#did y'all know I have a thing for mermaid aus....? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

elvisabutler · 2 years

Text

happy we'll be beyond the sea

summary: elvis is a selkie, just like his mama was. colonel parker has been in charge of keeping his skin safe since his mama died. the colonel uses it to have elvis do whatever he wants him to do. until one day the colonel isn't the one who has the skin. someone else is. fandom: elvis ( 2022 ) | elvis presley | austin butler pairing: elvis x reader, past elvis x priscilla rating: m for a brief smut at the end. word count: 10, 727. i don't want to talk about it. i don't wanna talk about it. warnings: death mentions. mentions of elvis's poor health. mentions of seal skin. mentions of turning into a seal. really a lot of mentions of skin, because regrettably that is the basis of a selkie myth a lot of the time. me playing fast and loose with selkie myth to suit my own needs. elvis being a himbo. threatened violence toward the reader. overall bad things involving the international. gambling. period typical-ish misogyny implied. fingering. implied/fade to black p in v sex. author's note: so, welcome to the first of four creature au's i'm writing in october in addition to kinktober. i started off with selkie elvis because the international being a trap/tomb/prison is bookended with the vampire fic i'm ending the month on. i am not expecting a lot of y'all to read this because selkie aus are not massive in fandom but i've been a part of enough that have had them that i wanted to make one with elvis. you do not have to picture austin!elvis as i left it vaguely mismash-y between him and actual elvis. but i wanted to write this so i did. next week is mermaid austin, third week is gonna be incubus elvis and then halloween is vampire elvis. enjoy! also the jumpsuit i mention is a real jumpsuit that yes has a green/blue beaded version and a red beaded version, look up the spanish flower jumpsuit if you're curious about it. the green one has a scarf. i am now a sucker for elvis giving his woman a scarf. and this is set late '73/early '74-ish. fudging dates just a little to make things work for me. also do not come at me for inaccuracies with the myth, i have enough celtic blood running through my veins that i can do whatever i so desire with the myth, thank you very much. also if you want mood music, a lot of the time i listened to the navajo version of beyond the sea it's very relaxing. no pressure but i discovered it while writing this and i love it a lot.

"I wanna give you something, 'Cilla. Something that's gonna prove to you I won't stray now that we're together." Elvis says more excited than Priscilla's ever seen him.

"Elvis- we've been together-" And you've still fooled around but she ignores it because short of Ann-Margret no one else really has held a candle to her. "What's this gift you want to give me that's so important?"

"My skin." He answers without missing a beat before his eyes widen and he realizes what he said. "My seal skin, satnin."

"Your seal skin." She repeats slowly the words sinking in. He's told her about how he isn't human on more than one occasion, warned her that there's a possibility any kids they have might be that way but to hear him talk about a skin she's never seen is strange. "It's an actual-"

"Skin. Looks like a pelt- you- darlin' you haven't seen me as a seal, mama always said I was majestic. Like ink from one of those squids or whatever." Elvis is practically bouncing on his feet, looking every bit of an excited boy and not a man over thirty. "You're my wife, it's supposed to be yours. My daddy used to keep mama's until she- died, and she kept mine while I was on the road back in the day. She thought I was gonna lose it. I-I gave it to the Colonel after she died, told him he had to keep it real safe for me, that if I ever got married- if he wanted me to be that All-American man, I needed that skin in one piece."

"To give to me." She finishes his thought, knowing that's exactly where it was going. She's- it's not that she isn't flattered, she is, but Elvis had told her those myths so long ago that she figures just maybe she might need a refresher. "Why?"

"Sailors and fisherman, they used to bind selkie women to them by stealing their skin when they took it off." He starts, rubbing at his lower lip. "Made them be their wives even if they hated it. But sometimes if they got lucky they could give their skin to the person they loved to protect it and protect them. I won't stray if you got it, baby. Wouldn't be able to."

"At all." That sounds like a dream come true, actually, an Elvis Presley completely faithful to her. "The Colonel's going to give it back to you?"

"He's- Of course he is, Cilla why wouldn't he?"

"Because he's a- he reminds me of those fisherman you talked about just now."

"Nah, he- he knows I've been waiting to give it to you. Or whoever I got married if it wasn't you. Wouldn't dream of not letting me have it back. Ain't like I won't work for him without it."

"If- Alright, baby, if you say so, I'll- I'd love to have your seal skin. Your selkie skin? Kind of want to know what it feels like now."

Hawai‘i is never really a breeding ground for his type. Something about the water being too hot and the climate being too hot for his kind to thrive. But Elvis- Elvis finds that it’s one of the few places he feels at home, one of the few places he feels safe to be himself, to swim in his own skin. Maybe that’s why the Colonel had chosen there to make it so he was fully trapped, fully under his control. His mama had always told him to watch over it like a hawk because that’s- not watching for someone stealing it had gotten her into trouble even if it had all worked out in the end with his daddy and her. They might not have been in love maybe- Elvis doesn't like wondering- but they loved each other through his daddy being in jail and up until his mama passed. He hadn't minded the Colonel keeping his skin safe, after all he was just another father figure and Elvis figured he could trust him. In hindsight maybe that was a mistake.

Honestly Elvis has lost track of the last time he's actually seen his skin. Maybe it was that ill fated Hawai‘i trip when he was gonna show Priscilla how he looked as a seal, maybe it was the glimpses that the Colonel lets him see every so often to remind him that he was under his thumb, under his control because I've got your skin, my boy. He is a grown ass man who has to ask to go places that aren't just Vegas or the tons of cities he goes to on tour, sure he can go home, but he can't go to Hawai‘i without a fight and he can't try and go overseas. He can't just have a bit of time to escape.

Elvis can tell something's going on, that something's going very wrong with his body. His mama always told him that genetically he was predisposed to quite a number of things but being a selkie was supposed to help that help keep some of them a bay for the most part. But that was the tricky part though he hasn't been in selkie form for God knows how many years at this point. His body can't keep up he can tell at the rate he's going he's not entirely sure he's going to make fifty, the fact that he's made it to as close to forty as he has is feat in and of itself.

The midnight show was a little more draining today than it has been in a while and Elvis swears getting up off the floor feels like moving through a patch of quicksand. Jerry's the first one of the Mafia to notice, rushing to his friend's assistance.

"You good, E?" He asks as Elvis leans against him breathing a little heavier than he should five minutes after the show has ended.

Elvis contemplates lying before shaking his head. Jerry knows him better than anyone other than maybe George or Billy and he knows the werewolf would call him on his lying bullshit.

"Tired." A sigh escapes his lips as he says that before he licks his lips. "Should've swam earlier. Might've helped."

Jerry frowns noting how Elvis is practically dead weight against him and shifts his position to gain more of a hold on him, making sure the other man doesn't fall over or look completely like he's out of it. "Tomorrow morning, man. We'll clear out the pool for all of us, make a morning of it, you know the Colonel won't be up till 1 after his gambling binge tonight."

The response he gets back is a slight snore as for once in a blue moon Elvis fell asleep without needing to take something to make it happen. Jerry thanked God he had his strength otherwise dragging his friend to the penthouse would have been a feat he couldn't have easily accomplished. The band, the Sweet Inspirations and the Imperials are all staring at him as they pack up and Cissy pipes up.

"He alright?" She sounds worried and Jerry doesn't even blame her.

He shrugs as he starts always away. "Yeah, just needs some rest, all of you should get some rest, we're gonna try and spend some time at the pool if some of you wanna join."

Jerry knows he should see if anyone is saying they'll want to join but he knows he needs to get Elvis to the room in one piece so he focuses on that instead. It takes longer than normal, takes longer than it would if he wasn't half dragging Elvis but eventually they arrive in one piece as Jerry lightly slaps Elvis' cheeks to get him to wake up and shower. He stays in the room until Elvis pops back up still looking exhausted and flops onto the bed, his snores filling the room as Jerry leaves.

The next morning Elvis awakes with a start, wondering where he is until he sees a note from Jerry and a bagel. It used to be a rare occurrence that he felt so exhausted after a show that his body gave out, normally Dr. Nic had to pull something from his bag of tricks to knock him out but apparently last night was one of those nights that seem to becoming his monthly norm. Elvis stretches out on the bed, joints cracking as he gets up, grabbing the bagel and his robe before going to the window to look out st the sky. It's 10AM and Elvis sees the hustle and bustle down below by the pool, remembering how in his exhaustion he mentioned going for a swim. He still think he should have done it last night but acknowledges that maybe he was in a worse state than he believed he was so Jerry probably made the right call. Right now, though? Right now he finds that all he wants to do is to hop into that pool and shed all the stress he feels in his shoulders and chest and just float.

A quick call to the concierge to call everyone else's room and one fully eaten bagel later and Elvis is leaving the building, making his way to the pool. It's a small thing, nothing like the wide oceans of Hawai‘i but it'll do in the pinch he's in right now. It's just him for right now after everyone else had been cleared out, which reminded him he had to give all those guests something nice, he didn't- they didn't ask to be pushed out of their well earned pool time by him. By the time Jerry arrives with that sounds like George, maybe Joe and what he think might be Lamar, Elvis is already well into his swimming, laying flat on his back in the pool. His body feels stronger in the water, even if the smell of chlorine has his nose scrunching up. The calm is broken by a cannonball by his younger cousin and Elvis finds himself choking on the water as his mouth fills with it at the sudden jolt.

"Goddammit Billy!" He shouts once he's actually above the water and swimming over to him, splashing a bit of water at the man. "Give a man a warning, half drowned me over there."

Billy laughs as Elvis exits the pool in a bit of a huff. "You can't drown and we all know it!"

Elvis rolls his eyes as he grabs the towel on his chair and is about to sit down when he sees a woman he doesn't recognize walking to the pool area. His eyes don't leave her form as she walks around like she owns the place. He knows she doesn't, even if the management changed from Kohn. He knows that between the boys and the hotel, no one should be coming down here unless him or one of the Mafia asked for them to come, but from the look on everyone else's faces they're as confused as he is. This won't do, no, he might have felt bad about kicking everyone out, but he's not gonna feel bad about potentially kicking this woman out. Who did she think she was?

"You know this is a private party!" He shouts, making sure he has her attention before bothering to walk over to her.

For her part, the woman has the decency to look over at him and shrug before answering with her own shout as she unwraps her robe. "I don't see a sign, Mr. Presley! So, I think I'm going to go swimming!"

Elvis's eyes narrow before he shakes his head, walking over to her in large strides, taking advantage of every bit of his height. It only takes him a minute to reach the end of the pool she's at and when he does, he just looks at her as he stands between her and the pool. "Not without my permission you're not."

There's something about her, something about her air or in the air between them that makes his hair stand on end. It makes him think about the first time he met Priscilla or the first time he met Ann Margret or the stories his mama told him about the first time she met his daddy. Almost like he was supposed to meet her for some reason, for a good reason, not the shudder that had erupted from him when he met the Colonel for the first time. He doesn't take his eyes off of you.

Your eyes drift up and down his form, taking in wet body, noting the chest hair, the muscles and how he seems large, but not necessarily in a way that's pure fat. Just that all parts of him appeared larger than life. Your mind drifts back to the item you have in your hotel room, hidden to where no one but you can find and you wonder. A hum escapes your lips. "You're not my daddy, Mr. Presley. I don't need yours or any other man's permission to swim in a pool when I'm a paying guest, same as you. And I gamble, something I know you don't usually. Too busy shaking those hips on stage and kissing your audience silly. Someone has to keep this place in business when you're not here. It's mostly me."

"A woman with a gambling problem." He says, tone flat as he moves to touch your shoulder. "Now I definitely know you don't need to be swimmin' unless you ask nicely." He pauses. "You seen my show?"

"I was in the audience for the one where you got a little drunk, Presley." Your hand moves on top of his hand and grabs it to push it away. "I'm not that easily charmed after that."

It's not that Elvis isn't used to women turning down an advance or a touch from him, but coming from you his heart twists a little. Strange since he's just met you but he's thinking it's just from you mentioning that night. He frowns, looking away and off to the side. "Not- ya should come to another. That was a-"

"Special circumstance, Presley?" Not mister, almost like you're trying to test the waters.

"Somethin' like that. Found out some interesting news that night was all. Passed out before the show even." Elvis stops talking for a moment, seeming to realize that he is telling you things he wouldn't dream of telling a stranger all to defend his actions to you. It almost reminds him of how he was around Dixie back in the day. "All I'm sayin' is ya can't be judgin' after one bad show. Come t' tonight's. 8PM or 12AM."

You raise an eyebrow. "That's my prime time to win. Why would I-"

He cuts you off and pushes a stray bit of your hair out of your face, his fingers lingering for just a moment too long. "I'll make it up to you. 'specially if you don't like it."

Your breath catches in your throat at the sensation of his fingers against your cheekbones when he brushes the hair out of your face. You wonder for the briefest of moments if it feels the same way when he trails his fingers down to someone's neck. The question is on your tongue before you shake your head, forcing yourself to keep staring at his eyes in an effort to not back down.

"Are you offering to pay for me to take off tonight?" You ask before you purse your lips. You hadn't meant to make that sound as bad as it did if the laugh from behind you is any indication. Your cheeks heat up and you clench your jaw.

Elvis's eyes flit to your jaw before looking behind you and glaring. The words that come out of his mouth sound more like a booming sort of bark that has you reflexively flinching. "Billy! Keep laughing."

The man named Billy stops and Elvis turns back to you. "I am. Even the hardest working people deserve a night off. You deserve one, and I wanna show you a good time."

"At your show." You finish exhaling slowly as you do. "And if I say no?"

The man in front of you- if you want to call him that- frowns for just a moment before shrugging. "Then you don't swim."

"You're forcing me. Who do you think you are? Because all I see is a has-been who's wasting away in a hotel when last I remember hearing before your drunken ramblings about aliens, you wanted to go to Japan and Germany and everywhere. But I know you're going the second you leave here because you do it every year."

Elvis moves closer to you and looks you up and down. "I'm Elvis Presley, the man you can track like a bloodhound. 'm not forcing you to do anything, just come to the show, let me show you how good it is and you can do whatever ya want."

You huff and push your way past Elvis, tossing your robe onto an open chair and making your way to the deep end of the pool, sliding into it and under the water before you break the surface after you see Elvis standing over where you slid in. "Fine. Now can I swim? Or are you gonna pull me out?"

If his look turns a little heated, seeing you soaking wet in water while he's standing over you, he chooses to believe God would forgive him and that you wouldn't notice. "Have at it. Watch out for the idiots. Billy's fond of playing chicken. Fuckin' sucks at it, though."

Jerry by this point has left the pool himself and is sunning himself in the chair next to where Elvis plops down as you look at the two of them, your lip curling in what might be disgust. That's a new one for him. "She doesn't like you."

Elvis grabs the pair of sunglasses on the table that he knows Jerry brought down for him and spares a glance back at you, marveling at how the water slides down your back. His tongue darts out of his mouth like he wants to lick it off of you. He shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose, you had him acting like a teenage boy with those thoughts and some desire to not immediately act on them. "Yet, Schilling. Yet."

He snorts. "Yet. In your dreams, EP."

You don't want to go, you have been dreading going all day since you climbed out of the pool after your swim. Elvis had tried to talk to you a few times in the pool, only for you to rebuff him with splashes of water and eyerolls. His entourage left the pool area first and you think that means he's going to follow them before you see a shadow blocking the sun from you. You sigh. "Elvis get out of my sunlight."

"What color are you wearing?" He asks not even making a single attempt to move.

"I'm not matching you." A pause, because honestly, you might not be matching him but what's the harm in lying to him about the color any way. "Turquoise."

His lips curl into a smile and despite your frustration at the man you can't help the way you stop breathing for a moment at seeing that look directed toward you. Lord have mercy who gave him the right to look like that and be as much of a pain as he had been that morning. "Turquoise. You'll look a goddamn vision in it. Won't- I'll see you tonight."

"Maybe!" You call out to his retreating form.

As it turns out you hadn't completely lied to Elvis, you were wearing something that had turquoise beads on it it to offset the complete void of black that it was. You thought it was cute and it had brought you a bit of luck at the tables from time to time so you didn't see the harm in it until you found yourself being met at your table by one of the men Elvis surrounded himself with- Jerry, you think his name was- and you saw how his eyebrows raised at your dress and your platform shoes.

"Did- Did EP buy you that?" He asks before shutting his mouth and wincing when he realized what he said.

"No?" You answer, confusion coloring your tone as you narrow your eyes. "Why?"

Jerry can't help the laugh that escapes him as he shakes your head. "You'll- I- I can't tell you, you'll see when the show starts. Get comfortable. E wants you to enjoy tonight, sent me out here to make sure you do."

"I don't need a babysitter." Which was true, but at the same time, the company would prevent other people- people who'd likely want a word with you over their losses from bothering you. "But if you're going to be here, I'll tolerate it. Is my tab on him too?"

"It is." He murmurs as the house lights start to dim.

The second you see Elvis you realize what Jerry had meant. You were matching, your lie had meant that he picked a jumpsuit with turquoise detailing and was black. You want to be horrified but it's strangely flattering knowing that Elvis wanted to have you match somehow, not that he had known you were going to essentially be wearing a dress version of his jumpsuit. You spare a glance at Jerry who is laughing at your gasp. He waits until Elvis is saying something to the audience and staring right at the two of you to whisper something to you.

"Don't know what it is about you, but I haven't seen him this excited for a while. Not telling you to give him a chance or make it easy for him, but hear him out. He's- he's been through some stuff and it's getting to him."

Once again your mind drifts to what Parker had been forced to give you when he lost and the myths you've heard offhandedly from plenty of drunks. You wonder if that has something to do with it. that had to be it, you weren't the kind he went for anyway. Even if you think you'd go for him just for the hell of it. You sigh.

"This is a one time thing, Mr. Schilling. I can't be coming here night after night. I'm just as busy as him."

Jerry hums as he sees the house lights start to light back up and Elvis launches into what you swear is an actually entertaining routine about wanting to see the audience. You're almost not paying attention to who he's pointing out until he mentions your name and you wince at the bright light on your face.

"Sorry 'bout that, darlin'. Forgot to give you warning. But look at her, isn't she a beauty, didn't realize we were gonna be matching. Thought you were wearing turquoise, baby!" He jokes as the audience laughs with him.

Your embarrassment with the situation has your shoulders tensing up and you want to not answer, you want to run but you're an adult and you know very well that there's enough people in here who you play with that if they see you blink in this situation they'll never take you seriously again. So you don't blink.

"So did I! Left it in Memphis?" You joke, smiling your most charming smile as you do a twirl so everyone can really see you do look like you're his matching girl.

"Hawai‘i!" He answers back before motioning for you to come up the stage. "Let her by, everyone! Gotta give her something to cover up that gorgeous neck."

You look confused for a moment before you make your way up to the stage. This entire thing was getting way too weird for your tastes, you had just met Elvis and here he was trying to make the audience be charmed by you like he planned on you being by his side for a while. What did he think that you were gonna join his little Memphis Mafia as the resident gambling woman? A few members of the audience were still a little too close and you found yourself pushing at least two of the women away when they tried to grab at your dress like they were going to steal it right off your body.

Elvis is looking at you from the stage and when he sees the women try and pull off your dress he almost hops off of it to defend you and protect you. Strange, but at this point he's beginning to realize everything about you and his reactions to you is a little strange.

When you finally reach the stage, he takes off his scarf, it's sweaty and he knows it is but somehow knowing you'll smell like him, knowing people will see his scarf and know that you're off limits. How off limits exactly he doesn't know. All he knows is he wants to see you with something of him wrapped up around your neck. His eyes flit to your neck as soon as you take it from him, your fingers brushing his, causing his body to flush more than it already was from the exertion of the show. If the brush of his fingers illicit the same reaction in you it doesn't show beyond a brief inhale. You noticed how his eyes flit to your neck though and despite the sweatiness you end up tying the scarf almost immediately around your neck perhaps a little tighter than you should, but you didn't trust the audience members to not try and pull it off you.

His tongue darts out to wet his lip when he notices how tight you tied it before he chuckles. "Y/N, everyone! Ain't she a good sport. Go on back to your seat, doll!"

You didn't even wait for his permission, your backside already turned to him, your dress swaying with your hips as you slid in between everyone. No one cares what you have to say but you can't resist the response. "Not your doll, E!" Not Elvis, not Presley, not even EP, just E.

If the rest of his show seemed like he had the energy of two men- well, you chose not to notice it. You do have to give Elvis credit, though, he wasn't wrong about the night you had seen before not being his best work. This was something else, he commanded a room the way you commanded a table. It has you clenching your thighs together and has your lips twisting into a frown when you realize it. Jerry doesn't say anything about how you keep shifting in your seat except for the occasional sniffle and small huffs that leave his lips. By the time the show is done, you're already standing up, ready to leave when Jerry grabs your arm.

"You should come backstage." He says, motioning to the curtain. "I know he's going to want to see you after that."

Your hand moves on top of his and you pull it off as you shake your head. "If Elvis wants to see me, he can come find me. I'm sure the hotel staff would let him know my room number. Now if you excuse me, Mr. Schilling, I still a few more hours to enjoy my night. Do me a favor and tell him that he might be right, I shouldn't have judged him off that show."

Jerry lets you walk away even though he knows Elvis is going to hate it because this is something else. The whole thing is strange, you smelt faintly like Elvis before he put the scarf on you and yet- he was going to get to the bottom of this eventually but in the meantime maybe it wouldn't hurt to make Elvis work for you.

Two weeks later and you're beginning to think Elvis has forgotten about you. Sure, he gave you the scarf and seemed bound and determined to get you to like him but he hadn't found you yet. His manager had on more than one occasion, trying to win back the skin, but the joy was that Colonel Parker absolutely did not know when to quit when it came to wins. He had won it several times over only to lose it again that same night. It'd be tragic if you didn't find it hilarious to watch.

It's about 10AM when you hear a knock on your door. Strange, but not entirely unheard of, it might have been room service for all you knew. What greeted you had you stopping in your tracks.

Elvis looks good- better than he had two weeks ago and you wonder if it's makeup or something like a diet pill or some drug. No one looks that good after looking as bad as you've heard he's been lately. Then again, most of your knowledge had been from tabloids so maybe he wasn't that bad off. Your eyes drift down his form, taking in the suit with no undershirt, the belt with a buckle bigger than your whole hand and his boots. When your eyes drift back to his face he tries to blow his bangs out of his face before he grins. "You are a hard woman to find. You pay off the front desk staff? Because goddamn they wouldn't tell me a thing."

Your mouth opens and closes in quick succession before you finally squeak out an answer. "Nope. You're- You've been looking for me?"

"Every morning." He answers honestly, looking at your unmade bed and back at you. "Am I interrupting something?"

You turn to figure out what he was looking at before your eyes widen and you bite back a laugh. "Are you asking if I have company?"

He has the decency to look a little guilty before he nods. "I am. From that giggle though, I'm thinking you don't."

You nod back and fully start to laugh. "Unlike some people, I'm not known for sleeping with strangers."

Elvis purses his lips and shakes his head. "Lord help me, I don't know why- you are-" He takes a moment to breathe and he swears he smells the sea when he feels the breeze from your open window waft air out to the hallway. Impossible because you're both in Vegas but he knows that smell. It smells like- it smells like his skin used to. "What about talking to 'em. 'specially since you've got my scarf."

Your eyes flit to your nightstand where the scarf is and you pray to every deity he hasn't seen it. You shouldn't tell him yes, you should just let him have his scarf back and be done with it but you're thinking that's still not going to solve the problem so you shrug.

"By the pool, E?" A neutral spot, and one you figure you both feel comfortable being by.

"Already got a party going 'till one down there. It's a date." He turns to leave before he looks back at you. "I don't know if that's a candle or what but- your room smells like the sea. I like it."

Your eyes widen momentarily before you stutter out a thank you and shut your door before running to the closet. The skin is still there, still looks healthy- honestly looks healthier than it was when you first got it and you jump back like you've been burned. You were no expert on any of this but this- this was weird. Still, you had to grab your swimsuit and head downstairs. After all, he wanted to pretend this was a date and you hated being late for those.

As it turns out, Elvis wasn't bad. You learn this after the first morning in between laps around the pool and interruptions from various people. You learn the real basics of him that day. But as the weeks go on and turn into months you learn about his charitable works, about how his gaudy house was actually bought for his mother and on one memorable day how he hates every single one of his films including your favorite.

"Viva Las Vegas! Oh come off it-" He exclaimed, shaking his head. "That- Love Ann Margret."

"Yeah, everyone knows you did. But I really liked it. Especially that scene when she let you fall into the pool." You grin, grabbing some water with your hand and splashing it at Elvis's face.

"Oh, you just like me all wet, I see how it is, darlin', that's really why you chose the pool wasn't it." He asks, leaning over like he's about to kiss you.

You inhale sharply. "That's for me to know and you to never find out."

His hand moves to untie the scarf you wear out of habit at this point, his scarf you wear out of habit at this point and lets his fingers trace your neck when he does. "Not even if I ask real nicely, mama?"

It occurs to you that if you didn't have his skin, if you didn't know that you had his skin this would be easier. You'd feel less like you're taking advantage of him, but you feel that way, you know the basic myth, you know this has to be tied to it somehow. Still, his hand is touching your neck and you know your pupils have to be dilating by now and- your chest feels like it's in a vice grip before you manage to guip and speak. "Not even then."

"Can I kiss you?" He asks as his hand moves up to your cheek and you swear you stop breathing before you find yourself nodding against your better judgment.

Elvis's lips are soft and that surprises you for reasons you don't quite understand. They dominate the kiss and you don't know if it's because Elvis is the more dominant one- barely- out of the two of you or if it's because they're just larger than yours. You mean for it to stay chaste, you do, but then you can feel his tongue pressing against your lips and you open your mouth to let him in, your tongue dancing with his own. On instinct, you nip at it, something you've always done with partners and earn a groan from him. You're both on the edge of the pool and everyone else is there but without even missing a beat, Elvis moves to climb on top of you, half shielding you from everyone's eyes but also allowing himself the pleasure of pressing against you.

"Elvis-" You breathe out when he pulls away trying to steady his breathing. "We're- by the pool, everyone's here. I'm pretty sure they're staring."

He shakes his head. "They've seen worse. I've seen them do worse, just- let me kiss you, darlin', please. It feels- you feel like home. Feel like I did back when I-"

He trails off and you find that it worries you because you feel him tense above you. "Back when you what?"

Back when he had his skin? He's- his manager has had his skin, he had been married not that long ago, what does he even mean by that. You needed to- he needed to have the skin back if it was causing him to feel like this with you for no reason.

"I can't- I won't tell you right now. After the show tonight, darlin'. I'll tell you after the show if you wanna know still." He shakes his head and starts to pull away. "I. It's getting close to one. Darlin' do you have a dress like that one you wore to my first show. That black one."

"I have it with red stones? Won it off a businessman. Why?" You're fully confused now, wanting to ask what's going on and why Elvis is seeming skittish now when he had just been wanting to kiss you. Had he realized what was going on? Or what might be going on?

His lips curl into a smile. "It was like you were tailor made for me. It's the same for me. I was planning on wearing the one with my red stones. Come to the show, I'll give you my scarf before it. I just need my- I need you to match me."

"Kiss me some more and I will." You give him a small smile when you speak, grabbing at his cheek and watching him nuzzle into it not unlike the seal you know he is inside.

"Okay." He whispers leaning back down and closing the distance between you.

The Colonel sees you backstage before Elvis does and gives you a once over before grabbing your arm and attempting to move you to where no one can see the two of you before Jerry actually catches him.

"Let her go." Those three words have the Colonel dropping your arm like you scalded him before he glares at Jerry and leaves, leaving you to rub at your arm. You open your mouth to explain before Jerry waves you off.

"I know how bad his gambling gets. None of my business how much you took him for as long as- maybe you can find a way for it to get back into EP's pocket."

It really should be his business is what you want to tell him before Elvis spots you, practically running over and picking you up in a hug before twirling both of you until he sets you back down. "You came and you match me, darlin'. Don't know if I like you more in the black and blue or this one." His hands move to his neck, pulling off his scarf and tying it around your neck loosely. His breathing quickens just a hair seeing his scarf around your neck before he shakes his head. "You look perfect."

It's hard to make you feel bashful but in that moment you can't help the way you look down and kick at the floor like a schoolgirl. "Could say the same for you."

"Aw- no need to flatter me, you've already got me-" He stops himself and leans a little closer to murmur in your ear. "I'll meet you in your room after the show. Shower, maybe get a little dirty with you? Continue what we were doing at the pool?"

Your only answer is a hum and a smirk and Elvis knows that's a yes. Knows by now that you doing that is how you say yes when you don't want to admit it. He takes a deep breath and realizes he smells the scent of sea water once again. It's in your clothes this time, it's in the dress. He wants to ask you what the deal is- why your dress smells like sea water and like home, but Jerry's pulling him away and you're waving at him with a blown kiss. It's silly but he makes a move to catch it and you laugh.

The show is phenomenal as always and while you notice Elvis is distracted by something- someone maybe, he still puts on the show you've begun to expect. By now you've seen or heard Elvis talk about the end of his show that you know how it goes so you let yourself slide out the back of the showroom and make your way to your room, humming "Can't Help Fallin' In Love" to yourself as you do. You know you need to tell him, know that he deserves to know that you're the new owner of his skin, that you've been trying to figure out how to give it to him, but his promise of something more tonight has you thinking it can wait until tomorrow morning before your daily poolside chat. It feels like a lifetime before Elvis arrives at your room and in that time you've undressed, leaving yourself with nothing but your underwear and dark blue robe with your initials printed on the pockets and on the lapels. Elvis knocks once, twice, three times before you answer the door, pulling him in before kissing him softly.

"Shower." You say simply.

As soon as the door shuts Elvis is overcome with the overpowering scent of seawater that he keeps smelling near you and he stops as he heads to the bathroom to make sure he doesn't see any candles before shaking his head. He's got to be losing it. This- it's almost like how the Colonel's room used to smell with his skin hidden in it. But that was impossible, you couldn't have his skin. His shower doesn't take long, his anxiousness and desire to talk to you forcing him to rush through it. When he comes out of the bathroom he finds you lounging on your bed, looking a bit tired. He considers the merits of not telling you, debates if you're coherent enough to hear what he has to say before he realizes that no- he needs to tell you. If he wants to move forward with you- you need to know.

He slides next to you in the bed and leans on his arm to face you. "I'm a selkie." He pauses, realizing that he offered no preamble to go with that. "It's-"

You tense next to him the second you hear the words come out of his mouth and turn your body to face his, cutting him off with a finger to his lips. "I know what it is. Human who can turn into a seal with a skin. Or vice versa, I don't know which is the default."

"How do you- how do you know what a selkie is?" His voice wobbles a little, like he's terrified to hear your answer.

A breath leaves your body in a rush before you bite your lip as if you're thinking, plotting really and Elvis face is morphing into one of genuine panic and worry. "Baby, why do you know what a selkie is? How?"

"I've played with a lot of men who know the legends." You answer in a rush, biting your lip once more. "I- They've told me about them. Your manager told me about it too. Elvis- what does it matter- I know I don't mind it's fine-"

He cuts you off, his eyes flashing and the blue you swear turning into a stormy sea. "Parker- that toad- where is it? You don't feel like home because you're supposed to be with me, you don't smell like the sea because you might be a great seal wife. You- Where is it?"

"I don't-"

"Don't lie to me!" Elvis shouts practically jumping off the bed before starting to go through your drawers, tossing your clothes as he does. "Where is my goddamn skin, woman?! I will- Just tell me where my skin is, darlin' I don't want to hurt you but I need- I haven't had my skin for a decade and you've had it for a month after winning it off the man who was supposed to protect it. Give me back my skin!"

You're sure that your neighbors think you're a murderer with how loud Elvis is shouting about his skin but you don't care, more preoccupied with making sure Elvis doesn't hurt you or wreck your room too much in his search. You get it- you get how this must be horrifying and frustrating but he's actively scaring you with how he looks, how you feel he's every bit of a deadly seal ready to kill you for keeping him away from what's rightfully his.

"Closet." You whisper before watching him storm to it. You don't dare get up from the bed and so you only hear his victorious shout and hear the somewhat anguished sobs coming from inside your closet for a few minutes until you see him come out holding the almost pure black pelt with only a few white spots. He doesn't bother to look at you as he heads to the door, still looking as angry as he did when he first walked into the closet.

"Keep the scarves. It's gonna be as close as you ever get to touching my skin ever again." He spits out before opening your door and slamming it hard enough the picture frames on the wall rattle.

You lock the door and sink to the floor and cry.

A month goes by and Elvis had left the building, an emergency trip back home everyone had said until the pictures of him in Hawai‘i prove that to be false. You've been on a losing streak and you blame it on Elvis. On his scarves, on his kisses on the knowledge that he had charmed you only to leave you because you didn't tell him that you had his skin. It's on one of your losing streak nights that you hear whispers about Elvis having a show tonight and you can't help the laugh that leaves you at hearing that. You can't help the way it makes your heart twist inside your chest and makes you want to crawl into a hole.

You excuse yourself from that table, realizing you've lost enough tonight and realizing that you'd like a drink. You're not paying attention to where you're going and you find yourself bumping into a body you've become relatively accustomed to.

"Y/N." He breathes out once he steadies you and takes a good look at you. His eyes drift over your form, noting how your hair is unkempt and you look almost like- well like he did when you first met him. Maybe- no.

"Elvis." You murmur, leaning against him, taking in his scent, that sea scent that had left your room two weeks ago and lead to crying jag that left you in bed for two days. As much as it felt like home to Elvis- it called to you in what was perhaps a similar way. "You look healthy. Good. The- Your skin helped you. That's good."

His eyes narrow, realizing you're smelling him. If he was honest with himself, and he rarely is, he hasn't stopped thinking about you while he was in Hawai‘i. Even without his skin you felt like the sort of woman he could be with and who could keep up with him. It's not like he hasn't loved Priscilla and Ann Margret and anyone else he's been with but you were different. You caught him off guard and you felt like the person he was supposed to entrust with his skin all along. Seeing you like this? Seeing you worse for wear because he left the way he did has his heart twisting in his chest and has a growl against himself brewing. He had hurt you, twisted you into something he didn't like seeing.

"Being around you before-" he left, before he realized that you had what he had dreamed about getting back for over a decade and you took such good care of it. "You helped a little."

Your head moves from his chest as you wave him off. "That was all you. I heard the stories, you'd sleep all day stay awake all night. You were the one at the pool that first day."

He gulps and his hand moves to your back, holding you in a hug, his hand rubbing up and down. He can't help the way his nose buries itself into your hair. You still smell like the sea to him. "Only kept going because that's where you wanted to meet."

A laugh bubbles up from deep inside you and you pull away as you laugh like the idea is the funniest thing known to man. "You can't- You can't say stuff like that, Elvis. I'm- I'm going to go back to my room. You have fun down here. With- it's- you're done with your shows tonight aren't you? Just have fun here then. Win some money off of Parker. Oh, that'd be funny."

Elvis pauses and grabs your arm as you start to walk away. "I'm walking you to there."

You look at him like you want to argue before you see that there isn't room to argue. He's already waving off Jerry and Lamar and Billy so it's just the two of you. The idea of being alone with Elvis is not necessarily something you want because you don't trust your tongue and brain to listen to you about how you don't want to tell him how much you missed him. You feel pathetic about how much you missed him because he doesn't look like he missed you at all. Sure, you two had only really known each other for a month but you knew things about Elvis no one else did and you had told him a few things about yourself that you wouldn't tell someone on your deathbed. Being around him felt right even now, felt comforting even now. Elvis moves his hand from your arm, a good thing because you swear you felt his rings starting to dig into the flesh and moves it to your waist, pulling you against him as he walks both of you steadily to your room. The desire to lean against him is too strong just from the feel of his rings against your waist so you let yourself indulge in it, leaning against him like he's the only thing keeping you from falling. You hear a sharp intake of breath from him before he grips your waist tighter, almost as if he never wants to let you go. What a pipe dream.

Your room door comes into view too quickly for your liking and you almost want to tell him that it's not your room any more but you know he's not an idiot. Some people may think he is, but you know the truth, you know the brain underneath that gorgeous hair. You open your mouth to speak first before Elvis turns to face you, his hands moving to push back your hair on both sides.

"Ya look like shit, doll." A simple comment but one that has you shaking your head and biting your lip before looking down. He's not admonishing you but it certainly feels that way.

"No one to impress here for the past month." You answer, knowing fully well he can connect the dots. "And when I lose I don't- treat myself kindly, I told you that the day Billy convinced Lamar to toss you in the pool while he tossed me in."

His lips quirk into a smile at the memory before he shakes his head, frowning. "You- I did a lot of thinking while I was gone."

A hum as you make a move to unlock the door so you're not having what feels like might be a very important conversation in the hallway. It opens easier than you think and you motion for Elvis to go in as you respond with an attempt at a joke. "Don't do that, you might hurt yourself."

The second you're both inside the room, Elvis shuts the door with his foot and leans against it, putting just a little bit of distance between both of you. "Wouldn't be the first time." He takes a few deep breaths, noting that your room doesn't smell like the sea breeze, but it still feels like home- still feels like he's supposed to be there. "But I-I- I came to the realization about somethin'."

Your eyebrow quirks up and you tilt your head questioning what he means by that without saying a word. He takes that as permission to continue.

"I've had that skin my whole life. I've seen- my mama shouldn't have been married to my daddy. Maybe they loved each other but it- it was complicated. I didn't think about it beyond protecting her and all but she always told me to make sure whoever had my skin knew to protect it. Told me to make sure that I was- that I trusted the person I was going to let have that power over me. Made the mistake of giving it to the Colonel, but then you- you won it from him. Jerry told me that- told me how you won it and how you kept winning it back when he tried to get it back and- baby, I don't think you know how much that means to me. How much-" He pauses, taking a breath or several to collect himself. "Priscilla couldn't get it from him, everyone couldn't get it from him and we tried, oh God did we try and I thought this is it, I'm gonna die because I'll be seperated from my skin for so long. I'll waste away because that toad won't let me go. I resigned myself to it."

Your throat tightens as you try and swallow your saliva, and you feel your nose starting to run and your eyes start to burn but you have to say something. "But then I- I got the skin."

He nods, his own eyes looking glassy but not because of any drug. "You got my skin. You got it and you hid it because you- I'd have thought you stole it if you gave it to me right after. But you kept it safe and mama, you smelt- You smelt like you rolled in me, Jerry thought I had fucked you the moment you watched that first show you smelt so much like me. I thought Priscilla was home and she was when we were together, I'll admit that right now, I still love the woman and she gave me my little pup of a baby seal. But you- I don't think it was just the fact that you had my skin that made you feel that way. I- Getting to know you without knowing that you were holding something that could tie me to you- somethin' that I've had used against me for so many years- I- I think I'm in love with you. I think you were always supposed to be the one to get it. Supposed t' protect it with your own life."

"No-" You start before he's waving you off and moving up off the door.

"Don't ya be telling me whatever bullshit I know you're about how I'm an idiot, because I know you think I'm one. I'm the selkie here, I'm the one thinking about givin' you back my skin so that when I'm here, when I'm with you I smell a sea breeze and when I touch you- you feel like the warm waters of Hawai‘i against my skin and I know that somehow you'll make sure I live a long and healthy life wherever it is." Elvis closes the distance between the two of you and by this point you're crying, you're crying because none of this makes sense. Elvis Presley doesn't forgive like this- you've heard the horror stories, you've seen how he barely interacts with his manager any more after they used to be thick as thieves. You had to listen to the Colonel talk about how it was supposed to be the Showman and the Snowman but now Elvis doesn't want to be so tied to him after his betrayal.

"I'm- You- Elvis don't play." You choke out, rubbing at your eyes like that's going to hide the fact that the more he speaks the more you feel tears just pouring out of you. "It stopped smelling like the sea two weeks ago and I-"

He pulls you into his arms and you find yourself just taking deep breaths trying to calm yourself. You focus on the feel of his rings gliding against your skin as he rubs your back and shushes you murmuring what feels like sweet nothings in your ear. "I'm here, I'm not- I won't swim away, darlin'. I came back. I'm back. I'm here. Gonna finish up my residency, this last one here and I'm gonna- I'm gonna take you wherever you want. You're gonna protect me and I'm gonna protect you. Gonna spoil you, gonna swim with you."

"Are you giving it back to me?" It's the first thing that comes to your mind when he's murmuring all those things and making you feel like you want to cry even more even as it's strangely comforting to hear. "Are you giving me back your-"

"It's in my room. I'm gonna move you up there, you're gonna tell me the best spot in there for it to be and it'll just be me and you who knows it's there." A pause. "Yeah, baby, I'm givin' you back my skin. I'm- I'm not asking you to marry me or nothin' but you'd make a good seal wife."

That last sentence, that moment of hearing Elvis call you a good seal wife, as dumb as it sounds to anyone else listening has you pulling away just enough that you can kiss at Elvis's neck and up his jaw before you reach his lips. It's a gentle kiss as if you feel like if you do more he really will swim away never to return. You realize you shouldn't have worried when Elvis deepens the kiss, his hand moving to cup the back of your head as he nips at your lips before pulling away, breathing heavier than he was before, his eyes starting to be taken over by his pupil.

"Can I show you what I wanted t' do with you that night?" He asks, searching your face for any hint of a no. "How I wanted to lay you on your bed, kiss every inch of you and see you moan and bounce on my cock."

You shiver and it's not because of any cold breeze before nodding and whispering your answer with a nuzzle against his chest. "Please. I missed you."

That's all the permission he needed as he picks you up like you're nothing and drops you on the bed, and climbs on top of you, his hands moving to the bottom of your dress, pulling it up slowly over your body and over your head, exposing your silk underwear to him and earning a groan of appreciation.

"Didn't have anyone to dress up for but you're wearing something as soft as me." He says in between kisses down your neck as his fingers move to feel your cunt, noting how just with a few kisses and his presence you're practically soaked. "You missed me that bad. Didn't ever touch you and you're-"

You mewl at his touch, feeling a slight burn at both of his fingers before you move your head to the side and shake it as if you don't want to admit what you're about to say. "I touched myself that afternoon, after the pool. I wanted you so bad that night. Was gonna tell you about the skin the next morning. Thought I was going to lose you for good, E."

His fingers still in you at those last words and you briefly think you've made a mistake before you feel the press of his lips and the press of his tongue against your lips as a reassurance that you didn't. He bites your tongue softly, remembering like he has for the past week how you did it to him and you let out a soft moan as he curls his fingers just so.

"Didn't lose me for good, baby. I'm right here. Gonna be with you for for good if you'll have me." He murmurs against your lips before kissing you again, his fingers sliding in and out of your core.

"Promise?" You ask as you buck up, feeling Elvis's thumb against your clit, pressing hard against it before rubbing a soft circle.

"Promise." He answers, his head moving down to your neck, until he stops at your chest, peppering kisses across it and moving a cup down just enough to expose your nipple. "You can make noise, mama. Wanna hear you, want everyone to know you're taken, want everyone to know you've claimed me. Trapped the selkie on dry land because he's happy for once."

If there was a response you had, it's overtaken by the groan you let out at the feel of Elvis's tongue against your nipple. The flick of it, the warmth of it drowning out anything other than you and him and your bodies. You hear the sound of his fingers sliding in and out of you and your body heats up more if it's even possible. You didn't know you could be that wet for anyone and yet here you were feeling as if you're going to leave a puddle on the sheets. He pulls away just enough to blow a puff of air against your nipple as his thumb swipes just so and you find yourself shouting, your vision whiting out for just a moment as you feel his hand grip your hip to steady you. It's- You never come that quickly, a frustration for most of your partners and yourself but you think- no you're almost positive that Elvis has helped you reach an orgasm in no time flat. You'd be embarrassed if the thought didn't feel so hot.

He speaks first. "You came."

You nod slowly, your eyes struggling to focus on Elvis before you trust your tongue enough to form words. "I-You're very good." A pause. "I can go again. I want- that was too short. I want to feel more of you."

Elvis pulls his fingers out of your cunt, his eyes watching how it clenches around nothing as he pulls them out. It is a sight he wants to commit to memory and a sight he wants to spend the rest of his days seeing day in and day out. He doesn't say anything, instead choosing to stick his fingers in his mouth, his tongue sliding across them before he pulls them out and moves to touch your lips with them. "We've got all night, darlin'. Now be a good girl and taste yourself on my fingers, will you?"

Your tongue is out before he even finishes the command.

Later on that night, when you're curled against Elvis, your hand playing with his chest hair and his hand is petting your hair as you both half pay attention to whatever movie is on the television screen you find that being with him feels comfortable, like you've shed your walls or the hardened skin you normally present to everyone. You wonder if that's just because he's that charming or if perhaps there is something supernatural at play.

"You're thinking too much right now. Thought I fucked that out of you tonight." He murmurs against your hair, placing a soft kiss on the top of your head.

"Sorry, it only works for an hour, then I'm right back at it." You joke softly. "What were you going to tell me that night? About how I felt?"

Elvis stiffens just a tad before he hums and you can hear his head hit the headboard softly. You almost start to tell him he doesn't need to answer before you hear his sigh. "You felt like home. Felt like Tupelo and Graceland and the sea around Hawai‘i all rolled into this package of a woman who accidentally matches my jumpsuits without me buying the damn dress for her. You felt perfect for me."

There's a burning in your eyes you don't want to acknowledge but you can't help the way you sniffle at the comments before you speak. "And now?"

"Didn't change." He starts simply before his hand moves to rub your back and pull you closer to him. "You are perfect for me. We're gonna protect each other. Gonna do what we want when we want it and if they don't like it we'll go somewhere else."

Your lips upturn into a smile at that and you snuggle into Elvis' chest just a bit more. "I'm holding you to that tomorrow morning."

He chuckles and it fills your whole body with a warmth you only associate with a hot cup of tea. "You can hold me to that for the rest of my life, darlin."

"We'll see."

#elvis presley #elvis presley x reader #elvis presley fanfic #elvis presely smut #elvis presley fluff #kind of?#elvis 2022 #austin butler #austin butler elvis x reader #austin butler elvis #this is so very self indulgent.#as evidenced by the length.#ally's october creature au's.#yeah i did make jerry a werewolf in this because i wanted to.#don't judge me #i said this was self indulgent.#selkie!elvis

158 notes · View notes

yandere-dark-cupid · 2 years

Text

What would yandere god Monty do if his goddess darling not only managed to escape him but ran off with their human lover; and how would he react?

Side note: The darling is the goddess of the stars and dreams ✨

Warning ⚠️: Unhealthy mindsets, physical abuse, and death.

Yandere Monty: God of war, rivers, and storms

🌌 Oh, he's not going to be happy. He's livid.

☁ Freddy is going to have to tell him to calm down because the passages ( rivers ) to the netherworld are now too unstable to use.

🌌 But even his frienemy ( and in a way, Low key his boss's boss ) won't be able to calm him down.

☁ Not only did you run away from him, but you ran off with a human.... WHAT!!!

🌌 The only thing that'll be able to calm Monty down is knowing who is the mortal bastard that captured your heart and having your ass back in the netherworld where you belong.

🌌 Monty is going to send an incredibly devastating storm to their home (and your hideout), have them killed in said storm, and capture you again.

☁ And within the eye of the storm, he's going to capture you and punish you.

🌌 Maybe breaking your pretty little wings will teach you.

💤 That's not all. Monty needs to find a way to not only makes it difficult preferably impossible for you to leave the netherworld, and not only that but get you to love him like you're supposed to.

🌌 An acquaintance; death, fire, etc Titian! darling reminds him that he can cash in his favor from Love deity! Darling. I mean he didn't have to let their lover live.

💤 So all he has to do is shove a very potent love potion down your throat and keep feeding it to you every other week. Ok, problem 1 is solved.

💤 What about your staying situation?

🌌 That's when a friend of his stepped in. His good friend Foxy has let him in on a little secret. If someone consumes from a particular realm for a considerable amount of time is bonded to that realm, but it has to be a specific thing. That's how he got his darling to stay, by slowly turning them into a mermaid.

☁ So all he has to do is find that specific thing and add it to the darling's diet. This shouldn't be a problem since you're more compliant with him after drugging you with a love potion.

💤 And once their transformation as a netherworld deity is complete, there will be nowhere to run after that.

I couldn't wait to do this one. Especially knowing that Monty is one of my favorite love-hate characters. Will definitely write more about him in the future, Since Monty is a fun character to play around with. But other than that I hope y'all really liked this. Until next time my little tainted Angels, see you soon ❤💜❤ ~

P.S. Monty is a netherworld deity in this AU.

#yandere fnaf #yandere monty gator #yandere god #yandere x reader #fnaf x reader #x reader #fnaf #fnaf security breach

95 notes · View notes

veilder · 9 months

Text

9 people you want to get to know better

Ooh, alright then! Here we go!

I was tagged by @eomma-jpeg (thank you! :D)

Last song: Listen... Idk why, but I just went on a crazy La La Land song binge last night? Just outta nowhere? So, while it's not the last song I listened to (that was probably whatever was on in the car on the drive home from work), this is what's currently stuck in my damn head. XD Lovely Night - Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone

Currently reading: Um! Well, as far as actual books go, uh... 😅 Although, I did buy This is How We Lose the Time War (by recommendation of a certain Bigolas Dickolas XD) that I need to get to. And also Camp Damascus, haha.

Current fic: God, too many to count. 😰 But I am super duper looking forward to the conclusion of @eomma-jpeg's absolutely phenomenal Trigun fic, In the Meadow! :D (Last chapter comes out TOMORROW, I'M SO EXCITED!!!)

Also really wanna read @noaafishfieldguide's Trigun mermaid!AU fic, omg. Really need to get to that someday? As well as like a hundred other assorted Trigun fics, omg. XD

Currently watching: Uh... Well, I binged a whole bunch of really sad history videos about terrible things that happened last night. Does that count? 😅 Nah, but for reals, the only show I'm watching rn is the Rurouni Kenshin reboot? Haha, it's just that and rewatching Trigun and TriStamp over and over when I'm not on YouTube. XD

Next on my watchlist: FUCKIN CASTLEVANIA NOCTURNE, BOIS!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT, I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THAT SHOW?!?!?!?! There are also a handful of movies I'm interested in, too, if I ever get around to them, omg. And, y'know... TriStamp season 2, whenever that will be, omg.

Current obsession: I'm sure y'all might have picked up on this by now, but I have fallen hard back into Trigun, omgggggggg. It's actually ridiculous how much this has no taken over my life. 😫 But besides that, my love of Genshin Impact has been rekindled with the update, so I'm like back on board with that, too? To a lesser degree, I'm also lowkey obsessing over FFXVI because that game was amazing and it seems like no one's talking about it for some reason, omg. And also hyped about whatever new pieces of FFVII Remake info is trickling down. Oh, and CASTLEVANIA NOCTURE OF COURSE, OHOHOHOHOHOHO! And, last but not least, there is always my lingering love of DBH there in my periphery. Ah, I will never fully leave that one I think. XD

Tagging:

@woppy42 @mothric @laoness @detroitbecomeonline @titaniumpsychologist @keltii-tea @sharysisnhmoonshadow @frankedz @timebird84

#tag games #personal #haha I am a mess XD

11 notes · View notes

cryptid-pet · 9 months

Text

Azushin Mermaid AU Headcanons I Created at the Bottom of the Ocean Part III

Okay, NOW we are getting into the Azushin relationship itself in this one, this also will go for part IV too

Couple Tws >>> Verbal assault, threats, implied gore, physical assault//self harm

This is sorta going to be hard for me to explain since it made more sense in my head, so PLEASE bear with me, y'all wanted this early

I'd like to think of it as Azusa wasn't alone, he was Ruki beause he's the eldest (Duhhhh?)

As I mentioned before, they don't go out during nighttime because that's like the perfect time for Carla and Shin to get down to business

It's like a tiny situation that Azusa HAS to make a big deal, and I'm talking about him loosing Christina on his way home

Azusa refuses to look for her the following day and it was already late enough, Yuma nor Kou honestlyyyy didn't wanna go for themselves to look with the kid (Ahh I love Ruki, obviously he'd give in and go help)

It was suppose to be a quick look around where Azusa came to and fro their home. Him AND Ruki were out for one SINGLE hour

They easily lost track of time and accidentally went faaaar off from home, which leads to everything else >>>

Ususally, the Mukami's don't pay a lot of attention to whatever is above them (You know like if there's a bird in the water if they're THAT close to the surface from underwater, it's stupid and minor)

When I tell you this bigass shadow covered roughly where Ruki and Azusa were, I'm talking about it covering everything AROUND them

It was easily worth waiting and planning for months for this moment because such a mission underway worked perfectly for the Hunter Brothers

It was too smooth in fact, as if they knew how fast Azusa would be and easily the knowledge Ruki gained of the two (Though they first thought any mermaid or merman would be stupid, but the Mukamis are pretty clever)

Ruki was the first to be caught when pushing Azusa out of the way of a sudden trap

Darts, yes, from a tranquilizer gun were shot in the water ONLY at Azusa (Again, he's fast as shit, you gotta least make the kid passed out in order to capture him

Ruki and Azusa were actually kept in seperate rooms that were almost similar looking, Carla would try and gather data from Ruki and Shin would from Azusa

Again, Azusa really doesn't have much information about who the Hunter Brothers are other than "They aren't nice people to mankind" and that's it

Reminder too, Shin was the FIRST human EVER Azusa has seen, so when seeing him again after waking up in a strange place, it did make him nervous

Nothing too intense happens, but Shin does verbal harassment to Azusa and the kid doesn't quite understand the meanings

Azusa doesn't actually say a single WORD as Shin explains what is going on, he just tilts his head and often will nod

What was freaky was that in the room both Mukamis were in already had things from stuffed dolphins, crabs, sear horse, etc, it was just a huge trigger for them

It's unknown if after research that Ruki and Azusa would be killed just for their scales and tails, but easily can be doubted that they won't be sent back into the water

During this entire thing, Ruki and Azusa weren't allowed to see each other nor get any updates of one another from Carla or Shin

There was a lot of threats coming from Shin, such as saying if Azusa did try to escape (Not like he would, he's half fish) that he'd pour oil into the tank he was in to kill him, put piranahs in the water to bit and cause injuries (You know like tearing at his flesh aggressively)

Of course Azusa was horrified, why wouldn't he be?

The public hasn't ben told about the Hunter Brothers catching, not one, but TWO merman, it's going to stay like this until further notice

When the first week went by, Azusa had a couple scales scrapped off him forcefully for testing towards Carla’s illness and even to establish a price of selling

It’s unknown if Ruki has gone through the same treatment as Azusa

Since Azusa doesn’t poke his head out of the water a lot for air, he easily got sick with the times he did from the large tank (Sure, you could say he can get out easily but he clearly wouldn’t get far when flopping right on the cold ground)

Despite the rooms being displayed of stuffed, polished animals, Shin purposely will even bring a living animal and kill it right in front of Azusa

Kou and Yuma can’t even keep track with how long Ruki and Azusa have been gone, they even went to search for them on their own

The more Shin came to get shit from Azusa, the more Azusa just gave in, though couldn’t determine the reason why

Azusa likely got his masochism from Shin treating him poorly and grew adjusted to it

Shin sorta got creeped out with how Azusa let him to what he liked just to make sure Ruki would be safe, but paid no attention

At the very start, around day two of being capture, Shin said he’d give Azusa some rewards if he didn’t put up a fight (Nothing special, like giving him a bigger tank and whatever)

There’s a saying Azusa made up with how there’s no such thing as a bad person, so he wants to believe the Hunter Brothers are doing what they do for their own necessarily, he’s willing to at least try and trust them until they are released

Right off the bat, Carla and Shin could tell Azusa was naive, which was a sly advantage knowing taking Ruki into a separate room would make it harder on Azusa (He needs that guidance)

[1/4] [2/4] [4/4] [Caruki Addition]

8 notes · View notes

ali-annals · 1 year

Text

high tide came and brought you in

Pairing: Jasonette

Rating: T

WC: ~6.4k

A/N: I did almost use redhead-continuity Jason but refrained from cursing y'all like that; you're welcome.Title from This Love by Taylor Swift.

Dick=14 Cass=17 Jason=18 Steph=19 Tim=20 Duke=21 Damian=21/22ish Bruce=45 Alfred=65-ish? (I wanted to make him Sebastian, but Jason would actually listen to Alfred, so there's no mention of Alfred.) Mari & class are 18/19ish.

Italics indicates emphasis or thoughts, bold italics indicate writing.

Summary: Little Mermaid AU where Jason is Ariel and Marinette is Eric. Reverse Robins AU.

My dear niece, Marinette,

I am troubled to hear of this bullying from your classmates. This Lila girl does not seem like she is an appropriate companion.

I have thought about your situation and believe I have come up with a solution. Bring your classmates for a real educational trip to my lands. I know you are not fond of flaunting your connections, but I think they will cease and desist with their troublesome pesterings if they know you are supported by people with power and influence.

Let me know whenever is most convenient for your trip, and I shall make sure al Ghul Palace is prepared for you and your entourage’s arrival.

I have enclosed a missive for your mother in this post; please pass it along to her.

Damian sends his greetings to you and your family.

With love,

Talia al Ghul,

Heir to the Demon

Marinette slid the note back into the envelope and looked out at the sea. All she had seen for three days was sea, sky, and the occasional dark speck of land in the distance. Hopefully, by night’s fall, they would have arrived at her aunt’s private docks.

As much as she loved the sea, she was getting tired of the constant movements and plain scenery; she would be glad to have solid ground under her feet again.

The wind tossed her hair into her face and she brushed the strands away to better see the fish swimming beneath her.

This whole trip, everyone had been suspiciously silent. Ever since Aunt Talia had invited her and her classmates on this trip, they had been much nicer towards her.

She snorted, glad the sound of the wind and the breaking waves covered the unladylike sound. Nicer. Yes, they had stopped openly bullying her and now simply ignored her.

Mari turned from the railing and perched on her seat, sliding the letter between the covers of her book and cracking it open to her current page.

Her study of the Mer language, or Seaspeak, was taking much longer than her studies of other languages. She supposed it was because it required many different sounds than any other human language she had heard. Luckily, since she spoke Mandarin fluently, she was used to picking out the tonal sounds in languages, which made recognizing the syllables somewhat easier.

Hopefully, Aunt Talia or Damian could help her with her studies while she was there; they both spoke Seaspeak fluently, as they were selkies. Well, Aunt T was selkie. Damian was half-selkie half-mer, a result of a relationship Talia had had with a mer years ago. She’d always wondered how being a hybrid species affected him and his transformation, but never asked, lest her favourite cousin think she was prying.

Damian was notoriously private and territorial, only tolerating or liking a few people. Mari was proud to be counted among that number and did not want to be removed simply because she was overwhelmingly curious about the sea and the various seafolk that lived in it.

The dark clouds that gathered overhead made reading her book very difficult, and the wind kept whipping her pages around whenever she lifted her hand to copy something into her sketchbook (the thing closest at hand when she wanted to try writing Seaspeak).

Mari collected her things and stood up to return to her cabin.

The deck tilted noticeably as they crested a large wave. Looking over the sea again, Mari noticed the storm quickly rolling in. Ugh, this was going to delay their arrival and docking, wasn’t it.

The storm quickly passed right over them, the waves large and sloshing over the sides of the deck. Mari did a final check that all her classmates were in the hold before she followed them.

Lila was standing by the edge, her fingers gripping the railing tightly. Mari splashed her way across the deck and gripped Lila’s wrist. “Come on, it’s safer in the hold,” she called above the wind.

A sailor behind them called a warning as a gigantic wave crashed over the bow, drenching both girls. Mari sputtered and moved to wipe the water out of her face. The instant she removed her hand from Lila, the girl flung her with surprising strength over the side.

Mari barely had time to realize she needed to take a large breath before she plunged beneath the icy-cold depths, Lila’s face, twisted into a satisfied smirk, the last thing she saw.

~~~

Jason swam around the shipwreck, collecting strange human mementos and wondering when Bruce would finally let him on land or at least to the coast, to observe the humans.

He was tired of never being told the real reason why the younger mers weren’t allowed to explore past certain markers Bruce had set in place.

Swimming up through the wreck made him look up at the surface of the ocean, and he noted that another storm was coming. The distinct creaking sound of an older ship passing overhead caught his attention, and he decided to go human-watch. Sometimes storms made human belongings fall overboard, which he found later on his circle of the designated area he was allowed to roam in.

Jason popped his head above the waves and watched as the humans not dressed in the ship uniform scurried into the bottom of the ship.

Only two were left, one by the railing, which Jason could already tell was a stupid idea, and one who had been looking at the square object that had strange symbols on it– what he assumed was human language.

The one with the square object approached the one by the railing as a large wave crested.

Jason watched as the two humans got drenched, then the first threw the second over the side.

He noted in horror that the human was sinking rapidly, bubbles escaping their mouth. Floating debris sank around them, making him surmise the human had been hurt by the litter.

Well now he had to interact with the humans, Bruce.

He swam quickly towards the human, catching them in his arms without breaking his glide and continuing up to the surface.

He popped up behind a small mound of rock a few feet from shore and laid the human’s top half sideways on the rough surface, slapping their back and hoping they hadn’t swallowed too much water. He wasn’t sure if they had the same type of circulatory system mers did, but checked at their neck for a pulse just in case. There seemed to be a strong, steady pulse, so he kept slapping their back and hoped that would suffice.

A minute later, they coughed and spat out a mouthful of water, clawing at the rock to raise themselves and breathe deeply.

Jason was frozen by their pretty eyes and features and forgot to duck beneath the waves as soon as they awoke.

He was pretty sure this was a female human, but he wasn’t sure.

The human’s mouth moved, but he didn’t understand the sounds that they made. Suddenly realizing he needed to go, he ducked under the somewhat calmer waves and left, staying a safe distance away but close enough to make sure the human stayed safe.

After a while, the human slowly swam the few feet to the beach.

Jason watched from behind the rock as they splashed up the beach and collapsed into a ball, coughing.

They stayed there for a while, rubbing their limbs together for warmth. Jason was just about to approach them again when another human arrived from the direction of the palace high on the cliff above the bay and took the human away.

He hoped they were okay.

~~~

Marinette woke up coughing, spitting salty seawater out. Had she dreamt someone was slapping her back or…?

Curious deep teal eyes met hers as the being beside her froze. She coughed more. Were those fins? Was this an actual mer? She’d read that they were very shy and wary of humans, surely this wasn’t normal? Were they a siren luring her to her death? Was this an outlier, a mer-human ambassador or something?

“Thank you. Did you save me?” she asked, wondering if they understood human language. She tried in French, Mandarin, and English, but none of them produced a reaction. Instead, the mer dove under the waves and swiftly left.

Marinette waited till she got her breath back, then swam the short distance to the beach. Up over the cove was the peninsula Aunt Talia’s palace was situated on. Good, she was close, then.

The water was just as frigid as when she was pushed, but she was soon on the beach and sheltered by the rock wall from the brisk, cool wind.

Mari rubbed her arms and legs together as quickly as her flash-frozen muscles allowed, hoping to warm up enough to move and attract one of Talia’s people’s attention.

Before she was even ready to stand, one of Talia’s courtiers climbed down the thin footpath worn into the cliffside with a wool blanket.

“Lady Talia wished to see who was washed up on her lands, but I must say we did not expect you to be Lady Marinette,” said the courtier, Honour Guest, who was also Talia’s bodyguard.

“I didn’t, either,” replied Marinette, her teeth chattering.

Honour wrapped the blanket around her and carried her up the cliff to the palace. Slowly, the warm wool blanket did its job and warmed her up. As soon as they reached the palace, she was shown into a warm room and presented with a wool dress warmed in front of the fire. Hot tea was served, her hair dried, and gradually the last vestiges of cold faded from her body.

Talia knocked and walked in briskly. “Welcome here, Marinette.”

“Thank you for the invitation and sending Honour, Aunt T.”

“It’s no problem,” waved off Talia. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?” asked Mari.

“What happened that you arrived on my beach without your classmates or my ship?”

“I fell overboard. There was a large wave when I was telling Lila to come join the others in the hold.”

“Ah, you were with Lila,” nodded Talia, pretending to believe Mari's excuse. “Of course you were.”

“Okay, she tossed me over. She was really strong, though, Aunt T. Definitely much stronger than what a normal 18-year-old human female should be.”

“Interesting,” mused Talia. “Damian was out hunting, but he should be back shortly. I’ll send him your way when he returns.”

“Thank you!”

~~~

“WHY were you interacting with the humans?!” yelled Bruce.

“The person was gonna drown if I didn’t!” Jason defended himself, angry that Bruce was scolding him about his good deed. “You’re always saying the humans are gonna hate all mers because of the sirens and the bad mers! I saved one and you’re mad about that?!”

“You are marinated for two weeks!” said Bruce, putting his fin down. “The boundaries are there for a reason.”

“And you won’t tell me that reason!” Jason argued.

“You don’t need to know the reason, you just need to follow the boundaries,” said Bruce firmly. “Need I remind you of the last time you left the boundaries, to find Sheila?”

Jason rolled his eyes and left, annoyed that Bruce would bring up his disastrous meeting with his bio-mom. How was he supposed to know she would sell him out to merhunters? Was he just supposed to ask her and expect her to tell him her traitorous plans??

~~~

Damian coughed, gaining Mari’s attention. She sprang up from her seat overlooking the docks, waiting for Talia’s ship to return to its home port with her classmates.

“Dami! You’re here!”

She hugged him briefly, knowing he didn’t like extended physical contact.

“Hello, Marinette. It’s good to see you again.”

“It is! How have you been?”

He raised an eyebrow, smirking at her slightly. “Have we not regularly corresponded enough for you to know that I am in perfect health?”

She rolled her eyes at his jesting. “Yes, but it is common to inquire after the health and well-being of people you care about when you have not seen them in a while; did your etiquette instructors teach you nothing?”

“Yes, I am in the peak health possible. How have you been? I notice you have arrived alone, which I must say, is preferable to your rabble of classmates showing up here.”

“Unfortunately, they’ll be arriving soon. Lila pushed me overboard during the storm and a mer carried me to shore, and then Aunt T sent Honour down to get me.”

Damian frowned. “I like Lila less and less. But you say a mer carried you to shore? Do tell me how that occurred.”

~~~

Jason entered the dark cave a little nervously, the thermal vents producing warm, multi-coloured currents that gave an ominous vibe to his surroundings. Well, the Sea Witch wasn’t exactly popular or bright in these parts.

“And what brings the little fishy here to my cave today?” a cackling laugh sounded close to his ear, making him jump and dodge the brightly coloured tentacles of the Joker.

Brightly coloured purple and green, a way of showing others how toxic and unsavoury an organism was. He was desperate, though.

The palace above the cliff belonged to a human that Bruce knew ages ago, and apparently, they were not good people. Jason hoped the human he saved was doing alright, and the palace people would take good care of them, but he needed to see it for himself.

Thus, his appearance at the forbidden cave now.

“I want to be a human,” he stated boldly, a little unnerved by the deranged laughter echoing in his ears.

“Ooh? Daddy couldn’t wave his little fork around and give you legs, so you had to come to me?” taunted Joker. “Couldn’t, or didn’t? Oh, a little teenage rebellion? Well, what is life if you don’t make a bad decision or two,” he cackled, tentacles gripping the wall and carrying him around the cave as he collected random ingredients and strangely marked bottles.

Jason noticed various human objects around the space, some of which he had never seen before. What were they for? Did all humans use these or were some only for one human or a special human?

His attention was grabbed by the Joker unfurling a large, long scroll in front of his eyes with a flourish. “Just sign here, and I’ll get those legs for you.”

Jason looked at the weirdly floating pen beside the scroll and at the words on it.

“I have to give up my voice?”

“Well, I’m not doing this for free!” said Joker, faux-scandalized. “Take the deal or not, I don’t care. It’s quite generous if I do say so myself.”

“I’ll belong to you if I don’t kiss the human?”

“Yes, a fair deal.” The Sea Witch laughed eerily, pushing the pen towards him with a curled tentacle.

Jason gripped the pen and wrote his name quickly across the bottom of the contract.

Joker produced a shell and instructed him to repeat the words on the scroll; Jason could feel his voice getting fainter and fainter as the shell sucked his voice away.

With a loud cackle, Joker handed him a bottle of disgusting-looking green stuff. “Take this when you’re at the surface so you don’t drown on your way up!”

~~~

The class was extremely subdued as they drove to the palace in the carriage Talia had sent to bring them up from the docks. They barely spoke a word, not even visibly awed by their beautiful surroundings.

Talia greeted them as the maids took the class’s luggage to their respective rooms.

Marinette considered being mean and hiding from the class, but most of them appeared to be actually saddened by her supposed drowning, so she decided to show them she was alright. Plus, it would be fun to see Lila’s reaction.

Stepping out from behind Talia, she looked Lila in the eyes and smirked. “Welcome to al Ghul palace.”

“Marinette! You’re alive!” The class crowded her, repeating variations of the same words, happy their classmate hadn’t died, and relieved they didn’t have to explain to their host that her niece had been drowned in a storm.

Talia showed them to their rooms and told them the west wing –where the guest suites were– was available for them to use, and the main sitting room, dining room, and garden were at their disposal, but everything else was private.

Marinette kept an eye on Lila and noticed the other continually glancing between her, Talia, and the class. Likely worried she’d expose her, Marinette thought dryly.

That wasn’t her style; she preferred subtle tricks more difficult to trace back to her, or manipulating people into doing the dirty work. Lila had a lot to learn if she wanted to actually be good at being bad.

~~~

Jason came back from his angry swim looking pleased. Bruce frowned.

Duke swam up to his throne. “B, I think something’s up with Jason.”

Bruce nodded. “Get Cass and the others to keep a subtle eye on him.”

~~~

The First Day

Jason looked at the bottle contemplatively, then tipped it up and chugged the sour-tasting liquid. A weird tingling feeling spread throughout his lower body as he watched his beautiful red scales turn into two legs. He attempted to stand up and promptly collapsed.

How do humans use these? he wondered.

After hours of getting used to walking and maneuvering his body on land, he began a careful ascent of the cliff.

Halfway up, some pebbles bounced off his nose.

Ouch.

Wrinkling his nose, he glanced up and saw the human he had saved looking curiously down at him.

Again, she spoke to him, and again, he understood none of it.

Shaking his head, he mimed speaking, then waved his arms ‘no’.

With a sound of acknowledgement, the human nodded and extended their hand, making encouraging motions. Once he was close enough, he gripped the hand and let them pull him up the rest of the way.

He landed on a bed of wildflowers, a comfortable resting place, though it was a bit pokey in spots.

The human squeaked a swear in dolphin language and Jason’s mouth dropped. More high-pitched noises came out of their mouth, amounting to gibberish, and Jason realized the human had no idea what they were saying.

Why was their hand over their eyes? Didn’t humans need eyes to see where they were going, too?

Something soft hit him and he noticed the human threw their outer clothing at him. A gift? Were they trying to trade? But he had nothing to trade, currently

…oh, humans covered their skin in those strangely-shaped pieces of cloth. Maybe that’s why this one was acting strangely, even for a human, because he had not yet procured some of those pieces?

The human made a ‘stay’ motion at him, with a questioning expression, and he nodded, hoping the human wasn’t going to get a merhunter. Although, maybe the human didn’t know he was a mer since he didn’t have fins anymore.

A few minutes later, the human emerged from the large building and rushed back toward him. Some of the pieces of cloth were in their arms.

They handed them to him and imitated putting them on. He nodded and pulled the strange things on. They were a weird feeling against his skin, as he was used to nothing between him and the water unless his protective armour was on.

He cleared his throat, automatically attempting to speak before remembering he couldn’t.

The human turned around and smiled when they saw him in the human coverings.Their smile was like the sunrise on the horizon, and he wanted to see it again.

The human took his hand in theirs and set off towards the large building.

Inside, it was lavishly furnished, with strange human objects all over and several humans in black human coverings moving around.

The human opened a door and let him into a smaller room. They pulled out a square object like he had seen them with on the ship and opened it, then motioned between him and it. He carefully took it in his hands and his eyes widened in surprise. Seaspeak was written on the surface.

This must be the equivalent of the mers’ scrolls, he realized.

He pointed at the object and nodded vigorously.

The human smiled again and produced a smaller square object and feather, using the feather to produce Seaspeak on the object.

It was slow going, but the human managed to write a fairly legible note.

I am Marinette. I am a human. Are you a mer? Can you not speak? Do you understand any human speaking? I mean no hurt to you.

He motioned at the feather, which the human –Marinette– passed over to him.

I am Jason. I am a mer. I lost my voice to a Sea Witch to get legs. I know a bit of the human speaking called ‘Arabic’.

Marinette’s eyes lit up. “Can you understand me?” she asked in slow Arabic.

He nodded enthusiastically.

“Can you read or write Arabic, or just speak it?”

He wrote on the object again, using the bit of Arabic he’d gotten Bruce to teach him.

I can read and write a little bit.

Marinette nodded.

Marinette. What a pretty name, just as pretty as her, he thought.

“Wait one minute, please,” she requested, and he nodded as she ran out of the room.

She made using legs look so easy, he thought, then noticed her trip over a bump in the carpet, and grinned.

A few minutes later, she returned, dragging another human by the hand.

Jason ignored the immediate pang of jealousy that she apparently dragged all her men around by the hand and instead focused on worrying about the newcomer being a merhunter.

The man was tall, darker skinned than Marinette, with black spiky hair and dark green eyes; despite being a complete stranger, he seemed eerily familiar, but Jason couldn’t put his finger on it.

Marinette motioned between the two. “This is Jason, a mer. I think he’s the one who saved me. Jason, this is Damian, my cousin; he lives on this estate and is fluent in Arabic and Seapeak.”

Damian frowned. “My mother and her mother are very close, but we are not blood cousins,” he told Jason in Seaspeak. “Were you the mer who saved Marinette from drowning yesterday?”

Jason nodded, wondering why the cousin distinction needed to be made.

“Thank you for saving her life,” Damian bowed in high court fashion.

Jason’s brow wrinkled. This Damian knew mer customs?

Marinette’s wide eyes bounced between the two.

Damian glanced at her and his hard green gaze softened.

Jason looked between the two. So that’s what the territorialism and cousin clarification was about.

“I asked him if he was the one who saved you yesterday and he said he was, so I thanked him. You didn’t miss much.” Damian told her in Arabic, so he could understand it.

Marinete smiled at Damian. “Thanks!” She turned to Jason and copied Damian’s bow. “Thank you for saving my life, Jason.”

He nodded.

Damian looked at the paper that he and Marinette had been writing on.

“How long until the enchantment wears off?”

Jason stopped staring at Marinette and frowned. How did Damian know? This guy was being very suspicious.

He held up 3 fingers, hoping humans counted the same as mers.

“Three days?” asked Marinette.

He nodded again.

“What will happen when the enchantment wears off?” asked Damian neutrally.

Jason grabbed the feather and scrawled a basic explanation in Seaspeak, debating how much to tell to his apparent love rival.

Wait, was he even a rival? Were the two humans in a relationship already? No, Marinette had clearly family-zoned Damian. Jason felt a bit of sympathy for him, but not too much.

Did he want to be a love rival? Did he want to be Marinette’s lover? Yes, she was pretty and a nice person, but she was a human and he was a mer. He had only come here to make sure she was okay and to maybe learn more about the human world.

Wait. He came here to see if she was okay. Clearly, she was; they were her family. But they weren’t good people, and Bruce very strongly didn’t like them.

Did that mean she wasn’t a good person? She hadn’t sold him out to a merhunter yet, so she was already leagues ahead of his biomom.

…Unless her family were merhunters and this was a trap. He didn’t think so, but he’d keep an eye out.

The main objective here was to get that kiss so he wouldn’t belong to the Joker. He could figure the rest out later.

~~~

Layers of giant kelp tied Jason to the pillar, dangling him in front of Bruce’s throne.

“Who are you and what did you do to Jason?” Bruce demanded, fingers tightening around his trident.

The mask of Jason’s face fell away to reveal the face of the Joker. “Aww, you found me out so fast. You’re no fun! Now, your little fishy, on the other hand…he was so much fun to watch! But you won’t get his remains from me!”

A pair of electric eels zipped through the water, chewing through the kelp strands in a flash and freeing the Joker, who followed his helpers back to his cave, disappearing in a cloud of ink.

~~~

Marinette watched as Damian reluctantly explained things about the human world to Jason, who permanently wore a look of wonder on his pretty face. She was curious about the white streak in his hair but knew Damian was at his limit answering one person’s questions, so she simply sketched the pair in her book, imagining outfits combining the human and mer worlds.

"Jason," she finally spoke, sensing Damian at his limit. (She was unsure why; Jason could literally be no quieter and he was perfectly polite. Usually, Damian quite enjoyed discussing differences between seafolk and humans.)

Jason looked at her questioningly.

"Aunt Talia has a lovely pool to swim in. Could you teach me how to become a better swimmer?"

Jason looked at Damian, who hesitated, then nodded, and nodded back at her.

She stepped into the pool, feeling quite cute in her new swim outfit, and noticed Jason already splashing about in the shallow end, trying out swimming with legs, not fins.

She smiled back at him and swam over.

"How do you normally swim, when you have fins?"

Jason demonstrated, a little awkwardly since he didn't have fins anymore, then Marinette copied him.

They did several laps, Jason demonstrating techniques he barely thought about since he lived in the water, and Mari copying him.

She was a natural, quickly picking up on his corrections even though he couldn't speak. Occasionally he had to use his hands to manipulate her body to the proper form, but she always nodded when he looked at her in question.

So why was Damian glaring at him from the bushes surrounding the pool?

Jason tossed a glare back, and because he was petty, started being a little more touchy-flirty.

Marinette responded well to it, blushing and giggling sometimes.

Well, he didn't have to kiss her on the third day, just sometime within that specified timeline, right?

Slowly, Jason leaned in, caging her against the pool wall and between his arms.

Her azure gaze flicked down to his lips, then back to his eyes, her own drifting closed.

The noise of several people laughing and talking as they approached the pool interrupted the moment, and they jerked away a respectable distance. By the time Lila, Alya, Nino, Sabrina, Ondine, and Kim caught sight of them, they were halfway across the pool swimming laps.

~~~

The Second Day

Marinette turned to the shelf to grab another book written in Seaspeak for Jason.

He saw his chance and moved close behind her, reaching for it with his long arms.

She turned, grazing his chest. Her breathing hitched and she stared up at him, a tiny smile on her face.

He leaned down slowly, liking the feel of her body heat against him. Mers had lower body temperatures since they lived in the sea, and the human warmth was very pleasant.

The door to the library swung open and Damian marched in and paused in disgust at the scene.

Marinette flushed and escaped Jason's grasp quickly, stammering explanations.

"Uh, we were just- uh, getting a book, you know, so we could communicate better so we uh, don't have to rely on you to translate…"

Damian rolled his eyes and lowered a stack of books to the tabletop.

"I'm not blind, Marinette."

She flushed even deeper and refused to look at Jason for the rest of the session.

~~~

In the evening, she attended a dinner with her classmates at an acquaintance of Talia's, leaving Jason alone and another day gone by without a kiss.

~~~

"Your Majesty," the black-scaled siren bowed mockingly in front of the Mer King.

"Selina," Bruce inclined his head.

Her companions eyed him, fins flicking the water slowly.

"We have news for you, Brucie," said Harley. "The sirens are allied with the Sea Witch, Joker, and they're planning to overthrow you soon."

"How soon?" Questioned Bruce, immediately making plans.

He'd been sending out searches for Jason for the past couple of days. Was this a deliberate means of distracting him from the uprising he'd been watching for or was it a coincidence?

~~~

That night, an informant of Talia's arrived with news of the siren uprising against the Mer King. Talia immediately ordered her warship prepared to aid the mers. Mari joined the ship's crew.

~~~

The Third Day

Jason saw the rush of the humans in black as they headed towards the warship at the docks. He dropped the curtain at his window and decided to see what was up.

They had better not be going out to hunt mers from what scraps of information he had given Damian and Marinette.

He noticed Marinette among the bustling crew, Damian beside her and Talia at the foot of the dock, barking orders and directing the ship's loading.

Jason approached the duo and handed Marinette a scrap of paper he had scrawled some questions on.

What is going on? Are you going on the ship?

Marinette nodded. "There's an uprising of the sirens against the mer king. Aunt T has an informant who let her know what was happening, so we're setting off to help."

Help who?

"Oh, the king, of course. He's–"

Damian nudged her. "Mother wants you to join her."

"Oh, thanks, Dami. I'll talk to you later, Jason!"

Marinette raced up the plank to speak to her aunt and Damian turned to Jason, his hands behind his back.

"Please watch over Marinette while I am otherwise occupied."

Confused but willing to do anything, he nodded and signed the mer symbol for a promise.

Damian nodded thankfully at him and headed up the plank.

Jason watched as the rows of humans in black lined up and Talia conducted a swift drill, then handed them over to her general, Jade.

The ship set off and was soon on the open sea.

~~~

Damian turned to Marinette. "May I have my coat, please?"

Marinette unfurled a lovely black fur coat from a bag at her feet and handed it to him.

Jason's breath caught. Was that a seal coat?

Talia eyed the two with the coat, then removed her own from her bag and put it on. Mother and son dove off the side of the ship, splashing into the waves below in their seal form.

Marinette realized Jason was staring at her, perplexed, and confirmed that yes, her aunt and cousin were selkies. Or, half-selkie, half-mer hybrid, in Damian's case.

They weren't too common in these parts, so hopefully, they could get close enough to the siren revolt to do some damage before the sirens realized these weren't ordinary seals.

The ship soon arrived at the sirens' pod, where they were gathered facing the Mer King's army.

Marinette gasped. On the side of the sirens, right beside the Joker, was Lila!

"I knew something was off about her," she muttered. "Of course, she was partnered with the Joker against Bruce, and she's a siren."

Jason noticed his older siblings in a line beside Bruce and whistled sharply, his special signal echoing across the tense atmosphere.

Four heads snapped to him, and he saw relief, surprise, and confusion cross their faces. A little thing called guilt nudged his conscience, that he didn't even leave a note or tell someone that he'd be back in 3 days or less.

~~~

The standoff broke as both sides charged at each other.

Talia’s sailors had protective charms on them, allowing them to continue tossing out nets and piloting the ship around the sirens, distracting them from the mers and selkies behind them taking out the sirens a couple at a time.

The battle raged throughout the afternoon, reinforcements appearing for both sides. Talia and Damian were tireless in the pursuit of sirens. Marinette noticed them dragging Lila off and shook her head. Lila was asking for whatever came her way when she pushed her off Talia's ship.

The Joker was enraged at his pod being dismantled and charged straight for the ship, cutting speedily through the waves with propulsion. Using his tentacles to climb up the sides of the ship was easy, and he snagged Marinette and Jason in a tentacle each, squeezing tightly.

Marinette shivered as the damp suction cups stuck to her skin, the odour of rotten fish exuded from the tentacle making her cough.

Unfortunately, the limb's grip was so tight it constricted her breathing, making the coughing worse.

Ugh, being held hostage sucked.

She squirmed in its grip, trying to reach the knife tucked into her waistband.

Jason's arms were longer and he yanked her knife from her belt so vigorously he almost ripped the belt off.

With a quick slash, he freed himself from his tentacle and moved on to Mari's.

She inhaled with a gasp as Joker cursed and thrashed in pain at losing ¼ of his limbs; he dropped to the ocean with a splash and Jason dove after him, knife firmly in hand.

Red foamed on the waves formed from the excited roiling just beneath the surface; the multitude of eyewitnesses held their breath in a mixture of excitement, suspense, and concern.

"Jason!" Bellowed Bruce, speeding over to the commotion.

Jason's head breached the waves as he gasped, shaking the water from his hair. Droplets fell in a sparkling rainbow.

"Joker is dead!" Announced Jason, and everyone cheered.

Even with her limited knowledge of Seaspeak, Mari knew what he said, and she cheered as loudly as anyone else.

Joker's death broke the spell Jason is under, she realized, a little sadly.

"Jason, you're okay?" Bruce asked, checking Jason over everywhere. "Why do you have legs?!"

"...Joker gave 'em to me," said Jason sheepishly.

Realizing this should be a private conversation and damage control needed to be done now that the battle was over, Bruce clasped Jason's shoulder once, then headed back to the head beings in charge of various groups.

Marinette and Jade lowered a rope over the edge for Jason, Damian, and Talia to climb up.

She grabbed Jason's hand and pulled him off to the side to inspect him for injuries. Besides a couple light abrasions from debris in the water and a bump against the ship's rough wood, he was perfectly fine.

~~~

Talia removed her coat, which was magically dry, and rolled it into her bag.

Damian glanced between Jason and Mari, looking into each other's eyes and laughing in relief, and slowly removed his own coat and stored it in his bag.

Talia laid a hand on his arm. "She's happy."

"I know," he replied. "That's why I'm here, motionless."

~~~

"I gave up my voice as payment, but if I didn't fulfill the terms, I'd become Joker's," Jason explained to Marinette.

She frowned in sympathy. "What were the terms?"

"I had to kiss you by the end of the third day."

Was that sunburn or a blush?

"It's not the end of the third day yet," said Marinette suggestively. "We'd better make sure this isn't a soul-binding contract applicable after death."

She leaned up on tiptoe, bracing her arms against his shoulders as her soft, warm lips met his.

~~~

"I'm turning back into a merman," Warned Jason from his seat beside Marinette at the bow of Talia's ship.

"Talia!" Called Bruce from the waves below them, and Jason groaned.

His legs were replaced by a long, scaly red tail with delicate translucent fins.

Marinette gently ran her finger over the lacey end of a fin and his tail jerked.

"That tickles!"

"Sorry," she grinned, not sorry at all.

Bruce climbed up the ladder Talia reluctantly let down and immediately headed for Jason.

"What were you thinking, Jason Peter Todd-Wayne?!" Full-named Bruce.

Marinette looked at him speculatively. So you're one of the Mer King's sons…

She headed over to Damian to give Bruce and Jason some privacy.

"So, you're brothers, huh."

He side-eyed her. "I don't wish to discuss it."

She nodded and rocked back and forth on her heels awkwardly.

He sighed and faced her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You teleport over to al Ghul palace regularly. Long-distance can work, you know."

Surprised, she looked at him fully. "Thanks for your support, Dami."

"You know I have romantic affection for you, correct?" He asked abruptly, turning to face the sea.

Oh, so we're talking about the elephant seal in the tub. "I'm aware."

"You seem to be quite fond of Jason. I wish you luck with him. I'll always be here for you, however."

"Thanks, Damian." She hugged him briefly and headed over to Jason when Bruce left him in search of Talia.

"So, how much trouble are you in?"

"I'm marinated for a month," he sighed.

"...an after a month?"

He lifted his head. "I'll be free to see you whenever. But how long are you staying at Talia's?"

"Another week or two. But I have a magical stone that allows me to transport between my home in Paris and the al Ghul estate. I'll be able to see you fairly often!"

"'Really? That would be wonderful!"

He eyed the animated discussion between Talia and Bruce at the other end of the ship.

"So apparently Bruce is Damian's father?"

Mari nodded. "Aunt T and Bruce have a really weird dynamic."

~~~~~~~~~

A/N: If you're confused about the marinating thing, it's the equivalent of grounding for a mer. Because they're marine life, they're marinated, as opposed to grounding, which is for ground life/humans.:)

#jasonette #maribat #DCxMLB #fic #ali writes

1 note · View note

meatusminimus · 2 years

Text

Sorz for no art. I am.... bad at that, haha. Still, on ye olde blog I had a post about my Little Mermaid AU, so maybe I'll vwrite a thing on that?

I'wve spavwned more AUs since then, but most a' them aren't wvery streamlined so...... no posts yet XP

No typin' quirk past this point, so y'all can read it all fine an' dandy ^v^

Characters

Of course, we have Mituna as the crown prince of the human kingdom, and Cronus as the crown prince of the mermaid kingdom. There's a bunch of minor characters around---Meenah (as Fef's daughter and apprentice), Feferi (as the royal witch), Porrim (as a seamstress), Latula (as Mituna's girlfriend), to name a few.

Story

It starts out the same as the Little Mermaid story: Mituna gets caught up in a shipwreck, Cronus saves him, yadda yadda.

Fast forward a few days, and Cronus can't stop thinking about that human he saved. Kankri is tired of that shit but he's also kinda concerned Cronus is gonna do something wild. Which he does! He pops on over to meet Feferi and asks if he can use one of his polymorph potions, to gain a bipedal human form. He's like, "Sorry, your mother won't like that, so no.....

......buuuuuuut I can take you on my shopping trips landside!"

That basically means he does get a polymorph potion, he just has a reason that isn't "I want to see a human". So that happens. He gets left on his own---well, Fef left him with Meenah, but Meenah just gave him a list of the "groceries" he needs to get and promptly fucked off to see her girlfriend or something---and understandably gets lost. Cue him bumping into Mituna!

From here on I'm not entirely sure how the thing progresses. I know they have a lot of fun fucking around and finding out stuff. Probably get into more near death situations.

After a while they had a one night stand. Cronus gets pregnant because of that, and so stays underwater until it ends. When that's said and done, he goes to the surface once more to relay the news to Mituna, but upon meeting him, finds that he no longer remembers him (due to an accident he had while Cronus was sea-side, but Cronus doesn't know that). They argue for a bit, or something like that. It ends with Cronus trying to get Mituna to recognize him by telling him he's the one who saved him from drowning that one fateful day, only to get refuted, Mituna saying that his girlfriend---now his fiancée---told him she was the one who did so. Cronus is heartbroken and returns to the sea, never to be seen by the land-dwellers ever again.

Additional Notes

I want to think there's a good-ish ending? Like, years down the line, Cronus finally finds the courage to step onto the surface again to either visit his kid or show his nephew around. He bumps into Mituna, who's the king now, with his own kids, and Mituna's like, "Hey, wait a minute! You look like someone I know!" Cue Cronus debating running straight back into the ocean, Mituna telling him about the accident---just a very cute reunion. But I also kinda wanna just leave it at Cro returning to the ocean, heartbroken.

#homestuck #crotuna #little mermaid au #slutfish writes shit

0 notes

pervysenpaix · 2 years

Text

Unique's 1k Follower Event 🧡🧡

Hi friends! Thank you so much for over 1000 followers. Never in my Wildest Dreams did I imagine gaining so many followers in such a short time! It may not be a lot to some, but it definitely is to me. I started this account 45 days ago, when my Wattpad account got taken down. Y'all, I was sick. Wanted to quit writing and everything, but I'm so glad that I stuck it out!

Since this is such a mind-blowing milestone, I think it'd be best to celebrate with some fantastical stories.

The Wildest Dreams Collab will include various fandoms, with fics that are set in a fantasy AU or have some sort of fantasy element. This could include, but not limited to: Royalty(Princes, Kings, Knights, etc), Mythical Creatures/Hybrids (Dragons, Mermaids, Fairies, Vampires, etc), Monster Fucking (Angels, Demons, Gods, Aliens ?, Monsters lol), etc...

The only requirement is that all characters be aged up (18+) and appropriate warnings are given at the beginning of each submission. This post will serve as the Masterlist for this event, all submissions will be linked here. I'll keep the list up to date, so that you wont miss any of these amazing stories from my wonderful moots. Fics associated with this collab can also be found under the tag "WildestDreamsCollab🧡🧡"

There's not really a deadline, because this came up quicker than expected but I'm probably gonna have all my pieces within the next 2 weeks and my moots will get to it when they can, just remember to use the "WildestDreamsCollab🧡🧡" tag. If you wanna join in on the fun let me know with a DM! Smut, Fluff, Angst, it doesn't matter just make sure you provide the appropriate warnings.

Lineup Below the Cut , my first fic should be up by Tuesday, Jan 18

1. Wetter| WolfHybrid!Mirio Togata X WaterFairy!BlackReader

Wolf!Mirio headed to his favorite stream for an afternoon swim, imagine his surprise when he finds a pretty black fairy peering over his shoulder... and she's naked ? - mines 💋

2. A Royal Proposal| Prince!HitoshiShinsou X Knight!DenkiKaminari X Princess!ChubbyBlackReader

Kingzawa, who's getting older, is ready for his son Prince!Hitoshi to step up and take his place on the throne. Now, he's been prepping for this his entire life so shouldn't be a problem, right? Well, theres a catch. Two actually, the super cute, super sweet, chunky little bimbo he has to marry in order to get the crown, and the dashing, brave, slightly idiotic Knight!Denki that happens to be his bestfriend and lover. Multiple parts - mines 💋

3. Wings| DragonKings!KiriBaku X Fairy!ChubbyBlackReader

His Royal Highness, DragonKing!Kirishima took flight earliy one morning in search of something relaxing. What luck when he found you! Sitting all alone in the middle of the woods, just sniffing flowers. Seeming like just the thing he needed, he swoop down to chat. One thing led to another and now your laughing and flying your way back to his castle. A real life castle ! He said that he'd give you the royal tour, starting with his bedchamber. Now you expected lavish linens and traditional tapestries, but the feral DragonKing!Bakugo, jerking off with an aggression more suited for battle, than the bedroom, was quite the surprise. Multiple parts - mines 💋

Participating Moots 🤞🏽🤟🏽

Wolf!Tamaki X FairyReader @xogabbiexo

Barbarian!Bakugo X Sacrifice!Reader @plussizeficchick

? @riozakii

? @blkchxrryblyss

RetiredProHero!Endeavor X SuccubusReader @thicksimpx

The list will be updated as soon as the pieces are uploaded.

Thanks again for the love and support - Unique 🥰

#WildestDreamsCollab 🧡🧡#1k followers #1000 followers #thank you for this

171 notes · View notes

xpacestuff · 4 years

Text

Su/gf crossover things

dipper: so like, you glow pink when you're stressed?

steven: Yeah, basically. Then at one point it got real bad.

dipper: ...How bad?

steven: I basically turned into a kaiju monster lol

dipper, writing that down, whispering: what the fuck...

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

steven probably is probably gonna act like an older brother around them but only in a protective way

"if something bad happens to them i'm gonna break some necks"

"please... don't."

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

Y'all know how Mabel likes crystals and such? Imagine she talks about a rose quartz, Steven turns pink and Dipper from a mile away is like "HUH??? WHAT???"

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

imagine when steven is new and before they knew steven is a half gem hybrid it was like this

steven, to dipper: it seems your sister likes sparkly things huh?

dipper: yeah, pretty much

steven: wow... then she better not know i'm a half gem hybrid lol

dipper: you are a what

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

dipper: Listen, I appreciate my sister but wow she can be hard to deal with sometimes.

steven: Oh yeah, kinda reminds me of Spinel lol. She tried to kill me and this planet

dipper: what the- she... tried to kill this planet?? and you? uh kinda reminds me of bill

steven: who

dipper: this weird triangle yellow demon

dipper: he can go into peoples dreams, is super dangerous if he wants to be, can even control peoples body too... it's so messed up. i hate him so much

steven, knowing he can do all that too: ahahaha.... i knoww right... yikes.. haha...

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

steven meets gideon, tries to befriend him, gideon literally tries to kill him

steven: wouldn't be the first time this happened

dipper: huh?? huh??? please tell me more this seems interesting

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

mabel is like "omg steven is so cool!!!" and dipper, completely tired "please don't say you're attracted to him or something how come you always fall in love with aliens or mermaids n stuff" and mabel just "...i just said he's cool :("

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

Imagine Connie could just... appear there with lion

dipper: WHAT IS THAT!?

mabel: A PINK LION!!! OH MY GOSH!!!

steven: Oh yeah, guys, this is Connie and Lion. :)

connie: hey :)

mabel: hi!

dipper: that lion is... scary.

steven: oh, don't worry about him! You can ride him if you want, he's a nice lion. I'm sure you'd enjoy it!

dipper: no thanks

10 mins later

dipper, totally riding on lion as lion just runs in circles: WOOO THIS IS FUN!!! THI-

steven, opening the door, looking at dipper: :) told ya

dipper, immediately jumping off of lions back: Uh i mean uh... no i didn't like it

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

Steven: makes a pun

Everyone else:

Stan: HAA! good joke kid

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

imagine instead of dipper accepting the fact that he just works in the mystery shack he instead has a lot of trust issues and steven goes to mabel and it turns out like this

steven: it seems your brother doesn't trust me?

mabel: well you do almost have the same powers as this yellow dorito demon we had multiple fights with cause well he almost killed us multiple times and we were in a lot of danger because of him so

steven: ...

steven: y'know, ironic for me to say this but did you guys ever go to the doctor? i experienced the same thing and well uhhh turns out all the things i went through messed with my head a lot. maybe that's also the reason why your brother acts that way?

mabel: nahh he's always like that haha!

steven, visibly concerned: hmm..

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

after dipper saw steven's destructive powers once he was deeply worried and afraid of steven, causing him to have trust issues. when mabel says something like "oh i'm gonna ask steven somethi-" he just cuts her off with "no! i don't want you to get near him!". steven realises this and at one point tries to show dipper that he's mostly nice and tells him that these breakdowns he has is because of all the terrible things he has went through. he also proceeds to show the good side of his powers (like healing, his shield to protect, stuff like that) so dipper can understand that when he is dangerous he doesn't mean it. he just generally goes on adventures with them (the not too dangerous ones, since he has had enough of those and just wants a break) and tries to protect them in any way he can to earn his trust once more. of course this takes time, since dipper generally has problems trusting people.

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

When Stan first meets Steven he sees how much money he has and sells him something that costs a lot and it's just

Steven: Wow your unkle?? grandpa?? g.. grunkle as you say? sure has a lot of expensive stuff. I bought them as a souvenir though!

Mabel: Oh, buddy... oh no..

Dipper: Yeahh, see... he scammed you.

Steven: what

Dipper: basically he just wanted your money.

Steven: oh. harsh.

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

anyway connie meeting the twins thing

Connie: oh, hey! who are you guys?

Steven: h-

Mabel: YOUR GF IS PRETTY!!!

Connie: 😳

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

Steven: talking about how beautiful, great and lovely Connie is and how she's always there for him

Mabel: THAT'S SO CUTE :")

Dipper: ... Anyway this gem stuff-

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

Steven: Dipper, I haven't known you for too long, but i know very well that these experiences are gonna mess with you later on. I also see you're struggling. Maybe get some help? Not to sound mean haha- it's just... I don't want you to go through a hard time in the future? Maybe go see a therapist?

Dipper: pfft, a therapist? Who needs that? I'm not some "mentally unstable" person hahaha

Steven:

Dipper:

Steven: I can pay for it if you want just please-

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

he sends a picture to the cgs of himself, mabel and dipper and is like "i made new friends and work in this sketchy place LOL" and the gems are like "good enough?? i guess?? atleast he made friends?"

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

dipper and mabel: we almost died multiple times

steven: same

dipper:

mabel:

mabel: are you okay?

steven: are you okay??

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

anyway that's it for now! I'm probably gonna add more but anyway i love this au/crossover a lot. I'm probably (definitely) gonna draw some of these so yeah! hope you enjoyed this post lol

#steven universe #gravity falls #su #steven universe future #gf #mabel #dipper #steven #su/gf crossover #crossover #i love this au thing sm #writing #ideas #(just in case but)#if you draw any of this please credit me!

4K notes · View notes

tennessoui · 2 years

Note

Ohhhhhh Kit!!!! The selkie au is absolutely amazing!!!!!! I fell in love immediately!! It was amazing!! Please I need to know more, what happens next, the resolution!!! (A general idea maybe?) I’m obsessed with this and like always u did it so well!!💗💗

You are probably full with other things right now and please don’t feel pressured or anything but I just wanted to know if you planned on continuing?? If not that completely ok I will probably keep imagining different endings in my head for the rest of the week

lol im so glad for this enthusiasm it warms me so much that you like it!!

i am sorta workshopping how i'd do more for y'all because i like the selkie au a lot but idk if i have the time to do a full fic or whether i should just stick to lil ficlets or something. or even exactly where i'd take it other than a vague idea of what i want to happen!!! mostly i want them to be dumb and there to be angst and obi-wan to be guilty and then hurt and anakin to be apologetic and then heartbroken and them to reconcile

so yeah the more i think about what i would do for this story the more i'm like 'i think i just miss my lil tattooshop au' LOL

i can very easily see a continuation of this <3 maybe hopefully i could have something up on ao3 by may. theyre not mermaids but sirens and selkies are close enough for mermay, right?

#asks #selkie au

29 notes · View notes

jackwolfes · 2 years

Note

18, 19, 20, 31 <33

[questions]

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end.

i struggled so hard with this because so much of my writing is based on whims! like, i kind of just... write things. at the very least if there's a thought process or practice behind it (which i know there must be) i'm not self aware enough to comment 😂 except like. there's a lot of deliberate effort with themes and motifs, it's just it's super hard to pull out the bigger picture on a snippet by snippet basis -- so i could share a seemingly simple snippet from my arranged marriage WIP, but it'd only be on reflection once the whole thing is up that i'd be able to point out the thematic patterns that i was putting into it! does that make sense?

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

the very first fanfic i ever wrote was handwritten on loose-leaf paper, and it was hetalia fanfic (i was like. 12. one of them was a little mermaid au.) then it went very questionable homestuck fanfic (2012) > a shit ton of haikyuu fanfic, some of which is still on my ao3 and most of which is orphaned (2016) > many attempts at little yuri on ice/adventure zone fics, none of which ever got finished (2017) > radio silence until i got back into pjo mid pandemic because i was severely depressed and needed some sort of creative task (2020) > lots of rwrb fic (2021) > S&B reigniting my soc fixation (2021) > now

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you’ve always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

ok here's the thing: i would love to finish a perfect wip, but also! this is a hobby that makes the rest of my life better. i enjoy writing, even though my writing isn't perfect, and is clumsy, and is silly and sometimes falls short of my ideal. i'm more than happy with that, and my eternal happiness with the love of my life would likely include writing silly fics with and for her, none of which are perfect but all of which are good and make me happy 💖 so, picking the LOML & some non-perfect fics

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

i don't know how to do this without being too honest, but i hope y'all know that there's a lot that y'all do for me -- online, in the real world, with tangible, physical impacts -- that has made my life better, and i don't take that lightly

#long post #asks #anon #these are all so thought provoking i enjoyed this!!!

4 notes · View notes

isabellehemlock · 3 years

Text

AO3 Celebration + Prompts

I am honestly floored, and humbled with gratitude, to share that as of today I have reached 50k hits? What, how?? I - cannot begin to describe how much this means to me and how grateful I am for each and every one of these! 🙏🏻❤

As most writers will tell you, write for yourself first, but it has truly been humbling to read comments from readers who say they resonated with a fic, or a scene, or a character (or even better, felt seen). Plenty of my fics are just well, pwf haha, but in general I do try to also write stories/themes that I would have loved to read growing up, or heck just even now.

So I dived in and published my first one in August of last year, and uh, wrote a lot since then 🙃 I've shared before, but my therapist pointed out once that I must have had a lot to say and found a way to say it, and I think she might be onto something 😅

If you want to check out some of them, here's my author page, but really this post is about me wanting to give a thank you to you loves and this fandom in general. So, for one week, I'm opening up my ask box and welcoming prompt suggestions that I'll upload on AO3 over the next few weeks as I fill them (depending on how many I get, which for all I know might just be one haha). Once they're all done, I'll share a master post of them all on tumblr as well 🥳

I've got several more things planned through the summer, so I'm not slowing down anytime soon haha ~ but it really does mean the world to me to reach this humbling milestone and I truly appreciate the love and encouragement 💕 Thank you from the bottom of my heart 🙏🏻

Alright, below the cut, the prompt list!

Based on some awesome prompt lists I saw floating around, I pieced this one together:

(Feel free to pick one from each category to help flesh out the ficlets - Boy I will try to keep it under 500!)

Pairings for the TOG Fandom (Canon or AU)

Kaysanova // Book of Nile // Immortal Wives // Andy x Booker // Andy x Quynh x Lykon

Pairings for the Luca + Marwan Multiverse

Pierre x Roberta // Fabio x Majid // Daan x Paolo

Ratings

Really any, but please do specify in your ask :) I don't personally write dark fics or extreme kinks but the explicit stuff is well, explicit 😅

Tropes

Rom/Com // Enemies to Lovers // Found Family //Hurt/Comfort // First Time // Baby/Kidfic

Dialogue prompts

"Can I kiss you?"

"Are you cold?"

"Do you trust me?"

"I don't think we can keep this up forever."

"Why are you naked?"

"You're choosing now to flirt with me?"

"Why are you bleeding?"

"I'm in love with you."

"I missed you so much."

"I can't stay away from you."

"Please don't cry."

"Please wake up."

"Please just kiss me already."

"I'm here for you."

"Are we on a date right now?"

"If I die, I'm haunting you first."

"But I've never told you that before."

"I've learned to love you."

"What do you remember?"

"I don't know if I want to yell at you, or kiss you."

"Another nightmare?"

"Are you afraid of me?"

"Come home."

"I did it again, didn't I?"

"I'm not going to fight you."

"Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

"I can't do this without you."

"Go big or go home."

"Please stay."

Scenarios for TOG canon

Pre canon, really any historical time frame + country, or post canon + country

Scenarios for AUs

A/B/O // Actor // Ghost // Lawyer // Marriage // Mermaid // Neighbor // Parent // Penpal // Social Media

There's a lot of combo possibilities, and I'm excited to see what y'all pair together ❤

#celebration #AO3 writer #fic writing celebration #tog fandom #fandom mom #the old guard #writing prompts #writing prompt challenge #for queue

33 notes · View notes

blackberry-gingham · 3 years

Note

Got to be honest... I love the mermaidau! theme too. Could you pls give us a pt2 cause I need to know how is their rlp gonna evolve. (Feel like even writing a hole 2k word fanfic with this au and im not ashamed 😂)

(Pst, anon is referring to this request!)

Mwaaaha yeeees... YEEEEES !!!! I'm so glad you guys like this au lmao 😂😂 All I have to say is, I hope y'all can come through with this mermaid au when summer hits, bc that's my JAM 😤

Even if I don't get another mermaid au request until then, like please y'all, I'm begging you lol

But anyways, tumblr has decided that doing all four on here is too long, so I’m posting half now and I’ll link Paul and Ringo before the day’s over! (Also bc I lost like half of Ringo's story last night, and I have to rewrite it, so rip :') ) Enjoy!

Paul and Ringo this way!

George

It's quite a bit before George can see you again

He had to take up a job, even with school, and practice, and family, and friends, and the occasional gig... just to save up

But when he finally got enough to buy that bike... It was all worth it

It's almost as prized a possession as his guitar, and the very next day after purchasing it, he loads up a blanket and some food and heads off for the lake

The ride from home to the water is a bit long, but nothing he can't handle

At long last, he arrives at the tiny pier and he can hardly contain himself as he sets the kickstand and grabs his things

He rushes down and sets up shop

In his excitement, George has forgotten to consider whether or not you'll even show...

But he doesn't want to give up yet

So he waits

And waits

And after a few hours pass by, he decides he might as well have his lunch instead of skipping rocks and wading in the water all afternoon

George swims over to the edge of the pier and clasps into the plank to hoist himself up

But before he can complete the maneuver, he finds himself jerked back down again

It's gentle enough that he doesn't get submerged, but it's certainly enough to give him a start

He splutters and flails a little, turning around as quick as he can to see...

Oh, it's you...

George breathes a sigh of relief, even as your eyes watch him from just above the water line, your hair floating on the surface like an angel

Your eyes go wide in excitement, and you peak your head all the way above the water, giving a soft gasp of surprise

"It is you! I can't believe you came back!"

George's heart hammers in his chest, whether it's from the surprise, the physical activity, or something else... He doesn't know

"O-of course I am! I said I would, didn't I?"

You laugh, "So you did! ...By the way, what have you got up there?"

George looks over his shoulder to the picnic basket that's clearly in view, then back at you

He waves you over and pulls himself up at last

When he's turned around, you've disappeared and George's heart drops

Well, not for long. A moment passes, followed by a huge splash as you jump from the water to the pier

It's not a perfect jump, as you need to pull yourself up a bit, but you make it well enough

George is halfway through unloading the basket, but he finds himself incredibly distracted by your tail

He doesn't mean to be rude it's just... It's almost like you weren't real before now

The tail is nearly twice the length that human legs would be. It tapers all the way down to a fine and delicate point that flares out into a transparent, forked fin

There are smaller fins like this along the rest of your tail, George notes, providing gorgeous accents to your shimmering iridescent scales

You swish your tail behind you, feeling a bit shy

George shakes himself out of his stupor, "Oh, sorry! I just... Wow"

You huff a laugh and mumble a thanks, not quite out of the awkwardness

"Um, here, I brought you something", George hands you a carefully wrapped sandwich

You give it a sniff and wait for George to taste his first

It tastes fantastic. Unlike anything you've ever had before

George tells you it's called a "ham and cheese"

Before you know it, the two of you jump into a whole conversation about life above and below water

You talk all afternoon and into the evening. George, doesn't even realize how low the sun's set until he takes a moment to stretch and look up

"Oh, I suppose you should be going..."

"Yeah..."

George looks at you and then the water one more time

It's like a pool of gold out there, the orange and yellow reflecting so beautifully on the water

"Say, how about one more swim?", George nods towards the water

Needless to say, you both race in for a last dip

You swim laps around George as he move slowly through the water, and you find yourself growing bored rather quick

"Ugh, here hold on!", You laugh and roll your eyes as you latch onto George from beneath

He doesn't protest, and you tow him easily back and forth through the water

It's not as fast as you could go, but it's faster then George has ever achieved on his own

It's actually great fun, but all things must end, and after a few rounds you glide to a stop surrounded by golden ripples

You sigh and look around, letting him go, "Sorry, it's late. I didn't mean to get so carried away..."

George wades just inches away from you, "No no, it's alright! I um, I had fun"

"Really?", You smile

"Really...", George floats a little closer to you, and you can feel his warm breath caress your hair, "In fact, m-maybe we could do this again sometime?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah..."

Before he even gives a thought to what he's doing George's lips meet yours halfway, pressing far softer then you'd expect from a rough teddy boy like himself

It's one of those kisses where you don't even have to think, or give subtle hints

Everything just feels right

Your heart does a flip when you separate, and George sticks by his promise

It gets to the point where you have a schedule to meet each other, getting the most out of your daylight hours

From now on, no more waiting

Just you, and him.

John

John's been visiting you for quite some time now, bringing you shiny things on occasion, but mostly just enjoying your company

You're on a first name basis and everything

It's strange almost, John feels quite special

After all, he might be the only lad in all of England to befriend a mermaid!

Although lately, he's been feeling... Different about you

He must be mad

But it's just...

You're so sweet, and kind, and you listen and understand him like no one else ever has before, an-

Ugh

He must be going mad

That would certainly explain why he's buying you a locket with his latest savings

It may be from a second hand store, but he knows you'll love it

The locket is shaped like a heart and made of brass

The metal is a bit tarnished but the small heart shaped ruby in the center is bright as ever

It's perfect

John takes it home and hides it away from Mimi

She doesn't know about you, but she has some suspicions about a girl...

That's certainly not something John wants to talk about, so he's trying to be as covert about you and him as possible

But before he can hand off his gift to you, he needs to sneak one of Mimi's pictures of him

She has a few up in the attic, which John is easily able to swipe and cut out to fit in your locket

There. Now it's perfect

John gets a good night's rest and heads out bright and early to your cove the very next day

He arrives to find you splayed out on a bed of shells and trinkets, sun bathing

"Hello birdy!"

You spring up and turn to face him, "Johnny!"

Patches of sand stick to your skin, shimmering like glitter in the sun

John whips off his leather jacket and shirt as he goes to sit beside you before removing his boots and socks as well

It's a bit of a custom for him ever since he started feeling comfortable around you

The beach is rather hot, yes, but more so, he likes that you make him feel confident enough to take all that off in the first place

You don't know this, but it's a huge sign of the trust he has in you

The two of you talk and catch up a bit on the few days you were apart

John tells you about school, and you about your adventures at sea

Both of you are equally fascinated about each other's worlds, and both wish a bit that they could live like the other does

You've offered to take John out to sea, but he's not to keen on wading that far out in the ocean

When the conversation starts to run dry, John remembers his gift at last

"Oh by the way, I brought you something..."

You perk up, not suspecting anything other then the usual shiny pebble or coin

But then again, John seems... Different

You could swear you see a blush climbing his cheeks

"I uh, saw this and thought of you...", He holds out an old, worn locket. The Ruby heart and tarnished brass flash and glint in the sunlight, mesmerizing you

You gasp softly, and reach for it slowly, as though you're dreaming

"Do you fancy it?", John asks nervously

"John, this is beautiful..."

You click the heart open and reveal a raggedly cut picture of John smirking back at you from behind a heart shaped lid of glass

You trace your finger along the picture's edge, a trance like glaze over your eyes

"I um, I thought maybe you could wear this one... You know, that way you could always have me with you when you go out to sea... Or... Something", John mumbles, wondering if he sounds even half as stupid as he thinks he does

He peaks over at you once, then twice as you look at it in silence

"It's alright, you don't have to-"

"Could you put it on me?"

John looks stunned, as though he's surprised you actually like his well thought out gift

"Uh, I- sure"

You hand him the necklace and turn

John lifts it over your head and lowers it slowly

The metal is warm from John's hands as it touches your skin, and John fastens the clasp in a jiffy

"There you are..."

You turn around again, eyes shining brightly with joy, the heart clasped in the palm of your hand

A knot forms in John's stomach, seeing you look so happy with him like that, and suddenly he feels sick

He has to say it

He knows be does

He has to tell you now, or it's going to kill him

And yet, if he does tell you, that might kill him too

"Ugh, I must be mad..."

You quirk an eyebrow, "Wha-?"

"I love you", John blurts it out as though it was tortured out of him

It's not very sweet, or romantic, or charming...

No, it's actually much more like he just spat on the sand and continued on

But you know John by now, and to you, it's more then enough

You put your hand over his and lean in to press a gentle kiss to his burning cheek

"I love you too Johnny"

John's breath hitches in his throat, and looks at you with a gaze he's never given any other woman in the world

"Really?" His voice is the barest of whispers

But you don't need to answer, John is already pulling you in for a kiss as he lays back on your small pile of treasure

It's not his first make out session, and it won't be his last

But with you? Right here, on the beach, in the warm sun, laying cozied up on his bare torso?

It's the one he remembers most, for all his life

#the beatles #john lennon x reader #george harrison x reader #mermaid!reader #the beatles x reader #beatles imagines

42 notes · View notes

nikibogwater · 3 years

Text

Two Worlds, One Family--a Mermaid AU oneshot

I don't know, y'all, it's ten after one and I can't think of any other titles so just accept the cheesey Phil Collins reference and go with it--

A few weeks ago, my dear FMA Buddy Willow requested a fic set in my Merman!Douxie AU (you can see the rough character designs for that here). Well, today, I desperately needed a break from working on the RotT fic, but I also still felt like writing, so I sat down and cranked this one out in basically one sitting.

It uh, sort of got away from me, I'll admit lol.

We've got sappy Siren!Zoe x Merman!Douxie, Underwater Found Family, Archie having to be the Adult of the group, and also an honest-to-goodness argument between our favorite Magical Siblings, which is something I've sort of always wanted to tackle, but I was never able to find a good way to do it while sticking to current canon. Here, they're both younger and have been in a pod together for several hundred years, allowing the stress of their situation to build up and--Y'know what, I'll just let you guys read the dang thing now.

~~~~~

The black waves rolled beneath an inky, starless sky. A freezing wind cut through the air like a knife. Salty foam sprayed up from where the water lapped against Zoe’s perch. It was a thoroughly miserable night to be away from her nest.

But still, she waited.

She shivered and folded her wings around herself tightly. Twenty-seven years, one-hundred and eighty-three days. That was how long it had been since she’d last seen him. He had said in his last message that he would be here tonight. And so, no matter how fiercely the wind beat against her, no matter how badly the freezing spray stung as it hit her, she refused to move. Douxie’s life was already haunted by uncertainties and betrayals. She would rather die than contribute to such things.

Finally, she heard him. His call was masked beneath the sound of the sea, but she could feel it reverberating through her like a roll of thunder--the steady, fast-paced, yet gentle clicks of a merman searching for his mate.

Her wings snapped open, and though the rush of cold air that met her was unpleasant, she didn’t flinch. Electric blue eyes stared fixedly at the water below her for a moment. And then she finally saw it--the silvery sheen of moonlight hitting dark blue scales.

Zoe didn’t even wait for him to make it all the way to the surface before she dove in.

Douxie tumbled back in the water as she slammed into him, and for a few joyous moments, his world was made up entirely of swirling bubbles, warm feathers, and the feeling of Zoe in his arms. He had just enough sense to bring both of them back up to the surface before her lips were on his. Her wings closed around him tightly, and he could feel the tingle of her electric magic in the water around him, but she was just as careful as ever. She’d never shocked him, not in all the years they’d known each other.

“Sorry I’m late,” he breathed, once she’d pulled back for air. She shook her head, nose brushing against his.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said gruffly. Her voice was choked with tears, but he knew better than to point that out. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

“I never would have guessed,” he chuckled, trailing a few kisses down her cheek as she huffed and half-heartedly swatted his shoulder. There were a few moments of silence as they simply held each other, broken only by the sound of the waves and a few soft, contented clicks from Douxie. Zoe had asked him centuries ago why he always clicked when he was happy. He’d seemed genuinely surprised to hear that she didn’t do the same. Merperson biology was a very strange thing indeed. Finally, Zoe picked her head up from his shoulder and looked him in the eye.

“Nari and Archie?”

“Safe,” he answered. “They wanted to see you, but I didn’t want to risk bringing Nari up to the surface, and Archie agreed to stay with her. We had a close call with the Order a few weeks ago off the coast of Ireland--they never actually saw her, and I don’t think they know she’s been hiding in the ocean but...” He shook his head, sighing wearily. “...They can’t know where she is. Not ever. I just couldn’t let her come with me tonight.”

“I understand,” Zoe said, brushing his wet bangs out of his eyes.

“How is the flock?” Douxie asked.

“...Surviving,” she replied after a moment’s hesitation. “...We lost Ariadne to a navy ship two years ago. They shot her right out of the air....took her body on board and we couldn’t get her back. We don’t know what they did with her corpse.” She felt him shudder at the news. He pulled her back in and kissed her temple.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed, and she knew he meant it, knew he felt her pain as keenly as if it was his own. He always was a little too empathetic for his own good. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that, so she simply clutched him tight and let him stroke her hair, as the waves gently rocked the both of them.

“The world’s getting more and more dangerous for people like us,” she murmured into his shoulder. “And the ironic thing is now it’s all because of mortals. As if angry demigods and warmongering trolls weren’t enough on their own.”

“Killahead tipped the balance in their favor. But I’d hoped they would use that as an opportunity to make peace with magic. Not try to exterminate it for good...”

“You’ve always put too much faith in humans, Douxie,” Zoe sighed.

“Perhaps,” he admitted, hand still carding idly through her feathery locks. “...Merlin was a human too, though.” Zoe snorted at that.

“If that crotchety old windbag was the best humanity has to offer, then it’s no wonder things turned out like this.”

“He saved my life, Zoe,” Douxie argued softly, pulling back to look her in the eye. “I would never have met you if it weren’t for him.”

“I still say he was a far ways off from being a ‘good man,’” she retorted. “...But I understand your loyalty to him.” Douxie felt her right wing shift around him--the same one he had bandaged and tended all those centuries ago. “...Enough of that. I have more important news for you. There’s talk of a secret community of magical creatures like us forming in the New World--a settlement off the western coast. The trolls found a new Hearthstone there, and they’re building a sanctuary. The water there is supposed to be charged with all kinds of magic, and I’ve even heard rumors about merpeople living there. The flock has decided to migrate there, at least temporarily. I would advise you to do the same. Nari would be happier in warmer waters, and there’s a chance you could join a larger pod there. You haven’t seen one of your own species in centuries, right? And we...” she faltered, realizing that she was letting her eagerness get the better of her now. “...we could be together again. No more of these long separations.”

“...It almost sounds too good to be true,” Douxie breathed.

“Maybe it is,” Zoe chuckled mirthlessly. “But we won’t know unless we check it out for ourselves. I’m leaving with the flock in the morning.”

“I’ll....consider it,” Douxie relented. “If it was just me and Arch, I’d be on my way there tonight, no hesitation. But now that I have Nari to protect--”

“I get it,” Zoe cut him off quickly. “I just....thought I’d let you know. In case it works out somehow.” She looked down, the hand that was resting over his heart clenching into a fist.

“...Hey.” Douxie tilted her chin back up to look her in the eye. “Whatever happens, wherever we go, I know we’ll always find each other again. That’s what it means to be a pod.”

“...Right.” Zoe gave a half-hearted laugh, and gently bumped her forehead against his. “Alright. Now I want to know what you’ve been getting up to. Tell me everything.”

“We’d be here all night if I did that,” Douxie chuckled.

“Sounds good to me,” Zoe murmured, drawing him close once more.

*****

Douxie didn’t return until it was almost sunrise.

Nari hadn’t been expecting anything else, but she still couldn’t help the way her heart twisted in her chest at the sight of his exhausted, melancholy countenance. He slipped into the den quietly, stopping just long enough to renew the concealing spells around the entrance, before floating to the floor with a sigh, burying his face in a still-sleeping Archie’s fur. He’d hardly been there a full minute when he blearily opened one eye, and looked around as though he was missing something.

“Nari?” he whispered into the darkness. “Everything alright?” He must have felt her aura--there were times when Nari found the magical bond they shared somewhat inconvenient. She sighed, unhooked her tail from the frond she had anchored herself to, and flitted over to him.

“All is well. I....woke early.” The truth was, she’d been awake for most of the night, head too cluttered up with unwanted thoughts to let her rest. She curled her tail up beneath her and settled on the floor. “How is Zoe?”

“Beautiful,” Douxie answered without thinking, then turned bright red. Nari stifled a giggle in her hand. “I-I mean she’s fine. The flock’s down to just twelve sirens now... The mortals are getting braver and more dangerous. They’re going to fly west and try to find safer nesting grounds.” He paused, his tail swishing up and down thoughtfully.

“...Douxie?” Nari prodded.

“Zoe was telling me about a settlement across the ocean--a secret community of magical creatures. There’s a Trollmarket near the coast, and....possibly merpeople like me. That’s where she and her flock are going now. She... She wants us to go too.”

“This idea troubles you,” Nari observed, feeling the way his aura was turning with uncertainty. “Why?”

“It’s quite literally on the other side of the world,” Douxie explained. “We would have to cross open waters to get there, and even with my magic, the journey could take months. There’s no guarantee we would be able to find safe places to hide on the way, and even once we get there...” He sighed, ears drooping slightly. “...I don’t know if we’d really be safe.”

“We will never be safe anywhere, Douxie,” Nari said softly. “For as long as you are with me, you will be in danger. The Order will continue to search for me. They will not stop until they have found me and opened the Genesis Seals. They are not limited by time and space as we are. They could find me on the other side of the world just as easily as they could here.” She hated the way his aura seemed to grow cold as she spoke, his hand clenching against the stone he was resting on.

“...So what are you saying?” he asked after a long pause. “Do you think we should go?” Nari looked down, hands wringing in her lap.

For nearly five-hundred years, Douxie and Archie had dedicated their lives to caring for her. They had been her fins when she was still learning to swim, her warmth in the cold, deep waters of the north. They had been her guardians, and more than that, they had been her brothers. Both Douxie and Archie had taken her into their tiny pod, accepted her as one of their own, though she could not be more different from them if she tried. She had lost count of the number of times they bled for her, and she for them, as they fought to withstand the dangers of the sea together.

But she could never ignore the longing she felt in Douxie’s spirit, his heartache every time he was forced to part with Zoe in order to take Nari to safer waters. She couldn’t blind herself to the tears she knew he shed when he thought he was alone, couldn’t pretend all was well when that empty space in his heart hurt so much he couldn’t keep his aura from twisting in pain.

Which was why she now found herself telling him something she had never wanted to tell him.

“...I think you and Archie should go,” she whispered. “...and I will stay.”

Douxie’s tail thrashed suddenly, and his soul sparked with something akin to anger. Archie snorted and whipped his head up, ears perked and blearily searching for the source of his Familiar’s distress.

“No.” Douxie’s voice was hard as he grasped her by the shoulder. “That’s not an option.”

“You know it is, Douxie!” Nari argued. “You are not bound to me by the laws of magic, I am not your appointed ward--You could be with Zoe if you would only--”

“If I would only what? Cast out one of my own? Break my pod apart?!”

“Who are we casting out...?” Archie yawned. “Can it wait until morning, perhaps?”

“But you love her!” Nari argued desperately. “You deserve to be with her, you deserve better than this.”

“And I also love you! I don’t give a damn about the wizarding customs, you are part of my family, and down here, family is just as much of a binding contract as any ward-appointment or whatever!”

“Oh for the love of Poseidon, didn’t you two just have this fight not three decades ago?” Archie snapped. “Nari, you know how important pods are to merpeople--that includes mates, friends, offspring, and siblings. We leave none behind, no matter the cost. And if you’ve got a problem with that, well you should have considered that before agreeing to come with us all those centuries ago. I did try to warn you, after all. Now both of you, settle down and get some sleep, for goodness’ sake! It sounds like we have a long swim ahead of us.” He swam around in a circle three times, and resettled on the ground. Douxie opened his mouth to argue further, but Archie grabbed the front of his shirt with his teeth and pulled him down on top of him. “I said settle down,” he huffed. “You too, Nari. I know you were awake half the night working yourself into this state.”

“I was not working myself into anything,” she grumbled, curling up between Archie’s paws.

A long, heavy silence fell upon them. Nari could feel Douxie’s aura gradually settling, as anger gave way to exhaustion. She could have sworn he was almost asleep, when suddenly, his hand found hers and squeezed it.

“...I won’t settle for less Nari,” he whispered. “That’s why I won’t leave you. I need all of you--Zoe, Archie, and you, and I won’t....I can’t stop fighting until all of you are safe, and we can all be together. I know Zoe will be alright with her flock, and we can always find each other again. But I won’t leave you to face the Order on your own.” She heard him shift, readjusting his head where it was pillowed against Archie. “...I’d rather die.”

Nari swallowed the knot that rose in her throat and squeezed his hand in return.

“...Merpeople are so very unusual,” she murmured. “Even after all this time, I’ll never fully understand you, or your ways. But....I am truly happy to be part of them--part of your pod--even if I cannot fathom these sorts of bonds.”

“You’ll get it eventually,” Douxie huffed. “...Anyways, Arch was right--”

“I’m always right,” the Familiar interjected without bothering to open his eyes.

“--we should get some sleep. I guess we have a long journey ahead of us.”

“You have decided then?” Nari asked.

“The opportunity’s too good to pass up. Just promise me you’ll stay with us.”

“...Alright,” she whispered. “I promise.” There was another pause. “...And I love you too. More than I know how to say. That is why it hurts so much to know when you are suffering.”

“I know.” Douxie’s hand squeezed hers one more time, and Archie shifted his head to rest across her shoulders.

Come what may, they had to stay together. That was what it meant to be a pod. And though the thought of the journey ahead of them was daunting, it was made easier by the knowledge that they would undertake it together. And that at the end of it, the last missing part of their family was waiting for them. The pod would be whole again at last, safe in a secret haven for all displaced magical creatures.

A haven that would, in another few centuries, come to be known as Arcadia Oaks, California.

Hope you enjoyed, Willow! Thanks for reading. ✨

#tales of arcadia #toa #toa fanfiction #douxie #toa zoe #zouxie #toa archie #toa nari #the magical siblings #and their therapy cat #mermaid au #i don't know how this happened but i hope you guys like it

13 notes · View notes