trying to lift yourself up to ride him. However, Cove’s hands shot down to your hips, holding you still. Half lidded eyes held your gaze captive, sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight as he panted as well.

Gritting his teeth, he held you flush against him. You were about to beg him to let you move before you cried out at the feeling of his cock thrusting inside you. Considering how flush you were with his body, you didn’t think he’d have much room, but as his cock moved inside you rapidly, constantly grinding against your already swollen gspot, it took all your strength to keep from screaming out.

Nails raked across his chest, some scales coming loose as you shuddered and bounced slightly on his cock. “C-Cove! Ahh!” You whined and moaned above him, breasts bouncing as he fucked you. Panting under you, he watched you carefully, barely blinking as pleasure washed over him in intense waves. He didn’t think it could feel this amazing, how you squeezed him so tightly, how he slipped in and fucked you so easily, even with how you clenched down on him.

His hair tangled in the sand as he threw his head back, crying your name amongst broken moans. “Fuck! Fuck, f- ahh! I- ahhh~ you feel so- ahh!” He couldn’t think, couldn’t focus on anything except how close he was to cumming again. In all his dirty fantasies, you never got him so close to the edge so fast. Your cunt was wrapped around him so tightly it felt like he’d never be able to pull free.

He writhed beneath you, tail splashing listlessly in the water, the sounds joining your cries and his moans. His nails bit into your skin, and distantly he knew he was probably drawing blood, but he couldn’t bring himself to care in the moment. Overwhelmingly, blocking out almost all his thoughts, he could feel something big building up inside him.

Crying out, he kept pounding you with his thick, ridged cock. He could feel you tightening sporadically around him, listening to you babble atop him, body quaking as you quickly approached another orgasm. With a sharp scream, he felt you squeeze him like a vice, stopping him from moving inside of you.

Your head was tilted back, loud cries and screams falling from you freely, breasts bouncing and hair messy behind you. He tried to call out to you, to get your attention but his body was seized in pleasure and euphoria. The feeling of your burning hot cunt was making his mind go blank, his cock swelling with his cum and something he had neglected to inform you of beforehand.

Tears slipped past his eyes as he moaned loudly, body jerking as he felt his eggs swell his cock inside you, your tight grip unrelenting. You moaned in a broken tone, body curling forward as your nails bit into his skin once again. “C-Cove? What’s- what’re you-”

You couldn’t finish your sentence, moaning loudly and drool falling from your open mouth as he pumped eggs inside of your tight, burning body. He whimpered as each one passed his tapered tip, stretching him out just as much as it stretched you.

“Ahhh~ F-Fuck, I can’t stop- I- ahhhhh~” His voice was thick with pleasure, cheeks rosy and eyes cloudy and dazed. You wobbled atop of him, cock so thick with eggs you couldn’t pull free if you wanted to. Finally, spent of all your stamina, you fell onto his chest. The new angle had you squeezing him tighter inside of you and the both of you moaned lasciviously.

Shuddering, you tangled your hands in his hair, whimpering his name. You bucked and rolled your hips, the only movement you could manage as he pumped you full of cum and eggs. Panting heavily, the two of you basked in each other's afterglow, moaning as you felt the eggs swell his cock before pressing deep inside you.

“C-Cove…” His name was just a whisper, but it had him shuddering all the same. “I- I can’t fit anymore, please… Please stop… I’m too full, it’s too much…” Moaning at your words, he pet your hair, fingers drawing designs on your bare back.

Swallowing thickly, his voice was rough, “Can’t- Can’t stop… ‘M sorry…” He nuzzled the top of your head, kissing you across your hair. The both of you moaned as more filled you. He could feel the tight fit, how you were squeezing him and his eggs. He could cum from the sensation alone, but he couldn’t stop filling you up.

The two of you listened to each others’ breathing, the occasional moan breaking the silence as you fit another egg inside you. Finally, after what felt like hours, you felt Cove’s cock loosen up inside you, finally giving the rim of your cunt a break from being stretched so wide open.

The both of you moaned, his cock slipping free and back into his vent. He rubbed your back, kissing the crown of your head. “There… All done… Are you okay, baby?” His words were whispers, holding you tenderly and lovingly.

Your cheeks were hot, belly swollen, and mind hazy. “Mmmmm~ Love you…” He laughed softly, head thumping back onto the sand. Keeping you close to him, he let you rest, no doubt pushing your body to the limit.

Slowly, you started moving the tips of your fingers and your toes. Whining lowly, you croaked to life on his chest. “Can you put me next to you? My belly hurts.” He winced, moving you so that you were on your side next to him. Sighing contentedly, you went limp once more, panting slightly.

Cove swallowed thickly, something sparking to life inside him as he saw your round belly, knowing he was the one who stuffed you full. He caressed your tummy, feeling possessive over you. Resting on his forearm, he admired you openly, eyes raking up and down your body, barely able to smell your natural scent. Licking his lips, he felt pride swelling in him as all he could scent was his own claim around you.

Slowly, your eyes blearily opened. Reaching towards him sluggishly, Cove brought you close to his side, tail flipping up and covering your legs slightly with his large fins. “Do you think you can push them out? Do you need more time?”

You whined lowly, raising one leg up slightly. Taking the hint, he grabbed behind your knee and tossed it over the curve of his waist. Your brows furrowed before looking up at him. “Can you help me?”

Nodding, he kissed your lips, nose, then forehead. His hand dipped down between you, pressing the top of your tummy. “Okay, I just need you to push. Can you do that for me, baby?” You blushed, nodding. As he pushed on your belly, you moaned as the first few eggs slipped out easily. He smiled, kissing you quickly, “Good girl! Okay, now a few more.”

You repeated the actions, until your belly was noticeably smaller. Panting, your face was covered in a light sheen of sweat as Cove kept coaching you through it. He littered your face with kisses, occasionally slipping his tongue into your mouth. You couldn’t deny what was happening was hot, and felt pretty good. But it was also exhausting.

“You’re doing so good for me… I’m gonna slip my fingers inside and help with the last few, okay?” You nodded, tiredness creeping into your bones. The both of you moaned as Cove’s fingers slipped inside you. Wiggling them, he managed to puncture the last couple eggs, dragging them out easily. You moaned loudly, relief flooding you as all the eggs left you.

“Thank you…” Your voice trailed off softly, sleep overtaking you. Cove watched you sleep with tired but loving eyes. Nuzzling your face, he grabbed the opposite side of your blanket, pulling it up over your spent body.

“I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kissing you everywhere he could reach, he settled in next to you and felt himself fall asleep easier than he had in a long while, dreaming of the two of you exploring the ocean together.

[jungle-angel]

"I Don't Need A Nurse" (Sentry x Reader)

Summary: Your husband insists that he can take care of himself, but just this once, he'll let you help him

Warnings: Light smut (ya'll know the rules), hurt, injuries etc.

Tagging: @floydsmuse @attapullman @withahappyrefrain @hangmanapologist

You didn't realize how long you had been asleep until you blinked your eyes open and found your copy of "The Mists Of Avalon" splayed on the floor, the pages slightly dog-eared and crumpled from the fall. You picked it up and stuck it on the coffee table, rubbing the grog from your eyes, surprised that it had already gotten dark out.

You looked at F.R.I.D.A.Y's screen in the kitchen, each one with a small, typed message from the rest of the team. A few were due to return in an hour, some were still out for the night and others had gone to help down at S.H.I.E.L.D due to an emergency. A loud meow from Goose had caught your attention, the orange tabby hopping up onto the kitchen counter and his tail swishing as you scratched his ears.

All of a sudden you felt something warm around your ring finger on your left hand. You looked down and found that your wedding ring, the one Jane and Thor had made in the dwarven forges of Asgard, was glowing bright white.

Robert.

You saw something streak across the sky followed by the sound of a quinjet approaching the landing pad outside. Relieved though you were, it was unusual that your husband and the rest of the team was home this early.

You rushed outside with Goose hot at your heels, the engines on the jet dying down and the back hatch opening. Out stepped Steve and Robert first and the rest of the team behind them, your husband looking a little worse for wear. The white hospital scrubs were torn and tattered, his hair clinging to his sweaty forehead, the paper tag bracelet still around his wrist and a pained look on his face.

You rushed right to him and he immediately caught you in his arms. "Oh baby......baby......m'so hot and tired," he panted.

"What happened?" you asked him.

"Mission took longer than we thought," he winced.

"Why don't you two go inside," Steve told you both. "We'll finish up here."

You helped Robert back into the tower, your ring having cooled down and the glow now so faint that it could hardly be seen. It took a while, but at last he was home and in your shared apartment where he could rest.

You ran a hot bath in the adjoining bathroom, not even bothering to measure the epsom salts you had dumped into the steaming water. You had tried the traditional way of getting his clothes off, but Robert was in so much pain that he could barely lift his arms.

You went straight to the First Aid kit in the medicine cabinet and pulled out the surgical scissors, cutting away the ratty scrubs that would be used for kitchen rags later on. Robert sucked in a breath as you helped him into the hot water and helped him clean the cuts, scratches and bruises that were all over him.

"Baby thank you," he croaked.

You kissed the crown of his head and put a cold soaked washcloth on the back of his neck. "You know I'd do anything for you," you whispered.

As soon as Robert was done, you helped him out and left a fresh set of clothes on the bed for him just in case he wanted them, but sleeping naked seemed to be the better option, even with the air conditioning going.

"Aw fuck!" he hissed, laying on his back. "Fuckin hurts."

"Well shit Bob where doesn't it hurt?" you chuckled.

"Here," he said, pointing to his cheek.

You rolled your eyes and pressed a gentle kiss to his soft cheek.

"Right here," he mumbled, pointing to the other.

You kissed his other cheek. You could feel the lazy smile forming on his face already.

Robert silently pointed to his lips, a yearning look in his eyes and the need and want for you burning inside him. Your lips met his, the kiss sweet and gentle but passionate and fiery all at once. You let it linger as his eyes fluttered shut and soon he was quietly snoring away in deep sleep. You crawled in next to him, your head resting on his chest and the strong beat of his heart putting you to sleep.

[undermine-the-instinct]

Moon in the Forge

◇ Paring: Yingxing/Blade x Reader

◇ Warnings: None ◇ Word Count: 1.7k

This is basically the "Prologue" or introduction to this mammoth of a fic I'm planning. Likes and reblogs appreciated. Pls enjoy.

Master Huaiyan introduces you to Yingxing on a moonlit night.

Moonlit nights on the Xianzhou Zhuming are extraordinarily beautiful. The nights unfold like a lotus dipped into a serene pool of water-- fitting since the whole of the Zhuming is shaped like a golden lotus, drifting among the waters of the heavenly river. This boy too, is extraordinarily beautiful–his hair is as white and bleached as a bone, and shines like silver in the moonlight.

The Moonstone platform under your feet stretches on like a lazy yawn, slipping past the dreamy honey gold light of the horizon. You two stare off against each other, evaluating. Your master speaks.

“I will be taking Yingxing on as my apprentice, next to you. Be kind to him, and show him the ropes, alright?”

(Kind, not patient. You understand the difference. You are affronted.)

But you acquiesce, you nod. You look at the boy, and he looks back. He barely reaches your brow, and his shoulders hunch up to his ears. He’s barely into his teens, this boy. But he looks at you, with his eyes of bloody ore, and he bows out of respect. You bow back.

You wonder who is mimicking who.

—--------------

Yingxing doesn't even learn your name until the end of his first month of being on the Xianzhou Zhuming. 

You hardly speak with him, rather, at him. He was brought into a forge near immediately, and you handed him a heavy apron and some clothes, lest he catch on fire, you said. He changed, and you immediately set him to work.

The first thing he learns is that there is a rhythm. If you’re not smelting you’re cooling, pulling something out the forge, sanding, measuring, fitting, cutting, hammering. He flinched, the first time he saw you strike the red hot metal, the flex of your back muscles and biceps, belying the ease you struck the metal. You noticed his slight apprehension, but you simply continued.

“You have to strike when the iron is hot, malleable,” you said. “That's the first thing you should know. Literally and figuratively. And you can’t be mindless–every strike is intentional, in aim and force, that's what Master Huaiyan said…Watch.” 

There are a thousand different ways to strike a hammer, and a thousand more for whatever you’re forging. The possibilities urge his blood to race, and he hounds around the smithy on your orders. You mainly give him the ones other, older artisans give you that you don’t want to do, like grabbing tools and cooling metals.

You like pulling things out of the forge, pouring red hot, molten metals into molds or striking at them with a hammer, sparks flying. He’s heard that residents of the Xianzhou Zhuming like playing with fire. Seems like the rumor was true.

Yingxing applies himself, earnest in everything he does, but he knows he only has so much time. Makes him feel a little frantic.

Yingxing knows that you are a long lived species. So while you look to be young, he knows you are not. Even if you could pass for your teens, perhaps, he knows you’re decades older. And even with the loftiness you afford him, because of course you're more experienced than him, you are still inexperienced yourself, because Master Huaiyan teaches you too.

“Instead of re-heating the whole thing in the forge, it's better to heat just the part you need so that it's easier to bend and manage,” Master Huaiyan shows them, holding the metal over the anvil horn, and picking up the hammer to hammer it down into place. It yields easily under his careful force, bending to shape.

“There's no need to be too forceful, neither do you want to be too careful though, lest you let the metal cool and then you have to re-forge it again, which has an effect on the quality, texture and durability of the metal. Once you’re both more experienced you’ll know by instinct the exact temperature to use, exact force and precision. It's just a matter of experience.”

Yingxing doesn't have much of any. Master Huaiyan lets you guide him for now. You’ve set him on making iron nails. The motions were easy to fulfill but tedious. Simply put, you heat iron ore with carbon to form a dense mass of metal, which is then placed into the shape of square rods and left to cool. After reheating the rod, he would cut the nail length off and hammer all four sides of the softened end to form a sharp point. The hot nail is then inserted into a hole in the anvil and, with four strikes of the hammer, the blacksmith forms the rose head.

It was an apparently out-dated design. Before, when these were used, the four sharp edges of the nail would cut deep into the wood. When the wood was damp the wood fibers would swell and bind around the nail, ensuring an extremely tight fitting.  Now nails are industrially made, usually by machines and much more precise and standard. 

“I'm a long lived species,” you begin unceremoniously. Yingxing nearly chokes on his food, it’s not often that you speak about something other than work. Or speak…at all.

So these ones weren't particularly fitting but they were useful. And when you had watched him make his, probably hundredth nail, perfectly with no halt in his stride, you nodded and took him out to eat at the Dragon Palace's Kitchen, the only Interastral Gourmet Association-rated five star restaurant among all the Xianzhou ships. Fancy. He’s heard about this too. He thinks this place is too fancy for you to treat it like a corner store, as you place both your orders to go. The chefs and waiters are happy to see you though, so you might be a regular patron. They smile at him to.

He thinks that you’re abusing your authority a little as Master Huayan’s apprentice, but once the food is set upon his tongue he finds that it's too delicious for him to care that much. You sit him down on some bench looking down a hill to the bustling people below, and start to eat yourself.

“I don't have a particularly sad backstory. Not sad at all really. Normal parents, normal siblings and friends. I grew up on the Xianzhou Luofu. Though my father is originally from the Zhuming, so we would come to visit relatives frequently. My Father makes pottery, namely bone china and porcelains. My mother is a cloud knight.”

“That's…very impressive?” Are you bragging?

You nod and fold your hands. Yes. You must be bragging.

“The first time I stepped foot onto this starskiff platform, the Radiant Zenith, I wept. I was very young, but I still remember it so clearly, I was so moved.” You huff a breath from your nose that could be a laugh, and shake your head, closing your eyes. Yingxing hesitantly continues eating. It might be rude but he's hungry. You don't seem to mind.

“The whole platform chiseled out of a single block of moonstone, stretching endlessly beyond the horizon, the stars gleaming above and this tranquil, otherworldly aura. I never had seen such beauty or felt such peace before,” you sigh, and he nods along.

“And I've still yet to see anything that rivals it. But I decided that day that I wanted to try to create something that could. I sent letter after letter for years to master Huaiyan, for about a decade and a half, until he finally took me on as an apprentice. And here I am.” You open your eyes, and Yingxing can see the faint glimmer of tears at the corners of your lashes. Your eyes have always had a sort of harshness, hard and still like the metals you smelt. He can see the way you evaluate him now.

“Why are you here, Yingxing?”

He answers immediately, the answer blooming on his tongue like the taste of iron. 

“Vengeance.”

“Vengeance? Is that all?”

Could there be anything else? What else lets him face the wilting heat of the forge and make his hands so still for precision? What else could have him so focused and driven and seething?

His hands set down his utensils and curl into fists on the bench.

“The Borisin destroyed my home world, turning it into one of their weapon nurseries. We both know what that very well means. My parents…they were able to stow me away on one of the last merchant vessels the Borisin had not yet discovered. Master Huaiyan found me, and made me his apprentice. I have vowed to become a master craftsman, to create weapons for the cloud knights, to avenge my home and family.”

You hum, and lean back in your seat, still evaluating, your mouth a flat pressed line. There is nothing to add, but you crack a smile, the first one he’s ever seen from you, and extend your hand over. It's not sweet or kind, but there is mirth there. He sees a flicker pass through your eyes, a spark, as you introduce yourself,  like a stranger. You are, technically.

“Let's do our best, shall we?”

He pauses, nods, and takes your hand.

{Patient, and not kind. He understands the difference.)

[whyareyouhere66]

JJ Maybank x Male Reader - Lonesome

JJ Maybank x Male Reader

Friends with benefits, beginning “prologue” part has an angsty vibe. 

CW: Cursing, some angst , slightly suggestive, not fully proofread (I’m tired I’m sorry) bad bad bad baddd

x

The air was soft.

It was soft, but it was strong, and it was flowing all around the wooden docs that the h/c teen then stood on. 

It wept past his hair, and left a cool feeling on his cheeks as he simply stood. He did nothing else, nothing else but stare into the dark and muddy waters of the marsh.

Above him, the sky was beginning to turn to hues of purple, and orange. Leaves of gold sparkled across the clouds, hanging over Y/n like a painting.

He stared deeply into the ripples of the water, watching how even a small pebble disrupted the surface. And his eyebrows furrowed, for he felt the way his mind couldn’t match the calmness and beauty around him. 

“…Why did he do this?”

The question floated around in Y/n’s head, repeating itself again and again within the confines of his own skull. Because, why? 

It followed him like a moth followed a flame. 

It felt too real, too new.

He was without JJ, his best friend who he loved deeply.

Normally, whenever he was with JJ, it all felt like a dream. The soft, secret kisses and the lingering touches against hot skin- it was almost surreal. Each and every time. 

 Reality lost its grip on him whenever he was with the blonde, and it was replaced with the greedy hands of want. Even then, as he stood on the wooden docs alone, he could remember the image of JJ’s figure. So pretty, like he had been hand sculpted by the moon and the sun themselves. Y/n loved it, loved the feeling and loved the image of it. 

But then, reality had returned, and it gripped him with the force of a crashing wave. 

JJ had always had his other friends, that was fine. Y/n had friends of his own as well. It was when they became his only friends that it wasn’t fine anymore. Y/n could no longer thrive in his dream world, for the other person that resided there…didn’t, anymore.

Y/n shuffled his feet against the wood, leaning against the rail beside him as a long sigh escaped. His head hurt, but he knew he’d fallen too deep into his thoughts. 

Him and JJ had known each other for years, but had loved for only a fraction of that time. Y/n considered JJ to be one of his closest friends, and one of his strongest loves in their private time. They’d grown up, gone from playing in the dirt of his front yard to running down the pier. And Y/n was under the impression that it was the same for JJ, that they were on the same page. That’s what he had told him. 

He told him, said it with his words. It was in the confines of Y/n’s own bedroom, late at night. They were on the bed, comfortable in each others arms. And he said it. 

“I love you…” he had muttered, close to sleep. His arms were curled together, resting against Y/n’s chest and his eyes were closed. But it was still loud, and it had put a smile on Y/n’s tired face. 

They lived on a cloud, then. Far away from anything else.

JJ’s body, his words, his voice- it was all Y/n’s. It felt like a rush, a hot rivers touch flooding against the smoothness of the rocks. It felt warm, it felt familiar. He wanted that rush back. 

After the second week of summer passed, only days after Y/n held JJ’s skin flush against his own- he stopped saying it, stopped saying anything to him at all.

Something seemed to keep him occupied, and he stopped coming around. It happened so fast Y/n almost didn’t realize at first.

It wasn’t until he was walking on the pier, and came across JJ and the Pogues that it became clear. 

JJ avoided his gaze, ignored his presence all together. As soon as his blue eyes met the e/c ones, he turned right back around and forced himself into the conversation between Pope and John B, hid behind Kiara. He looked nervous, sheltering a secret.

And it hurt. 

His face used to light up, but that day it seemed to pale. Y/n couldn’t forget it, won’t forget it, couldn’t dumb it down to a coincidence. Because it happened again, and again, after that. 

At night Y/n felt cold. Even with the hot and humid air of the east coast, his bed felt too empty without the blonde next to him in the room. The “friendly” nights in that his mother never overthought, all the things they got away with, were suddenly nothing. 

Why did it have to be nothing?

Y/n pushed himself away from the railing, and squeezed his eyes shut. 

He was tired of thinking, wondering if he was looking too far into it. But it felt like too much, too much all the time. 

He was left wondering what had happened between the “I love you”s and the avoided eye contact. He’d been left in the dust of something that had lasted years, something that he held onto so strongly and it made his head hurt. 

“Fuck…” he groaned, throwing his head back. He felt pathetic, standing alone in the path of a setting sun. 

A shaky sigh fell from his lips, head rolling to side where he looked at the road leading up the hill. 

With one last look to the water, Y/n turned around, wanting nothing more than to be in the comfort of his own bed. 

He left the orange sky behind him, and walked towards the darkening shadow of the night taking its turn. From there, he begun the short walk back to his house, back to his bed where he could stop the thoughts and simply sleep. 

***

“Mom? You home?” 

Y/n walked into his house, putting his jacket onto the hook by the door. He faintly heard people talking on the radio, leading him to assume that someone had turned it on in the kitchen.

“In here, honey, come to the kitchen.” 

He followed the sound of his mothers voice, finding her sitting at the kitchen table with a book open in her lap. She had a glass of water in front of her on the table, as well as a small bag of chips.

“How was your day?” She asked, eyes following Y/n as he walked to the kitchen, opening the fridge and grabbing his own glass of water. 

“Good.” He said, leaning against the counter and taking a sip. He knew better than to say a word about how he’d been alone, standing in the middle of the docs like a loser just 15 minutes before. 

“And how’s JJ?” 

Y/n inhaled, quick and sharp- his mother didn’t know about him. She hadn’t noticed that Y/n was beginning to stay home more, being stuck in his bed whenever she came back from work instead of out and about. 

She didn’t know JJ hadn’t talked to him for nearly two weeks. She had missed that part, still assuming that’d been who he’d spent his time with.

“He’s fine.” Y/n lied, hiding behind the rim of his glass. He didn’t want her to know, anyways.

His mother nodded, smiling to herself. She looked back down at her book, eyes skimming over the words. “I’m glad.” She said, never looking away in time to notice how her son had a guilty look in his eyes.

“I’m gonna go shower, mom.” He said, setting the cup down onto the countertop. She nodded, allowing herself to be absorbed into the book’s text.

“Ok, love you.” She said, listening to the sound of her sons footsteps. 

“Love you too.” He echoed, walking down the hallway until he reached his bedroom.

The lights were dim, his bed still kept from when he had lazily remade it that morning.   His room managed to feel both lived in, yet empty at the same time. He knew every corner of it like he knew his own name, yet even his mother didn’t enter as much. He dropped his phone onto the bed, pulling his sweaty shirt off his body, leaving his skin bare to the emptiness of his room. 

Y/n grabbed clothes to sleep in, clutching them in his free hand- and running a hand through his hair, he left the room. 

The bathroom was conveniently only a few steps down the hallway from his bedroom, and as he entered he peeled off his shorts and left them in the hamper. The boy then stood bare, left entirely vulnerable in the glowing light that reflected from the white walls. Soon, the sound of rushing water filled the quiet room. And right after, he was covered by the shield of a curtain.

Y/n tried not to lose track of time in the shower, though he felt himself slipping in and out of his own thoughts while the heat of the water droplets overtook him. 

About halfway through the shower, when his hair was sudsy and white, he heard more voices around the corner, in the kitchen. But, given his mothers taste, he just assumed it was the radio turned up to a higher volume. So, he ignored it.

The water ran down through each crevice of his skin, each strand of hair, and for the first time that day he felt his shoulders slump. The only sound that surrounded him was the water thumping against the floor, trailing down his skin. His ears rushed red as they flooded with hot water, and he had to force himself to turn off the water.

Suddenly, the bathroom was quiet.

His feet padded against the tile floor, and the boy grabbed a towel from off the hook- and after quickly running it down his whole body, he wrapped it around his waist.

He caught glimpses of himself in the mirror, pulling the shirt over his head first, small spots of fabric getting wet from his hair. 

He left the bathroom, meant to head straight for his bedroom, but his mothers voice called out to him again.

“What did you need?” The boy stood in the doorway of the kitchen, water dripping to the kitchen floor and making a small puddle there in the doorway.

“A few friends are here for you, I think they’re gonna stay the night.”

Y/n’s eyes widened. 

“What?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. His mother didn’t look up from the content of her book, only popping another chip into her mouth and flipping the page with her thumb.

“Yeah, I told them you were in the shower and just sent them off to your room.” 

Her nonchalance was off putting, and did nothing for Y/n’s confusion as he stood in the doorway with water pooling around the collar of his shirt.

“Mom-“

“It’s only JJ, he brought a few friends. You’ve met them before, one of them was John B I believe?”

As soon as she said JJ’s name aloud, Y/n froze. 

JJ was in his house? 

Suddenly, after saying he loved him, then ghosting him, he was showing up to his house? At what, 8:30 pm?

Y/n didn’t ask another question before turning and padding down the hallway, eyes wide.

And sure enough, the closer he got to his room, the more clear he was able to hear the hushed whispers of various voices. Y/n stood in front of the door, staring at the dark wood as he prepared himself. 

Slowly, he gripped the doorknob with his hand, but waited another second to open the door. 

Immediately, the whispers stopped. And y/n, still stuck with his arm against the frame, hand ghosting over the door knob, was met with the sight of JJ sitting on his bed.

Of course, his friends joined him. Pope and Kiara were standing together in the center, the latter with her arms crossed. John B sat backwards on his desk chair, arms crossed on the back.

But he couldn’t dwell on that too long, feeling JJ’s bold blue eyes on him for the first time in too long. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked firmly, and even if the question was meant for the whole group, Y/n only looked at the blonde as he said it.

He could see how JJ’s adams apple bobbed when he swallowed, strained against the tan skin of his throat.

“Can we stay here for the night?” He asked, and it felt hesitant. Only the two boys in the room seemed to know why this was a horrible question, how bad it looked on JJ’s part. But they couldn’t say it, because the other people in the room didn’t even know the depths of their relationship, nonetheless why it stopped.

“Why?” Y/n asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the now-closed door. He noticed how Kiara, John B, and Pope all shared a look from the corner of his eye, and part of him questioned if perhaps they did know something. Maybe they did know that half the time JJ spent with them that summer, was time also spent avoiding him.

“Look, there’s just been a lot going on these past weeks and tonight we just didn’t have anywhere else to go.” Kiara said, stepping closer to Y/n in hopes of persuading him further.

“Yeah, it’s too much to explain right now , but…” John B looked at the h/c teen hopefully, standing up from Y/n’s desk chair. The boy sighed- almost grimacing. Both of them were using that commercial voice, that specific voice with the tone to get themselves just what they want. It irked him slightly.

With a small sigh, y/n thought to himself for a moment. He had a choice, he did. Kick them out, watch JJ walk away from him again, defeated, probably frustrated. Or, give in, and wait until morning to watch JJ leave him.

Part of him wanted to go with the first option- turn away JJ and his audacity.

But the other part of him…

Y/n sent one last look at JJ’s face, the deep color in his eyes staring right back at him. Before he knew it, Y/n folded.

“Fine. I’ll get some sleeping bags.” He sighed, turning away. He heard the Pogues celebrating behind him, and John B shouted a quick “thank you” as he walked out the door. He refused to respond.

Inside the room, JJ got up just as John B met him in the middle of the room. 

“Good idea, man” he smiled, patting the blonde boy on the shoulder. JJ nodded briefly, but looked more at the door than at his friend.

“Yeah, yeah I know- hold on, man I’ll be right back.” 

And with that, he left the room as well.

JJ knew the house well, and even if the memories from here had followed him the past 2 weeks, even if images of Y/n’s lips on his flashes across his mind as soon as he entered the bedroom, he knew he had to keep himself composed in front of his friends.

But now, he was getting a moment alone. 

He walked down the hallway, finding the door to the garage in only a minute. And just as he suspected, the door was open with Y/n standing on the cold floor. 

He was rummaging through boxes, finding the old sleeping bags that his mother had left there months prior. JJ noticed 2 already on the ground, and 1 in each of the boy’s hands.

4 sleeping bags in total- one was meant for JJ.

“So,” he started, startling the h/c. “How have things been?”

Y/n shut his eyes, and shook his head while his heart slowed back to its normal pace. “JJ,” his voice sounded tired, “why aren’t you with your friends.”

JJ swallowed at the tone in Y/n’s voice- that being the first time he had talked to him in weeks. An extra wall now between them- though JJ couldn’t complain. He had put the first one up. There was no beating around the bush.

“Look, Y/n, I know I look like a dick right now, but-“ he tried to finish, tried to bring Y/n’s eyes back to his own.

“But what.” Y/n cut him off. “JJ, I know you have other friends alright, I’m not mad about that-“ 

“I know you aren’t-“ JJ tried, the two boys aimlessly tried to talk. They each had things to say, having been holding back for so long, yet the words were struggling to come out. 

“Look, i-“ JJ ran a hand through his hair, and turned away from the pretty boy across him for just a moment. “I- I should’ve talked to you.” He stumbled over his words.

“You should’ve.” Y/n agreed, adjusting the straps of the sleeping bags in his hands. “So why didn’t you?” 

That made JJ go quiet.

How was he supposed to explain the gold? The cops, the treasure? The gun that JJ carried, that then sat in the bag on Y/n’s bedroom floor. How did he explain that? 

His silence sounded like hesitance, and he saw it in the way Y/n’s jaw clenched. 

“No, don’t make that face…” JJ thought to himself, panic swelling in his mind.

“We can explain it all upstairs, ok, I promise.” He took a step closer to his long known friend, the boy who had seen and loved even the weakest parts of him. He wanted to reach out, fingertips attracting to the s/c skin like a magnet. 

Y/n dropped one of the sleeping bags, letting it roll off the one that already laid on the floor. He dragged his finally-free hand down his face, resting it over his mouth. JJ watched as Y/n shook his head, guilty.

“JJ…” the boy mumbled, and turned away. It felt so frustrating- how could he just show up, at night, searching for a favor? And god, Y/n couldn’t help but hate how he knew he would do anything for him. 

“The last time we were together, you told me for the second time you loved me.”

The words almost startled JJ, who looked down as he heard them. Of course Y/n remembered that- he remembered it too. He thought about it every spare moment he had.

“You told me that, and then the next time I see you you’re ignoring me and running through town with Pope and John B-“

The blonde knew he was right. Everything he was saying was true- he had done that. But when he heard it said in such a harsh tone, the volume of Y/n’s voice getting louder with each word he spoke, he didn’t want it to be.

He’d hurt him, the beautiful boy that normally stood next to him then stood with so many feet between them. He had done that. 

“It was like you were hiding something-“

No.

“You stopped coming around,”

Please. 

The heels of Y/n’s hands were digging into his cheeks, and JJ’s feet began to move towards his turned-back. 

“It just-“ Y/n wasn’t able to finish his sentence, feeling a hand on his shoulder before the next word could escape. His head jerked to the side, just in time for JJ to step in front of him. Suddenly, they were face to face, and in no more than a second JJ pulled Y/n’s lips to his own.

The latter widened his eyes, the rush he had been longing for suddenly bursting through his chest. He felt the familiarity of the water to the stone, the feeling of JJ’s scarred lips molding with his smoother ones. 

He loved it, and he didn’t want to hold himself back from chasing that feeling. It fought with his anger, the two feelings clashed in his head.

His eyes fell shut, one hand grabbing the side of JJ’s head, feeling the blonde grab his hips. The rush won.

Y/n threw the fourth sleeping bag he’d been holding back into the pile of boxes stacked alongside the garage wall. He allowed his second hand to then trace the edges of JJ’s tan jaw- who shuddered at the familiar feeling. 

JJ felt his feet shuffling backwards, until his back found the wall and Y/n leaned further into him. 

It felt so good. 

Even though the sky was dark, leaving them nothing but a flimsy lightbulb to give them light, they stood there in the dark with their skin flushed together. 

And, they allowed themselves that pleasure until finally, Y/n pulled away. 

Their breathing was quite audible in the dark, quiet garage- but they both thrived in each others presence. 

“Forgive me?” JJ breathed out, opening his eyes to search for those e/c colors

“Maybe” y/n swallowed, and his eyes flickered across thr boy’s sharp features. He became to stop the smallest hint of a smile that tugged at his lips. 

“I love you.” 

Y/n stared, staying quiet for another moment. His fingers trailed across JJ’s warm skin, lingering on his collarbone. 

“3rd times a charm, huh?” He joked, pulling a small smile from JJ’s lips.

“I love you too.”

As the boys wandered back to his bedroom, Y/n only carried 3 sleeping bags.  He was sure that after an explanation to whatever the hell was going on, the Pogues shouldn’t mind if JJ slept in his bed. 

[subtotechno]

[this fic is like 3000 words long!! enjoy <;3]

The flower was oddly light and warm in his hands. Plants typically had a certain coolness to them, the slight chill of water right underneath the surface. This flower, a gift from a goddess, was not just any plant. It was made of soft light. It was magic. It was a two-way ticket into and out of the afterlife. 

Techno sighed, glaring down at the flower as if it would make the whole situation any easier. He’d honestly expected Kristin to hear his request and gently turn him down. ‘Nope, no visiting dead people. Sorry. Guess you have to wait a few hundred years for a one-way ticket.’ But no. The goddess of death was a bit more generous than he expected, honestly.

And now, for the first time in eighty long, immortal years, he could see his family. 

Just the thought of it almost made him chicken out again.

Instead, he steeled himself, and carefully pulled one petal from the rose, exactly as Kristin had instructed him. 

As soon as the petal detached, his familiar attic dissolved around him like the magical rose was spilling the void out of itself, swallowing everything in impenetrable darkness. Techno blinked a couple of times, but his eyes never adjusted. Total, complete darkness. 

“Okay. Cool.” He said lamely. The void seemed to swallow the sound. “Kristin, this better not be a prank-”

A glimmer of dim light broke like dawn in front of him. A single star in the night he’d found himself in. He went to walk towards it, but his attic floor had disappeared from underneath him. It caught him off guard for a second as he pinwheeled in the darkness, but the afterlife apparently took pity on him, or got fed up with him, and a strange force rose underneath him like a swelling wave. The force shoved him forward, toward the hint of light. It almost felt like a massive hand underneath him, scooping him up. The void echoed silently with laughter. 

“I mean, I don’t know what you were expecting from me,” he said to Kristin. “I don’t get too much practice swimming in the void.” 

She dropped him off in front of the dim red light, jostling him playfully for good measure. He tried to act affronted by it, but he was pretty sure she knew he took comfort in it.

The light was floating before him, a miniature star. It cast him in warm light, reds and yellows, that seemed to fill the void around him with life. Techno reached out to touch it on instinct, and the closer the tips of his hoof got the bigger and brighter the light became. By the time he held it in his hand, the light was all around him, swallowing him whole. 

This time, when he blinked his eyes open, it wasn’t to an endless void. Instead, the first thing he saw was a forest. 

A familiar forest. 

Crimson vines swayed in the warm air, humidity thick but not uncomfortable, the hazy glowing shroomlights filtering through the various plants crowding up the trunks of the trees. It all seemed almost dreamlike, colors drifting and blurring together, details vague. The netherrack ceiling was so close that the trees brushed up against it if they got a little bit too tall. Even the lava bubbling was quiet here, replaced by rustling leaves and hooves scuffing through the thick, red mycelium. There was a path through it that Hace had carved so that Forgeflare could haul buckets of lava to work on their tools and weapons.

He almost turned back, almost sat down on the netherrack somewhere and waited for the rose to lose all its petals and send him back to the cold familiarity of the tundra. But he didn’t. 

Techno followed the path. Even after so long, he could remember the way home. 

Home was a patch of soft moss and dug-out hollows in the ground. It looked exactly like how he’d forgotten. Exactly how they’d left it. Some of the crimson wood was cut into planks, lashed into palettes and structures big enough to house them all as they slept in shifts. Forgeflare’s forges were glowing hot, chests full of gold and salvaged supplies stacked carelessly to one side. A few makeshift target dummies were propped up a little ways off. The old cooking pot was still bubbling with god-knows-what over a little campfire that had never seemed to stop burning. 

The sight of all of it made him feel like he was drowning, just a little bit. It had been years. It had been decades. It felt like he’d never left. Everything and nothing had happened since he was here. A petal fell off the rose and drifted to the packed netherrack, dissolving into nothing. 

“Uhm…?” A voice from behind him spoke, in the hoglin language instead of the common he’d grown so used to. He couldn’t bring himself to turn around. “Spirits, Forge, what happened to your fur…?” 

A hoof-like hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. 

Bellfire was like a beacon against the backdrop of red. Her fur was even more blue than he remembered, like the twirling vines of the warped forest she was born in. Her eyes met his. She looked around his age, not like the full-grown old person she’d looked like when he was younger. He was around her height now, when had that happened-

Her breath caught in her throat, one hoof going over her mouth. “Techno?” His name came out as a whisper. Just hearing it made him want to collapse. 

“Hey.” His voice was just as quiet as hers, dragged out of his throat. The language was unfamiliar, snorting and squealing instead of carefully formed vowels and consonants. 

“Oh my- You- You’re here? Techno-” 

She nearly jumped at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He hugged her back weakly, barely able to keep himself from collapsing to the crimson moss at her feet. It felt exactly like he remembered, she smelled exactly the same. Another petal fell off the rose. 

“Bell? Who the fuck is that-” 

Bellfire pulled away from him. He could see the tears in her eyes as she turned toward the new voices, toward the hoglins walking into their old camp. He couldn’t look up at them, he only had the strength to stare into the forest over Bellfire’s bright blue shoulder. Everything was overwhelming, rocketing between good and bad emotions. He could feel eyes on him, could feel Bellfire’s hand on his shoulder. He took a deep breath. 

When he looked up, the first eyes he met were Dell’s. 

“Guess you were right,” he said, shakily, “I never did end up taller than any of you, did I?” The joke drifted in the air between them, and for a second he was nervous, but-

“Told you so.” Dell responded automatically, like the words were there before she could decide to say them. She was smiling, in the tentative way she did sometimes. 

His family was looking back at him, coming home from what looked like a successful mushroom hunt. Dell was smaller than he remembered, but not by much. She was still that same orange-red that made his heart hurt every time he saw a similar shade in the overworld. Stonehigh was next to her, holding his father’s hand. Spring himself had a look in his eyes that Techno had never seen before, a mix of sadness and hope and excitement and grief. He had a dark brown spot of fur on his cheek that Techno had forgotten. 

Forgeflare pushed through the little crowd, her pink fur shot through with white streaks Techno had never inherited from her line. All he could do was stand stock-still as she approached him, slowly, as if he’d melt away if she moved too quickly. She stopped in front of him, reaching out to rest her hand on top of his head.

“Well?” Forge asked in her low rasp. “What took you so damn long?”

Like a spell had been broken, Technoblade was tackled to the ground. 

Dell was nearly shrieking with laughter rolling him over in the mycelium and shaking him like she always did when they sparred as kids. Between the peals of snorting laughter she squeezed him until he was laughing too. Stonehigh jumped on him, digging his boney knees into Techno’s side. Bellfire was back to hugging him as much as she could without getting caught in Dell’s crossfire. Bubbleflow was laughing nearby, crouched and trying to pry Dell off. “You’re gonna suffocate the poor boy, Dell, at least give him a minute-” 

Bubbleflow only got dragged into the pile of hoglins for his troubles. 

For a glorious moment, everything was familiar smells and snorting laughter and piles upon piles of limbs and faces he’d nearly forgotten. Another petal fell off the rose. 

Eventually, Dell caught her breath enough to begin her interrogation. “So you finally kicked the bucket, eh? Took you long enough. Spirits, we almost started a bet that you’d gotten lost out in limbo or something-”

“But it was too sad. So we stopped.” Stonehigh cut in.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. No but like, seriously? Where have you been? I ‘ve been waiting SO long and all of these people,” Dell gestured to everyone else in the pile. Everyone was making themselves firmly comfortable with Techno stuck in the middle. “All of these people are SO boring. None of them even like to fight me anymore because I always win-”

“Untrue.” Hace said, grinning. 

“Shut up, old man-

Hace laughed. “At least give him a chance to talk-”

“You’re no better. Stop picking flights with your daughter.” Bellfire snorted, running a hand through the braids in Techno’s mane. His was longer than any of theirs, fur longer and thicker than it would ever get in the nether. 

“Let the boy speak.” Forgeflare’s words fell like a blanket over all of them. They all went quiet, expectant. 

Techno felt like he was about three feet out of his body, firmly somewhere else. All he could do was lay there in shock for a silent moment, until. “Uh. Well.”

Another petal came loose, falling off the rose. Techno watched it go. 

“I’m just here- to, uh. To visit. I guess.”

“What?” Dell asked, the same unreadable emotion in her eyes that her father had. “But you- you just got here-”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Bubbleflow snorted quietly, staring at the rose in Techno’s hand. He had always known more about magic than any of them. He always said he was going to teach Techno how to write enchantment books eventually. They never got around to it. 

“Yeah. Y’know, immortality. It’s an occupational hazard.” 

“Visiting.” Forgeflare said slowly, sharing a look with Bubbleflow. 

“Visiting.” Techno parroted back. In the center of their haphazard circle of hoglins, the rose glowed its alien white light on all of them. 

Dell squeezed him tighter. “You mean you’re leaving?” Her voice was tight, holding back a mountain of emotion that Techno could feel pressing down on him. 

“I’m sorry-”

“Don’t apologize.” Bellfire was crying, holding his forearm and smiling through the tears. “Spirits, Techno, we were starting to think we’d never see you again- Don’t apologize. Please don’t apologize.” 

“I- I really didn’t mean to be gone for so long…” 

“Immortality.” Hace said, taking a deep breath. His tusk was still broken like it had been the day all of them had died. A wound that never truly healed. “That’s a heavy thing to carry, kid.”

“I know.”

“Clearly, looks like you’ve got more scars than me these days.”

“That’s not a compliment, man.”

Hace grinned wickedly, just like he had when Techno had hit his first bulls-eye with his crossbow. “I didn’t mean it as one.” 

Techno rolled his eyes, shoving Hace’s dumb snout away. A bit of the ice melted, even if the tears didn’t dry. Dell didn’t let him go, and he didn’t ask her to. She was his best friend after all, she was allowed. 

They talked and joked, shared stories, picked up the slack when Techno couldn’t find words to say. It felt like being folded back into the pages of an old book he’d been torn out of. The petals fell until only a few remained. With each one that fell, Dell held him tighter and the grief in Forgeflare’s eyes got deeper. 

“I’m sorry for- y’know.”

“Killing us?” Stonehigh said, deadpan as ever. “I guess I can forgive you. Maybe.”

“Stonehigh.” his mother scolded him. 

“What? He stabbed me!” 

Techno shrank into himself a little bit. 

“Ignore him.” Hace snorted. “C’mon, kid. You did what you had to. I mean, Spirits. You did what I taught you. And a damn good job of it, too.” 

Spring nodded. He looked a little guilty. “If we knew that the rot would come for us, we would have found another way out. There’s no changing the past. I’m glad you made it out.” He smiled. “Even if it took getting stabbed a little bit.” 

Here, with all of them around him, Techno could pretty clearly remember what they’d looked like on that day. The green eating across Spring’s skin, the ugly gored holes in Forgeflare’s stomach from Stonehigh’s tusks, Bubbleflow roaring at him even as holes were rotted through his face. He remembered how the blood in the snow seemed like it was glowing. He remembered the total silence after Dell had bled out, the two of them surrounded by the corpses of everyone else. He remembered it all.

But it felt more distant, now. It felt like it was scarring over instead of bleeding. Right now, all he could see were his family smiling and talking and arguing like always. He held onto the memory with both hands. This was what he’d remember, he promised himself. This is the memory he would keep. 

For just a moment, as the conversation rumbled on and on around him, he felt like a kid again, sitting with his family around the fire under the shade of the netherrack ceiling. He smiled around his tusks, and they smiled back. 

It was only a moment. And then it passed. 

The second to last petal fell before he was ready. There was so much left to say, so much left to do. He still hadn’t gotten to talk to Spring that much. He hadn’t gotten to hug Bellfire again. He hadn’t found a good way to apologize to Stonehigh. Dell hadn’t let him go yet. He needed more time. There wasn’t enough time in the world , and there certainly wasn’t enough time left in one measly little rose petal. 

Dell had her face pressed to his shoulder. She was mumbling something, alternating between begging him to stay and threatening him to keep himself safe. 

“I love you, I missed you too. I love you.” was all he could respond with. It wasn’t enough. 

Hands closed around his, squeezing them around the rose. He looked up and met Forgeflare’s eyes. His grandmother, even if there wasn’t a translation of the word to hoglin. She gave him a watery, gentle smile. 

“Techno-” She said, voice low and rasping. He swore to himself he’d never forget what it sounded like. A tear fell before he could stop it, her smile only softened around the edges. “Technoblade, go home. You don’t need to be here.”

Stonehigh made a soft noise of complaint. Spring shushed him. Dell only shoved her face deeper into his shoulder. 

“We’ll see you again, when you’re ready.” Forgeflare said softly, sadly. “Don’t come back even a day before then, alright?”

Techno went to speak, but words failed him. All he could do was nod. 

She smiled again, and pressed her snout to his forehead. For that last moment, everything was warm. “You’re alright, it’ll be alr-”

The final petal fell. 

The nether faded away. He opened his eyes to total, suffocating darkness.

Dell’s comforting, familiar-but-forgotten weight was gone. Stonehigh and Spring were gone. Bellfire was gone. Hace was gone. Bubbleflow was gone. Forgeflare-

The void closed in around him. Two massive, unseen hands cradled him like a lit match against the wind. The darkness buzzed with warm compassion. She held him until he caught his breath, until the tears slowed and the surreal memory of his family’s afterlife felt less like a live wire in his mind. She held him a little while after that until finally, finally, letting him go.

His attic faded back into focus around him, chasing away the endless darkness. All that was left was the crumbling, ashen twig of a rose stem in his hand. 

Techno sat for a while, staring as the stem dissolved into the air, leaving nothing behind. 

“...Thank you.” He snorted in his native tongue, not ready to go back to common. Somehow, he knew Kristin could understand him. 

[ask-skull-and-muffin]

Goodnight Story #9

[Plain Text: "Goodnight Story #9" bigger and cursive /end pt]

Today was supposed to be a normal, peaceful day for Verde. Unfortunately, Skull, Reborn and Fon somehow ended up bored. So Verde has some slightly annoying company.

Skull is still inspecting Verde's forging oven, naively crawling halfway inside it, unnecessarily fascinated with the way it's set up. Of course Reborn pushes the door shut, making Skull squawk in surprise, before addressing Verde much too nonchalantly. "What are you drawing?"

Verde doesn't look up from his work, calmly continuing to sketch, even as Fon hovers over his shoulder, curiously watching him work. Verde just barely remembers Reborn likes to have his questions answered. "Schematics."

Fon hums inquisitively, shaking his head just a tiny bit. He would not be able to read half of the Italian Verde used in this schematic, so his confusion is understandable. "No... No that's a human arm."

Verde doesn't sigh, but he wants to. Fon is just curious and wants to learn, his lack of a formal education is not his fault. So Verde educates him, his tone gentle. "Prosthesis, Fon. I'm designing a prosthetic arm."

Fon hums softly again, leaning just a bit closer. Verde can feel the body-heat rolling off of him now. The awe in Fon's voice is entirely genuine. "That's pretty cool. It looks... So life-like."

Of course, such a comment draws Reborn near and that man knows no personal space. Verde just huffs when Reborn drapes his weight over his shoulder, snuggling close shamelessly and taking a look himself. The momentary pause that follows really says more than enough, but Reborn voices his opinion anyways. "Are you... Sketching from memory?"

Verde hums faintly in acknowledgement, adjusting himself under Reborn's weight and once again losing himself to focus just a little. After a minute, Fon's weight is a little added surprise, but Verde honestly doesn't mind. At least they're resting on both of his shoulders now and distributing their weight more evenly.

Skull speaks up then, no longer in the Forge, instead he's admiring Verde's indoor garden. He's gently cupped his hands around a still-green orange, fascinated and endeared. "I still can't believe you build all this yourself."

This, of course, meaning the highly sophisticated watering and lighting systems that support Verde's little garden. That was one of his first private projects Verde was able to fund. It's been years since then. "I can build anything. All I need are materials and time."

Of course, Reborn has to be a little shit, sounding entirely too amused as he reminds Verde. "And money."

Verde promptly shakes Reborn and Fon off of his shoulders, frowning to himself. That reminder was unhelpful and uncalled for. Verde quickly resolves to ignore them starting now-

But Reborn sighs, over-exaggerated and impatient. You can practically hear the eyeroll and Verde turns to him, the words to tell him off already on the tip of his tongue. But...

Reborn is holding an envelope, thick with whatever is inside it. He sounds smugly amused again. "Let me finish. You need money for your projects."

Reborn offers the envelope to Verde, something distinctly fond in the look in his eyes. Fon and Skull are nearby too, looking adorably excited now. Somehow Reborn still sounds like he's teasing him. "This is for you. Happy Valentine's, you nerd."

Verde blinks rapidly, briefly glancing toward his calender, before accepting the envelope, entirely suspiscious. Fon and Skull look almost too excited. From that alone, Verde can deduce that this present was probably some kind of group effort.

Verde picks the envelope open, raising his eyebrows in surprise when he unearths an actual stack of bills. By the looks of it alone, this is at least 30.000 Euro. This might just be enough to finish Verde's next 4 projects!

Verde looks at his idiots again, his chest oddly warm, even as his voice comes out unsure and stern. "Why?"

Skull speaks up this time, fidgeting his hands together, shifting around. He's blushing, the way he does when he thinks he's in trouble. "Actually... It was Viper's idea. Cause I kept going on about... Feeling bad for breaking your glass stuff..."

Oh, yes. Months ago, when Skull was in a particularly helpful mood, he'd dropped a whole box of glassware. Several beakers, numerous vials and even some syringes and droppers where lost. But nothing particularly important was broken. Verde had told him it was fine. He'd even outright forgiven him after Skull brought him some new glassware from who knows where.

So this is just silly-

Fon gently brushes his knuckles over Verde's cheeks, pulling him out of his thoughts entirely and giving him a very warm smile. "Skull and Viper came up with the idea because of that incident. But it's supposed to be a gift first and foremost."

Reborn is standing back a bit now, his arms loosely crossed, a subtle indication he is not entirely secure with the vulnerability he is about to present. Verde sometimes wonders if Reborn is aware of his own tells actually. "We know how much you love your projects."

Skull and Fon nod their agreement and Verde blinks down at the stack of cash again. He won't reject this, cause that would be quite idiotic, but... It feels wrong to accept this much without somehow returning the favor. So, after just a moment of thought, Verde offers the one thing he can give freely. ".... Thank you very much. May I hug you?"

Skull almost chirps like a bird, nodding enthusiastically and bouncing in place. He is in Verde's arms before Verde has even fully stood up out of his seat.

Fon chuckles at Skull's eagerness, but he too nods, flushing faintly. He moves more slowly, careful to control his strength when he cuddles into Verde's embrace next to Skull.

They are both so tiny in Verde's arms, their cheeks barely rest comfortably against his shoulders. Verde makes sure to give both of them a good squeeze, placing two tiny kisses on top of their hair, before looking at the last person that has earned a hug today.

Reborn is blushing surprisingly brightly, his arms crossed just a bit tighter and he'd averted his eyes for just a moment. Verde catches his eyes when he looks at them again. Verde wordlessly gestures that Reborn can absolutely join this hug, but Reborn hesitates.

So Verde gently pats Skull's back and presses light on Fon's shoulder, slowly breaking their embrace, so both of his arms are free to accommodate Reborn. He offers the hug again, silently. And the hesitation completely leaves Reborn.

Reborn is a bit taller than Fon and Skull. He can rest his chin on Verde's shoulder quite comfortably, but he also hugs like a vice. If Verde hadn't preemptively reinforced his skin with just a touch of lightning, he might've gotten a bruise from that tight squeeze.

Instead, Verde is perfectly content like this, cuddling Reborn closer for a moment, before moving to put a kiss on the man's head. That accursed fedora gets in his way though, which very briefly gives Reborn a case of the giggles. Then Reborn tips his hat back and goes up on his tiptoes, placing the gentlest of kisses on both of Verde's cheeks.

And just like that, Reborn breaks the hug and tugs his fedora back down again to cover his expression. He's blushing and smiling and immediately turns to leave the room, because that was probably more than enough vulnerability for him, for the rest of the month.

Verde will also feel very warm and loved for about a month at least. Especially since Fon and Skull overcome their shyness and bashfully request another hug.

And it's only been a few weeks at most since the last time Verde felt this Treasured and Beloved!

.... Verde knows he's earned this affection. They all did.

[codenamehazard]

.:Blinding Light:.

Chapter 13: Blinding Light

Hey guys! I don't know if this came sooner than the last chapter or not, but who cares! I'm writing and I'm having fun! Hopefully it isn't too short and it's fun read for you guys as it was for me to write!

Bonus points if you listen to some Skyrim OST stuff while reading, hehehehe.

Without delay, here's Chapter 13!

-----

I leap off of the wire and glide gently down, landing smoothly with a roll. A grin plastered ear to ear. I arrived at Kestrel's workshop and to my surprise, found it empty. I frown at this sight, did she close up shop? I walk over to one of the windows and can't help but to scoff at the closed sign. 

“Figures…” I mutter to myself. The bird must have closed up shop so she could focus on the project that has her so worked up, she’s been acting like an idiot. Though with seeing the Warped and what they can do, I’m starting to cut the girl a little more slack. If this project’s connected to dealing with those fuckers? Well, the idiototic behavior could be excused… Not by much though.

Not like a sign's gonna stop me from coming in. I wanted to see what’s so special about the girl and her guns, what does she do to make it so that Conduits can channel their powers through these firearms. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind having a spectator around to watch her work, right? After all, I am going to be one of her clients. Gotta make sure her craftsmanship is up to scratch!

…And to make sure I know what her work quality is, I don’t want her screwing me over.

I jiggle the doorknob on the door to find that it’s locked. I give a small “Tch” before breaking the door itself. I’m nearly knocked back off of my feet at the massive wave of pure RFE that slammed into me. My mouth instantly waters and my stomach gnaws. What in the absolute hell is going on in there that’s producing so much energy?? God, it’s like I was back in the mines!

Whatever it was… I wanted it.

I charge into the back, following the energy’s call. My teeth are itching as I get closer, knocking over displays and signs as I barrel through the workshop proper to see what kind of goodies the bird is hiding from me. I charge through the forge doors, ready to take my prize.

What greets my ears isn’t the rock music that I remember Kestrel playing from my first time around, but something else, something sounding ancient and primal. Deep drums that reverberate through the chest. However, the thing that truly grabs my attention is the woman standing in front of the forge… And what is coming from her back. Long, shining appendages growing from the ghastly scar, glimmering like blued metal in the light of the forge. 

My eyes trail from the metallic snakes to the object in front of her, a crucible of hot metal that glows with the signature color of Rayacite. Moving slowly and deliberately, Kestrel pulls out a single Blast Shard from her backpack before carefully lowering it into the glowing pool.

As the shard melts, I watch the tendrils sway. Sometimes one of them would move to remove the skin of waste and slag from the top of the pool and absorb it. Now Kestrel’s powers made sense. She’s a Slag Conduit, but that hardly matters as I continue to watch in awe at the scene playing out.

It’s like something from a fantasy novel.

The process repeats, slag forms on the top of the pool, the tentacles remove it. The more this process happens, the stronger the energy’s strength grows. She is refining the metal, purifying it. I didn’t even know such a thing was possible and it made me wonder how much power could be absorbed from purified Rayacite sources.

It isn’t long until no more slag could be harvested from the metal. With the impurities gone, Kestrel nods before taking the clamps and grabbing the vessel. She walks over to a spherical mold that is on stand-by before pouring the molten Blast Shards inside, taking care not to spill a single drop of liquid power.

With the mold filled, the bird takes it over to a cooling trough and quickly submerges it. The water hisses and spits as steam erupts from the contact, but Kestrel seems unfazed by it.

“Take it.” I feel my vices whisper. “She’s completely clueless and those metal tentacles are a one way ticket to her spinal cord. Hell, I bet if you grabbed onto one of them, you could drain her without hassle. Drain her, get rid of her and take the super-core for yourself. Imagine all that pure energy. It’d be like taking candy from a baby.” The impulses make my lips salivate, the hunger for power roiling like the water in the trough. Yet, in this moment my mind’s too fixated by the strange sight before me. I want to see what happens next and I won’t know that if I act on my impulses now.

Killing her for that core? It would be a waste. If this is what she can do with Blast Shards… I can only imagine what she could do with a Blast Core, that thought made my mouth water even more. A purified Blast Core? That would be a prize worth taking. She’s becoming more useful to me alive then dead, even with her being an absolute thorn in my side.

Besides… She still owes me a shotgun. A deal’s a deal after all.

The water’s rage settles and the metal cools solid. The Gunsmith pulls out the mold and frees the spherical core, still glowing with power. With the ball cradled in shining threads, the missile launcher shell is grabbed and pulled towards her. Hands open the chamber made to house the newly formed power-source and tendrils rush inside, the shimmering snakes seeming to be hellbound to fill any gap it could find while the core is being lowered down. The snakes break off and fuse themselves to the gun and the core, pulling it inside. The energy of the power source changes from radiating to focused, like the once writhing slag snakes became the wiring that would channel the core’s energy and by extension, a Conduit’s power. With the source set and merged into the shell, Kestrel closes the compartment and seals it shut.

With the weapon completed. She looks it over, tendrils swarming over it and feeling for any defects or any other kinks that could hinder its functioning. Looking at how thorough she is, I can see why she got her title.

I step closer and begin to speak, but the sound startles the girl. She screams out in panic as her tendrils thrash around before retracting back into her body. The sudden hit from the event causes her to yelp in pain. She turns her head and looks me dead in the eyes before growling at me. I put up my hands.

“Woah there-” Is all I could get out before the bird snarls.

“What in the actual FUCK, MacGrath?! Didn’t you read the fu-” Her rage is cut short by a loud revving buzz that rose into a deafening mechanical wail. No doubt about what it is, the tell-tale scream of a tornado siren. I’m about to ask what was going on, but one look at Kestrel’s face and I knew. I have never seen someone lose the color in their face so quickly before, it makes the way her face drained when she learned I was the Beast look slow.

“They’re coming…” I could barely hear Kestrel over the distorted wailing of the siren. Fear, pure fear. I would be lying if I said that the emotion isn’t spreading. I can feel the terror gripping my chest like a vice, remembering the horde of Warped that came after me in the mine. This must be the “they” she’s talking about.

There was no time for questions as the girl leaps out of the window with gun in tow. Her panicked voice howling “They’re coming” over and over again as she charges though the blaring streets. I’m not far behind as I chase after her. She’s most likely rushing to meet up with the others. Fear starts to mix with adrenaline as I think of what might come. This time it might actually be a fun fight with more allies around. Who knows.

All I know is that it’s about time to see if the Warped are as dangerous out in the open as everyone is saying they are.

[fireflyhwufanficwriter]

My thoughts on Dr. Stone’s S03E02 (“Greed Equals Justice”)

(Safe to read for anime-only folks.)

My thoughts after watching Season Three, Episode Two:

01. Kohaku and Chrome like Senku's incredibly burnt bread, but poor Ryusui really, really wants a professional chef! That face he made looked so sketchy XD

02. This OP seems to be a lot less spoilery compared to past OPs! There's still stuff there that you can see, but not as much as it could have been. I guess they really wanted to keep some of the good stuff as a surprise! :D

03. The title of the second episode... Greed Equals Justice! :)

04. "Journalass" :D And she looked away, which must have showed Gen that Ryusui was onto something! And Minami does have an AWESOME name for a journalist! :D

05. Ah, we got some invention flashbacks! :)

06. "Enough for a tiger cub?" Hahaha! Is that some sort of Japanese idiom? It sounds funny and cool! XD

07. Francois is here! :) I think that when I first read the manga, I thought she would either have red hair or a red outfit. But since they gave Ryusui a red outfit in the anime, it makes sense that they'd give Francois a different color!

08. I like how she just started walking in presumably the right direction, since they didn't tell her she was going the wrong way. It's like she has a mental compass pointing straight to Ryusui XD

09. So Ryusui doesn't remember Francois' real name or gender... but he remembers her fashion style, and her clothing and shoe sizes? That's... some selective memory there :O

10. ...And she walked into the conversation, just like that! XD Poor Gen... this isn't the first time he's had to go through those woods without rest... AND he's barefoot! :O

11. Poor modern-timers... XD Kohaku and Chrome's stick figures looked happy, though! :D

12. Somebody asking Senku for an even MORE accurate figure than he's already provided... I don't blame him for looking perplexed XD

13. Time for stollen! :) Ah, so Kohaku knows how to use that... that... animal-catching thingy! That's good info! She surprised Ukyo with her animal catching, and Francois with her butter making :D

14. And the elderly folks are helping with the stollen, too! Pretty convenient that those berry plants are around their height! :)

15. Pretty cool to see Senku learning something and being on the sidelines while somebody else is doing the teaching! And he and Ryusui got scolded XD

16. Hmm, I'm going to have to figure out when they found the time to build that bread oven... It's too large to just be former iron forge, although they could have used some of the same bricks... but, no, even these new bricks are too large and square... :O

17. Senku helped by injecting water into the oven! :) And Francois totally wants him... to be part of the future Nanami Conglomerate :D

18. Chrome's so happy, Kohaku likes it, and even Ukyo is teary-eyed... :) We can also see random villagers enjoying it! And Francois showed us how to make bread! :)

19. Poor Minami... But everybody is so happy about Francois' bread! XD And there it is again, "tiger cub's worth of revival fluid" XD

20. While the others were talking about what Minami wanted in return, Kohaku was just in the background, quietly gobbling up that loaf of bread :D And aww, Kohaku's very considerate of Kaseki! :)

21. That car, those clothes, that drip... wow, Kaseki! :O ...Although the clothes didn't last for very long... XD

22. Some building, some science, and voila, a mirror! Another invention that Chrome and the elderly folks are enjoying! :)

23. That's what Minami REALLY wanted... a camera! :D And we got bits of backstory about her! It is SO in-character for a journalist to want to photograph the green light of the pertrification! She was the one who made me cry this episode. She made such a beautiful promise to Senku and the rest of them! :)

24. Grr, Senku... XD Well, at least Minami's going to take the first photo... and it's great that Ryusui knew who the subject of the stone world's first ever photograph should rightly be :)

25. Francois has great insight into Ryusui's motivations and desires! :O

26. A suit; an old-timey waistcoat thingy; some kind of rockstar getup that totally makes him look like Byakuya (and that buckle, hahaha! I see you, animators :D); another modern outfit, and... huh?! :O

27. Senku sticking his tongue out - the pose of the modern world's most famous scientist, recreated by the stone world's most famous scientist! :D

28. I wonder if those circle thingies in the ED are elements that somehow relate to the five wise generals? :O

29. Francois has joined the party; we've acquired bread, mirrors, and photography; and Minami took the very first photo in the stone world! :) But, oh, the next episode... "First Contact..." I CANNOT wait! :O I'm going to watch it right after I publish this post! :D

https :// fireflyhwufanficwriter . tumblr . com / MyDrStoneEpisodeMangaThoughts

[saucy-mesothelioma]

Ranking Outer Wilds Planets (And Some Other Stuff)

This was bound to happen one way or another because I absolutely adore Outer Wilds, so might as well do it now. Spoilers (obviously) for both Outer Wilds and the DLC Echoes of the Eye.

Ash Twin Pros: •The Warp Towers have pretty cool designs Cons: •It took me so damn long to figure out the fucking warp pads •The fucking sand •Not really fun to be on because it's just so stressful to try to be at the right place at the right time and then just missing it by the bare minimum Total: 2/10

Ember Twin Pros: •Had the most fun quantum puzzle in my opinion •Chert's Existential Crisis™️ Cons: •Sunless City was a pain in the ass to explore because of the goddamn sand •Just overall pretty boring Total: 4/10 Timber Hearth Pros: •One of the most beautiful planets by far; my family and I go to the Smoky Mountains a lot, and I was reminded of that place the minute I explored the village •The caves with the rocks that look like stars when you turn out your lights I could literally spend an entire loop there with Timber Hearth's theme playing in the background •Geysers are fun to play with Cons: •Took me way too long to realize there was actually stuff there to explore Total: 8/10 The Attlerock Pros: •My boi Ekser who can do no wrong ever • Like most people, I went there first and it was a wonderful opener to everything the game has to offer Cons: •Not a lot to do there, but it is just a moon Total: 6/10 Brittle Hollow Pros: •So damn beautiful that it's my second favorite planet design •Coolest Nomai ruins; I spent a loop or two just admiring how damn cool everything looked, especially the Hanging City •Gravity crystals were loads of fun even though they gave me a headache •By far the most fun planet to explore Cons: •Didn't understand how to get to the Southern Observatory and spent like 5 loops trying to figure it out via attempting to wedge my ship between the ice •Jumped off of the Black Hole Forge around 3 times because I didn't realize that I was upside down •Had no clue how to get to the Tower of Quantum Knowledge until I got stuck at the white hole with almost no oxygen and found it at the last minute •I hate that black hole with a passion it's caused me so much pain I hate it I hate it I hate it Total: 9/10 (I love it but I'm just an idiot) Giant's Deep Pros: •Hands down my favorite planet design I love it so much •I could listen to the Giant's Deep theme for hours on end •Not gonna lie, I love watching the islands getting catapulted into space •Jellyfish be vibin •Watching the supernova through the cloudy atmosphere is honestly so cool to me Cons: •Too little to explore there in my opinion, but understandable since it's a water planet •The gravity is such a huge pain in the ass Total: 10/10 Dark Bramble Pros: •I actually like the theme for it a lot •Feldspar's camp is the coolest •That Nomai grave got to me dude •Scary but still more fun than the Hourglass Twins to me, that being said- Cons: •I DON'T FUCK WITH THOSE ANGLERFISH FUCK THAT SHIT SO HARD I HATE THEM MORE THAN THE BLACK HOLE AND THAT'S SAYING A LOT

Total: 5/10 The Interloper Pros: •The reveal that the Interloper was where the ghost matter came from and was the reason all of the Nomai died really hit me in the feels; I had to take a moment Cons: •I know it's basically a comet, but it was pretty boring Total: 3/10 Quantum Moon Pros: •Best girl Solanum •I love all of the various designs for the moon •The theme is nice Cons: •Still not a lot to explore there, but it's understandable Total: 3/10

The Stranger (Based purely on looks to be fair since it's half of the DLC) Pros: •Holy shit I love the atmosphere of it so much those cypress-looking trees, everything •The architecture is fucking GORGEOUS •The reels. Beautiful. Enough said. •I could spend the rest of my life on the Stranger I love it so much •Dare I say it, I kinda like the DLC ost more than the original; still love them both to death, though Cons: •Honestly expected there to be more shit under the water? Not sure why but I did Total: 10/10

The Stranger's Dream World Pros: •Again, everything the DLC gave us is visually stunning I'm in love with the design •Owlks are pure baby those little hoots are so cute Cons: •Owlks are also fuckin scary Jesus Christ •The alarm bells give me so much stress even when I know how they work •Took me the longest time out to bypass the "death glitch" to open the Vault, but as stated before, I'm also very stupid Total: 10/10

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Katfl commenthough, part 6

World 8-1

If you listen closely they make their little wanya sounds 🥺🥺🥺

A path forged by lava, dramatic camera shift towards the volcano looming above, the music kicking in full force with the blast of trumpets- if I‘m not mistaken I‘d say this is it. Welcome to the endgame

Is that a more dramatic remix of the main theme playing in the background of the first level

I think it is

Oh void everything‘s crashing down and burning aaaaaaaaaaaa

Nooo I missed the treasure chest when going though the door! Aah, that’s a good hiding place tho

If you extinguish a torch via water balloon- Kirby, it leaves a smoke-trail. That’s some attention to detail

Not quite a fan of how they just give you the ice ability anyways right after defeating the boss. I suppose it’s because otherwise players who didn’t get it don’t feel like they have needlessly redo the beginning, as this passage seems to be based on using ice. But still, sometimes leaving the player to some thinking in when to pick them would be nice, at least in Wild Mode? The older games were slightly less hand-holdy in that regard.

Lava-Diving extreme D: the heck is this boat made of - or better yet, who parked it in lava!?

Oh so NOW I need an ability I only could’ve gotten earlier to unlock a secret, and it’s not even from a miniboss. Ok then. …target‘s hidden well, though, so that’s nice.

Ohh they used blueish-purple lights in the factory as a contrast to all the lava! Nice!

They put the Carby challenge above a highway. Hah.

Boss rush? Boss rush! …Y‘know, sometimes the upgrades don’t seem like that much regarding power since most enemies are 1hko‘s anyways, but they absolutely are. These guys are going down so easily! (Though they might also have lowered their HP for this level)

Metroid Dread had "Samus is so cool!“, Katfl has "they used the third dimension so nicely!“

…Hold on a minute this game plays in a different dimension IS THIS WHOLE CONCEPT ONE GIANT PUN-

Love how we‘re going back and forth in the level to slowly break down everything layer by layer

The music in this level Did Not Need to go this hard but I‘m once again glad it did <3

DEDEDEEEEEE GIMME MY FRIEND BACK YOU OVERFLOOVED LOVABLE PENGUIN WITH A SICK THEME

Reason 101 Dedede is the bebebest: he’s a penguin hanging around right at a volcano surrounded by lava wearing a coat that’s even thicker than his usual one- and not caring at all. He‘s literally cool.

Ohh, Masked Dedede Theme incoming? Ahh not quite

Stoop please someone tell me he‘s called the equivalent of"For‘Gor Dedede“ in English too lmaoo I can’t- (and yes, that ends on an r)

Ah, there it is :D

His design is so adorable :]

DEDEDE YOU ABSOLUTE LEGEND! Man I just adore his character development across this series! And he was helping this waddle dee so gently too! Aaahhh

Ayo wth - glitch effect logo for a new world?

Voice acting? With words??

AHAHAH THE ELEVATOR MUSIC STOOP

...oh that’s ducked up actually

[jasminebutintaiwansojiemin]

July 18th, 2024 星期四 - Old European Consulate Office and Museum, Ferry Ride, Waterside Exploring

I woke up around 12pm today after doing a bar crawl and clubbing the night before. Thankfully I wasn’t too hungover, so I showered and went to go get Korean takeout with one of my classmates. We’d been trying to eat from this place since our first day in Taipei and we finally got to eat it today. I ended up getting this beef soup thing and it was sooooo good. Since being in Taiwan, I want to eat soup all the time. Since we cut it so close to when we needed to meet for class, we sped ate in the common area of our hotel before quickly returning it to our rooms.

We met up with our class and took the MRT to the very last stop on the red line, all the way up in the mountains. The scenery was very pretty as we drove through but the ride was so extremely long. The archetype in Tamsui is so beautiful and seeing it with the mountains was pretty awesome. Then we got on a bus to the former British consulate residence area. Unfortunately, the original place we were supposed to go was closed, so we just explored the old building for a while. It was pretty cool getting to see how they lived (their stairs are so short and steep I don’t know how they managed).

After the museum, we headed down to the distant water and walked through a long waterfront area towards the ferry. That area was pretty cool and had a lot of shops and restaurants. I ended up buying a coconut and a king crab leg. I’d been waiting the whole trip to drink a coconut hehe. Coconut rating: 7/10 not the type of coconuts I usually drink but it was still yummy and fresh. After a bit of walking around, we caught the ferry to the other side of the water. In the water, there were many jumping fish you could see even from the shore. There was also a large fire that occurred in one the restaurants that we could see from our side.

As soon as we got off, the tide was so low that we could see tiny crabs and mudskippers!!!! They were so incredibly cute and tiny and I wanted to pick them up and put them in my pocket. We walked around that area for a bit and saw a very stereotypical looking duck bathing in some water!!!! So cute haha! We all walked around for a bit before taking the ferry back to the other side and taking the looooooong MRT ride home.

Academic Reflection

Today I decided to do some research on European/Australian influence on and presence in Taiwan. It seems like we always talk about Mainland China and Japan, when there are other influences. Of course to begin, there was the Dutch colonization and Spanish settlement in the 17th century. That’s when the island got the name Formosa, given by Dutch sailers who saw the beautiful island from the water. Unfortunately, most countries are in a weird limbo between recognizing and not recognizing Taiwan as its own country. As we did our tour of the former consulate building, it was a reoccurring theme that a country had a good relationship with Taiwan would then retract so that they can have a google relationship with Mainland China.

Something else i found interesting was the Australian flag being a part of the flag lineup. Till we reached the consulate building, I was yet to hear/read/learn anything about Australia in Taiwan. What i found out from my research is that, in 1966 Australia recognized Taiwan as the “Rwepublic of China” and opened a full embassy there (in comparison to the U.S.’ controversial American Institute in Taiwan). However in 1972, these diplomatic ties were severed as the governor of Australia wanted to forge better relations with Mainland China, thus choosing to now recognize the Mainland’s People’s Republic of China instead. I think this is very interesting in light of the U.S.’ own back and forth with recognizing, not recognizing, and halfway acknowledging Taiwan.

[sydorax-squid]

The Whale Skin

Rumors about the horror had circulated in my little English seaside town for centuries. Tales of the Hollow Whale had terrified children for as long as my town stood. Old men often claimed to have seen the thing late at night, pale and glistening in the moonlight, the bumpy surface writhing with undead life. But I have truly seen it, seen it clearly, and the memory is a stain upon my life.

As my grandpa told it, the Hollow Whale came from a depth so dark and unknown that God himself couldn’t see the bottom. There the whale waits and feeds on little squirming dark things, lazily drifting through the blackness until it hears a certain cry; the cry of dying men. Grandma would always shush him around this part and grandpa would always tell her to mind herself, that I needed to know what lies below the bows of boats. Grandpa then told me that the Hollow Whale sang. It sang to other whales, heard the sad stories of what men did to them, heard their mourning. The Hollow Whale hates mankind and pursues us, devouring all those unlucky enough to find themselves in the open ocean at night without a boat.

But, my grandpa would say, sometimes the Hollow Whale would swallow whole boats, especially whaling ships. He said that when people disappear in the ocean, they were damned for all eternity to be a part of the Whale. At this point my grandma would tell him to stop filling my mind with scary notions of undead beings because then I’d never go to sleep. I was a notoriously grumpy morning person.

Those were just old stories, things people passed around the fire on cool autumn nights. The Hollow Whale was nothing but legend, old superstitions that migrated to the modern era. That’s what I always told myself, at least. My fear of the Hollow Whale diminished as I got older and spent more time out on the open ocean. I come from a long line of fishermen, so I’ve always been intrigued by, drawn to the sea. However, my inclination was more towards the scientific, so I endeavored to broaden my horizons. I couldn’t afford college, so I instead took up work as a deckhand for an oceanic scientific expedition in an attempt to learn and forge some connections in the community. My first dozen or so excursions proved exceedingly fruitful so I had no reason to feel trepidation for this most recent venture.

My captain, James Dalton, had welcomed a group of marine biologists from Maryland aboard for a three-day run out into the open ocean to study monkfish. Nothing too difficult, except for appeasing the Americans’ fickle palates.

The first day and night were met with failure, but at the beginning of the second day, the biologists deployed a device that they claimed would call the monkfish to us. Captain Dalton agreed but insisted that they turn the device off by sundown. I don’t know if they simply ignored my captain’s request or if the device was left on by fateful accident, but I know the devastation this action incurred.

I awoke just before dawn; excited conversation and hurried footsteps lured my weary body up to the main deck. The biologists were crowded around the side of the boat that had housed the siren device, chattering and pointing excitedly at something in the water. I shuffled over to find a squirming black mass of thousands of devil-fish, many much larger than any I had ever seen of the species in question. Some were upside-down, their circular mouths and inward-facing teeth glinting in the new light. I saw the siren device on the floor, dripping wet and freshly retrieved. Captain Dalton had seen it, too, and his surly face went pale.

An argument erupted between the biologists, but my eyes were on the captain. He was staring off at the ocean, just below the horizon. I turned to follow his gaze and I found what had captured his attention. There was a pale silhouette in the water, approaching our boat silently, swiftly. The enormity of the creature was startling; larger than any submarine I’d ever seen (and I’d seen a few). My blood turned to icy slush as the monstrosity neared, it’s girth filling the ocean as far as my eyes could perceive. I could hear the biologists talking, sounding disappointed that the monkfish had dispersed but also intrigued by the strange texture now below the water’s surface.

I stepped to the side and leaned my body over the railing of the boat. I cannot say just what possessed me to do so. Beneath the gently lapping waves I could see a terrible mass slowly drifting beneath us. I could see what appeared to be a kind of rocky terrain, knotted roots of stone eroded by nature to form crude and jagged canyons and pits and hills. The more I stared at it, the more the formation looked like human bodies carved into a cliff-face. For some reason the artist had chosen to depict their subjects in excruciating pain, mouths agape in silent screams of endless agony. My stomach churned at the frightening realism of the images I was seeing.

Captain Dalton touched my shoulder, pulling me away from torturous images my mind was projecting on the thing beneath the water. He whispered to me, so low that I could barely hear, “No matter what, don’t scream.” I nodded.

Then it surfaced. The monstrosity that had been loitering beneath us suddenly lurched up, hitting the bottom of the boat so hard it threw everyone down onto the deck. We all scrambled to our feet, biologists and seamen alike, and we each dashed to the railings to see what had happened.

I so often wish that I hadn’t looked.

I stared directly into the pale, undead face of a man, a human man, who stared back at me, his mouth agape in a silent, eternal scream. My eyes darted away only to be met by another human face arranged in a similar way, but a part of this man’s face was slipping—no, merging into whatever was below it. I tried to look away again but found that the ocean was gone, replaced with a hellish orgy of bloated, half-dead bodies, all fused together at some point or another but still separate enough to writhe and squirm in ceaseless pain. The bodies looked almost layered, as if more horrifying and grotesque souls dwelled beyond what our eyes could see. Here and there an arm clutched frantically at the air, a leg kicked aimlessly. The bodies were everywhere, seemingly stretched to the distant horizon. And the faces, the faces of the people! They begged for help, pleaded for release, cursed our autonomy and mourned our fates. Suddenly homeless fish flopped around on the surface of the flesh desert, helpless to return to their world. I think my fellow humans realized that they were as helpless as those fish because they began screaming. I very nearly joined them but a glance at my captain steadied my shattered nerves.

The moment the screaming started, the horror began to move, tilting itself to roll our boat and our people into the ocean, into it’s thousands of grasping hands. I held onto the railing for dear life, managing to sustain one rotation of the boat, but not another. I fell into the writhing mass of undead flesh, felt hands grasping and teeth gnashing as I tumbled, finally landing in the sweet embrace of the cool brine.

The saltwater stung my eyes and I felt a huge motion in the water around me, something akin to a tempestuous wave, tossing me further along towards sickness. I managed to surface for a moment, long enough to snatch a single breath before I was overtaken by the sea.

I looked around below the waves and saw a fresh angle on the nightmare that had beset me this day. I believe it to have been the front of the creature, though I am merely guessing. It was enormous, but triangle-shaped with a broad, flat top and then two sides that tapered down to a rounded point. The four fins were smaller than I would have suspected, more reminiscent of the paw-like fins of a seal. They appeared to be more for the use of steering than for paddling. The front of the creature was also tapered to a rounded point, however, much to my everlasting horror, that tip cracked open and split like the mouth of a snake; the bottom jaw widening and spreading open as if it were a blanket being unfolded by two uncoordinated people. This made the maw of the beast so large that it obscured almost the rest of it’s unfathomably enormous body! I nearly fainted right then if it weren’t for Captain Dalton pulling me above the water. We felt the rush of movement in the ocean, the waves throwing us clean past the capsized boat. When I opened my eyes below water again, I saw the beast from behind, observing a long, cetacean tail that ended in a shape reminiscent of a Spanish fan.

The creature turned as if to look at us, but I saw no eyes. Not the kind eyes of a whale, not the inquisitive eyes of a dolphin, not even the haunting eyes of a hungry shark. It hovered there, alone in a universe of horrors. Captain Dalton and I risked surfacing, breathing as quietly as possible. When we were submerged once again by the tide, it was there, right in our faces; the beast had caused the tide! It was all I could do to not scream as a group of familiar American faces stared back at me, open-mouthed and agonized.

I will admit, my bravery faltered, my mind seized up and shut down at the overwhelming fear. I have no recollection of what happened after; my memory returns on the rocky shores of an English beach, a hundred miles away from where I last remembered being.

I’ve never been so happy to see foggy hills and jagged cliffs. Poor Captain Dalton, he was found a few weeks later in Italy. He had washed up around the same time as me, but he didn’t speak any Italian so it took awhile for people to realize what was wrong with him. I asked him what happened once he finally came home and he claimed not to remember, either. But something in his eyes suggested that he remembered a terrible, unspeakable truth. I’ll honor my Captain and let him take that truth to the grave.

As for me, I said nothing of the Hollow Whale to the police or anyone else, instead insisting it was a terrible and sudden storm that swallowed our boat and the American biologists. I doubt my own sanity and I fear the truth as I perceive it may land me in an asylum. I cannot remain by the water’s edge; I must move away from home to escape the memory, even though in my heart, I know I’ll never forget the deep, unknowable horror I have glimpsed out there on the open ocean, lurking and listening beyond our sight.

[toruland]

My forg plush is on the way! I think I had a name for him but I don't remember what it was, I'm stuck between flambé and scone

I might choose scone, it's cute

It also made me think about getting matching plushies for each other, getting our favorite animals as plushies or couple plushies and cuddling them all close at night. I've always wanting to get matching plushies but never got the opportunity for me and my friends

We could get these ones! Or these!

I uh also found these and immediately thought of you, I remember you talking about how cute they are and I'd be lying if I tried to argue lol

That llama plush is really winning me over tho, they look so so cute I might get them

Also, in your honest opinion, do you think movies for a first date is bad? Like I can see it, just sitting and not talking to each for a good hour or two but like it gives you something to talk about after. And if you're anything like me you'll probably be making jokes the whole time😅

Idk, I think for my first date it would have to depend on the season like pumpkin carving would be really cute but also a cute walk through a botanical garden and a cute dinner/lunch date after would be nice. Would going to a water park be a second date thing? Or would that be just like a dating thing like already in a relationship?

i like the name flambé

also

THE ARANARA PLUSHIES :((((

im literally gonna cry, they’re definitely my favorite creatures so far

and the llama plushies are really cute but im a big cat person, so i’d say im a little biased

about the dates, i think a movie date is perfectly fine, but it wouldn’t be my first choice since i physically cannot NOT talk during a movie, and i don’t wanna annoy someone while they’re trying to watch

i’d also plan dates to be something seasonal depending on what the time of year is, like ice skating during the winter (smth like they do in Central Park in New York would be so cute), or going to the state fair in the fall (it’s what i did growing up, it was always so fun :>)

during the summer, i’d say a sunflower field would be so cute, since they can grow everywhere around the U.S., and if it’s a bit far out, a nice road trip never hurt nobody <3 or maybe going to an aquarium/zoo? that would be super cool

for spring, plenty of park dates or nature walks for sure. gotta take in all the pretty plants coming back to life after winter some way, right? oooh, and on rainy days, a little café date would be so nice :( or just staying inside with all the curtains closed and the lights off/down low while reading or playing some wholesome video games together (looking at acnh or minecraft rn)

after writing all of this, i’ve realized that i was supposed to be planning a first date, but oh well, i’ve spent too much brain power thinking about this -_-

also, i personally wouldn’t go on a first/second date to a water park simply cause it feels too intimate? so i’d save that one for when im already dating them