#also not meant as shipping but if it floats your boat pop off

[salcreus]

Short man gets intimidated by big man's new minecraft skin (NOT CLICKBAIT) (100% REAL)

Plus my never ending crisis while I try to figure out how to draw Bdubs

#this is both #hermitcraft #due to the fight they had for the plots #but also #3rdlifesmp #3rd life smp #since i think its very funny scar takes off his armour all the time and ngn excuses excuses for me to tag both smile #also not meant as shipping but if it floats your boat pop off #just dont be cringeters smh #bdoubleo100 #goodtimewithscar #goodtimeswithscar #yes i have 100 artstyles and painting styles what about it #mcyt #salty art

[sugarmaplewings-fics]

Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold (Part One)

Pairing: Pirate!Bakugou x mermaid!reader

Warnings: Ehh, this portion is gender neutral but from here on out the reader is referred to as female. This does work as a stand alone story, though. Otherwise no warnings from this one.

{Pt. 1} {Pt. 2} {Pt. 3} {Pt. 4}

Author's Note:

Sooo, I know I said I probably wouldn't have this out for another while, buuuttt, I didn't have anything for today and this one was just staring at me 🥺. I don't quite have a concrete plan for the full thing, and there's no guarantees for when part two is going to come out. Also I might draw something like last time to use as a banner. The one that's down there is a placeholder.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this! I've been wanting to write this story for almost a year now, and I finally have the chance! If you'd like to be part of the taglist for this story, please message me!

I think that's it. Love you!!

-Sugar

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⊱ ──── 《∘🕱∘》 ──── ⊰

A shadow slid across the ocean floor.

Basking in the warmth of the sun, it truly made for an unwelcome interruption. You'd been partaking in a nap only moments prior, mind slowly shifting through half-baked thoughts as the sun shone down onto the sand beneath you. Prompted by the change of brightness and temperature, you blinked your eyes open, rolling over to your back with a lethargic stretch of your arms. Squinting, you frowned up at the surface rippling a considerable distance above you.

There you saw it, some strange shape making its way over the water above. It seemed to be some kind of brownish color, wide and tapered to a point at each end.

Your annoyance faded as curiosity struck you. You didn’t think you’d ever seen anything like it before. You studied it from your vantage point on the ocean floor even as the sunlight reappeared on your relaxed body. It wasn’t as though you were doing anything important right now, you figured. Maybe it was something worth investigating, at least for a short time.

Rousing yourself from the sand, you flicked your tail to propel yourself up in the direction of the object.

You poked your head out of the water, body bobbing up and down with the motions of the waves. You blinked, bringing a hand out of the water in an attempt to shield your vision from the blinding sun. How did anything live up here? It felt as though your eyes were going to dry up and incinerate to nothing.

There it was, the strange object that had cast such a shadow. It was even bigger above water. Mahogany planks shaped it into that odd form, making it float on the ocean, cutting through waves as though they were nothing. Large masts seemed to sprout up from the center like kelp in a forest, sporting billowing white cloths rippling in the air currents.

Ah, yes, it was a boat, and an impressive one at that. You suddenly remembered seeing the ones just like this that couldn’t float anymore, having swum past the ruined, swollen wood during your time in this part of the sea. They were ominous, sitting still on the ocean floor, carrying a dark, somber aura about them as they laid dead where they’d never move again.

But this ship was every meaning of the word alive, shining in the midday sun and skimming dutifully over the bright blue water. Its size might have looked intimidating, but the thing itself was also very intriguing.

Naturally, you swam closer.

The thing was fast, but luckily, so were you. You dived back down, your powerful tail bringing you a few body lengths up to the submerged bottom of the ship. Popping out of the water again, you looked all the way up its side.

Now that you were closer, you thought you heard something. The sounds were new to you, similar to whalesong. But this was deeper, choppier, and somehow harsher. You frowned in the direction of the noises. What was on this boat?

You circled it underwater—careful not to get too close—coming back up a few times to get another look from a different angle.

You had to admit, it carried an odd beauty about it. Something like this must have been built, but the craftsmanship was so intricate, and it was massive . . . .

You sprung up above water again some ways away from it. Perhaps this thing wasn’t as exciting as you’d initially thought. It was a pain to keep up with and the noises coming from it kept hurting your ears.

Just as you turned to leave, a movement caught your eye. There it was, a flash of gold just at the side of the ship. It looked vaguely . . . familiar.

You went closer again to get a better look, and it was then that you met a pair of golden eyes, looking much like those of your people of the sea.

The figure startled as soon as he saw you, blinking and squinting in your direction. He made more of those strange chattering sounds you’d kept hearing, looking behind him and frantically pointing at you with his outstretched hand.

Rude, you thought, but what was a merman doing all the way up there?

A second head appeared next to the first, this one with vibrant, spiky red hair. You experimentally waved at them in greeting, wondering why you couldn’t understand them. Maybe they were from a different ocean you'd never seen.

They both leaned over the side. It looked like they were trying to communicate something to you, but whatever it was, you didn’t get it.

The red haired one turned and left, but was quick to come back with a weird circular object. It was attached to a rope and had an open circle in the middle, just big enough to put the top third of your body through.

To your mild surprise, he tossed it over the side at you, and it landed with surprising accuracy only a tail length away. You swam over to it, picking it up out of the water. It was oddly light—which probably explained why it floated so easily on the waves—and was made out of some strange material.

You glanced dubiously back up at the faces on the side of the ship. They were looking at you with . . . distress? What was this thing? Was it some kind of gift? What were you supposed to do with it? You couldn’t hold it down under the waves, so how were you supposed to bring it back underwater with you?

Either way, you thought it would be rude to decline. You grabbed the rope that was tied to it. It looked as though they were still holding on to the other end. You really wouldn’t be able to take it anywhere if it was still attached to the ship.

You grabbed the rope and tugged. They held onto it. Frustrated, you tugged again. Looking up at their faces, you matched their expressions of confusion. What were you missing here?

Perhaps they were only trying to show it to you. You decided to follow through with your initial idea of putting it around the upper portion of your body. You lifted it over your head—you fit through it okay, at least—and soon it reached the submerged base of your tail.

You floated there for a second. Was this all it was good for? Kind of useless if you asked yourself. Again, you made up your mind to leave. You had better things to do than play silly games with the weirdos in the sky.

Before you could slip back out under the object, you felt yourself being pulled closer to the boat. Now what were they doing?

You frowned up the side again, but this time you couldn’t really see them. They must have stepped back further onto the boat. Intrigued, you let them pull you along with them. You got closer and closer to the side, and finally the rope connecting you to the other end slanted completely vertical. You adjusted yourself so you wouldn’t slide out. Perhaps they were trying to bring you up so they could meet you. You weren’t sure what they’d gain by that, seeing as you couldn’t understand them. Heck, they probably wouldn’t be able to understand you either. But you were still curious. What did the boat look like from up there? It wasn’t all that interesting from the underside, but maybe if you were able to see it from the top . . . .

The two strangers began to haul you out of the water. It was a little scary, you had to admit. Slowly, your body was extracted from the water. Waves slapped against your tail ever lower, and eventually you were fully suspended in midair. You clung tightly to the rope. Glancing back at the sea below, you realized it was a long way down, and the higher you went, the less you were comfortable with the idea of falling.

You'd never been all the way out of the water like this, and it almost felt as though you were flying like those seabirds you'd see living on islands. Except this wasn't as fun. You were meant to swim in the water, not get dragged through the air.

Finally you saw the rim of the ship, and you picked up on the grunting and labored breaths from the two weirdlings you’d seen earlier. You reached up and grabbed onto the side, hoisting your body up. Then you saw them.

These weren’t quite the mermen you were used to. The things that were pulling you up had legs.

You stared at them for a moment, watching fascinated as they walked towards you. Tearing your eyes away from their tailless, split bodies, you glanced back at their faces. Why did they look so concerned? Did they always look like that?

The blond one was the first to reach you. He was quick to grab your hand to help you over the railing, chattering something at you. You let him pull your body up a little higher, and then he froze. To your surprise, he let go of your hand, dropping your bodyweight and causing you to pitch forward. You slid gracelessly to the dry floor of the ship like some kind of overgrown eel, fins and tail meeting the floor of the boat with a wet thud.

You spluttered, annoyed, curling your scaled appendage closer into yourself. “What is this?!” you finally asked.

The blond one had run back to the redhead, pointing frantically and clearly panicked. The red haired one also looked shaken, but otherwise seemed somewhat more collected as he studied you.

“Whatever,” you mumbled, sliding the flotation object off of yourself. “I don’t want this thing anyway.”

You glanced around, taking in the ship up close. It was pretty cool, but in hindsight, it probably wasn’t worth the whole fiasco you’d gone through to get here. The floor was mostly bare, give or take a few stacked boxes here and there. You recognized a net hanging from a pole, one of which you’d seen countless before. Was this where they came from?

“Those things are dangerous,” you said, pointing at it. “I’ve had to cut a lot of animals out of them.”

It was then that the red haired one stepped closer to you. You drew back just a bit, suspicious.

Examining him, you took in the mismatched rings that adorned his ears, and the billowy off-white covering he wore over his chest. The front was open, exposing the tanned skin of his torso. Darker brown fabric covered his lower half, tucked into clunky coverings at the very bottom. Another strip of cloth was tied around his head, making his vibrant hair stick up in odd directions.

He crouched down so you wouldn’t have to crane your neck up to look at him. He tried to say something to you again, but this time his voice wasn’t so loud. It was still foreign to your ears, but it was low and smooth.

You gave him an apologetic expression. “Listen,” you said. “This was fun and all, but I should probably get going.”

You turned and tried to slide yourself closer to the side you’d come from. Much to your annoyance, your tail hindered your movements. You were used to the grace of the water, but now you felt heavy and clunky. Scowling, you tried to pull yourself to the railing with your arms, but nothing was cooperating with you. The boat swayed with the motion of the waves down below, and as soon as you figured you’d made progress, you’d have to fight even harder against the force pulling you back.

You felt something touch your tail, and you whipped around with a threatening hiss, baring your teeth. It was the redhead again, and apparently he’d been the first to notice the rope that had gotten tangled around the fins and scales of your tail. Maybe he was trying to help, but he was touching your tail. You could do it yourself.

Jerking the lower portion of your appendage, you were able to smack him away with your fins. Feelings hurt, he stepped back.

You grabbed at the rope, cursing the fact that you’d ever gotten up from your nap in the first place as you struggled to untangle yourself from the device that had brought you up here. You wondered how you had gotten stuck so bad as you tugged at the coarse material. Seriously, you were so done with this today. You vowed to never go up to another boat again in your life if you could only get off this one—

And then you saw him.

The blond must have left a while ago but now you saw who he’d come back with. It was another being like the other two. He was blond like the first one, but his hair was shorter, spikier, and reminded you of the pale yellow of the sun. He was bigger than the other blond, but smaller than the redhead. You didn’t think you’d ever seen a face so handsome, even among the mermen back where you lived. He bore a scowl on his face, similar to the one you’d been sporting seconds earlier. Strength and authority rolled off him in waves, not only in the way he carried himself but also in the respect he garnered from the others around him.

He was tall, he was hot, and now you were just staring.

The sexy weirdling grumbled something, and you honestly weren’t sure to whom it was intended for until he stepped forward. You were slower to pull away as he approached, almost drawn to him in a strange way.

He knelt in front of you, pulling out a sharp object from a hidden pouch on his hip. Your heart fluttered in momentary fear as he brought it closer to your tail, but soon you saw the way he reached for the rope. Without scarcely touching your scales, he pulled on the material and sliced through it, cutting you free in a few fluid motions. You were caught up in watching him work, silently in awe as his rough hands delicately moved over your body.

Soon, you were able to move again, but before you could, he straightened and lifted your body from the floor. You gasped, clutching at his broad shoulders as you were once again suspended in midair. But this time you felt secure; his arms supporting the weight of your body. He met your eyes for a split second, and you became lost in the pools of orangey-red. They were deep, and bright, and you felt as though you could gaze into them forever.

Then you were hauled above the railing and tossed over the side.

Weightless, you fell back to the sea from which you came. It was surreal, watching his pale face grow smaller and smaller as wind rushed around you and gravity pulled you further away.

No, you thought, still in a daze. You wanted to stay with him, to keep looking at him, to know his name—

But all too quick, your back hit the cold water of the sea, skin stinging from the impact. With an impressive splash, you sank down again to the place you called home.

You didn’t know how to feel now, watching from below as the ship surged on without you. You were astonished and confused, lost and frozen in the deep blue world that surrounded you.

It was then that you vowed to see him again, no matter what.

You were warm—a little giddy—and you were determined.

You were in love.

…

To be continued . . . .

[Part Two]

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Taglist: @aahilovetheatre @basicalyrandom @bumbyslair @f0leysgurl @hyunmin-1404 @kqtsukii @nabo39 @pyrofanatic​ @rainy-skys-and-bright-stars @sendhelpimstupid @ure-a-sunflower @xoxopam4 @deltajay @sillygoof @whipped-cream-writings

#bakugou #katsuki bakugou #bakugou katsuki #bakugou bnha #katsuki bakugou bnha #bakugou katsuki bnha #bakugou imagine #katsuki bakugou imagine #bakugou katsuki imagine #bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou x you #bnha x reader #mha x reader #NATiSaG #reader insert #sugar fics

[miraculouswolf99]

Silver Siren

Happy New Year!!! This is not a New Years story, but it is a story that I am using New Years as an excuse to post it. LOL

*****

Luka Couffaine was often described as the most relaxed and chill guy that anyone could ever meet. Often seen with his guitar on hand, playing what he would call a person's heart song. He was also described as a protective older brother to his sister, Juleka. Especially when it came to her friends.

The only ones that Luka really knew were Rose, Ivan, and Mylene as they were the ones that came over the most often. This was the first time that the entire class was on the Liberty. And if Luka was being honest with himself, he was most intrigued by Marinette, Lyon, and Adrien.

While he had not met Adrien personally yet, the things he had heard from the class made him curious about the model. Marinette also seemed really sweet and the type of person that could brighten a room just by walking into it. And Lyon seemed similar to himself, calm and easily just as observant.

Lyon and his sister had seemed almost like him and Juleka. They liked to be off to the side and observe. They also spoke of animals and plants like they spoke of music, that it relates to everything and everyone. Luka was amazed by their heart songs. So full of life, harmony, and with a slight sense of mysteriousness.

But most of Luka's cool, calm, and collected personality was thrown out the window when his mother got akumatized into Captain Hardrock.

"A treasure in return for freedom," Anarka says. "Ho, ho, ho then I shall be your pirate Hawkmoth."

Black and purple smoke covers the ship.

"Oh no," Luka hears Marinette gasp.

Captain Hardrock rose up. Captain Hardrock has long red hair that is spiked upwards and golden eyes. The upper half of her face is covered with a black mark edged with dark red and she wears a black bandana with a white spiky-haired skull on the front, along with gold circular earrings.

She wears a bodysuit that is red from the collar to the chest and black from the chest, the color separation looking like flames. Her suit includes three yellow buttons vertically on her lower body, three golden spikes horizontally over each knee, and a golden patch above each hip. She has two black belts, one going around the body diagonally and the other wrapped around the waist, that have golden buckles. Over her suit, she wears a black captain jacket with golden inner lining, golden spikes on the shoulders, golden edges, and golden buckles on the sides. Black fingerless gloves with golden edges around the upper holes cover her arms up to her elbows. Her knee-high boots that end below the knees are black and red in a flame-like pattern with black soles, golden heels, black inner lining, and black stripes with golden spikes above the ankles.

"Raise the mainsail, me deck hands let's get swashbuckling around here," his akumatized mom orders.

"Mom," Juleka asks, shocked and scared.

"What's going on," Luka asked, concerned.

"Your mom has weighed anchor, me lad," the akuma says. "I'm Captain Hardrock and today Paris's timbers are about to be shivered by my cannons."

The captain looks through a telescope. Luka took that second to make a quick headcount. He realized that the Greek twins were not on board the Liberty anymore. Remembering that the two were close to the gangplank when all this started, he figured that they had most likely had gone and went to get help.

"Westward ho, Liberty next stop," she orders. "Jagged Stone at the Eiffel Tower. Soon, there will only be one concert in Paris only one Music Festival. We will destroy all the others. Now, get to your instruments and rock those decibels!"

"Mom please, you can't ruin the Music Festival," Luka calmly pleaded.

"You can't force people to listen to your music," Marinette tells the villain.

"No way we're playing like this," Ivan yells.

"Mutiny," Captain Hardrock sounded offended. "On my ship! Liberty, seize these scallywags and throw them down into the hold!"

Chains shot out from different places on the ship. But before any of the teens could react, arrows started flying over their heads and hit the chains. Every chain that an arrow hit instantly froze into ice. Then the next thing that they knew, another weapon flew past them and shattered all the ice chains.

Floating near the ship, above the water, was Beautifly with her shield-sized razor blade flower. And looking over, back on land, was White Wolf. His bow was still at the ready. Luka was amazed that the two got there so quickly and figured that it was because of Lyon and Vallia. He had seen the two newest heroes of Paris on the news and the Ladyblog, but this was the first time in person.

"If I was Cat Noir, I would probably make a very bad ice pun right about now," Wolf smirked. "But I'll stick to freezing things with my arrows."

"And I am happy you are," Beautifly giggles. "I mean, Cat is a great hero and all, but I am very close to slapping him over those cat puns."

"Creatures of the land and air are not welcome on my ship," Captain Hardrock shouts, pointing her sword at the butterfly girl.

"Do I look like I'm on your ship," Beautifly floated around. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not even touching the ground let alone your ship."

"Lock this fly in the brig, Liberty," Captain Hardrock ordered.

Chains, once again, shot out from different parts of the ship. They headed right for the butterfly hero. But unlike Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even her own partner White Wolf, Beautifly is able to fly. But that is obvious at this point. It did give her an advantage over most akumas. The way that she was currently flying around to avoid the chains was one very good example of these advantages.

"I'm a butterfly, thank you very much," Beautifly put her hands on her hips.

She made a quick dive back toward the water, flying barely a foot above it. The chains would hit the water instead as she gracefully dodged them. But she soon made a quick shot upwards as she got close to where her partner had been standing. That allowed him to fire a volley of arrows at the chains following her. Each one of them was soon frozen into ice. She quickly shattered them with her razor flower.

"Nice try, Jackie Sparrow," Wolf smirked.

Beautifly facepalmed. "What you lack in puns, you sure make up for in pop culture references."

"What can I say," Wolf shrugged. "I love American movies."

The kids still onboard the Liberty, meanwhile, seemed to finally get out of shock over the heroes showing up so quickly.

"We need to get off this ship," Alya quickly says.

"How," Ivan asked. "Do you want us to jump into the seine?"

"Would you rather be chained up on this ship," Alya countered.

"All ashore that's going to shore," Ivan headed right for the edge of the boat.

"Never thought I'd have to walk the plank of my own house," Juleka says, surprisingly still as calm as she was during the Horrificator incident.

"Why is everyone in the Couffaine family so shockingly calm," Marinette whispered to Alya.

"Your guess is as good as mine, girl," Alya whispered back. "But they can't all be that calm. Captain Crazy, over there, is one example."

"I am suddenly very grateful for my normal mother," Marinette says. "Yet, I am also intrigued by everyday life in the Couffaine household."

"I hope my crew isn't planning on jumping ship," they were caught in the act by the akuma.

"Shoot," Nino swore.

With a slash of her sword in the air, Captain Hardrock sent another round of chains toward them. Only this time, White Wolf was not fast enough with his bow. He tried, but people need to remember that nobody's perfect. The group of teenagers was soon all grabbed by the chains and pulled below deck.

"Oh, Hades," Beautifly swore. "Now we're going to need a rescue mission. Where are that cat and bug?"

"Don't ask me," Wolf said, freezing another chain.

Meanwhile, Adrien had been in his room. He was watching the news broadcast about the music festival. His father had not allowed him to go to the Liberty and play the keyboard for Kitty Section. He was pretty salty about that. (AN: An ocean pun inspired by Captain Hardrock. hehe.)

"Breaking News," Nadja Chamack interrupted the fun stuff.

"Huh," Adrien knew what this most likely meant.

"Another akuma attack is in progress along the seine," Nadja reported. "This akuma's goal seems to be to take over the music festival with its rock music by taking out all the other musical acts in the city."

"Some people just don't appreciate good music when they hear it," Plagg says, munching on some of his cheese.

"Plagg, claws out," Adrien did not have time for his sarcasm since he knew his friends were at the same river.

His friends may not currently be in much danger, but they were being held prisoner.

While the room wasn't really a brig, but the teens were still trapped in it. Ivan and Mylene were chained together, as were Nino and Alya. Rose and Juleka were both alone in their chains while Luka and Marinette were also chained together.

"You don't seem very worried, Marinette," Luka noticed.

"I am, but this isn't really my first time being held captive by an akuma," Marinette says. "Even if the Evillustrator considered that situation a date."

"Alright," Luka accepted that.

"Alya, remind to apologize to Nathaniel later for bringing that up," Marinette said.

"Girl, I am pretty sure that he wouldn't mind," Alya says. "Nath is almost as forgiving as you. And that says something considering that you could forgive anyone for anything."

"Not anything," Marinette protested. "If anyone insults my parent's bakery, I'll open up a can of butt-kick of fighting techniques that my mother taught me."

The way that she said that so sweetly was enough to send shivers down most of their spines.

Marinette then looked down. She saw Tikki waving at her, having come out of her purse to silently aid her. The kwami phased into the lock on her and Luka's chain, taking a little bit before the lock opened with a quiet SNAP.

"Wow, how'd you do that," Luka asked her.

"Uhh, I, Uhm..." Marinette had to think fast. "With this."

She holds up a guitar pick.

"You're amazing," Luka praised her. "A real magician, Marinette."

"You think so," Marinette asks, going all nervous like how she does around Adrien. "Oh, it was nothing, uh, amazing, really?"

"Excuse me, but some of us are still chained up here you know," Alya says, rolling her eyes.

Before either of the freed teens could do anything, they heard Captain Hardrock walk downstairs and laughing.

"Marinette, she's coming," Nino warned them.

"We'll come back, I promise," Marinette says as she and Luka leave the room quickly.

The two ended up locking themselves in Luka's own bedroom. They had to work quickly as Captain Hardrock soon broke in.

"Run, Marinette quick," Luka yelled out the window.

"Seize him," Captain Hardrock some more chains to catch her son.

It all happened faster than Luka could blink. Chains shot through the open door in order to trap him again. But at the same time, a trio of arrows flew through the open window/porthole and froze all of the incoming chains.

Luka turned around and saw that White Wolf was hanging from an icy-looking rope outside the window.

"My outfit is bright white, how do people miss me," he joked.

"Uh..." Luka had no idea how to respond to that.

"Whatever," Wolf shrugged. "Move that fine-looking butt, handsome, you're getting off this Black Pearl wannabe."

Luka blushed, even if he hid it very well. He didn't have much time to really try and think of anything as his mother was currently breaking through the frozen chains on her way to capture him again.

Taking White Wolf's hand, he was just barely able to get through the porthole.

"Time to leave," Beautifly tells them, seen fighting more chains with the newly arrived Cat Noir.

Luka had to immediately tighten his grip around White Wolf's waist as the icy hero fired another ice rope arrow. The two swung away on the rope, landing on the shore of the seine.

"My sister and friends are still in there," Luka immediately tells him.

"I know," Wolf says. "We will try to get as many of them off of the boat as possible. But we might need to also rely on Ladybug's Miraculous Cure if we can not."

"I understand," Luka said.

"Stay safe, Mr.Couffaine," Wolf tells him, running back into the battle.

Luka couldn't help but get lost as he caught a glimpse of the hero's beautiful eyes.

"Flirt later, Wolf," Beautifly calls.

"Yeah, that's my job," Cat Noir jokes. "OW!"

Beautifly had hit him on the back of the head.

"Sorry, I'm late," Ladybug apologizes, swinging into the fray.

"All heroes are allowed to be late every once in a while," Beautifly stated, blocking a chain with her razor flower. "May I remind you of Cat Noir's late arrival to the fight with Riposte."

"He also told me you were quite late during an akuma attack by someone called the Evilistrator," Wolf said. "That name, by the way, is horrid."

Captain Hardrock, unfortunately, then made her reappearance on deck. She was already angry over her son escaping the Liberty and seeing the four heroes together did not help her mood. She raised her sword.

"Capture those pests, Liberty," she ordered.

The heroes started flipping, jumping, and flying in Beautifly's case to avoid the flying chains. White Wolf aimed another of his arrows at the chain, but Captain Hardrock was having it this time.

"Liberty, fire," she ordered her ship.

One of the cannons aimed at the icy teen. But instead of a cannonball coming out, the cannon fired a soundwave of rock music. It was almost like the soundwave effect that Black Canary causes with her canary cry. It washed over the Greek hero.

White Wolf covered his wolf ears on the top of his head, yelling in pain. The sound was loud and horrible, actually causing pain with his enhanced wolf hearing. When Captain Hardrock sent more of her chains his way, Ladybug quickly threw her yo-yo around his waist and pulled him away from them and the sound blast.

"Leave it to me to face an akuma with sound powers when I have enhanced hearing," he shook his head like he had swimmer's ear.

"Just be happy that you and Beautifly weren't here when we were fighting Guitar Villain," Ladybug said.

"There was seriously a villain with that as a name," Wolf raised an eyebrow. "Does Hawkmoth have no creativity at all?"

"That remains to be seen," Cat Noir comments. "His villain names range from weird, to good, to not very original at all."

"Jagged Stone ahead, Liberty fire," Captain Hardrock ordered.

The ship fired its sound cannons again, only this time entire speakers were shot out. The speakers landed and attached themselves all around Jagged Stone's music area at the Itfil Tower. The music was so loud that it caused cracks to spider all around where the speakers landed.

"Where's a pair of earplugs when you need them," Beautifly remarked.

"Are you the one with sensitive ears, I don't think so," Wolf commented. "My ears are still ringing from that earlier blast."

"What do you think her akumatized object is," Beautifly asked.

"It has to be something on the ship, otherwise she wouldn't be able to control it the way she does," Ladybug theorizes.

"I could Cataclysm the entire ship," Cat Noir offered, raising the hand that he uses to destroy things.

"No," Ladybug instantly shut that idea down.

"There are hostages on the ship, Cat," Wolf informs the hero. "If you sink the ship, they might drown."

"Myself and White Wolf only managed to get one of them off the ship before you two showed up," Beautifly says. "The rest of them are still trapped somewhere on there."

"I think he is Anarka Couffaine's son Luka," Wolf said. "He might know why was hit by the akuma. I'll ask him."

"Fire at XY," Captain Hardrock commanded, the Liberty shooting more of its speakers at the Justin Beiber wannabe.

"Well, do it fast," Ladybug told him, then swung away toward the ship.

"She knows that we're not her sidekicks and she doesn't have to order us around like that, right," Wolf crossed his arms.

"We can tell her off later, let's go, Cat," Beautifly ordered, flying toward the ship.

"We are around some seriously bossy ladies," Cat Noir commented, before using his staff to get to the ship himself.

"I am surrounded by weirdos," Wolf shook his head.

He took his bow in hand, notching another arrow. He aimed it to freeze one of the cannons closed when the akuma saw what he was doing.

"Fire," she ordered.

Another sound blast came right at him. He covered his wolf ears as the sound really hurt with his magical hearing. His bow and arrow fell to the ground. He could hardly tell when another person ran up and picked up his bow. Said person aimed it at the cannon, fighting the headache that the sound was causing. The arrow froze the shooting cannon, stopping the sound.

"I never liked rock music before, and I am most certainly not going to start now," Wolf says, getting up.

"Are you okay," asked the person that fired the arrow.

White Wolf looked and saw that it was Luka that had picked up his bow.

"I'm good now, Mr.Couffaine," Wolf says. "Thanks for the assistance."

"You can call me Luka, White Wolf," Luka tells him.

"Alright, then, Luka," nobody can say that superheroes aren't great actors. "It was very brave of you to use my bow. Very telling as well."

"Telling," Luka was confused.

"Most civilians would be afraid of turning to ice by touching one of my arrows," Wolf explains. "It shows that in maybe another life, you would have made an excellent fit for the wolf miraculous."

"Wow," Luka was still as cool as they come.

"Anyway, did you see what object the akuma landed on," Wolf asked the blue and black-haired boy. "Destroying it is the only way for Ladybug to de-evilize your mom."

"I didn't see exactly, but it is most likely her compass," Luka says. "She has always said that a compass is a sailor's most prized possession."

As someone that grew up near the water, White Wolf actually understood that. He wondered how much easier Odysseus would have gotten home if he had just used a map and compass instead of the stars and a lot of faith. As much as he believed in the gods, common sense is also a thing to believe in.

White Wolf noticed the ice on the cannon starting to crack. He quickly scooped Luka into his arms and ran away just in time as the ice shattered and the sound blast started up again. The two barely got away in time. The sound waves just missed them. White Wolf put Luka down a little way more away from the akumatized ship.

"Stay here, Luka," Wolf directed.

"I have to help," Luka tells the hero. "White Wolf, there has to be a way for me to help."

White Wolf looked at the blue-haired teen. He had shown great bravery when he picked up his bow. Not many people, let alone teenagers, would do such a thing. An image of a silver box flashed into his head, giving him an idea.

"Wait right here, Luka," Wolf instructed. "If any of the others ask, tell them that I went to get help. Beautifly will understand what I mean."

Luka nodded as White Wolf got out his bow again. Using an icy rope, the Greek hero swung away from the Seine. He had no idea what the wolf hero was up to.

The holder of the wolf miraculous landed in an alley on the other side of the street from a beautiful jungle-like flower/garden shop. He de-transformed and out of the alley walked Lyon Garden. The dubbed Ice Prince made his way to the flower shop, greeting his father on the way in. He quickly made his way up to his room, which from what his sister, Vallia, had told him was almost like Marinette's bedroom but made for him instead of her.

Lyon went over to the bookshelf he keeps in his room. He pulled back the one book on the shelf that did not have a title on the spine. In a bit of a cliche turn of events, the bookshelf slid tp the side to reveal a hidden compartment. From the compartment, he pulled out a secure but elegant silver box. It was in the shape of a large jewelry box with bright blue markings that looked like a cross between ice and vines. Silver roses also were dotted around the box.

Lyon opened the box lid, revealing several other pieces of jewelry inside of it. On a raised area of the box was a place for hour pieces of jewelry. The ones marked for the wolf and butterfly miraculous were empty. But there was a bluebird necklace in the space for the miraculous of the songbird and a stag brooch in the place for the stag miraculous. The other miraculouses at the top of the box were around the raised area. A deer head pendant for the deer miraculous, a black snake armband for the python miraculous, a black panther pendant for the panther miraculous, a brown bear cuff bracelet for the grizzly bear miraculous, a feather hair clip for the falcon miraculous, and a white bird hair comb for the dove miraculous.

"I know the perfect choice for this akuma," Lyon talks to himself.

He picked up a necklace before quickly sealing the box back in its hiding place and leaving.

Back at the battle with Captain Hardrock, the remaining trio was having a bit of trouble with fighting off the chains as well as trying to search for her akumatized object.

"I have never seen Pirates of the Caribbean, and this is not making me want to," Cat Noir comments, jumping out of the way of more chains.

"There is a reason why pirates have never been very recorded in Greek history," Beautifly says. "Because there weren't any."

"Seriously," Ladybug raised her eyebrow at that.

"I'm pretty sure," Beautifly shrugs. "I'm a butterfly hero, you really think I know much about pirates at all?"

"I agree with her, only replace butterfly with black cat for me," Cat Noir says. "Cats and water do not mix, in any form."

There was a reason why being surrounded by frost and ice weakened him so much when Lady Wifi locked him in that freezer. Cats and water have never mixed.

"Heads up," Beautifly warned, darting around in the sky to avoid the chains coming her way.

"Fire at Nightingale," Captain Hardrock commanded.

The Liberty shot out more speakers at the energetic pop star.

"Beautifly, where is White Wolf," Ladybug practically demanded.

"I don't know, but I do have a pretty good idea," Beautifly tells her.

"He just abandoned us in the middle of a fight," Ladybug snapped, using her yo-yo to fight off chains.

"Need I remind you that we are not your sidekicks," Beautifly snapped back, blocking chains with her razor flower. "We don't have to inform you of everything we do. I trust that White Wolf has a plan. I do not immediately go for such negative thoughts."

"If he has a plan, he should have told us," Ladybug did not back down. "Maybe he would have if he didn't stop with those ridiculous pop culture references every other sentence."

"Not all heroes have to be stern and serious to be good heroes, Bug," Beautifly did not take any crap if someone insults her brother. "Have you ever seen videos of the Flash? He never seems all that serious, but succeeds every time in his fights."

"I've seen news of his battles, and Beautifly does have a point," Cat Noir said.

But before the other female hero could try to find a comeback, one of the chains managed to hook itself to Cat Noir's left wrist.

"Oh crud," Beautifly swore.

Cat Noir was pulled up to the crow's nest and his hands were pulled to either side of him as he was chained down by his wrists.

"Cataclysm," Cat Noir shouted.

His right hand bubbled with black energy, signaling his power of destruction. With a twist of his hand, he was able to free himself from the chain holding him to the crow's nest.

"Great, because you had to act all high and mighty with trying to boss us all around, Cat Noir now only had five minutes," Beautifly snaps at the red and black hero.

"He should have been paying more attention to what was going on around him," Ladybug countered. "He was probably too busy trying to think up another joke or another lame pick-up line to focus on the fight."

"Or maybe you distracted him by treating us all like sidekicks," Beautifly did not back down.

"These two fight more than most would think me and White Wolf would," Cat Noir thinks. "The whole cats and dogs hate each other stereotype and all that."

That was when the icy hero finally made it back to the fight. He landed not too far from where Luka was trying to keep up with the ship.

"Are those two seriously at it again," he asked the teen in blue.

"It is quite ironic," Luka says. "But their music has no way to harmonize. It is too different and can barely even be in the same song."

"It's funny that you mention harmonizing," Wolf smirked.

"Pardon," Luka faced the hero.

White Wolf pulled out a small silver box from under his cloak. It was like a mini version of the Miracle Box in his room, only square-shaped.

"Luka Couffaine, this is the miraculous of the songbird, symbolized by the gift of heart," Wolf held the box out to him. "You will use it for good in this time of need. After the battle is finished, I shall return to retrieve it should you choose to accept it."

"I...I do," Luka was actually showing shock. "I accept the miraculous, White Wolf."

Luka opened the box, and a ball of light came out. It soon turned into a kwami, but this one was a cute bluebird one.

"Geia, young holder," the kwami greeted. "My name if Meloetta and I am your kwami."

"My kwami," Luka was confused.

"Kwami's are what give me and the other heroes our powers," Wolf explained. "They are also generally good friends and guides of sorts for us."

"Wow," Luka says.

He took the necklace out of the box, putting it around his neck. The color blended quite well into his natural style choice as well as the fact that he was a musician wearing a songbird around his neck. Part of him wanted to ask the wolf hero if that was part of why he had chosen this particular miraculous for him. But he shrugged it off as a coincidence.

"All you have to say is 'Meloetta, let's rock,' and you will transform," the kwami explained. "To de-transform, you say 'concert's over.' Your special power is activated by saying 'Harmonize."

Luka nodded at the kwami.

"You ready to be a hero," Wolf asked.

"I'd do anything for my friends and family," Luka says. "Meloetta, let's rock."

"At least my weapon isn't a children's toy," Beautifly shot at Ladybug.

"Yours is nothing more than an oversized daisy," Ladybug countered.

The two of them were back-to-back fighting off the chains while constantly trading insults back and forth. It also seemed that because of the two's constant fighting with each other, Captain Hardrock had basically forgotten about Cat Noir altogether. He was just watching from the crow's nest and also scanning the ship with his eyes to see where the akumatized object could be.

White Wolf soon landed next to him.

"And Ladybug calls the two of us annoying," he raised his eyebrow at the cat hero.

"I don't even pretend to know anything about girls," Cat Noir put his hands up in defeat.

"Good, because I know a few girls back home that would skin you alive if you tried to ever say that you were a girl expert," Wolf chuckled.

"Even with that little bit of information now permanently etched into my brain, I still would want to visit Greece someday," Cat Noir snickers.

"Not like we'd ever deny the help against the myth spirits," Wolf commented.

"So, was Beautifly right when she guessed that you were getting help," Cat Noir asked.

"When is she ever wrong," Wolf smirked.

Another flying hero then came out of nowhere, even if White Wolf did know where he came from. Moving so fast that he was basically a blur, he used his weapon to slice his way through all the chains until there were none left.

"What in the world," Ladybug was shocked.

"I should have known that Wolf was going to chose that miraculous," Beautifly grinned.

"What," Ladybug gasped.

The new hero finally stopped, and everyone was able to get a good look at him. He was in a silver jean vest with matching jeans. He was now also had a turquoise t-shirt with darker silver boots. On his hands were turquoise fingerless gloves. His hair was the same black with blue streaks. And to the shock of Ladybug and Cat Noir, he also had angel-like bird wings that were also silver. The bluebird necklace was still around his neck, matching the bird's eye-like mask over his eyes.

In his hand was an ax-like weapon that also resembled a hybrid of a guitar and a lyre.

"Hope I am not late to the party," the new hero comments.

"You're right on time," Wolf smirks.

"Who are you," Ladybug did not like another miraculous being out and about, as when she recruited Alya to be Rena Rouge was risky enough.

"You can call me... Silver Siren," the newly named hero smiled softly.

"Finally, another hero with wings," Beautifly giggles. "I was getting lonely up in the air all by myself."

"Happy to be of assistance to you, Beautifly," Silver Siren smiles at her.

"Guys, we may need to speed this up," Cat Noir shows his ring as it blinked to show he had three minutes left.

"Gottcha," Beautifly gives him a thumbs up.

"Luka said that the akuma is most likely in the compass," Wolf says.

"Once you freeze it, Beautifly and I can destroy it," Cat Noir said.

For once, Ladybug had to play catch-up as the other four heroes went back to battle Captian Hardrock. The akuma did not look happy that another hero had joined the fight.

"Another pest in the sky," she snarled. "Get them, Liberty."

Chains shot at the team from all angles.

"Nature's Heart," Beautifly called upon her power, throwing her flower up.

The gem on her razor flower released a blossom that came down with the weapon.

"Amaryllis," Wolf immediately figured out. "I always thought that was a beautiful flower."

"I know exactly what this flower does," Beautifly said.

Holding up the flower, it released a number of petal missiles. Each petal exploded on contact with the chains, destroying them. The move almost looked like a combo of the draco meteor and pin missile moves from Pokemon.

"My chains too easy for you," Captain Hardrock yelled. "Then I think it is time for you land-loving pests to face the music."

"Land-loving," Cat Noir raised an eyebrow. "She does know that two of us don't even touch the ground, right?"

"Akumas, big on destruction and not so much on logic," Beautifly says.

The ship rumbled as its sound cannons aimed at the five of them. White Wolf, in particular, did not want to have to hear that loud music again.

"Hit it, Silver Siren," he called out to the new hero.

"I'm on it," he responded. "Harmonize."

He strung his guitar ax, blue energy flowing from the strings to his throat. His eyes glowed as he started to open his mouth.

"Cover your ears," Wolf warned everyone.

Just as the heroes covered their ears, Silver Siren let out a loud scream as the akumatized ship sent out its own sonic blasts. Silver Sirens scream came out as powerful sonic waves similar to the Black Canary's canary cry. Only his seemed slightly more powerful and the sound waves were a bright blue color.

The two sound attacks met in the air, a loud BOOM resulting from the collision. It blew their hair and loose pieces of clothing back a little at the wind blast that also resulted from the collision.

White Wolf and Beautifly uncovered their ears as both sides died down their attacks. They had to move quickly.

"Winter's Touch," Wolf quickly called.

His hands started to pour out an icy mist with a slight blueish color to it. The wolf hero then jumped to where he was sure that the compass was on the ship.

"Stay away from my compass," Captain Hardrock yelled.

But with one touch, the piece of equipment was frozen into ice. With a quick jump back, he let Beautifly throw her razor flower at the compass. The weapon smashed right through the frozen compass as easily as it would be to shatter glass.

"Gotta love this thing," Beautifly smiles at her weapon.

A black butterfly soon flapped its way out of the rubble. That was when Ladybug stepped forward.

"No more evil-doing for you, little akuma," she said, opening her yo-yo. "Time to de-evilize."

She caught the corrupted insect.

"Bye, bye, little butterfly," Ladybug released the now white insect.

"That thing is definitely a moth," Beautifly comments.

Cat Noir snickered at the comment while White Wolf simply rolls his eyes playfully. Silver Siren smiled but Ladybug looked annoyed.

"She does seem like the perfect person to know a butterfly from a moth," Cat Noir joined in Beautifly's fun.

"You two give me headaches," Wolf said.

"You know you love us," Cat Noir winks in a flirty way.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Wolf waved him off, making him and Beautifly snicker. "You did great out there, Silver Siren."

"You think so," the new hero asks. "I was a bit worried about using my power against those cannons."

"If I didn't think you could help, I wouldn't have given you the miraculous," Wolf smiles at him.

All of the heroes but Ladybug all started to beep as their miraculouses flashed. Cat Noir had a minute left as his ring lost another piece of the paw. One of the wings on Beautifly's bracelet went black. A feather on Silver Siren's bird necklace went from blue to white. One of the wolf's teeth on White Wolf's medallion went black.

"You can handle the clean-up, Bug," Beautifly says. "We all have to go. Secret identities and all that jazz."

"No one likes smooth jazz, Fly," Wolf said, but then all of them separated.

#ml salt #marinette salt #original character #original heroes #original miraculous #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fandom

[jasmine-tea-latte]

Since nobody asked for my input, here’s a lovely PSA for antis in general, because some of y’all need a reminder / a reality check.

(Excluding the folks who properly tag stuff as anti-__, of course, because that’s the whole point of that tag.)

Also, please note that I’m not saying don’t engage in debates ever or feel like you should be silent about subjects that matter to you. Create dialogue! Learn from other people! By all means, share your POV! Discuss the numerous other things you’re passionate about. Speak your mind.

Also, this is not in reference to critical thinking posts regarding fandom content or metas. This is about being an ass on a post that harms absolutely no one.

This post is strictly about how we consume media for entertainment (I.e. ship preferences) and how, if you’re constantly seeing posts pop up for something you hate yet you keep diving into the tags of said thing and feel compelled to comment on it, especially if it’s that stupid “No❤️” shit - congratulations, you’re playing yourself, and I’m about to show you why.

Also, the point of this post is not to be holier than thou or overtly preachy. I posted plenty of obnoxious stuff on fandom forums back in the day, so learn from my mistakes, okay?

Here’s something you need to understand right here, right now:

You are responsible for cultivating your own internet experience.

Don’t like seeing tons of posts about a show / ship / topic you dislike or have no interest in?

Don’t interact with it.

Just keep scrolling along.

I’m serious.

Let it go.

Devote your time and energy on things you do enjoy and let the fans of whatever it is that you hate enjoy that thing in peace.

Take for instance pecan pie. I hate pecan pie with a passion. Guess what I’m not going to do, though? Go over to a forum or group of people who like it and start screaming about how gross it is and how anyone who likes pecan pie is a terrible, horrible person.

Because why waste my time deliberately going somewhere that I don’t have to be and know I won’t like, picking fights and being an asshole in general?

But if it’s posted in a public forum it’s up for debate, I hear you complain.

Yeah, so?

What do you honestly think you’re going to accomplish by raining on someone else’s parade?

Seriously, I’m asking you, what do you really think is going to happen if you waltz up and start yelling at fans of something about how they’re stupid or awful for liking XYZ?

What’s it going to cost you to keep scrolling and find something that sparks joy instead of rage?

Answer:

If you’re lucky (that is, if you present a well-thought out and cohesive argument) then you might convince some people over to your side.

But realistically in the best case scenario, you’d have a civil debate where absolutely no one changes their mind.

If that’s what your goal was, congrats! You successfully shared your opinion without making yourself look like an asshole who has nothing better to do with their time than pick unnecessary fights and looking to stir shit up just because you’re bored.

But if you go up to a table of people chowing down on pecan pie and tell them that they’re stupid for liking it when cherry / chocolate / whatever pie flavor that floats your boat exists, guess what’s gonna happen?

You will get eyerolls and be considered a douche, but no one will give an actual fvck what you have to say.

I straight up insulted a group of fans for liking something I hated and I did so by going out of my way over to their corner of the fandom. AITA?

Yes, YTA (you’re the asshole) in this scenario.

There’s a post floating around out there explaining how you wouldn’t walk into an Italian restaurant and yell about how you don’t like the food and that you’d rather eat at the Chinese restaurant across the street.

Who in their right mind would do that? Nobody, that’s who, and that’s what you look like deliberately poking around a fandom you hate to cause discord.

Also pro tip: you’re ultimately shooting yourself in the foot when you do obnoxious things like that.

The more you interact with a certain topic or spend time posting about it online, the more you’ll see of it, because that’s how the algorithms work.

It doesn’t matter if you post “I love pecan pie!” or “pecan pie is the worst!”

All that algorithm picks up on is the keyword “pecan pie” so if you hate it? Guess what, you just served yourself another slice of crap and you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.

A few years ago some people on Facebook got sick and tired of seeing Buzzfeed constantly post about KUWTK. Which I get, because idgaf about them, tbh - don’t hate them but don’t care, either. But someone decided to fill the comment sections of those posts with pet pictures as a protest of sorts to prove that literally anything else was more entertaining. Yeah that’ll show them!

Except that it didn’t matter that all of their comments were irrelevant. The algorithm just saw a bunch of traffic on the KUWTK posts, which in turn caused Buzzfeed to post about them even more. It turned into a cycle of self destruction by the commenters, because the more they posted pet pics, the more traffic they gave to the very posts they wanted to destroy.

Hence why I preached earlier about how I keep scrolling whenever I see a post for a ship or movie / show / other media for something I dislike. Because guess what happens? It goes away and I only see posts for things I dislike on rare occasions.

Also, the block / hide option is sitting right there, folks.

I just don’t understand the mindset of someone who spends all their time online complaining about a ship / show / media and actively seeks it out to further spread their discontent, then is Suprised Pikachu when the topic keeps showing up in their recommended lists.

Look, I’m ultimately here to have fun and interact with other fans of media that I enjoy. I’m not here to tell you what to do or how you should use your time. If going out of your way to antagonize fans of the thing you despise fills you with warm and fuzzies then don’t let me stop you if that’s how you actually choose to live your life. Some people just want to watch the world burn, so you do you, boo.

But the fact of the matter is that you can waste your time whining about how gross pecan pie is or you can choose to spend your time by promoting the kind of pie you do like, cultivating a much more pleasant experience for yourself, not to mention peace of mind.

You don’t win the pie war by hijacking posts and acting like a tool. You win it by creating content of your favorite pie until it outnumbers the kind you dislike.

Plus, if you put out more posts praising and promoting things you do like, it’ll help the algorithm suggest more content that you actually would enjoy.

Yeah but it’s my right to do that! I hear you argue just for the sake of being argumentative or because you genuinely enjoy the attention that it gets you. So I have to ask,

Why are you making yourself mad when you could make yourself glad instead?

Basically what I’m saying is that when it comes to spewing contrarion opinions in a forum for the sake of causing drama:

The world is a shitty enough place at times already, and fandom is meant to be fun.

Stop seeking out things you hate and then bitch about seeing them. Love yourself and take care of your mental health.

Don’t be that asshole.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

And now, I’m off to go find some delicious key lime pie and be thankful that it’s not pecan.

#I was in some kind of mood y’all #but seriously #don’t be an asshole #my stuff #not atla

[starrysupercell]

A quick one shot I whipped up over the course of yesterday evening to now. Give it up for our holiday-loving Pirate girl!

~💰~Penny For Your Pranks ~🃏~

It was very early in the morning, or super late at night, depending on how you want to describe it. The sun was nowhere near to coming out yet, and everyone was soundly sleeping.

For one girl, it was the perfect time to get up- for her plan that is. What plan was that, you ask? Well, it was the funniest day of the year, April Fools', and it would be such a waste to let it pass without topping last year!

No section would be left untouched by Penny today! She had targets everywhere.

To get started, she had to get from her room to the deck first. That meant sneaking past Darryl's room, then dropping down to the small rowboat attached before he noticed. Then, if things went well, she'd be out of reach thanks to her top secret plotted out map.

Penny opened the door slowly, carefully. She peered out and looked down the dark looming hallway. First right, then left.

She stepped out, opening the door further to take her brown bag stuffed full of tricks and tools she needed. Her trusty cannon was strapped to her back. For now, she also held her boots at hand to minimize any noises she made for the trek.

Penny tiptoed down the hall, stepping on the wooden boards that creaked the least. It took several long minutes, but it was well worth it when she made it to the surface without a problem.

The girl walked to the side of the ship. It was chilly, but nothing she wasn't used to. She placed the bag on the small boat one end, and began to climb over the side of the ship. She stood on it now with a triumphant grin and began to shift the ropes necessary to bring it down.

Penny looked forward and froze.

There, at the center of the deck stood a bot. Not the one she was on the lookout for, but one who could still make it or break her scheme. He bounced in place idly, a grin on his face. "Klafshgijnknalu?" Tick asked.

Penny held a finger to her lips and whispered. "Shhh...! Tick- Look. It's April Fools'! You can't expect me to hold still today."

"Spiwygdt? Ydeimwiwhbpa. Lwbikdya!" Tick frowned.

"I had to keep this under wraps, buddy!" Penny told him. "I would have told you, but this a big top secret project, I promise! Next time, I'll bring you along, but I need you to just keep it on the downlow, can you do that for me?" She reasoned with him.

"...Skjshfkulinbanieu," Tick said. "Lempikenlochopak."

"A month?" Penny rolled her eyes. "Fine! But I'm not gonna cover your tab anytime soon pal!" She stuck her tongue out.

"Sjsjkfjkti." Tick grinned and hopped away.

Even with the drawback of extra chores for a month (overpriced favor!), Penny smiled again. She looked out the water. That little exchange may have set her back some minutes, but she could still make due time. She lowered the boat carefully into the water. The rope went up, and she floated atop the water.

She shoved her boots on. She took off her beanie. The finishing touch to her ensemble was a Jester's Hat. Just for the occasion.

Penny began to row to the mainland of the Park.

°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°

The first place hit was the Junkyard. When they opened that day, everything seemed okay.

Pam had left some projects on the worktable the night before, so after breakfast she opened her toolbox and grabbed a hammer. Wait. It felt... light. She was strong for sure, but hammers usually had some weight to it.

With a strange look and unadulterated confusion, Pam hit the tool against the table. Squeak! "What in the..?"

Pam looked at her box, her tools. She grabbed and lifted it. Light as a feather. She turned the box upside down to dump out the contents of fake tools, but dozens of nuts and bolts fell out as well with a loud clatter. "Ugh!" Pam exclaimed.

Wait another pickin' minute. Today was a certain day, wasn't it? That day.

Jessie poked her head in through the door. "Are you okay, Mom?"

"It wasn't you who did this, was it Jessie?" Pam asked. For her sake, it better not have been.

"Um, no?" She said, walking in. She poked at one of the tools with her foot and giggled at its squeak. She stopped when she realized her mom was only frowning.

Pam believed her. She raised her so Jessie would know better than to lie. "Nani!" She called, annoyed as she kicked at the inflatable tools. "Come here!"

The robot entered with a smile. "Yes? What is it?" She asked.

"Go through Peep's archives. See if he filmed the troublemaker responsible for this prank."

"Okay." She responded dearly, sending a signal to her analog. The hovering bot zipped in, circling the room once before landing in Nani's hands.

Near instantly, fast moving scenes of the night before began flashing on Nani's screen. Dinnertime, preparing for bed, scouting the halls.

At one point, there seemed to be a flash of a silhouette with dark shades of purple and green present, but Peep's screen was suddenly shot with something that obscured his vision. He started the self cleaning process, but by the time it was done and he was ready to record again, whoever it was vanished. Everything seemed unchanged, so Peep went on his way.

"Crafty little.. bugger." Pam said, minding her language in front of her daughter. She sighed.

"Sorry," Nani said, her eye returning onscreen.

"Ehh, it ain't your fault. I'm more ticked at whoever's done this." Pam assured her. "I guess I'll continue later- well I'm expecting whoever it was to return or something. I'll raise hell if I don't get my tools back."

Jessie stayed quiet, the scene made her vaguely recall something that morning...

The more she thought about it, the more she could swear she recalled being woken up briefly by a bit of clattering outside. She sat up sleepily and looked out her window, where she saw a figure stumbled over a pile of junk outside.

She looked around and hastily ducked out of sight somewhere out of view, not noticing Jessie at all, it seemed.

Whoever it was, had short pink hair.

After that single observation, Jessie fell back tiredly and slept soundly once more.

'Penny?' Jessie wondered now. 'It makes sense too.. she loves every holiday.' The young redhead smiled to herself, a plan of her own beginning to form.

°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°

Tara meditated, facing the sun and feeling the warm glow graze her face. This was how she greeted every day. Reflection was essential. Taking time to be at peace with one's self, and the world around them was a daily task for her.

She inhaled, and kept her breath.

Somewhere inside, Sandy was drowsily walking along. He mumbled sleepily at Gene's garbled good morning.... and stepped on the rug placed in the living room. As soon as he placed weight on his foot, the bubble wrap underneath popped and he jolted, startled.

Sandy hopped forward to escape the noise, but only managed to set off more of the wrap. This went on for another couple of dance-like steps before an eye slipped open and he looked down at the carpet. "..."

He sidestepped and continued on his way to the bathroom, pretending nothing happened even as Gene laughed. He was fully awake now (as awake as Sandy could be that is.)

Tara exhaled evenly, but her eye was closed in a smile.

Yes, she did know. Nothing could escape her- not even a mischievous little jester... but that didn't mean she was obligated to warn everyone else here.

She laughed quietly in her mystic chorus of voices as she thought about the other little noisy traps set throughout the house.

'Like those cheap party poppers attatched to nearly every door,' Tara mused, hearing the tell-tale sound of the first one going off.

°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°

It was always a dilemma, practically ritual by now.

He took off the hat, and considered how he looked. He put it on, striking a different pose in front of the mirror. Then off again, and he worked on his hair with a hum.

Chittering from his Bats right outside his door made Mortis glance over. "What is it, my pretties?" He called, then mumbled absent mindedly as he continued to preen. "I'm trying to look pretty."

They started to scratch at the door. Mortis sighed, placed the top hat on his head, gave a "hmm," and tossed it to his bed to go and open the door.

His cloud of Bats flew in overhead, and Mortis ducked partway. "What? What is-?" He looked up at them, and his mouth opened slightly in a shocked, confused expression.

"Why are you all... festive?!" Tiny, colorful party hats and bow ties adorned a good number of the colony- Who... and how...when...?

He made it out of his room and darted to the dining room but Frank and Emz weren't there. He looked out the window, and was even more distressed.

The outside looked like....!

Mortis ran outside, his cape trailing behind him. He kicked the front door open, where there they were- His niece and Frank.

The scenery was bright and colorful- looking like someone's birthday party. Balloons littered the place, and there were streamers all along the house.

Frank was looking around, scratching his head.

Emz was flashing pictures. "You know, I'd thought this place needed a splash of color. And look at that, I was right!"

"This is a graveyard!" Mortis exclaimed. "It's supposed to be dreary!"

"Yea, I guess." Emz rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying, geez." She fixed her hair, and turned so the balloons would show up in her background.

Frank had walked to the side upon noticing a shining sheen of paint high above on the house. He grunted at the two to call them over.

It was a sparkly portrait of a unicorn gracefully mid-run. Pastel spray paint which likely had glitter in the mix. (It was washable, but the Spooky Triad didn't know this yet.)

"Who even had the time for all of this??" Mortis asked, hands in his hair and truly bewildered. "My Bats, the balloons, THIS!"

"Do your Bats look this cute too?" Emz asked, taking a whole new photoshoot with this backdrop too.

"Yes, the most precious things you'll see in your life, ever! But that's not the point here!" Mortis said in distress.

Frank laughed. He knew one thing. He wasn't going to help clean this up.

°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°

A tropical setting at the Snowtel, complete with coconut halves instead of paper snowcones for Lou.

'Please Use Other Door' signs were posted on every door in the Gift Shop... inside and out.

Sticky notes scrawled with 'out of order' was on everything in Bea and Rosa's Lab. Yes, everything. The computer, plants, Sprout, the desk, every single pen and pencil...

Bull's Diner... was now Bull-erina's. Instead of the cool and retro vibe the Gang was proud of, you guessed it. It was now a ballet dance studio-themed diner.

And so on and so forth with pranks along these veins at each of the sections. It was mayhem in Starr Park. The wild lass actually did it.

°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°

Penny yawned as she rowed back to Darryl's ship. Her bag was empty. Everyone would be discussing this until next April. And nobody caught her! All in a night's/morning's work.

The prankster climbed over the railing of the ship. She felt great.

One thing left, she tilted her near empty bag and scattered countless marbles on the floor.

And then, she headed back to her room to snooze for as long as possible.

It was a long night, so took her hat off, changed into some comfy PJs, and threw herself back onto her bed. She closed her eyes with a smile before hearing a faint beeping.

Penny opened her eyes in time to see a hatch on her ceiling open and a pie fall out.

The attack was direct on its target. Her face. Cherry Bomb...

The girl sat up, wiping off the fruits and crust as best she could to at least be able to see. Ugh..! Was this Tick? That little rat! She trusted him!

Penny stood and headed to her bathroom. She may as well take a shower. She's been up all night and then this. Afterward, she could sleep.

As she showered, the cherry smell never went away. She'll just deal with it later, she supposed. However, as she was drying off, she finally realized it. Her skin wasn't clean- she was sticky.

°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°•○●○•°

"...And as I was walking here, I saw a whole bunch of other places she hit already. So you'll be hearing from them if anyone pinpoints the pranks to her like I did." Jessie explained, popping a cherry Jolly Rancher in her mouth as she talked to Darryl at their table. "Thanks again for letting me put that motion sensor above her bed."

The Captain nodded. "If she dishes out pranks, she should expect them too."

They then began to chat about other things, how work was, the weather, and more.

Tick listened in and snickered at the turnout for the day. He went to the deck and slipped on some marbles. "Ogjwbrqltbbsheka!" He cried out.

#Penny #Brawl Stars #Writings #Pirate Trio #Jessie #Oneshot #Others #slight Jessie/Penny if you squint #I can go either way on them tbh #April Fools' #Holiday

[7-wonders]

Service With a Scribble

Summary: Duncan’s a dick to a cashier, and (Y/N) decides to get back at him with a healthy dose of kindness.

Word Count: 4063

A/N: This got way longer than I thought it would, so I made it a full-length imagine. Enjoy!

Based on this ask from Anonymous: 

For the coffee shop AU: Duncan is a sourpuss in the mornings, the barista notices how he treats the cashier so they end up drawing cutesy things on his cup to “brighten” up his day (but also to tease him a bit). Duncan is about to complain but the drink was the best he’d ever had so he lets it slide and holds the drink in a way to hide the drawing. This continues for weeks, the drawings getting more elaborate until one day they stop and the drink is subpar. 1/3

Duncan asks about the usual barista and finds out they’re just out for the day. The next day there is no drawing but the drink is excellent. This continues for a few days and Duncan gets concerned, he’s formed a weird bond with this barista and sort of loves the weird stranger-ship they had. He asks to meet the barista and is immediately infatuated with them, but the barista seems subdued. 2/3

Then I would imagine Duncan doing everything in his power to brighten the barista’s mornings, and then of course they fall in love and happily ever after lmao. Sorry this is quite long, but I love coffee shop AUs

He’s not a morning person, at all. 

Duncan supposes that most people don’t enjoy mornings, but that fact doesn’t really matter when it’s his morning that’s less-than-enjoyable. His routine is always the same: wake up, stumble to the bathroom and attempt to get ready without falling asleep again, and drink ungodly amounts of coffee until he starts to feel almost human again. The coffee at his office is subpar, which is the norm in all offices across the DC area (and in all offices around the world, but again--his problems only apply to him, at least in his mind). Since Duncan is incapable of making his own coffee without burning it, he has to wake up even earlier in order to get coffee at his favorite coffee shop on the way to work.

This particular morning is especially rough for the mogul, who drank one too many whiskeys at a charity event for the Shepherd Freedom Foundation last night. The expensive alcohol created a hangover that he hadn’t experienced since college, and Duncan prays that this isn’t related to the gray hairs he found speckling his facial hair last weekend. He refuses to take his sunglasses off as he walks in the undercast Metro weather, only folding them up into his coat pocket when the soft lighting of the coffee shop makes it bearable to not squint. The mere smell of roasting coffee beans acts like a drug for him, giving him the strength to make it to the front of the line. The indie music filtering softly through the speakers, the ambiance, the local artwork: none of it matters in this moment.

The cashier is new, or at least new to this shift. Duncan’s never seen this short man with bright blue hair before, and he’s not pleased that his order will not be automatically known as it is to the rotating door of familiar cashiers he’s seen before. The employee stutters his greeting, looking down at the register as he asks Duncan for his order. Sighing tempestuously, Duncan forces his eyes to not roll as he places his order. 

“Large Americano, three shots.” Duncan doesn’t have time for flowery language and polite small talk, curtly speaking and already passing a crisp five to the cashier: he’s had the price of his order memorized for months, now.

“$1.45 is your change--oh no!” The cashier gasps, hands scrambling to pick up the change that he’s dropped on the counter. Duncan glares at him, nearly yanking his money back into his waiting hand. 

“Thanks,” Duncan spits sarcastically, “your complete and utter lack of a brain has made my day so much better.” He knows he’s being unnecessarily rude to this person who already goes through enough shit while working in the service industry, but the anger floods through him quicker than he can count to ten. 

The barista, who is also working her first morning shift after two months of being the afternoon barista, rolls her eyes at this stuck-up guy who thinks he has the right to talk to Zack like that after a simple mistake. That’s one of the things (Y/N) hates the most about this city: all of the rich white men who believe they’re so much better than everybody else solely due to their last names. An Americano is not difficult to make, so she busies herself with a different pursuit as the espresso steams. Uncapping the permanent marker with her teeth, (Y/N) decides that this man could use a little laugh to cheer up his day.

“Large Americano, three shots!” (Y/N) calls, setting down the coffee on the front of the counter. She’s a little disappointed that she can’t wait to see this customer’s reaction, but she’ll be in deep shit if she doesn’t get this order into the suppliers before 10, so (Y/N) disappears into the stockroom.

Duncan picks up his drink, ignoring the scalding of his taste buds as he takes a long drink of his long-awaited drink. His eyes widen, but not due to the sudden lack of feeling in his mouth. This, Duncan reluctantly admits to himself, is the best damn Americano he’s had in a long time. Examining the cup, his expression quickly morphs into one of confusion and burgeoning anger. His order’s written on the paper cup, but there’s also something else: a drawing. 

It’s easy to tell that this was quickly done, a doodle with some thought behind it. There’s a little stick figure that Duncan assumes is meant to be him, an angry expression and what looks like a couple of dollars in his balled-up stick fist evidence enough for him. There’s a sun above the drawing of him, peeking out through the rain clouds that hang directly over the drawing’s head. A little note accompanies this Picasso’s masterpiece, the nice handwriting reminding him to “cheer up, it’s Thursday!” 

Duncan grits his teeth, having half a mind to complain until he gets whatever barista fired, but another drink stops that thought. Although he’s never had a bad coffee here, this particular drink, by whichever particular barista decided to try and be funny, surpasses any expectations he previously had. Plus, the longer he looks at the cup, the more he has to fight the smile that threatens to fight its way onto his face. However much it hurts him, Duncan...supposes he could let the issue slide. For now, at least. 

He can’t find whoever made his coffee, the only employee around being the cashier who is still warily watching Duncan out of the corner of his eye. Oh well; if they work here, they’ll be bound to make Duncan’s coffee again. On his way out, he pauses right before he opens the door. 

“Sorry...about earlier.” He cringes at how the apology comes out, but the cashier nods slowly.

“Have a nice day.” When the door closes behind Duncan, the cashier scoffs and angrily scrubs the countertop. “Dick.”

//

Duncan’s visits to the little coffee shop three blocks away from Gardner Analytics only increase in frequency, the brunette sometimes finding himself there multiple times a day. He knew almost everything about this barista that had managed to captivate him from the first day that little cartoon had showed up on his coffee cup. Their shift, however long it was, always ended by 11; his coffee was just fine if he showed up in the afternoon. They were quick-witted, managing to create more and more elaborate drawings with each day that passed (Last week, Duncan had actually laughed when he turned the cup around to see that the logo had been turned into Batman--a topic the customer before him had been enthusiastically speaking to the cashier about). 

Sometimes the drawings were funny, little jokes that only Duncan and his mysterious barista would know. Other times, they were quite beautiful. Miniature cityscapes of a dreary Washington, made vibrant by the multiple colored markers used to draw the scene. A silhouette of a bridge, a lone person standing on top of it while a little boat floats beneath. That had been a particular favorite of Duncan’s, the only pop of color coming from the red balloon the person on the bridge was holding. He had taken up the habit of saving these cups, carefully washing them out and displaying them in an empty cupboard in his empty apartment that greeted him with nothing but silence every night (fuck, he really is lonely).

The one thing that Duncan still does not know, however, is who this barista even is. Everyday he receives the best coffee he’s ever had along with a personalized cup, and everyday he can never manage to catch who it is that’s drawing on his cup. He starts to think that all cups have drawings on them, which would make sense if it weren’t for the few times his name had been included in the design. Maybe his barista designs them when they’re sitting in the back?

(He’s right, but he doesn’t know that it’s become as much a part of her morning routine as counting the tills and turning on the ‘open’ sign. She has a stash of Sharpies now, all in a variety of colors that remain tucked in her bag until she has the chance to use them on her favorite customer’s cups. She’s not sure why she’s become so invested in providing a smile to this man’s day; maybe it’s to spite him, or maybe it’s because, for that moment when his eyes light up and his gaze searches for the artist he’ll never find, the one who watches sneakily from the back as he attempts to finally catch her in the act, she feels her heart flutter in a way that it never has before.

He doesn’t know, and he won’t know, she constantly tells herself. He’ll stop coming one day, or get sick of the drawings and finally complain like he should have on that first day. It will stop, and so will the way her breath catches in her throat when the door jingles open and his bright blue eyes are revealed from behind his reading glasses--a new addition to his wardrobe, although she would never admit to knowing enough about him to have realized that he suddenly started wearing glasses.)

//

The sixth time this routine, this dance of Duncan looking for (Y/N) after (Y/N) presents his large Americano in a newly designed cup, has happened is when her coworkers start to tease her about it.

“He totally likes you, y’know?” Marina, a pastry chef who likes to work early mornings, asks. Her large brown eyes stare (Y/N) down as she becomes flustered, shaking her head and focusing intently on scrubbing the coffee grounds out of the bottom of the industrial sink. 

Duncan had left maybe ten minutes ago, his search once again proving fruitless after she quickly made his coffee and then just had to go wash the dishes. It’s become a game for her coworkers, all of them giggling as they slyly watch to see if Duncan will ever catch her or, the more likely case, if (Y/N) will allow herself to be caught.

“Please, he’s just a customer. He doesn’t even know who I am,” (Y/N) says, shrugging off the possibility.

“Uh, are you blind?” Jeremy, another barista, chimes in. “He looks for you every single day, sometimes twice a day. He always comes in at the exact same time, and always looks at your drawing before trying to see who made his coffee which he never will, since we make the coffee behind the order window.”

“Plus, if he was ‘just a customer’ then you wouldn’t draw on his cups like you do,” Marina says.

“Did you two plan this out?” (Y/N) asks, throwing the rag in the towel bin and putting her hands on her hips.

“It’s only a matter of time before one of you gives in, and my bet’s on you.”

“My bet’s on Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome,” Jeremy says, placing a tea on the window and calling out the order.

“Yeah, well prepare to be waiting for a long time.” Grabbing two trash bags that need to be taken to the dumpster, (Y/N) sticks her tongue out at her snickering coworkers before opening the back door with her hip and disappearing into the mid-morning sun.

//

Every logical part of Duncan’s being screams at him to stop this odd infatuation with the person who makes his coffee and takes enough care to go out of their way and personalize a cup for him, but he just can’t. Nobody’s ever cared that much, which is a conversation for the therapist that he’ll never go to see. In a way, he feels like he knows this barista, like they understand him. It’s stupid, and Duncan’s sure the drawings are just a way for the bored employee to pass the time until they can leave, but all logic leaves him whenever his thoughts land on this person with no face. He can’t stop how his heart speeds up when he enters the coffee shop, hoping that today will be the day where the mystery finally unravels.

It’s Thursday, exactly a month after the first time Duncan found that little stick figure version of him on the back of his Americano. The date, this little ‘anniversary’ that Duncan wasn’t aware he had been anticipating, is not lost on him as he enters the familiarity of the coffee shop he’s come to know so well. After his less-than-stellar first impression last month, he had quickly come to know the cashiers extremely well. Still, none of them would divulge the name of his favorite barista, claiming that it wasn’t their place to do so. 

He’s going to do it, he’s decided. Today will be the day that he finally asks to meet his barista (his barista, a misnomer he’s had to use whenever he thinks of the artist whose name it seems like he’ll never learn. It’s probably uncouth of him to be claiming this person who he’s never met, but he can’t help it.) Placing his order, Duncan stands next to the counter and tries to hide how impatiently he’s waiting for his coffee.

The first thing he notices is that there’s no drawing on his cup. He frowns slightly at this sudden deviation from the routine that’s been cultivated, but assumes the shop must just have been busy all morning. His barista, he surmises, likely just didn’t have the time to work on a drawing. 

Duncan hadn’t realized how refined his taste had become to the large Americano that had been made for him daily by only one person, almost recoiling when he takes a sip of his drink. It’s not as if it’s bad, but it’s not the same as how he’s had it everyday for a month. Like it was before he got that first cartoon, his coffee is just fine.

Walking back up to the cashier, Duncan hardly waits for him to look up before he’s speaking. “The barista, the one who normally works this shift?” Duncan tries, and fails, to sound like he’s not that interested in the question that he’s asking, and it goes understood in the unsaid second part of his question. The cashier looks conflicted, like he’s not sure which information would be okay to share.

“She had to take the day off today, some sort of family issue.” Duncan’s chest warms at this small gift he’s been given, knowing now that he’s her (whoever she may be) customer.

“Oh...” Duncan trails off, not quite sure what to say.

“She should be back tomorrow? I’m not sure though,” the cashier offers helpfully. 

“Thanks.” Duncan leaves reluctantly, only reassured by the renewed vigor to seek his barista out tomorrow.

The next day, Duncan’s on high alert for any sign of the woman he’s come to care deeply for. He’s not sure what he’s looking for; a ponytail, or a soft figure that’s utterly feminine? He doesn’t know what she looks like, but he’s sure that he’ll know who he’s looking for when he sees her.

For the second day in a row, there’s no design on Duncan’s coffee cup. He’s disappointed, sure that she must have had to extend her unexpected absence until he tastes his Americano and realizes that it’s his barista’s Americano. His heart starts to pound, and he tries to look as if he’s not going to jump out of his skin. 

“Hi,” Duncan greets stiffly, the cashier hiding his smirk behind a cough. “Is...the barista that normally works, is she here?”

The cashier, who had his money in the work pool on Duncan cracking first, nods. “Yeah, I’ll go get her.”

Any coherent thought that Duncan may have had goes flying out the window when the door is pushed open and he finally comes face to face with his barista. He’s not sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. Her big eyes light up when she sees Duncan, lips curling into a smile, as she runs a hand through her hair nervously. Her smile is already Duncan’s favorite part of her. It’s the kind of smile that allows her radiant personality to shine through, warming anybody who’s lucky enough to be in its path. 

“Hi,” Duncan says, the only word he can force out that isn’t stuttered mumbling.

“Hi,” she repeats. “Did you finally get sick of my little scribbles?”

“Yes--no, I meant no!” he assures. “I’ve actually really enjoyed your drawings, and they’ve become my favorite part of my day. You also happen to make the best coffee I’ve ever had, which is definitely a plus. But then you weren’t here yesterday, and it sort of threw me for a loop.” Her smile falters slightly, just long enough for Duncan to see the sadness that lingers in her eyes.

“I had...uh, a family emergency yesterday.” Her grandpa had fallen down a set of stairs at his home and broke two ribs that nearly punctured his lungs. At the hospital, he had also taken the opportunity to allow his doctor to explain the secret he had been desperately trying to hide from his family: Alzheimer’s Disease.

The disease had been caught early, during a routine checkup when his regular doctor had asked him how the newest great grandchild (barely a month old) was doing and he couldn’t remember the baby’s name. A few tests later, and the devastating diagnosis had been handed down. (Y/N)’s grandfather, ever the strong patriarch, hadn’t wanted to share this with his family until it started to become worse. That plan, however, flew out the window when he lost his footing at the top of his staircase.

“I can’t believe you actually liked those stupid drawings,” she continues. “I just started it to get back at you for being a jerk to Zack, and then I saw how happy you got when there was another drawing the next day. It just kind of snowballed from there.”

“I don’t think they’re stupid!” Duncan interjects. He’s prepared to launch a crusade, letting her know just how talented she is and how he doesn’t know what he’d do if she were to stop, ending it with the carefully-placed question of when her next day off is so that he can get to know her properly, when a voice from the back yells for her. Duncan’s stunned at suddenly learning her name; it fits her, and it’s a lot better than calling her ‘his barista.’ She looks over her shoulder, wrinkling her nose when she sees the delivery truck with the weekly stock fulfillment. 

“Looks like that’s my cue.”

Before she goes to turn around, Duncan finally remembers how to speak once again. “(Y/N)?” She stops, looking at him. “That’s your name, right?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Duncan smiles genuinely, not one of the forced smiles he slaps on whenever he’s meeting with a client or donor. “I’m Duncan. It was wonderful to finally meet you today, (Y/N).” He can’t stop saying her name, the syllables rolling off his tongue smoothly and leaving behind a taste better than the finest coffee in the world.

“It was nice to meet you too, Duncan.” His heart nearly flips when she says his name, giving him a small wave before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Duncan remains frozen in his tracks, still staring at the spot she once occupied, as if blinking will wash away her existence like a shimmering mirage. His mind does loops, replaying the brief conversation in his head over and over again until her voice is all he can hear. Duncan can’t get her eyes out of his head, that brief flicker of sadness a problem that he needs to solve. He can’t watch this person, who’s given him so much happiness, feel anything less than happy. Strolling up to the counter, Duncan smirks at the wide-eyed cashier.

“Tell me,” he says smoothly, “what does (Y/N) like?”

//

(Y/N)’s stuck making drinks the next morning, the shop being too short-staffed for her to work on any of the other tasks she needs to complete. It’s a pretty steady shift so far, the cooler weather drawing more people to come in and get some warmth before braving the rest of their commute to work. She just wants to get through this shift, her mind on the problems she has to deal with while her muscle memory goes through the motions of creating the drinks she could now make in her sleep. She doesn’t even hear when Jeremy calls her name the first time, only hearing him when he gently bumps her shoulder. (Y/N) looks up at him with wide eyes, silently wondering if she’s messed something up.

“Shit, Jer, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to zone out,” she stammers out an apology.

“I wasn’t trying to get your attention because you’re in trouble or anything. Honestly, you can still make drinks better than I can even when your mind is a million miles away.”

“Okay, so what’s up?” Jeremy has a tendency of forgetting what he was talking about if he gets going on a different subject, and this seems to be the case. 

“Oh! Your Prince Charming is back, and he’s asking for you again.” She looks at the drink she’s just finished making, seeing that it is indeed a large Americano with three shots. There’s no design on the cup; not because she’s decided to stop, but because she just hasn’t had the time or the energy.

“Should--should I take this out to him?” Jeremy looks at her with wide eyes, nodding slowly like it’s the most obvious answer in the world. 

“Yes! Go, or else I’ll swoop in and steal your man,” he threatens jokingly. She picks up the order, smiling when Jeremy shoots her a thumbs up before ushering her out the door. 

Duncan’s cheeks are already pink as he stares down at his phone, trying not to look like he’s waiting for her. He’s holding a small bouquet of brightly colored flowers, most likely having forgotten his mother’s birthday or some other important event.

“Hey, Duncan,” she greets, setting his coffee down in front of him. “Sorry, there's no design today.”

“That’s okay.” Duncan holds the flowers out towards (Y/N), biting his lip and attempting not to show that he’s nervous. “These are for you.”

“For me?” (Y/N) takes the flowers from him, their hands briefly brushing against each other before she quickly pulls her hand back. She smells them, smiling brightly up at Duncan. “These are my favorites! Nobody’s ever bought me flowers before.”

“Why not? You deserve all of the flowers, and so much more.”

“Thank you, Duncan. This was really sweet of you.”

“You just...looked so sad yesterday. I wanted to brighten your day like you brighten mine.” (Y/N)’s cheeks heat up, and she looks down at the flowers instead of looking into his eyes for fear of getting more flustered. 

“Duncan,” she nearly whines, not good at taking compliments.

“It’s true, and you should be told that everyday.” Duncan reaches across the counter and puts his hand on top of hers, making her stare at him with surprised eyes. “Listen, (Y/N), I’d really like to get to know you when you’re not wearing that cute apron of yours.”

“You do? My drawings impressed you that much?”

“Your drawings increased my interest in you, and meeting you has made it impossible for me to not ask to see you outside of your job.” He smiles at her, leaning in closer from over the counter. “So? What do you say?”

Instead of answering, (Y/N) holds a finger up and fishes a marker out of her apron. Uncapping it with her teeth like she did on the day that she first decided to draw on Duncan’s cup, she scribbles one last masterpiece for him before handing it over. He quickly scans what she’s written, smirking and letting go of her hand with a nod. ‘I’m off at 12; lunch?’ Her phone number directly follows the question, a smiley face drawn next to it.

“I’ll be here to pick you up at 12, then.”

“I’ll be the one in the apron.”

//

Tag List (I’m on a time crunch so I’m just tagging a few homies): @lvngdvns @wroteclassicaly @ccodyfern @cocosfern @langdvnshepherd @divinelangdon @1-800-bitchcraft @venusxxlangdon @mega-combusken @tcc-gizmachine

#duncan shepherd #duncan shepherd imagine #duncan shepherd imagines #duncan shepherd x reader #hoc #hoc imagine #house of cards #house of cards imagine #michael langdon #michael langdon imagine

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

From the drafts...

I wrote this in the middle of the night the first time I went swimming for the year, but went to sleep without ever finishing it. Now I’m posting it just a couple of days before what will probably be my last swim for the year. (Happening early this year. The pool cools fast and night temps in the low 50F will make it too cold for me.) Funny how that worked out.

I’m posting it as it is, rather than try to finish it. If I waited any longer I’d be in my post-swimming blues and not in the mood....

It’s amazing how, despite remembering I love it, I’m always stunned by the pure joy  I feel the first time I swim each year.

Actually, when I went swimming last evening it wasn’t just the first time I’d gone this year, but the first time since 2018. Skipping swimming last year was my first lost year ever. I’d never gone so long without swimming in my life, unless you count the time before I learned to swim. Since I can’t actually remember learning, and I since I can also remember an event that occured on my second birthday, I must have been very young. 

To say I love swimming would be an understatement. Swimming isn’t a diversion, but a part of me. All my life I couldn’t even look at water without the desire to leap in and dive down deep to the bottom.

 Any water. In fact I kind of prefer wild water. Growing up I’d swim a mile up river and a mile back every day in the summer. I’d swim around the boat, diving down to the bottom if the river and pausing on the anchor line to clear my ears. At the ocean I’d almost never be out of the water, enjoying storm tossed seas and rips, swimming out to something I think was a boiler off a sunken ship to climb about. Even the shallow streams on our mountain would have my lying in the water while I sifted through the silt for garnets or caught crayfish. I prefered the deepest of water, the coldest of temperatures, and the strongest of currents, but anything would do.

I can’t tell you when my need to go in started. Apparently as a tiny baby my father and grandfather took me on the river one winter day...and I ended up falling in. A year or so later I fell in again, but this one I remember. Not why I went over the side of the boat, but I remember the way the sunlight looked like through the brownish water and a rather startled fish I came face to face with before Pop hauled me out. On the ride home I was convinced I looked like a cartoon character frozen in a block of ice, because it was winter of course. Once at the beach while snowflakes fell I stunned my parents by running out into the surf in my snowsuit. I was alway jumping in, clothes and all, whenever I had the chance.

Now the pool was never as much fun as those other places, but I loved it too. The pool was ours, a private place right here and convient. As pools go, it has never been entirely tame. It’s tucked in the little woods, surrounded and overhung with trees. Once a grapevine hung down over the water so I could pick grapes when the ripened. Birds would take drinks and bees and dragonflies always flew about the place. There were the occasional snake that got in, despite the high sides, and always there were frogs, tadpoles, waterbugs and the like. Pop had rigged up his own filtration system that required less chlorine and aerated the water by spraying it through the air  at angle creating a kind of current and waves. With me the only person swimming in it 90% of the time, we could afford to let it stay a bit wild.

Now the pool itself started out ordinary enough. For a little while it was your typical above ground pool with a plastic liner. This lasted until the summer of the collapsing pool. Or rather, the twice collaping pool.

The first time it collapsed it really was an accident. It begins with my brother’s fear of water. Now, he grew out of that fear, but where my childhood instinct called me to water his caused him recoil. As a tiny child he would “swim” with me wearing his good life jacket. And this day he was doing just that while I say on a folding ladder I’d hauled into the middle of the pool to play on...as one does. 

I should confess  I did torment him without meaning to back then. I’d heard adults say they learned to swim by being thrown into water. Being a little girl, I thought these grownups might know what they were talking about. I figured that my brother just needed to learn he would be alright. I honestly thought I could teach him not to fear by towing him away from where he was clinging, warn him  to hold his breath, and then duck him under for  a instant before his life jacket bobbed him back up. 

Yes, I know this is horrible. I didn’t know it then is the trouble. It was only when I was slightly older I figured out this was absolutely the wrong thing to do. Unfortunately one summer of maybe a half dozen incidents of such stupidity caused permanent damage. I meant well, but it was the worst thing I ever did to him. Apologies I have made many times over the decades, and his own shaking off his fear of water anyway fixed nothing. He never has and never will forgive me.**

Anyway, my brother was afraid of the water, but “swimming” with me in his life jacket. He had developed a way to enjoy the water but still feel safe by crawling in between the liner and the pool wall. His arms would splash about but he’s stay dry. Until he started wanting some water on him, and took to trying to let water into his little pocket shelter...

This was a BAD idea. 

Those old above ground pools were really stable because of the water pressure and the liner being against the pool wall. A few splashes of water are no big deal, but once he started holding the edge of the liner below the surface of the water so it gushed in everything changed.

So, one minute I was sitting on the ladder I’d set up in the middle of the pool, about to go back to swimming. The next, the pool was collapsing in a great sudden whoosh, the sides literally scraping down along my body. The water was gone, the pool sides folded in, and my brother was missing.

For a second it was terrible. The part of the pool my brother had been was now flattened, and the liner was still holding a couple of inches of water. I thought my brother would be trapped in the liner, pinned by the pool side, and face down in water. I was scrambling, franticly trying to get him out. 

I shoved myself under the pool side, through the water, trying to get to him. At the same moment he came crawling out of the other side of where I’d gone under. He was crying but fine as Pop came running up. I just has scrapes on my sides, no big deal. But the pool was down.

I was still early enough in the summer we got the pool back up. Unfortunately for my parents, they didn’t take  into acount our curiosity. 

Somehow I’d figured out what had caused the collapse, that it had been my brother putting the water behind the liner. But thinking I knew wasn’t enough. I wanted to test it.

This wasn’t my first dangerous test

. Once I’d fallen out of a car my grandfather was driving. This was before seatbelt laws, so I’d not been fastened in, and I was maybe four. I’d gone to the bank with him, and was leaning on the door as he started to drive off. Out I fell, but I hung tight to the door so I guess I didn’t exactly fall. I pulled myself up even as granddaddy stopped.  

It was a close call, and poor my poor grandfather must have been terrified. So what did I do once we finished the drive home? I tried to recreate the incident, and I totally suceeded! I made sure the door was latched the same way and that I did everything the same. Obviously I didn’t want my grandfather to know what I was doing, but I wasn’t afraid. I’d held myself up before, so knowing what I was doing I was confident I would have no trouble.

Well, we were now zipping along the highway, which is different than a parking lot, it was a tad more trouble. Oh, I held myself up, but I did end up with skinned knees. It’s a miracle my grandfather with his bad heart trouble didn’t have a heart attack! I was elated because I’d been right about what had happened.

What can I say? I was weird kid, fearless and bursting with curiosity back then. 

With the pool collapse another mystery to solve, I decided to see if I could make it happen again. This time it would be safer. We’d know the risks. My brother wouldn’t be in danger as I put water in the liner without him there. He was in on it, but it was my idea.

Crazy isn’t it? I loved swimming but I was sacrificing my chance to swim for the rest of the summer just  to see if my theory was right.

Well, I was right. And also Pop was fed up.This was when Pop decided to build our own pool with no liners.

My family had a fiberglassing business, everything designed by Pop and hand built by us, so building the sides like a giant tank wasn’t that hard. He would also include flanges at the top and bottom if the sides, just to make it more stable. This pool would not collapse. Over the years hurricanes knocked trees on it several times and we’d just repair the breaks. 

TBH, I worry about that happening now with no Pop, no fiberglassig business, and  no other set of hands. It was easy then, but I dunno of I could do that kind of repair myself.

Pop had one other  idea. Because I was always complaining the pool wasn’t deep enough, we would also make it an underground pool!

Now with mechanical equipment this would have been easy, but we had shovels and four people, two of them children. So we dug. And dug. And dug. If you look at  the pictures I posted of the pool you can see how bumpy it is. That’s because of the digging by hand, not Pop’s fiberglassing. 

When we’d dug it six feet or so down, slopping from the sides, we fiberglassed directly onto the ground. The weight of the water would hold it safely down, but if it was empty or nearly so rain or pumping out for cleaning too close to the pool might float it up. If that happened it would crack any place it was unsupported when filled. So Pop came up with the “hatch” that would blow and let the water into the pool rather than floating. In all the many years the hatch has blown a couple times, but it always did it’s job. 

The pool would never be as deep or as wide as I’d like, but I’m not sure any pool could. 

 Back then I could practically live in the pool, swimming for hours, swooping back and forth across the bottom, clinging to the “hatch” at the very bottom as I tested how long I could hold me breath. 

Actually, holding  my breath five minutes was ordinary and  my swimming endurance was incredible. People could swim faster, but no one could swim longer than me. I wouldn’t even seem to get tired. I actually longed to swim the English Channel because it seemed suited to my talents. 

How much did I love swimming? Well, when I graduated from high school we could pick from a long list of symbols representing school activities to go on  the side. So what did I come very close to picking? Not the academic crap you’d expect from the top student, but the swimmer. Our school didn’t even have a pool! Swimming had NOTHING to do with school, but it have everything to do with me.

Even now I think I am happiest gliding across the bottom of the pool. I play games with it. Swim across the bottom with just your arms, or just your legs, or one leg or one arm. One of the first things I did this year was see if I could still do the undulating, no arms amd no legs just wiggle your body method. Yep, I still can be the human porpoise! LOL

So swimming always meant a lot to me. Sure, after the “Halloween Hypothermia” (not actually at Halloween or hypothermia) where I got way too cold swimming my system rebooted over night so I couldn’t take cold water, but my love of swimming was unchanged. I just got so my swimming season was shorter. The idea of not swimming for a year was unthinkable...

Until it happened.

I really feared I would never get the pool clean again, now that I have to do it alone. Getting to swim this year is beyond wonderful. At least I haven’t lost swimming like I have lost so much else lately.

**I could point out his grudge over something I did when I was just learning my multiplication table isn’t exactly fair. It’s rather less fair when you consider the things he did to me over the years that I never hated him for. He did a LOT of things as the suffering he went through in school twisted him into someone burning with rage.

I mean, when he put a loaded gun to my head and threatened to kill me, yeah, it wasn’t fun, but I also understood the context, that he was using me as a focus of other frustrations and pain. I didn’t hate him, I just wanted him never to get his hands on a gun again and for there to be some way to make things better for him. 

I guess though, it all boils down to his nature.  He remembers every wound and slight, sometimes imagining them even, and he never, ever forgives anything. 

#swimming #swimming pool #water #me

[sanami-love]

Slow and Steady

Alright, so I decided to write a Sanji x Nami fanfiction. If you guys like it I’ll continue the story. As the name suggests, this is gonna be a slow burn kind of story. However, it will likely eventually turn into smut lol I hope you guys like it! Im open to contructive criticism. I haven’t written anything in 7 years. They also might be a bit OOC. The last fanfic I wrote was when I was 16 for a completely different fandom. I may also change the title later on, and I’ll be uploading this to fanfiction.net later. Anyways, here you go! 

Waves crashed loudly against the bow of the Sunny. It was a starry cold night out on the seas of the Grand Line. Nami, being on watch for the night, sat wistfully peering over the seemingly black abyss of the sea, only illuminated by the moonlight.

She leaned over the crows nest, arms crossed and eyes half lidded, reflecting back on their time in Whole Cake. How they barely managed to escape with their lives intact, and just how much sheer luck played into their escape.

She had no idea how they managed to get out of there. The Yonko were no joke, clearly. Not as if any of their adventures had ever been easy, but this one was clearly took the cake for barely making it out alive.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a faint creaking of a door opening and dim light pouring in from behind her. She peered over to see none other than the curly cook himself, carrying a platter of various fruits along with a fancy glass full of juice, adorned with tangerines on the edges.

"Nami-San~" he mouthed to her, waving and smiling. He couldn't call out to her, given it was so late into the night.

Nami smiled, waving back at him. Knowing that the fruit and juice were clearly meant for her. "He really can be such a sweetheart." She thought to herself. "Not that I'd ever tell him that." She mused, knowing full well how it would send him into full-blown tornado mode.

Sanji made his way up the ladder, balancing the plate and glass ever so diligently on top of his head as he climbed. Nami stifled a giggle, seeing how goofy he looked.

Finally reaching the nest, he took the plate and glass from his head and bowed to her, hand over his heart and eyes closed with a big grin.

"A late night snack, for our beautiful navigator." He stated suavely.

Nami smiled and rolled her eyes, taking the glass. Sanji placed the plate on top of stool.

"Thank you, Sanji-Kun." she said, taking a delighted sip of her juice. Freshly squeezed Mikan, straight from her tangerine trees. A taste she would never get tired of.

He smiled, always so happy to see her enjoying the confections he makes.

Looking closer at his face, she could tell he was rather worn out. Heavy lines beneath his eyes. Who could blame him after everything that went down in the past few days?

"If you'll excuse me, Nami-San." He stated, turning around to climb back down the ladder.

"Wait, Sanji-Kun." Nami stated. He peered back, a curious look in his eye.

"Would you like to stay for a while?" She asked, careful how she worded her request.

Sanji blinked, and then grinned. Little hearts starting to form out of the billowing smoke of his cigarette.

"I would love to accompany you, my lovely beautiful Nami-San!" Sanji exclaimed, still careful not to be too loud. Not that anyone could hear them from that high up, plus the sounds of the waves.

"Drop the flattery already." Nami said sternly. Still, she felt a warm pang in her heart as he said it.

"Alright, alright." He chuckled, leaning over the nests railing with her.

"If you dont mind me asking Nami-San, what's on your mind?" He asked, taking out his custom lighter and another cigarette.

She glanced over to him, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" She asked. Had he been able to read her that easily?

"Well, you're leaned over staring off into the distance with a far-away look in your eyes. Somethings gotta be on your mind, right?" Sanji asked, lifting the cigarette to his lips and inhaling as the tiny flame touched the paper.

Nami sighed, fog lifting from the heat of her breath.  Of course he would notice. Observation Haki and all.

"We barely made it off of whole cake alive. It just bothers me to think that if even one small thing went wrong, we would all be at the mercy of a Yonko." She revealed, exasperation lining every word.

Sanji listened, opting not to interrupt her and fixating on her face as she spoke.

"And then there was how we almost lost you." Nami said, sorrow in her voice. Her lips tightened as she clenched her teeth slightly.

Sanji looked down, seeing the pained look on her face. "There it is again. The guilt.." He thought, chastising himself for the thousandth time that day for making his friends all worry and risk their lives to save him.

"Nami-San...I'm Sor-"

"Sanji-Kun, you dont need to apologize." Nami reiterated.  "I know you didn't really have a choice in the matter. We all know. All of us would've done the same thing you did had we been in your position." She stated.

Sanji cast his sight downward. He knew she was right. Hell, they already had a few friends try to sacrifice themselves to protect the rest of the crew. And she was one of them.

Sanji let out a huff of air, smiling weakly.

"I guess we're in the same boat, huh Nami-San?" he said, beginning to stare off into the distance just as she had.

"Well yeah, where do you think we are?" She joked, stretching her arms to gesture the entire ship.

Sanji laughed, breaking from his previous daze. "Oh yeah! I forgot! My bad." he joked.

They laughed together for a moment, and looked back out to sea. Not saying anything to each other for a few minutes. Just listening to the sounds of the waves.

Sanji stole glances at Nami, noting how she looked especially beautiful that night. Her hair glowing in the moonlight, how her eyes reflected their surroundings, how her breath left her lips and floated away into the chilly night air.

At this point, he was just gazing at her. Unable to keep a smile from forming on his lips. He couldn't bring himself to look away even if he tried.

Nami glanced over to him, noticing how he was practically looking into her soul. She felt her heart skip a beat as their eyes met. She managed to look away after a few seconds.

He felt as though his heart melted in those few seconds.

"...Hey, Sanji-Kun. Can I ask you a question?" Nami requested.

Sanji snapped out of his daze. "Y-yes Nami-san?" he managed to stutter out.

"When you were going to be married off to Pudding, we heard you turned her down because you still had adventures with us to go on. Is that true?" she probed.

Sanji raised an eyebrow. "Well, I didn't tell her that at all." he stated.  "But she's not entirely wrong."

Nami glared at him, just ever so slightly. "So does that mean that you did want to marry her?" she continued to probe.

Sanji huffed. "No, not in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, she was pretty and all, but I'd never want to marry anyone that I barely know." He asserted. "Especially if it's not even my own choice."

"So do you ever want to get married?" Nami inquired.

"Where is all this coming from?  Nami isn't normally the type to discuss anything like this." Sanji thought. Was she secretely a romantic just like him?

Taking in another lung-full of smoke, he exhaled.

"At some point, I do want to get married. But right now isn't the time. We still have way too many adventures to go on. Maybe some time after I find All Blue." Sanji said tiredly, trying not to think too hard on it.

Nami looked somewhat confused at the cook. What with all his proclamations of love, she'd assumed he'd be willing to tye the knot at any time. Only to find out they share common ground in that area as well.

"Well, I guess we really are in the same boat." she reiterated.

"Making the same joke twice, are we?" Sanji said, a smug look plastered on his face.

"Yeah, so what?" Nami retorted, playfully snatching his cigarette from his lips and taking in a lung-full of the smoke, looking him dead in the eye as she did so.

"N-Nami-San?!" Sanji exclaimed. His brain felt like it was malfunctioning.

He was somewhere between being worried for her health, and finding her smoking the cigarette he just had between his lips the sexiest thing he had ever seen.

Sanji gulped. "Its like an i-indirect k-kiss" he thought. With that realization, he clenched his nose between his thumb and index finger as hard as he could to keep most of his blood intact. Still not being able to keep some of it from leaking out.

Nami giggled watching him lose his mind over something so small. "You gonna be alright over there?" She teased at him, taking the stick from her lips to pop a tangerine slice into her mouth.

Sanji took a few deep breaths before he could speak again. "Nami-Saaan...Are you trying to kill me?" He whined. He could be sent into orbit via nosebleed if she kept this up.

"Hey, it's you're own fault for being such a pervert." Nami said bluntly.

Sanji sighed. "Oi. For one, I've been like this for as long as I can remember. Two, if you wanted a cigarette you could've just asked." He said taking out another to replace the one she stole.

"Now that I think of it, his brother's were the exact same way. Maybe it really isn't entirely his fault" Nami thought. She wasn't about to give him any slack though.

She turns to face him and points the stick towards him.

"You know I can't just ask for things. I have to steal them. I am a thief afterall." She stated.

"That's our Nami-San" Sanji said, smiling as he lit up his third cigarette. "So uh, what exactly compelled you to try smoking?" He asked, still puzzled as to why she wanted to wreck her lungs as he had.

Nami smiled as a memory of Bellmere-San etched itself into her mind. She didn't normally speak so freely about her feelings, but she supposed she was feeling generous tonight. Either that, or it was just because of him.

"My mom used to be a chain smoker." She said, pausing as she wondered if she should continue. "Whenever I smell cigarette smoke, I get this calm feeling washing over me. It's not a good thing to be nostalgic over, but I dont care. It almost makes me feel as though she's still her with me." Nami said, a small smile on her face. "Other than that, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about." She finished.

Sanji studied her features as she spoke. He'd expected her to look more sad, however she wore a content smile. "Does that mean she feels relaxed around me?" A warm feeling spread through his chest at the thought.

"So, what do you think?" He inquired.

In response to his question she took another drag, wanting to be sure of her thoughts on it.

"Well, it tastes pretty terrible. But the taste of the fruit is sorta helping. Other than that, it feels very relaxing." She said, blowing more smoke out into the air.

"God she looks so beautiful.." He thought, admiring the way her lips pursed outward as she exhaled. He so badly wanted to tell her how gorgeous it made her look, abstaining only out of fear that she would send him away.

"Try not to start, alright? We don't need Chopper hounding both of us about it. Besides, if he sees you smoking I'll be the first one he comes after." Sanji stated, the image of a very angry Chopper towering over him in his "Heavy Point" form.

He made a good point. She recalled how Chopper would endlessly berate him for smoking during each physical.

"Yeah, it's definitely not worth it." She agreed, putting out the nearly finished cigarette.

"Definitely. Trust me, I wish I hadn't started but I'm already too far gone." Sanji said, remembering how he started smoking as a kid to try to look more mature. "I was such a dumb kid."

Nami glanced over his way, trying not to look too hard. He really was very handsome. He changed quite a bit in the two years they were separated. He was much more muscular, his jawline was more defined and his hair had gotten longer.

And his lips looked so soft.

She quickly realized she had been looking a little too long, as Sanji clearly noticed. A faint blush spread across her cheeks. She quickly looked away, but realized she had already been caught.

Sanji felt his breath hitch as he caught her eyes on him. With a look of what was clearly, unmistakably desire in her eyes.

Sanji was no idiot. He had always been extremely perceptive of other people's emotions. Changes in breathing, eye movement, muscle movement. He was able to read all of it with pinpoint accuracy. Even before honing his observation haki, his ability to read people and situations were always exceptional.

"At this point, I dont care if she hits me, or sends me off. It's my turn to tease her." He thought, approaching her with his newfound confidence.

He leaned over close to her ear, whispering in the sexiest tone he could muster:

"You know, Nami-San... I don't mind if you look. I enjoy having your eyes on me."

His voice set something off inside her. His breath tickled against her ear, feeling as if electricity had run down her spine. The faint pink blush she wore only a few seconds prior immediately turned scarlet.

She'd halfway had the urge to turn around and pretend like she hadn't been looking at all. But she knew that wouldn't work. Her reaction had been way too noticeable.

Nami turned towards him and looked into his deep blue eyes.

Sanji returned her stare. He quickly realized how close their faces were and felt his heartbeat speed up exponentially.

"Sanji-Kun...I need to ask you something." Nami said, still staring deeply into his soul.

"Y-Yes, Nami-San?" Sanji uttered, swallowing hard after. He could feel heat spreading across his own face.

She stayed silent for a moment, attempting to garner the confidence to ask.

"Do you think....you could ever love just one woman?" Nami asked, crossing her arms against herself.  She'd often found herself enjoying Sanji's advances, but didn't want to act on her desire up until recently.

Almost losing him made her realize just how much she felt for him. And it bothered her to no end. Sanji would swoon and fawn over every pretty woman he'd seen. She really didn't know if he could just love only one.

Sanji found himself floored at her question. He wondered if this was just another cruel dream he would eventually wake up from.

Still, dream or not, he still had to try.

"Nami-San...before I answer your question, I feel that I should clarify something to you." He said, looking into her eyes with hard conviction.

"I do swoon over women. However, I don't "love" them. It's just my way of showing my appreciation and respect for them, despite how ridiculous I may look. That aspect of me will never change" He explained. "But...when the woman I love returns my feelings, and accepts me as I am, then yes, I would devote myself to her." Sanji finished, never letting his gaze leave hers.

Nami saw not even a hint of dishonesty in his eyes, and felt nothing but relief wash over her.

"Now, Nami-San....I need to tell you something." Sanji said, breaking their gaze and taking a deep breath before taking her hand in his own and rejoining her gaze.

"Nami-San...I have feelings for you. No woman that I've met so far has made me feel the way that I do about you. So I need to know..if you return those same feelings for me?" Sanji asked, feeling his confidence begin to waver.

There it is again. That warm feeling beginning to spread across her body. Never had she felt this way about anyone in her life. All she knew was that it made her feel content.

"Sanji-Kun...the events that occured over the past few days made me realize something. When you left, I thought I'd never get to see you again. I was devastated at the thought that you might die, and all I could think about was all the times we spent together. The way I was so broken up about you being gone even though you said you'd return, made me realize I care about you so much more than just as a crewmate or friend." Nami said, looking away as her face began to turn scarlet once more.

"Every time you would bring me food, every time you would ask me if I loved you, I would feel something warm in my heart. Something that would make me feel happy. I guess what I'm trying to say is that...I also have feelings for you." Nami finished, being far too flustered to make eye contact.

Sanji's eyes widened at her confession. There was nothing in the world that could ruin the overwhelming joy that came over him. She actually returned the love he felt for her. If this was a dream he prayed that he never wake up.

Sanji wrapped her arms around her, leaving his hands to rest at the small of her back.

"Nami-San, you've made me the happiest man in the world right now." He said, feeling as though he'd never be able to quit smiling.

"Would you be willing to give me a chance to make you happy, Nami-San?" Sanji asked, not sure if she would even be willing to be in a relationship right now. After all, they did still have adventures to go on.

Nami rested her head against his chest, enjoying the scent of his cologne and the feeling of his hardened muscle against her.

"I think...I would like that. But, I wanna take things slow." Nami said, knowing that if they went too fast Sanji would probably die.

"We'll take things as slow as you need, Nami-San." Sanji said, resting his head against hers, enjoying the feel and scent of her light orange hair. He so badly wanted to kiss her, but knew that a nosebleed would probably ruin the moment.

The two embraced for what seemed like hours, relishing in the feeling of each other arms.

Orange light began to peer over the seas, illuminating the blue seas. Sanji felt like cursing time itself for ending their embrace.

"Well, it seems that I'm late for work. Get some sleep Nami-San. I'll be sure to bring you something wonderful to eat later." Sanji said, brushing away her bangs and kissing her forehead.

"Sounds like a good idea. You better hurry, before Luffy wak-"

"Saaannjjiii! Where's the fooood?!?" Sanji heard his captain yell out from the kitchen. Sanji sighed.

"Give me a few minutes, alright?" Sanji yelled back, climbing back down and running into the kitchen before Luffy decided to help himself to whatever was in the kitchen.

Nami laughed, and yawned while climbing down as well. Smiling all the while.

#sanji x nami #nami x sanji #sannami #sanami week #sana

[thepageofa1000worlds]

Pairing: James Conrad x reader Part 1 · Part 2  · Part 3 · Part 4 · Part 5 · Part 6 ·

Synopsis: After having left thing uncompleted and unresolved with James Conrad 3 years ago, you two find yourself again in the kong island. What happened three years ago with you two? How is it that you got to make part of an expeditionary mission?

Song: Ólafur Arnalds- So Far

Warnings: it’s a six part mini-series, this is part to and also its a slow burn.

A/N:  btw viktor ( in the gift the one in light blue) is a mood if I were ever stranded on an island.

Words:  3338

   ��� What about your helicopter? “ Asked Brooks, you sighted.

   “ Scatter in pieces along the island “

   “ Have you found anyone else?” Questioned Slivko next.

   “ Only you six, although my coms did picked someone else, but the battery died before I could ask who”

   “It is best if we keep moving” interrupted James. “ We are out in the open and we’re running out of daylight”

    He was right as always, the more terrain you all walked in daylight was better and just as you expected he took the lead.

Seeing him made you remember when both of you used to walk around your father’s property while hiding your brother Christmas gifts.

   “ So you didn’t catch who it was on the other side of the radio? “ Asked Slivko at your side.

   “ For all, I know it could’ve been you,” You said sadly. He sighed.

   You were glad that walking wasn’t as painful as you thought it would be, because even if the group had organized itself to match your steps, they were still walking pretty fast.

You were right behind James who after analyzing your wound came to the conclusion that you wouldn’t be able to shot a weapon the size that he had, so instead, you showed him your gun which agreed that it was better than nothing.

   Being the only one in the entire group that was wounded noticeably, it was better to keep you in the middle where if anything were to happened people could aid you.

   Conrad couldn’t avoid looking occasionally behind him to know that you were right there, the times you catch him you would smile sweetly and he would once again look ahead.  

   You were looking at the floor to avoid tripping over branches when you felt him stop suddenly, stopping right before crashing with him. Looking around you understood why he had stopped, this part of the jungle lead to something else. James right arm found your waist, making you stay behind his much bigger frame. You didn’t minded, as he had a bigger gun. He slowly moved to examine the place and you followed close by.

   You were looking at Mason taking the photograph when her sudden gasp made you look directly to the wall, instantly backing away, movement from behind you made you turn sharply. Seeing those people make the air leave your lungs and you could fell you body popping adrenaline ready to fight.

   “ Conrad” you heard Mason said.

   “ Stay calm” advice him while raising his gun.

   Many of the people in the group had too, all of them raising their guns and making the circle smaller until you could feel all their backs.

   “ Guys” you murmured, but to no effect

   Mason was now close to you in the middle of the circle that the group had formed. She was the only one that gratefully moved a little not to hurt you. Taking your gun you pointed it to the small space in which Mason was, as she didn’t have a gun herself. The pain that shot through your left arm while raising it reminded you of the wound on your arm.

   “ Don’t shot” keep repeating James.

   “ Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said someone from the entrance of the strange place. Moments later a man with a long beard and an old military uniform appeared. You exchanged worried looks with Mason through his entire presentation. Hank Marlow, he presented himself, he had been on the island for 28 years, literally your life span. However, the most amazing thing was James’ face as the man was explaining how he had landed in there.

   “ You don’t want to be out here at night,” said Marlow.

   “ Nether at day,” You said while following, the chuckle that came from James made you look at him strangely.

   “ What?” He asked

   “ You just chuckled,” You said plainly.

   “ Not even in a life or death situation you lose your sense of humour,” he said while offering you a side smile, then his face went back to its original — not so smiley— position. “ Your bleeding”

   You examine your bandages and found an even bigger blood spot. You sighed.

   “ Tell me something I don’t know”

   After finding out that kong wasn’t the biggest nor the scariest monster out there, the idea of there being a way out of the island was like a dream come true, until Conrad was presented with the grey fox.

   “ Lovely,” he said with on an elevated level of sarcasm.

   “ Damn right,” said Hank at his side.

   Conrad could hear your not so silent laughter at his side.

   “ Those this thing even floats?”  Asked Slivko at your side, you were still laughing.

   You kneeled down between Slivko and Conrad, enjoying the story of how Hank and his friend had built the boat out of airplane parts.

   “ you’ve gotta be kidding me, this thing looks like its made out of tetanus”

   Conrad could hear you laughing, which made him smile too. He had forgotten, how you laughed and the level of sarcasm you handled; He found himself remembering what it was to be with you. How it would be late at night when both of you were near the fireplace, always talking about anything and everything that came. How you two had fallen asleep, you in the sofa and him on the floor near it, while waiting for your brother who swore would not take to long to arrive.

   He remembered how Dave had arrived in the morning and try to make both of you move to your rooms, for you to only pull the covers over your head. From the floor, Conrad looked at your form on the edge of the sofa and could only think of how adorable you looked.

   After accepting to work on the grey fox he at least got his hopes up on getting off the island.

   “ Ok, so we got 48 hrs. To make it to the North shore” He said while looking at Slivko who was meddling with some cables. “ Are you sure you know what you doing?”

   “ If I don’t fix this, he’ll disown me,” Said him referring to his dad.

   Hearing Conrad explain the Cold War to hank, was one of the most amazing things in the world. He was by no means a teacher nor a historian.

   “ Hold the phone there Churchill, Russia was our ally now you're saying we’re at war with them? “

   “ It more of a cold war “ Replied James.

   “ Like they take the summers off? “ You were at Hanks side and looking at the confusion and disbelieve on James’ face, you cursed that Mason was away with the camera. His eyes locked with yours as if asking if this man was serious.

   “ Oh my lord” you expressed still looking at him. A smile spread on your face while trying not burst out laughing once again, as you learned that laughing too much made the wound sting.

It had stopped bleeding but you now had to make sure that it wasn’t infected and that meant, removing the bandages.

   It took you some time to clean the wound and the help of Mason to put the bandages back on.

   “ Did you take photographs ?” You asked between greeted teeth, because of the pain

   “ As many as I could take,” She said while finishing a small knot. “ are you sure this is not dangerous?”

   “ It had stopped bleeding not long after you all found me, but in the middle of the panic of being surrounded by them” You made moved your head towards the people “ I raised my gun and my shoulder didn’t like I was trying to keep my self alive”

   “ You shouldn’t move it too much” she pointed out.

   “  I know” you sighted “ Sadly that's a luxury I can't give myself, everything her seems to try to kill us “

   Mason and you walked around the camp, as you accompany her to take more photographs.

   “ So, what do you do? “ she asked, “ I mean, how are you in here?”

   You were behind her looking at the people gathering for the photo, even if they didn’t talk you could see that they did understand signals.

   “ I work for monarch” you explained “ formerly a doctor, I was ascended a couple of years ago” Mason’s face showed how surprised she was of your answer.

   “ I didn’t paint you as a doctor, I mean” she stopped to take another photo of a cabin. “ you were the pilot of one of the helicopters and you know how to handle a gun”

    “ I was trained,” you said “  Packard was the one who toughs me how to fly and helicopter” both of you start walking back to the place you would be staying, as the sun was setting down. “ He’s my dad’s friend and one time I wake up to see that out of the blue and gonna learn to be a pilot” You both laugh.

   “ Out of nowhere?” Asked Mason, with surprise on her voice.

   “ The summer before I had thrown the idea but I didn’t though my father would have taken it so literally” She raised her eyebrows.

   “ And the shooting?”

   “ Oh, that my brother and at the time captain Conrad’s idea”

   Mason was observing you, you were maybe two or three years younger than her. Your British accent not as pronounced but still linger in the way you talked. She had seen you on the ship and even presented herself to you while you were on your pilot gear, You’ve been cutting Chapman’s hair while joking of how close was he of turning into sheep. You seem to know the team, but now and then one would ask where had you been.

   “ So he toughs you to shoot “ She confirmed.

   “ Well, they were both a common occurrence” you looked behind, to the gigantic wall that separated this small village with the rest of the island. “ They would finish a mission and if they had time would come over, once they got into this big competition of who was better at shooting,” You said smiling at the memory. “ My dad made part of it too, and I was a judge” looking at the place you would be staying the night it wasn’t so bad, a little rusty but it serves its purpose.

   “ So?” She asked after you went to silence for a little too long. You looked at her and smile.

   “ My father won, but I think it was because James respected him too much. After that, they said I could try”

   “How was it?” She asked

   “ The first time I almost shot my brother as he was explaining about the safety catch” Of how much you laughed you felt the sting on your left shoulder, deciding to watch the sunset you seated near the hole on the wall.

   Looking up at the night sky, you felt relaxed for the first time In the day. The Northern lights had appeared and were a spectacle to watch. You could hear people inside the small room talk, yet, your thoughts were raising from one event to the next one. You were seated in the floor looking through the hole on the wall, while Mason put up her equipment.

   “ Beautiful isn’t,” She said

   “ yes” You whispered.

   “ Those it hurt ?” she signalled to the wound

   “ Now it doesn’t” You inform

   “ I mean we all got out without more than a scratch and you were stab,” she said looking down at you.

   “ My luck” you smiled causing her to laugh. After cleaning it up and washing the bandages, you had gotten to the conclusion that it wasn’t infected.

   You saw Mason meddling with her camera, but you didn’t hear the small ‘ click ‘ that came when she took a picture. Mason looked at you and raised a small metal tube on her hand.

   “ My flashlight broke”

   Out of the corner of your eyes, you saw James approach both of you.

   “ Isn’t it odd, the most dangerous places are always the most beautiful “

   He hadn’t changed much. You had kept him out of your head and heart for so long that when you saw him today at the lake, you didn’t even know how to feel; now with the silence of the night, your thoughts took force.

   Three years ago you both had parted ways, but before that, you knew him for years. Your brother had also been SAS, After a hard mission, you brother offered he who back then was Captain James Conrad a stay in your house as they both thought about what had happened.

   When arriving home later the same week, you got home from school and found your brother, father and a man you didn’t know, enjoying themselves before the chimney.

   You’ve been introduced to you brother’s S.A.S  Captain. That had been the first time but not the last, it was strange for Dave to bring things like work at home, as he had decided to keep the family away from danger.

Some months later during the family plus James meeting, they told your dad what had happened during a mission to rescue a small child, illegitimate daughter of a Malaysian woman and British embassy worker, and how everything seemed to have been arranged for them to fail.

   Both your father and you had told how they were possibly right about the setup, an illegitimate child would make it to the news if England wanted something it was done. So they possibly wanted to say they had sent S.A.S soldiers but that the mission had taken a sour turn and ended in the death of more than one individual.

   Both he and your brother had stayed a couple of weeks, who had gladly lined up with winter break. During his time there, you three would do everything and everything to keep the boredom away.

   Returning from memory lane, you notice that Mason had gotten to take her picture with the help of James.

   “ I suppose no man comes home from war, not really” You heard James said.    you remember how the story of his dad and how he left and never come home.

   “ No, they don’t “ You whispered still looking directly at the sky.

   Mason didn’t need to be a mind reader to see how Conrad's eyes fixed on you after he heard you. She had also remembered watching how his face went black after he found you on the lake, but his eyes, they showed something else. Deciding that as none of you would take the lead, she would, thanking Conrad she walked to the back of the room to see if you two could at least talk whatever had happened and was still going on.

   From the corner of your eye, you saw Mason leave and you turned your head towards her form with a questioning look, she had left so sudden; the look she gave you back was that of someone not amuse, but you couldn’t comprehend what she wanted.

   Conrads moved and sat next to you, he had understood the little stun that Mason had played. Giving you space so you could talk.

   “ and you, how did you get on all of this ? “ he asked you

   You remembered that they say something about people eyes not changing and they were right, looking at his eyes, they hadn’t change a bit in so long.

   “ Am part of the team” You said avoiding his eyes.

   “ Of whose team? “ There were some things he just couldn’t understand, how had you ended up as a pilot of an all-male team adding to the million questions piling up. He was trying to make eye contact, which you avoided like the plague.

   “ Monarch,” said Brooks behind both of you. You turned to see him in the back, offering a thankful smile as he had answered. You rearranged your seating position so that you could face the room, as it seemed they all had questions regarding you.

   “ Monarch” repeated James incredulously. He frowned while mirroring your position and facing the room, the northern lights long forgot.

   “ Yes, she’s our mission supervisor,” Said San.

   “ Mission supervisor“ repeated Conrad at your side

   “ Are you okay? “ you asked faking worry, everyone looked at you questionable.

   “ Yes, why?”

   “ I was thinking you had a concussion, I mean your slower today at processing information” Everyone on the room let out a laugh, even James himself.

   “ I just thought you wanted something else” Something about the way he looked at you, made your heart clench inside. You were studying to be a doctor and you remember telling him, the smile that spread through his face, which gave you the courage you needed to really go for it.

   “ Well, it seems I will have my personal doctor” he joked that day.

   Conrad’s visits in the following years, to your house, increased. With time you got used to calling him James, not long after your brother and he came the first time. You shortly became friends and it surprised you when you were the first he had told his idea of leaving the S.A.S.

   “ I finished meds school and got a job not long after on Monarch” you explained “ I got assigned to multiple things and in three years they turned me into the mission supervisor” you shrugged.

   “ So you are the one who accepted me into this mission?” Asked Mason, you had omitted that part on your talk earlier today.

   “ I liked your job” you smiled at her “ Other than you and my team, I trusted Randa to know what he had to do, he gave me the list of names of people in the mission, I just looked over it but did not read between the lines”

   “ Oh, thank you,” Said an offended Victor.

   “ I mean” You tried explaining “ I got into a plane so I could get to the departure place and I swear I was too tired”

   “ What about me?” Asked Conrad

   “ Randa told me he got this guy, a tracker somewhere on Saigon and I just” You shrugged, Conrad frown.

   “ You didn’t even know I was coming”

   “ In her defence, Randa told me he got the name from a fellow comrade” Said Brook.

   “ A fellow comrade ?” You repeated, your brain processing

   “ Now whose the slow at the processing of information?” Said James mockingly

   “ Still you” you responded seriously, everyone burst out laughing “ Of course, let me guess,” you said, going back to the original topic.

   “ Yes,” Said brooks before you finished “ It was Dave”

   You remember Dave telling you of Conrad's missions the following years after you said goodbye, he was always the one who wanted you both together the most, after him, your dad was a close contender.

   “ Well, I think we better sleep, we should wake up early in hopes to get in time” Said Marlow from where he was.

   You followed James to another room, much like the one you had just come from but with more space on the floor and a smaller hole on the wall. You opened your bag and took out your jacket, folding it to make the best made up pillow ever. James sat down right next to you as the rest of the team find their spot in the ground.

   “ Thanks” you whispered after a while, so it didn’t bother the rest of the people there, some who were already sleeping.

   “ For what?” He was still sitting while you were lying with your head on your jacket.

   “ For keeping them save” You singles towards the rest of the team.

   “ That's for what you paid me”

   “ Still, the circumstances are not what you expected” you offered an apologetic smile. Unable to find sleep, you saw how Conrad lay down, though, he too seemed unable to sleep. You were laying over your Right arm, where you could see James laying on his back.

   “ What?” He asked, noticing that you were looking at him.

   “ Do you think we’re really getting out of here?” You asked but to the end of the question, your voice was a mere whisper.

   Something about the way you had asked let Conrad, to really see how afraid you really were.

   “ We will” he whispered.

    You stayed awake a little longer, enough to hear when his breathing became even; and somehow knowing he was there lower your anxiousness and let you finally fall asleep.

Masterlist 

#james conrad #james conrad x reader #tom hiddleston #imagine #reader #kong skull island #kon #captain James conrad #fluff

[collecting-stories]

Wedding Day | Floki

can you write some floki from vikings please? maybe it’s the reader and floki’s wedding day? and can you make it really fluffy :))))) thank youuuuuu

Wedding Day | Floki

This new ship had not been made for sailing across the sea though Floki was more than certain the small vessel could take them wherever they so chose. No, this boat, carved from the finest trees he could find between Kattegat and Hedeby, was for something far more adventurous. At the front had been carved the figure of Frigg the beloved. The figure alone, carved so out of wood that she appeared like a human clinging to the front of the small boat, had taken Floki more time than he would care to admit. Simply because he had gone in search of the perfect tree to form the goddess on the very same night that he had first met you.  

It was a festival night, he remembered well. You had gone with your sister and her husband to celebrate the summer months and the longer days. He was there with Ragnar, Rollo, and Lagertha but had left his friends to pray at the feet of the statue of Odin. As he had left the temple you were there on the steps, lingering just outside the door. He didn’t know it then but you had been waiting for him to come out so you might speak to him. Your sisters were all married to vikings and your brothers had all become vikings but the trade did not interest you. Not so much as the man who made their boats did.  

“Are you Floki?” You asked as he stepped outside. It would be one of many times that you would make the first move in the relationship.  

“Yes. Yes the very same.” He nodded his head vigorously, eyes bright beneath charcoal markings.  

“I wanted to tell you, I was with my sister to see the last raid off and I could not help but admire the craftsmanship of the boat. Unlike any I’ve ever seen.” You knew little about boats, aside from being made of wood and able to float. But it was the finest ship you’d ever seen and you had been longing to speak to Floki for sometime. He was a recluse in the woods, hiding away and speaking to the gods and making his boats. Or so your sister said. But you had begun to think that wasn’t such a terrible sounding life.  

“I am working on one now that is particularly tricky.” Floki replied, red tinting his cheeks and ears at the compliment. “It has taken some time to find the perfect trees. They cannot be any tree you know.”  

“Can they not?” You asked, eager only to hear his voice and watch his expressive nature as he spoke to you.  

Floki spent the rest of the evening by your side and, when the sun rose and you returned home with your sister Floki set out to find the perfect tree. He was going to make you a boat. It would be the most magnificent vessel he had ever fashioned and it was.  

The seat at the back of it was built up to appear almost like a throne to those who saw it. The entire boat, from the throne to Frigg, was adorned with fresh cut flowers. It was the last step of his elaborate plan. He was so giddy about it that he could hardly stand still as he waited for you to be ready.  

When he had asked you to marry him it had been at his home in the woods, as he worked on a ship and you sat watching him. And actually, it was you who asked him for marriage. But he was beneath a boat and could not hear you.  

“What did you say?” Floki asked, his head popping out from the bottom of the ship, or the top really. He had managed, with Ragnar’s help, to rig the ship upside down on a set of pegs just enough inches off the ground that he could crawl beneath. He was working on the interior of the ship and asked you to watch, for fear it would collapse on him and he would become trapped. And also because he liked spending time with you.  

“I said that we should get married.” You replied, the words coming out as easily as if you were asking a friend the weather. It was something you had given much thought and each time realised that more than anything you were calm and relaxed about the idea of Floki and you marrying. It felt natural, what was meant to happen.  

“Married?!” Floki repeated the word, jumping a bit at the proclamation and hitting his head on the edge of the boat.  

It took you and two thralls who had been on their way to the river to get Floki out from under the ship and into bed safely. After you thanked them for their trouble and sent them on their way you sat with your lover until he awoke. When he did he was more out of it than usual, the head wound making everything a bit fuzzy.  

He called your name, despite you being right beside him and, when he finally realized it was you smiled. “I have the most amazing idea.” He confided.  

“What is it?” You asked.  

“Let’s get married.”

“That is an amazing idea love, I can’t imagine where you thought of it.” You teased, kissing him.  

This had been no one’s idea but his. A boat to symbolise not only his love for you but your marriage together. Not grand, surely, but able to withstand the fiercest of storms. Flowers because they were delicate yet strong and beautiful like you. Frigg to watch over your marriage and keep you safe. He held his hands over your eyes as he walked you down to the dock where everyone had gathered for the wedding. He walked behind you, taking each step with you and guiding you as best he could over the terrain.  

“Floki, just let me see already,” You laughed, hands pressed to his as you walked with him down the embankment.  

“No, no ruining the surprise.”  

“It won’t be a surprise when I trip and crack my head open on a rock.”  

“Shush,” he laughed, “I’ve got you.”  

When you reached the edge of the dock he lifted his hands from your eyes and your hands flew to cover your mouth as you stared at the ship. You felt tears beginning to form in the corners of your eyes as Floki stood beside you, waiting for you to confirm that this was a good surprise.  

You reached out, grabbing his arm with one hand and turning to look at him. The tears in your eyes had spilled out, taking some of your eye makeup with it. Little flecks of charcoal being carried away on streams of tears. “This is beautiful. You made this for us?”  

When Floki had set about making the ship he had been making it for you. That was always his thought. This was your boat, a gift from him as a show of his love. He hadn’t considered, until you said it out loud, that this was for both of you. Not the beginning of your love surely but a marker of how it had grown and how far it could still go.  

“Yes.” Floki replied, hand squeezing yours. “To begin our journey together.”  

“Hm,” You hummed in agreement, turning to place a kiss on his cheek, “to continue our journey together, Frigg willing.”  

I’ve had so much coffee today. 

taglist: @thinkingsofamadwoman @lif3snotouttogetyou @demonhunter1616 @breathlessouls @silverblooddemon @titty-teetee @mixedwiththemoon

(if you want to be tagged in any vikings fics let me know!)

#floki imagine #floki x reader #floki the boat builder #vikings imagine #vikings floki #vikings floki imagine #vikings floki x reader #collecting stories imagine

[tommybaholland]

Beneath the Reef Part 2 | mermaid!Tom AU

(images not mine)

INTRO // PART 1

Pairing: mermaid!Tom x siren!Reader 

Summary: after escaping from all the siren pressure, you get to know the boy with the pretty green tail

Word Count: 4K

(sorry if that gd cut doesn’t work!!)

“We got a good one for you.”

Here you are again, swimming to the strait to lure with Circe and two other sirens. Except this time, you were going to sing.

“Your birthday is tomorrow, Y/N. It won’t be long until it really counts,” Circe reminded you.

You reached your normal spot, already spotting the ship coming down the channel, which was almost like a cue for the other sirens as they immediately began swimming to the surface.

You, however, stayed behind, reluctant to go.

“Y/N!” Circe called from behind you. “What’re you doing? Go!”

You looked up at the ship, swallowing hard before joining the other sirens. Your head breached the surface, looking up at the large vessel. You began singing, trying to stay on pitch with the others. The boat soon veered into the rock, the bow crashing on impact. Some men fell off the masts while others began to jump overboard upon hearing your hypnotic song.

At this point you were supposed to stop singing and start attacking the bodies, like your fellow sirens were demonstrating now. But you just stopped singing and watched them with a vacant look on your face.

“What the hell are you doing? Look at all these bodies in the water, kill one!” Circe yelled out to you.

The effects of the song were wearing off, the remaining men trying to swim to the surface, to safety. You grabbed one closest to you but he struggled against you, eventually kicking your tail to escape your grasp. You groaned in pain, hearing Circe yell at you again.

“C’mon, Y/N, you can do better than that!”

You looked around, trying to find the slowest, weakest one. You spotted one not too far away, who was sinking faster than he could swim. You swam over to him, grabbing him by his shirt, looking into his half-lidded eyes, which were brown. He also had dark hair.

He looks like Tom.

“That’s it, Y/N, you got him! Now just claw his eyes out!” Circe continued providing commentary on your performance.

You looked back at her before looking back at the man, whose eyes were fully closed now. You couldn’t let him die.

You dragged him up to the surface as fast as you could, grasping onto the front of his shirt. You breached through the surface again, bringing him above as well, trying to look for the other men that made it back above water.

One finally swam over to you, taking the body from you hands. He looked up at you, nodding in gratitude. You quickly ducked back underneath the water, swimming back down. You looked around, not seeing the other sirens or even Circe, thinking they may have already gone back and left you there. You swam over to the rock where you normally sat and watched, thinking about how furious Circe was gonna be after what you did.

However, you were saved the anticipation as you heard a whoosh behind you. Next thing you knew, Circe had you by the shoulders, slamming you against the rock.

“Why did you do that? You would’ve been dead by now if this was your test!” She yells in your face.

“He...he was dying,” you replied in pain, your head and shoulders throbbing.

“Well, yeah, that’s kinda the point, barnacle head,” she insults. “We’re not mermaids, we don’t save people! Can’t you see we’re trying to help you!?”

You grew angry at her words. “Maybe I don’t wanna be a siren! I didn’t ask for this!” you said in a firm tone.

Circe let go of your shoulders, shaking her head.

“This isn’t a punishment, Y/N, this is your life. This is your life now. And it’s your decision on whether you want to keep it, but you should know….” she trails off, pausing for a beat.

“It’s not a painless death.”

*

*

*

When you got back to the cave, Circe told you to go to your room and rest, to which you gladly complied. You sat on the edge of your bed, your mind racked with competing thoughts.

Why can’t you just do it?

But I don’t want to kill anyone.

But do you want to live?

Not if it means continuing my life like this.

You started to get upset, not knowing what to think. You felt weak and powerless. You couldn’t understand why you didn’t have the same capacity to kill like the rest of the group but at the same time, you didn’t want to be like them.

Well, maybe this life wasn’t meant for you.

Wanting to forget about what happened, your thoughts shifted to yesterday, when you met your first mermaid.

Tom.

You wondered what his everyday life was like, as a mermaid. But you could guess it was probably a million times better, since you saw him happily playing with his friends. You wanted to see him, to talk to him again.

You moved over to one side of your room, where a large rock was placed in front of the wall. Normally this rock was used for sitting, in the small chance that someone else was present, but it was mainly to hide an escape route.

You pushed the rock slowly, careful not to make too much noise. Once you saw the wide hole, you held the rock back with one arm while you maneuvered yourself through the opening, letting the rock gradually lean back on the wall. Once your tail and body were out into the open sea, you shifted the cover a bit so that the hole was out of sight but still allowed you to easily move it so you could get back in.

Once the rock was back in its strategic place, you started your usual route to the Reef. You had gotten better at being discrete and quicker at getting there, especially since you started going so frequently. But now you had a reason to go.

To see Tom.

You reached your normal stakeout spot, your eyes scanning the coral for a green tail. Some merman finally came into view, whom you recognized as some of Tom’s friends from yesterday, the purple tail and the blue tail. They seemed to be looking for something, swimming in and out of the coral beds near the drop off. You were so focused on watching them, you didn’t sense someone coming up behind you.

“.....So I see you’ve come back.”

You jumped, gasping at the sudden voice. You turned to see brown eyes, floating close to you.

He chuckled at your reaction. “Sorry, love, couldn’t help myself.”

You had an unamused look on your face, turning back to look at the Reef. His friends were out of sight and you hoped they weren’t going to come popping out of nowhere.

“Do you always watch us from over here?” He asked honestly.

A beat passed before you spoke up. “Not always. Sometimes I just swim by, but no one’s usually out. I just like to look at the Reef,” you shrugged, still looking out at the structure.

His eyes followed yours as he looked out at his home before speaking again. “But do you like mermaids?”

Like is an understatement.

You paused again. “I’m intrigued, yes,” you answered, giving him a soft smile.

His heart fluttered at your words. You seemed genuinely interested in his people. He didn’t really know too much about sirens, except that they didn’t do much to contribute to the commonwealth of the sea and wanted nothing to do with mermaids. But you seemed different to him, just like when you first saw him.

His friends came back into your view in front of the Reef, calling Tom’s name.

Tom scoffed out a laugh. “Those divs. They’ve been trying to find me for over a half hour now.”

You smiled at his comment on his friends’ obliviousness. He turned back to you, speaking up again.

“C’mon,” he reached his hand out towards you. “Let’s let them keep looking.”

You looked at his hand, curious as to where this would go.

It’s not everyday a mermaid lets you hold his hand.

You took his hand, feeling the warmth as he closed it around yours. He started leading you out into the open water with a moderate pace. You watched the movement of his mesmerizing tail in front of you, admiring the graceful waves it created in its path.

“So you’ve seen the Reef,” he spoke up, looking back to you. “Where do sirens live?”

“Uhh…” you paused, quickening your pace to catch up to him. “We live in this cave, not far from the Reef, actually.”

“It’s not nearly as big or colorful…” you added, trailing off.

“Sometimes it’s too big and a bit too much,” he chuckled.

You turned your head to look at his pretty profile. “I think it’s beautiful,” you replied, making him look at you, smiling.

You looked forward, continuing to swim with him.

“....where are we going?” You spoke up after a few minutes.

“Remember that drop off we went to after….after we slayed the beast…” he joked, referring to your battle with Scylla. You laughed out loud at his exasperated tone. He made it seem like you both fought her, when he was the one who saved you from her wrath.

He smiled back at you, enjoying the sound of your laugh ringing through his ears.

“Race ya there!” He said, letting go of your hand and shooting off, knocking you back with the power of his tail.

You flinched back, trying to block the force with your arms, squeezing your eyes shut. You opened them after a few moments, gasping at how far ahead he already was. You quickly started flapping your tail and gliding your hands out in front of you in attempt to catch up with him. You weren’t sure if you were going to beat him but you knew you were fast. You pushed harder with your movements, seeing the glimmer of his tail, coming up behind him.

You examined his movements, following his sharp turns and spirals, until two large twin rocks came up ahead. There was a small space between them, but it was big enough for Tom to fit through. You decided to swim up and over, knowing it would be quicker for you, as you take the same route on your way to the reef.

Once you got to the top, you saw the drop off straight ahead, trying to pull out your fastest sprint to get there. You didn’t see Tom but you also didn’t slow down to look behind you. You slowed down a few feet from the edge of the drop off, fully confident that you had beat him. You reached the sandy plateau, breathing heavily and smiling wide to yourself.

You had never beat anyone at anything before, but then again you never really got the opportunity. This might’ve been the first time you felt proud of yourself for accomplishing something since becoming a siren, even if it was just a silly race.

You suddenly heard a whooshing sound followed by a voice behind you.

“Look ouuuuuuutttt!”

Tom flew towards you, seeming to have underestimated his stopping distance, and crashed right into you. You landed on your back into the sand, feeling dead weight on top of you. You heard a laugh from beside your head.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. Guess I was going too fast.”

He picked his head up, looking down at you with his endearing eyes. “Wow, you are fas–are you alright, love?”

You didn’t know whether you were still dazed from the impact or from hearing his voice say your name, but you didn’t say anything for a few moments. When you finally came back to your senses, you noticed an uncomfortable feeling that went down your backside.

“Um, you’re...crushing my fin,” you finally spoke in a pained tone.

“Oh! Sorry, I’m so sorry,” Tom said, while getting off of you.

You sighed in relief as the pressure came off your back. Tom quickly reached out to you, putting his hands on your shoulders to pull you up out of the sand.

“Ah, I’m sorry, love,” he said as he ran his hands down to your upper arms while you rubbed your hands over the small fin that ran down the back of your tail.

“Are you okay?” he asked again, wanting to make sure you weren’t hurt even more from his body colliding with yours. His hands felt warm against your skin, feeling soothed by his thumbs rubbing small strokes.

You nodded, giving him a small smile, looking into his concerned eyes. He smiled back, giving your arms a small squeeze before letting go. You suddenly felt cold at the loss of contact.

He looks up at the surface of the water, beginning to swim up towards it.

“C’mon!”

You followed his lead up to the surface, your head breaching above the water. You turned to see him wading towards the shallow end, that was formed by sand and rock. You swam closer to him, while he looked around small area that was partially closed off by tunnel-like cave.

“Have you ever been above the surface before?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah, before I was a siren,” you answered, making him turn to you with a puzzled look on his face. “I, uh, drowned when I was 16 but the colony took me in…” you explained, trailing off at hearing the morbidness of your story.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he expressed. “But….at least you have a second chance!” he exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood.

Yeah...an unfortunate one.

You just smiled, indulging in his attempt to make you feel better.

“But, no, we can’t survive on land,” you replied, to his original question while gesturing to the gills on your sides, right near your rib cage.

“That’s a shame, really. The world’s….truly amazing. So much to explore,” he commented. That’s probably what you missed most, being able to explore different parts of the world. You were alive and well, but confined to underwater jail.

Siren hell.

“So what do sirens do, exactly?”

Wow, he’s just...full of questions.

“Um...we’re really not that interesting,” you answered.

“Ah c’mon, surely you guys take pride in something, especially with such a small group,” he pressed.

“Well….” you started.

Don’t tell him.

“.....we hunt...for food.”

“Oh, wow. That’s mad, must be a big job,” he observed. “What do you eat?”

“Well, I eat mostly fish and small aquatic plants, but the others….” you trailed off. “...the others have more of ah….an acquired taste.”

He looked at you for a moment with a blank look on his face. But then a smile grew, making him chuckle a little. “Sounds interesting to me, love.”

Your heart skipped at the pet name, liking the way his voice said it with a smile on his face. But you were disheartened that you had to be so vague with him.

He couldn’t find out.

He’s the first mermaid you’ve met and he didn’t run away in terror when he saw you, when you revealed to him what you are.

But that’s because he doesn’t know.

And you didn’t want to be the one to let him know now.

*

*

*

He leaned back against the bed of the sand, slightly pulling himself out of the water so his torso was completely exposed. You followed next to him, but just propping your elbow up onto the top of the hill. You took a moment to admire him as he closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air. You noticed his hair had a bit a texture to it when out of the water and you wondered what it looked like completely dry.

Your eyes moved down his body, scanning over his fit physique. His arms and abs seemed to have been sculpted by greek gods. You felt your face grow warm, flushing at the thought of feeling his strong arms around you, embracing you close to him.

“What about you? How did you die?” you asked, wanting to turn the focus on him.

“How did I—what, sorry?” He stammered, puzzled by your question.

“Oh I’m sorry! It’s just….I thought mermaids were created from peaceful deaths….” you explained, your voice getting quieter.

His face softened at your statement. He thought you were cute when you got all shy around him.

“Well, yes, but pure mermaids are born from other mermaids, like me and my brothers,” he clarified.

“My father is the King of the Reef, and overlooks all of the creatures of the sea, mostly our people, to make sure there is a consistent balance and peace,” he added.

Your eyes widened at his words. “That sounds like a big job...lot of responsibility,” you emphasized his statement from earlier. The mermaids were actually doing something, something altruistic and helped others, unlike your own group, who only worried about their own survival.

He scoffed a laugh. “Yeah, it is….” He trailed off, pausing. “I’m next in line for the throne and it’s just...a lot of pressure already.”

You frowned at his long expression. You knew what he was talking about. That feeling of people expecting you to succeed. You felt a large amount of pressure from your own situation, maybe even more considering your life was on the line.

You decided to change the subject, not wanting to press him further.

“How did you do that yesterday? With Scylla…” You remembered his hands, open palms with the ability to force her back into her cave.

“Oh, you mean this?” he replied as he brought his hand up, making the water in front of your mirror his hand movement, rising out of the body.

“All pure mermaids can do it, they’re gifts that help us to keep things...together.” He waved his hand to make the water move into an arch, bringing up his other hand and opening his palm. The water froze in its place, hanging there, out of place in the middle of the flowing water.

“I can also do this…” he continued as he brought his hands up again and slowly brought them down, making the water steam and melt back into the body.

You watched in amazement at his talents, thinking that he deserved these gifts for being so kind and gracious. He enjoyed watching your face light up from watching him show you what he could do, as merpeople weren’t as impressed by powers that some had while others didn’t.

“But, y’know, I could’ve beat her without using my powers,” he says, flashing a charming smile.

You laugh at his comment. “Yeah, well, what you actually did was much cooler.”

He chuckles at your reply, admiring your smile for a moment before speaking again. “Do sirens have any abilities?”

Your face fell at his question. “We uh….we can sing,” you said, not wanting to lie but trying to spare the details.

“Wow...can I hear something?” He looked at you expectantly, his eyes pleading for you to show him more of yourself.

“I’m uh, not really that good,” you laughed nervously, rubbing your arm.

“Ah, c’mon! A pretty siren like you, can’t be that bad,” he flirted, waving his hand towards himself, creating a small wave to push you closer next to him.

You gasped at the sudden force, your hands pressing into his side and abdomen as his hand gently touch the side of your head, making you look up at him.

You weren’t used to gestures of affection, but you also weren’t complaining. You looked right into his brown eyes, which looked a lot lighter under the sunlight. You were unsure of what to do as he brought his other hand up to your face, his fingers brushing under your chin. He began to lean in, a smiling growing on his face as he got closer. You panicked a bit, bringing your hands up to his chest to push him away.

“Y-Y’know, it’s uh, it’s getting late so um, I better go,” you stammered while you began to wade away from him. You quickly ducked your head back underwater to start swimming away when you heard a splash behind you, and Tom’s voice calling out.

“Wait, Y/N!”

You almost kept swimming, acting like you didn’t hear him but you turned around slowly anyway. He was just a few feet away from you, a straight look on his face.

“Will….will I see you again?” he asked with pleading eyes.

You looked at him for a moment, taking too long to respond. “Uh...if you...if you want to…”

He swam closer to you, a small smile on his face. “It’s just...I really... like talking to you,” he spoke honestly.

You softened at the adorable look on his face, with his brown eyes and soft features. You waded closer to him, now only a about a foot away from him.

“Then...I guess I’ll see you later,” you said, a smile growing on your face. He smiled at your affirmation, internally sighing in relief that he didn’t scare you off.

“Bye, Tom,” you added, before turning to leave. Your tail brushed his slightly as you did, making him smile to himself at the small gesture.

*

*

*

You swam back to the cave, your heart skipping with joy for the second night in a row.

You entered through the hole in your wall, solidifying your alibi so know one would know you were gone. You exited your room, going into the kitchen to help make dinner with Phoebe.

Phoebe was one of the oldest sirens in the colony, next to Persephone and Circe. She was your only friend in the colony despite the fact she was a lot older than you. But she was sweet and was really the only one you could turn to when you needed to talk to someone. She was the closest to a ‘mother figure’ you would have while living in the colony.

But most importantly, she hated the siren lifestyle as much as you did. You were glad at least one person had common sense around here.

“Oh, hello, Y/N,” she greeted with a warm smile.

You smiled back. “Hi Phoebe!”

She was busy cutting up what looked like some sort of meat, presumably a major organ from one of the bodies that were caught. It used to bother you, watching her harvest human bodies, but it was just one of the sights you had grown used to from living here for almost five years.

You got to work making you own dinner. It was something you did sometimes to help Phoebe out, since you didn’t eat like the rest of the group.

“So, your birthday is tomorrow right? 21, that’s pretty big!” Phoebe exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood about what was to come after your birthday.

“Yeah, really big. So big, I might just die!” You said sarcastically.

“Oh c’mon, Y/N, you’ll be fine,” she responded.

“Well, how did you get through your test?” You asked, needing some advice besides Circe yelling at you.

“I just went out there, thinking that nothing else in this moment matters more than my own life, and did it,” she replied honestly.

“But….you don’t like what they’re doing?“

“Of course not. I hate that they do this, especially putting all the pressure on you,” she consoled, turning towards you.

“Listen, Y/N. You’re so young. I know you don’t wanna do this or live like this but you just need to get through this and it will get easier, I promise,” she said as she soothingly rubbed your arm, much like Tom had done earlier that day.

You pondered her words, but let another question surface in your mind. “Phoebe, why do sirens hate mermaids so much?”

She thought about it for a moment before turning to look at you again.

“Because mermaids have hearts.”

*

*

*

A/N: op i decided to post early anyway....here’s the second part!! still just expositional stuffs but i actually sat down yesterday and (roughly) outlined the next three parts....it’ll get interesting i promise!! but tell me what ya think so far! how do you like the reader? how to you like tom? what/who do you want to see more/less of in future parts? what do ya think is gonna go down in future parts??? i wanna hear your thoughts!! hope you enjoyed and stay peachy!!

much love, tommybaholland 🌺

part 3? issa yes from me..

read more of my tom writing here!

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#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland fluff #tom holland smut #tom holland angst #tom holland fic #tom holland imagine #tom holland blurb #tom holland drabble #tom holland scenario #tom holland au #mermaid!tom au #mermaid!tom #au series #series #beneath the reef #marvel fic #spiderman fic #peter parker x reader #peter parker #peter parker fic #tommybaholland

[theoddcatlady]

Washed Overboard

“Jesus Christ, Anna, get your nose out of the book, we’re about to go snorkeling!”

I responded how I normally did to my sister- I raised my middle finger without tearing my eyes from the pages. I heard Rose gasp before she ran back to mom, whining about how I flipped her the bird and was being antisocial again.

Hey. My family dragged me away from my weekend of reading in my room where it was quiet and peaceful. My plans hadn’t changed even if the location had. On the ocean. Where my brother and his girlfriend were constantly making out below deck and you couldn’t get my older sister out of the water for more than ten minutes.

I heard my dad’s stride approach me before a pair of large hands covered my eyes. “Anna, did you flip off your sister again?” He asked.

I struggled free and set down the book, putting a bookmark in place. “There’s no photographic evidence,” I said before turning in my seat to look at him. “Are you seriously going to force me to snorkel?”

“Noooooo… but I’ll take you to a bookstore once we’re back home if you do.”

The cruelest of bribery. I chewed my bottom lip as I contemplated it before I said, “And we name the boat ‘The Midlife Crisis’?”

I got a gentle smack on the back of the head for that.

“Worth a shot.”

I got into my swimsuit and stood awkwardly near the edge, crossing my arms over my chest. Rose bounced over, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Yippee! You’re gonna love it sis. It’s SO gorgeous out here!” She trilled before she jumped in. The water was practically her second home.

On the other hand, I totally believe if God meant us to swim, he would’ve given us fins. And that says something considering I’m an atheist.

I took a deep breath before I dived in after her.

The water wasn’t too cold at least, Rose was already swimming off watching the coral below. I floated in place for a while, not moving an inch.

“Anna! You drowning?”

I shot a thumbs up above the water before I started paddling my feet. Rose was so graceful in the water, each movement smooth and calculated. The fish got close to her, unafraid of her because she was unafraid of them.

I screamed when a smaller fish darted closer to me. It darted off and hid. Yeah. I’m a little scared of fish. Just a little.

I was beginning to wonder when was the appropriate time to return to the boat when at the corner of my eye I caught a dark shape floating. A human dark shape floating.

I popped my head up, my heart pounding in my chest. Had something happened to Rose? I ripped off the goggles and started paddling to the body.

Closer I got confirmed it wasn’t Rose. It was a man. Too tanned to be my pasty white dad or sunburned brother, but they weren’t moving. Frantically, I paddled faster, screaming for Rose or my dad for help. I reached him and turned him over.

He wasn’t rotting. He was still warm to the touch. Also, bad time to notice, but he was really hot. And naked.

Rose popped up next to me, her eyes bulging from her skull. “Holy shit! Is he dead?!”

“I don’t think so, come on, I can’t drag him back to the boat myself!” I grunted as I attempted to do so, only succeeding in pushing my head below the water.

Thankfully Rose had been a lifeguard for the past two summers running. She knew how to do this. We dragged the unconscious man up to the ship, yelling for dad to help. Both him and my mom grabbed a hold of the guy and pulled him onto the deck. By the time I got my flippers kicked off and I climbed onboard Rose was already performing CPR.

I shook my head as Leo finally joined us above deck, his girlfriend Claire discreetly adjusting her bikini top behind him. He was so dead. The success rate of CPR was way lower than the movies and the TV shows would have you believe. Ick. I checked out a dead guy.

Water spurted from the guy’s mouth and he sat up in a shot. I screamed and nearly toppled overboard as I scrambled backward. The man gasped, his eyes wide as he rested a hand on his chest. His eyes darted from person to person. Rose sighed with relief. “Welcome back to the living,” She said, patting his shoulder.

This is when we all consecutively noticed how very naked he was. My mom quickly tossed him a towel to cover his ‘decency’ and my dad got him to a chair to sit down. He seemed very out of it, not surprised given he was probably just about to head into that good old white light before we fished him out of the ocean.

“Sis, get the first aid kit. And maybe dad’s spare trunks,” Rose said as she sat with him.

Of course I was reduced to running girl. Not like I found him or anything. By the time I returned to deck, he seemed more focused and was talking coherently.  His bright green eyes focused on me as I walked up, holding out the swim trunks. I felt my face grow a bit warm and I cleared my throat. “So, did you see a white light or anything?” I asked.

Rose groaned and face palmed. “That’s my sister Anna, she’s the one who found you. She doesn’t know how to talk like a normal person,” She said.

The man chuckled and took the swim trunks, resting them on his lap. Damn, he had great thighs. Focus on his face. On. His. Face. “Eh, I can’t remember if I did or not. Thank you, Anna. I don’t know how much longer I would’ve lasted out there,” He said. Damn, his voice was sexier than his ripped bod.

Seriously! Focus!

I cleared my throat a few times and shrugged. “I mean, I’m not gonna leave you for the sharks. What’s your name?”

“Christopher. My name is Christopher.”

Despite nearly drowning, Christopher seemed to show no ill effects, only taking an Advil for the headache he had. And my whole family immediately fell in love with him. Particularly Rose.

Especially Rose.

“Here’s dinner,” My dad said as he plopped the steaks in front of us. Christopher seemed uninterested in dinner. Same with Rose. They were… very interested in each other, their eyes not breaking contact and their hands clutched together.

Mom pressed her lips together. “Chris? Rose? Are you hungry?” She asked, not so subtly hinting for them to break it up.

“Oh! Right!” Rose blushed and filled her plate while Chris raised a hand.

“I’ll pass. I’m not too hungry.”

Claire wrinkled her nose. “What were you doing out there anyway?” She asked.

Chris paused for a moment. “Oh, why I was out in the water?” He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s embarrassing. I was on a boat with my friends last night, we were partying, and I guess I slipped. Ocean was rocking pretty roughly last night, I hit my head on the way down. I don’t know how I made it as long as I did,” He said.

“And you were walking around naked-” I cut off as Rose kicked my ankle.

Chris shrugged. “It was warm,” was his excuse. Rose giggled and set her head on his shoulder. Lucky her.

I focused on my steak dinner and let Chris continue chatting it up with my family. After I cleaned my plate I walked below deck, deciding now was the time to finish my book.

“Pssst! Anna!”

Claire poked her head from her room and gestured me in. Confused, I walked in. Claire was the same age as my little brother, sixteen, so there wasn’t much of a gap between us but she hardly seemed interested in talking to me. For a few seconds, Claire listened at the door before she sat on the bed.

“I think Christopher is full of shit.”

I nearly choked on my spit with how bluntly she delivered that. I pounded my chest before I sat down next to her. “What do you mean, full of shit?” I asked.

Claire rolled her eyes. “Please. He said he fell overboard last night. You didn’t find him until midafternoon. Yet his skin wasn’t wrinkled? Heck, he was still alive after being out there so long? And the ocean was hardly bad last night. I’m just saying it’s weird. Also. He was walking around naked last night. How convenient.”

Huh. I shifted my weight on the bed and frowned. “That’s… that’s a bit weird, yeah.” I heard a burst of laughter above deck, Christopher probably cracked another joke. “I don’t think he’s bad though. I mean, he’s been nice. Maybe he’s just embarrassed?”

Claire pursed her lips. “That’s what worries me even more. If he was out to sea last night with his friends, why the fuck hasn’t he asked for one of our cellphones to call them and tell them he’s okay? Why haven’t we heard on the radio that someone went overboard last night?”

Oh.

~*~

I couldn’t sleep that night. Christopher was sleeping on the top deck, dad was promising to take us all back to land tomorrow so we could reunite Christopher with his friends. Christopher laughed and said he’d kick their asses for not realizing he was gone.

Why did Claire have to make me all paranoid though?

I counted the waves splashing against my window. Maybe it would work like counting sheep and I’d be okay. One wave… two waves… three waves… a giant fucking splash…

Did Christopher fall overboard again? I kicked off the blankets and quick walked to the deck, my heart bouncing into my throat.

Rose was out there in her Hello Kitty pajamas, looking overboard. Her lips were in a perfect ‘o’ as she stared into the water. “How… I don’t understand, Christopher...” She said.

I heard Christopher’s voice, more melodic and soothing than ever. “Come with me, Rose. I can show you the reef in ways you’ve never imagined. You won’t have to leave the water again. And your chains with be of the beautiful silver and pearls.”

I was almost onto the deck myself when someone yanked my arm back below deck.

It was Claire, who’d gone white. “Cover your ears! Now!” She hissed, pointing to her own earplugs. I reached up, dazed, clapping my hands over my ears.

It was like a switch. What the fuck.

Claire dragged me further below deck, out of earshot of Christopher. “There’s more of them. Men, woman. I saw them swimming by the window,” She said, pulling out one earplug. “They’re all telling us to come overboard. I had to tie Leo to the bed with his t-shirt, he’s uber pissed.”

“What the actual shit is going on, Claire?!” I asked, glancing back up the stairs. I could still hear Christopher’s voice, not the words, just the tone.

Claire shook her head. She had no idea.

Oh no. Rose.

I pulled Claire’s earplugs from her and ran back above deck.

My parents were already up there, staring into the water. Rose was standing on the edge of the boat, completely naked except for the necklace I gave her last year. I could hear Christopher’s voice, with many others, talking to all of them.

I screamed Rose’s name at the top of my lungs. Rose jerked and turned around, seemingly trying to focus on my voice. “Rose! Get down from there! Please!” I screamed again, starting to run to her to pull her down.

My dad clubbed me over the head before I got too close. I hit the ground, my skull exploding in pain. I heard one splash. Two splashes. One of the earplugs rolled out of my ear. I heard Christopher again.

“Jump, Rose! Jump!”

I blacked out.

The next morning, when the sun started warming my face, I woke up, my head aching and Rose nowhere in sight. Neither was Christopher. I walked to the bench where he’d slept the night previous, the borrowed swim trunks were neatly folded on the seat.

I heard a splash and turned my head.

A scarlet, scaly tail slapped above the water, before a familiar head poked up. Christopher grinned up at me, gesturing for me to come closer.

I threw the swim trunks at his head before I ran below deck, screaming for my family.

Mom and dad were gone. Leo was gone. Claire was also gone. I was the only one left onboard. I walked back on deck. Christopher was already gone, along with his swim trunks.

I sunk to the ground, wrapping my arms around myself as I sobbed.

I was all alone. The only one not convinced to jump overboard.

#horror stories #scary stories #sixpenceee stories #writers on tumblr #my stories

[tessatechaitea]

Black Canary: New Wings #4

Black Canary on the future site of the EMP. Sorry, EMP Museum. Sorry MoPOP.

The covers of this series scream, "Seattle is a major character in this comic book!" But the story whispers, "Do you know where I take place? Shh, shh. Don't worry about it, baby. We took care of that on the cover." You know how when a movie takes place 20 or 30 years ago, the writer and director have to make sure to pepper it with tons of nostalgic references from that time? What if they did the same thing with movies that take place in the present? Father: "Holy baloney! A dinosaur made from fire that spits tornadoes is ravaging the Museum of Pop Culture! We have to skip seeing The Rise of Skywalker and get out of town!" Daughter: "Just let me finish my Fruity Pebbles that turn the milk blue!" Father:: "Hurry up! And don't forget to grab your Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures!" Daughter:: "Okay Boomer." Hmm. I just realized that maybe current movies already do that just to seem current and I just don't notice because why would I notice people mentioning mundane things I hear about every day? I suppose if I watched a movie that was current in 2000, I'd probably roll my eyes at all the stuff they packed in their to remind me of what the year 2000 was like, like meeting people at the gate in airports and being able to keep your shoes on at airports and being able to arrive at an airport five minutes before your plane departed and leaving my machete in my carry on bag at the airport. For some reason, the airport experience was super different in 2000. This issue begins with an advertisement for Hercules Luggage.

That elephant is coming its brains out.

The issue begins like this because the suitcases play an important role in the way the drug smugglers offload the cocaine from the ships. I suppose the reader doesn't need to have this much information about the suitcases being used though so I have a different theory. You know how David Finch's contract says that he will only draw a comic book if the writer puts at least one scene with a woman in a towel fresh out of the shower? I bet Trevor Von Eeden had the same kind of stipulation in his contract but with elephant orgasms. While the suitcases filled with cocaine float three feet under the surface of the ocean (as you would expect being that they were Hercules Luggage!), Black Canary and Gan Nguyen are being threatened by racists. I bet some readers in 1992 wished they could log onto a popular social media platform, find a bunch of other lonely and pathetic assholes, and complain that this comic book is a social justice piece of shit. But instead, they actually had to pull out their letter writing paraphernalia, sit down at their writing desk, and place a pen in their mouth while looking up at the ceiling to decide how to compose their letter. Do they begin stating that they're totally against racism but maybe comic books aren't a good place to shove this stuff down their throat? Maybe they could point out how they're so not racist that they think portraying a bunch of white guys as racist is the real racism? Or maybe they could point out how, not being racist, they already know not to be racist but they think this comic book's nagging about racism might be the real cause of racism? Whatever their letters wound up being about, I bet editor Mike Gold told them to fuck right off, just like he did with all the racist letters sent in reaction to Teen Titans Spotlight on Starfire! Black Canary and her new sidekick escape the racists and run off into the wilds surrounding Seattle. Meanwhile, the racist assassin's son decides to fuck off and run away from his racist home because he knows racism is bad. I don't know how he figured it out though. I bet he read a comic book about Green Arrow battling werewolves or something.

Black Canary discovers the sheriff is in on the racism by finding his racist stationary he keeps right out in the open.

Not having found the cocaine, Black Canary heads back to the wharf in the morning to stake it out. She discovers the racist assassin going out in a fishing boat with the Senator's son and some semi-automatic rifles. Some people might call them assault rifles but if there's one thing I've learned from Twitter, it's that calling them assault rifles really pisses off the idiots who have no other argument against gun control than to scream, "The AR in AR-15 stands for Armalite!" Oh, also, the racists are using M-16s so none of that matters. It's probably okay to call those assault rifles since the "M" stands for "My assault rifle." To catch the racists, Black Canary tarts herself off and follows them in a speed boat.

Instead of finishing the quote with "What the fuck," she flips the bird. That must be why this comic book isn't approved by the Comic Code Authority!

I wonder how many super cool valedictorians in the 80s gave speeches that ended with them putting on sunglasses and saying the Risky Business quote? I bet it was like 90% of them. While Gan and Chad, the racist assassin's son, get help from the Quinault Indians whose backyard the cocaine-filled suitcases are floating, Black Canary rams her speed boat into the drug smuggler's boat. She pretends to be unconscious while they pull her aboard to save her life.

"Aww, she can't feel nothin'!" is the title of my sex tape. Aww, I Can't Feel Nothin'!" is the title of my memoir.

If there's one thing I've learned about empathy, it's that you can't feel any for any creature that isn't comparable to a creature you love. I don't love any dogs so I go around killing dogs all the time. But I have cats so I love cats and would die for them. I also don't have children so fuck children. Not like that! You must not know any children to have acquired empathy for them if you thought I meant that kind of fucking! Speaking of the cats I love, look who came to visit as soon as I typed that!

It's Gravy!

Maybe Gravy just visited because she heard there was a canary somewhere. Speaking of Canaries with nice asses, Black Canary captures the drug lords and saves the day. Everybody exclaims, "Yay Black Canary! You knew what was going on all along! Next time we'll believe you instead of thinking, 'This woman is hysterical!' At least, that's what it feels like in the moment. But, you know how it is! Tomorrow is another patriarchal, misogynist day and it won't be our faults when we think you're crying wolf again simply because we've learned to take women's words less seriously than men's for no real reason and, I mean, your tits are right there under that shirt and jacket, you lascivious vixen you!" Oh yeah, also Chad kills his dad to save Black Canary's life. And his dad was finally proud of him! Is that toxic masculinity? Black Canary: New Wings #4 Rating: A. A well written book that mostly looks good too. Sometimes people look weird and I wonder if somebody was slacking on the pencils or inks because they were doing a load of cocaine at the time. And other times, Black Canary's ass was totally hanging out there which didn't make me think about the male gaze at all. It just made me think, "Look at that fine ass!" But then, 90% of my thoughts any given day are simply "Look at that fine ass!" Except when I'm near a schoolyard, you perv. Then most of my thoughts are, "Please don't make fun of my clothes, you delinquents!" The only complaint I have about this comic book is that it didn't have enough Seattle in it.

#Black Canary #DC Comics #DC #Sarah Byam #Trevor Von Eeden #Dick Giordano

[genogenocrazycatman]

Rush - Trafalgar Law x OC

Rush [Archive of Our Own]

Characters: Original Female Character, Trafalgar Law, Original Male Character

Being with Law was a rush at first, but soon after it was like everything slowed down, and we were in our own world, floating away from everyone and everything else. He was a slow and steady warmth that spread throughout my body. When we were apart, I didn’t just want that feeling again. I needed it, whether it be from a look, a hug, a kiss, whatever. I didn’t care.

This is the sixth rewrite of this, and while I'm still not happy with it, this one has turned out far better than the others.

Medical things. I am not a doctor. I have no clue what I'm talking about. Everything I mention is about 50% google, 10% it's anime, 15% plot convenience (at least I'm willing to admit it) and 25% fuck it. So if I get something wrong oh well, cause I'm not knowledgeable enough and I don't give enough of a fuck to go and fix it.

***

I took my drag of my cigarette, and stared out at the ocean. The moon light reflected on the water’s surface. The spring island, where I had boarded the ship I was currently on, was no longer visible. The sounds of the village, the people in the taverns, the shops closing up had given way to the gentle lapping of waves on the hull.

There was something about the vastness of the sea that was just special. I couldn’t say that it was a positive quality, nor was it entirely negative. You could sail for weeks without encountering another soul. The solitude was liberating in a way. There was no one to answer to, no social constructs to uphold. You could do whatever you wanted, and no one could tell you otherwise.

On the other hand, that solitude could easily give way to loneliness. There was no one to answer to, but that also meant that there was no one to talk to, no one to laugh with, no one to pick you up, no shoulder to cry on, no one to share your joy with.

By the time I set sail, I was already well acquainted with loneliness, among many other things. Violence and pain standing out among them. I found solace in those two concepts. It was more than solace. It was bliss.

It wasn’t until I had met a pirate crew and their enigmatic captain that I was able to find that joy and that comfort elsewhere, in friendship, in love.

I was lucky in that respect. I had found a place in this world. Surrounded by my crewmates, the vastness of the sea wasn’t so daunting. It wasn’t so lonely. I would do whatever it took to preserve that, which was why I was on this ship, taking one last drag of my cigarette, before flicking it overboard.

I turned around and surveyed the deck, the carnage around me. My kills had been quick and fairly quiet. Cervical fractures, carotid artery compression, exsanguination due to CTIs.

It was a waste. I was relying on the element of surprise. I couldn’t allow them to yell out and give me away, no matter how much I wanted to.

With the exception of the helmsman, who I had taken care of first and the captain, who was below deck, all of the men on the boat had been posted on the small ship’s deck with their weapons in hand and cannons readied. Guard duty. It was a good idea.

They had abducted a supernova. In theory there were the marines to worry about, bounty hunters, the captive’s crew, possible rivals. In actuality, there was just me, who had no problem taking out a dozen mediocre pirates. If not for the intelligence of their captain, no doubt these buffoons would have perished long ago.

I headed below deck for the bilge for the hold. I stopped at the top of the hatch, hearing a deep voice coming from down below.

“How’s it feel, Trafalgar, to know that I’m going to put you through the same hell that you’ve inflicted on so many others?”

I lifted the hatch just enough to peer down into the hold. Law was sitting on the floor, his arms chained up over his head.  He was beat up. His lip was busted, and a bruise was forming around his left eye. He was shirtless, revealing the beep bruising on his abdomen.

Hovering over him was a large brutish man. At first glance, I would’ve just assumed that he was all brawn no brain, but he had managed not only to track down Law, but to abduct him as well. It was an impressive feat.

He’d played it smart and waited until Law and his crew were comfortable in a tavern. Law had only had a few, before leaving, while the rest of the lot continued to enjoy the booze, food and women. The brute had snuck up on the Surgeon of Death and knocked him out, before dragging him to the docks, where his ship was located. The crew had quickly left the docks and headed out to see, unaware that I had snuck aboard. The brute wasn’t the only smart one.

He seemed pretty tough. He would make a nice reward for my efforts tonight. Once I freed Law, I was going to have some real fun.

I didn’t remember the brute, but he obviously knew us or at least Law. The melodramatic monologue that I was listening in on, was filled with promises of vengeance and retribution, not something that you’d hit a stranger with.

He had a knife in his hand, undoubtedly to cut Law’s heart out. I was undecided on whether it was poetic or ironic. It depended on how emotionally invested you were in the situation. It was a fairly short blade, long enough to puncture the heart, but not so deep that I had to worry about him

Law said nothing in response, staring down at his lap the entire time.

“Look at me, when I’m talking to you!” the Brute snapped, grabbing Law’s chin and forcing him to look up.

Law’s usual smirk was absent, a far more sarcastic and sinister one in its place.

I couldn’t help, the grin that tugged at the corner of my lips. He knew I was there.

His smirk set the guy off. He brought the knife down, driving it into Law’s chest between the third and fourth rib. In addition to piercing the heart, the brute had to have damaged the costal cartilages, based on the angle of entry and the width of the blade.

I should have intervened earlier. I should have prevented the injury from occurring, but I was momentarily frozen. The part of my brain that said, keep Law safe was drowned out by the part that reveled in his suffering.

It wasn’t a sexual thing. I didn’t get off on the pain of others. It would be easier to explain that way. Sexual sadism seemed to be easier for people to comprehend than sadistic personality disorder. It was euphoric in its own sense, stimulating my brain like a drug. The feeling I got from seeing people hurt, watching them suffer and ultimately break was indescribable. Words didn’t do it justice.

The man used a serrated knife, which ripped through the flesh as opposed to slicing through it. The same went for the cardiac tissue beneath. The serrated edge sawed into the cartilage.

Law’s pained cry rang out through the ship with only me and the brute to hear it.

I couldn’t help, but stare at the scene in front of me. Law’s muscles tensed and involuntarily, causing him to writhe in place, wrists pulling against the sea stone cuffs. A sheen of sweat quickly developed over his skin, and crimson ran from the newly created wound in his chest.

Law was strong, resilient, calculating and composed. Very rarely did anyone ever get the jump on him. Sea kings sure. The weather definitely, but not people. I had never seen his composure shattered like this.

It was a beautiful sight.

The brute retracted his knife, causing Law to yell out again.

He looked down at Law, with a victorious gleam in his eye. “You took my brother’s heart. Now I’m taking yours, you sadistic bastard.”

If it had been anyone else, I would’ve just sat there and enjoyed the show, watching as the knife tore through the flesh, sawing through the costal cartilage, listening to the crunch of bones breaking as the brute broke ribs to get to the heart. But it wasn’t anyone else.

It was Law. Law, who I owed a great debt to. Law, who gave me a place in this world. Law, who made me feel as if I belonged. Law, I had already failed with my moment of weakness, my hesitation.

I had eaten the pocket pocket fruit, which gave me access to a pocket dimension. With a poof of blood red smoke, I could send items to and summon items from that space, including supplies, treasure, weapons and even people. I often used that ability to teleport so to speak, poofing into my dimension from one spot and poofing myself out in another.

I poofed myself into my pocket space, grabbing a bullhook and poofing back out, behind the brute. I swung the hook around, the hook piercing his cheek and yanking it back. It ripped through the flesh and hooked itself on his ramus. I caught him off guard. He couldn’t properly balance himself, when I yanked back on the hook hard. I knocked him through a bunch of crates that were serving as a makeshift table in the center of the room.

“Let’s get something clear here,” I started, standing over the brute.

I unhooked the bullhook from his jaw and cranked back, before driving it into his bicep. He cried out in pain, a sound that delighted me to no end.

“I’m the only one, who has my captain’s heart.” I put my left hand out, poofing the organ into it. I tossed it back towards Law, so that it landed in his lap.

I hit the brute with the handle of my bullhook, knocking him out for the time being. I patted down the brute finding the key for the cuffs on Law’s wrists. I pulled it out of one of his pockets and walked over to my captain, carefully unlocking them and releasing him.

I poofed the necessary supplies out of my pocket space and knelt down in front of him, quickly examining him. The bruises were simply that bruises. There were no underlying injuries, at least that I could tell. It appeared that the brute had made sure that Law suffered no serious injuries, save for the chest wound.

Law raised his hand uttering, “Room.”

“Are you enjoying yourself?” he asked, sounding understandably irritated.

I poofed a scalpel into my hand, handing it over to Law. “I was,” I admitted.

“Was?”

“I snapped out of it.”

Law popped the heart in his chest out. I took a look at it. It had been punctured, but not deeply. It was enough to be fatal, if not attended to immediately, but that was none of my concern. I turned and lobbed it at the brute, hitting him square in his half-shredded face with it.

“You did,” he conceded. “Though we still have work to do on your discipline.”

I was relieved. He was okay.  If he was already using this experience as a measurement of my self-control, something that we had been working on since we met, then he was fine.

“He didn’t hit any major blood vessels, nor the lung, but he did hit the costal cartilage connecting your third and fourth ribs to your sternum. The muscle has obviously been lacerated, as has the skin. I lifted his heart up off of his lap and carefully slotted it into the hole in his chest.

At this point there weren’t many of Law’s organs actually in his body, the important ones at least. They all resided in specialized cases with in my pocket dimension.

“You did well,” he said. “I can take it from here.” Using the supplies that I summoned and his fruit, he repaired the injury fairly quickly, the only sign, being a short line of stitches underneath a bandage.

Remind me, when we’re back at the island, and we’ll take inventory of your stock.”

I nodded. He stood up, groaning a bit at the soreness, while I packed everything up and returned it to my space.

Law walked over to the brute. He had to be hurting. There was nothing we could do about the cartilage. It had to heal on its own. Each breath had to be painful.

He waved something under the brute’s nose. Only when the large man woke up, did I realize what they were, smelling salts.

I peered at Law curiously, not sure what it was he was planning, but sure that whatever it was wasn’t going to end well for the brute.

He pushed himself back, trying to get away from Law, but ran into a wall.

“You think I’m sadistic,” Law said to the brute. “You have no idea what sadism really looks like.”

“Do whatever you want,” Law told me.

I smirked.  I looked at the side of the brute’s face that I had torn through. My expression switched to one of petulance. “I rushed that side.” I stalked towards him. “But this one I’m going to do properly.”

I swapped out my bullhook for a club, swinging it around and striking the brute in the chest. The wall behind him cracked. He coughed, trying to breathe, having the wind knocked out of him. I switched out my club for another scalpel, using the sharp blade to nick the corner of the brute’s mouth.

“Ratchet-ya, what have I told you about using medical instruments to play your games,” Law scolded.

I looked over my shoulder and gave Law a wide grin showing how not-sorry I was.  “Thank you, Ratchet for saving my ass,” I teased, knowing that despite this situation we were on the same ground as usual.

I swapped the club out for a heavy metal pillar. I lifted it, dropping it onto the brute’s shin. With a satisfying crack, his tibia and fibula both snapped.

That crack was nothing in comparison to the anguished cry that left his mouth. The nick I had made at the corner of his mouth, was pulled apart further.

My heart rate quickened, and a pleasant tingle traveled up my spine. It was a struggle to keep my composure. The game ended if they passed out. It was about maintaining a delicate balance. Inflict enough pain for it to be fun, but not so much that they passed out or died. It was a delicate balance but one that I had mastered. I had only intended to go until both sides of the brute’s mouth matched, but I had gone overboard, caught in the cadence of his screams, the fear and pain in his eyes, his feeble attempts to speak, pleading for me to stop.

Two hours later and the smell of blood was thick in the air. The substance coated the brute, pooled on the floor beneath him. He was still. All the fight had drained out of him. The defiance was gone. There was nothing left but fear and pain. I kneeled down, so that I was eye level with the big man. “You know what the best part of this is?” I asked. “That you’re not going to die.” I laughed. “We’re going to take this ship back to port. My captain and I are going to head back to our inn. I’m going to shower, and think about every last one of those delectable noises you made for me. Tomorrow, we’re going to leave, and on our way out, someone’s going to alert the local authorities to your condition. By the time they stitch you back together and set your bones, we’ll be gone, and you’ll have to spend every day living with the reminders of what happened here.

“But it’s okay, because it gives you a chance to do some good. See I’m sure you think this is the part, where I warn you never to tell a soul about who did this, but that’s not the case. I want you to tell everyone that Ratchet the Hatchet did this, and that I’ll do it all over again to anyone, who even thinks about harming my captain.

“You understand?”

He made no effort to move.

I grabbed his face. “Do you understand?” I repeated slowly.

The brute nodded.

“Good.”

I stood up and poofed into my pocket dimension, taking a few moments to clean myself up and change into a new set of clothes, before poofing to the bridge, where Law was manning the helm. He was still shirtless, but otherwise clean. I handed him one of his shirts I had stored.

“You done?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered, a dopey grin on my face. I was still riding my high. “Too bad about the rest of them. If their big bad captain squealed like that, I can only imagine what they would’ve done.”

“Ratchet-ya, you would’ve killed them and then been disappointed.”

“True,” I agreed. “You okay?” I asked.

“I would be better, if you hadn’t waited until after he stabbed me in the chest, before taking care of him.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I was weak. I couldn’t help it. It was like you told me I could only have vegetables for dinner and then someone set a big juicy T-bone right in front of me. I was tempted.”

“And you gave into that,” Law shot.

“I took one bite, and I enjoyed it,” I admitted shamelessly. “One of the steaks I’ve ever had in my life. But then I went and tossed it out.”

“Considering, where we began with your blood lust, you’ve come a long way,” he sighed. “And I know that it must be difficult, considering that I don’t remove the temptation all together. We’ll have to work more on it.”

I nodded.

He shook his head at me, the corners of his mouth pulling upwards. “What am I going to do with you.”

I knew that I was in the clear this time.

“You know you still haven’t thanked me,” I joked. I knew I wasn’t actually going to get a “thank you” out of him, considering that I let him get stabbed.

“I let you have your fun.”

I scoffed. “That wasn’t just for me. You know as well as I do, that you let me do that, because you wanted revenge on him, because he embarrassed you.”

“I’m not embarrassed.”

“Really? Not at all? Big bad Trafalgar Law got captured by some second-rate pirate out for petty revenge? Doesn’t make you want to get back at him? To cut a smile into his face? To shatter his bones and rip out his finger nails? To cut off his fingers, and blow out his ear drums? To-”

I was cut off by Law’s lips on mine. There were few things that surpassed the thrill I got inflicting pain upon others, and kissing Law was one of them. Torturing someone was a rush. It was a quick and intense bout of euphoria. It overtook your senses and once it was over, all you wanted was to seek that feeling, that high out again, but Law was different.

Being with Law was a rush at first, but soon after it was like everything slowed down, and we were in our own world, floating away from everyone and everything else. He was a slow and steady warmth that spread throughout my body. When we were apart, I didn’t just want that feeling again. I needed it, whether it be from a look, a hug, a kiss, whatever. I didn’t care.

“Thank you, Ratchet,” he said, once we parted, resting his forehead on mine.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, grinning at him.

***

Master List | Mobile Version

#teroin writes #fanfiction #one piece #trafalgar law

[chadpetersondatingblog]

13 DIY Couples’ Costume Ideas That Are Better Than Anything You Can Buy In A Store

I love Halloween. I love creepy things. I love parties. I love candy (but not candy corn, gross). And most of all, I love making things. So, it’s pretty much the perfect holiday for someone like me. I spend all year making little notes on my phone of good couples costume ideas and mentally engineering their creation so that by the time fall rolls around, I’m all set and ready to go. But let’s assume that, unlike me, you aren’t a neurotic Halloween lover and you don’t have a ton of DIY couples costume ideas in your phone. Don’t worry, you can have some of mine. Trust me, I’ve got plenty.

So, whether you prefer something cute, sexy, or nightmare-inducing, I’ve figured out how to put it on your bods. Yes, you could just run down to the local costume store, but that’s so boring! That’s how you end up at a party with everyone in the same Harley Quinn and Jack Sparrow costumes. Anyone can buy a costume at the store, but it takes a bit more effort and creativity to make it yourself. And really, don’t you and your partner deserve to win all the contests this year?

Here are some ideas to borrow, or at least to get your creativity flowin’.

1. Baby And Debora From Baby Driver

Giphy

This year’s coolest couple, hands down, are Baby and Debora from Baby Driver. If you have a partner who’s tough to talk into dressing up for Halloween, this is the couples costume he won’t be able to turn down. Who doesn’t want to be a bad ass get away driver? As a bonus, it’s actually really cool stuff you will want to wear year round.

For Debora, you’ll want to find a cute retro waitress dress and pair it with a sheepskin lined denim jacket. The Baby costume is just as easy: You just need the varsity style jacket, a white tee, black wayfarers, jeans, and black shoes. If you really want to complete the look, you can add a scar with with wax. Just make sure not to forget the earbuds!

2. The Fairly Odd Parents

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Want to be Wanda and Cosmo for Halloween this year? Your wish is my command. This one will take some minor fabrication, but I promise you are totally up for it. For Wanda, you will need a yellow tee, black pants, wings, and pink hair spray. Cosmo’s outfit is just a white button up shirt, black tie, black pants, green hair spray, and, of course, some more fairy wings. That just leaves their fairy crowns and wands. Time to get crafty. To create the crowns, you’ll need small headbands that will blend in your hair, a sheet of yellow foam, and some craft wire. To make the wand, you’ll need some wood dowels painted black, and you can use the leftover foam sheet to make the stars.

3. Yorkie And Kelly from Black Mirror

Netflix

Did you cry like a baby when Black Mirror’s San Junipero episode took home the Emmy for Outstanding Television series this year, too? Yeah, that’s because Yorkie and Kelly are everything, including this year’s queer girl couples costume goals. Unless you want to spend your next month trawling through a million thrift shops to find the perfect blinged-out jacket, the key is to just find modern pieces, which, when accessorized properly, give them an ’80s feel.

To channel Yorkie’s party girl vibe, you’ll need an embellished purple jacket, black corset top, and black harem pants. Top it off with a black oversized bow in the hair. To capture the adorable nerdiness of Kelly, pair a light blue sweatshirt with a pink collared shirt, khaki shorts, and don’t forget the wire-rimmed glasses. Cutest duo ever.

4. Cards Against Humanity

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Need a last minute costume that is actually awesome? Good news: This one only requires some foam boards and black and white paint pens! If you want to get more interactive, opt for chalkboards and erasable pens. Warning: That can get very dangerous as the night goes on and the drinks are flowing. Hmm, actually, that pretty much describes every game of Cards Against Humanity I’ve ever played, so it’s on theme!

5. Diana Prince And Steve Trevor From Wonder Woman

Warner Bros. Pictures

All I want in life is to be Wonder Woman. Is that too much to ask? Yes, yes, it is, because I don’t have the fabrication skills to create a breast plate. Now her disguise outfit… that’s something I can achieve. Was there anyone more dapper than Diana Prince and Steve Trevor as they made their way through the streets of 1910s London? Nope, and this is how you steal their style this Halloween.

This is not a warm-climate-appropriate costume. Go this route only if your Halloween is going to be on the chilly side. To get the Diana look, you’ll need a wool houndstooth coat, belted. Under the coat, you’ll need a white collared shirt, long skirt, and Victorian style boots. Oh, and don’t forget her sword. Steve’s costume is made of up layers: Start with a turtleneck sweater, topped with a brown leather vest and sheepskin lined coat. Pair all of this with a pair of dark khaki pants and black boots. Top it off with a navy brood hat to really nail the period costume.

6. The Purge

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Personally, I love a scary costume on Halloween, and what is scarier than the idea of all your friends and neighbors suddenly turning into homicidal maniacs for 12 hours every year? Plus, this costume is great if you’re a procrastinator, because it can be made up almost entirely of things you already have in your wardrobe. Your best bets are something sexy — or ironic — like lingerie, a prom dress, or a tux. To complete the look, you’ll need to make a mask, and there are great tutorials online on how to turn them into Purge masks. And of course, you’ll need your killing spree weapons of choice.

7. Pop Art

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Another last-minute costume that will still wow at any Halloween party is to turn the two of you into living pop art. There are some great tutorials on YouTube that will walk you through the makeup technique. To complete the look, think retro-inspired comic book clothing, and you can add speech bubbles with a headband, craft wire, and some paper. One last bit of advice: I highly suggest a few practice run throughs before hand. Otherwise your costume might be a living Pinterest fail instead.

8. Dipper And Mabel

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Is it creepy if your couples costume is made up of a brother and sister? Nah, not when it’s Dipper and Mable. They’re hardly the Lannisters, if you know what I’m sayin’. Anyway, moving on. Here’s how to become Gravity Falls’ greatest mystery solvers. For Dipper, you’ll need an orange t-shirt, blue vest, white socks, black shoes, and grey shorts. To complete the look, you’ll also need his signature hat, and to create that you need a blue trucker hat and some fabric paint to add the little blue tree. You might as well get the whole fabric paint kit, because you’re going to need a few more colors to create Mabel’s rainbow and star turtleneck. The rest of her costume is easy; it’s just a denim skirt, white knee socks, and some black ballet flats. Oh, and her headband too, of course. Cryptids of the Northwest will shiver when they see you coming.

9. Ellie And Grant From Jurassic Park

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You know who were an awesome couple? Ellie and Grant from Jurassic Park. They were smart, adventurous, and totally went toe-to-toe with prehistoric monsters… and won! Total couples goals. Yes, I know they weren’t together in the sequels, but let’s just make a pact to pretend they never happened, OK? Good. Moving on.

Here is how you can become Ellie and Grant for Halloween. Spoiler alert: Brace for khaki. For Ellie, you’ll need khaki shorts, a blue tank top, a pink button up (tied at the waist), hiking boots, and grey socks. For Grant, khaki pants, a denim shirt, a red bandana tied at the neck, hiking boots, and top it off with a wide brimmed fedora. Oh, and some dinosaur props really tie it all together.

If your boo isn’t really a “Grant type,” there’s always the doctor of chaos himself, Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcom. Just sayin’.

10. Hook And Tinker Bell

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Who wants to be Peter Pan and Wendy when you can be Tink and Hook? They have all the best accessories anyway. I dunno, I ship ’em. To create a cool Captain Hook, you need a red blazer, white blouse, a hook, and pirate captain’s hat with feathers. To get your Tinker Bell on, you’ll want a green tulle dress and fairy wings. Simple and cute.

11. Pennywise And Georgie From It

Giphy

Did you see It yet? Of course you did — everyone has. Thats because it’s scary as hell. I had nightmares for two nights after I saw it that Pennywise was peeking in my window. How messed up is that? Anyway, that also means it’s going to be a fantastic couples costume if you want to terrorize everyone else at the party. What else is Halloween for, right? The Georgie costume is easy; all you really need a is a hooded yellow rain coat, rain boots, and maybe a paper boat. To create your Pennywise, you’ll need a men’s white ruffled shirt, neck ruff, and pirate style pants. Add red pompoms down the front and on the toes of the shoes. Top it off with a red wig, killer clown makeup, and a red balloon. Why? Because they float. They all float.

12. Nasa And The Stars

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I love this couples costume, because what is more “meant to be together” than a NASA nerd and the galaxy? It’s sweet and clever and probably mostly already in your closet. Don’t lie — we all bought a galaxy dress in the last few years. Now you get to pull it back out and be the cutest couple at the party. For your astronomy nerd costume, you’ll just need a NASA tee, some nerd glasses (or add tape to yours), and suspenders are a nice touch. The stars really aligned for this costumes. Eh? Nudge, nudge.

13. Rick And Morty From Rick And Morty

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You’re gonna wubba-dubba-dub-love this costume idea! Want a reason to love Rick and Morty, I mean besides the fact that it’s just stone cold genius? This season they decided to implement gender parity in the writer’s room, and the show has never been better. Plus, when internet jerks decided it would be awesome to doxx those writers, creator Dan Harmon publicly smacked them down. Awesome. OK, now that you are pumped to celebrate all things Rick and Morty, here’s how to achieve the look. For Rick, you’ll need a lab coat, light blue shirt, khaki pants, a wig, and his trusty portal gun. Morty’s costume is a yellow shirt and jeans, but I

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13 DIY Couples’ Costume Ideas That Are Better Than Anything You Can Buy In A Store

I love Halloween. I love creepy things. I love parties. I love candy (but not candy corn, gross). And most of all, I love making things. So, it’s pretty much the perfect holiday for someone like me. I spend all year making little notes on my phone of good couples costume ideas and mentally engineering their creation so that by the time fall rolls around, I’m all set and ready to go. But let’s assume that, unlike me, you aren’t a neurotic Halloween lover and you don’t have a ton of DIY couples costume ideas in your phone. Don’t worry, you can have some of mine. Trust me, I’ve got plenty.

So, whether you prefer something cute, sexy, or nightmare-inducing, I’ve figured out how to put it on your bods. Yes, you could just run down to the local costume store, but that’s so boring! That’s how you end up at a party with everyone in the same Harley Quinn and Jack Sparrow costumes. Anyone can buy a costume at the store, but it takes a bit more effort and creativity to make it yourself. And really, don’t you and your partner deserve to win all the contests this year?

Here are some ideas to borrow, or at least to get your creativity flowin’.

1. Baby And Debora From Baby Driver

Giphy

This year’s coolest couple, hands down, are Baby and Debora from Baby Driver. If you have a partner who’s tough to talk into dressing up for Halloween, this is the couples costume he won’t be able to turn down. Who doesn’t want to be a bad ass get away driver? As a bonus, it’s actually really cool stuff you will want to wear year round.

For Debora, you’ll want to find a cute retro waitress dress and pair it with a sheepskin lined denim jacket. The Baby costume is just as easy: You just need the varsity style jacket, a white tee, black wayfarers, jeans, and black shoes. If you really want to complete the look, you can add a scar with with wax. Just make sure not to forget the earbuds!

2. The Fairly Odd Parents

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Want to be Wanda and Cosmo for Halloween this year? Your wish is my command. This one will take some minor fabrication, but I promise you are totally up for it. For Wanda, you will need a yellow tee, black pants, wings, and pink hair spray. Cosmo’s outfit is just a white button up shirt, black tie, black pants, green hair spray, and, of course, some more fairy wings. That just leaves their fairy crowns and wands. Time to get crafty. To create the crowns, you’ll need small headbands that will blend in your hair, a sheet of yellow foam, and some craft wire. To make the wand, you’ll need some wood dowels painted black, and you can use the leftover foam sheet to make the stars.

3. Yorkie And Kelly from Black Mirror

Netflix

Did you cry like a baby when Black Mirror’s San Junipero episode took home the Emmy for Outstanding Television series this year, too? Yeah, that’s because Yorkie and Kelly are everything, including this year’s queer girl couples costume goals. Unless you want to spend your next month trawling through a million thrift shops to find the perfect blinged-out jacket, the key is to just find modern pieces, which, when accessorized properly, give them an ’80s feel.

To channel Yorkie’s party girl vibe, you’ll need an embellished purple jacket, black corset top, and black harem pants. Top it off with a black oversized bow in the hair. To capture the adorable nerdiness of Kelly, pair a light blue sweatshirt with a pink collared shirt, khaki shorts, and don’t forget the wire-rimmed glasses. Cutest duo ever.

4. Cards Against Humanity

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Need a last minute costume that is actually awesome? Good news: This one only requires some foam boards and black and white paint pens! If you want to get more interactive, opt for chalkboards and erasable pens. Warning: That can get very dangerous as the night goes on and the drinks are flowing. Hmm, actually, that pretty much describes every game of Cards Against Humanity I’ve ever played, so it’s on theme!

5. Diana Prince And Steve Trevor From Wonder Woman

Warner Bros. Pictures

All I want in life is to be Wonder Woman. Is that too much to ask? Yes, yes, it is, because I don’t have the fabrication skills to create a breast plate. Now her disguise outfit… that’s something I can achieve. Was there anyone more dapper than Diana Prince and Steve Trevor as they made their way through the streets of 1910s London? Nope, and this is how you steal their style this Halloween.

This is not a warm-climate-appropriate costume. Go this route only if your Halloween is going to be on the chilly side. To get the Diana look, you’ll need a wool houndstooth coat, belted. Under the coat, you’ll need a white collared shirt, long skirt, and Victorian style boots. Oh, and don’t forget her sword. Steve’s costume is made of up layers: Start with a turtleneck sweater, topped with a brown leather vest and sheepskin lined coat. Pair all of this with a pair of dark khaki pants and black boots. Top it off with a navy brood hat to really nail the period costume.

6. The Purge

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Personally, I love a scary costume on Halloween, and what is scarier than the idea of all your friends and neighbors suddenly turning into homicidal maniacs for 12 hours every year? Plus, this costume is great if you’re a procrastinator, because it can be made up almost entirely of things you already have in your wardrobe. Your best bets are something sexy — or ironic — like lingerie, a prom dress, or a tux. To complete the look, you’ll need to make a mask, and there are great tutorials online on how to turn them into Purge masks. And of course, you’ll need your killing spree weapons of choice.

7. Pop Art

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Another last-minute costume that will still wow at any Halloween party is to turn the two of you into living pop art. There are some great tutorials on YouTube that will walk you through the makeup technique. To complete the look, think retro-inspired comic book clothing, and you can add speech bubbles with a headband, craft wire, and some paper. One last bit of advice: I highly suggest a few practice run throughs before hand. Otherwise your costume might be a living Pinterest fail instead.

8. Dipper And Mabel

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Is it creepy if your couples costume is made up of a brother and sister? Nah, not when it’s Dipper and Mable. They’re hardly the Lannisters, if you know what I’m sayin’. Anyway, moving on. Here’s how to become Gravity Falls’ greatest mystery solvers. For Dipper, you’ll need an orange t-shirt, blue vest, white socks, black shoes, and grey shorts. To complete the look, you’ll also need his signature hat, and to create that you need a blue trucker hat and some fabric paint to add the little blue tree. You might as well get the whole fabric paint kit, because you’re going to need a few more colors to create Mabel’s rainbow and star turtleneck. The rest of her costume is easy; it’s just a denim skirt, white knee socks, and some black ballet flats. Oh, and her headband too, of course. Cryptids of the Northwest will shiver when they see you coming.

9. Ellie And Grant From Jurassic Park

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You know who were an awesome couple? Ellie and Grant from Jurassic Park. They were smart, adventurous, and totally went toe-to-toe with prehistoric monsters… and won! Total couples goals. Yes, I know they weren’t together in the sequels, but let’s just make a pact to pretend they never happened, OK? Good. Moving on.

Here is how you can become Ellie and Grant for Halloween. Spoiler alert: Brace for khaki. For Ellie, you’ll need khaki shorts, a blue tank top, a pink button up (tied at the waist), hiking boots, and grey socks. For Grant, khaki pants, a denim shirt, a red bandana tied at the neck, hiking boots, and top it off with a wide brimmed fedora. Oh, and some dinosaur props really tie it all together.

If your boo isn’t really a “Grant type,” there’s always the doctor of chaos himself, Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcom. Just sayin’.

10. Hook And Tinker Bell

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Who wants to be Peter Pan and Wendy when you can be Tink and Hook? They have all the best accessories anyway. I dunno, I ship ’em. To create a cool Captain Hook, you need a red blazer, white blouse, a hook, and pirate captain’s hat with feathers. To get your Tinker Bell on, you’ll want a green tulle dress and fairy wings. Simple and cute.

11. Pennywise And Georgie From It

Giphy

Did you see It yet? Of course you did — everyone has. Thats because it’s scary as hell. I had nightmares for two nights after I saw it that Pennywise was peeking in my window. How messed up is that? Anyway, that also means it’s going to be a fantastic couples costume if you want to terrorize everyone else at the party. What else is Halloween for, right? The Georgie costume is easy; all you really need a is a hooded yellow rain coat, rain boots, and maybe a paper boat. To create your Pennywise, you’ll need a men’s white ruffled shirt, neck ruff, and pirate style pants. Add red pompoms down the front and on the toes of the shoes. Top it off with a red wig, killer clown makeup, and a red balloon. Why? Because they float. They all float.

12. Nasa And The Stars

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

I love this couples costume, because what is more “meant to be together” than a NASA nerd and the galaxy? It’s sweet and clever and probably mostly already in your closet. Don’t lie — we all bought a galaxy dress in the last few years. Now you get to pull it back out and be the cutest couple at the party. For your astronomy nerd costume, you’ll just need a NASA tee, some nerd glasses (or add tape to yours), and suspenders are a nice touch. The stars really aligned for this costumes. Eh? Nudge, nudge.

13. Rick And Morty From Rick And Morty

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You’re gonna wubba-dubba-dub-love this costume idea! Want a reason to love Rick and Morty, I mean besides the fact that it’s just stone cold genius? This season they decided to implement gender parity in the writer’s room, and the show has never been better. Plus, when internet jerks decided it would be awesome to doxx those writers, creator Dan Harmon publicly smacked them down. Awesome. OK, now that you are pumped to celebrate all things Rick and Morty, here’s how to achieve the look. For Rick, you’ll need a lab coat, light blue shirt, khaki pants, a wig, and his trusty portal gun. Morty’s costume is a yellow shirt and jeans, but I

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