#had to name this because i have a wild feeling this isn’t the only selkie au i will do art of

[phoenixmetaphor]

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selkie au - take what the water gave me - part 1: spots

OKAY TRUST ME, this is a selkie au. that’s why leon has the prominent spots. it’s his tell.

my intention was for this to be a comic about how selkie au!leon has some skin markings, but then it became how selkie au!leon has some skin markings and ptsd. you know how it goes.

anyway it’s all @thebrandywine’s fault for giving me selkie brainrot. this is what you get for feeding me.

also on ao3 (requires login)

[roselightfairy]

If you're still doing fic recs, do you have any favorite AUs?

Oh, do I!! This is an EXCELLENT prompt, and I’ve had a lot of fun compiling this list tonight. I’ve ended up grouping it into two different sections: modern AU (because there are a lot of those!) and “other,” which are…non-modern AU, haha. For the most part I’ve left out UA (universe alteration, in which the universe is the same but something about the story changes), because I can’t think of any of those right now – but I know there are some really good ones of that as well!

So:

Modern:

like, comment, subscribe by DeHeerKonijn

Summary: A collection of fics that take place in my modern ‘verse, wherein Minas Tirith is a bustling city, Gimli is a professor at the university, and Legolas is a model-slash-influencer-slash-layabout.

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Come on, you all knew this was going to be first on the list. The amount of worldbuilding @deheerkonijn has put into this series is absolutely breathtaking, and what you see on Tumblr is probably only the half of it. (Go stalk her Twitter, even if you don’t have a profile – I do it all the time!) This series is all she’s written for it so far, plus the fic that we cowrote about the OC roommates. But aside from that, the series has a whole assortment of always sexy, always funny, always sweet stories about Legolas and Gimli; go read them all!

No Place Like HoME by Flamebyrd

Summary: In which our heroes play a MMORPG called Heroes of Middle-Earth.

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THIS IS SO GOOD. I love this premise so much, haha – Legolas and Gimli are just regular humans (with regular names, even!) and a rivalry they don’t even know about – but it turns out they’ve been playing each other in a game for quite awhile! It’s cute, fun, and creative, and I wish there were more.

life’s just a game (and it’s just your turn) by plinys

Summary: Legolas and Gimli try to have phone sex (or well, headset sex) with some unforeseen consequences.

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I ADORE that these two as gamers is a fic idea that exists more than once, and this one is so fluffy with just a hint of spice (and a hefty dose of embarrassment, haha, but they deserved it!). Read it and grin!

Hold My Number by katajainen

Summary: It's a Saturday night at the A&E, and Gimli only wants to get to the triage nurse and be done with this whole stupid business.

That is, until he meets a tall, dark stranger (a ridiculously pretty one).

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I LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH. The crowning glory of meet-cutes (though it’s more of a meet-ugly, really), in which Legolas and Gimli meet at the emergency room for very embarrassing reasons . . . and hit it off right away, in a way that is adorable, delightful, and funny to watch. Read for their embarrassing stories, their adorable dorkiness (they’re gamers again!), and their undeniable chemistry.

Perfect Fit by mssileas

Summary: "Both of them were painfully aware that their physical differences were shockingly obvious – much more so than their also very different personalities. And that they usually led people to assumptions they weren't shy of declaring."

Or, Legolas single-handedly disproves all prejudice, and Gimli loves it.

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This is a lovely (and smutty, so be warned) modern AU oneshot that challenges the stereotypes of these two based on how they look – and how they would probably be treated, if they were a couple in our world. If you’re interested in the modern AU premise but not the smut, there’s another oneshot set in this ‘verse, Christmas Body, that is mostly just fluff!

Other (non-modern):

The Earth Moves Under Our Feet (It’s A Loco Motion) by notanightlight

Summary: The West is still Wild. Gimli is working on the railway, Legolas is a gunslinger, and someone needs to turn this train around.

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WILD WEST AU WILD WEST AU!! This story is one of my favorite things ever because it’s a WILD WEST AU and Gimli is an Irish immigrant and Legolas is an outlaw and they meet in a near-death situation and bond! It has wonderful worldbuilding, excellent banter, and little moments of flirting that almost hide below the surface of the aforementioned near-death situation, but not quite. ;) Please go read it, or listen to the amazing accompanying podfic by Morvidra, which is an astounding performance.

Nothing Doth Fade (But Suffers a Sea-Change) by notanightlight

Summary: Gimli has always heard stories about the seals that lived near the cliffs of Castle Durin. “They aren’t what they seem,” they’d tell him. Gimli never knew what to think of those stories, until the night he met a stranger on the shore, with the sea in his eyes and moonlight on his skin.

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@notanightlight has too many amazing AUs to list them all here, but I have to give a shout-out to this one because SELKIES but also ANGST and SORROW and BETRAYAL but FORGIVENESS and HOPE and – I don’t know. It plays with a common and really sad trope, but gives our characters a way through that is hard and painful, but worth it, in the end – a story in which everything is not all okay, but in which that doesn’t have to be the end, if everyone is willing to work. Plus, Thranduil makes an appearance and he is magnificent.

Wild Hunt by consumptive_sphinx

Summary: There’s a knock on the door.

It isn’t quite dusk; it isn’t too dangerous yet. But still, it’s late to be out on Midwinter’s Night. What if he was held up somewhere?

Legolas takes a nail with him when he opens the door. “Gimli. It’s late.”

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Fae AU!! consumptive_sphinx has many wonderful AUs and you should check out their whole profile, but I had to give this one a shout-out. It’s mysterious and tender and packs a whole lot of story between the lines of its 917 words and made me yearn for more!

The Monstrous Fellowship by IchijouKenichiro

Summary: Astrin's cousins Fíli and Kíli left to fight the forces of Mordor over two years ago, but there's been no word from them for the last six months. Being a woman of action and the one who always is there to get them out of trouble, Astrin disguises herself as the male warrior Gimli and joins the army to fight for them. But the regiment she joins is anything but typical. With troublesome hobbits, a religious fanatic, the undead, a golem, and even an elf, are the greatest dangers to come from her fellow man? And what secrets are they all holding onto?

A parody of Terry Prachett's "A Monstrous Regiment"

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THIS IS NOT A DRILL. This is ACTUALLY a Monstrous Regiment rewrite of LOTR, with the Fellowship in the place of the Regiment, and the characters are – actually matched up really, really well. Full disclosure: I read this before I read Monstrous Regiment and went in fully prepared to ship Polly and Maladict… but it turns out they were extremely shippable anyway, so that turned out all right. ;) Seriously – this is an excellent fic, such a fun story, and such a good homage!

Aulë’s Gift by daisynorbury

Summary: "Our friendship endures these strange periods of inequality. You can't remember, and I can't forget."

A new chapter in Adina's classic Back to the Beginning cycle, wherein Aulë granted Gimli perpetual reincarnation. Two thousand years into the Fourth Age, Legolas meets the ninth version of his dearest friend. Told mostly from Gimli's amnesiac POV.

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I don’t know if this story fully counts as an AU, but I’ve been longing to rec it for several lists and just – couldn’t ever quite find a category it fit into. AU is close enough, since even though the world is meant to be Middle-earth far in the future, it’s different enough to feel like another world. This is a reincarnation story of Legolas and Gimli set in the series referenced above (and recommended in a different list), and it deals with the extreme complication of the situation with so much sensitivity and grace that it rivets me. Even if I didn’t know @daisyfornost, it would be so obvious to me that an absolutely unbelievable amount of thought and care went into the worldbuilding, the writing, the creation of this story. It is such a labor of love, and that love is evident throughout the whole thing. Please go read it, but I warn you that you will have lots of feelings.

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Thank you again for this amazing prompt, anon! Reminder to all that this is in no way a comprehensive list – I’m sure I’ve left out so many other wonderful stories. Please feel free to add your own, if you reblog this! And my usual reminder to please leave the author a comment if you read any of these and enjoy it. <3

[luthienebonyx]

I’ve been meaning to do some more Jaime x Brienne recs for a while, and since I’m trying to decide what to write next, it seemed like a good time to talk about other people’s fic.

Alright, outta sight - by Samirant

Author's summary: Ain’t no party like a Lannister party (whether you meant to invite a Lannister or not).

This is a medical AU where Brienne the doctor and Jaime the cardiologist have been working together at the same hospital for a number of years. When the story starts, Brienne thinks their relationship is one of professionalism but personal dislike. However, when Jaime learns, firstly, that Brienne is planning a small house-warming party, and secondly, that she and Hyle broke up some time ago, he takes over the planning for the party and… well. See the author's summary.

The story is mostly the story of the party, but that description does not in any way do this story justice. It has some wonderful characterisation, some laugh-out-loud humour, and great little shout-outs to canon - like Ironborn vodka - but at its core it's a lovely, warm true-feeling story about two people finding each other. But yes, it's also the story of a legendary party.

(This is the only WIP on this list. The main part of the story is complete, with only the epilogue still to be posted.)

Evenfall - by @aviss​

Author's summary: Jaime had never intended to get back to active duty, he was happily retired. Now he has no choice, someone has to pay for taking her from him.

This is part of Aviss's Spies Like Us series. Brienne is a female James Bond, Jaime is a former spy who is now the Quartermaster (ie. Q), and the plot of this one is influenced fairly heavily by Skyfall. Jaime and Brienne are in a relationship - they even have cats, so it's pretty serious ;) - but haven't formalised anything. Fairly early on, Brienne is injured and presumed dead, and Jaime resigns and decides to go and seek vengeance.

If you are in the mood to wallow in angst, this is the fic for you! This story hit all my angst buttons and wouldn't let up. There is some nicely done comfort at the end to balance out the hurt, too.

I will always hold you close, but I will learn to let you go  - by angel_deux aka @angel-deux-writes​ 

Author's summary: Jaime is gravely wounded in the battle against the dead. When he thinks he's dying, he kisses Brienne.

After, he heals, kept asleep with milk of the poppy. Brienne worries about what will happen when he wakes up.

This is a very internal sort of story, with a terrific Brienne POV. Brienne’s thoughts and emotions go round and round, always so painfully, brutally honest with herself that sometimes she ends up getting things completely wrong. As usual for angel_deux’s fic, there are some great turns of phrase in this, with complex emotions being conveyed concisely but with deadly accuracy.

Little talks - by robotsdance 

Author's summary: Brienne isn’t at Winterfell when Jaime arrives. She isn’t there to vouch for him and he’s sentenced to die by dragonfire. Brienne returns just in time to make sure that doesn’t happen, but she doesn’t want to talk about it.

She doesn’t want to talk to Jaime at all.

Finding a story that is deeply romantic without being sappy is one of those things that makes my day, and this story perfectly fits that description. It's an AU take on the beginning of Season 8, after Jaime arrives at Winterfell. What happens after Brienne returns just in the nick of time to save Jaime is… well, deeply romantic, perfectly in-character for both of them, and not at all sappy. The visual image of the scene right after Brienne returns is one that's going to stay in my head for a long time.

Living Proof - by @hardlyfatal​  

Author's summary: In the middle of a war, with brutality and bloodshed overwhelming what little kindness and safety can be found, she meets a man who is everything she admires and respects. And it’s not the man she thinks it will be.

This is a MASH style AU, set during the Korean War. Brienne is a nurse and Jaime is a helicopter pilot. This is just beautifully characterised, with painfully honest emotions, a slow burn romance, and a storyline that does not flinch from the brutal reality for medical personnel in the midst of a war. There were parts of this that I went back to re-read immediately after finishing a chapter because they really did just sort of take me captive as a reader.

The Lord and the Selkie - by Roccolinde aka @firesign23​ 

Author's summary: On the west coast of Westeros, there stood a castle, known far and wide as Casterly Rock, overlooking the Sunset Sea. The lord of this castle, Lord Tywin, had three children: The Golden Lion, Ser Jaime, was brave; his twin The Beautiful Maid, Lady Cersei, was cunning; and The Unwanted One, Lord Tyrion, was learned. Together, they might have come to rule Westeros as their Lord Father intended, a final wish made from his deathbed. But then Ser Jaime met the selkie, and their paths were forever altered.

This is told in the style of a fairytale. Brienne is a selkie searching for her lost brother. Eventually, her search brings her to Casterly Rock, where she meets Jaime, and their romance plays out in the style of a fairytale, too. 

I love everything about this; the characters meld perfectly into the fairytale setting and it all just works. There are some great little shout-outs to canon in this, including this one when Jaime and Brienne first meet:

but though Ser Jaime was wise in chivalry, he was foolish in the ways of sense, and so exclaimed with some surprise, “The ghost of Casterly is a woman?” 

Measure in Love - by @dancinginthecenteroftheworld​ 

Author's summary: Brienne Tarth isn't wild about the new building that's been built across her office, blocking her view of Blackwater Bay. But what she really doesn't expect the gorgeous nudist who moves in or the chaos he brings into her life.

Yeah, one guess who the nudist is. ;)

This is a slow burn modern AU. Brienne and Jaime first see each other through their respective windows, and then meet properly at the gym run by Sandor Clegane. I really enjoyed the pacing of this story, and the way initial hostility slowly changes over time. The ways in which the various canon characters pop up in different roles in Brienne's life is also really well done.

Once it ends, so it begins - by nubbins_for_all 

Author's summary: Brienne doesn’t care why it’s cold. She just knows it’s really fucking cold.

A quiet evening between the Lady of Winterfell and her sworn shield, with ruminations on sex, love, and dealing with everything being awful.

This is part of a series (Winter isn't goin' nowhere) where winter doesn't end after the Long Night, and so Dany and the northern army are stuck at Winterfell, while Cersei is stuck in the south.

The main part of this story takes the form of a long conversation between Brienne and Sansa one night, interspersed with mostly-dialogue flashbacks of scenes between Brienne and Jaime. 

I love how this story explores these two relationships side by side, with Brienne as the linchpin. All the characterisations are very on point. I can believe very much in this version of Sansa, after everything she's been through, and I love Brienne's awkwardness at what is basically a slumber party for two. Brienne is thoughtful and considering as Sansa’s sworn sword, and self-doubting when Sansa needs her half-forgotten girly side, but also gets better and better at giving Jaime as good as she gets. Also, Jaime's dialogue is so very Jaime, and he makes the dialogue-only flashbacks really shine. 

Ser Goldenpaws and the Wench - by Libkat   

Author's summary: It's the Lady and the Tramp AU that nobody wanted.

This is Jaime and Brienne in a Lady and the Tramp fusion, where they're golden retrievers. In this case, Jaime is the prize-winning, much-loved golden retriever, Ser Goldenpaws, and Brienne is the lost golden retriever living on the streets who won't divulge her name, so Jaime calls her the Wench.

Brienne and Jaime are somehow still recognisably in-character AND very canine in the way they think. I'm not quite sure how the author has achieved that balance (major kudos!), but it works really well. This is not as light and fluffy as you might expect, and goes to some relatively dark places at times, before everything works out the way a story like this should.

The Tides - by @slipsthrufingers​   

Author's summary: Jaime Lannister, recently missing a hand, a white cloak and his purpose in life, is sent to Tarth to decide whether the Lannisters will loan them the gold they so desperately need to thwart a disaster. He expects to negotiate with the Evenstar, but is stuck with the dour daughter instead.

This is the type of story where a lot happens, in terms of characters and relationship development, while not a lot is actually happening, in terms of plot points. It's intensely character-focused, and the author's style is beautifully descriptive, which fits the quiet atmosphere of a lot of the story.

You will never think of a medieval marble mine in the same way again after reading this story. ;)

Banner by @ao3commentoftheday​

[ivywing]

Hollice Selkie!AU- Part Two

At last, the long-awaited second chapter is here! You have no idea how rewritten this chapter is. Explanations and actual Hollice fluff in the next chapter, I promise.

Chapter One

@chelsvans @daughterofsarenrae @some-dragon-bitch

The mist rolling off the sea smells like rain, the thick fog still untouched by any sunlight. Hollis had made their crew leave early this morning, an itch at the back of their mind spurring them on despite complaints of hangover. As for themself, Hollis is surprised at the lack of pain. Maybe it has something to do with that witch, but they won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Keith groans as he sidles up beside them, holding a cold pack to his head. “Slave driver,” he grumbles, nails digging into their shoulder. “There’s no point in leaving early if we can’t even navigate our way there.”

Hollis gives a wry smile. “You’re just upset I listened to that woman over you.”

Keith growls. “Yeah, a witch.” He sways unsteadily, gripping the edge of the ship for balance. “We’re leading our crew into a trap, and if you’d just listen to me-”

Hollis shoots him a look. “Keith, that’s enough. It’s only a few miles from here, according to the map.”

Keith looks like he wants to argue, but after a moment turns away. “Fine. But when we’re in hell, I’m going to hold this over you.”

“Mmm, I’m sure you will.” They take hold of the Helm again, turning the ship two degrees east of their original course to account for the breeze. There’s a low groan as the ship turns, rudder shaking slightly, but Hollis keeps a solid grip on the wheel, and after a few moments the ship adjusts her course.

There’s a sharp whistle, and then Hollis is cursing as one of the ropes snaps, sending a sail collapsing. They thank the gods that it’s just a minor sail, but still- another thing they’ll need to replace once this mission is over with.

Hollis blinks, then, as the rope begins to repair itself, glowing a faint blue. They grab the nearest Hornet and point to the repairing sail. “You see that, right?”

The hornet they grabbed gapes, her fingers twitching like she wants to rush up to it. “That- that’s impossible.” 

“Obviously not,” Hollis snarks, but their tone lacks its usual bite. Even they can barely believe their eyes, but they have to- the sail stiffens under the weight of a new wind as the ship presses on, the mist parting ahead.

Just like on the map, there’s a wide lagoon up ahead, the water a bright blue-green that only seems more vibrant as they get closer. The wind changes, too- instead of salt and rain, it smells like… home. It’s odd, but Hollis is struck by a memory of their mother, curled up in her lap while she ran her fingers through their hair.

The hornet gets a misty look in her eyes. “It’s beautiful.”

Hollis simply nods their assent, slowing the ship as they come in. The wind settles, leaving the ship in the center of the lagoon, gently rocking back and forth.

The crew makes short work, dropping lifeboats to head to the deposits of oysters on the stone ridges jutting up from the water. Hollis themself takes the third boat with a few of the younger sailors, a small knife in their hand to help pry the oysters open, but it turns out they don’t even need to- as soon as the boat hits the rocks, the oysters open their valves, exposing small black pearls.

The youngest on the boat, maybe fifteen or sixteen, gently shakes Hollis’s shoulder. “That doesn’t happen normally, right? I get the feeling that doesn’t normally happen.”

They sigh. “No. But we don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, okay?” They grab a small sack. “Here. Be gentle- they’re giving us free money, essentially, and we don’t want to damage them.”

A few minutes later, the bag is heavy with pearls, and they’ve only harvested from four outcroppings. The other boats seem to be sharing the sentiment, since only Keith’s boat is still left in the water with Hollis’s. Keith waves from across the lagoon, a mad grin on his face.

A small stream of bubbles is the only warning Hollis gets before a round white head pops out of the water. They stumble back in the lifeboat, and the seal tries to climb up into the boat, before the youngest (What’s their name? Maggie? Madison? Something like that) steadies them.

“Rreh!” the seal barks helpfully. It bobs in the water, black eyes focused on Hollis. It flaps one flipper at them, splattering drops of water on Hollis’s boots.

One of the Hornets cooes softly, reaching out a hand only to be stopped by Hollis. “Don’t. That’s a wild animal, it could do a lot of damage if it’s startled.” Hollis frowns, taking in the white pelt speckled with shades of black. “This is an arctic animal. What is it doing so far south?”

“Lrue.” The seal pushes its head towards Hollis’s hand, nuzzling almost with affection. When Hollis tries to pull their hand away, it whines and pushes its face into their palm harder.

Hollis shakes their head. “I’m not giving you any food.” The seal whuffs and splashes a bit, and Hollis frowns. “No. You’re a grown seal, and I’m not your mum.”

“Mmlr.” The seal slips back into the water, swimming a lap around the boat. 

The youngest gives Hollis puppy-dog eyes. “Can we keep it?”

“Keep it? It’s a wild animal.”

“It likes you.”

“That doesn’t matter. Besides, how do you suggest we keep a seal? Plus, it might have diseases, and what would we feed it?”

Still, even as they row back to the ship, the seal follows, dancing around the ship insistently. It isn’t until Hollis begins to haul the rowboat back onto the ship that the seal swims off, leaving a circle of ripples in its wake.

Keith gives off a short whistle as he helps haul Hollis up. “Someone made a friend.”

“Shut up, Keith.” They grunt as their foot slips, and Keith has to haul their ass up. “And don’t start with that. That animal- it’s unnatural, is what it is.”

Keith laughs, leaning over the edge of the ship. “It’s just a seal, Hollis. You’re just paranoid.”

“Oh, so now I’m the paranoid one?” Hollis elbows Keith, sticking their tongue out. “If my memory serves, you said, and I quote, ‘You’re leading us all into a trap’, not an hour ago.”

Keith shrugs. “What can I say? Money changes a man.”

“Changes him enough so that he wants to adopt a seal?”

“I don’t want to keep a seal, I want you to keep a seal.” Keith rolls one of the harvested pearls around between his fingers, examining it. “I love you, boss, but you need something besides piracy to keep you going.” He fixes them with a melancholy stare. “You and I both know this isn’t going to last forever.”

It’s true, no matter how much Hollis wants to deny it. They wouldn’t have attacked the Navy ship a few days back if it wasn’t for their sister ship that had sunk two weeks ago. The security of their career isn’t certain, and the thought unnerves them.

They choose to change the subject rather than thinking about the impending end. “And what part of owning a seal makes you think that will change anything?” They watch as the Hornets portion up the collected pearls, oohing and awing over the beauty of the jewels, and lean over the edge of the ship. “What do you want?” he calls to the seal, who’s treading water directly below them.

The seal cooes and splashes around in the water, clapping its fins together. Hollis rolls their eyes, trying to hide a smile. “Do you want to come up?” The seal gives a hearty bark. “I don’t think you can make it, but by all means, you can try.”

The seal disappears beneath the waves, and Keith groans. “You scared it away!”

Hollis shrugs, turning away from the bow. “It would have happened eventually. Now, let’s get-”

They’re cut off at the sound of a splash. The ship rocks as water is forced against it, a spray of droplets soars over the deck, and at least a few of the Hornets give surprised shrieks or gasps.

The seal from earlier lands about ten feet from Hollis with a loud slap, groaning. Keith bursts into laughter, clutching Hollis’s arm. “By the gods, Hollis! It took you up on your offer!”

“How?” Hollis approaches the seal cautiously, their hands shaking. “That shouldn’t be possible. Nothing short of a whale could breach that high.”

The seal shakes, and for a moment Hollis thinks it’s dying. Then, a gut-twisting squelch comes from the belly of the seal. Its skin splits open-

And from the now-empty sea skin steps a very naked young man.

What.

The man laughs softly, tousling his sun-gold hair. “Sorry for the dramatics, but I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce myself.”

What?!

“My name’s Jake Coolice. I’m your husband.”

WHAT?!?

Apparently, they said that out loud, because the man- Jake winces. “It’s a long story.” He stands, pulling the seal skin around his shoulders. “And, uh- could I get some pants?”

[akaluan]

/Selkie/ Quincy? /Yes/ - although. Um. I can just /see/ one of the first things Erich asking Uryuu - not where his sealskin /is/, that's /terribly/ impolite and almost on the verge of taboo - but if it's /safe/. And if Erich doesn't like the answer? /Heads will roll/. (And now I have the horrible mental image of Ryuuken - well. Do you think Ryuuken would be /so far gone/ as to have removed Uryuu's sealskin as a young child, and hidden it away - all in the name of being 'normal')

Erich, by dint of being essentially a homeless wanderer, wears his sealskin slanted about his waist like a strange fashion accessory, the bulk of it covering his right leg. His clothing isn’t quite so clean-cut like he wore in the Living World either — to make his own skin blend in, more of his clothing is obviously leather or fur.

Most people take him to be just an eccentric hunter living a bit too wild. He comes and goes through the villages of Rukongai, trading meat and furs and leather and rarely staying long.

(Who would suspect a Quincy of openly carrying a bow? Of being a game hunter, living hand to mouth and dressed mostly in his own catches?)

(Erich doesn’t /enjoy/ this life, but it’s… safe. He’s built up enough of a reputation — and so few people remember that Quincy are selkies — that he’s safe enough.)

So it’s this man, this Obvious Hunter, who gets involved. He can tell that Uryuu is a Quincy like him, and the lack of a sealskin makes SENSE in Soul Society, so it’s no big deal. It’s okay. Most Quincy don’t constantly keep their sealskins around like Erich does—

(He wouldn’t do it either but… he has no safe place. No hidden spot he /knows/ will never be found. He can’t stay in one place too long and there’s no one he trusts—)

It’s only when they’re alone, when Erich has helped Uryuu regain his powers and now he’s lingering, ingrained habit urging him to leave and instincts urging him to stay—

(Seals are not loners by choice and neither are selkies, and Erich has been alone for a long, long time…)

—and it’s then he asks. He just… needs to be sure. Needs to know that it’s just that he’s a /stranger/ that keeps Uryuu from retrieving his sealskin. He’s known Quincy who lost their powers and then regained them before — the war was unkind to them all — and always, /always/ they wanted to retreat into the water, into their natural form and Uryuu… Uryuu’s been looking towards the sea, but only briefly, like a person who wants something they don’t understand.

So he asks. Asks if Uryuu would like him to leave so he can retrieve his sealskin safely. Tells him that it’s not unusual to wish to return to their true form after the loss of spiritual powers — seals have a power of their own, and the ocean is so, so strong with reishi that it’s a /comfort/ — and…

Uryuu just stares at him blankly.

(He doesn’t know what to say to the strangely dressed man who has done more for him in the past week than Ryuuken has done for him in years and… what is all this talk about ‘true form’ and the ocean???)

Erich doesn’t want to believe what he’s seeing. Maybe he just… didn’t get it across well — his Japanese is solid but it’s been /decades/ since he spoke of being a selkie in this language so…

A misunderstanding. It has to be a misunderstanding.

So he pulls his sealskin from his belt and pulls it on and lets the magic return him to his natural form. There’s no water in the training field, but it’s okay. It’s just to show Uryuu his form, to get across what his language cannot—

Uryuu drops to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, one trembling hand touching Erich’s face and, and—

(He doesn’t understand what he’s seeing. What he’s /feeling/. There’s something in his chest /screaming/ and he can’t understand—)

Erich switches back in a heartbeat, gathers Uryuu into his arms and soothes the boy. Promises to find what Uryuu’s lost, to teach him what he’s not had a chance to learn—

(Ryuuken gets a visit that night from a coldly furious Erich, his teeth too long and his nails too sharp to be human, skin more /grey/ than pink. Ryuuken gets a visit from a dark-eyed, infuriated selkie who used to lead a pod, and learns the hard way that his meddling will no longer be tolerated.)

(Ryuuken takes Erich to where Uryuu’s sealskin is hidden and hands it over and, when Erich /snarls/ that this better be the /only/ person Ryuuken has denied the heritage of… he wavers.)

(He wavers because he already aches, bruises forming beneath his clothing and the threat of /more-worse/ lingering over his head. He wavers because suppressed instincts recognize /danger-threat-power/. He wavers because… because underneath it all he sort of /likes/ Isshin and doesn’t want Isshin to die the way he could see Erich doing if he finds it out /later/.)

(So he caves. He caves and tells Erich there’s another family. That he doesn’t know where Isshin hid his children’s skins but he knows the man /has/.)

(Ryuuken isn’t the only one to get a visit from an infuriated selkie that night.)

[patheticphallacy]

This is going to be a really difficult introduction to my wrap up.

Unfortunately, on September 18th my dad passed away. He was only 50 years old. I won’t go into details because of how personal it is, but he was in hospital a majority of the month before he passed. I’ve taken a year suspension from University for the time being.

It has been a really difficult time for myself and my family. I’ve turned a lot to books and blogging to offer a way to occupy my mind which is why so many things still seem to be coming out, but I cannot say that this will hold up after the funeral.

As I schedule so many posts, a lot of what came out this month has been written since around mid August and I did not find the time to stop the University posts before they were released. I won’t be deleting them.

I hope you’ll all understand.

THINGS I’VE READ

    An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley– My sister gave me her copy she used for her GCSE’s. Such a great play with revelation after revelation, left me on the edge of my seat. While I knew the core plot twist, I didn’t predict that ending. 

Mob Psycho 100 Volume 1 by One– This was kind of meh. It’s one of my best friend’s favourites, so I’ll carry it on eventually, but I don’t really feel the urge to pick volume two up just yet. I will say I like how the anime tackles the same events in a different order to save major revelations for backstory– that was really interesting to pick up on. 

I Call Upon Thee by Ania Ahlborn– I really didn’t like this! Lacklustre and very cliched, feel like it doesn’t really offer anything other than annoying ending and characters who go through absolutely no development at all. 

Kissing Tolstoy by Penny Reid– An OK romance that actually has discussions surrounding reading and books that don’t feel forced. I found this easy to read even though I’ve never read any Russian Lit, and I actually want to read it more now. Like that it discusses age gaps and issues of the power dynamic too. 

    Seven Tears at High Tide by C.B. Lee– Finally finished this one, and it only took me 3 months. A very cute and heartwarming story about a boy who makes a wish and falls in love with a Selkie. Does get ridiculous at the end, I must say, but I was happy with the payoff. 

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill– Katie O’Neill creates such amazing narratives that have wonderful messages about society and being true to yourself and your wishes, pursuing something that you love and encouraging others to do the same. 

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin– How can I ever trust a single man or old person after this book? Tell me. 

Please Undo This Hurt by Seth Dickinson– Don’t really rate this short story. It bored me and I hated the main characters, not even in a good way. Just perpetuates the ‘I can save you from your mental illness’ narrative that is dull and overdone by this point. 

    My Hero Academia Volume 20 by Kohei Horikoshi– Gentle Criminal and La Brava was so boring, the School Festival arc was fabulous, and Endeavor finally got his ass kicked! Yay! 

Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer– I have a review of this coming out soon for National Poetry Day in the UK, but if you don’t want to wait, I have a review here!

The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca– I read this after watching the trailer for Antlers, and I thought it was pretty neat! Very thrilling, although I’m bothered by changes being made in the film that I feel could detract from having Julia as one of the main characters in the film. 

I Am Not Your Final Girl by Claire C. Holland– A collection of poetry centring around fictional women from horror films, exploring their empowerment and agency in a genre and a wider culture and society that seems willing to beat them down until they break. 

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink– I have a review of this linked later this post! Full of body horror and emotional trauma, this is a really solid read great for fans of the podcast and Welcome to Night Vale. 

    In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant– I love this terrible cover! Keep an eye out for my review of this, it’s coming out soon. 

The World’s Greatest First Love Volume 1 by Shungiku Nakamura– The publishing elements and the main character were GREAT, but there is prevalent sexual assault in this that is never addressed and is incredibly insensitive in its treatment, so I don’t recommend this manga. 

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden– I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Small Spaces, but it’s still really freaky and a great middle grade read. I love that Coco gets her own POV in this, too, and that it doesn’t take stereotypical routes with some of its plotlines. 

No One Is Too Small To Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg– This is a collection of speeches Greta Thunberg has made addressing climate change, as well as her own position as an advocate for the cause. Moving and a must read, in my opinion. It’s only £3 in Waterstones at the moment for anyone who wants to pick it up!

    Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury– A fascinating collection of essays written by Bradbury about his writing process and some of the more popular works he’s published. I honestly felt really inspired and motivated after reading this, I highly recommend it especially for creative writers, but just be warned it is very oriented around the white male experience.

Heartstopper Volume 2 by Alice Oseman– I adore Heartstopper and I love this second volume. Great progression in the relationship between Nick and Charlie, and we’re getting to see more outside of their relationship and into their friendships and family dynamics, too. I still love Tori Spring!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle– Finally got a hold of the MASSIVE audiobook where Stephen Fry narrates all the Holmes stories, and it honestly made the experience so much more enjoyable. I think Doyle’s skill lies more in shorter fiction than longer fiction, I think there’s less opportunity for… not useless, per se, just unneeded waffling. 

Giant Days Volume 9 and 10 by John Allison– These two volumes take place around the tailend of the girl’s second years and follows their accommodation location, the progression (and breakdown) of relationships, and them finally making it to third year intact. I honestly can’t believe there’s only three or four volumes left in this series, its been a constant companion for me since 2016 when I first started and I really don’t want to let it go. 

  No Touching At All and Even So, I Will Love You Tenderly by Kou Yoneda– Of the ‘older’ manga I’ve read that focus on the relationships between two men, these two are definitely in the ‘recommend’ pile. Other than the beautiful names for the volumes and the artwork being really pretty, I really enjoyed the developing relationships and the conversations had about workplace homophobia and ostracization in Japan, although that wasn’t the main focus. They do include some questionable attitudes towards identification of sexuality– two characters in both volumes are probably bisexual or on that spectrum, but are referred to as straight more than once for liking women and only the man they enter the relationship with. It’s complicated, but nothing in either volumes ever feels targeted or hateful, just lacking education on the nuances of sexuality. 

Articles

I found this article about Friends great as it breaks down issues I’ve had with the show for years. I don’t have a lot of attachment to it, honestly, I mostly just put it on in the background, but I think I’ll stop now. I’ve always found the handling of gender and sexuality damaging in Friends, as well as the overwhelming fatphobia.

I really enjoyed looking through this list The Guardian did of the 100 best books of the 21st century. I don’t know why, I’m just a big fan of lists!

Before reading this article, I can honestly tell you I knew nothing about Susan Sontag beyond her name. It’s deconstructing her queerness and how her aversion to accepting her own sexuality ultimately ruled a lot of the work she produced in her life.

God, this article was fascinating. I can’t even tell you what it’s about, really, other than that it’s an interview with Christeene, a punk drag artist who is just really cool, honestly. There are some buttholes for anyone who… wants to avoid butts? Or reading this at work?

There was a massive conversation in August that carried into September regarding the rise in men adopting pseudonyms to get their thriller novels published. This Atlantic article particularly captured the issues I have with men who do this, who are almost trying to fool an audience of women who trust women writers to not approach the suffering of women through a misogynistic lens, as is so common in modern society.

An older article by The New Inquiry, Coming out of the Coffin offers an insight into the fraught relationship between Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde. A really interesting read, I’m just sad I discovered it 7 years after its release!

THINGS I WATCHED

I don’t do music sections on these wrap ups anymore, so I’ll put this here: the GRAACE cover of ‘Complicated’ by Avril Lavigne completely transforms the song and adds such an amazing depth to it

I decided to binge watch Fleabag and it’s most definitely the best decision I’ve made all year. Fleabag follows the titular woman as she navigates her life as a thirty year old woman whose entire life is in flux, and has been since the death of her mother. There’s a lot I could say about this show, honestly. What really stood out to me was how much I could relate specifically to the emotions Fleabag and her older sister Claire feel in relation to each other, and their grief. Seeing them still come back together even after such a significant loss, their dependency, really gives me strength to get through what I’m experiencing at the moment, so Fleabag has been something I can relate to and look at as hope for a future where I can begin to wrap my head around the terrible things going on around me.

THINGS I POSTED

August Wrap Up

TTT: Books Outside My Comfort Zone

50 Bookish Questions Tag

Music I Enjoyed This Summer

Connie’s Personal 101 Guide For Personal Survival of University

Bookshelf Tour Part 3: TBR & More Manga/Comics

Book Review: I Call Upon Thee by Ania Ahlborn

TTT: Books on my Fall TBR

Book Review: Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink

Bookshelf Tour Part 4: CDs&DVDs

If you liked this post, consider buying me a coffee? Ko-Fi. 

Goodreads|Twitter|Instagram|Letterboxd

September Wrap Up This is going to be a really difficult introduction to my wrap up. Unfortunately, on September 18th my dad passed away.

[distant-rose]

Seal of Fate Epilogue (8/8)

Notes: Did I actually finish a story? Yes, internet, I did. And if you’re reading Once and Future and Playing Off Foul, I promise I will get back to it soon before I post my law school au. Anyway, this has been a wild ride and I have honestly loved all the responses I’ve gotten on this, particularly all of the panic and questioning of whether this last bit would be as angsty as the last bits. I’m going to say....you can be relax. This isn’t angsty at all. In fact, I think you’ll quite like it. Anyway, a special thank you to @katie-dub and @shireness-says for being so supportive. A thanks to @cssns and @drowned-dreamer whose gorgeous art will feature at the bottom of this epilogue. And as always, a huge thank you to @aerica13, my amazing beta. I couldn’t have done it without you babe! Word Count: 4,100+ AO3: [LINK] Chapters: Prologue | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Epilogue Rating: T+

The Vineyard Sound was calm, the surface of the water almost as smooth as glass as Emma Swan sat down on the front porch of the yellow beach house. There wasn’t a single soul on the beach across the road, but it was only May and she could only imagine how crowded it got once the vacationers arrived. She knew from what Granny Lucas had told her that the beach was a private one and meant only for the residents of the neighborhood but Emma assumed the majority of the houses here were rental properties and soon the street would be crowded with strangers.

Emma hadn’t expected to remain on the Vineyard past October but something had felt wrong about returning to Maine, especially with Killian in tow. Nothing was waiting for her there while Memensha was full of ghosts, full of history that she had yet to uncover. So, she had given up her shitty loft apartment and decided to stay. She had appealed to the Lucases to remain in the house, offering to pay extra in rent. Ruby and Granny were more than willing to let them stay in the house but had refused their money, claiming that the property should have been hers in the first place because it had been Ruth Nolan’s before it had fallen into their possession. Granny had even forced Ruby to return the rental money, something that Emma was certain had more to do with her guilt than the debatable ownership of the beach house. Feeling awkward about the situation, she had insisted on paying utilities which they relented on.

Emma had taken to working shifts at the diner over the winter on top of working as a freelancer investigator alongside Killian. The majority of their work was on the mainland but Emma sensed that he enjoyed their near daily-ride over to Hyannis, his eyes glued to the ocean. He had yet to go near the water since he had lost his hand. More than once she had caught him looking out over the Atlantic with a mixture of longing and anxiety.

Two fur pelts were waiting in the top dresser, dark and sleek next to white and fluffy; one much larger than the other. They never talked about it but Emma knew it was only a matter of time.

Killian placed a whiskered kiss on her cheek as he placed her hot chocolate down on the table and sat down in the chair beside her, knee bumping into hers. Emma gave him a soft smile, mug in one hand and placing the other on top of his truncated wrist. She had taken to touching his injury in hopes of helping him become more accepting of it. In the first few weeks since the incident, he had taken to hiding it from view. If he had been a normal person with an actual driver’s license and health insurance, Emma was certain he would have been in therapy for it. Since none of those things were available, it was up to her to help him heal from his injuries and trauma. All the websites had recommended she treat his injury as it were normal and that she didn’t see him as less for it. It had been a long and rough road over the winter, yet they were both getting there slowly but surely. Rather than shake her off, as he had done in previous months, today Killian just stiffened briefly at the contact. He relaxed when he turned his attention on the water. Emma took this as a small victory.

“It’s calm out there today,” he said quietly as he drank from his own mug.

“I was just thinking that. And how it won’t be long before it’s swarmed with people.”

“Aye,” he placed his mug down, jaw tightening. “Which is why I think now is the time.”

“Time?” She looked at him uncertainty.

“Time,” he repeated. “Time for us to take a swim.”

“Now? In May? Are you serious? The water is probably freezing!”

“Perhaps to a human, but not to us,” he said quietly. “The ocean is a part of us, love. It’s our home.”

Emma hesitated, placing her hot chocolate on the table and straightening her shoulders. This is a conversation she had played over and over in her head during the past months. They should have talked about this sooner but she had been so happy to have him in her life and so desperate to keep him after everything that had happened, she had allowed them to play house while keeping her fears trapped in the back of her mind.

“It is your home,” she said, looking him in the eye. “But I’m not sure it’s mine.”

“What do you mean, love?” He was looking at her with such concern that it almost hurt.

“I was born a selkie but I’ve lived the last thirty years of my life as a human being. The only time I’ve really spent around the ocean has been when I came here. I don’t even know how to swim, Killian, that wasn’t necessarily a priority for kids in foster care, you know?” She took in a deep breath. “And my pelt...you’ve seen it...it belongs to a baby…what if my connection to it is broken? What if I can’t connect like you can?” Her voice wavered slightly on the last question.

Killian met her gaze steadily, taking her hand off her mug and entwining it with his hand, interlocking their fingers and giving them a small squeeze.

“Been thinking about this for awhile now, have you?”

She bit her lip, not wanting to tell him that she had been thinking about it since October. When she didn’t answer his question, he sighed and spoke again.

“Emma, what happened to you...was unprecedented to say the least. I understand why Granny did what she did even though I don’t and could never agree with it...I don’t know what will happen if you tried to slip into your sealskin but what I do know is that no matter what happens, I’m not leaving.”

“I can’t keep you from the ocean, Killian,” she whispered.

“I can’t promise that the tide won’t call to me - I will need to leave at times, but there is something that I can promise and that promise is that I will always, always come back to you. You are as much part of me as the ocean is, love, and I don’t think I could bear being separated from you any more than I could being separated from it.”

He squeezed her hand again before bringing it up to his lips and placing a kiss on her knuckles.

“Well okay then, you’re certainly no Mr. Darcy,” she responded with an uneasy laugh. She expected him to give her his patented curious look but much to her surprise, he gave her a small smirk and quirked an eyebrow at her.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, love, he was quite a wretched orator. I would have been insulted by that proposal as well and would have hit him for good measure. Much better writer.”

Emma blinked, not expecting this response. “You know who Mr. Darcy is?”

He gave her a slightly condescending look, as if she had dribbled on her shirt.

“I’ve been on dry land for nearly eight months now, love. I know how to read and have plenty of spare time to catch up on all the delightful references you seem to make…” he paused for a moment, smirk growing on his lips. “So, if I’m not Darcy, then who am I?”

“Mr. Collins,” she drawled.

“Hey!” He pushed her shoulder lightly. “That’s not nice! I’m Mr. Bingley at worst.”

“So you would rather to be the guy who can’t make his own decisions and is easily persuaded by his sisters and best friend?”

He frowned at that. “Perhaps not. I’m more of a Mr. Knightley kind of man anyway.”

Emma’s eyebrows knitted in confusion as she tried to recall a Mr. Knightley character in Pride and Prejudice. When she came up short, she frowned at him.

“There isn’t a Mr. Knightley in Pride and Prejudice.”

“No, there isn’t. I’m afraid he’s in character in another one of Jane Austen’s works. The novel he’s in is probably my favorite of her books. I think we both have a lot in common, particularly in regard to women.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he happens to be in love with the titular character, a woman who is headstrong and a complete force of nature. Her name fits her perfectly.”

“Oh, what’s her name?”

He gave her a fond smile. “Emma.”

She almost hated how much her heart leapt in her chest when he said that. It didn’t seem to matter how many times he had expressed his feelings to her, every time felt new and sent a jolt through her system. It didn’t seem like a reaction that was going away anytime soon.

She leaned forward, giving him a brief kiss before pulling away and bumping his nose with hers.

“You’re a sap.”

“Perhaps, but I’m your sap,” he replied, squeezing her hand again. “And I think we’ve drifted dreadfully off course with our conversation in regards to swimming.”

She shook her head.

“It’s way too cold. It’s practically still ice. We had frost on the ground last week for Christ’s sake.”

“And as I said before, it’s too cold for a human but not for us.”

“And as I said before, we don’t know if I’m selkie enough for it.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

She studied him for a moment, taking in the earnest expression on his face before sighing and getting up from her chair. She stretched out her limbs, raising her arms and rolling her shoulders.

“Alright, fine, but if I freeze to death, I’m going to kill you.”

“Don’t worry, love, if you get too cold, I know more than a few ways to warm you up,” he replied with a leer, eyebrows dancing.

Emma gave him a whack on the shoulder in response, but the reproach in her actions was negated slightly by the small smile that was tugging at her lips.

It was while she was rummaging through the dresser that Emma realized that not once in her life had she owned a bathing suit. The revelation heightened her anxiety, another reminder that Emma had been completely separated from the ocean, from Killian’s world. She pulled on a sports bra and a pair of running shorts, hoping that they would suffice.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she opened the top drawer, revealing the pelts that had been left untouched since October. She ran her fingers through the fluffy white fur, relishing in the calm feeling it always seem to provide her whenever she felt stressed. She pulled it out, staring at it with mixture of fondness and dread. It would barely suffice as a shawl, let alone cover her entire body. She didn’t have a lot of optimism in that department. She sighed as she placed it in the beach bag she had pulled out of the closet. At least she would finally have answers.

She was worried about touching Killian’s pelt, remembering how he had reacted the last time he had caught her with it. Though it had been eight months since that incident, the look on his face when she had hesitated in returning it was still fresh in her mind.

“You gonna pack it up or what?” He called over her shoulder, causing her to jump.

She turned, fixing him with a glare.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Apologies, love, but you seemed to be taking a while to get ready,” he responded with a frown.

His eyes darted between the pelt in the drawer and the fear on her face. Emma watched as understanding seemed to dawn on him. He stepped forth, placing his hand and wrist on her shoulders, smoothing them down her arms.

“You can touch it,” he said quietly.

“I didn’t know if I was allowed,” she responded. “I’m still kinda new at this.”

“You’re more than allowed...it’s as much yours as it is mine.”

“I don’t want your pelt, Killian. It’s yours. I don’t know how to make it more clear that I don’t want to trap you.”

“And I don’t know how times I have to tell you that I love you and I’m not leaving you. You’re not trapping me. It’s just a gesture of trust. I trust you.”

“I don’t need it, okay?”

“Okay,”  he sighed, kissing her forehead. “Now, grab the damn pelt and let’s hit the water.”

They walked across the street, fingers interlocked and hands swinging between them. Emma paused as they got nearer to the shoreline, her eyes darting up the coast and towards the Gold house which still stood imperiously on the hill overlooking the street. There was no one there but she couldn’t help but shiver every time she saw it, thinking of the horror show basement and the jar of teeth on the mantle. The house technically now belonged to Gold’s estranged son but no one had heard anything from him since he had left the Vineyard and the radio silence had continued even after his father’s death.

She still had nightmares about the incident. Her dreams were plagued with shrill laughter and red ocean water. Even the discovery of Gold’s mangled body fifteen minutes away on South Beach near Katama had done little to assuage her fears. Only Killian’s presence beside her at night seemed to help - though still, every once in a while, she woke up screaming and they would both sit outside with hot chocolate and stare at the water.

Killian seemed to follow her line of thought, loosening her hold on his hand so that he could wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her close. He placed a kiss on her temple.

“Hey, he’s gone. He can’t hurt us, you know that.”

“I know,” she replied quietly. “I just want to burn the place to the ground though. I can’t look at it...without thinking of my parents...of Milah...of all the people he’s murdered and the selkies he’s skinned...He deserved a lot worse than he got.”

Killian flinched slightly at her words. He was still coming to grips with everything Gold had done in the past, as she was herself. They had spent more hours than they could count talking about the gravity of what he had done to them, to the people they loved. There was still a lot of anger and pain buried in them that they needed to work out but Emma hoped it would lessen with time.

“I don’t know, Swan, getting mauled to death by a shark is a selkie’s worst fear. I can’t think of a more fitting death aside from it being at one of our hands - well, in my case, hand.”

She was silent for a moment, choosing her words carefully.

“I’m glad.”

“About what?”

“I’m glad that it wasn’t us. I’m glad that we didn’t kill him because then his blood would be on our hands and we would have stooped to his level.”

“I think I’m going to disagree with you on that, love, and table it there. It’s not worth the argument. That man isn’t worth any more of our time than he’s already taken. Now, I’m going to teach you to swim.”

Emma reached to grab the pelts from her bag but Killian stopped her, placing his hand gently on her arm.

“I was thinking I would teach you the human way first. There’s no need to rush into this head on. Shifting form can be uncomfortable and I want you more comfortable in the water before we add to that…”

She nodded, dropping the beach bag on the sand and shifting around the beach towels to cover up the pelts. There wasn’t anyone on the beach but Emma felt more comfortable covering them, hidden from view should anyone walk by.

It was Killian who hesitated this time, just short of where the waves were gently lapping at the shore. His shoulders were tense and squared up, as if he was facing the enemy rather than the place he called home.  

“You okay?” she placed a hand between his shoulder blades.

“I…” he paused, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “I haven’t been in the water since it happened.”

Her heart clenched in sympathy and it was then that she realized that she wasn’t the only one anxious about this. Killian had frequently mentioned that getting caught by a shark was a nightmare scenario for a selkie and it was a nightmare he had barely survived. Emma had always figured that his reluctance in the past months to return to the ocean had been about his missing limb but now she realized it was only a part of it.

“Hey,” she murmured, smoothing her hand down his back. “I got you and you got me. We’re going to be okay.”

He laughed at this but Emma could hear some strain in it.

“Aye, I’ve seen your shark fighting skills up close and personal, Swan. If anyone’s going to save me from the finned devils, it’s you.”

“Exactly,” she grinned. “So what are you waiting for?”

The water was cold but not nearly as bad as she had been expecting and the longer she waded in the water, the more she got used to it. Killian gave her a smug grin as she followed him farther into the waves.

“Not too cold for you?”

“Yeah. It’s not too bad. What is it, like, 70 degrees?”

“I don’t know how your garbage American temperature systems works but it’s like 13 or 14 degrees celsius.”

Emma did the math quickly in her head, eyes widening in realization. She looked down at the water then back at his face in astonishment.

“Jesus Christ, so this is like 45-50 degree water we’re in! How are we not freezing?”

He laughed. “How many times do I have to tell you that selkies don’t work the same way humans do? Our bodies are designed for this. I’ve happily stayed in these waters during the winter when it’s much colder than this.”

“I guess I just didn’t expect it would be the same for me…”

“Hey,” he said softly. “What happened to you doesn’t make you any less, okay? You might have been out of the water for a long time but you were born one of us. You were always one of us...Now, want to see something else we can do that they can’t?”

“Ummm...sure?”

He laughed, head disappearing under the waves. She stared in confusion, not comprehending what he was doing. A few moments passed and nothing happened. His head broke the surface of the water and he gave her a frown.

“You were supposed to follow me…”

“Killian, I’m barely swimming as is, I don’t need to go under.”

��You’re fine and yes, you do.”

“Why?”

He gave an annoyed look. “Can you just trust me please?”

“Fine, fine,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

She closed her eyes, dunking her head under the waves. With her head submerged, it felt slightly warmer and she waited for something to happen. When something touched her face, she opened her eyes without meaning to.

Clear vision.

Emma had never stepped foot in a pond, lake, pool or any body of water to speak of but she was very much familiar with the fact that normal people generally couldn’t see that well in water and that old filmmakers had used wax paper to show that effect. She found no difference in vision between land and sea.

Killian smiled at her, pulling his hand away from her cheek and holding up three fingers. Slightly confused, she copied him. His smile widened as he brought up his pinkie and spread his middle and ring finger to make a Vulcan salute. Again, she followed suit. He did a few series of hand motions, each more complex than the last, changing it up every time she finally did each one. When she copied the last one, which was a simple cross of fingers, he moved forth to kiss her.

It wasn’t nearly as romantic as the movies made it seem, nose banging into hers, lips sliding awkwardly and teeth clacking when he pushed forth with a little too much effort. It was how Emma imagined kissing in space would be like - a cute idea but hard to maneuver in reality. It got better when he anchored his hand in her hair. It didn’t last long however, as Emma’s lungs practically screamed for air. She couldn’t help but laugh as she broke the surface.

“That...that was something!” She chuckled.

Killian tugged her closer, bringing her in for another kiss that was more successful than the last one and had more heat to it. She was constantly falling in love with the soft sound he made when she would nip at his bottom lip.

“You could see,” he murmured, smiling at her and resting his forehead against hers.

“I could,” she grinned.

“That’s good sign. Are you ready to try the pelt?”

“Honestly no but it’s better to do this now rather than speculate on it any further.”

It wasn’t until they reached that shore that Emma felt her nerves kick into overdrive, heart hammering in her chest and adrenaline coursing through her veins. Killian grabbed both of their pelts and handed hers over with a soft smile.

“Whatever happens, we are going to be okay,” he reminded her gently.

They dived back into the surf, swimming further out than where they had been last time. Killian spread his pelt in front until the head was facing in his direction. Emma followed suit, her pelt looking slightly larger in the water than it did on land.

“You’re going to want to press your foot in,” he said quietly, demonstrating.

Dubiously, Emma copied the motion, slipping her foot into her sealskin. She had expected resistance, as it was only the fraction of her size but amazingly enough it stretched to envelope her entire leg. She looked back at Killian in amazement. He merely chuckled in response but pushing his other leg in. She followed his demonstration, lifting the stretching skin over her  shoulders and finally her head.

A strange sensation to hold of her, bones shifting and clicking. It wasn’t painful so much as uncomfortable, shifting without her conscious thought. Her skin stung and she let out a small whimper, feeling like a thousand little needles were biting into her skin and sewing the pelt to her. Something wrapped itself around her, making comforting noises. She opened her eyes. A large seal was pressing its face against her, rubbing affectionately. She moved what she thought was her hand, only to realise her arm motion was limited. It took her a few seconds to realise she no longer had an arm but a flipper.

A flipper.

She was a seal.

Killian continued to circle her, nuzzling his head against her body and making small noises which she instinctively knew meant love and affection. As much as she returned his feelings, his constant circling was getting in the way of her learning to use her new limbs properly and she made an impatient nip at him. He seemed to get the message but only just barely, practically vibrating with excitement.

Moving in the water somehow was freer than walking on land and she revelled in maneuvering so effortless, letting out small trills of happiness. Never before in her life had she felt so free. Killian followed her, copying her movements and moving soft noises that were affectionate but different than his original message. It took Emma a few moments to figure out what he was communicating to her.

Welcome home.

[unnameablethings]

Flower of the Sea

Once, the Hunger Of The Abyss had seen a flower fall from a tree hanging over the water and drift through the currents, delicate and pink and fragile. She had been very young at the time, not even named yet, and she had cupped it in palms that were still soft and small, played with it for a few minutes before the water and the little mermaid’s claws had battered it until it was no longer beautiful.

The fisher-girl, too, is delicate and pink and fragile, and though the Hunger of the Abyss is no longer baby-soft and playful, she has the same urge to look, to touch, to cup that soft beauty in her hands and take it for herself. But she does not dare, could not bear to break the fisher-girl like she had broken those soft petals. The Hunger of the Abyss has sharper claws now, is bigger, her skin leathery and armored, and though she is powerful, and knows herself to be strong and attractive and very appealing to potential mates, she is not beautiful in the same way the fisher-girl is beautiful. She does not know if she would be appealing to a human mate, the way she is appealing to a mer-mate. The way the fisher-girl is to her.

The Hunger of the Abyss remains silent, still, watches the fisher-girl swim and sail and laugh and splash and catch fish, occasionally swims away when she sees the fisher-girl look in her direction with wide eyes. She does not want to frighten the fisher-girl away. That would be terrible, awful, for the fisher-girl to no longer swim in these waters. The laughing little selkies who dance on the shore tell the Hunger of the Abyss that she is being ridiculous, that she can win a fisher-girl’s love with no trouble at all, or that she should not bother with a fisher-girl at all, but the Hunger of the Abyss does not listen. The selkies do not know fishers. Granted, the Hunger of the Abyss does not know fishers either, but she can’t imagine that the selkies have somehow managed to guess more accurately than she has. She does not ever intend to speak to the fisher-girl, or let the fisher-girl see her.

But then there is a storm, and the fisher-girl does not read the signs and stay in shelter like a sensible human, so it catches her out on the ship. The fisher-girl struggles with her little sail as the Hunger of the Abyss watches with a writhing tail and fins that flicker in what certainly isn’t fear, because the Hunger of the Abyss is never afraid. The sailboat is tipping dangerously, taking on water, and the fisher-girl’s clothing is plastered to her with rain, her hair escaping her braid and falling into her eyes as she white-knuckles at ropes, her small chest rising and falling rapidly. And then the sailboat tips, and the fisher-girl falls into the water, struggling to stay afloat as the sailboat sinks, and the waves crash over the fisher-girl’s head, and the Hunger of the Abyss moves.

Her claws are sharp enough to gut a whale, so she must be very, very gentle as she takes the fisher-girl into her arms, brings her face up to the air, keeping her above the waves. The Hunger of the Abyss cuts through the water, going as rapidly as she can. Humans do poorly in cold water, and the fisher-girl is so tired, has been cold and wet for a long time already. The Hunger of the Abyss can feel the fisher-girl’s small, soft breaths, the rapid flutter of her heart, the surprising warmth of her, and though she will never admit it to the selkies, there is a strange thrill to it, to how soft and quick and warm she is. How very small.

The Hunger of the Abyss drags herself into the shallow water and deposits the fisher-girl on the sand. She starts to push herself back into the waves, but the fisher-girl staggers to her feet, holding out her hands and calling out through the storm. The Hunger of the Abyss pauses, tilts her head inquiringly.

“Thank you,” the fisher girl says. Her voice is hoarse with saltwater, but still sweet. Hunger of the Abyss feels her tail flip over itself, in a way that she is glad the selkies were not around to see, and then smiles, very cautiously, keeping her teeth covered.

“It was my honor,” she says, and then throws herself back into the sea with a powerful push of her arms and tail. She checks on the fisher-girl over her shoulder once she’s in the water, sees her trudging her way up the hill to her home. The door clicks behind the fisher-girl, and only then does the Hunger of the Abyss dive back into the stormy seas, and return to her own home, under the sea-cliff.

The fisher-girl does not come out to fish for days and days after that, and the Hunger of the Abyss finds that her thoughts turn more and more to her. Is she well? Is she safe and healthy? Is she getting enough to eat?

But then the moon is full, and it is time for the selkies to dance, so the Hunger of the Abyss reluctantly puts aside thoughts of the fisher-girl and follows the pod of giggling seals up to the beach. The Hunger of the Abyss drapes herself over the low, flat stone in the harbor, and watches the selkies shed their skins, laughing their burbling laughs as they stomp and twirl naked on the sand. She props her head on her hand as she watches, humming soft accompaniment to their dancing and raucous singing. Her voice is a voice that can capsize ships and summon storms, so she keeps it soft, merely adding a wild rhythm to their dancing.

There, over the rocks, movement. The Hunger of the Abyss sits up, watching with narrowed eyes. Another man, come to steal the selkies’ skins as they dance? She will eat him alive if he tries. After the first man took a selkie unwilling and trapped, and the selkies came weeping and raging to the Hunger of the Abyss to get their sister back, she has accompanied them to every dance. It will not happen again. But wait, no, is that-

The fisher-girl comes over the rocks, carefully easing herself down the sea-cliff to the cove. The selkies notice her right away, but do nothing except laugh louder and harder and twist their heads to look at the Hunger of the Abyss where she sits on her rock, claws The Hunger of the Abyss watches the fisher-girl intently as she edges around the dancing selkies, her bare feet sinking into the sand. The Hunger of the Abyss can just make out the fisher-girl’s expression, wide-eyed and soft, as she skirts the dancers and comes over to the rocks edging the shore, where the selkie’s skins are laid out. The selkies are looking at her more carefully now, and the Hunger of the Abyss digs her claws into the rock, hoping that the fisher-girl doesn’t steal a skin. She does not want to have to hunt the fisher-girl.

But no, the fisher-girl is walking around the seal-skins, is wading into the water. She is looking at the Hunger of the Abyss, and she is carrying something in her hands. The Hunger of the Abyss watches her come, a strange tenseness in her chest that is not fear, nor even the respectable wariness of any creature that has survived to adulthood in the sea.

The Hunger of the Abyss is too deep for the fisher-girl to reach her without swimming, and she pauses when the water is at her chest, clearly wondering whether to swim on or go back. She glances back at the shore, holding the shiny thing in her hands close to her chest. She is so sweet and nervous, so the Hunger of the Abyss obliges her by sliding off the rock and into the water, two strokes of her tail bringing her within arm’s length of the fisher-girl. The fisher-girl draws back, eyes going wide, and the Hunger of the Abyss’s chest twinges at the sight of her pale, shaking hands. She has some kind of necklace in her hands, and she holds it out to the Hunger of the Abyss. A gift. A courting gift?

The Hunger of the Abyss bows her head so the fisher-girl can put the necklace on her, and feels her small warm hands slide the chain over the Hunger of the Abyss’ head, to her hummed approval. The Hunger of the Abyss has many necklaces, most far richer than this one, but she has liked not a single one of them as much as this.

“Thank you for helping me the other day,” the fisher-girl says, looking up at the Hunger of the Abyss. Her head has to tip back so far that it makes the Hunger of the Abyss want to croon at how little she is. “I don’t know why you did, but I wanted to make sure you knew I appreciated it, and I knew that a mermaid guarded the selkies when they danced because of what happened to James Burne, so I thought… I know it’s not much.”

“It is a beautiful gift,” the Hunger of the Abyss says, and then, “You are beautiful.”

The fisher-girl’s eyes go very round and she turns a lovely pink, like the inside of a snail’s shell. “Oh!” she says, and puts her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, thank you! I - you’re beautiful, too!”

The Hunger of the Abyss’s stomach goes tight like hunger and more than hunger, and she smiles, forgetting to hide her teeth. The fisher-girl blinks rapidly, and then smiles back.

“How are you doing without your fishing-boat?” the Hunger of the Abyss asks, because she has been… not worrying, but thinking about it often. The fisher-girl grimaces.

“Not… great. I mean, I’m doing fine, but I was trading fresh fish for a lot of my groceries and now I don’t have that income… It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“I will worry as I please,” the Hunger of the Abyss says. The fisher girl goes pinker still, looking away, and the Hunger of the Abyss sees that she’s trembling all over, now, and her lips have gone a strange blueish color. The Hunger of the Abyss needs to (kiss them) get her back to shore. “Are you cold?”

The fisher girl hesitates, then nods, rubbing her arms. The Hunger of the Abyss picks her up and out of the water, cradling her against her chest. The shore is some distance away, and the fisher-girl is cold and weary. She should not have to walk so far. The fisher-girl makes the softest sound, all beautiful from her lips, and her hands clutch at the Hunger of the Abyss’ shoulders. She is so very warm, warmer even than the last time, and it is blissful against the tough, cold chest of the Hunger of the Abyss. It takes the Hunger of the Abyss several moments to even strike out for the shore, she is so overcome by it, but she can feel the fisher-girl shivering, and so she places her reluctantly onto the sand.

“Return in the day, when you will not be so cold,” the Hunger of the Abyss orders.

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

The fisher-girl nods several times. The selkies are staring openly now, have slowed their dance to watch, and when the Hunger of the Abyss catches their eyes, they explode into giggles. She hisses at them, no teeth behind it, and they scatter in mock-terror, twirling away from the water.

“Wait- what’s your name?” the fisher-girl blurts. She is hugging herself,

“I am the Hunger of the Abyss.”

“Oh,” says the fisher-girl, and her lips move in the shape of it. “Thank you. I’m Jasmine - it’s a kind of flower.”

The Hunger in the Abyss hums at that, pleased. A blossom in truth, then, as well as in hushed sunlight-dreams of her, all coiled in the sea-grottos.

“I’ll come back tomorrow,” Jasmine says, lovely little flower, and runs up the sand of the cove, dodging the dancers and hauling herself back up the sea-cliff.

Tomorrow. The Hunger in the Abyss waits with barely bated patience for the selkies to finish with their dancing. She has to find a suitable courting-gift to exchange for the necklace. (The necklace was a courting gift, yes? It wasn’t just a gratitude-gift? Of course it was. But.)

A fisher-girl with no fish is a sorrowful thing, and of all the skills the Hunger in the Abyss has, hunting is among the greatest, so near dawn, as the selkies slip back into their skins and swim off to rest, she sets out in search of fish, and many of them. Storage presents a problem, but the rock-pools on the shore present a solution, and the Hunger in the Abyss brings fish after fish to an enclosed tidepool, still half-full of water. Every now and then she loops back to the cove where the selkies dance, lingering to see if Jasmine has come, and she has not come, so the Hunger in the Abyss goes back to her fishing.

And then finally she comes to the cove when the sun is high, and Jasmine - oh, precious flower, sun and stars - is there, sitting cross-legged on the sand in her swimming clothes, and the Hunger in the Abyss hauls herself onto the shore with a burble of delight that she had not intended to let escape her throat.

“You came,” the Hunger in the Abyss says, and her own voice is soft to her ears. Jasmine smiles, and the Hunger in the Abyss holds out her arms. “I want to show you something.”

Jasmine steps willingly into her embrace, and she is the warmest of all the times the Hunger in the Abyss has held her, sun-soaked and relaxed. “Show me,” she says, and the Hunger in the Abyss pulls herself back into the sea, rolling onto her back so Jasmine can sit and let only her legs trail in the water. Jasmine is all flushed again, nearly glowing from the sun, and it’s difficult to look away from her to check the water where she’s swimming for any unexpected obstacles. But no, there is nothing, and they reach the rock pools in very little time at all.

The Hunger in the Abyss puts Jasmine up on the rocks, and climbs up after her, sitting with her tail trailing in the water and waiting expectantly for Jasmine’s reaction. Jasmine is not looking at all of the fish that the Hunger in the Abyss caught for her, though. She’s looking at the Hunger in the Abyss herself, wide-eyed and craning her neck up.

“Gosh, you’re big,” Jasmine says. She turns pink again. “And strong.”

“Yes,” says the Hunger in the Abyss, because it is true, she is very big and strong. She preens a little at the compliment, but Jasmine won’t look into the pool and it’s important that she does. “Look at my gift.”

“Your-” Jasmine looks down into the pool, and then back up at the Hunger in the Abyss, mouth open. “Did you catch all of those? For me?”

“Yes. A courting-gift, in trade for my necklace. You said that you needed fish.”

“Yeah,” Jasmine says, faintly. “Yeah, I did. A courting-gift?”

“Mmm.” The Hunger in the Abyss leans over the pool to look in. That’s an impressive number of fish, an excellent courting-gift. She has done very well. “Do you accept?”

She very carefully does not look at Jasmine, but she can feel her tail flicking with agitation. Hopefully humans do not know the language of a mermaid’s tail. Jasmine is silent for longer than the Hunger in the Abyss would have liked, and she kneads her claws into the rock, tail flicks growing to writhing.

“I accept,” Jasmine says, finally, with an air of decisiveness, and a delighted trill explodes from the Hunger in the Abyss. She spares a moment to be thankful that there are no selkies around as she turns to look down at Jasmine, soft and beautiful and golden darling, beloved, courted, own. She is not sure what to do, how to react. Mermaid courting rituals tend to be more violent and physical than a fragile human body could bear. And then Jasmine’s soft mouth touches hers, and the Hunger in the Abyss hums in unexpected delight. She is unbearably soft, soft as petals drifting on the water, and she makes such pretty sounds when the Hunger in the Abyss cradles her face and kisses her back.

Jasmine breaks the kiss by laughing.

“Oh my god, it’s going to take me so many trips with the net to get all of those fish home, how many did you catch, what am I going to do with them all?”

“Whatever you like,” says the Hunger in the Abyss, and kisses her again.

[incandescent-justice]

Excerpts from On Rona, by Kathleen Jamie

‘The island is only a mile and a half long. It has one fertile hill, and two flat near-barren peninsulas, one pointing north, one southwest, like two mismatching wings. There are no beaches, all is cliff, swooping now high, now low, and cut with many geos. The sea prowled into every geo; by night its sound seemed muted, though now and then the breeze brought whoops of seal-song. Clouds were gathering, but that was good, Stuart said: the darker, the better. 

We walked westward up a slight rise, which at its crest gave views down a long slope to the ragged peninsula called Sceapull, which soon surrendered to the waves. A dusty, antique sort of light lay over the islands; the sea was the colour of tarnished silver. The path led across a hillside, then through a gap in an earthen dyke. At once, within the dyke, the land began to rise and fall in ridges, like those of a vast scallop shell, waist-high ridges between shallow-filled troughs, all with a pelt of long grass that shivered in the wind. The ridges curved downhill toward the sea. Hundreds of years ago oats of barley would have been raised on them, but now, long overgrown, they had become sculptural, land art. 

We passed through that strange estate, then arrived at the shell of St Ronan’s chapel. Just four stone walls, all speckled with lichen, a low doorway, no roof at all. It faced the southern sea, and between the chapel and the cliffs a quarter-mile away were ovals and pockets of darkness, half dug into the eath, and bound by overgrown turf walls - all that remained of the village. Beyond that, beat of the waves. This was what we’d come for, something faraway and special, so we settled ourselves against the chapel wall to wait. [...]

You have to go a long way to find a breeding colony of Leach’s fork-tailed petrels; to a handful of the farthermost islands, St Kilda, the Flannans, and here, Rona, where on summer nights they make the quick dash ashore. Mate calls to mate, dit-dit diidle-dit!, rival pursues rival, one partner creeps back into his burrow-nest, allowing the other to be off on her small black wings, far out to sea. 

The call, to our human ears, sounded like laughter. At the darkest hour, the walls, like a hive, were busy with birds. They’re small as swifts, but their challenge isn’t the ocean storms, it’s the short race ashore. Great skuas - bonxies - prey on them, god knows how, hence their dash by moonlight - except they prefer no moon. They prefer the darkest of summer nights. [...] 

Nothing is known of St Ronan but his name, which, oddly, means ‘little seal’ - as if he’d been a Rona selkie who’d swopped his sealskin for the habit of a monk. Doubtless he was one of the early Scots-Irish monks, who sailed from his monastery to seek ‘a desert place in the sea’, where he could live a life of austerity and prayer. Hundreds of years later, the people built the chapel in his name, and buried their dead beside it. Now those people are gone, too, and their graveyard is a poignant place. [...]

St Ronan rode to Rona on the back of a seamonster, so the legend says. Monster or boat, he’d have jumped ashore giving prayers of thanks, sometime in the eighth century. [...]

But we know what the saint sought, because on faraway Rona there survives something unique. A tiny building. To enter, you must first enter the chapel. Then, low on the eastern gable is another doorway, just a square of darkness with a lintel of white quartz, as though it were Neolithic. You have to crawl, but once inside you can stand freely. At first it seems wholly dark, and it smells of damp earth, but as your eyes adjust, stars of daylight begin to spangle here and there overhead, where, over the many centuries, the stones have slipped a little - so after a while it’s like being in a wild planetarium. 

Darkness, eath - and a sudden quiet; no wind or surf - you find yourself in a place from which all the distracting world is banned. Then you see the stonework. The little oratory is beautifully made, and has stood for 1200 years. A low stone altar stands against the east wall. So there is one thing we know of the saint - he had a feel for stone; strong hands. Or someone did. Having sailed here and claimed this island of sea-light and sky and seals and crying birds, he built himself a world-denying cell.

[...] I crept into the oratory, and waited till my eyes adjusted to the low light. I went warily, because a fulmar had made her nest in a corner; too close and she’d spit. A fulmar guarded the saint’s cell, and it was strange to think there were Leach’s petrels secreted in the walls. Seabirds, named for St Peter, who walked on water, had colonised a cell built by a saint named for a seal.

I crept in just to wonder what he did in there, Ronan; to imagine him right there, in front of the altar, wrapped in darkness, rapt in prayer, closed off from the sensory world, the better to connect with... what?’

All photos by Marc Calhoun, except for the birds eye view - found on flickr. 

[shadeofazmeinya]

So for the prompt-some kind of magic or myth / FAHC au. Gavin is the only full human or non-magical one in the crew so he is more vulnerable than the others & they are just way more protective of him. They try to not over do it cause theyre all adults here plus theyre in the gang business. But they still worry about their beautiful breakable human bf & occasionally a slip up/injury/threat will happen & it just comes out full force and they all go full on fahc violent/protective over Gav.

(a crew protective of gavvy is always my fav. im gonna use a variation of @sorcererinslytherin’s au with sorcerer Geoff, witch Michael, vamp ryan, werewolf Jeremy, and selkie Jack while keeping gavvers human!)

[AO3]

Gavin is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He’s survived a long time before even joining this little crew and has proven himself over and over that he can handle a little danger. He can handle himself. At least against other humans.

Other creatures and magic users were a whole other story.

Not that Gavin didn’t know what to do with them either. He’s gotten countless charms and tips from his crew on how to handle all the various ones that this dark city houses. Normally he can be pretty decent at it and keep himself from falling into any various traps of the supernatural beings that prey on humans like him. Normally. It’s a little more difficult when he’s directly targeted. And alone.

He wasn’t supposed to be alone of course, but he had just been trying to grab some food from a place close to the penthouse and it hadn’t been completely dark outside. He had his pistol on him, which was supposed to be enough but that doesn’t work on beings that don’t get bloody hurt from bullets.

“Look what we have here,” a voice purrs behind Gavin shoving him into an alleyway, away from the pedestrians rushing through the city. The figure had been following him, Gavin noticed and had tried to speed up but they went from half a block away to right behind him in the blink of an eye. “The Fake’s little toy, isn’t it?”

Gavin doesn’t allow himself to panic right away, instead visibly reaching for his gun. “Look, I appreciate a fan as much as the next bloke, but I’m pretty busy. If you just move along, I think it’ll be better for the both of us.”

The man – creature - laughs, revealing a row of sharp jagged teeth that remind him of a shark. When he looks down to Gavin he can see unnaturally yellowed eyes. Gavin swallows, narrowing his eyes and raising his gun, but deep down knowing it wasn’t going to help. Especially as it only makes the other laugh some more.

“Listen, luv, I’d love to stay and chat, but you need to let me get going,” Gavin tries regardless, keeping his face still and his gun firm. He flicks off the safety, trying to show he was a threat. That he will fire if he needs to.

But he doesn’t get the chance. The monster in front of him jumps forward, faster than Gavin could react and he’s thrown against the wall as the gun is ripped from his hands. Gavin gasps, his breath punched from his lungs as he back hits the hard brick wall.

The creature looms above him, a hand wrapping around his throat to keep him up and pinned. Gavin can feel his rotten breath, see the specs of blood on the white teeth. “You smell like all of them,” he whispers, hand tightening. “Knew you had a werewolf on that little crew, vampire isn’t surprising. But you got a mix of something else there.”

Gavin flinches back as he leans closer, hands trying to pull his hands off of him, but they were set like stone. Gavin’s heart hammers in his chest, trying to kick at him, trying to fight, but he’s barely strong enough against humans, let alone someone with supernatural strength.

“Seems like you have quite the bit of magic around you as well,” he purrs. “All those little charms aren’t going to help you here, little human.” He grabs a necklace with his other hand, ripping it off and throwing it to the side, ignoring the spark of magic the fizzles out of it.

Gavin snarls, snapping at his hands as his gifted charm is tossed to the ground like trash. If he can just get him off him a little, maybe he could run. Maybe he could call the others. Maybe he can fucking do anything to get out of this stranger’s grasp -

“Oh, he’s got some teeth on him,” he coos, tightening his hand and shoving Gavin back against the wall.

The world spins for a second, vision blurring as stars shimmer in the corner of his eyes. He coughs, airway constricting from his hands, chest heaving.

“Well, I’ve got some teeth too. And you seem awfully tasty.”

Before Gavin can even start fighting again, the monster leans down and bites down on Gavin’s shoulder. Gavin cries out, the pain bright and bursting as the dagger-like teeth dig through his flesh, carving through muscle. He fights more in his hold, wildly throwing his hand down across his head to try to get him off, try to hurt him enough to loosen his hold, anything to get him to let go.

After several strikes, the other grunts, letting go of his shoulder. He growls some inhuman noise, rumbling through his whole body, Gavin’s blood dripping from his lips.

“Best not being doing that, human,” he spits. “Be a lot less painful for you.”

Gavin kicks him again, hard not caring about the pain in his own legs, hitting in the groin. The monster howls at it, hand loosening but not enough. When Gavin tries to move, he’s only shoved back again, tossed further into the alleyway. Gavin sprawls onto the ground with a yell, his wounded shoulder smashing into the pavement. Gavin tried to move amongst the dirt and grime of the alleyway, feet kicking to try to move his body away, move anywhere, but the monster just steps closer, standing directly above him and growling. As Gavin looks up, raising his arms to block whatever pain his next move will bring, Gavin can swear his eyes were glowing, red.

The creature raises a hand, now clawed. Sharped, crooked, fingers mangled and bent. Gavin closes his eyes, bracing for the worst, fear spiking through his body. Please let this not be how he dies, in some gross ass alleyway, ripped apart by something he should’ve protected himself from.

But the blow never comes, the claws never cut. As Gavin lays tense, a loud howl interrupts, wild, furious. He blinks his eyes open as he hears bodies collide, hears the attacker being thrown away. Gavin scrambles away, as horrific growls and grunts sound besides him, snarls and yelps of pain.

Gavin’s breath comes quick, puffs of white breaking into the chilling air around him as he pulls himself up, back resting against something solid. His body shakes, shoulder still on fire and the feeling starting to spread down his arm, across his chest. Colors mesh together, sounds dulling, as dizziness floods his head.

He hears some distant shout, something that’s familiar. Footsteps rush towards him, another shout. Gavin blinks over, trying to piece together what the shouting all meant.

He doesn’t get to find out because the second the voices reach him, he collapses and the world goes dark.

Gavin wakes slowly, hearing soft, familiar murmuring besides him. He moves his hands a little, feeling a weight laying in one of them, a soft blanket under them. He’s in a bed that much he can figure right away. And as he slowly pulls his eyes open, the voices are familiar as they say his name.

Gavin blinks to see Jack’s face first, smiling softly right in front of him, feeling her hands brushing softly through his hair. “Hey, baby,” her voice sounds saddened, in a way that makes Gavin frown.

“Jack?” he mumbles, voice rough. “What-?” He tries sitting up, but it pulls on his shoulder, making him hiss in pain and fall back down.

“Take it easy,” Jack says, gently pushing him down. “You’re ok. We got you.”

“How are you feeling?” another voice says besides him, taking his other hand. Gavin blearily looks over and recognizes the sharpened fangs and pale skin.

“Like I got bit by a shark, Rye,” Gavin grumbles, looking around a little more to see that he was in the guest room at their penthouse. Geoff was there as well, moving over besides Ryan. Jeremy and Michael were passed out in a chair that had been brought over, even though he knows they have a whole other bed for them to be sleeping in.

“Well, you’re close,” Geoff says with a small smile. “More like a venomous shark.”

“Venomous?” Gavin frowns, looking at the other two and seeing the worry holding in their eyes.

“It’s ok,” Jack says regardless, squeezing his hand. “It’s all gone. Geoff and Michael were able to get it out. Scared us for a while, but you’re ok.”

The assurance only makes Gavin frown more, looking between them. “How bad?”

“You remember anything?” Geoff says hesitantly. When Gavin shakes his head he tries, poorly, to hide his relief. “You were just ill for a while,” he says softly. “It was just like a bad flu. But we were able to heal you right back up. Shoulder stitched and everything. You’re all good.”

Gavin sighs and nods, accepting it for now. “Alright,” he mumbles, already feeling exhaustion creep back up again.

“Go back to sleep,” Ryan says, leaning down to press a soft kiss to his forehead, earning a small smile from Gavin. “We’ll all be here when you wake up again.”

Gavin wants to protest, but all that comes out is a yawn and a sigh. “Join me?” he says instead, looking up with big eyes to them.

Ryan gives a small chuckle, glancing to the other two as if to be sure. Jack chuckles and nods and that’s all Ryan needs to climb carefully into the bed and lay to Gavin’s uninjured side. Gavin smiles back, curling into Ryan’s side, letting his eyes close. Ryan strokes through his hair, holding him as he can feel him falling asleep, safe and warm against his side.

“You think we should tell him how bad it really was?” Jack whispers to Geoff as they see Gavin fast asleep.

“He doesn’t need to know,” Geoff frowns, looking over to her. “If he doesn’t remember the fucking night terrors and screaming from the last two days, he doesn’t need to know. Let’s just keep getting the fucking venom out of his system.”

Jack sighs, disproving but too tired to fight right now. “Fine. Not right now. Let’s just get some rest. I think that’s what we all need.”

Geoff nods, frowning back down to their human’s soft, resting face. “We’re going to need to give him more protections. He’s too fragile to everything, there’s so fucking much that can hurt him-“

“And there’s so much that he’s hurt,” Jack gently reminds, reaching over to take his hand in hers. “He’s strong. Remember that. We’ll up the protections, but remember he’s dangerous too.”

Geoff lets out a long sigh, holding tightly to her head. “Maybe. But that’s for later. Once all of us are better.”

“Ok,” Jack says, leaning over and kissing his cheek. “Once we’re all better.”

[shyflowerpetals]

General story stuff for my normal AU BnHA self insert under cut!!

Quirk:

My quirk is called Accuracy and it means I never ever miss a throw/toss/shot at whatever I’m aiming to hit/make but it also means I can guess things correctly 100% of the time.

It’s a mutant quirk as I can’t turn it on or off and it makes my eyes look like red cross-hairs on a sniper scope. The cross-hairs will rotate depending on how far away the target I’m trying to hit is.

It’s a fusion quirk between the transformation quirk Guts - which gives the user the ability to get things like guesses, intuition, and instincts right (based off of “trusting your gut instinct”) as well as boosts the user’s adrenaline and higher brain functions so they can think very acutely yet very quickly and gives a large boost of physical power and speed. I do not inherit the boosts of this quirk, just getting the guesses right part - and the emitter quirk Fortune - which allows the user to turn on and off their own personal luck as they please, which can cause extremely seemingly impossible things to happen on their behalf. This can be seen as giving bad luck to others but that isn’t the case, the quirk only affects the user, but the effects of that can affect others in the process. I inherit the “luck” part as I never miss.

My target range is infinite but I can only aim as far as my tools can let me as my quirk is inherent non-combative, so I use projectiles like throwing knives, throwing axes, guns, and bows/crossbows and arrows. I have regular bullets, sleeping darts, and special bullets that can bounce off walls or stick. I am armed to the teeth with all of these weapons. My best rifle can allow me to hit a target up to 3.5 miles away.

Story:

I graduated from a school for quirks, however it was not prestigious or anywhere close to UA. I made perfect grades because my quirk allows me to guess correctly. I never studied and never paid attention in class because I was never engaged cause I never needed to try at anything to be perfect in school. Many students thought I’d wind up as a villain due to the nature of my quirk and my general apathy for the hero courses. 

After I graduated I got a lot of recommendations and referenced cause of my grades for different hero agencies but I ended up drifting between many of them because I still didn’t feel engaged or like I belonged cause my quirk wasn’t flashy and wasn’t really even super combative, it just was.

I got along with most everyone I worked under though and through all these connections, I was eventually pointed to Shouta Aizawa for training due to the nature of his quirk. 

I definitely wasn’t into training with him but I needed a job eventually and he was such a well known and popular hero that I wasn’t gonna turn him down, especially since so many heroes I had worked for referenced me to him to help me find a way to fit in to this society.

Aizawa is very tough on me from the beginning and I start to realize that the point of this training wasn’t to train my quirk, but to train me without it. He’s very strict with his beliefs, showing me that I am not the hot shit I thought I was without my quirk and it was a really hard boot to the ass to for me. I hated him at the time but after a while I realize he’s trying to make me better all around as a hero. He teaches me to fight and uses his quirk on me while I’m shooting so that I can be an expert marksman on my own even without the aid of my quirk. 

I stay with him for almost three years before parting ways with him as he needed to start focusing more on teaching students at UA and there wasn’t really anything left for him to teach me. I have grown very close with him and consider myself so. He denies it but I can tell he feels close with me by his relaxed (rather than tired) demeanor and how easy going his speech his with me, even deadpanning some jokes here and there. We’ve been on a first name basis for almost two years at this point.

For about a year and a half, I’m completely just a hero for hire, I never build my own agency and I never work for one again exclusively again. A hero for hire works out for me best because many people connect my quirk and weapon choices with assassination and a lot of newer agencies don’t want to work with that, especially since I had the tendency to disobey orders and chase after targets with no backup. I end up specializing in recon, surveillance, and espionage because of this however. Over this time I’ve worked with Endeavor mostly, but also Fatgum, Gang Orca, Sir Nighteye, Hawks, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, and Ryukyu.

After the League of Villains’ first attack on UA, I visit to take care of Aizawa. I am pretty mad with Principal Nezu and he handles it professionally but apologizes for the attack to me personally. I tell Aizawa to take care of himself or I will.

After the League of Villains’ second attack on UA, I show up and apply as a teacher. I had been friends or work friends with all of the teachers and Nezu accepted me into the spot. I end up teaching Hero History.  

General Hero Facts:

I’m known as the Never-Miss Hero: Aimbot!

I rank 123rd in popularity but I’m the 32nd ranking Pro Hero officially. I don’t have a very large fan-base due to the nature of my work being espionage and my willingness to break rules and my abrasive personality but my ranking is much higher because of my efficiency both in a team and especially solo. 

I mostly am a hero for hire for the police rather than other hero agencies.

I’m great friends with Present Mic and his wife @echoedomens and talk regularly on his radio show.

I have worked for or interned at Endeavor’s, Gang Orca’s, Gun Head’s, Ingenium’s, Manual’s, and Selkie’s agencies. I got into almost all of these on recommendations alone but never stayed at any for more than a month.

I am extremely antagonistic with Endeavor but his was the longest agency I stayed with and the agency I help the most. 

I’m a big fan of Kamui Woods and the Wild, Wild Pussycats.

Power: 3/5 (C)

Speed: 3/5 (C)

Technique: 5/5 (A)

Intelligence: 5/5 (A)

Cooperativeness: 2/5 (D)

[naive-petals]

 goingabout thing. tagged by @lambentlodestar

tagging: Whoever the hell wishes

Viola Rose Violet

Viola

► NAME ➭ "I’m Viola Valkyrie Dinrel, see ya.” ► ARE YOU SINGLE? ➭ “yes.” even if there were some she’d love to date. ► ARE YOU HAPPY? ➭ “For now, give me time.” ► ARE YOU ANGRY? ➭ “Today’s a fine enough day to not be angry.” yet. ► ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL MARRIED? ➭ “Judging by mothers post...” “No.”

EIGHT FACTS !

► BIRTH PLACE ➭ “I doubt it’s accurate but a deeprealm.” ► HAIR COLOR ➭ “Red.” ► EYE COLOR ➭ “green.” ► BIRTHDAY ➭ “June 29th. not that anyone cares.” ► MOOD ➭ “Tired, bored.” ► GENDER ➭ “Female.” ► SUMMER OR WINTER ➭ “Summer, less stuffy clothes needed.” ► MORNING OR AFTERNOON ➭ “A good morning jog is always nice.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE !

► ARE YOU IN LOVE? ➭ “...maybe.” ► DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? ➭ “I’d sooner believe in destiny.” ► WHO ENDED YOUR LAST RELATIONSHIP? ➭ “No one.” she hasn’t had an ended one. ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN SOMEONE’S HEART? ➭ “Does breaking my parents heart with my attitude count?” ► ARE YOU AFRAID OF COMMITMENTS? ➭ “What if my commitment is one sided?” ► HAVE YOU HUGGED SOMEONE WITHIN THE LAST WEEK? ➭ "No.” ► HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SECRET ADMIRER? ➭ “If I did I wouldn’t know.” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN YOUR OWN HEART? ➭ “No.”

CHOICES !

► LOVE OR LUST ➭ “Love, better then bloodlust anyday.” ► LEMONADE OR ICED TEA ➭ “The hells a lemonade? Tea.”

 A FEW BEST FRIENDS OR MANY REGULAR FRIENDS ➭ “Wait you’re allowed more than one best friend? best friends!” ► WILD NIGHT OUT OR ROMANTIC NIGHT IN ➭ “What do you mean a wild night outs not going to earn revenge on those who wronged me? a romantic night..” ► DAY OR NIGHT  ➭ “Doesn’t matter.”

HAVE YOU EVERS !

► BEEN CAUGHT SNEAKING OUT ➭ “It’s hard when they want to torment you at every turn...” ► FALLEN DOWN/UP THE STAIRS ➭ “Does being shoved count?” ► WANTED SOMETHING/SOMEONE SO BADLY IT HURT? ➭ “More times then I care to count...”

PREFERENCES !

► SMILE OR EYES ➭ “Who cares about  Eyes? Smile.” ► SHORTER OR TALLER ➭ “Shorter if only because it’s easier to strike them where it hurts.” ► INTELLIGENCE OR ATTRACTION ➭ “Intelligent people can be mightier than thou way to often.” pot calling kettle. ► HOOK-UP OR RELATIONSHIP ➭ “Relationship?”

FAMILY !

► DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GET ALONG ➭ “I don’t speak with my father or siblings, me and mother have gotten on decent terms at least” ► WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE A “MESSED UP LIFE” ➭  “If my life isn’t fucked up I don’t want to know the definition of it.” ► HAVE YOU EVER RAN AWAY FROM HOME ➭ “It was the only way to earn freedom.” ► HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN KICKED OUT ➭  “I wish they kicked me out.” (this and the above referring to deeprealms not parents)

FRIENDS !

► DO YOU SECRETLY HATE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS ➭  “wouldn’t be friends if I hated them.” ► DO YOU CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS GOOD FRIENDS ➭ “I don’t even know what a bad friend is.” ► WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND ➭  “I don’t know, Selkie?” ► WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU ➭  “No one.”

Rose

► NAME ➭ “Rose Redlin.” ► ARE YOU SINGLE? ➭ “No.” ► ARE YOU HAPPY? ➭ “I don’t deserve my happiness but yes.” Rose have some faith in your girlfriend. ► ARE YOU ANGRY?  ➭ "I’m never really angry.” ► ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL MARRIED? ➭ “’No”

EIGHT FACTS !

► BIRTH PLACE ➭ “Deeprealm.” ► HAIR COLOR ➭ “Red.” ► EYE COLOR ➭ “Green.” ► BIRTHDAY ➭ “March 18.” ► MOOD ➭ “Content.” ► GENDER ➭ “Female.” ► SUMMER OR WINTER ➭ “Winter, it’s always so beautiful and...” She’s blushing at the thought of her girlfriend in a swimsuit. “No need to worry about that.” ► MORNING OR AFTERNOON ➭ “Afternoons are nice.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE !

► ARE YOU IN LOVE? ➭ “Yes.” ► DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? ➭ “Yes...” she’s ashamed of that. ► WHO ENDED YOUR LAST RELATIONSHIP? ➭ “I’ve never had another relationship.” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN SOMEONE’S HEART? ➭ “No.” ► ARE YOU AFRAID OF COMMITMENTS? ➭ “No.” ► HAVE YOU HUGGED SOMEONE WITHIN THE LAST WEEK? ➭  “Yes.” well been hugged. hell if bridal carries count then earlier today. ► HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SECRET ADMIRER? ➭ “I doubt anyone would admire me...” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN YOUR OWN HEART? ➭ “Yes.” in verses where she doesn’t date Yuna and she lets another confes.

CHOICES !

► LOVE OR LUST ➭ “Love, lust is...” And her face is crimson again. ► LEMONADE OR ICED TEA ➭ “A nice cold Lemonades always nice.” ► A FEW BEST FRIENDS OR MANY REGULAR FRIENDS ➭ “Best friends. they’re less likely to abandon you....” ► WILD NIGHT OUT OR ROMANTIC NIGHT IN ➭ “I’m not a party animal.” ► DAY OR NIGHT  ➭ “Day please.”

HAVE YOU EVERS !

► BEEN CAUGHT SNEAKING OUT ➭ “No.” ► FALLEN DOWN/UP THE STAIRS ➭ “Thankfully no.” Who knows how many bones would be broken. ► WANTED SOMETHING/SOMEONE SO BADLY IT HURT? ➭ “No.”

PREFERENCES !

► SMILE OR EYES ➭ “Smile, there’s a certain someone who’s smile will always make me feel safe.” ► SHORTER OR TALLER ➭  “Taller...” She likes being bridal carried. ► INTELLIGENCE OR ATTRACTION ➭ “Can’t I have both?” ► HOOK-UP OR RELATIONSHIP ➭ “Relationship pleaes.”

FAMILY !

► DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GET ALONG ➭ “Yes.” ► WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE A “MESSED UP LIFE” ➭  “no.” ► HAVE YOU EVER RAN AWAY FROM HOME ➭ “I would never.” ► HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN KICKED OUT ➭  “Mama wouldn’t do such a thing..“

FRIENDS !

► DO YOU SECRETLY HATE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS ➭  “Nor.” ► DO YOU CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS GOOD FRIENDS ➭ “absolutely yes.” ► WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND ➭  “My girlfriend. Yuna.” ► WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU ➭  “My big brother.”

Violet.

► NAME ➭ “Violet Takashima.” ► ARE YOU SINGLE? ➭ “Yes?” ► ARE YOU HAPPY? ➭ “Absolutely!” Can’t be sad if you’re happy ► ARE YOU ANGRY? ➭ “Why would I be angry?” ► ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL MARRIED? ➭ “They were, I think...”

EIGHT FACTS !

► BIRTH PLACE ➭ “(modern verse) Kagawa prefecture.” no town names last 300 years sue me ► HAIR COLOR ➭ “Red.” ► EYE COLOR ➭ “Green.” ► BIRTHDAY ➭ “August 6th..” ► MOOD ➭ “I want to hug people” ► GENDER ➭ “Female.” ► SUMMER OR WINTER ➭ “Winter, the snow is always fun to play in!” ► MORNING OR AFTERNOON ➭ “Afternoon. People are active then.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE !

► ARE YOU IN LOVE? ➭ “No.” ► DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? ➭ “Fairy tales say so so it must be true!” ► WHO ENDED YOUR LAST RELATIONSHIP? ➭ “What’s a relationship?” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN SOMEONE’S HEART? ➭ “Maybe Mama when I killed Mommy...” ► ARE YOU AFRAID OF COMMITMENTS? ➭ “No.” ► HAVE YOU HUGGED SOMEONE WITHIN THE LAST WEEK? ➭  “Past mommy!” go meta on that ► HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SECRET ADMIRER? ➭ “What’s an admirer?” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN YOUR OWN HEART? ➭ “no.”

CHOICES !

► LOVE OR LUST ➭ “Love!” Thank god she doesn’t know what lust is... ► LEMONADE OR ICED TEA ➭ “Lemonade, Tea is to bitter.” ► A FEW BEST FRIENDS OR MANY REGULAR FRIENDS ➭ “The more friends the merrier” ► WILD NIGHT OUT OR ROMANTIC NIGHT IN ➭ Confused Violet noises. ► DAY OR NIGHT  ➭ “Day, I’m allowed to go places.

HAVE YOU EVERS !

► BEEN CAUGHT SNEAKING OUT ➭ “I can’t sneak out. Mama would be mad” ► FALLEN DOWN/UP THE STAIRS ➭ “Thankfully no.” ► WANTED SOMETHING/SOMEONE SO BADLY IT HURT? ➭ “mommy......”

PREFERENCES !

► SMILE OR EYES ➭ “Smile. Smiles are nice!” ► SHORTER OR TALLER ➭  “Taller people can pick me up easily, and are nice to hug.” ► INTELLIGENCE OR ATTRACTION ➭ “what?” ► HOOK-UP OR RELATIONSHIP ➭ “Huh?.”

FAMILY !

► DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GET ALONG ➭ “I want to believe I get along with my past parents.” She’s not sure on her timelines mama ► WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE A “MESSED UP LIFE” ➭  “No.” ► HAVE YOU EVER RAN AWAY FROM HOME ➭ “no.” ► HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN KICKED OUT ➭  “Does being forced back in time count?”

FRIENDS !

► DO YOU SECRETLY HATE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS ➭  “Never! how could I hate someone?” ► DO YOU CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS GOOD FRIENDS ➭ “Absolutely! why wouldn’t I?” ► WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND ➭  “Ren Onee-chan!” ► WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU ➭ “No one does.”

[awed-frog]

Hi! I'm really interested in seeing Human Cas as the end of his arc, and I've seen that you have one or two opinions really cool about that too so I was wondering if you would elaborate what you think of it?

Hi! Man, that is one complicated question! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about it - this is going to be a bit long and quite possibly overly nerdy, so I apologize in advance. 

First of all - as @thejabberwock said last week, the idea that Cas needs to become human in order to complete some kind of character development or be worthy of a human’s love or whatever else is slightly horrifying. 

Interestingly, this whole theme - supernatural creatures giving up their identity to find love - is not some old mythology trope, because in Western mythology and folklore, love between a human and a supernatural creature simply doesn’t work, and there’s no way around it. On the one end of the spectrum, you’ve got your god/human relationships, and there what happens is generally a) human spies on god’s true form, dies horribly, b) god tries to do something nice for human, kills him horribly in freak accident, c) god’s friend gets jealous, human dies horribly, d) human gets pregnant, dies horribly, e) human has a lick of sense, turns down god, is raped or turns into a tree, or f) love story is disregarded because the important bit is that a hero is born, and behold. On the other end of the spectrum, you get your selkie/fae storylines, and I keep seeing posts on tumblr like Don’t hide your selkie’s pelt, #trust and #respect, and I’m sure OP means well, but that’s plain bullshit. The whole point of those stories is that you can’t change your fundamental nature, and those creatures may love a human for a time, but ultimately they belong in their own realm and that’s sad and heartbreaking, but also how the world works. So, if a selkie finds her pelt, she will desert her family even if she truly loves her human husband (and often she does: that’s the tragedy); if you sleep with a sidhe, she’ll probably come back as a pregnant doe and deliver a human baby for you and then fuck off, because she can’t help it; and in the rare cases (I know only of one) where a fae is actively trying to deny the call of the wild to be with you, well, you’ll fuck it up, because that’s what humans do (and plese, do ask me about it - that story is too long for this post but is also the best story EVER). So, well - traditionally, this stuff doesn’t work, but I’m not sure it has to do with racism and cautionary tales - after all, there are plenty of stories about men marrying princess ‘from beyond the sea’ and whatever - I think we simply know in our bones that when it comes to the divine, we’re outgunned and we should be very careful - and sticking your dick into something that’s been alive for five centuries is not a good way of being careful.

So, long and winding introduction aside - if a supernatural creature giving up their immortality to be with their human lover is not a mythology trope, where the hell does it come from? 

Well - in part, it comes from the other part of our humanity: fairy tales. Now, unlike myths, fairy tales are more about teaching good behaviour than God and the afterlife, and what tends to happen there is that men are pushed to become more of what they are, while women are invited to become less of what they are (just as it happens in real life). In fairy tales, men leave their houses and their countries, pretend to be noblemen, make use of magical objects, lie through their teeth, fight outsized opponents and ultimately end up with a title and a bride. Women, on the other hand, generally keep their eyes down, accept shitty gifts gratefully, clean when they’re told to, and put others first. Giving up a piece of yourself in order to belong - that’s not what gods do; it’s what women do, and this propaganda has been so successful that we all live like that, mostly without even realizing it - we accept that our life is ours (sort of) only until we become mothers or wives; and then we put aside our own ambitions and focus on our husband’s and kids’. In this sense, it is telling that a selkie - a creature of folklore and myth - will go back to the sea and fuck you very much, but the girl who lived in an apple (an old fairy tale from Bologna), like many of her fruity friends, is freed from the enchantment when she’s eighteen - and she promptly marries the prince who’d been obsessing over the mysterious hottie who came out of his fruit bowl every night. 

It’s also important to stress, however, that traditional fairy tales are only partly at fault for our selfish asses wanting angels and selkies to drop everything and cook us dinner every night: much of the blame (if not all, let’s be honest) is on Andersen’s The Little Mermaid - where, let’s not forget about it, what the mermaid wants is not only love, but also an immortal soul and access to the Christian Heaven - stuff monsters like her don’t have. And, well - I think in time Andersen’s tales came to be seen as some universal thing, when in reality they were very personal nightmares of Andersen himself - a tortured, unhappy, repressed bisexual man who’d been abused in his childhood and presumably tried to get past his own inability to have a fulfilling emotional and sexual life by writing overly grotesque and decidely anti-women stories.

(We all know about The Little Mermaid, but another highlight would be Red Shoes, in which a selfish girl who has the nerve to go to Mass wearing red shoes finds they are enchanted and can’t stop dancing until her feet are chopped off with an axe; charmingly, the heroine is named after Andersen’s half-sister.) 

If we consider this precedent, I think what @thejabberwock said is spot-on: for Cas, becoming human includes some element of self-mutilation: just like the little mermaid had to give up her voice and her family, Cas would lose something irreplaceable by choosing to leave Heaven behind. And also - narratively, that choice would frame him as ‘the woman in the relationship’ once and for all, because male heroes just don’t do this stuff; and that, in my opinion, would be a huge loss. What I find so fascinating about Dean and Cas slowly falling for each other is the careful balance of traditional gender roles and how neither character is boxed in; how Dean, our muscle car and hard rock hero, is often pushed into what would be the woman’s role - only he’s not pushed at all, but walks there willingy, and that’s plain spectacular.

That said, the SPN universe chose to frame the opposition between humans and non humans has been framed in a slightly different way from traditional storytelling - even if the narrative isn’t always coherent. 

So, if we’re talking specifically about angels, the original idea is that angels 1) don’t have free will and 2) can’t have feelings like a human does - a point that is clearly implied in the first one, because true free will and the ability of make your own choices are the fundamental  prerequisites for forming your own opinions - and feelings. Now, in theory, it makes sense that angels wouldn’t have either; despite the daydreams of some truly adorable fanart (Gabriel holding baby Cas, for instance), angels aren’t born; they’re created in order to serve God, and that’s their only mission. Heaven started to unravel only because God left, and this is where we see the SPN narrative starting to fray - because their angels generally have both free will and feelings. From Zachariah’s refusal to serve humans to Uriel betraying his brothers to Gabriel’s anger and Balthazar’s insouciance, there’s not a robotic servant of God in sight, and I know it’s objectively difficult to write feeling-less character who are also engaging, but I always found that all those angels wishing things for themselves sort of cheapened Cas’ own journey towards humanity. Because, well, Cas becoming human only makes sense, in my opinion (and this is how the story’s being framed), in an I want to make my own choices and experience love kind of way, but in this case - from what we’ve seen, both with other angels and with Cas himself, it’s perfectly possible for angels to behave and feel like humans do, so why would Cas need to give up his Grace?

Another point is that Cas’ already given up his ‘angelhood’ in every way that matters. He’s rebelled against Heaven, he’s refused orders, he’s been tortured and silenced and imprisoned, and he’s chosen humanity (Dean) over and over and over again. Hell - as far we know, Cas isn’t even interested in God any longer, and surely heeding God’s will is, like, item one in the job description?  

(By the way - Cas’ reaction to God’s coming back - that was important, show. What the hell were you thinking about? How is it possible that the subject was never discussed again? Uuuuugh.)

Furthermore, Cas hates being human. He’s tried it before, and we know he didn’t like it - at all. The storm of emotions, the need to look after your body, eating and drinking, the acute knowledge of not being powerful enough to defend yourself and your loved ones against dangers you know are there - Cas does not long to become human; what he wants is to belong, and what he needs, narratively, is the possibility to make a choice that’s not either/or - to be with the Winchesters not because Heaven hates him and not because he’s got no other friends, but because he feels loved and welcomed and wants to live with them 24/7 (feels he’s worthy of their love) - so, if anything, that’s where his character arc should be going.

As a last point - something that will never happen but would be absolutely hilarious is the David Eddings solution: in his novels, an immortal sorceress chose to renounce her powers and her eternal life to be with the (fully human) man she loved, only to find out her soul couldn’t be ripped apart like that and instead, the gods had chosen to grant her beloved immortality and powers of his own. I always found that a very sweet twist and a good compromise on the whole mortal partner + immortal partner = heartbreak thing, and man, it’d be so much fun to see Dean turn into an angel out of the blue and zapping himself all over the place by mistake as he learns to fly (and later using that ability to freak out Sam and check on Claire and have dinner with Jody). A girl can dream, right?

(All that said, I understand why so many writers, myself included, keep making Cas human in one way or another: for some it’s a question of fluff and hurt/comfort, and for others a chance to explore this tragedy, this impossible, unconceivable thing: an angel choosing to Fall for a human being - an angel choosing to love, fully and unreservedly, the mess and chaos and guilt and bad dreams that we all carry deep in our hearts. Just - wow.)

[cavefelix]

Rinley 'M’ Yatskaya

Not that long ago ago...

"Story!” young Rinley said, grabbing on to her sister’s leg. Rinley was at the age where her sentences were typically only a word or two long. 

Caroline smiled indulgently, lifting Rinley up and walking around the temple. She sat down by Grizzly, a calico who liked hearing tales too. 

“All right. But it will have to be short. I need to go to the market to get some apples to poison and it’s getting late. So let’s tell a story about someone else short -- you, Rinley.”

“There is one man that all fear. One who is unstoppable. One whose motives are inscrutable. He comes to all. Brave men fear him; fear of him is what makes them brave. Wise men seek to avoid him, though their wisdom leads them to eventually learn this is folly. I speak, of course, of Death.”

Rinley clapped. “Brother!”

Caroline nodded. “Yes. He’s much nicer to you than he was to me growing up. He’s never pulled your hair or put a spider down the back of your shirt.” But she said it affectionately. The childhood antics of Kuroma were just  a memory.

“None know why Death chooses to end lives. And none know why he chooses to spare others. But all were surprised when one day, while walking along the shore of Big Lake, he found the wreckage of a boat washed ashore. And clinging on for its life was a baby rat, which he chose to spare.”

Rinley held her little paws up. “Me!” she said.

Caroline nodded. “Yes. You. I don’t know why; normally we don’t like rats very much. But Kuroma took you home. He saw something special in you. You’d been born at sea, and maybe that whispered to him, as our family was founded by a selkie. Or maybe the fact you were barely holding on, on the threshold of life and death, called to the part of him that was death. Perhaps it was the fact that he found you on the anniversary of the day mama disappeared. Or maybe he thought you were cute,” Caroline said, poking Rinley’s belly.

“Yes!” Rinley said.

“To be honest, I thought you’d be eaten within the week --” Caroline began.

“Fish tastes better,” Grizzly interrupted, grooming her paw.

“-- true, but you know some cats are less particular,” Caroline responded conversationally. “But anyway, I was wrong. The cats took to you as well as anyone. And Goro, when he found you, rather than being annoyed said that you should be adopted.

“I wanted to name you Minnie, because you were so tiny. But the rest of the family said you were a Rinley.”

“Yes!” said the little rat.

Rinley ‘M’ Yatskaya

Age: 34 months

Academic Skills: Good

Athletics: Catlike and Ratlike reflexes

Favorite Food: Fish! Especially smelt, sardine, and herring, where you can eat a whole one by yourself.

Animal: Cat

Background

Caroline pretty much told Rinley’s origin story above. She grew up in the Yatskaya shrine, surrounded by cats, raised as a member of the family. Occasionally Fortitude Rats came to parley with Caroline, or discuss the cat population. They were invariably put off by Rinley, and the feeling was mutual.  But for the most part, it was a mystic and mellow upbringing. 

Recently, however, she’s been coming into herself, or out of the shell that is the temple. She realizes she’s changing, and believes it’s a good thing. She doesn’t want to hold it back anymore (if Frozen has made it to your version of Fortitude, she probably loves the song Let It Go), and doesn’t want others to hold back either. She’s ready to dive in to life, seeking new experiences.

Skills:

Superior Non-Fortitude Fortitude Rat 2 -- Rinley would never admit to being a Rat of the Far Roofs, but this skill comes in useful when you need to be 18 inches tall or have a tail.

Story Teller 1 -- Rinley has always had a love for stories

Cat Speaker 2 -- As a Yatskaya she has a natural affinity for cats...

Cat Magic 1 -- ...Including their spirits

Claimed By the Sea 1 -- The ocean claimed her (biological) parents; perhaps it has a hold on her too.

Superior Dreamer 1 -- Growing up in the Yatskaya shrine does things to a young rat.

Play Games 0 -- Rinley has the ability to play chess, checkers, backgammon, Ticket To Ride, and so on, or at least properly move the pieces.

Perks:

Connection 1: Death -- She has always had a special bond with her older brother. It’s possible she also has a bond with the Headmaster, though she’s never met him.

Connection -1: The Rats of the Far Roofs -- They’re just so weird. 

[Bonus Slot] Perk: Accessory - Evening Primrose jewelry -- Rinley has a piece of jewelry that was designed as a bracelet for a human, but she can wear as a necklace or belt. It is a silver chain with a realistic evening primrose hanging from it.  The Primrose is carved from old ivory, so old it has yellowed to the point it is the color of the flower. Its origin is unknown, though  probably it’s connected to more than a long-dead animal. (Since I know ivory is a sensitive subject, I’m assuming Rinley knows somehow it wasn’t taken from a living animal, but one who passed away peacefully, and has an association with death. A piece fo the tusk of an elephant god?) See the power under Prophet for more.

Miraculous Arcs

Prophet 2/Creature of Delerium 1

Prophet

Rinley is deeply connected with death,  After all, she was saved by Death and raised among nine-lived beings in a mystic environment. But not the “you’re no longer alive” aspect of death. She's connected with the symbolic meaning of Death, its representation in the Tarot. She's associated with the aspect of Personal Change, or Self Transformation, depending on which wording better suits the situation This is her Principle. She’s probably not actively aware of this. She's consciously going around trying to upset the status quo. But she's an agent of this whether she wants to be or not. (She does. Your character doesn’t get to be called The Troublemaker by chance.) Of course, this has created enemies. Obviously, not everyone wants change and the uncertainty it brings. In the Glass Maker's Dragon, she's probably opposed by The Moon Prince, who seeks for people to let go, to stop changing. I suspect she may also be opposed by Billy Sovereign, whose vision is not quite a world of changelessness, but one in which there is but one kind of change, where you become sycophants of Billy Sovereign. It's even possible she'll butt heads with the Dream Witch or someone else who wishes a return to old fashioned ways, though I advise that to be more a friendly rivalry than outright hostility if the Dream Witch is a PC.  Rinley has the following powers associated with this Mystic Arc. If you're trying to become more mystical, which isn't the default but there's an option in her quest set, she also has Frantic. Divine Guidance: When Rinley is uncertain what do do, she can form a Level 4 Intention, at no Will cost, to "Listen to the subtle ways that change is all around us." Usually this is an HG hint as to what might foster change in this situation. She also, when using Divine Guidance, may understand symbols and motifs of death, even when unfamiliar with them. When she uses this power to serve the principle of change, she gains a +3 tool bonus. Finally, when opposed by a bleak power, this can shatter the effects, creating a chaotic backlash that affects Rinley and the target, essentially inflicting a Serious Wound. This power can be used once or twice a book at no cost. Subsequent uses cost 1 MP. For 2 MP, Rinley can use this with any intention. Divine Guidance (Powered Up): If Rinley can sustain the Intention of Divine Guidance for an entire chapter, she can cause a major sort of change in the Region. A downtown neighborhood could get a facelift, a school could adopt a new curriculum, or a medical organization may decide that exercise and diet are bad for your mental health, and change to suggesting eating only butter because it feels good emotionally. Materialization of Possibility When you're facing a problem you can't deal with, you (or someone) needs to change. Rinley can invoke Materialization of Possibility to use personal change to solve an immediate problem. This power can take many forms, often a Tool Bonus or temporary Perk. This can be used once or twice a book at no cost. For 1 MP, this can make things somewhat more likely or powerful. For 4 MP it makes something much more likely or more powerful. Example: Rinley is being chased by the First Free Dog, because she stole its favorite squeaky toy on a whim. Materialization of Possibility might give her a +1 bonus to persuade him that rope toys are more fun, changing his outlook. If she runs through a pet store and spends 1 MP, the First Free Dog may see the ideal new toy. For 4 MP, she might decide it's time to change herself and stop treating dogs as inferior to cats, gaining the Superior Dog Speaker 4 Perk to telepathically explain herself to the undead pup.

Inspiration

RInley draws inspiration from places where her aspect of death is not weak. Much of Little Island and the Walking Fields are out of bounds, due to their properties of “things can’t change before they’re ready” and “What happens is what always happened,” respectively, but there are exceptions there where Death and Change are strong enough -- the memorial statue of Jade Irinka; or during a Wild Hunt, for example.. 

While in these places, she can invoke Inspiration to have her Story Telling and Game Playing Skills transform, becoming The Story Telling  and The Games of Transformation. They will always have a minimum Intention of 4, and ignore 1-2 points of Obstacle.  They also function as if they were Superior 1 Skills; her stories seem particularly inspirational; the dice seem to favor her, forcing you to adapt your strategy. 

In places hallowed by death/rebirth -- important mausoleums, holidays about Death, etc., these skills function as Level 2 Superior Skills. Rinley plays games on a master level revealing the need for you to adapt, and her tales stir the hearts of the most callous person.

Inspiration can be used 1-2 times per scene at no cost. It costs 1 MP for subsequent uses, or 4 MP to use it as many times as needed per scene.

Vestments

In the language of flowers, Evening Primrose is a symbol of fickleness, or inconstancy. A sign that people change. While Rinley doesn’t always wear it, her jewelry can function as if she were in a place where death is strong enough for her to get the lowest advantages of a Superior 1 skill with Inspiration. 

(Sometimes Rinley leaves this at the the temple, because cats like to paw at dangling things on chains.)

This is a bonus perk, noted above.

Hallow

Over the course of several months*, or instantly for 4 MP, Rinley can make a place sacred to her principle, giving it the Property People are driven to do something different with their lives. 

* Normally Hallow takes years to invoke, but as a rat her lifespan is, like, seven or eight years, so I’ve reduced is slightly. 

Creature of Delerium 1

Rinley wants people to change, to achieve their potential. They don’t do that though, and she always wondered why. She only recently realized the answer when a cat spirit spoke to her. “You can’t just wait for the door to open so you’re on the other side You need to yowl incessantly. You can’t wait for the Ming vase to fall; you must push it yourself. They who hesitate are lost.” 

And the spirit taught her the truth, feelings of hesitation. This is her Experience. Or course, making a deal with a Cat Spirit to learn more about how to help people has a downside. Rinley sometimes notices it affecting her way of thinking. That’s a curse, though she may not realize it’s a problem.

Also, while on Creature of Delerium, Rinley gains the power Sickly.

Embodiment

Whenever Rinley has been in an area for more than a few minutes, a Region Property forms: Rinley feels no hesitation.

Extraction

Rinley may, by touching someone on the shoulder, remove their sense of hesitation. (Getting to their shoulder may require some climbing, but such is life.) Their sense of hesitation takes the form of a small chain (holding them back, get it?). Someone without hesitation isn’t necessarily going to do stupid impulsive things, but they’re not going to let what was holding them back from what they wanted stop them without a solid reason, 

Rinley can affect their sense of hesitation by manipulating the chain, wrapping it around a particular object to make the person hesitate over it. She could also theoretically use Cat Magic to affect it, presumably making the person hesitate over what would make a cat hesitate. 

She can return their sense of hesitation with no effort; others face an Obstacle 2 Action. 

Using Extraction can be done for free once per chapter; subsequent uses cost 2 MP.   

Command

Rinley may see through the senses of someone who she has extracted their sense, or direct their actions.  Normally, this faces a Level 2 Obstacle, though that can be waived for 1 MP. While doing this, Rinley is considered the vessel for purposes of any Miracle targeting it.

Catharsis 

When RInley targets you with a miracle, the effect can be emotionally powerful. (This includes interacting with command.) Since she wants people to change, this is very convenient.

This can be used twice per book (but once per chapter) for free, It costs 2MP for a third use; and 4MP to use more than once per chapter. 

Notes

Prophet is an easy Arc to visualize, and hard to pin down when writing it. I felt I could have made most of the powers’ listings much longer.

The Victorian language of flowers has a few plants that signify death, but I think they signify the I Want You To No Longer Breathe aspect, not the change aspect. Evening Primrose isn’t perfect, but it’s as close as I could come.

If you’re using this as an alternate Rinley for a GMD campaign, a few possible suggestions:

Substitue the Rat Prince(ss) for the Straw Haired Child if you are looking for a lead. They’re the first Fortitude Rat she’s met that’s interesting, then she loses them to something.

Rinley’s quests and emotion XP work pretty well for this character. If you want her a emotion XP to be a little more serious than Groan, I’d consider Fist Shake. 

When Rinley interacts with they Titovs, I’m pretty sure that she isn’t going to accidentally free Iolithae. Instead, she’s going to “accidentally” free Iolithae.

[destineezara]

52 stories challenge!

So, this year I’m trying to write more original stories in opposition to only making fanfic.

In order to archive that, I’m trying to make a 52 stories challenge. That is one story per week for a whole year. 

I’m focusing on writing on Portuguese. I’ll publish the Portuguese stuff in another blog (that I can share more freely with people that I know in real life) and reblog it here.  Meanwhile, I’ll also try to write stuff in English and publish it here!

here is the list with all the themes that I’ll do (under the cut)

52 weeks story challenge

1. A Story entitled “Just getting started”

2. Write a story with the “Instructions for a walk in the woods”

Instructions for a walk in the woods

Never turn around to check behind you. You’ll see nothing, but once you start doing it you won’t be able to stop, and an ominous feeling will follow you until you don’t lock your house’s door behind you.

If you stand very still and listen you will hear the woods calling for you. Don’t answer. Never answer.

You’ll hear things quietly following you, hidden in the trees by your sides. It’s okay, they’re just checking on you.

Don’t be scared, but be really, really wary.

If you have a bad feeling about taking a certain path, don’t. You’ll avoid whatever is waiting for you at the end of it.

You never know what may be buried under the soil you’re walking on. Remember that every time you take a step. Pray that whatever it is, it won’t wake up.

Be careful not to step on any beetle, or you’ll never get rid of them.

If you bring a knife with you, name it. Otherwise the blade will turn against you as soon as you try to use it.

Make sure you remember the way back home. As soon as you get lost, you’re just another piece of fresh meat.

3. Theme: We meet at this supernatural pub and we complain to each other about this subject we are assigned to. We slowly realise that it’s the same person and since you’re the grim reaper and I’m their guardian angel that could become a problem

4. Theme: Everyone has a price

5. Write a couple meeting each other for the first time, at night, in the woods, while both trying to dispose of their freshly killed corpses

6. “So, you’re the unfortunate soul stuck with me.” Bitter Soulmate starter

7. You know, being a diagnostician in a world with more public magical creatures must be a trip and a half. -> It can be either magic-themed, or superhero themed (with all those random powers and how the physiology of those people should work)

8. Theme: “I just saw my reflection blink”

9. Write a scene immediately following a tragedy. You may give hints to what the tragedy could be, but you cannot reveal what it really is/was

10. Write about a character who happens to live in an island amongst the clouds. How did this character end up there? Do they live alone? How is life in such a place? And, above all, how would this character react to seeing a black airship off in the distance?

11. Theme: Peace and I are strangers

12. Theme: They say the loveliest angels make the cruellest demons. And, my darling, you were so kind and beautiful before they dragged you to hell. Your fall was no accident. You were chosen to be damned.

13. “Where do we go from here?” Dark starter

14. “How did you possibly know that? It saved our lives!” “I’ve got two degrees and I spend way too much time on Wikipedia.”

15. Write about the person you are know, meeting the alternate version of yourself at the same age you imagined you would be at a younger age

16. Write about a character who once lived in an utopia, just before it fell into chaos. The catch? This character survived the destruction, and has now found a home in an unlikely place. Double catch? One day, one of their new friends asks to hear the full story of this ‘perfect city.’

17. Theme: There were children playing in the bones of the leviathan that had washed up on the beach.

18. The car won’t start. They call an Uber. (Dark theme, making it as dark as possible)

19. Theme: Cathedrals of Steel

20. Write about a character as they explore an abandoned factory that is said to be haunted. The catch? The factory is not actually haunted, though it is home to something worse. Double catch? This character has no recollection of how they got to the factory in the first place.

21. The Tarot cards and the Hero’s Journey

22. A story that takes place entirely inside a vehicle

23. “Bet I can make you come without ever touching your cock.” BDSM Starter

24. Theme: A witch has eyes made from shadow and starlight, given to her in a game with a demon. Nobody dares to ask what she wagered- they aren’t even sure she won.

25. Write about a character who happens to be an architect. The catch? This character has been hired to design a mansion. Double catch? The ‘Mansion’ is going to serve another, darker, purpose. Triple catch? This character has not yet realized this.

26. Theme: “The truth finds more comfort in the dark” subverting the dark/light stereotypes***

27. Write a creation myth.

28. Theme: “Passengers, this isn’t your captain speaking”

29. “If I fall from the grace of God where no murdered ghost can haunt me..” Dark starter.

30. Theme: The child she bares will be the devil’s spawn. Good thing she doesn’t want kids. Or if she changes her mind she can always adopt.

31. Werewolves families*** AND/OR All women werewolves packs*** (AKA subverting the “Alpha male wild werewolf” trope)

32. Theme: A Ballet of Blades

33. Theme : “I ran your name through the police database and it says that you were born in the 1800’s. Want to tell me your real name or do I have to arrest you”

34. “She will KILL you.” Dark starter

35. Theme: “You’d need an ARMY to fight this evil!” “Okay. I’ve got 20,000 followers, lets see how many can make it.”

36. A story about discovering that a certain religion (or your own) has been proven to be true.

37. “You’ve been crying haven’t you?” Angst Starter

38. Theme: Six inch heels, she walked in the club like nobody’s business. Goddamn, she murdered everybody and I was he witness.

39. Theme: I’m an angel and I think I forgot my halo at your place when we fucked last night

40. Write about a character who happens to be an enforcer of the law in a world where magic is a commodity. The catch? This character has been tasked with executing the sole suspect of a horrible crime, even if there is little proof. Double catch? This suspect is a child.

41. Theme: You wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of your books speaking to each other. Which books are speaking, and what are they saying?

42. Theme: Every year on your birthday, you are visited by yourself from one year in the future. This year, no one shows up.

43. “Just watch it with me. Maybe it’ll give us some ideas.” BDSM Starter

44. Theme: 25¢ pocket guardian angels. Only require love and the occasional bite of your food (bubble-gum Machine)

45. Theme: a Mermaid in the Sea World ***

46. Write about a character who has just recently gotten engaged with their long-time partner. The catch? A stranger approaches this character and reveals that they’re a potion salesman. Double catch? The salesman also reveals that this character’s fiancée bought a love potion from them several years back.

47. “These test results..don’t make any sense.” Dark starter

48. A story about a journey

49. Theme: I’m an ancient god and you’re my newest sacrifice but maybe we could do something other than me eating you because I’m actually quite full

50. Theme: A pirate captain lost her arm to a shark attack: a passing selkie saved her, and gave her tattoos of kraken blood. Now she has an arm made of salt-water, that grows and wanes with the tides, and swings a cutlass as well as the original. (She doesn’t sail as far these days though: she doesn’t want her wife to worry.)

51. Write a story in which people age until they reach 18 and then stop aging until they meet their soul mate so they can grow old together. What if you killed your soul mate so you’d make sure you never aged. This just makes me really want a story where the main antagonist is someone who has been killing their soulmate for centuries whenever they find them, and the main protagonist is the newly re-incarnated version of their soulmate.

52. A Story entitled “The End”

The themes were picked from tumblr by me and some friends!