#is to just get thrown headfirst into deep water and be FORCED to understand

[steel-and-fire]

No mercy for the wicked.

I stare at my reflection in the water. I barely recongize my own face. Nothing has changed from my features, but my expression, i dont recongize it. Yet, it is most certainly me, kneeled down on the edge of the river, golden hair falling in the water, red eyes staring right back at me.

Red...

My hands are covered in it, my hair, my body. My armor...? The red flows with the stream, painting its clear color.

The memories return to me. Vivid, as they happened but a couple hours ago, or less. I found the broken wagon on the edge of the road. I found the corpses of the murdered men, the slaughtered animals. I saw trails of red and signs of dragging through the forest..

... I run in that direction, fueled by emotions darker than i knew i could feel. It took me a bit to find them, for their camp was deep enough into the woods. I didn't run in. I observed. I sunk into the shadows and moved around, my large form fading into the night, among the leaves and the tall grass... Just like when we hunted beasts... And now, it was monsters of a different kind i was hunting...

The raiders had set a nice little fort, with wooden fortifications, not too tall but easily dependable. They were around a dozen, drinking, eating, celebrating, laughing with their cruel voices. A couple were staying to the edges, watching out for danger, but they seemed to feel safe enough... They had numbers, a fortified camp, and good equipment. Even if ragtag, their armors and weapons were in good condition. They were much more than ordinary bandits, but i was new to the area, and hadn't learned the rumors, didnt know their names.

I didnt care either.

My eyes kept moving, and they finally saw what i was looking for. The women, the abducted, were thrown in a pile to the side. Cut apart, lifeless, clothless and disgraced. The raiders had their fun and they disposed of them... Only one was still alive, forced to... Entertain one of them to the side, who had taken a knife out and was stabbing her, laughing sadistically, immune to her screams and tears.

I didn't run in. I didnt make a heroic entrance. I didnt laugh. This wasn't a challenge, something fun to kill the time. Usually, i would save the civilians if i could, but i wouldn't exactly mourn for their loss either. Their lives isnt my business, im not that soft. Reality is cruel.. Right?

But not this time. This time, i felt immense, unapologetic, untamed, hatred. I felt it fuel me. I felt it overflow and consume me. I hated them. Even more than wanting to save the girl, i wanted to kill them all.

I saw her eyes. She was the first to notice. Even as she was bleeding, trying to defend herself from the stabs of the man on top of her, it was my shadow behind him that made her eyes widen in true terror.

Fear and terror are different. Fear is something you understand, something conscious. Terror is primal, instinctive.

The man on top of her stopped, confused, following her eyes, realizing my presence as my shadow loomed over him, dancing with the movements of the bonefires.

His eyes also widened in terror in that moment, but before he could open his jaw, his upper body was flying through the air, my axe having swang clearly through it, and landing headfirst into the campfire of the others.

It was the girl that screamed, top of her lungs. I dont blame her. Thinking back to it, it was a reasonable reaction. I ignored her stepped over her and towards the others, who were grabbing their weapons, getting reafy to defend themselves.

Thats right, not assault me. But to defend themsleves... Yessss...the terror in their eyes, i remember it so clearly. The fear... They reeked of blood... Of murder.. Of lives taken, cruelly, mercilessly...and now they were the prey, and they could feel the raw despair of being the weak ones...

I didnt laugh. I didn't say anything cocky. Not this time. I simply walked towards them, my axe already covered in gore. They spoke between themselves, they asked me something. I didn't hear it. I didnt care. The predator doesn't care about the prey's words, right?

One panicked and threw a javelin at me. A terrible throw, his hand shaking. I didnt even dodge it, it crashed against my chestplate, uselessly.

I gritted my teeth. My hatred was building by the second. The images of the poeple they killed. Of the ones they raped and murdered, playing in my head again and again.

I jumped!! In one motion i had left the ground and leaped at them! I roared in a primal cry as one readied her spear. My axe smashed it apart, and the other swing crushed the armor and the bones beneath. If she screamed, i didnt hear it. Only the sound of her broken body, as my axe cleaved through her meat, reached my ears.

The battle begun, if one could even call it that. They surrounded me. They attacked from all directions. Two of them just run away, abandoned the rest and run as fast as they could into the night, crying and shitted. Pathetic.

I had never fought so recklessly. So uncaring about my own well being. But its not like i could feel the pain. Their blades pierced my arms with great effort, yet i didnt feel it. I cleaved, and cleaved, and cleaved, and cleaved again.

They needed to die! To die! To die! Die! Die! Die! Die for your sins! Die for your cruelty!! Just die!!!

....

The camp was littered in blood and gore, pieces of once human spread all around. i stood above the last raider, my gaze cold as eyes, despite the bright red glow... and only then i could hear his voice. Trembling, his arms a shield over his face, he was begging.

"Please....please...ill never do it again... Dont kill me... Ill turn a new leaf...sob..please."

I looked upon him, and i thought of the vile acts he commited just today. In only one day, he had forfeited his soul, to gain what? Sadistic satisfaction, gold, and a sense of power. And now that it was taken away, he was trembling and begging for his life.

".... No mercy for the wicked." My words came out cold, and spiteful. Black like venom. He screamed one last time as my weapon seperated his stomach from the rest of his body. He tried to crawl away, his intestines dragging out, and two feet away, he left the last breath.

I spat at the ground.

I turned around, and walked between the blood and the fire, thw horrifying carnage, and to the girl. She was still bleeding, the cuts and stabs deep, and barely conscious. Yet what was keeping her conscious, was me. She stared at me like a monster from fairy tales. Curled up in a corner and shaking,unable to speak a word.

I reached for my belt , and threw a vial with red liquid at her feet.

"Drink it and you'll live. Try to live a decent life despite the scars.", was what i remember saying befote i left the sight, the black fire inside my heart satiated for now...

...

Yes, i remember it all clearly. And yet my expression hasnt changed. It's been like this for a few days now....

And i dont mind if at all. I no longer care. I am a weapon. A weapon to be aimed at the vile. At the monsters that prey on others, be it beast or human...

If that is the reality we live in, then i will hunt them down, ill become the nightmare they cant escape from. I will create rivers with their blood.

I sit up, and take my weapon, walking away from the water, wearing the same face i approached it with, wearing the same, red eyes. I stare at the moon in the night sky, linger for a moment, before i continue my path..

[zippers-flowers-and-wine]

I have a request! another mer short- reader mer gets separated from their pod and meets/get adopted into a jojo pod

👀👀👀 I am Looking...

(I was so conflicted on what JoJo to write for, but I eventually just rolled a d8 lmao.)

(Also, this is what I imagine mermaid/man tails to be shaped like except with two long spines growing from were the dorsal meets the rest of the tail:

Orcas were awful beasts.

They way they clicked was terrifying, they were coloured in a freaky way, and they were just so damn big. Your pod's fighters always said that it wasn't that scary to be chased by them, that orcas were slow enough that a mer could outpace them as long as they kept going in a straight line...

But you wanted to call bullshit on that.

Because you were going top speed, putting all of your body into swimming away from these damned things and they were keeping up.

They'd ambushed your pod in open waters on one of your annual migrations, interrupting all of you as you'd travelled along the shore, following it down towards the cooler waters were you all lived until breeding time.

Usually, the migration path would have kept your pod over one large coral reef. It made it nearly impossible for large whales, be they False Dolphins, or Orcas, to hunt you. But the presence of human fishing nets in the area made the elders worried about the newborn mers, and it was decided that the pod would go cut across to the other path of coral reefs.

Halfway across, chaos had broken out. One particularly large orca had cut directly into the middle of the pod from below. It sent the mothers racing back towards the Coloured Path - the name bestowed upon the coral your pod usually travelled - while most of the larger mers of your pod immediately went defensive, hissing and snapping at the 3 others that started circling.

You were one of the unfortunate ones, caught up in the whirlwind of panicking gups and scared mothers. With the force of them shoving, and kicking out, you were thrown downwards; a lone mermaid, thrown out as an accidental sacrifice.

Naturally, the orcas locked onto you and here you were.

Swimming for your life as a whole pod chased after you.

You were too scared to look over your shoulder, unwilling to see the teeth that would be a few scant inches behind you, probably excited to tear into your- oh fuck!

Another orca, a younger one based one his size, lurched closer on your right, managing to land a punishing nip on your shoulder. It jerks you to a halt, ripping the wound open wider so you whip around, scratching just beneath it's eye. It squeals in pain, and you veer left squealing and ducking under another that had been waiting on you.

It's teeth snap around nothing, slick belly brushing against your flared spine, and you felt like crying out for your bearer. It was huge, easily 3x your width, and 4x as long as you.

The one that had injured you slammed into its friend with a mighty crash. Glancing back, you can see the two floating in place, clearly dazed from the impact. In your moment of distraction, another orca - also young - darts up from below, its dark body upon you before you can stop. It's teeth lock around your hips, pinning your fins down as it breaches and flings its weight back.

You screech, flailing as you're thrown into a wild somersault, launched out of the water several feet upwards as if you were a simple plaything. While airborne, your tail thrashes in some vain attempt to right you, unfortunately only succeeding in flipping you on your back mere milliseconds before you slam back into the water.

It stuns you, leaving you frozen and unable to pull in a breath as your own weight slowly pulls you down.

The anticipation hits you all at once, and you wait for the teeth. The pain of being torn apart and snapped in half by a whole pod yet...

It doesn't happen.

You can feel them around you: your earfins were designed to feel minor shifts in the water, feel how it gets warmer as bodies brush pass, and how it gets disrupted with every flick of a tail... But the pain never happens.

Peeling open your eye, you look around.

The orcas are a little farther away now, and there's more of them.

Two, no... Three adults, with four adolescents and their clicking makes your head hurt. Two of the adults are circling your still body, the final one - the one that had disrupted your pod in the first place - swimming around one of the unmoving adolescents.

The other three seem anxious, nudging and bumping against their sibling. The adult clicks, swims around him again, then makes a louder squeal that brings over one of the circling adults. They all start making sounds, the adult pulling away from the body with a neon tipped spine in its mouth. It wiggles side to side with it, almost as if...

Your tail fin twitches, and you have to clench your teeth to not cry out in agony.

That was your spine...

Beginning to shake, you've come to a chilling conclusion: They were using you for practice. Your venom spine had just killed the one that threw you out of the water, and the adult was using it to teach a fucking lesson.

Flexing a little, you realize your muscles have relaxed, no longer stiff from impact induced paralysis. Without really thinking - you bolt.

The orca that had been circling you squeals, but it - along with the others - isn't fast enough to react. You've already got several tail lengths ahead of them, and it would be unwise to expend their energy chasing you down, especially now that they were down one podmate.

Keeping up the breakneck pace, you don't stop until you feel well and truly alone.

Slowing, you pant for several long seconds, drifting with the currents.

Your gills are flared as much as possible, the pink slits sucking in water and jetting it out as you slowly turn on the spot.

Dark blue, dark blue, dark blue, dark blue...

Darkness stretched for miles in every direction.

Endless.

Directionless.

Thick, viscous tears well up in your eyes, floating towards surface.

For the first time since you were a guppy, you were alone. The currents pull at your body, pulling at your fins in a taunting manner, giggling and dancing about. All alone, they sang. Little mermaid, all alone, such easy prey.

Wrapping your arms loosely around your belly, feeling too exposed, you look up and sob brokenly. It's dusk, meaning you had been chased by those... Beasts for nearly two hours.

More tears gather in your eyes, floating away like the physical embodiment of your hopes and dreams, drifting out of reach.

You were fucked.

At the speed you'd been swimming, it was very likely that you were miles away from your pod, so all you could do now was pick a direction and start swimming.

You had to eventually run into something... Right?

___

It was completely black when you spotted somewhere to sleep for the night.

A cave, the bottom of which was covered in sand and rotting sea vegetation. Not the most glamorous place you've slept, but it was rather hidden from a distance, and deep enough that your bright colours would be muted to anyone passing by. The mouth of it was also surprisingly small, so anything larger than a shark would have some trouble wiggling in.

You, luckily, were smaller than a shark.

Pressing in head first, you wiggle your tail through, hissing when the sensitive flesh where your missing spine was rubs against the rocky cave mouth. Sliding through, you take a mental note of another entrance opposite of where you're settled as you curl up against the soft sand of the floor, folding all of your fins in tight and staring out into the blackened water beyond.

The stress of the day presses onto your shoulders, more tears well up, and you sob.

This loneliness, the separation... This was your new reality.

___

"Dude!" Okuyasu hisses, reaching out to snag his larger podmate by his shoulder. With a careful flick of his tail, he's leaning over Josuke, ears strained forward with a confused crease to his eyebrows.

Josuke flicks an ear, grumbling as he's used as a lookout post. "What dude? I'm too tired for-"

"Hush, Hishigataka." The young leader bares his teeth over his shoulder, immediately puffing up. Rohan doesn't look over, also staring intently at the neatly hidden entrance to their den. Josuke pauses, immediately losing all fight when he takes note of how restless the cecealia is. His arms are writhing around on another, bristling into various shades of darker green, and sickly yellows as his fins flare slowly.

"Someone is in our den."

Rohan's voice was deadly calm, yet it had an exciting effect on the others of his pod.

Okuyasu shivered, his spinal fin flexing excitedly as a near maniac grin started to twitch across his face. The large mer practically lived to brawl, all too happy to jump headfirst into a fight so he coiled his tail in close, ready pounce down the hidden entrance.

Mikitaka began pacing along side Koichi, the new cecealia anxious about the possible confrontation. Miki didn't exactly like any sort of violent interactions, and would always be the first of his podmates to shy away from any situations that looked like they may end badly, which was odd considering that his new form was well adapted to physical combat. Koichi was much the same, though his siren status made it a bit more understandable, since he wasn't physically capable of becoming as bulky as the other three. It also made him slower moving than them, his tail was really only meant to be flashy to attract any unsuspecting humans closer to him.

Josuke clicks, forcefully pulling their sudden excited agitation onto himself. The young leader keeps an eye on the small, seaweed covered entrance, but motions for them to all gather around him. "Alright, here's the plan. Me and Rohan will check it out, see if it's a pod we should really be worried ab-"

Rohan snorts, interjecting sharply, "I highly doubt it." Josuke sputters in outrage, but Koichi swiftly questions him before the larger pastel merman can freak out.

"W-what's that supposed to mean, Rohan - sensei?"

Smirking haughtily with that all too familiar look of "I know something you don't~", the cecealia points back towards the entrance with one of his thinnest arms. The tendril flicks lazily, matching his falsely carefree attitude s he drawls, "The main entrance hasn't been shoved around." He swims a little closer, with Josuke nearly right on top of him, to point at the thick vegetation growing around the well hidden entrance. "None of the seaweed has been pulled up, or ripped, and the rocks are perfectly in place. There's no scales that got caught on the opening, and the sand still has the faint imprint of the shells that Koichi brought last time."

Mikitaka clicks softly, coiling his limbs in close. "Forgive my ignorance, but what does all of that mean exactly?"

Koichi smiles at him, trying not to be too amused by his bewilderment. The guy had been turned into a cecealia by a particularly mean spirited siren a few months ago, and was still learning how to figure out life underwater.

Also seeming to take some kind of pity on him, Rohan explains, albeit with a rather haughty look. "What that means s that, while yes there is a mer in there, we don't need to be concerned about a pod." Josuke nods, a little more relaxed now that he knows Rohan isn't just disagreeing to get a rise out of him.

"Yeah. If anything, it may be a maid." Now it's Rohan's turn to look surprised, flicking his limbs as he sharply asks how Josuke figures that one. Koichi raises a brow, startled by how nonchalant he is about making that little inference. "Well, you said it yourself. There's no scales caught on the entrance, and even Koichi manages to snag some on the way in. That means it has to be either a cecealia, a guppy, or a mer smaller than Koichi."

Rohan snorts dismissively. "That's a moronic conclusion, Hishigataka."

"Eh!? How so!?"

"Because that doesn't explain how they didn't mess up the imprints of the shells, or how they managed-" Koichi's panicled wheeze cut their arguing short.

Wheeling around in unison, they follow the direction Koichi's outstretched hand. At first they don't see much, the rapidly deepening darkness impairing their vision, but eventually they do see and they want to tell various curses. Okuyasu had, at some point in their back and forth, wandered over to the entrance, slowly picking his way through the forest of green in front of it.

They could just barely see the glowing, golden tips of his venom spines weaving up and down. Josuke launches himself forward, his own bright pink and blue tail snapping as hard as possible to catch him up to his air headed friend, internally cursing his own negligence.

___

Peering into their home, Okuyasu doesn't immediately see anything.

It's dark, and the soft, sandy floor of the cave looks inviting, so he slips in. It takes a small wiggle for his hips to fit through, the fins having to lie flat as he works his tail left to right before sliding smoothly in. Glancing backwards, he wrinkles his nose at his small, dark blue and golden scales that he can see hanging off of the entrance, plucked free of his toughened hide thanks to how loose they were. "Yeesh, we gotta get a bigger den, man..."

Shhhfff...

His fins snap upright, flaring out as he twists in the dark. His pupils, having been dilated in his relaxation, immediately contract into dangerous slits.

That sounded like sand being shuffled around.

Josuke suddenly appears at the mouth of the cave, his bright blue eyes nearly glowing as he hisses, "What the hell are you doing, Okuyasu!?" He shushes him, holding a hand up while carefully swimming closer to the suspicious sound with his fins flared out. Josuke wiggles in after him, fins folded down as he slowly follows after him.

Sucking down water, Okuyasu jets out water and darts around the corner with his claws out, much to Josuke's yowling horror.

He slams into another body, very clearly a mer judging by the scaled tail that thrashes between his claws as he clamps down and sinks his teeth into their side. Another set of claws - smaller and more dainty than his own talons - rake across his back, making him hiss and flick sideways, slamming the smaller mer against the rockwall. They squeal, whipping their fluke at him as they twist. Okuyasu jerks back, twisting out of range of a poisonous spine that makes a lunge for his face. Josuke hisses somewhere to his left, but Okuyasu ignores him, reaching out for the intruder again. Startled, the mer ducks away from his talons, bolting towards the back. Josuke misses, just barely grazing the retreating fluke. The near miss makes him run, full force, against Okuyasu who had been about to give chase.

They both tumble to the sandy floor, sand flying up in great plumes that choke their gills, making both cough wildly. "G- Fuckin'- get off dude!" Okuyasu barks, shoving Josuke to the side. The small mer is frantically wiggling their way through the entrance, their panic making it harder for them to actually wiggle free.

Then they screech, tail flailing differently, now attempting to pull them back into the cave.

___

Oh go oh god oh god oh fUCK!

You're panicking, and you know it, and you know it's going to get you killed.

Being woken up by massive talons sinking into your flank wasn't the best thing to happen to you in your life, which was saying something considering the fact that you'd been chased hundreds of miles away from your pod by killer whales that only wanted some practice.

The mer that attacked you was big, scarily so, and he drove you downwards with his shoulder buried against your chest, and his teeth locked into the flesh just under your armpit. In a blind panic, you clawed at him, scratching at his back with your own, significantly smaller claws. The blood was billowing around the both of you, only barely blurring the outline of another mer pacing nearby. You couldn't see, nor register much of that one because the one attacking you didn't seem to apperciate having claws jammed into its spine. Apparently, it only served to piss it off because the bigger mer immediately used you like a battering ram, slamming your back against the nearby stone wall and stunning you for a beat.

When it backed of for a spilt second, slightly winded, you twisted away. Subconsciously, you thrashed your fluke at your assailant, momentarily forgetting about your missing spine as you made a break for an entrance opposite of where you had wiggled your way in.

The forgotten mer, a pretty streak of pink and blue, lunged for you, and you twitched just barely out of their range. They rocketed past you, ramming into the already wounded met and sending both of them to the floor.

Using that distraction, you started to attempt to wiggle free, cursing all of the inwards facing rocks that were hooking into your scales.

That's when you looked out into the ocean.

A small flicker of green movement.

Initially, you thought your mind was playing tricks on you, so you brushed it off, wincing as you made some progress.

Looking back up revealed two, very distressing details:

1. Your mind had not been fucking with you, that really was sometjing moving.

2. That moving thing turned out to be two moving things, and they were two, very large cecealia.

Freezing for a spilt second, you make eye contact with the shorter male.

His head tilts slowly, a small, razor thin smile playing at the edges of his lips.

With a shrill cry, you start thrashing backwards, deciding you'd much rather try and fight the two mers inside than the two cecealia outside. You're so busy panicking that you don't even notice that another creature has approached until he gasps, gently touching your cheek and making you flinch.

Your head turns, and you meet two big, dark blue eyes. Silvery hair wisps around his soft, childlike face, wild and untamed, just like the hammering of your heart. He seems worried about something, gently brushing your tussled, ungroomed hair back and away from your face as his eyes carefully search yours.

You hardly even notice the clawed hands that gently touch the raw flesh were your venom spine used to be, or the pasty white cecealia that glides up to your side, carefully pulling you free of the entrance, or even the hushed words shared back and forth, whispered over the badly injured flesh of your tail.

All you register are those dark blue eyes that are getting darker...and darker, and you can't...

___

Mikitaka hums when the mermaid falls limp against him, his limbs pulling her tighter to himself in an effort to keep her from harming herself upon collapsing. His eyes flick over to Koichi, who's coughing into his elbow, the younger siren unused to singing for such a long period of time. "Good thinking, Koichi."

"A-ah, yeah... Thanks!" He's grinning from ear to ear, flowy fins fluttering from flustered delight. He's so unused to such positive reinforcements from people that aren't Josuke, Okuyasu, Jotaro, or Rohan that the poor thing practically drinks up any and all positivity.

Miki smiles, mouth opening-

"You. Utter. FOOLS!"

Then closing in a small grimace.

It seems Rohan isn't quite as pleased.

(Okay.... Okay okay, I promise I'll finish it in the next installment, I just like?? Got really carried away 😞)

[First: You're here!] [Next: Right Here]

[thoughtfullyyoungduck]

I don’t care

summarry: a reddie x daughter where the losers are over and the daughter comes home from school with a minor injury and they later found out she was bullied. so they give her tips and maybe even fighting lessons lol

A/N: this was requested by anon I hope you enjoy! 

warnings: homophobia as reason for the bullying

Water sloshes over the sides as Richie dives headfirst into the pool. It drenches Stan’s trousers, who shoots a murderous look towards Richie resurfacing with a deep breath.

‘Refreshing’, he comments, shaking a full body shiver at the change of temperature. Chloe watches from afar, disposing her bookbag on the grass with a loud clutter. Weekend arrives and she’s eager to start the plans scheduled. On Friday a pool party, on Saturday a trip on uncle Ben’s boat, and for the last day they’re going to see Richie perform live on stage.

All the losers promised they’d make it, and they did, it’s been a while since the group has reunited, work and personal issue getting in the way, but none of that matters. Sometimes Chloe thinks there’s no way they won’t get mad at one another when someone cancels yet again, but then the rejoins puts her at ease. They care for each other more than enough to stop a small, unimportant thing from ruining it. Most scattered around the pool, like uncle Stan and Chloe’s pops in the water, but her dad and uncle Bill stood a far end away from water range, a smart decision Stan begrudgingly had to admit.

'The prodicale child has returned, Richie enthusiastically announced, waving his arms back and forth. ‘Mini me is back.’

The losers greet her, warm smiles and gentle hands pulling her in a hug. Bill’s positively buzzed, the butt of many jokes at his expense of how much of a lightweight the man really is. The first try to capture Chloe in an embrace goes haywire, and if it wasn’t for Mike supporting his weight, he would have fallen face first.

It sends the rest of the groups in hysterics, not including Bill, blushing red tainted cheeks. ‘Already uncle Bill?’ Chloe goads, covering the underside of the drink in his hand in case he loosens his grip.

Waving of the concerns, Bill wobbles, aided by Mike, back to the sun chair to rest. Eddie motions a soda her way, wordlessly asking if she wants one.

‘Yeah, but I’m going to go change first.’

Her shirt is too tight for the humidity hanging in the air, and she longs for a swim, so she needs swimming attire in order to do that anyway.  

----

‘Oh absolutely not’, Bev declares stiffly, her mouth set in a straight line and hands on her hips. ‘There’s no way any niece of mine is wearing that.’

Richie cackles, his head thrown back in amusement over Beverly’s reaction, following her gaze to his daughter, wearing a Hawaiian long-sleeved shirt over her bathing suit.

Chloe follows his laughter, doing a pirouette to show off her t-shirt. ‘I think it’s cool.’

‘You’re only saying that because Richie brainwashed you.’

‘I agree with Bev, one Richie fashion disaster is more than I can adequately handle,’ Stan concurred, heaving a sigh at Richie’s childish reaction of sticking out his tongue.

‘It’s not like she’s wearing it to school Beverly, and if my daughter sees me as a fashion icon, than I think we should respect that. Fuck knows she’s the smartest among us.’

A little cough draws his attention, and Stan does nothing to hide his intend.

‘Okay well Stan is up there.’

‘Please kid, I’m begging, don’t become a second Richie. Fight those parts of you that stem from him.’

‘Hey fucking excuse you, she’s my daughter too.’ Eddie heatedly adds, chopping his hand through the air to drive the point home.

‘who’s w-w-who’s d-d-daughter?’ A stutter the predominant tell that Bill is well on his way to being hammered.

‘Shut up Bill, you’re too drunk to participate in this conversation.’

Chloe giggles, knowing that the teasing remarks from her family are just that, teasing. She then finally steps closer towards the pool. The grass beneath her bare feet is strangely relaxing, the sensations of little pricks reminding her of summer days and ice creams.

‘Come her,’ aunt Bev beckons, her hand circling around the small indents of nails in Chloe’s underarm.

Without realization, she hisses in pain, retracting her hand and covering the sore spot with her remaining hand. The playful mood everyone participated in pops like a bubble.

Beverly blinks in shock, surprised by the reaction. The chatting in the pool ends abruptly, the remnants of an engaging conversation ebbing away.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah, just peachy.’ A bird flies overhead, chirping away, an excellent escape out of the conversation Chloe refuses the hold in front of everyone.

‘Uncle Stan, what kind of bird is that?’

Stan eyes her suspiciously, not uttering a word to help her, and Chloe glowers at him. Thanks for nothing.

‘Let me see please’, Eddie asks his cheeks blown out, worry etched across his face. At this point, Chloe is trapped. She can’t deny something is wrong, and she can’t withhold her arm because that would make everyone even more suspicious.

‘Fine,’ she grumbles, bunching the fabric of the long sleeved shirt to reveal indents of fingernails buried in her skin, not sever enough to be of any concern, but bad enough that it is visible.

‘Chloe,’ Eddie perturbs, his fingers hovering above the wounds while he mulls over what to do in his head. ‘What happened?’

In one smooth motions, Richie lifts himself out of the water and strides resolutely their way, blind without his glasses on but still thoughtfully studying the body-langue of both Eddie and Chloe. He stoops down to inspect the wounds himself, than straightens up and tries his best to stare straight in his daughter eyes, missing by half a mile.

‘Someone did that to you?’ The intentions makes it sound like a question, but it’s a statement, and one that is impossible to refute. Nail marks aren’t accidental.

‘Did you get these cleaned?’ Eddie frets, his left hand coercing her to move to the kitchen, where they keep an emergency kid. Richie has had one to many mishaps in there.

It’s a sure sign that Eddie is freaking out and building up to an anxiety attack, worrying and fretting over someone to release part of the stress before it bubbles over.

‘Dad’, Chloe mumbles miserably, planting her feet in the ground to resist any prodding. ‘It’s not that bad.’

‘Who did this angle cake?’

‘Just someone from school alright. It’s not a big deal.’

‘Honey, It is. No one is allowed to hurt you in any way,’ Bev argues, her chin jutting out, only calmed by Ben’s presence.  

‘Is there anything we can do? T-t-talk to whoever did this? A teacher? Say the word and we’re on it.’ Bill’s positively sobered up thanks to the severity of the topic of conversation, he fumbled over his words only once.

‘Beat him or her up? I’m not afraid if it’s a girl, I’ll hit anyone who tries to put their hands on my baby.’

‘Yes and don’t listen to uncle Ben, he might say something fucking stupid like we’ll talk to whoever did this calmly.’

‘Yes, cause that’s the best option Richie-‘

‘It has nothing to do with me okay? And I doubt she even planned on physically hurting me. I tried to remove myself from the situation, and instead of letting me walk away, she tried to keep me in place by grabbing me. Hence the superficially’, Chloe aimed the word at her dad, ‘scratches.’

‘It obviously has something to do with you. Why else go after you?’ Stan probes. The way he talks and demands thing without having to raise his voice is fascinating, like he can bend anyone to do what he pleases without breaking a sweat.

‘Because’, Chloe pinched the bridge of nose, contemplating her chances of resolving the situation without admitting what it was all about, but between her protective fathers and the solicitous of the losers, she estimated her shots slim to none.

‘Because she believes homosexuality is wrong and that dad and pops are wrong for loving each other.’

Richie grimaces bitterly, slumping his shoulders and sneering at the words sinking in. ‘Like Bowers all over again’, he spits furiously, bailing his hands into fist. Next to him, Eddie is pensively staring at the wounds on Chloe’s hand, shame speed racing through his body for him and Richie being the reason this happened to their daughter.

‘Chlo, I’m so so sorry.’

‘No. Don’t you dare apologies. It doesn’t matter. Not to me anyway. She’s a bitch, and she’s wrong for her opinion, but I can’t make her see your relationship the way I see this. I can’t force her to open her mind and broaden her horizons, then I’ll be equally as bad. I love you guys, and I don’t care you’re gay. If other people do that’s their problem and not mine. I hid the comments as I knew they would hurt you, but we know better than them. I’m going to continue living my life open and excepting of everyone and everything and she will walk around angry and upset at everything in the world she considers unnatural. There’s no outcome in which she wins, except if we let her words bother us.’

With a gentle pull, Chloe buries herself under her dads chin, tucked away in safety as her pops caresses her hair and presses a kiss there.

‘I’m so proud of you.’ Eddie confesses, barely understandable with his voice cracking through the lump in his throat. ‘Don’t ever forget how much we love you.’

‘We’ll have to discus some precautions. Like a buddy system or some shit. Or maybe Mike can teach you some strength exercises.’ Richie ponders, thinking ahead on how to avoid a situation ever again occurring. ‘But yeah, we really couldn’t have a better daughter.’

[rigelmejo]

how my chinese progress is going:

i can watch a cut of zhu yilong’s character in border town prodigal and mostly understand all the dialogue/chinese subtitles in real time. like, 80%. some lines i can follow completely. but to be fair its easy stuff like “first we aren’t friends, second don’t touch my sword” and “no i don’t want to get drunk/drink” and “i’m leaving”. 

i also watched the pilot of The Shaw Eleven and followed it well enough to at least jump into the second episode (which had english subs), and have been familiar with most of the plot (except i hadn’t been clear on if zyl’s character was the brother or fiance of the main pretty girl - turns out he’s the fiance). but to be fair - this show is pretty much a fighting game as-a-drama, so the plot is ridiculously simple, and easy to follow, and most of the show is just fights - which require little language skill to understand lol. but yeah, anyway, when i watched the first episode i just read the chinese subtitles/listened and tried to follow along in real time, so i think that’s pretty decent comprehension. no where close to like total, but i followed the gist. i translated some lines to my roomate chilling in the room with me. 

---

i want to get to the point i can READ a novel and. wow. that is so far away. i want to also get to the point i can watch case-type shows without english subs and... i imagine cause those plots are Puzzles that i am a ways... away from managing something like THAT. i want... to watch anti-fraud league. and it apparently isn’t subbed anywhere in english. i followed the pilot well enough without english subs but... because its a case-type show, i doubt i would continue to manage to follow along decently enough to comprehend whats going on...

and a note for myself: my comprehension skills are definitely outpacing my production skills. i can recognize a lot of characters i cannot write (and there’s a decent number of words i can listen to and recognize, but don’t know what they look like). that’s not a major issue right now, but it might be later if i’d like to ever speak/write decently, so i should probably work through a grammar book again/textbook and practice writing some, in the future when that’ll be a goal i want to focus on. also - my reading ability is outpacing my listening ability just a bit. the gap is less extreme than it is in french, but i definitely can scan through text and make guesses/inferences, whereas if i am listening to dialogue i only really recognize the words i already am sure i KNOW. since reading, ultimately, is my main goal, this isn’t too much of an issue. but i need to remember to play audio when possible, when i’m reading. and i need to remember to try and read aloud to myself when possible, when i know the pronunciations of characters, so i can practice their pronunciations and make efforts to remember them.

it is interesting to me that certain things are easier to ‘learn’. in reading, im getting much better at following ‘time explanations’ and dialogue. reading more, just general reading practice, has also helped the grammar start to make more sense to me without very much conscious effort or self-explaining on my part. its just, i’m seeing the sentence structures more and more and they’re becoming easier to follow. descriptions especially are starting to become easier to parse out. so i guess, i’d say at least within my own experience, the advice of ‘read more and expose yourself to the language more, and the grammar will become more understandable to you’ is pretty on point.