#frigid the penguin

[pocketscribbs]

Some OCs I did as design experiments

Doodle was my test to see if I could make a character with fur completely covering their eyes in a franchise with characters known for big eyes

(edit: changed her full name to Mazie Doodle)

And Frigid was just me seeing if a penguin could work in the Sonic style(apparently there was a penguin in Archie, didn’t learn that ‘til after I made Fridge)

Had a lot of fun designing these guys, would love to hear your thoughts on them!

[bloodmoon24]

Figure Skating

(feat. Frigid the Penguin)

Ice and Sickle belongs to me, Frigid belongs to @pocketscribbs

[dailylooneys]

Frigid Hare

(1949, Chuck Jones)

[cartoon-network-pictures]

Happy Antarctica Day! (Watch out for that annoying penguin.)

[01zfan]

housequake | j. sc

soccer team captian!sungchan x cheerleader! fem. reader | 6.2k words

contains: house party, drug mention, random idols mentioned for world building, sex but no penetration (HEHE)

you could feel the sidewalk underneath the soles of your feet. your cheering shoes weren’t meant to be on anything other than synthetic turf and a gymnasium floor. you could practically feel the expensive material of your shoes wearing down as they rubbed against the concrete. 

you shouldn’t have been out in the cold weather. it was a fools february, the approach to spring should’ve brought warmer weather but instead it still felt like winter. the fact that you had to cheer in this weather outside was insane, but it was even more insane that your team chose to stand outside to do drugs. the sweats you threw on before jumping in karina’s car did nothing for you, the frigid night air piercing right through the material. your girls all thought the same, clumped together on the sidewalk like penguins. 

the team stayed together in a huddle the same way you guys did at games. the only difference that instead of pom poms your girls passed around a cigarette, a joint, and a small baggie of something you wouldn’t be taking. each time the cigarette was offered you shook your head. your team never pressured you to take anything but it was strange for you to be so straight edge. you tried it a long time ago like most people your age did when the chance arose. but every time you took a puff of anything it just didn’t feel right. you hid your avoidance of drugs and nicotine under the guise of strict parents, but you just didn’t have a taste for it.

you had been on the team long enough to see various teammates on their benders and tolerance breaks. it was like an involuntary D.A.R.E. program, seeing the effect drugs and alcohol had on your teammates. you remember seeing karina and ningning come to practice with shades on and they moved slowly the whole time. you also remember several people on your team being gone for periods of time. the reason was always a vacation, but you learned early on that was a code word for rehab. you never thought you were better than them, you had your own fair share of self destructive tendencies. 

when ryujin offered you her vape you shook head, nestling further into your varsity jacket. the jacket was bulky but still failed to keep you warm.

“you sure?” ryujin asks.

you nod and ryujin shrugs her shoulders before taking another hit. you’re confused how ryujin isn’t shivering from only wearing the teams hoodie. karina looks over from her spot in the cluster to ryujin and her vape.

“nobody wants a hit of that mango shit.” karina laughs.

she passed the cigarette to ningning. ningning laughs after taking a drag, fake passing it to ryujin.

“smoke a cigarette or joint like a real woman” ningning joked.

everyone in the huddle laughed, including ryujin. the smoke came out of her mouth in a cough, the joke catching in her throat. you laughed with your team too, loving the dynamic your team has set. nothing beat the bonding you had with your team outside of the house parties, away from the loud music where it was just you guys. you enjoyed this part more than the parties itself. another cold breeze runs through your group and you shake again. you loved your girls, but you felt like you were going to freeze to death if you stayed outside any longer. you were grateful to see the joint and cigarette gone and the baggie had disappeared too. soon you’d be back in the heat of shotaro’s place surrounded by warm bodies.

just as karina’s cigarette was coming to its end, a car pulled up to the curb. karina turned to face the car and the rest of the team followed her lead, looking to see who it was. you only had to take a single look before you knew, turning to face the huddle to try and hide your body.

eunseok in the driver’s seat came out first. he was followed by the back doors opening. anton, sohee, seunghan, and wonbin came out one by one, complaining about the lack of room. sungchan came out last, opening the passenger side and trailing behind the group. 

“the guests of honor are here.” yunjin said mockingly.

yunjin put out her cigarette on the concrete while the rest of the team made sounds of acknowledgement. 

your team tried their best to seem annoyed by the soccer team, but everyone knew it was a facade. just like in all the highschool movies, a majority of the cheerleading team had something with a majority of the soccer team. there was even some overlap in some cases—although this was vehemently denied by both parties. you were sure members of your team were currently secretly seeing boys on the soccer team. you saw the quick looks minjeong and wonbin exchanged, or how anton tried his best to talk to yunjin. their fling from two summers ago still shook you to your core when you thought about it.

to your knowledge, you were the last one on your team that had avoided being woo’ed by the players on the soccer team. it was definitely hard, especially because it was sungchan that had caught your attention. he was the dependable captain of the team, leading them through a flawless season. each time they put him on the field he won, eventually making him the youngest captain they’ve ever had. sungchan succeeded off the field too, involved in the top ten percent of his class. it was almost unfair how perfect he was, but it was even more unfair that you had to pretend like you didn’t want him.

sungchan’s attention went to you first. you could feel his eyes burning holes through your varsity jacket, waiting for you to turn around and acknowledge him. you caught him just in the last moment, seeing him clear shotaro’s cement steps with one lunge. the other boys made it much more obvious that they were trying to catch the cheerleaders attention, some of them even stopping to talk to your group.

“do you have another?” eunseok asked, pointing to karina’s cigarette.

“not for you.” karina said.

the cheerleaders laughed and karina gave eunseok a smirk before dropping the cigarette to the curb to stomp it out. eunseok smiled back at karina, hands tucked into his letterman jacket. you knew that eunseok was even more straight edge than you and was just searching for an excuse to speak to karina. you looked between the two of them, the tension so thick you felt like you were intruding on a personal moment. 

you turned your head to follow sungchan, watching him walk to the door of shotaro’s house. you saw him hug his best friend before following him inside, disappearing behind the closed front door. you suddenly really wanted to go back inside. you shifted on your heels and made eye contact with ryujin, the only one of your teammates that wasn’t chatting with one of the soccer players. you and ryujin both flicked your heads towards shotaro’s door at the same time.

ryujin nods and slips her vape into her sweatpants pocket, walking through the huddle of your distracted teammates. you two don’t even bother telling your team where you are going, the words would be drowned out in the conversations and intense stares. 

you and ryujin giggle about your team while walking through the lawn. you walk quickly through the trimmed grass, trying to get out of the cold as quick as possible.

“they pretend like they hate those boys until they come around.” ryujin says.

“to be fair, you’re the same way with chaeryeong.” you say.

ryujin is quiet for a moment and you think you might’ve struck a nerve. chaeryeong and ryujin have had an on-again-off-again relationship for as long as you can remember. one day they’re madly in love the next they can’t stand eachother. you had lost track of where they were at now, but you were sure it was off currently because ryujin hated coming to parties alone. you’re lucky ryujin found the humor in your comment, her vaporized laugh coming out in a cloud as she shook her head. 

”you got me there,” ryujin pauses on the porch and you stop with her. you see her take out her vape again and you fight the urge to ask her to smoke inside. “i think she’s here at the party tonight.” ryujin said.

ryujin takes a hit of her vape before she looks at you. she eyes you up and down before smirking and blowing out the smoke into the night.

“what about you, huh?” ryujin asks.

her smile only intensifies seeing you suddenly avoid her eye contact, looking past ryujin to focus on shotaro’s trimmed hedges.

“i don’t know what you’re talking about.” you say shyly.

ryujin tsks and pokes your chest, bringing your attention back to her.

“don’t act like the team doesn’t see it.” ryujin takes another pull from her vape. “you and the captain song kang—”

“sungchan.” you correct.

ryujin gives you a straight-faced expression.

“that’s what i said.” ryujin says.

you nod your head, not in the mood to start an argument with ryujin. she shrugs her shoulder and looks for her next words.

“anyways. i see how you two look at eachother. you just need to get it over with already.” ryujin says. 

“i don’t know what you’re talking about.” you say coyly.

“you don’t know shit apparently. you don’t do drugs and you don’t fuck, i don’t know why you’re a cheerleader.” ryujin remarks.

you look at ryujin and crack a smile, ryujin does the same. a second later you are both laughing, so hard that your chests hurt. ryujin almost chokes on her laughs and you hit her back, all while still laughing.

when you both gather your senses and the tears are wiped, ryujin looks at you expectantly. you realize she hasn’t let the topic go, you sigh heavily and look down at your feet. your pristine white shoes have dirt stains on them now.

“i just don’t want to be one of those stereotypes you know. and i know that the soccer team fools around.” you say casually.

ryujin understands what you mean, tilting her head and nodding as she recalls all the instances of the cheerleading team and the soccer team mingling.

“i understand where you’re coming from i really do. but don’t you want to try it? just once?” ryujin asks.

you can’t lie and say you hadn’t thought about it. you felt the stares from sungchan, when he’d walk past you to go on the field or when you’d cheer for him on the sidelines. you had moments of your own, eyeing sungchan while he was at practice, admiring the way he commanded his team and how much they respected him. you had moments less innocent too, mainly during the practices that were held during the summer. sungchan had a body that made you dizzy, six pack and toned body brought from being a multidisciplinary athlete. you started finding reasons to walk by the gym in your school, just to see sungchan weight training with his teammates. 

so in reality you thought about it a little too much. you just shrug your shoulders and ryujin copies you, laughing at how bad you are at hiding everything.

“let’s go inside.” ryujin says.

“thank god.” you exclaim.

ryujin laughs at you as she heads to the front door, opening it with quickly.

the party inside is very different from the small sparse groups that hang out outside. the party rages inside of shotaro’s place, music being drowned out by endless chatter. you’re nearly shoulder to shoulder with your classmates, many of them you did not see at the soccer game. anything for an excuse to party. it’s never been quite to this extent before, it seems like the whole entire student body is crammed in shotaro’s house. ryujin taps your shoulder and points up the stairs. you see shotaro on the landing, scanning the crowd below him over and over again. you see sungchan next to him with a bear in his hand, leaning over the railing. him and shotaro are talking to eachother but both seem preoccupied, shotaro watching the party and sungchan watching you. you feel you body suddenly get hotter, and ryujin looks to you and sungchan before laughing.

“you two are ridiculous.” ryujin says.

you see shotaro follow a drunk couple as they try for an unlocked door, and you see sungchan make his way down the stairs. ryujin stopped paying attention to sungchan a long time ago, her eyes now fixed on chaeryeong who’s getting chatted up by someone at the bar. ryujin doesn’t tell you goodbye before heading towards her girlfriend, leaving you all alone. you can’t come up with an excuse to leave when sungchan approaches you, just you and him in the middle of this house party.

“good job cheering today.” sungchan says awkwardly. 

the beer in his hand has barely been sipped on, you think it might just be there for show. you nod you head and look up at him, trying to figure out what to say.

“good job playing.” you say back.

sungchan nods and rocks back on his feet. why is it suddenly so awkward when other people aren’t around? you and sungchan managed to keep it friendly when your two teams would interact, but now he stood by you and you felt your face heating up and silently begging ryujin to come and save you. 

just as you were looking to see where your friend went, someone coming down from the stairs loses their balance and bumps into you. it sudden and catches you off guard, almost causing you to fall onto sungchan. he holds you upright with just one hand, scowling at the person who bumped into you until they apologize. you turn to stare at the person too until they disappear into the crowd again.

“you alright?” sungchan asks.

he looks genuinely worried as he continues to rub your shoulder. it was nothing more than a bump, the grip he has on you arguably did more damage than the person who fell into you. but you brush it off, there’s no reason to be mad over an accident.

“yeah. i just kind of hate parties.” you say.

“me too.” you look up and see sungchan take a tiny sip of his beer. he hesitates for a moment before leaning down to look at you. “do you want to go somewhere quiet?” he asks.

you can’t stop your eyes from widening at his bold request. you do want to go somewhere quiet but that doesn’t always mean you should. but you think about your conversation outside with ryujin and the conversations your team are still having with the soccer team outside. you’re sure at this point everyone in your life has had their fun except for you. maybe falling into a stereotype won’t be the end of the world. you point to the beer in sungchan’s hand and he gives it to you. you take a sip and it’s better than you thought it would be.

“yeah. let’s go.” you say smiling.

sungchan looks a little surprised himself, pointing up the stairs. he lets you go in front so he can lead you through the crowd, a hand between your two shoulder blades. on your way up the stairs you make eye contact with ryujin who is chatting up chaeryeong. ryujin’s eyes widen when she sees sungchan and elbows chaeryeong so she can see it too. the two give you a thumbs up seeing sungchan follow closely behind you and you try to seem unbothered, failing to hide your big smile.

once you and sungchan make it to the landing he still leads you further down the hallway. you pass by the bathroom, having to squeeze past the line that has formed and pass another door. sungchan knocks on the door and presses his ear to it to see if he can hear anything. a moment later he opens it for you and you walk in.

you can tell instantly that you’re in shotaro’s room. his desk lamp is the only thing that illuminates the space, giving you just enough vision to navigate. his room is clean, with a made bed and no visible messes. you focus on everything else in the room before you turn to sungchan, who has placed his beer on shotaro’s desk.

“is it okay that we are in here?” you ask.

the last thing you need is for shotaro to interrupt you.

“yeah, it’s cool.” sungchan says.

sungchan navigates the room like he’s been here before. you wonder if he has been in this situation with other girls before, sneaking them away during a party to fuck them in his bestfriends room. you try to not think about it too much, if sungchan is using you than you are also using him. the way he is acting around you makes you wonder if he’s done this before. sungchan is almost too afraid to approach you, still standing by the door. his hands are tucked into the pocket of his jeans, and his leather jacket hangs loosely on his body. you want to ask sungchan why he doesn’t wear his varsity jacket like his teammates do, only putting it on on game days. he always chose the black leather jacket first, but you weren’t complaining.

“we don’t have to do anything.” sungchan still stands in the door. “i just wanted to be alone with you.” he says.

sungchan doesn’t know why he tried so hard to get you alone. he doesn’t know why he approached you in the first place. you have been just out of sungchan’s reach for as long as he has known you. the introverted backspot of the team, the hidden member that kept everyone safe. he admired the way you always caught the flyer, or how you called out whatever formation you were going to do. karina was the leader but the show couldn’t be ran without you. 

sungchan wanted to tell you this so many times, but you always kept yourself hidden amongst your girls. sungchan admits that he could’ve came up to you at anytime, but there was something holding him back. maybe the embarrassment of being rejected. he didn’t know how to perceive the looks you gave him, you were elusive to sungchan like an urban myth. sungchan had heard the locker room stories exchanged by his teammates. talks of you being pursued were shut down immediately by sungchan, for reasons he couldn’t quite pinpoint. he could live with just stealing glances of you at games and at school, but he could absolutely not live with the idea of you being hit on by his teammates.

“what if i want to do something?” you said.

sungchan tore his eyes from the floor to look at you. sungchan felt like he understood you even less, the way your demeanor suddenly changed. sungchan watched you take off your varsity jacket and throw it on shotaro’s bed. sungchan watches your every move as you walk over to him. you hold out your hand and sungchan rips out his hand to put his hands in the palm of your hands. 

sungchan is still trying to figure out what is happening when you look up at him. he sees your lidded eyes, the way you bite your lip and grip his hand a little tighter. he hopes you’re nervous too, it might make him feel better about the way his heart beats in his chest.

“this is just a one time thing.” you say.

his mouth is dry when he nods his head. for the first time of the night, it’s you leading sungchan when you grab his hand and lightly pull him. sungchan feels like his feet are glued to the floor until you pull him again. he lets you guide him to the trunk that sits at the foot of shotaro’s bed. 

sungchan sits on the trunk and watches as you kick off your shoes, followed by your sweatpants and panties. it leaves you in just your cheer skirt and socks. he scoots back on the trunk slightly to give you more room. sungchan loves feeling your hands go to his shoulders as you climb on top of him, sitting on his lap.

”i know how you soccer players get down.” you say.

“oh yeah?” sungchan’s large hands on your knees ran up your leg until he makes it to the end of your skirt. he’s hesitant, half expecting you to change your mind. he needs to hear your voice, he wishes he could get you to tell him what to do. “tell me how do we get down?”

sungchan seemed preoccupied, fiddling with the end of your skirt as you sit on his lap. he keeps fanning the end of it out to let the material naturally splay out against his thigh. his hand presses the fabric into his denim, loving the way they look side by side.

sungchan lets his hands travel up the end of your skirt until he makes it to your waist. he lets them rest there only for a moment before experimentally pressing his fingers into your skin. he looks up to you when he has a hold on you he’s satisfied with.

your hands that rest on his shoulders pinch the fabric of his white tee. you try not to arch your back to sungchan to seem so desperate, but its like your chests are connected by a tightening string. your breasts are so close to touching sungchan’s chest it makes you sigh.

“my team tells me all the stories.” you say absentmindedly.

sungchan nods his head like he’s listening before he brings you down on his lap. you pull in a quick and small breath when you feel his dick straining through his jeans, pressing into your clothed heat. the only thing that separates him from you is the thin crotch of your cheer skirt. sungchan has a smirk on his face, happy he has an effect on you.

“what stories?” sungchan asks innocently.

you suddenly can’t think of anything when sungchan’s hands start moving your hips to lightly grind against his length. it’s gentle and slow, but you can feel the way he twitches against you. the sensation is intoxicating to say the least. you actively have to go through memories of group facetime calls and text messages to pull up an example. each time you have it sungchan presses you a down a little harder, forcing you to repeat the process in your mind.

“hooking up. sharing girls, you know.” you say. 

“mhm.” sungchan hums.

your words are hesitant and drawn out when you feel a new sensation against you. sungchan bites his bottom lip when he creeps his hand underneath the waistband of your mini skirt. 

he has to adjust his hand once he makes it inside your skirt, lifting his arm to push his hand into the gap. you gasp when he finds your clit and sungchan lets out a tiny sound himself.

“i’m not a fan of hookups,” sungchan wedges his hand into your skirt further, and smiles when he can feel your arousal on the tips of his fingers. “definitely not a fan sharing.” sungchan says.

you let out a hmph in denial and sungchan tilts his head. his hooded eyes light up from you indirectly saying he’s a liar. even when he has you in such a compromising position you are still defiant, holding onto whatever typecast you assigned him to. for a moment sungchan debates commenting on the sound you made. but he knows for a fact it will lead to an argument that could potentially lead to him being alone in shotaro’s room with a raging boner. so sungchan opts to lightly press the pads of his fingers to your slit—he can talk to you about his standpoint on dating later.

sungchan loves the way you lean your head back and arch your body into him without him even having to penetrate you. his hand on your hip also becomes useless, you starting rotating your hips and pressing yourself into his dick all on your own. sungchan moves his hand to your back to give you stability, egging you on to become more reckless with your hips.

“you’re so beautiful.” sungchan says. 

“so are you.” you say.

sungchan laughs at how fast you respond too him, letting anything you think of fall from your lips. he pulls back from you only for a moment to discard himself of his shirt, loving the way your eyes rake down his upper body. he doesn’t move to help you with yours until your hands start messing with the bottom hem of your tee. sungchan is distracted by your chest, sucking on the top of your breast that isn’t covered by your bra. you lift yourself up and sungchan tries his best to unclasp your bra but his shaking hands fail him multiple times and your moans distract him. 

“can you cum just from this?” sungchan asks in amazement.

“i think so,” you look up from where your hips meet to look sungchan in his eyes. he looks up a beat later than you, his eyes wide from dismay. “can you?” you ask.

sungchan looks down again at your bare pussy and his dick. the crotch covering of your skirt has been pushed away by sungchan long ago, letting him see all of you. even in shotaro’s dimly lit room he can see how its glistening from your slick. he didn’t know a sight like this existed outside of the scripted scenes of shitty pornos. but here sungchan was, sitting on a trunk in his friends room getting high off of grinding on your labia like he’s never been intimate with someone before. sungchan nods his head, tightening his hand that holds your body.

“i think so.” sungchan responds.

you nod your head and change the way you move your hips. you spread your legs a little wider, and sungchan moves his hand on your inner thigh to the other side, pressing your thighs together. you fight against his hand just to see if he will do next. you’ve heard tales of the head pushers on the soccer team, and you want to see where sungchan falls on the spectrum. you see the competition in his eyes when you push back against his hand, but a second later sungchan gives in, letting you control how far open your legs are. you smile at sungchan before collapsing your thighs, moving them so close that your knees touch. the angle is awkward and a little painful, but the way sungchan gasps and tilts his head back makes you ignore the discomfort.

you end up becoming perched on sungchan’s legs, and you can feel them hardening underneath you to give you stability.

“thanks.” you say meekly. 

you can feel your face getting hot at your sudden gratitude. sungchan only smiles in acknowledgment, tilting your face up to peck your lips.

“so cute.” sungchan says.

the plush skin of your thighs surround sungchan’s length. he looks down to see his tip peaking out from in between your thighs. he loves seeing the way your thighs give around his hard dick perfectly and the way they jiggle when sungchan thrusts upwards. your whole body moves in tandem with his thrusts. your breasts bounce each time sungchan pulls in and the desperate sound of your skin making contact has you digging your hands into sungchan’s triceps. the pain doesn’t hurt sungchan, only causes him to flex harder and rut between your hips harder.

you have to move a hand from sungchan’s tricep to his shoulder to gain more stability. he’s slowly losing himself in front of your eyes, becoming hastier with his hips. suddenly sungchan gets ahold of himself, looking at you for approval.

“is this enough for you?” sungchan asks.

you let sungchan bring you closer and closer to him, until your chests touch and his dick fits in the space where your thighs meet your hips. his dick is covered by your skirt now, and you waste no time folding the fabric so your can see all of him.

“fuck.” sungchan says. 

each time sungchan thrusts upwards he bumps your clit, causing you to jolt forward. sungchan brings his hands down to press your ass as he backs up on the trunk he’s sitting on. the new amount of space lets you change your position to one more comfortable. you are completely seated on sungchan’s lap as he thrusts upwards, dick stuffed between your folds. 

“oh my god.” you cried. 

sungchan brought one hand from your ass to your clit, slightly lifting you upwards as he moves you. sungchan’s strength when it comes to handling you makes you feel small in the best way, and his athleticism shines through his stamina. you have to stop yourself from asking sungchan to forget about the condom and to just fuck you on his friend’s bed. but the school year just started, you will have plenty of time to properly fuck sungchan. or to have him fuck you. whichever works. 

he’s able to satiate you by spitting on his fingers before bringing it down to your clit, stimulating your bundle of nerves quickly. sungchan stops focusing on thrusting to rotate his fingers on you. he’s so close to being inside of you that you seize around nothing. sungchan presses on your ass and pouts. you close your eyes from the euphoria.

“i can feel you clenching around nothing, baby.” sungchan coos.

you can’t speak anymore, only nod your head and whine when sungchan starts rotating his hand the other way. sungchan kisses your eyelids and you open them. he stares at you intensely and picks up the speed.

“next time can i fuck you?” sungchan asks.

you nod your head. you start lifting your hips and pulling away slightly, the stimulation becoming too much.

“say it.” sungchan says. 

you lock your arm behind sungchans head to pull him closer to you. something about sungchan having to look up to you made you think you were playing the dominant role, but with a simple order you feel yourself folding to become submissive for him. it makes your head spin the way sungchan teases you by pressing into your clit harder.

“yes.” you whine.

sungchan is amused by the way your hips jerk pitifully when he presses a little harder. 

“yes what?” sungchan asks.

he lowers his head further to press his lips to your collarbone. his teeth grazes the sensitive skin and you preen your neck to give him more access.

“yes. you can—oh my god. yes you can fuck me.” you cry.

your mini skirt falls back down over sungchan’s hand and you both look at it. the way sungchan’s hand aggressively moves underneath the splay of your skirt, the tiny wet spot his leaking tip leaves. you lean forward into the crook of sungchan’s neck, whining just for him to hear. his arm that wraps around your back grips your side, so hard you know it’ll leave a bruise.

the view of your ruined mini skirt gives sungchan the vigor to start thrusting upwards again. it’s easier with the hold you have on him, and he grunts into your ear with each rut. sungchan looks forward to the next time it’s just you and him alone in private. it would only come after he takes you on a nice date and asks you to be his girlfriend, of course—he’s a gentleman. but for now he will selfishly chase his pleasure after he makes sure you cum.

“sungchan.” you cry into his ear.

“i know. i know.” sungchan sympathizes.

your nails dig into his skin and your whines hit an octave that they barely make a sound anymore, just leaving you with a slightly open mouth and a heaving chest. sungchan decided then and there that he needs to hear that sound everyday for the rest of his life. 

you can’t even finish telling sungchan you’re going to cum when it happens, your body shaking in his hold. sungchan follows closely behind you, your cum giving his dick more lubrication to slip between your folds. his tip pokes one more time through your hips when your supple skin ripples around him. sungchan quickly lifts your cheer skirt so you can see what you do to him. 

“fuck” sungchan curses.

you pull your body from his just in time. sungchan’s cum gets on your thighs and dribbles down the middle, getting onto his thighs. he continues to curse and moan, hips stilling as his grip on your side tightens. the euphoric view of him below you has you almost ready to go again. you start squeezing your thighs around his length, and you bring your hand to massage his sticky tip. sungchan has to shake his head and hold your wrist to stop you, too sensitive to be touched. 

when sungchan comes down he has to let out a big huff of air, realizing he came from not even being inside of you. he also realizes that he made a complete mess of your thighs, and he still has a death grip on your cheer skirt to keep it from getting stained.

“holy shit my bad,” sungchan loosens his grip on your cheer skirt, putting the wrinkled fabric in your hand. “hold this let me get you something.”

sungchan guides you to sit on the trunk while he gets up. he wastes no time tucking himself back into his underwear and jeans, not caring about the droplets of cum on himself. he looks around shotaro’s room for anything to wipe you with. sungchan ends up grabbing. damp towel hanging on the back of shotaro’s chair.

while sungchan cleans you up you focus on the top of his head. now that the moment is over it is awkward, you don’t know what to say when sungchan is done with wiping your skin. he doesn’t know either, looking at your closed thighs and the mini skirt you have clutched in your hand.

“did i get it all?” sungchan asks.

when he looks up at you his ears burn a bright red, and you have to quickly look away. you suddenly can’t look at sungchan in the face, focusing on random things in shotaro’s room. you look at handle of his closet when you nod your head yes.

“okay. good.” sungchan says awkwardly. 

he grabs your panties and sweatpants off the ground and helps you into them, guiding your feet through the openings. you don’t know why you feel like you’re drained of all your energy, you think actual sex with sungchan would put you into a coma. the way he is extremely gentle when putting your sweatpants back on you makes your heart want to explode in your chest. somehow this is more intimate than when he was fucking himself between your thighs. 

when sungchan pulls you up from the trunk it takes a moment to regain stability in your legs. they feel like jello underneath you and you wobble for a second. when you’re upright sungchan does the same with your bra and shirt, helping you into the garments. your shirt smells like him now, and you keep catching whiffs of the smoky vanilla fragrance sungchan wears. he holds onto you until you give him a quick smile that lets you know you’re alright. you hate that he lets go a little too fast, hands clenched at his side. 

“should we talk—”

sungchan can’t finish his sentence before ryujin slams open the door. it startles you both, pulling you from the very important conversation you two were about to have. ryujin’s expression is serious as she looks past you and out shotaro’s window. you turn and can hear the familiar sound of police sirens and the blue and red lights flashing. ryujin looks back to you, not sparing sungchan a second glance.

“shotaro’s stupid fucking neighbors called the cops. we gotta go.” ryujin says.

you grab your varsity jacket from the edge of shotaro’s bed and look at sungchan one last time. he opens his mouth but nothing comes out. you stand there for a moment, not heading towards the door.

“karina is already waiting outside. come on.” ryujin says.

you reluctantly pull yourself away from sungchan and head towards the door. when you get to ryujin in the doorway you look her up and down. she looks more mussed than you, her sweatshirt inside out with lipstick stains around her lips.

“how’d you know i was here?” you ask.

“lucky guess,” ryujin finally looks to sungchan, who stands in the same place you left him. “bye sungchan.” ryujin says in a singsongy voice.

sungchan doesn’t even get the chance to say bye back before ryujin slams open the door. he can hear you two and the rest of the party running around, trying to evacuate shotaro’s house as fast as possible. sungchan should also probably leave through the backdoor if he doesn’t want to get in trouble with the law tonight. but he can’t seem to move as he tries to comprehend what just happened.

[irisintheafterglow]

Hellooo 🫠

You know when amanai is having a moment in the aquarium watching the fish? Maybe reader had wandered off from gojo and sugu and was having a moment to herself in like, a jellyfish area? And sugu notices she's gone and goes to find her?

He would be so romantic 🥲

respectfully, your honor, he is simply babygirl

When he noticed you were missing from the group, it didn't take much effort to summon a weak Curse and send it to find you. He knew you could handle yourself, but he also didn't want another situation where one of your group gets kidnapped. After the Curse reports back of your whereabouts, he slips into the crowds as easily as a shadow.

“There you are. I was beginning to think a shark ate you.”

“You’re not listening very well if you still associate sharks with attacking people,” you reply, looking at him from the corner of your eye in the dim light of the gallery. He smiles softly at your quick remark and it makes your stomach do a somersault. The chill of the air conditioned hall sends goosebumps over your skin and you refocus on the exhibit in front of you, sea nettles with their tentacles elegantly swirling as they swim about mindlessly. To tell the truth, you’d wandered off from the rest of the group after you heard something about an opportunity to feed the rays in a touchpool. But, you’d become lost somewhere between the second floor bathrooms and the dancing otter mascot. You ended up in the deep sea gallery, a darkly lit series of exhibits showcasing all sorts of creatures found in deathly cold waters. “How are Riko and Satoru doing?”

“They’re great. Last I checked, they were headed to harass the penguins.” He closes the distance until his arm is pressed against yours, the warmth of his bicep helping against the frigid temperature. As you move on to the next exhibit, his eyes track the movement of the dancing jellies in awe. “What are these guys?”

“Moon jellies," you inform him, leaning into his touch when his lips meet the side of your head. It's intimate and it's quiet, a situation that didn't come easily for Jujutsu sorcerers. His pointer finger traces a heart on the cold perspiration of the tank and you draw a happy face next to it to match.

"They're like you." Your eyebrow quirks at the odd comparison.

"Slimy and small?"

"Beautiful, I mean," he clarifies, flicking your forehead lightly with his fingers. "I would sit with you and watch them for hours if I could."

"Did you know jellies don’t have a brain?”

“Must be related to Satoru,” he murmurs and you stifle a laugh into your fist, knocking him with your elbow. He bumps you with his shoulder in return, letting you pull him even closer by resting your hand on his arm. “You doing okay?”

“I’m better now. It just got a little loud in the main hall where we saw the whale shark,” you admit, admiring the graceful movements of the jelly to keep your focus away from how handsome Suguru looked in the moody lights. “I’ll be ready to get back with everyone else soon, I promise.”

“Take your time. I'll wait for you.”

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

[angel-of-the-moons]

Warmth

Syzoth x Reader

TW/CW: None this is mostly cute shit I thought up due to using my own heating blanket

A/N: I love having my window open at like 30-40 some-odd degrees with my heating blanket on and a fan because I'm half penguin and hate Florida weather. Also I wrote this when I woke up at 4am because insomnia is soooooo fun

🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎

Earthrealm was cold. Especially in the winter.

And Syzoth hated the winter.

Zaterrans were cold-blooded. He didn't understand why his newfound love enjoyed the horrid little white flakes that fell from the sky, but it was worth it to see you smile as they flurried around you.

And he was dressed to the nose in the thickest winter wear you could possibly procure for him.

You compared him to something called a "marshmallow" but he had no idea why he and marshes had anything to do with his clothes.

Of course, when night came, Syzoth could barely handle it. Even in the relative warmth of your home, you seemed to keep the bare minimum to yourself.

Seeing how uncomfortable Syzoth was, and how lethargic he was being, you felt horrible, so you naturally had turned on your space heaters and made sure he was cozy.

But the heat was too much for you, who enjoyed the more frigid temperatures. After all, if you were cold, you could put on more clothes to get warm.

But if it was hot, what could you do? Rip off your skin?

In turn, Syzoth felt bad for making you uncomfortable so he would wait for you to fall asleep before turning off the heaters and snuggling tight against you.

It was a vicious cycle of the two of you trying to keep the other comfortable while sacrificing your own comfort.

But... After the tenth instance of him shivering and pressed up against you beneath your blanket, an idea struck you.

So, you made an order online and paid for one day shipping (ugh, the prices were downright criminal) and waited for it to arrive.

When the package arrived you were positively giddy.

Syzoth stood over your shoulder, a confused furrow in his brow as he watched you spread the new item across one side of your bed, tucking it beneath the main comforter you used.

"Another blanket, love? You have several." He remarked.

"Yes, but this one is special." You grinned, connecting some kind of wire to the blanket and adjusting the controls and timer.

You stand up proudly and stared down at it for a few moments while Syzoth stared at you like some kind of loon.

You then began to crawl into bed, patting the mattress next to you as Syzoth tilted his head.

"It's the middle of the day."

"Nothing wrong with a little nap, right?" You asked him, beaming with pride.

He couldn't help but smile at you, shaking his head as he did away with his shoes, climbing in next to you as you folded the blankets over him.

That's when he felt it.

Warmth.

Blissful, wonderful, absolutely amazing warmth.

He made a pleasured groan and snuggled deeper beneath it, his expression so happy he looked almost in pain.

You grinned widely, "Do you like your present?"

"By the Elder Gods, yes." He said, wrapping his arms around your waist and tucking his face into the crook of your neck. "But won't you get hot?"

"I don't know how to describe it, but it's easier to handle the heat from a blanket over the space heaters. Plus it saves on the electric bill." You smile, petting his hair idly.

"Oh..."

"That and it's why I only covered your side of the bed, so you get all the warmth." You added.

"Gods, I love you." Syzoth groaned into your neck.

"Love you too, Rango." You teased.

Syzoth made a mental note to ask you why in the world you called him that from time to time as he drifted off into blissful sleep, snuggled up tight to his lover beneath the warmth of his new gift.

[ketrinadrawsalot]

The African penguin was once abundant in South Africa and Namibia, but oil spills, egg harvesting, the collection of guano for fertilizer, and overfishing reduced their wild population to less than 50,000 individuals. Because they don't require a frigid environment, there are efforts in multiple countries to breed them in captivity.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Weird Mario Enemies presents

The Mystery of the Cabin Proprietor

It was a cold winter's day. Super Mario had found himself atop a frigid mountain, nothing but the abyss surrounding it. Right before him, a cabin. A convenient respite from the cold. How lucky! If Mario were to knock on the door, surely he would be invited inside to warm up for a bit. Maybe he would even be offered some tea! Wouldn't that be nice?

But there is no door! There are not even any windows! The only access point is an oversized Minecraft-looking chimney, and a sign from a supposed "Cabin Proprietor" invites visitors to enter it. Suspicious! Scary! What if you fall further than you expect, and get hurt? What if the fireplace is lit? Yeowch! And if you do get inside, there's no telling what waits within... there could be a murderer, a monster, inviting victims into this shack with no escape! There are many ways in which one should be like Mario, but entering suspicious buildings like this is not one of them!

So what's the big idea? Who is this "Cabin Proprietor", and what are their motives? Let's go over the suspects...

The Big Penguin

This is PROBABLY the most likely answer. Big Penguin is the only creature ever found within the cabin, and addresses Mario as a friend. Big Penguin loves to slide, and wouldn't you know it, the cabin leads directly to a massive slide in the void! For all we know, Big Penguin could have previously invited Mario to this cabin for some fun! We wouldn't know. Mario is not obligated to tell us anything! What are you gonna do, check Mario's emails? Give him his privacy. My only concern with the Big Penguin theory is that I don't think a penguin would have much success acrobatically getting into the chimney in the first place. A door would be much more convenient for everyone, but especially a penguin!

Mother Penguin

Now THIS is a penguin with immediate access to the cabin's only door, at the base of the mountain! A door too small for her, but a door nonetheless. Mother Penguin is stationed right by the cabin's exit, so maybe she is associated with it! This part of the cabin could be some sort of nursery area for baby penguins, who COULD fit through the door, with a window to check on them when needed. Such a doting mother would surely love to have a place for her baby to be safe in a blizzard!

A Baby Penguin

Maybe we have a child prodigy on Cool, Cool Mountain! The first of the babies is Tuxie, THE Li'l Penguin Lost, who is found at the top of the mountain... right by the entrance to the cabin! Hmmm! Maybe she hops in the chimney, slides down, and uses that weird teleportation spot to get back up! The other baby penguin is found at the bottom of the mountain, but of course could also teleport to the top to get in the chimney, and there is also something important about this baby: it's an impostor! Not the baby you're looking for! That makes this baby Suspicious, just like the Cabin Proprietor. Veeery interesting...

The Headless Snowman

There is absolutely no way this guy could get into the cabin. But that does not mean he could not be the proprietor! We already know he has some Personal Infrastructure, with the weird "stages" his parts sit atop, so he clearly has some way to get stuff built. Carpentry connections of some sort. Perhaps he commissioned the cabin to be built so that others could have a warm place to go, and a fun slide! He just forgot the door on the top entrance, so he added that sign about Santa to add whimsy to the situation until it could be sorted out.

A Goomba

There are no Goombas in Cool, Cool Mountain, outside of the DS version, so prooobably not... But!!! Odyssey reveals the unique property of Goomba feet, that they retain traction even on icy surfaces! Goombas could, theoretically, walk all over the cabin's ice slide as they please. They sure would get a lot of use out of the space, more efficient than just sliding!

The sign itself

Has the answer been under Mario's bulbous, jiggly nose this whole time? Super Mario Galaxy shows us that some signs are alive, and talk to us! The sign from the Proprietor could BE the Proprietor, and be talking to us, rather than just displaying its text. We just don't know because of how 64 presents written text and dialogue in the same way. (EDIT: I learned I was literally just wrong about this and it should have been obvious because the text boxes are different colors. But we can say that the sign speaks in a Written Text Accent) Or maybe it's sleeping, and Mario is reading the text to not disturb it?

The Cap'n

The Cap'n is the other unseen character who we know authors signs in 64! But I think he is easy to write off here. He's too much of a scallywag to be the Cabin Proprietor, who at least puts on a facade of kindness, inviting anyone into the cabin. The Cap'n taunts anyone who seeks his treasure, and also writes in Pirate Speak, so it would be physically impossible for him to write in any other voice!

Santa Claus

And here we are. The final suspect. It's been so obvious, hasn't it? "Santa Claus isn't the only one who can go down a chimney", indeed, but he is the only one I can think of with the ability to magically go UP a chimney to exit the building! Santa is also absolutely the type to refer to himself in third person, so the grammar of the sign wouldn't be weird coming from him. Perhaps Santa built this cabin for himself initially, but quickly made it a public play area once others expressed an interest in it! Thank you, Santa!

So who do you think it is...? Do you think the proprietor is one of these suspects? Are you perhaps confident they have been an assuming Spindrift all along? Are YOU the proprietor? Would you tell us if you were?

[224terminal]

⋆｡𖦹 °✩ 𝓉𝒾𝒶𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒.

𓇼 tiamore is a great white shark merman living in captivity at an oceanarium for marine creatures and hybrids. his coloration is mostly varying shades of grey, and he has the messiest black hair ever! unlike the white sclera in human eyes, his are black and he's got the brightest blue eyes you'll ever see. he's also littered in scars and scrapes from various fights in the ocean. a ship propeller injured his dorsal fin, which left him unable to properly swim and stabilize himself in the water, and so he was captured and brought in for rehabilitation purposes. the oceanarium soon realizes it can capitalize on the novelty of an elusive shark merman, so the priority shifts from undercover scientific study to covert priming for entertainment purposes; it's decided he'll be kept there indefinitely).

𓇼 you work there as one of the trainers and your primary area of work deals with sea lions and, on occasion, penguins. they transfer you to his enclosure after he nearly drowned his previous trainer, assuming that you might boast different results because you have a way with animals. you doubt this; sea lions and penguins are not the same as a half-fish, half-human creature who's so much bigger than you and can crush your skull like an egg if he so pleases.

𓇼 tiamore has such a vicious hatred for humans, but can he really be blamed? he's been stuck in captivity for many years now. they're not sure of his exact age, but they estimate he's somewhere in his late twenties. tiamore doesn't bother to provide the humans with any answers or information to their questions, and they don't dare get close enough to ask twice. he's brutal and cutthroat, and yet he let his trainer live (albeit in a very poor, near-death state).

𓇼 you're not very hopeful, but you're the oceanarium's only hope (or so your boss tells you). but this is a lie because your coworker savern is the real animal whisperer. the dolphins love him, especially the mers; he's practically best friends with all of them. they fight over him sometimes, eager for his attention. you envy his ability to effortlessly, authentically charm.

𓇼 unsurprisingly, tiamore hates you the minute he meets you. and you hate him, too, because he has quite the mouth on him and he's so unwilling to compromise with you in any way (although you suppose you wouldn't be willing either if you were in his shoes fins). he's foul and rude and cruel, cutting into you with all manner of insults he's picked up from sailors and scientists over the years. most of your "job" is simply bickering back and forth now as you try (and fail) to coerce him into friendly relations. you're supposed to get him ready for his display exhibit (which is stuck in coming soon limbo because they have no clue when or if he'll ever be ready to be put on display), and tiamore fights this reality with everything he's got.

𓇼 you spend the first month gradually learning to tolerate him and his intelligent, disobedient mouth. he learns you're a recurring pest in his life, but you come to feed him every day and so he can't hate that part of this routine. what he does hate is everything else. you bring stimulating items for him, which are never put to use because he's popped all of the beach balls and snapped all of the diving rings in his frigid disinterest. still, you try. and still he impedes your progress.

𓇼 tiamore is, however, interested in your phone and the pictures you show him after you learn it's the only thing that can shut him up. he's fascinated by photos of butterflies. they're his favorite animal, so you promise to show him more if he starts acting less hostile towards you. tiamore weighs these options: be kind and see butterfly or be hateful and see no butterfly. begrudgingly, he chooses the former. and he slowly warms up to the meals you've started preparing for him on the mornings before your shifts. you're not the best cook (which he notes every time you serve him something that's more burnt than it is cooked, and you threaten to cook him), but he eats it because it's different and new. part of him hopes it'll poison him and he'll never have to live in captivity again because then he'll be dead. alas.

𓇼 you're not sure if this is progress, but it's significantly better than before. now he only calls you stupid idiot, bipedal dumbass, tasteless blood-bag, and lunch three or five times within the span of an hour (insults like those were numbered in the double-digits before). savern certainly thinks it's a step in the right direction when he visits you on your lunch breaks to check in. he's started doing that often, and you're not complaining because he's been your work crush for a while now. tiamore hates him. hates him so, so, so much with the most livid passion. savern is too sunny, too sweet, too smart. savern reads tiamore like a book whenever he's lurking on the surface of the water and scowling at the two of you from the depths of his pool. he refuses to prove savern right, but then he also refuses to dive back under and leave you alone with another human, especially when said human is male.

𓇼 so he swims laps, cutting through the water methodically. his dorsal fin has healed considerably and now swimming isn't as much of a struggle as it was before. he's still left with the scars, though.

𓇼 tiamore considers you something of a companion, so it hurts when you flinch away from him when he compares his large, webbed hand to your smaller one or when he curiously touches your ankles when you stray close to the edge of his pool. you still don't trust him, which isn't so surprising because he did threaten you with death nearly every day, at every hour, during your shifts (and he's such a big, strong predator from the sea). so you have every right to be afraid. that, and he did nearly kill his previous trainer. so it's completely fair for you to fear him, but it's this fear that has you turning to savern for advice. why is he so touchy-feely with you all of a sudden? why is he suddenly interested in your anatomy? why isn't he hissing death threats? what happened to the real tiamore?!

𓇼 not funny because tiamore doesn't truly hate you anymore. you're the best thing to come out of this hellish captivity, so he doesn't mind your presence in his life anymore. he actually (much to his own chagrin) eagerly anticipates seeing you each morning, waiting dutifully in hopes that you'll show up early. he can't believe he actually cares about a human. it's too late to make good on his promise to kill you; he likes you too much to stain the water crimson with your blood and organs. but savern... now that's another story, and he fondly contemplates tearing that man to shreds. it would sadden you, though, so he contents himself with fantasies instead.

𓇼 he's aloof and awkward as he navigates these new feelings. before captivity, he traveled alone in the ocean and he's never had a mate. he's never felt the need for one. he likes being alone and free, two things he no longer has now that he's here in the oceanarium. but you cure his loneliness. you make him happy, even though he'll die before he admits that outright. you make him daydream about freedom, about a future beyond these walls, in which the two of you can be together without the divide of land and sea. maybe it's not possible. maybe it's a wishy-washy, unobtainable dream. that doesn't stop him from thinking about it, though.

𓇼 the oceanarium is filled with all kinds of unique marine hybrids. one of them has recently escaped its exhibit and the staff have exhausted every effort in an attempt to find and catch it. tiamore hears it fluttering in the rafters at night, a sly thing with wings. he hopes it'll fall into his tank so he can get rid of it once and for all and put your worries to rest. tiamore hates it when you worry because your mind is clouded and you don't have the energy or the focus to reserve for your little bantering sessions. he must fix this.

𓇼 his tank is deep enough. you might never know where these problems will go. savern can sit in pieces at the bottom and so can the other noisy distraction. he'll fashion their bones into a little heart and gift it to you one day, and you'll never know.

𓇼 until then he greets you with affectionate insults, watching your human legs carry you up and down the stairs to the platform where the top of his pool waits. this is good enough for now.

[pocketscribbs]

Weird-looking zoo

Wanted to doodle some ocs I haven’t drawn in a while

Bonus: Fridge doodle with zero context

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

The Birdcage

Jurassic Park: It's Ironic, by Meig of A-Dinosaur-A-Day

What follows is a retelling of the Jurassic Park story, mainly based on the 1993 film, with portions of the original novel used to supplement the story. The main point of divergence occurs when the park is unable to find workable nonavian dinosaur genetic material for cloning, since - as in the real world - dna degrades much too rapidly. Instead, the park consists only of extinct dinosaurs that can be brought back - birds from the last 2.5 million years. What happens after that is, as Ian Malcolm would say, an emerging pattern.

Infinite thanks to beta readers @plokool, @killdeercheer, and @otussketching! And extra thanks to @i-draws-dinosaurs for the killer logo! Happy 30th anniversary of the JP Film!

Link to the masterpost of chapters

Chapter One: Magallanes Basin, Chile

It was frigid at the dig site, with sharp winds battering everything they could, knocking over rocks and tools and even people. Some folks were shouting over the wind, while others were hurrying to protect precious material. The chaos was almost too much to deal with, but Donald Gennaro had work to do, and needed to consult with the dig site leader, Juanito.

Dig site leader was, honestly, not descriptive enough. Juanito Rostagno was one of the most respected paleontologists of South America, and he oversaw all the dig sites run by International Genetics Technology Incorporated, otherwise known as InGen. And it was precisely because of his competence and knowledge that Gennaro had made the trip so far south.

Magallanes Basin was as far south in Patagonia as you could get, near Tierra del Fuego. The freezing winds and icy temperatures prevented it from being inhabited in most locations, with only a few population centers popping up here or there. The dig site was near the sea, among the rocky crags and crevices, far away from the more famous Patagonian steppe. Snow was common, which made the dig perilous – at any point, the material could be lost forever. As it was, a miracle must have prevented the material around them from being swept out to sea.

“Hola Juanito!” Donald greeted, finally finding the scientist among the others, reaching out to shake his hand as he tripped over a few rocks.

“Hola! Bienvenido!” Juanito shouted, gesturing for Donald to follow him across the rocky terrain. He was dressed in khakis and a thick flannel shirt, not bothering to wear a hat for fear of the wind blowing it away. Donald had lost his own hat about fifteen minutes ago. But among the researchers and workers dressed more similarly to Juanito, Donald felt quite out of place in his business suit.

“So Hammond is back at the island?” Donald asked, trying desperately not to trip over another rock. In the distance, a group of penguins walked by the workers, to their delight as they attempted to talk and interact with them. Donald had been brushing up on his knowledge of local wildlife, and was pretty sure they were Magellanic Penguins, a small variety similar to the African or Humboldt. They were really very cute. Sometimes he could really understand the appeal of Hammond’s vision.

“No, he had to go back to California early. He sends his apologies,” Juanito explained, grimacing slightly as the pair made it to one of the sturdy tents tucked away against the side of the mountain. It was significantly warmer here, both protected from the wind and supporting a small space heater.

Donald bristled but kept his voice even as he responded, “We are facing a twenty-million-dollar lawsuit by the family of that worker! And you’re telling me Hammond can’t even bother to see me?”

“He wants to be with his daughter, she’s getting a divorce,” Juanito said, picking up a bone fragment and examining it.

“I understand that, but we’ve been advised to deal with the situation now. The underwriters feel that the accident has raised some very serious safety questions about the park. This makes the investors very very anxious. I had to promise to conduct a very thorough, on-site inspection.”

Juanito looked up from the bone, frowning at Donald.

“Hammond hates inspections, they slow everything down.”

Donald fought the urge to laugh as he responded, “Well I need to or they’ll pull the funding. That’ll slow him down even more.”

“Juanito! Juanito!”

Both men looked up to the tent mouth to see a young graduate student waving them outside. Donald grit his teeth and followed them, bracing himself for the wind as they ambled down the hill towards a more secluded spot. The rocks were tucked against the mountain, with a pit a few feet deep so hidden Donald almost fell into it.

“Qué tenemos aquí?” Juanito asked the student, as they both began talking in rapid Spanish. Donald had learned Spanish, of course – hard to consult with a company that did most of its business in Latin America if he hadn’t – but he still could not follow the native speakers as their words flowed seamlessly like rivers between them. He could pick out the occasional world – something about a skull, dirt, and a new specimen.

“A ver muéstrame, muéstrame,” Juanito finally said slowly enough for Donald to pick it out, following them down into the pit carefully. Donald tripped into it, as he had almost predicted, steadying himself against the side of the rocks.

“Watch your footing!” Juanito warned as they came into the main center of the pit.

“If two experts,” Donald continued, determined to move past the fact that he couldn’t walk down here, apparently, “Sign off on the island, the insurance guys will back off. I’ve already got Ian Malcolm, but they think he’s too trendy – they want Alan Grant.”

Alan Grant and his research team had been early consultants on the project, though they never really knew what they were consulting about. Now they were just on Hammond’s digsite payroll – always looking for that one in a million chance that, maybe, his original dream could still happen.

“Grant?” Juanito snorted, “You’ll never get him out of Montana.” He picked up a skull fragment and looked at it excitedly, calling for the students around him to come over to examine it with him.

“Why not?” Donald asked, irritated.

“Because Grant’s like me,” Juanito explained, smirking, “He’s a digger.”

“Well what about Spinoza, down in New Zealand? She was hired for consultancy when the project changed direction.”

‘Changed Direction’ was the official wording for the major speedbump that had nearly thrown the entire enterprise out the window. Even mentioning it made a small frown appear on Juanito’s face. Donald didn’t like even mentioning it, given how much of the original investment had been lost chasing impossible dreams. They had kept as much of that original idea as they could, of course – even continuing to consult with Grant, Sattler, and others, when their work was no longer particularly relevant – but there was no getting around it. Hammond’s big dream had to be downsized. The laws of nature were against him.

“Spinoza?” Juanito continued, “Maybe. I do know she returned to the States recently for a conference, so she may actually be available. But she’ll insist on Grant and Sattler coming, too.”

“Why?” Donald asked, eyebrows raising towards his receding hairline. He had not even understood why they kept them on the payroll.

“Because she’s Grant’s former student, and none of them know that Grant and Sattler are no longer our chief experts,” Juanito snorted, “This is the price of all our secrecy, is it not?”

Donald sighed, “I suppose. So, what, in the middle of this lawsuit and the investors getting nervous, I’m supposed to fly down a whole spread of experts, regardless of their actual relevance, to check out this park?”

“Sattler is still relevant,” Juanito pointed out, “And beyond that, Grant is one of the strongest researchers in behavior we have. He will still be helpful. If you can get him to leave.”

“Any idea how I can do that?” Donald laughed.

Juanito helped his students start to prepare the specimens before them for transportation. He turned to look at Donald, frowning.

“Well...” Juanito paused, taking a deep breath and looking Donald straight in the eye, “Funding for us diggers. Nearly impossible. As always.”

Donald sighed.

It always came back to money.

“Since he couldn’t be bothered to join this meeting, I’ll have John sell it. His boisterous enthusiasm and cavalier attitude towards money will make it more enticing, anyway,” Donald said.

“Certainly is a better salesman than you,” Juanito laughed. Donald couldn’t help laughing with him.

“Unfortunately I cannot come with,” Juanito continued, frowning apologetically at Donald, “After all, look what we have here.” He gestured to the new material, which looked just like more bone scraps to Donald. But he wasn’t an expert.

“Think that’ll be a new species we can add?” Donald asked.

Juanito shrugged, walking back up out of the pit and helping Donald with him, “Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?”

Donald wasn’t confident enough that the project would move forward to answer.

[beggingwolf]

Sid/geno for #12

things you said when you thought i was asleep

Zhenya's mother liked to pack them oranges when they were younger. Sometimes they were overripe, tender enough that they would burst in his lunch bag. Zhenya would hide away in the cold hockey arena and suck the sappy juice off his fingers. The pith of the peel stuck to his fingers and lips. His gloves would smell like pulp, and after practice, once the insides were soaked with sweat, the smell twisted into a headier funk that Zhenya liked to bury his nose in.

Now, twisted in the bedsheets, his limbs stuck to the bedding like pulpy fingers to a glove. Zhenya couldn't move. His face was pressed to the mattress, the pillow heavy at the crown of his head. Zhenya wasn't sure where his fingers and toes all were—if they were even still attached. He felt bigger than his body, all stretched out of shape.

The tacky sweat on his skin was cooling. The bedroom was chilled, but Zhenya didn't move. He could feel the mattress shifting as Sidney fumbled toward the edge. Zhenya only dared crack an eye open when the weight of a second body lifted from the bed.

The first things he saw were the red marks clawed onto Sidney's shoulders. He wasn't ready for the feeling that ballooned in his gut—nausea, pride, something that felt animalistic and a little evil. Zhenya opened his mouth and took in a long, wet breath, trying to hold the mess down where it was threatening to slide up his throat.

Sidney fumbled at the nightstand, picking up the little silver phone he'd been holding so tightly when he'd met Zhenya downstairs just four hours ago. He flipped it open and thumbed at some buttons. Zhenya's eyes skittered nervously over the stark marks on his back, dipping lower.

His ass was huge and pale and round. Zhenya eyed the curve of it with a two-headed feeling. He liked the look of it. He resented that he liked it, a little bit. He waited as the phone beeped with each keystroke. Maybe Sidney was calling some girl he'd left back in Canada. Worse: someone in Pittsburgh. Zhenya tensed.

The collar—enormous and thick and stuck to his neck like the skin of an orange—felt like it tightened around his throat.

"Dad?" Sidney whispered as he put the phone to his ear.

Zhenya tried to soften the loud breath that shook out of him. It made the edge of the collar settle uncomfortably in the soft skin under his jaw. It was too fucking thick, Zhenya had known that the second he'd laid eyes on it, Sidney's nervous hands leaving sweaty fingerprints on the leather as they stared across Mario's entryway at each other.

Sidney had likely picked it out. That's what doms got to do. Whatever Zhenya wore around his neck for the next however many years they kept him in Pittsburgh, Sidney would get to choose it.

"Yeah, we're... I'm in my room. We had dinner with Mario. We... yeah. Yes. He said yes."

Zhenya's gaze slid back up to those marks, and then higher, to the mess of hair haloing Sidney's head.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Sidney whispered.

That was maybe true. Zhenya didn't have much experience being dominated. He'd never allowed himself to get tangled up with that shit. Zhenya had seen what the consequences were for other submissive boys who let teammates get their hands around their necks. It never resulted in anything good on the ice, and Zhenya had been the captain. He'd had a reputation to protect.

Here, in America, he had nothing. The Penguins wouldn't even sign the contract until Sidney's collar was around his neck. Zhenya had a body, and he had a dream, and one was exchanged for the other in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He would never have been captain here anyway, not with Sidney on the team. This was the better option, being Sidney's... whatever he was.

The cold air was making the tacky wetness on Zhenya's thighs grow frigid. He felt small and shriveled. His own cum was a cool stain under his hip. His ass was sore. He'd never, not before tonight.

"Yeah," Sidney croaked into his phone after his father's muffled voice finally paused for a long-enough breath. "Yeah, I know, Mario is... he's experienced. I could ask, if I needed to."

Zhenya had spent much of the last year feeling alone. He'd been waiting for Pittsburgh to call, knowing what waited for him. He'd been waiting for it since he'd been drafted. He'd been accused of naivety before, but never about this. The Penguins had first possessed Lemieux, and now they had Crosby. Zhenya's ownership had never been in question, only the matter of who would hold the leash.

"No," Sidney whispered. He turned, looking over his shoulder, and Zhenya let his eyes shut. He could feel Sidney's gaze land on him, it was a body-deep heat, like it began inside Zhenya and worked its way out to his flesh. He shivered.

"He's... he's fine. I think he's fine. We talked a little. His English is okay. He can understand a lot. I asked him if he was okay with everything. He said he was. But, Dad..."

Sidney trailed off. Zhenya held very still. The collar dug into his skin.

"Yeah. I can figure it out," Sidney said like he was repeating it back to his father. "I can do it. He's... he's good on the ice, you saw on those tapes this summer. We need him. I need him. Mario says we have to start building the team, and he's the piece we were missing."

The bed dipped. A hand, blazingly warm, branded a palm print onto where Zhenya's thigh was bared to the night air.

"Yeah. I'll call on Friday. Say hi to Mom and Taylor. You too."

Zhenya took in a slow breath. He hoped his face, still half-hidden in the bed, was slack enough to feign sleep. He felt exposed and painfully alone-with-Sidney like this. He and Sidney didn't know each other, even though Sidney had been inside of him. Zhenya's lips had been pressed to Sidney's throat.

"I'll figure it out," Sidney said softly. "I'm going to do it right. We're going to do this together."

The collar was heavy on Zhenya's neck. Zhenya wasn't sure, if given the chance, that he'd take it off.

[riddle-me-ri]

I have been summoned by the power of soft prompts 🙏🏻 Would you do one of these if you find the time and energy? Touching foreheads in a hug or head pats! I love both so much, I just can't choose between the two ;; Sooo... You do whichever you like the most :D With Arkham Ozzie, please! Thank youuu 💗

I'm being brave and not hiding behind the anon option this time, hehe

a/n: Aww omg I am so proud of you for going off anon! I know it can be very nerve wracking but I’m so glad that you made a request from your beautiful blog! Of course I can do that for you sweet, sweet Mary! I’m an absolute sucker for touching foreheads so I’m gonna go with that lol. Thanks for letting me be soft and sorry this is kinda short and ends abruptly I wasn't sure how to end it but I hope the sweetness makes up for it hehe

Content Warning: none just fluff

Word Count: 338

Arkhamverse Penguin x Reader - Huddle Up

You'd think after living in Gotham for so long you would be used to these absolutely frigid winters.

Yet no matter how many layers you drape yourself in, you still feel like you're being frozen alive.

"You all right, love?" Oswald asked after he walked out of the door and walked up behind you. You both were waiting for your ride in front of the Iceberg Lounge.

He noticed you were still shivering. Your hands were quivering as you tried to rub them together to friction any kind of warmth.

"Y-Yeah…I-I'm fine, Ozzie, just still a little cold." You shrugged.

If you shrugged out of embarrassment for being cold or an attempt to cover your ears to warm them, who's to say.

Oswald hummed knowingly. He did find it cute how you tried to hide your aversion to the cold.

“A little is an understatement, love, c’mere.” Oswald waddled closer to you and wrapped his arms around you.

You couldn’t help but smile as you instantly felt his warmth envelop you. You giggled as you felt his arms tighten around you as he turned you around to face him.

You always did enjoy these small soft moments with him like this. Just how special you are to see this sweet, thoughtful, and loving Oswald.

You giggled as he smiled softly up at you. “Thanks, Ozzie.”

“It won’t be long now, love, our car should be here soon…or else.” He grumbled the last phrase under his breath, which you barely heard.

Thankfully, your ride back to the penthouse did arrive, and you took refuge in the warmth of the heated backseat of the car.

Once the two of you got settled in, you leaned in and gave him a small grateful kiss on the top of his head where he was surely balding.

You rested your forehead against his own, smiling contently to yourself.

“Feeling warmer now that we are out of the cold, love?” He asked.

You nodded. “Much warmer, thanks Ozzie…”

“Of course love, now let's go home.”

[brave-and-gentle]

Ice Sculpture date: Reader x Jean Fluff Part 1

Ya'll something came over me this morning and I busted this out for absolutely no reason.

**This has turned into an unexpected mini series. Check out chapter two here.

If you like this, be sure to check out my original character x Jean fic on A03 here

Pairings: reader x Jean

Summary: A year after graduating college in Trost, many of your friends have moved away, but you remained. Your new roommate, Sasha and her friend Connie, introduced you to their friend group. When group plans go awry, you find yourself alone with Jean.

Warnings: none, this all v cute fluff, a self-indulgence

Word count: ~3,400

You were supposed to leave the apartment 10 minutes ago. You always forgot how long it took to layer up with how cold Trost got in the middle of winter. As soon as you lace your winter boots up, you run out the front door and penguin-walk to Jean and Marco's apartment. It was only a few blocks south of where you and Sasha lived, but since it was -20 Fahrenheit, it seemed like an eternity.

It's frigid that the insides of your nose freeze within about five seconds of being outside. Your teeth chatter and eyes burn. This does nothing to help your nerves. You are going to see the ice sculptures made by local artists with a new group of friends you had only met a month ago.

Three months prior, your best friend and roommate, Historia, decided to move to the coast with her girlfriend, Ymir. Your reaction was mixed. You and Historia were two peas in a pod since you met during freshmen year orientation and you did everything together – English classes, the college newspaper, intramural volleyball team, and a few parties. When Historia started dating Ymir junior year, you were a little concerned by Ymir's abrasive personality, but she started to grow on you and she helped Historia become a little more assertive. Ymir had always wanted to move to the coast, so when she finally secured an apartment, it didn't surprise you that Historia sat you down to break the news that she was going with her, leaving you alone in the two-bedroom apartment.

You were happy for the couple. This was Ymir's dream and Historia was excited to explore somewhere new with the love of her life. And yet, there is a tiny bit of maybe not resentment, but you do feel abandoned. This completed the mass exodus of all your friends moving out of Trost. With Historia and Ymir gone, you really don't have anyone.

Thankfully, they refused to road trip to their new home until they helped you find a roommate. It didn't take nearly as much time as you expected, which admittedly disappointed you. After asking around for a few weeks, you found out that Sasha Braus was looking for a place. You knew who she was since you had gone to the same college, but you'd never had a conversation with her. All you knew about Sasha was that she started an archery club at school that apparently was still going strong after graduation. It was an easy decision for Sasha to move in with you. When you met up at the coffee shop down the street, she was incredibly bubbly and kind.

Rooming together was going nearly seamless – although you did have to label all your food in the fridge, lest Sasha get the munchies and eat everything. Soon enough you got to know her friend from school, Connie Springer, who you recognized from the soccer team. He had pretty much taken residence on the couch in the living room, and you didn't even mind. It was nice to have a living space full of laughter – and Connie's snoring.

Sasha and Connie invited you to join their friend group at weekly bar trivia. It was a large group – you'd never hung out with so many people at one time, but with how extroverted Sasha and Connie were, it wasn't a surprise. You could barely keep track of who was who for a while, but after nearly a month of hanging out with them, you think you got it down. Sasha, Connie, Marco and Jean were tight in college. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin had grown up together in Shiganshina and went to a different college in Trost. Eren had met Reiner and Bertholt at the gym. Annie had grown up with Reiner and Bertholt. You weren't exactly sure how they all merged together, but they all hung out together pretty regularly now.

You groan in relief as you approached Jean and Marco's apartment – a beacon of warmth in the frigid, dark night. Your nerves disappear, replaced by yearning for heat. This is the first time you are hanging out with the group without Sasha and the first time outside of bar trivia. It was Jean's idea to go see the ice sculptures. He was an art major in college and knew a couple of the artists. Sasha had a date with this new guy, Nicolo tonight, but urged you to go without her.

You run up to the entryway and ring the apartment buzzer, hoping that it actually works because you realized you don't have Jean or Marco's number. The door clicks, thankfully, and a heatwave washes over you as you open the door and climb the stairs to apartment 313. Or was it 315? You knock on the door only once before it opens to reveal Jean in an old college t-shirt and sweatpants with a hole in the right knee. He isn't wearing shoes. You didn't fully realize how tall this man was until you had to practically crane your neck up to look at him.

“Hey,” Jean says your name. He runs his fingers through his ash-brown hair. “Shit, I'm so sorry, I didn't have your number and couldn't tell you – everyone canceled for tonight. I texted Sasha for your number but she didn't answer.”

Your stomach drops a little. Did you come over here for nothing? You had actually been looking forward to seeing ice sculptures, especially since it was over the college's winter break – it wouldn't be as crowded with students as it usually was. At least that's what you heard, you had never actually gone to see them before. Historia didn't usually last more than 10 minutes in the cold.

“Oh,” you breath, still recovering from the cold. “I guess that means it's going well with Nicolo then.”

“Yeah,” Jean laughs, “If there's any way to Sasha's heart, it's food, and with the way that guy cooks, I think he's in it for life.”

“So where is everyone tonight?” You ask, stalling for a little more time inside. Jean leans against the door frame and counts off.

“Annie invited Armin to go to her father's for the holidays, so I guess they're getting serious. Reiner and Bertholt are sick. Marco got called in to work to cover for someone. Connie won't tell me what he's doing tonight, but I'm pretty sure he's going over to Hitch's for a booty call. And once everyone else canceled, so did Eren and Mikasa.”

“Ah,” you respond, not really knowing what to say now. You don't know Jean well enough to continue the conversation, but you really don't want to go back home. It's only six o'clock, but since it's already pitch black out, you know you won't do anything except rot on the couch all night. For once, you had plans on the weekend and were looking forward to it. You take a step back and point down the hallway. “Welp, I guess I'll - “

“Unless?” Jean interrupts you and rises an eyebrow. His hazel eyes bore into you. Shit, he's really cute. “I mean, you did come over here and you're already bundled up. We could go?” He asks, seemingly unsure of himself.

“Oh, yeah that would be great!” The words tumble out of your mouth before you fully realize you just agreed to a night alone with Jean. “I did make the perilous journey after all.”

“It is cold as fuck and you are very brave.” Jean smiles and rolls his eyes. He takes a step back and motions for you to enter his apartment. “C'mon in, I'll change quick and I can drive us over.”

~

You tense up sitting in the passenger seat of Jean's small, beater car, but as the car warms, so does your conversation. You learn that Jean is an only child and had grown up in Trost. In his art major, he focused on drawing and painting, and was currently teaching art classes at a nonprofit specializing in teaching kids from low-income neighborhoods. He tells you about how his mom drove him crazy, but he still wears the thick, royal blue mittens she had knitted for him. You give him a refresher of how you became roommates with Sasha, how all of your friends from Trost had moved away over the course of the year following graduation.

Once you arrive, you and Jean walk over the to the entrance to pay for tickets, but someone so bundled up you couldn't make out a single feature waves you in.

“For you my man, it's free! Enjoy your date!” You look over to Jean and wait for him to correct the man. Jean's cheeks flush pink, either from the bitter cold or the embarrassing mistake his friend made.

“Ah, sorry about that,” Jean says and bites his lower lip. “That's Floch, he's . . .a bit of an idiot. I know him from the nonprofit, he teaches about once a week. Pretty sure that's all he does besides live off his rich parent's money.”

“Ha, that's okay,” you answer and looked around for any sort of distraction from the awkward interaction. The stars above you shine with a brilliance you'd never seen before. “Wow.” You point up. “I didn't realize how bright the stars could be away from the city.”

“Yeah,” Jean perks up. “It's my favorite part about coming out here.” You both approach the first sculpture, a series of waves imitating the ocean. Dark blue lights underneath light it up. “Brrr, but this cold is not! Actually, I'll be right back.” You don't look behind you to see where Jean wanders off to because you are memorized by the ice wave sculpture.

It reminds you of Historia and Ymir and their new home. The first week she moved, Historia sent you a picture of them at the beach. She said once it warmed up in a few months, they were going to take surfing lessons, no doubt Ymir's idea. An ache grows in your heart, missing your best friend. You are proud of how adventurous she had become since meeting Ymir.

“Hot toddy?” Jean reappears and hands a steaming mug to you.

“Ohhh,” you moan as the mug instantly warms right through your mittens. “This is perfect, thank you.” You hold the drink up to your face, letting it defrost your nose. You breath in the mix of cinnamon and brandy.

“You like this one?” Jean nods at the icy waves.

“Yeah, it reminds of Historia and Ymir since they're living so close to the ocean now. I miss them even though I'm happy for them,” you confess.

“Good for them though, getting out of here.” He take a long sip of his hot toddy. “I've been in Trost my whole life.”

“Have you thought about moving somewhere else?”

“I have, but I don't know if I could ever leave my mom. She's got my step-dad now, but still. Plus, I think I'd really have to make it in the art world to have the money to get out of here. That nonprofit job isn't exactly paying me much.” He gazes at the sculpture, lost in thought.

“Ah, so you're a mama's boy at heart?” You tease and smirk.

“Hey now, nothing wrong with that,” Jean defends himself and tears his eyes away from the sculpture to smile at you.

The two of you continue on, losing yourselves in the towering ice and the glowing pink, blue and green lights mimicking the Northern Lights. You are lost in conversation as well. You discover you are both voracious readers and are discussing a fantasy series you had both recently read when Jean halts.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” He furrows his brows and you follow his accusing eyes to see Eren and Mikasa hand in hand across the field of snow viewing a sculpture in the shape of several large, intricate snow flakes. “They canceled on me and showed up anyway?? Typical Jaeger,” Jean growled.

You bite your lip to keep yourself from laughing. You aren't sure exactly why Eren and Jean are constantly on each other's nerves, but it was one of the first things you noticed when they argued at trivia night over which actor had won an Oscar two years in a row. Turns out, both of their answers were wrong. You had to admit that you found their rivalry a little comical.

“Would you have wanted to go with them anyway?” You press and give a soft laugh. Eren and Mikasa are all over each other all the time, so it's hard to imagine Jean would enjoy three-wheeling with them.

“No,” Jean glowers, “but still, it's about the principle!”

“Alright, let's stay away from them then and have our own fun,” you concede and place your hand on Jean's bicep to guide him away from their direction. You run your mitten-covered hand down the rest of his arm and were about to pull away, but Jean grabs your hand and pulls you closer. Your heart skips a beat.

“You uh, look cold.” He shrugs and looks at the ground. He loosens his hand, as if to let you know that you can let go if you want. Instead, you squeeze his hand and press even closer to his tall frame.

“I am absolutely freezing,” you agree. It's like you had a brain aneurysm, you are never this bold. But you are, in fact, freezing, and Jean is warm. He clears his throat and peers over at you, eyes just barely visible with his knit cap covering his eyebrows.

“So what about you? What are you doing in Trost?”

“Ugh, that's a backstory.”

“I'm all ears.” You launch into it, how you majored in English with great hopes of becoming a best-selling novelist, but the past few months you were stuck in the worst case of writer's block. Unable to find a job remotely close to what you wanted to do, you ended up working at the front desk of a pediatric medical clinic – and barely writing anything.

“You know when you have this great idea, but you realize that in order to make it happen, you actually have to sit down and you know, create?” You gesticulate with your now empty mug in hand, your other hand still engulfed by Jean's.

“Yeah, I know the feeling all too well.” He nods. “I get that way about my sketches and painting sometimes too. It's like the thought of failure has such a choke hold on me that I can't even get started.”

“Exactly! God, the burden we creatives put on ourselves,” you laugh and roll your eyes at your own mild pretentiousness. “I didn't think I'd still be living in Trost this long.”

The two of you finish the ice sculpture route and arrive back where you started. The night was going fast, too fast. You are so long in conversation that you don't see Eren and Mikasa arrive at the exit at the same time.

“Jean?? Is that you?” Shit. You don't mind Eren that much, though he's a little intense for you, and Mikasa is positively the coolest person you know, but fielding the tension between Jean and Eren is the last thing you want to do. Jean drops your hand and with it, a little piece of your heart. Eren and Mikasa approach you.

“Oh, hey,” Eren says your name and a shit-eating grin grows on his face. “Didn't realize you two were out here.”

“Hi,” Mikasa greets you by name with a shy smile.

Jean crosses his arms.

“Yeah, because unlike some people, I did what I said I'd do.” You chuckle at Jean's awkward wording.

“Technically I did too. I said I wasn't going with you, not that I wouldn't go at all,” Eren smirks and his pine-green eyes dance with mischief. Mikasa rolls her eyes and tuggs on his hand.

“C'mon Eren, let's go. Nice to see you two!” Mikasa waves at you and Jean and steers Eren away before a battle could ensue.

“God he gets on my nerves,” Jean says mostly to himself and balls up his hands in fists as the two of you walk to his car. Once inside, you check your phone to see a message from Sasha.

Omg Mikasa just told me you and Jean went to the ice sculptures together?? Just the two of you?? How cute!! I didn't even think about it but you two are PERFECT together. Come home immediately and tell me how it went.

Her message is followed with about a million heart eye emojis.

“Jesus Christ,” you mutter and shove your phone in your pocket. Although you thoroughly enjoyed your night with Jean and don't want it to end, you also don't want anyone to get the wrong idea, yourself included. Getting your hopes up had bit you in the ass one too many times.

“Everything good?” Jean asks as he steers out of the parking lot.

“Ah, I don't know. . .” you trail off, unsure how to respond. “I guess Mikasa must have just told Sasha that she ran into us here and she's demanding answers.”

“Which means everyone is going to know in about an hour. Connie's going to be blowing up my phone any minute.” Jean throws his head back in frustration before quickly returning his eyes to the road.

“I can try to correct her, that we're just friends,” you quickly try to do damage control.

“Oh, uh, I didn't mean that. Let her think whatever she wants. Or I mean, uh,” he stutters and blushes. “She's your roommate, I didn't mean to tell you what to tell her.”

“No, that's fine. I'll just ignore her and she can make whatever she wants out of it,” you give a nervous laugh.

The car ride back to the city center is much more quiet and tense. It seems to you that Jean didn't want the night to end either. Despite the tension, you arrive back to your neighborhood much quicker than you expect.

“I can drop you off at your apartment so you don't have to walk in cold again,” Jean offers.

“Sure, thanks.”

He pulls up in front of your apartment building and you unbuckle and pause to look at Jean. Fuck it.

“Do you want to come in? Sasha's probably spending the night with Nicolo.”

“Oh, uh,” Jean pauses and your heart plummets to your stomach.

“It's okay, you don't have to.” You shuffle to open the car door, but Jean stops you.

“I'd love to, actually.”

Keeping with the theme of warm drinks, you make two hot chocolates with peppermint schnapps. Both of your warm outdoor clothing is piled in a heap on the chair by the front door. You and Jean curl up on the couch and move closer and closer to each other as you talk about everything and anything – your favorite movies, your various college activities (you learn Jean was also on the soccer team with Connie and Marco), all the different places you'd like to visit, the frustrations of trying to write or draw.

“Maybe if I wrote something really great I could move somewhere else someday,” you muse. “But until then, Trost it is.”

Jean leans in and lifts his hand to tuck your hair behind your ear. You freeze and gaze into his glowing hazel eyes.

“I'm glad you're here,” he breaths your name. An uncontrollable smile spreads across your face.

“Me too.” Warmth from both flirting with Jean and the schnapps spreads throughout your body. He leans in even closer.

“Can I . . .” he trails off. You don't need words to know what he's asking. You answer by surging forward and pressing your lips to his. You both taste like peppermint and dark chocolate. You pull back and giggle. A bold night indeed.

“So, coffee shop tomorrow?” He asks. You learn that you both frequented the coffee shop down the street but were rarely there at the same time. You nod.

“You bring your sketches, I'll bring my notebook,” you promise to hold each other to creating as much as possible.

“It's a date.” Jean looks at you and grins into his hot chocolate mug.

Turns out you have lots to tell Sasha.

[mynamesaplant]

Great Risk, Great Reward

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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS FIC CONTAINS: VIOLENCE TOWARDS ANIMALS AND CHILDREN, BLOOD, INJURY, AND ANIMAL DEATH - IF ANY OF THOSE THINGS MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE, PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION!

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I want to thank my pal Mons for being a constant inspiration for the PLA Mer AU and for beta reading this fic for me. Summary: Gaeric finds out that Dawn likes penguins, but their bonding times goes a little awry.

Don't want to read it on Tumblr? You can read it on AO3!

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“Hey-” Dawn began to scramble across the ground faster, very familiar with the voice and deathly terrified to have yet another bad encounter. “Hey, squirt! I’m talking to you.”

“Oh no, no, no, no-”

Dawn was almost across the room, almost to the same pool that Ingo had disappeared into with Calaba and Irida – where had Gaeric even come from and why hadn’t she heard him? He was so big and, mer or no, seals were not exactly graceful on land. A hand snatched her up with her fingertip’s inches from the frigid water. Enclosed in his warm palm, Dawn felt herself moving through space and mentally preparing for the worst. What was he going to yell at her for today?

To her surprise upon meeting Gaeric eye-to-considerably-larger-eye, he was beaming, looking genuinely excited about… Well, something. Dawn had only even seen him grumpy and tired, and he usually wasn’t awake at this hour.

“I thought we learned from last time,” his tone was chiding, and his expression momentarily reflected the voice, but clearly, he was too excited to permit the disapproving scowl to grace his face. “Stay out of the deeper water without an adult.”

Dawn cringed and shrank in his outstretched palm, edging as far away as she could because her heart was positively slamming against her ribcage with a barely contained anxiety. She was less afraid of Gaeric after that last time Ingo dumped her with the warden. Despite how intimidating she still found him, his coat was very soft and fluffy, which was one point in his favor. It was practically irresistible, many other pups running their fingers through it with a reverent fascination. (And he had been pretty nice to her since then, doubly so after she quelled his noble with her flute.)

Still, this level of excitement for Gaeric was not in character. So, Dawn remained wary even as he propelled himself across the ice toward a different hole. She recognized it. It was a tunnel that led to the outside. A fresh wave of panic swarmed in her head like a cloud of wasps, buzzing irrational thoughts into her ears. She swallowed an anxious whine as it became abundantly clear that Gaeric intended to take her from the settlement. Dawn fiddled with her scarf, keeping her eyes low, and hardly listening as Gaeric chatted at her in amicable tones.

“Ga-Gaeric?” She interrupted him hesitantly. He was just about to set her down so she could follow him, in his excitement, he had even noticed how she was acting. “Wh-Where are you tak-taking me?”

“Hm?”

Oh, he supposed he hadn’t told her just yet. He was just so thrilled, so excited about the news. All the wardens were. Loathe as he was to tell the Diamond clan anything, he also shared the good news with Sabi, who he was sure would find some way to relay that to the rest of her clan.

Now, however, Gaeric was turning vaguely pink. He hadn’t meant to overhear. Honest! People just presumed that he, under his nice, warm stitched walrus skins, was asleep, and often he was dozing off, but it was a catnap like he had seen Lady Sneasler do. Half-conscious but ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice, especially given the strange changes in the sea recently and the encroaching of those humans into their territory.

“I, uh – I heard that you like penguins.”

Dawn’s jaw slackened in disbelief. She had only recently told Ingo of her travels to the northern shores of Hisui, an ice encrusted and ethereally silent snowscape, and witnessed several penguins waddling around. Either Ingo told his fellow wardens, and considering how close to the vest he kept most information concerning Dawn that seemed unlikely, or Gaeric had overheard, which made her nervous about what else he might have inexplicably overheard. Mentally scolding herself for being so careless of her surroundings and tongue so loose as to talk of her secret double-life on the surface.

“Er, yeah! I do.”

A gleeful glint came into Gaeric’s blue eyes, his next sentence actually made her perk up.

“Fantastic! Let’s go look for some penguins then.”

Dawn should have known that it was too good to be true.

The swim to the north shore was actually pretty nice. Gaeric was chatting with her amiably, grinning toothily while she swam around him, his eyes watchful for any potential predators, but they seemed to be getting along famously.  That was, until they made it to the frozen tundra, and Gaeric threw out an arm to make her halt.

“Alright kid,” he said, flashing her a broad smile.

He did not notice her decidedly confused expression as he launched into an in-depth explanation of penguins.

“These guys are speedy in the water, but you probably know that already.”

The warden gently nudged her toward the distant penguins torpedoing through the water, zipping after silvery fish.

“If you need air, the clan has already made a few airholes in the ice. Just be cautious of any predators that might be on the ice if you stick your head out to get a look, alright? I’ll be right here if anything happens.”

“Uh, okay?”

Dawn replied, unsure why Gaeric of all mers would be so excited to show her something like this. Lian loved to show and share things with Dawn, but Gaeric? This was extremely out of character. That was when she started to realize things were not exactly as they seemed.

“This is my first time watching you, so don’t be worried about making any mistakes. We all know Ingo’s not the greatest of hunters.”

Hunters?

Did Gaeric… Oh, no.

Dawn felt another insistent little nudge to the small of her back. That’s why he was excited. He was excited to teach her to hunt because she had said she liked penguins. Gaeric was providing her helpful tricks and hints for her imminent hunt and Dawn could feel her insides roiling. Why did he have to suddenly be so encouraging? Her brain was screaming with panic, clutching her hands in front of her and nervously fussing with the edges of her scarf.

Sensing unease, he stopped pushing – some pups had performance anxiety, they wanted to impress or do well on their first hunt, but they got inside their own heads. Maybe that’s what she was feeling with his incessant chatter.

“Hey kid?” She twisted around to glance at him, and he gave her two thumbs up. “You’ve got this.”

With that final encouragement, Dawn swam forward, the warden unaware of the deep grimace etched into her cheeks. He wanted her to – what? Chase a penguin? He knew how bad she was at swimming. Yes, she had been getting better since she learned to dodge the frenzied nobles, but she was not fast, just better coordinated. She was trying to think fast. Gaeric expected her to try, and she had to do something to maintain her façade, so she would at least chase after some penguins. He would eventually get fed up with her failed attempts… but then what?

Gaeric genuinely enjoyed hunting. Not because he was a bloodthirsty maniac or anything (like Dawn seemed to think), he just felt more in his element chasing prey down, when building his sophisticated traps, when launching a spear into the hide of a seal – he said that it tickled the predatory part of his brain that few other activities seemed to even scrape. Teaching pups to hunt was always an exciting prospect. Pups had so much untapped potential that Gaeric loved to nurture. The next generation of Pearl clan hunters was a serious source of pride for the warden and, although Dawn could be a little weird at times, he was just as invested in teaching her as he was with any pup.

Dawn drifted, penguins and fish danced erratically in the water before her like it was some absurd ballet. Maybe if she had been here with Ingo, it would have been amusing, but not under her current circumstances. How could she make this look convincing? She thought about her excursions with Laventon and his advice on how to get closer to their target. A target was basically prey right?

‘Stay low and move slow. Don’t make any sudden movements or noises that might scare them.’

Maintain the illusion. She knew just enough about penguins to know they would quickly scatter once she started chasing them, probably hop back onto the icepack the moment they saw her advance. She dove down where the sunlight couldn’t reach and the water became even colder, watching the white bellies of the penguins flitting around overhead. Without realizing it, Dawn’s body was responding to an instinct she did not think she possessed as a human who transformed into a mer; muscles coiling, pupils blown wide in anticipation, hands curling and uncurling.

The warden watched with an ember of pride burning brightly in his chest. He waited with great anticipation for her to make her first catch.

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Gaeric watched her for about twenty minutes as penguin after penguin slipped through her clutches with startling regularity. He knew she wasn’t experienced, but even the most novice of pups was able to grab a penguin after a couple of tries. Now all the birds were making a beeline for the shore and there was no point for the pup to follow. If she was this bad in the water, she would have no chance hunting anything on the land.

Dawn actually snarled at him when he shifted himself between her and her quarry, the noise frustrated as she tried to dart around him.

“Pup, stop. You’re going to overheat. Go up and take a breath. Clear your head.”

The surveyor didn’t even realize how much heat she was radiating from physical exertion. Her slim chest heaving and muscles quivering – she didn’t realize how much her focus had consumed her. The large mer guided her to the surface, already giving her pointers as she tried to catch her breath. How long was she chasing the Adélies? She was able to recognize the brush tails and distinct two-toned coats from her previous excursions with the professor. She was genuinely trying to catch one… to do what with? She didn’t want to dwell on it, the mere thought made her shudder with a mix of disgust and horror.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” The warden murmured sympathetically, completely misinterpreting her expression as disappointment. “Catching them gets easier with practice. You stay here.”

No argument from Dawn, she felt exhausted as she watched Gaeric disappear into the gloom. The blood pounded in her ears, otherwise she would have noticed how quiet the surrounding water had become as a predator trawled through the sea.

He was gone for a little while, Dawn waiting idly for the warden to return, but making sure to practice scanning around like Ingo had taught her. She was very small and there were a lot of would-be predators like orcas, leopard seals, and polar bears patrolling for a tasty snack like her.

She smelled Gaeric before she saw him, or rather, she smelled the blood. Thankfully it wasn’t his, but it was putrid, clouding the water in a fine pink mist as he approached, which was when she heard the shrieks that sent a cold shiver up her spine. The warden had a woven net over his shoulder that was chock full of dead Adélie penguins, all except one, which was making those horrific noises.

Dawn covered her mouth, feeling saliva pooling beneath her tongue, but it had nothing to do with hunger. No, the penguin looked far from appetizing. A wave of nausea rolled through her, making her skin feel prickly hot and stomach roil when he came to a stop in front of her.

The smell of blood was all around her, sticking to the inside of her nose, bitter and metallic, while Gaeric rummaged through his catch of the day, seizing the sole penguin left alive, and dropped it before her with an encouraging smile. He had the realization that she would not only be hungry after all that swimming around, but she would also want a chance to prove herself to him. He had done a similar tactic with other pups, the younger ones especially; catch something of an appropriate size for them and injure it, then allow the pup to make the final blow. It was a good boost of confidence after a long string of failures.

The penguin flopped around, plumes of blood misting the water darker and darker pink with each flap of the poor creature’s unbroken wing, wailing in fear and agony. The scene was ghastly.

“Alright pup. Now, what you’re going to want to do is-”

The audible gag over the sounds of the penguin made Gaeric stop midsentence and he looked more closely at the tears collecting in her dark eyes.

“Ga-Gaeric, I c-can’t…”

A frown settled on his face. A new predicament. Dawn probably liked to eat penguins, but she had never been hunting before, certainly not with him and presumably not Ingo. This would be her first kill and, occasionally, pups would get squeamish. It didn’t happen often, but they would suddenly get cold fins, and just couldn’t follow through with a kill. He should have guessed that Dawn would be similar. Ingo had had a similar reaction, but he quickly got over it out of necessity. So, he told her the same thing that he had told all the others in the past.

“Dawn, I know it’s hard, but this is something you have to learn to be comfortable with.”

Gaeric gestured to the flightless bird flopping around. When she didn’t look, he lifted her head with a knuckle placed under her chin. Dawn wouldn’t have expected him to be so gentle. Ingo treated her like glass, which was not within the norm with mers. They bit and scratched and roughhoused. This was completely unexpected of Gaeric.

Dawn emitted a sickened gurgle, averting her eyes away from Gaeric, away from the bird – there was nowhere else to look. Gaeric took up most of her field of vision and the penguin took up what remained. Her eyes snapped closed.

“I can’t,” she moaned, more to herself than the warden, “I can’t do it.” Her hands moved to cover her mouth and nose, trying to block out the assault to her senses.

In her head, she was trying to calculate how badly this would make her look in Gaeric’s eyes. Just because she was able to quell his lord and he was treating her with less suspicion than he usually did, Dawn knew he did not trust her. That was when a thought came to her.

She was alone with Gaeric. Completely alone. He could have been grilling her the whole time about her deal, which he had done in the past, but he was so caught up with hunting that he hadn’t. Without that distraction, without that ounce of “goodwill,” Gaeric had her in a very precarious position.

A palpable wave of anxiety rolled through her, her eyes widening and her nearly hidden ear pinning back, whole body eerily still – and the warden didn’t even seem to notice, already steamrolling into a lecture about the necessity of hunting because it was about survival in this dog-eat-dog world. If Dawn wasn’t feeling so sick to her stomach with fear, she would have found a way to tease him about how he sounded very similar to a certain someone in his clan.

“Do you really want this poor bird to wriggle around in the water until a different predator comes around and does the exact same thing? Because that’s what’s going to happen.”

He watched her wince, cowering to avoid looking at the penguin. He sighed. This might require a little more persuasion. What to do… He considered for a moment. By this point most pups would have gotten over their initial reaction and kill their prey, but Dawn was still resistant. He knew she was picky, but this was something she needed to grow out of for survival purposes. It was all well and good that Palina and Iscan and some of the others were trying to accommodate her picky habits, but Gaeric was trying to look at this realistically.

Food was calories and calories kept you alive. Hunting was what kept you alive and, well… death was a part of life. It wasn’t pretty, but it was necessary.

And she needed to learn for her own good.

Gaeric sighed. A deep, weary sigh that made Dawn peek at him through her fingers.

“We aren’t going anywhere until you kill this penguin.”

“B-But-”

“We have all day. If this one dies, then I’m going to get another until you do what I’m asking you to do.”

The horror in her dark eyes was enough to solidify Gaeric’s resolve. If she didn’t want to be seen as a baby by the older mers, then this was the first step, so he wasn’t going to let her wiggle her way out of this with that silver tongue of hers.

He could have predicted the quick dart to his flank, trying to outmaneuver him with her speed, but he was used to pups. She smacked into his palm at full force and reeled back with a dazed oof! No amount of pleading and crying would sway him, and she could tell he meant what he said, they weren’t going anywhere until Dawn killed it.

On a fundamental level, she knew this was a teaching moment that was meant to strengthen the bond between her and the warden and to hone her hunting skills, but Dawn was also Laventon’s research assistant! She had spent nearly two weeks alongside the professor studying all the animals that the mers ate! She couldn’t do it. Not in good conscious to her researcher nature.

She tried anyway. Grimacing at the bird with a tightness in her throat as she turned her gaze to Gaeric, mouth open only to be cut off.

“No.” He said preemptively. “You’re going to do this. I know you can do it – so do it.”

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There was a long stretch where Dawn just couldn’t move, unable to look at the writhing Adélie and trying to ignore it as it made the more horrible screeching noises. She was hoping that a different predator would swoop in and snag the bleeding penguin by now, but Gaeric was an active deterrent.

The warden seemed to possess infinite patience, preventing her escape with such ease that Dawn found it frustrating. Even when she thought she was being slick when she tried to clamber onto one of the chunks of ice when she was permitted to take another lungful of air, he instantly scooped her up and plopped her back in front of the bird.

In a test of wills, Dawn knew who the winner would be; Gaeric could and would throw his weight around to make her commit the gruesome act. She actually started yelling at him when her frustration at the situation boiled over and, still, he remained resolute, nudging her back toward the penguin indifferently even as she tried to push back against his hand with every ounce of strength in her small body.

“Kid, you have to do this. That bird is suffering, you need to put it out of its misery.”

“You’re the one who hurt it!”

Dawn wriggled, squirming between his fingers, but he held her tail fast between his middle and pointer finger. He swung her back around and that’s when she started baring her teeth at her in a poor attempt to assert herself. Gaeric didn’t let that stand. A low growl resonated in his throat, leaning into Dawn’s space, and narrowing his eyes with a snarl on his lips. She wasn’t intimidating him, and she was quick to cower at his display.

When Gaeric didn’t release her tail and held her in front of the penguin, Dawn knew she was out of options and that frightened her. Her chest and throat grew tighter.

“I can’t – please don’t make me.”

“It’s for your own good, Dawn. Trust me.”

He sensed the change in her demeanor, his perseverance had worn her down, and, although she was trying to stifle her sobs, she was trying to reach for the penguin.

“It’s going to try to snap at you, but you need to take it with your hands by its beak and twist its neck until it snaps. It’s going to seem like a lot more, but also somehow less, pressure than you think you’ll need, but that’s something you get used to.”

She sobbed as she clamped the bird’s beak shut, scooping up the Adélie’s body in up against hers. She nearly vomited as the penguin writhed desperately, its heart pounding so fast and hard that it almost made her drop it in fear. The encouragement over her shoulder was not helping, even if it was meant to be.

Her hands shook violently, unable to perform the motion Gaeric described and unable to open her mouth to beg him to let her go. It was pointless, he wouldn’t, she had to do this. Dawn whispered an apology to the struggling bird and was about to jerk her limbs to get it over with, but that’s when she noticed Gaeric’s grip had loosened.

She cautiously turned her head only to see a look on Gaeric’s face that shook her to the very core. Dawn only saw him in profile, but his ears were pressed nearly flat against his head, his eyes opened wide with dark pupils shrunk to three-quarters of their size, and – she had never seen so many sharp teeth.

Without a word, Gaeric scooped her and the bird up, and moved fast. Dawn barely had time to ask what was happening, he unceremoniously shoved them into a niche in the blue white of the glacial ice.

“What’s-”

“Stay here. Don’t come out until I come get you.”

“But what’s-”

Dawn tried to say, deliberately ignoring what Gaeric had said by trying to slide out, but he was quick to push her back in the crevasse.

“Stay put.” He growled and, this time, Dawn obeyed, fear rooting her to the spot. She did catch Gaeric hissing something under his breath just before he darted out of sight. “Those damn ships…”

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Gaeric was sufficiently deep that the ship sitting atop the wave would have no idea what lurked beneath them. A fury was burning inside him, his eyes narrowing as the ship moved closer in the direction of the settlement. He had been too distracted by Dawn to notice the ship sooner and it was far too close for comfort, just beyond the sheet of ice like they had been following the coastline from their settlement.

The humans weren’t paying attention.

So, he would make them pay attention.

Irida had asked him to deploy nonviolent methods and, thus far, he had obeyed his mentee out of respect for her and for her title as leader. He had dragged many ships to their doom against sharp, rock outcrops and glaciers, some he had capsized with the motions of his massive tail, and other times just used his immense strength to snap off vital pieces to stop their forward progress.

The ships kept coming though. It’s like the humans never ran out of the damn things! He knew Mai had handled one or two that got too close to the Diamond clan and he had disabled or destroyed more than he could count on his fingers, and they still didn’t stop coming.

Gaeric thought it was high time to be proactive about the human situation.

Even at this depth, Gaeric could hear the crew moving along the creaking wood, he could identify each one by the pitch and timbre of their voices. The crew wasn’t large. The water was absolutely silent and eerily still, nothing but he and the ship in the vicinity. The warden edged closer, remaining right beneath the craft, or at least, as much as he could manage. As much as he wanted to bust through the hull and give those arrogant humans a really good scare, he pushed down those instincts.

This ship was going to be demolished, smashed into smithereens to make a point – one that was jagged and razor sharp. His lips were pulled back over his teeth as he watched the prow cut through the glass-like surface of the water. It was a good day to be sailing, or it would have been if the ship had been anywhere else.

He was poised and ready to strike. Every muscle in his body coiled as he went over his plan again in his head. Gaeric would strike with his heavily muscled tail, using it like a battering ram to shatter the ship in two. What about the crew? A voice that sounded suspiciously like Ingo whispered in the back of his head (sort of an oxymoron in itself which helped Gaeric ignore the impending ramifications of his actions). The warden growled under his breath, shaking his head as if to loosen the thought’s hold on him.

Nothing was going to stop him. He would accept whatever punishment Irida dished out because he was doing this for the continued protection of his people. It would be worth it if his clan could survive another day. This ship and every other one that came into their territory – he would break each and every vessel until the humans had nothing but logs lashed together with hemp to take on the rough seas.

Gaeric surged forward with a blinding speed, ready to make his steep descent back into the depths to maximize the damage on the clueless vessel. The silence of the water would have felt deafening, had his ears not picked up a noise that made him stop dead in his tracks. A panic struck the warden like lightning as he heard the noise again. Instantly, his attack on the ship was forgotten, the crew none the wiser of the near miss as Gaeric tore off in the direction he had come from as another scream reached his ears.

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Dawn hadn’t exactly meant for this scenario to be playing out as it was. The second she heard Gaeric saying something about ships, she knew that it had to be one of the Galaxy Team’s, a research vessel or fishing boat. The Ginkgo Guild didn’t head toward the northern shores for much of anything, it didn’t intersect with their trade routes, so it was extremely unlikely to be one of their trade ships.

She panicked.

Gaeric would no doubt be pissed, but Dawn needed to stop him. He had already done a lot of damage and that only made Kamado double down on his efforts to map out the icelands so fewer ships would be lost. It was a never-ending cycle.

She was peeking out of the crevasse that Gaeric had unceremoniously stuffed her into for her own protection. Nothing to see, nothing to hear – the ocean around her was lifeless. It was creepy. Even the penguin behind her was silent, but she was afraid to look around at it. Dawn didn’t want to see if it had finally succumbed to its wounds. 

The idea of sharing a small space with a dead animal made her almost as sick as she had been as Gaeric had been encouraging her to snap the penguin’s neck. Blindly reaching behind her, Dawn flapped around to find the carcass to shove it out of there. Over her internal mental anguish, she did not realize there was one sound she was hearing, ears flicking in the direction of it but listening passively.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

She mumbled, nearly in tears as she managed to get a hand on the Adélie and was about to push it out of the crevasse when she heard the noises that she had subconsciously been hearing but not registering. Dawn jerked her head, a clicking that sounded familiar but also sent a chill down her spine. Ingo made those sounds sometimes. The sharp squeaks when he attempted to communicate with someone (or ones) no longer at his side. If she could hear it, then it was already too late.

All her disgust was instantly replaced with terror, and she wasted no time, grabbing the Adélie and shoving it out of there just as a massive shadow blotted out the light. Dawn slapped her hands over her mouth, squelching the scream that was pressing against her lower ribs. From her vantage, she could see the penguin floating in the water, its form lifeless and slowly sinking. A dark snout nudged it curiously, a second snout appearing on the other side and nudging it in confirmation.

There was a voice in her head screaming at her that was a mix of her own, Ingo’s, Laventon’s, and every other mer she had ever spoken to get out of there. Not safe. Danger. Predator. Move. Escape!

What had Gaeric said earlier? If she needed to breathe, the clan had made air holes.

Dawn raised her eyes to the top of the crevasse and, true to the warden’s word, there was a small shaft of light. Thank Sinnoh for the foresight of the clans. She moved quietly, not that the orcas could do a whole lot if she was up on the ice, but she didn’t want to attract any attention whatsoever. She reached the hole, a smaller one that had partially frozen over but was clearly made for a mers smaller than Gaeric, Ingo, or even Mai and Adaman, and poked her head out, taking a deep breath of cold air.

She was about to put her hands on the ice to clamber out when she felt her whiskers twitch and something deep in her gut told her to stay low. The sheet of ice seemed barren, but something was setting off a danger alarm in her brain.

Time slowed, all other sounds fell away, even the sounds of the orcas in the water, and Dawn heard something crunching the snow under its feet. The crunching got louder, the sound blurring into one as it got closer, and Dawn did scream this time, ducking back into the water and getting as far away from the air hole as an enormous paw reached through to swipe at nothing. A furry paw as pale as the ice around it fumbled for the prey it knew was down there and Dawn couldn’t stop screaming, alerting all the predators around her.

The polar bear was just able to shove its head through the hole, thank the gods it had shrunk from its previous size, and it blinked at her, beady black eyes following her movements as she tried to get further away. The orcas, now quite alert of one prey in the water, and most likely the bear on the ice, were crowding around the crevasse, squeaking and pushing their snouts into the crack. The bear must have also registered their presence, but seemed to hesitate, weighing its options before two-inch long claws began to tear through the ice. The promise of an easy meal that had nowhere to run just below the ice – if it could make a hole big enough for it to get through.

The orcas were of no consequence to the large land mammal, they couldn’t move tons of ice to force their way into the crevasse, but it did make Dawn a sitting duck. All she could do was scream. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, so Laventon was wont to say. Stuck between two mouth loads (possibly more since orcas moved in pods) of conical teeth and four paws decked with razor sharp claws and a mouth big enough and strong enough to crush her skull.

She was going to die.

Ice crunched all around her, the bear’s paw slapping the water as it excavated the ice piece by piece. Behind her, the orcas squealed and kept throwing her into darkness. Fear was tightening around her lungs and heart, making it hard to think about anything due to lack of oxygen. Everything had finally been going so well! She had quelled the frenzied nobles and the seas had stopped slowly rising. Jubilife was safe for a little longer. People had stopped looking at her with suspicion and she finally felt comfortable in the mer communities that had opened their arms to her.

Now it was all about to come to an end because she couldn’t kill an already doomed penguin.

Dawn didn’t realize she was crying, her tears just mixed with the cold water while she sank lower into the crevasse, as far away from either party as she could get from, but it wouldn’t matter. Gaeric was going to destroy a ship in broad daylight and Dawn was going –

Outside, the orcas were squeaking in agitation as she picked up something with her sensitive ears. Something massive tearing through the water at a breakneck pace.

“Gaeric!”

Dawn had never screamed so loud in her life. The sounds of the bear and the cetaceans were drowned out by her deafening cries.

The fear in her voice only spurred Gaeric to go even faster until – there! Two orcas were poised and waiting in the exact place he had left Dawn, the ignored remains of the penguin he had caught drifting into the abyss with their attention focused on the alive and panicked prey hiding within.

Orcas, like all their cetacea cousins, were intelligent. Orcas in particular are adept hunters and they enjoyed playing with their food before they ate it. Gaeric wasn’t exactly sure why. He wasn’t sure if animals were capable of cruelty like mers and humans were, but he knew that they acted beyond what was necessary to acquire prey. This wasn’t a particularly favorable match up, Gaeric was big, but orcas weren’t exactly small, and they had numbers on their side. Admittedly less numbers than would be normal for the species, but Gaeric wasn’t about to question it, and he hoped, in the back of his head, that that didn’t come back to bite him.

He launched himself like a missile through the water, leading with his shoulder to slam into the unprotected flank of the closer orca. By this point, the warden wasn’t even speaking intelligibly, just hissing and spitting and roaring – because how dare they. How dare they attack his little protégé when she was already going through her own emotional turmoil. He had been so caught up with the creaking and sloshing of the ship in the distance, Gaeric hadn’t noticed the threat around him, and by extension, Dawn.

Without even looking, he knew the other orca was coming toward him. They were faster, but Gaeric was smarter. Just a few well-placed hits - claws digging into sensitive spots like eyes and enough whacks with his heavily muscled tail, then the pair would be on their way.

“Gaeric!”

He could hear her yelling, but he didn’t understand why. He was managing the threat. The whales would be gone soon and then he would take her back to the settlement. This and the penguin were enough trauma for one day.

His claws raked into the underside of the orca, tinging the blood pink as it wailed. What he didn’t need was for them to attract others, he needed just enough time to get Dawn and hightail it out of there because taking on a pod was out of the question. Even if he had Ingo by his side, orcas were meticulous and savage when they chose to be.

“Gaeric! Help!”

Can’t divert his attention now! The orcas were falling back, fleeing into the gloom with high pitch whines that were sure to draw in others in their pod.

“BEAR!”

Bear?

That’s when Gaeric heard the low grumbles and huffs, something big splashing into the water. Like it was in slow motion, he saw Dawn dart towards him as the whales fled, only to see her get jerked back violently.

A polar bear.

An old and all too familiar dread suffocated him. His body was moving even before the electrical impulses raced from his brain to his limbs. His fury blinded him, only allowed to because his thoughts weren’t there. Gaeric was lost to time. Frozen in the memory of another young protégé in mortal peril because he acted stupidly.

Gaeric had promised himself – promised himself – that this wouldn’t happen again.

And yet.

No more blood. No more traumatized pups. No more mistakes.

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Dawn was too busy trying not to get mauled to see exactly what Gaeric was doing, but the polar bear was alternatively swiping at her and ripping up chunks of ice to get better access to her. The surveyor just kept screaming for the warden with each swipe that came closer, with every scoop of ice that provided a bigger hole for the arctic predator.

It was getting dangerously close now, its head and shoulders almost squeezing through –

There was an agitated squeaking that only grew more distant. Gaeric must have run the orcas off. She just needed to get to him. Dawn darted for the crevasse, even spotting the blue haired warden beyond, looking uninjured, but quite agitated himself.

“BEAR!”

She shrieked at the top of her lungs, but it was too late. The sheet of ice that had been protecting her finally caved in and the polar bear was in the water with her paddling toward her with urgency. A massive paw slammed into her side, knocking the wind out of her and five claws bit through her uniform and into her abdomen.

The last thing she really saw before a flurry of colors was Gaeric’s expression. She had never seen him look scared before. He prided himself on being strong and brave for the sake of the clan, but that heartbeat before he was on top of the pair, Dawn had never seen that look on his face. A haunted look in those blue eyes.

It was a flurry of limbs, the water churning, and the bellowing that almost deafened her, but she saw it all. Her head might have been spinning because of how much she had been flung around (and blood loss), but she watched Gaeric take the bear’s neck and, exactly as he explained to her with the penguin, twisted it sharply.

The snap was the most sickening thing Dawn had ever heard. It made each individual hair on her body stand up and she did actually vomit this time (although, that also might have been her body’s reaction to the severe trauma). Things were moving much too fast. Gaeric was quick to drag her and the bear away, grab his net load of penguins that was swaying in the current at the bottom, and hightailed it out of there before anything else could happen.

So, Dawn saved a ship, at the cost of having a nasty gash through her uniform, unaware just how bad the injury beneath was.

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Gaeric physically cringed as Ingo got in his face. It was the first and only time the larger warden had ever gotten confrontational with any member of Pearl clan, and it was downright frightening. It was easy to forget just how dangerous Ingo could be if he only chose to. It was easy to grow complacent with that knowledge in mind, that Ingo chose kindness and patience when he didn’t have to be.

Right now, Ingo was not choosing to be anything other than pure rage. A deep, foreign growl resonated in his chest as he demanded to know what happened because his pup was hurt and Gaeric looked remarkably unharmed.

To his credit, Gaeric was willing to take whatever Ingo had to dish out at him on the chin. He failed as a guardian. He failed to keep a pup under his watch safe and now she was getting treatment for wounds inflicted by the polar bear. So, he was willing to accept whatever punishment Ingo was inevitably building toward. In all his years of knowing Ingo, he had never seen him so angry, but before this last year, he never had anything he cared so deeply for. Yes, Ingo was loyal to the clan and devoted to his ward, but Dawn was different. For him, Dawn was family, and for Gaeric to be so careless - it was tantamount to something happening to Irida on Ingo’s watch.

Ingo listened to the story, his hands curled into tight fists as Irida watched on, cautioning him by repeating his name because she didn’t want nor need infighting between her wardens, not with how the sea was so intent on swallowing up the region – humans and nobles included. With a shaking hand, Ingo jabbed a finger into Gaeric’s chest, right in the center of his clan crest, and rumbled dangerously low,

“You had better pray to Sinnoh that she recovers.”

They all knew that Dawn would be just fine, Ingo was just veiling his threat – if anything like this happens again, I will not be so forgiving. Gaeric had narrowly avoided Ingo’s considerable wrath. The cavern was silent in the wake of Ingo’s departure, everyone collectively holding their breath until Irida exhaled slowly. Her wardens followed suit. Catastrophe avoided, they all waited for the medic to be done tending to Dawn so Ingo could see her and start to calm down.