#currently thinking about all the boats that capsize or get lost at sea

[captainkirkk]

Okay but how many people mistake Percy Jackson for a mermaid or merciful sea spirit after he saves them from drowning/being stranded at sea

#currently thinking about all the boats that capsize or get lost at sea #and how percy would help them if he coulr #*could #and how INSANE that would be to a mortal #like i know the mist helps but it'd still be wild #my posts #pjo #percy jackson

[sah-headcanons]

Well, I wasn't quite sure where to put this...

But I do have some OCs that I want to share with the world for a story that is in progress. Without giving too much away, the backstory for all of these characters is that they are otters, arrested by Flower Hill because they were confused as potential weasel spies. Now all of them are currently stuck in a Flower Hill POW facility and no one is happy about it. Here they are in no particular order. (Yes these are piccrew images, I can not draw.)

Name: River

Age: 25 at arrest

Gender: Male

Reason for being in Flower Hill: He's a fish farmer who wanted to establish a trade connection with some hatcheries in Flower Hill that had unique species of fish.

Reason for being arrested: He was in the wrong place at the wrong time...there was a weasel spy in the village he was staying at who had left just a few hours before and when he was spotted, the officers assumed this had to be the spy they were informed of.

Personality: River is a very quiet sort of otter, one who tends to spend a lot of time thinking. He's also very empathetic, to the point that those who don't know him would be forgiven for assuming he could read minds.

Opinion on the war: He doesn't know a whole lot about the war and as such has no feelings towards Flower Hill or Black Rock or Wolves Den.

Name: Inlet

Age: 28 at arrest

Gender: Genderfluid (shifts between male and female)

Reason for being in Flower Hill: Inlet was on his way back from a vacation in Frog Village, and Flower Hill just so happened to be a stop along the way.

Reason for being arrested: Unfortunately for Inlet, her passport photo didn't match her appearance as she was feeling quite feminine that day. It was assumed that his feminine appearance was some sort of disguise and he was consequently arrested.

Personality: Very sarcastic and passive-aggressive towards anyone she doesn't like. Very sweet and charming towards anyone he does. She likes to believe she's very clever but has yet to come up with a plan to get anyone out of the facility.

Opinions about the war: She was sympathetic towards Flower Hill, as they were the ones initially attacked. His views have since shifted quite a bit.

Name: Ocean Breeze

Age: 35 at arrest

Gender: Male

Reason for being in Flower Hill: Ocean was in a fishing boat that capsized and just so happened to wash up on the shores of Flower Hill after being lost at sea for weeks.

Reason for being arrested: Unfortunately, the officers in the town were on high alert due to reports of spy activity, thought that his story was rather suspicious, and ended up arresting him when he came to them for help.

Personality: Ocean is very family-motivated, with a wife and several children waiting for him in Otter Village. This has, consequently, made him fucking pissed. About being capsized, about being arrested, about being trapped in Flower Hill...he has a tendency to be physically violent with the guards and anyone he perceives as a threat, which has not earned him any favors in captivity.

Opinions about the war: He may not be thrilled about being held captive in Flower Hill, but he absolutely places the blame squarely on Black Rock, mostly the weasels, for starting the war to begin with. It's easy for him to understand going too far to protect one's family and community so he can relate to Flower Hill on that level, if nothing else.

Name: Ren Sudal (Ren is a title similar to "rector")

Age: 42 at arrest

Gender: Male

Reason for being in Flower Hill: Sudal is a devout pastor of the otter's faith system and had gone to Flower Hill to assist with reparation efforts for those affected by the war.

Reason for being arrested: A spy for Black Rock had come to Sudal, asking for his assistance in getting away from Flower Hill. The tenets of his faith meant that he felt obligated to provide help to anyone who earnestly asked for it. When his assistance was discovered, he was arrested for aiding and abetting the spy's escape.

Personality: Sudal tends to remain calm and stoic. He's a big believer that one must be patient to resolve an issue, and he's not about to do anything rash that would get him or his fellow otters into deeper trouble. He also firmly believes that karma has a funny way of catching up to just about anyone who's earned it.

Opinions about the war: Sudal is mostly neutral, believing that individuals need to be judged based on the merits of their own actions. Thus he avoids jumping to conclusions about anyone based on which "side" they are affiliated with.

Let me know if you have any questions about otters, these characters, or my AU in general.

#squirrel and hedgehog #oc #my ocs #potential au?

[thestalkerbunny]

Dnd One Shot that would only work if the party has a player who has ‘speak with animals’ or has some EXCELLENT animal handling skills. It would also work as a great filler episode.

Your party gets some tickets to go on the first ever LUXURY CRUISE-this is like...the fanciest shit your players or the world has ever seen, it is the premiere luxury cruise liner and it’s about to make it’s maiden voyage of a solid 30 day long trip. And most of the game you can have your players have fun and dick around, gamble, charm/upset/offend/get into  fights with other passengers-just finally live your dreams on a BOAT. Be as wild as you please with some boat shenanigans.

But each passing day as the cruises ship gets further and further out to sea, there are more and more odd complications. Something big keeps bumping into the boat and causing leaks in the hull, people sent to dive and check on what the outside damage looks like while the boat is briefly anchored find massive crushed bits of the boat like they‘ve been put into a vice grip, have one of the players even roll to have an unsettling dreams because their room is close to a port hull and they keep hearing odd deep calls in the night. These complications get worse and worse.

People begin to accuse each other of trying to sabotage the ship, maybe the ship’s owner trying to sink it to save himself on the insurance it has? Maybe the disgruntled captain who is being forced retired? A spurned mystery woman? Who knows, it starts to turn into a real ‘who is trying to sink this boat and endanger these innocent lives?’ who’s doing it?

The culprit?

Lobsters.

If at any time a player who makes a good animal handling check goes down into the main dining area, they’ll find the massive lobster tank where they keep all the lobsters they’re going to use on the last night of the cruise for a big lobster dinner. Most of the lobsters will, to a player that rolls high enough to notice, seem to look very resigned to their fates as the main course-except for one that is a rather large lobster and looks particular determined for a lobster.

If the player uses ‘speak with animals’-most of the lobsters will be very very sad and depressed about this. They understand this the way it’s always been, nature says that you’re most likely to be eaten if you are small-but it doesn’t mean they at all want to accept it. The Big Lobster will most likely say nothing. The Lobsters would ask that player to please come and visit them every night promising to tell them special lobster stories in exchange for spreading them around to the ‘land walkers’, because they believe if their stories survive then they will truely achieve immortality in the afterlife and not be forced to return to the mortal plane as another creature.

If they player continues to visit the lobsters, they will tell the player numerous amazing stories about the creatures under the sea, from beautiful temples, mermaid kingdoms, great fissures in the deep, ancient deities that live in the trenches bound in bondage unseen for thousands of years. (it doesn’t hurt to drop some lobster facts in there as well, Lobsters believe they are all royalty as their blood is blue and that they are obviously the sea’s favored creature as they live forever when left natural in the wild.)

Eventually, the player will hear all the lobster stories. They may notice that with each passing day-as the complications of the boat get worse and worse-the lobsters seem more perky and excited. They may even hear the lobsters talking about how they ‘might actually get out of this one’ but they never really elaborate on why they think this-most of them are too focused on getting their stories told. If the player listens to all the lobster stories, repeatedly tries to converse to the big lobster in a friendly manner, and rolls a high enough charisma check-they will finally hear the big lobster speak.

The Big Lobster will say one thing. ‘You should probably brace yourself.’

This is when the final seige happen on the boat and it is attacked by a massive horrifying sea creature trying to capsize the boat. The players can join to try and stop the monster from sinking the boat or help passangers evacuate. The monster is most likely be undefeatable or it will be severely injured enough for it to leave the boat alone-but not without it being so badly damage that it can’t continue it’s voyage. Everyone will be forced to evacuate and wait for help to come from the main land. Most everyone will make it out safe (except for the people eaten by sharks or smashed by the monster)

In the dark of the night, the party will see a bunch of lobsters swimming towards their life boat with the biggest lobster in the lead. The big lobster will climb in and begin to talk in common to the party-thanking the player who listened to the lobster stories for doing so as it helped them all keep hope. The Big Lobster will apologize for the destruction of the boat-as it was directly his fault for doing so. The Big Lobster will reveal that for days it’s been psychically contacting the great sea monster to come and save it from his fate in the boiling pot and was only able to do so because of one thing-the big lobster is not a lobster.

He is in fact a wizard under a true polymorph spell. He is a wizard who studies the magical currents in the ocean for a living and had polymorphed himself into a lobster to study the sea up close and personal. But the magic device he was going to use to break the polymorph when he was done was lost and he with all the other lobsters were caught.  At any time in the game, another player can find that device and in this ending, they can break the polymorph and he turns back into a wizard. He thanks the party, apologizes for the damage and trouble before jumping back into the water and disappearing, only for the big sea monster to rise up out of the ocean again with the wizard riding on top and them to disappear into the night with the entourage of lobsters following after.

This one shot can be used as a filler episode while the players are traveling between continents or a lead in for an under sea adventure. You can even have the party come into some amazing sea themed magic items or a great amount of a money, signed courtesy of the ‘Lobster Wizard and Co.’

TLDR: Lobsters on the titanic as it’s sinking: Boys I think we might actually be getting out of this one!

#TSB talks #Dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #Lobsters #One Shot #Campaign Ideas

[tarosin]

the great adventures of y/n tubbo jack niki and wilbur - racing across the sea

requested: yes/no

part 8 of the great adventures series

warning: cursing, anxiety about the sea

ever since the argument you and tubbo had become inseparable, he practically lived with you and your parents at this point, and your community was loving it. everytime one of you would stream, tens of thousands of people would tune into your stream to see what madness was going on and today was no different. the pair of you decided to stream a laugh and the stream ends challenge. safe to say you ended up changing the rules several times, you even made ranboo join the stream so you could have extra lives. not long after the stream ended you, ranboo, and tubbo practically dominated the twitter trending page. today however was tubbos last day at yours and shortly after you ended stream, the pair of you headed out to the train station so you could make sure your best friend made it onto the train safely. after you said your goodbyes, you decided to facetime jack on your way home to discuss vlog ideas, and just to talk to him, as you had been rather busy this past week going over plans with ranboo, tubbo, and all of your parents about the uk trip that was happening pretty soon.

a few days later, it was finally time to go film the vlog. you couldn’t exactly lie, you weren’t exactly looking forward to this, as you were told it had something to do with the sea and boats which oddly enough didn’t mix very well with your fear of the deep sea. you had no idea what’s down there and you didn’t want to find out, but hey at least you’d be with tubbo.

your parents offered to drive you there so you didnt have any additional stress from having to get a train then a taxi, this allowed you to have a pretty quiet journey to meet up with your friends. you sat in the back of the car on facetime with tommy who was the only one who knew about your fear and was rather confused as the why you would agree to do such a thing

“i’ll never understand what goes through your mind, you’ve got this though! you’re going to be completely okay, plus you never know it might help you get over your fear, you did tell me you had been working on getting over it.”

“I suppose you’re right, it can’t be too bad. I mean I love the sea. I just don’t like what’s deep down, you feel me?”

“i understand mate, but you need to remember jack wouldn’t put you in danger. as much as he acts like he would, and even if you do fall off the boat or some how end up in the water, you won’t automatically end up at the bottom of the sea. just try to enjoy yourself, yeah?”

“...yeah”

“call me when you get home you can tell me all about what happened, afterwards we can record a minecraft mod video.”

“of course, boss man.”

“you hang out with tubbo too much, you should hang out with me a lot more.”

the car pulled into the car park and within a minute of the car stopping tubbo was at the window shouting your name.

“right tommy, i should probably go, ill see you later bud!”

you said goodbye to your parents as tubbo opened your car door for you.

“what a gentleman, thank you, tubbo.”

“anything for you, now let’s go. jack began filming the intro and i really want the hat hes wearing.”

“you’re ridiculous.”

he stood with his arms crossed shaking his head, pretending to be offended before walking off with you not far behind him.

you stood with niki and wilbur as tubbo went off filming some of the intro with jack. the three of you stood talking about how you have all been and discussing more plans for your meetup.

“y/n, go control your friend, he’s stealing a hat!”

you ran up behind tubbo and stole the hat from him, putting it on your own head.

“why have you got the hat now?”

“i am now captain!”

“but i wanted to be captain!”

you and tubbo stood arguing back and forth over who was captain, ignoring jack trying to get the pair of you to stop.

“you have 5 seconds to stop arguing or you’re being separated 5...4...3...2...1 right.”

“jack no!”

jack pulled you aside claiming he has something really important to ask you.

“so did you bring something valuable?”

“yeah i did actually, i brought tubbo and the necklace tommy gave me for my birthday last year.”

tubbo overhearing the conversation walked over telling you both that he also brought a valuable item, in fact it was a family heirloom.

“i brought an urn.”

“why would you do that tubbo? what the fuck-“

“you two do realise if either of you lose it had to go in the sea?”

“poor grandma.”

“aye about that you will have to pry that necklace out of my hands in order to throw it in the sea!”

the three of you went up to wilbur and niki where wilbur stole the hat you stole from tubbo, and you were told that you were all about to race to the isle of wight.

it was unfortunately time to board the boat, you sat next to tubbo, so that you felt like you had some sort of control with what was about to happen. the others sat making jokes about what was going on whilst you were trying to get control of your breathing. as you all set sail, you thought you were doing a good job of hiding the fact you were potentially about to have a panic attack as no one seemed to notice, or so you thought. considering the fact tubbo was your best friend, he instantly noticed something was wrong and wrapped an arm around you, and decided that distracting you would be a lot better than making you focus on what was currently happening.

“hey y/n, i have an amazing idea for when ranboos in the uk. a 4 month sleep over.”

“heh?”

before you had time to fully process what was going on, all you could hear was wilbur now claiming to be captain then going on to tell you why portsmouth is called portsmouth. you couldnt help but laugh at the random things he was coming up with since he put the captains hat on.

“that is a cinema..i’ve been in this industry for a while now, isn’t that right?”

it was silent for a while until niki tried to steal the captains hat, but was unfortunately unsuccessful .

“maybe next time niki.”

“thank you for believing in me, y/n.”

you pointed out a castle which ended up with wilbur talking about how the planned executions there .

“are they dead?”

“...tubbo of course they’re dead. what kind of question was that?”

the other boat began getting closer to the boat you were all currently in, indicating that it was almost time for you all to split up into two groups.

“my boat is going much faster.”

“that is a sign of pollution.”

“wow jack you’re polluting the world, i hope you’re happy!”

the ride was pretty chill until jack asked what he had lost in the past.

“past relationships.”

“the love or host.”

“laugh you lose streams.”

“the waterslide races from when we went to the water park.”

you and tubbo continued listening things that jack had lost.

“okay. so i’ve lost a few things.”

jack looked towards the other boat.

“however, you two are about to lose each other.”

“excuse you?”

“no, y/n is mine!”

eventually wilbur had enough and picked tubbo up and took him to the other boat with him.

“TUBBO!”

“Y/N!”

you and niki sat laughing as jack and wilbur bickered about who was going to win the boat race. whilst jack was distracted, you felt niki tap your arm and told you to look over to the other boat where tubbo was reaching his arm out to you so you could quickly swap boats.

you quickly got into the boat and sat next to your best friend, tubbo knew you were still slightly nervous, so made it so you would be sat in between him and wilbur so you would feel a lot more comfortable. a few minutes later, your boat began to set off and all you could hear was a mixture of tubbos laughter and jacks yelling getting quieter the further you went.

“AY THEY CANT START WITHOUT US!. AND THEY GOT Y/N, WHEN DID THEY GET THEM?!”

you turned to face wilbur who pointed towards a building before announcing that it definitely belonged to the the three of you, and was renaming it reddit gold.

“reddit..reddit gold, are you serious?” you said through your laughter, the three of you sat together taking turns narrating what was happening .

“go on, y/n.”

“if this capsizes, were all drowning.”

“cheerful as awful.”

“do you think sharks are beneath us?”

“i’m not even answering that question.”

you looked over your shoulder to see that niki and jack were catching up to you all.

“i hope they don’t overtake us, otherwise it’s bye bye tubbo.”

“and grandma.”

“excuse you, tubbo?”

“he’s claiming that he brought an urn with him and if we lose our valuable item gets chucked into the sea.”

a little while later jacks boat was next to yours and you and wilbur started to shout how it was like romeo and juliet.

“y/n, you studied this at gcse a while back, yell some quotes.”

“tubbo i didn’t listen to the teachers.”

“do it!”

“no!”

wilbur continued to talk to the others whilst you and tubbo sat bickering about William Shakespeare .

“tubbo my favourite character was benvolio and he fucked off halfway through.”

“what do you mean he fucked off?”

“he literally disappeared.”

wilbur was genuinely questioning what he was listening to he slowly turned around and tried to catch your attention; however you were currently in the middle of a debate about why benvolio disappeared, which was that last thing you expected to be doing on the boat. eventually your debate died down and you looked up to see wilbur shaking his head at you both, clearly confused as to why you spent 5 minutes arguing about romeo and juliet. an idea came to wilburs mind as he started laughing and pointing at the sea.

“drink some seawater, tubbo.”

you looked away as tubbo reached into the water trying to hold as much water as he could before bringing it to his lips and drinking the seawater.

“tubbo did you really just-“

“more tubbo!”

tubbo did the same as before, however this time brought his hands towards your face.

“drink it, y/n!”

“yeah, y/n, you can help desalinate it.”

“how wonderful, i’ll pass though.”

tubbo looked at you pretending to be upset and lifted his hands towards you again, this time you gave in and drank some of the water.

“thanks, tubbo, I can now only taste salt.”

jack noticed what you and tubbo were doing and looked at wilbur confused.

“im making them drink seawater!”

“what’s it like?”

“potassium!”

“salt.. a lot of salt!”

you checked your phone as you kept receiving multiple messages from tommy trying to get your attention, forgetting that you were currently on a boat with the others. you looked up from your phone to see tubbo drinking more seawater.

“AGAIN?”

you had no idea what was going on for jack and niki, but it sounded a lot like they lost hope as jack yelled asking if there was room for him on the boat while tubbo sat flipping him off in response to his question. jack continued to yell at the three of you however none of you could hear what he was yelling, so you kind of sat just nodding your head in agreement to what he was saying. wilbur pointed out that he could see the finishing line and how it looked like you were all going to make it. you looked over to see jack and niki recreating that one scene from titanic tubbo looked at you smiling, trying not to laugh.

“absolutely not one of us, if not both of us, would end up in the sea.”

the boat began to go significantly faster. at the start you were unsure how to feel, however a few minutes into it you began laughing enjoying how fast you were going.

“woahhh we’re turning!”

the boat did a loop before going straight on as fast as it could go.

“y/n, tubbo, we’re going. we’re going.”

“OH MY GOD!”

you ended up passing another boat you and tubbo instantly waved to everyone on the boat a few people waved back .

“they don’t wanna wave.”

“they know their boat is bigger than ours.”

“they could easily ram us and kill us all.”

“hopefully they decide against doing that.”

the boat began weaving resulting in you, tubbo, and wilbur constantly crashing into each other, not that any of you cared you were all having the time of your lives. you pointed at a boat which was cutting off the boat jack and niki were in .

“we’ve got this in the bag boys, victory is ours!”

your boat slowed down so it could dock.

“i think we’ve won!”

“we won”!

“holy shit we won! tubbo doesn’t have to go in the sea now!”

everyone got out of the boat so you could all wait for jack and niki to reach the dock, as the two of them approached you all tubbo began to sing.

“we are the champions my friend!”

“STOP IT!”

“i have to go into the fucking water!”

you pulled niki into a hug.

“jack you cruel man.”

“did you not have fun niki..we had a great time.”

you let go of niki and stood behind tubbo placing your head on his shoulder whilst jack explained to wilbur what was going to happen if they lost.

“oh, I thought we got to decide who was thrown into the water.”

“no no no no no no!”

“well i think considering we won..”

after a small discussion as a team, you all instantly agreed that jack should be thrown into the water, you all stood on the boat as niki argued that he cant throw her into the water. a couple seconds later wilbur walks towards jack handing him the camera before picking him up.

“are you ready?”

“i don’t think the bits that funny will, i don’t think the bits that funny!”

you all screamed and laughed as jack was thrown into the water. jack complained about the temperature of the sea as he climbed back onto the boat only to be pushed off again by you and tubbo.

“that’s revenge for trying to put us on separate boats!”

you spent the rest of the day together just hanging together as a group before you said your goodbyes.

the ride back home was you excitedly explaining what your boat ride was like to your parents, once you got home you ran upstairs to your room then called tommy on discord

“how was it then?”

“tommy it was so cool, honestly i wish you could have come with us.”

“i mean you’re coming with me george and wilbur to a water course next week, you don’t have a choice.”

“oh okay, it’s a good job i’d love to be there then, tom, also what mod are we playing just so i can check i have it ready.”

“rlcraft.”

the two of you spent a good hour talking before getting ready to film a video with charlie and jschlatt for tommys youtube channel.

taglist:

@l0ver0fj0y @etheriaaly @xx-smiley-xx @hawarun @kylobensgirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @reverse-iak @c1loudee

#mcyt x reader #mcyt fanfiction #mcyt writing #mcyt imagines #mcyt imagine #mcyt fluff #tubbo x y/n #tubbo imagine #tubbo x reader #tubbo x you #tubbo fluff #jack manifold x y/n #jack manifold imagine #jack manifold x reader #jack manifold x you #jack manifold fluff #nihachu x y/n #nihachu imagine #nihachu x reader #nihachu x you #nihachu fluff #wilbur x y/n #wilbur imagine #wilbur x reader #wilbur x you #wilbur fluff

[boldlyvoid]

Hypothetically | Chapter 16-20

summary: Reader and Spencer were friends in kindergarten, she watched him grow up and explore the world while she was still trying to catch up to him. now that they work together, they fall in love incredibly fast.

friends to lovers, case of the week style story

A/N: Set between seasons 4 and 6, not following canon. all original crimes based on real-life stories.

Warnings 18+: Murderers, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Blood, Guns, mentions of autopsy, Fluff, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, bed-sharing, Riding, Unprotected Sex, Virgin Reader, Case of the Week, original crimes, Food mention, Smut, Oral Sex, Light BDSM, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Talk, obgyn appointments and info, Home Invasion, Past Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Emotional Manipulation, Grooming, Pedophilia mention, non-con oral (male receiving), Pregnant Sex, Daddy Kink, Breeding Kink, Homophobia, conversion therapy

Word Count: 10k

chapter 16

It was 7 am when they got the call. Y/N had barely gotten any sleep that night, Spencer was adamant that laying on the left side helps maximize blood flow. Meaning she faced the wall all night with him happily cuddled into her back. She hated it.

Between peeing 100 times a day and the constant heartburn, she couldn’t really pick the worst part about creating a human.

It fuckin’ sucked and no one thought to warn her.

She dragged herself out of bed, trying her best to do her morning routine with only one eye open. Spencer, on the other hand, seemed to bounce out of bed like he slept 12 hours. Dancing around the kitchen as he poured his coffee and took a smoothie out of the fridge for Y/N.

He fed the cat, changed the litter and even took out the garbage by the time she pulled herself from the bathroom and to her closet.

Her jeans didn’t fit, she let herself take a minute to cry out of frustration in the closet before she looked for anything presentable. The only pants she could get into were a pair of leggings, and at that point, she didn’t care anymore. She was probably going to stay back with Penelope anyway.

She threw on an FBI sweater to hide her bump from the rest of her co-workers, grabbed the rest of her shit and followed Spencer to the car. Getting in the passenger seat and immediately closing her eyes again.

“Wake me up when we’re at Quantico,” she told him. Leaning against the window, ignoring the world.

Maternity parking was the only bonus, she only had to walk 4 feet from her car to the elevator. She felt lazy, but she was allowed to.

“Hopefully,” Spencer finally spoke to her as they entered the elevator. “At the end of this week, your energy should return as your placenta is done developing. You’re the most tired right now because your organs are working 3 times harder than they’re used to.”

“I’m tired because I had nothing to cuddle with all night, but thanks for the insight,” she tried her best to be cheery.

The door dinged, opening to the rest of the team standing in the entryway. “What’s up?” Y/N asked them.

“Hotch got a call, we’ve got a weird one coming in, he’s in his office talking to someone right now,” Morgan said. He looked just as tired as Y/N.

“Are we going in?” She asked, walking past them and towards the bullpen.

She rushed through the room and waddled up the stairs, searching for a chair before she actually passed out. Everyone followed her soon after, patting her back as they walked around the table to their seats.

“Over the past few months 6 feet have washed up on different beaches along the coast of Maine,” Penelope started explaining the case while Hotch was still on the phone in his office.

“6 feet belonging to 6 different people, all incredibly hard to identify. Interpol, Europol, the RCMP and the FBI have all been in communication with each other as no one knows where the feet washed in from. International Water laws prohibit just one of us from taking jurisdiction until we identify the nationality of the victims.”

“How are we going to Identify the feet?” Prentiss asked.

“We’re currently running the DNA against missing persons along the east coast as well as anyone who recently travelled to North America by boat, so far we don’t have any matches. We do know all 6 feet are white so hopefully, hopefully,” Garcia repeated for extra magic help, “this isn’t a refugee transport gone wrong.”

“We’ve been seeing an increase of boating accidents from Syrian refugees recently,” Spencer added. “The wars in the middle east are continuing to push people from their homes in mass numbers, meaning a lot of the boats are overpacked and capsize mid extraction.”

“So we’re probably looking at someone from North America who is using their own boat to sail out and release victims,” Y/N added. “Do we have the ME reports on the 6 feet?”

“Oh, yeah,” Garcia said, flipping through papers and handing them to her.

She read it over carefully, trying to see through her new blurred vision. Another wonderful pregnancy symptom. “Normally when feet wash up on shore, they’re in shoes. If a body is lost in a boating accident or drowning, the rubber soles will always want to float to the surface. When a body is decaying in water long enough the bones will separate, and when the ankle bone goes, the feet float to the surface,” Y/N explained.

“How do you just know that?” Rossi asked.

“In Nevada, we had a lot of drownings in a man-made lake, people would get stuck at the bottom on tree roots. And every year a few feet would wash up,” she added. “I only explained that because it says in the ME report that the feet were cut with a sharp blade, all clean cuts with no shoes or socks. So someone is cutting these bodies up and bringing them out to sea, probably to use as bait for a big catch.”

“It’s weird to me that the feet are the only parts washing up?” JJ’s face was absolutely puzzled as she flipped through the files.

“Not really,” Y/N argued, “I’m more concerned with why he’d even cut the feet, to begin with. With most shark attacks they go for full limbs, if I was the unsub and I was cutting the body up for bait, I wouldn’t make the pieces so small. There isn’t enough blood or flesh on feet to entice a large fish or shark to take it.”

Rossi was tapping his fingers against the table, “Do you think he wants us to find the feet?”

“I’m not sure, but it doesn’t look good.”

Then, Hotch finally walked in. “Which 3 of you want to travel to Maine to take a look at all the findings?” Prentiss, Morgan and Rossi raised their hands, “alright, meet me on the runway in 20. The rest of you, find a way to identify the feet.”

—

She sat at her desk most of the morning, munching on a bag of animal crackers to keep her nausea at bay. JJ brought her a cold ginger ale around 11, rubbing her back for a bit while she flipped through files.

She had a doctor’s appointment during lunch that day, so she headed downtown to give blood in the hour she was permitted. Knowing that she could be late and no one would really care.

She waited in Dr. Korrapati’s room patiently, looking at her arm as she rested it on the table. Her veins were more prominent now than they had ever been in her life. JJ insured her that they would go back down but it did make her a little self-conscious.

“Hey mama,” Dr. Korrapati cheered as she walked into the room. “How are we feeling?”

“Good, tired but good.”

“Work kicking your butt?” She asked as she prepped her arm for the blood draw. “Or just the baby?”

“Having a hard time finding a comfortable sleeping position, I’m probably going to get one of those long pillow things to help,” she rambled to take her mind off what was going on with her arm.

For someone who looked at dead bodies as her job, seeing her own blood freaked her out. Dr. Korrapati noticed she was a little stressed, “how about when I’m done here we take a look at your little person?”

That piqued her interest, she sat completely still and looked away as the nicest doctor she could’ve asked for, got the test over and done with, in record-breaking time.

“Do you have any other symptoms that are bothering you?” She asked as she wrote the exact tests down in her paperwork.

“Yeah,” she struggled with the sleeve of her shirt as she tucked her arm back in. “The nausea is driving me nuts, I’m living on animal crackers and ginger ale.”

“If you eat small meals every few hours it should settle it out,” she explained. “But if it is really bothering you we can give you some anti-nausea medication.”

“I tried that, everyone keeps bringing me snacks and trying to take care of me but I don’t want anything because I’m so tired,” she ranted as she climbed onto the exam table.

“Have you tried sleeping on the other side of the bed?” She asked.

“no, why?”

Dr. Korrapati laughed, “you sleep on the left side of the bed right?”

“Yeah?” She questioned, wondering how an OB could profile so well.

“So I'm assuming your smart and overprotective boyfriend has advised you to lay on your left side like he told JJ?” She smiled. “And because you sleep on the left side of the bed already, that means you’re not cuddled into him. He’s the big spoon now and you hate it.”

It was like a lightbulb went off in her head, “oh my god?”

They laughed at the fact it was so obvious and she never clued in. “It happens all the time, you’re so in a routine that you don’t realize you can just switch sides and it’ll work.”

“You’re so smart!”

“Ready to hear and see this baby of yours?” She asked, waiting for Y/N to raise her shirt and lower her leggings to expose her lower stomach.

“Can we?”

“Yep,” she nodded, “you’re in week 9, so you’re exiting the embryo stage and moving towards the fetal stage. We’ll be able to see the fetus and hear the heartbeat.”

“Can I record it for Spencer?” She asked, not wanting him to miss it.

“I’ll do you one better and put it on a disk for you.”

Just like that, she was smothering her stomach in warm jelly. Spreading it around with the ultrasound wand before she began to search for them. Pressing in slightly on her right side, she heard her own heartbeat whooshing. The closer she got to the centre, the more they heard the second.

Her baby’s heartbeat was strong. She saw them on the monitor, they had changed from being a jellybean to actually looking like a person. 4 strong limbs were stretching and moving, growing faster than she thought possible.

“That’s insane?” She was in such awe of it, “when will I feel the kicking and stuff?”

“In a few more months, they’re only the size of a green olive. You’ll probably feel it around Christmas?” She guessed. “You’ll be 16 weeks around then.”

“Wow okay,” she was just astounded by the magic of growing a child, she felt like absolute shit but it all made sense at that moment. In just a week, muscles and limbs formed and her baby grew the ability to self-soothe in the womb. Growing 10 fingers and toes that they already knew how to put in their mouth.

She cleaned the gel off Y/N’s stomach and began exporting the files for her. “So, I will call you when the results are in, and I can just email you guys a copy and go over it with you on the phone when you’re free? I know your job is unpredictable?”

“That would be perfect, thank you. We’re working on an international case right now so for all I know I’ll be in Ireland next week,” She laughed.

“Of course, take care of yourself make sure you’re taking all the vitamins and having 8 cups of clear fluids a day, you have to stay hydrated.” Dr. Korrapati handed her the disk in a sleeve as well as her contact card.

“Yes ma’am, I can’t wait to hear from you,” she smiled before leaving the office.

—

Y/N walked back into the BAU around 1:15, wandering down the hall to Penelope’s office to get a rundown of what she missed.

Spencer and JJ had the same idea, all turning towards the door as Y/N walked in, “hey.”

“How was it?” Spencer asked softly, beckoning her to his lap.

She sat down on him softly, “I got a DVD copy of the ultrasound.” She waved the disk around. “But, we can’t watch it until I get a rundown on what we know so far.”

“I hate how professional you are sometimes,” Penelope huffed. “Luckily, it is very important.”

“We matched a tattoo on one of the feet to a missing person’s case in Nova Scotia. So we focused our efforts on missing person’s cases who fit the same features and backgrounds as her,” JJ explained.

“Okay cool, who was she?”

“Andrea Carlton, 18. She was hitchhiking, apparently wanting to run away to meet her boyfriend in Newfoundland. I traced her transactions before she disappeared and it looks like she bought a ferry ticket, however, there are no reports of her ever getting on it,” Penelope added. “So I’ve looked into other people from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, who went missing hitchhiking or after booking a ferry ticket.”

“Smart, how many matches did we get?”

“5,” She laughed.

“You’re kidding?”

They all shook their heads, “nope. And we were able to match all the feet to them.”

Y/N handed the ultrasound video over to Penelope. “Your reward.”

She snatched it from her hands so fast, taking it out of the packaging and shoving it in her CD port. Loading the file within seconds.

She watched Spencer’s face the whole time. Already having seen the footage herself, knowing the real show would be his reaction.

He was so mesmerized, his eyes blown up in awe as tears welled. His grip on her leg was more intense, he was squeezing along to the beat of the baby’s heart, absentmindedly. He shook his head in disbelief, that was his baby in there.

The phone rang before they could really talk about it, Hotch requesting the team hop on a plane and meet them in Nova Scotia. The RCMP and the FBI have taken sole jurisdiction over the case.

Y/N was able to convince him that it would be best if they get some sleep before they go. He agreed, telling them he expected to see them in Canada at 10 am sharp.

“Before we go home tonight can you cross-reference freelance charter boats or fishermen in the area the day each victim missed a ferry? Someone desperate to get a ride might be willing to hop in a boat with anyone going where they are,” Y/N suggested to Garcia.

“I’ll run it in the background, you two go home and get some rest so my god-baby can get big and strong!” She hugged her lightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Y/N and Spencer didn’t need to be told twice, practically running to their car. She let out the deepest sigh ever once she had her seatbelt on, so excited to go home.

Spencer drove them home, getting used to it as she got more pregnant. Soon she’d be too big to drive at all let alone stay awake the whole time.

“How are you feeling?” Spencer asked as they cleared the security check.

“Good, Dr. Korrapati is going to email us the results when they’re in and go over them with us on the phone. I told her we’d probably end up going out of the country soon,” Y/N recalled the day.

“The ultrasound was so cool,” he gushed.

“Yeah,” She smiled. Reaching to hold his hand on the centre console. “She also suggested we switch sides of the bed so that we can still cuddle while I’m on my left side.”

“She’s a genius.”

“that’s what I said!” She laughed, “literally how dumb are we?”

“187 till I become a dad and then I’m an idiot,” he smiled back at her quickly. “I’m glad you had a good day. Now we can go eat and get a full night’s rest.”

She let out another deep breath, “I can’t wait to cuddle.”

—

Garcia was waiting for them at the elevator the next morning. “Patrick Timmins.”

“Who?” Y/N asked, fully awake and ready to go, just confused by the ambush.

“I ran the perimeters that you asked for and I found a freelance fisherman slash charter service run by a guy named Patrick Timmins,” Garcia explained. “The townspeople call him Patty Tims, they think he’s fine and lovely according to his Yelp page but his criminal record tells a different story.”

“Really? I thought that was such a long shot!” Y/N was cheery from the extra sleep she got with Dr. Korrapati’s advice.

“The plane is ready when you guys are, I have all the updated info in this as well as some snacks for the plane,” she handed Spencer a cloth bag.

“What would I do without you? My pretty penny,” she kissed her friend on the cheek.

“If it means I get some sugar from you, I’ll do anything,” Garcia flirted with her in the absence of Morgan. “Go get on your plane, I will see you when you return my loves.”

They landed in Nova Scotia around 10 am like Hotch had requested. Bypassing customs and driving directly to the RCMP headquarters. They needed to come up with a plan, they had no idea how to find a man who travels by boat and lives at sea.

“We could always send undercover’s out in the areas he’s picked up before, have them dress as hitchhikers, miss the ferries and wait and see who tries to pick you up. Everyone will have a team watching and police boats on standby?” Morgan was theorizing as Spencer, Y/N and JJ walked in.

“We have report’s that he’s in the bay, if we’re going to do this we need to do it now,” An RCMP officer she hadn’t met yet announced to the room. “Who here is comfortable posing as a vic?”

JJ raised her hand, “get me some dirty clothes and I can be ready in 5.”

They raided the lost and found, they filled a backpack with random things and tried their best to dirty her fingernails and hair. She looked like she had been travelling without a proper place to stay for a while.

They managed to hide a wire on her, prepping what she was going to say if she was in danger and they needed to move in. Hiding a gun and a knife in her socks in case she needed them later.

They drove her down to the bay dropping her off 1 kilometre away, letting her walk into town while they parked closer to watch with binoculars. They planned it for her to arrive as the ferry pulled out of the bay.

She ran down the dock, trying to catch the ferry. Putting on the best performance of: “fuck, I missed the boat!” That they had ever seen.

“She’s going to win an Oscar,” Morgan whispered in the back of the surveillance van, trying to make Y/N laugh.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” They heard over the wire, trying to identify the source of the voice. The man was standing on his boat, hanging over the edge to get JJ’s attention.

“I missed the ferry, do you know when it’ll be back?” She played dumb. “I promised my mom I’d be back tonight and now I won’t be.”

“I can give you a ride, for a price,” the man suggested. “Names, Patty Tims.”

Hotch turned around from the front seat and motioned for Y/N and Morgan to head out quietly without making a scene. Listening in their headsets as JJ replied. “How much?”

They hid around the corner of the ticket booth, watching as the undercover officers walked around the civilians.

“Just a simple photo, I like to put a face to the stories I run across. Come on up,” he motioned for her to get on the boat.

She walked closer to him, “I don’t know sir, I should probably wait for the ferry.” She smiled.

“No,” he ground his teeth together and clenched his jaw, reaching for her.

She grabbed his arm and flipped him, getting into the boat and pushing him to the ground. She cuffed him by the time Morgan and Y/N could board. “What the fuck is this?” He struggled in her grasp.

“You’re under arrest for the murder of 6 people,” JJ replied, about to tell him his rights.

“Only 6?” He laughed.

JJ shoved him into the floor harder, reading him his rights before lifting him to his feet and shoving him off the boat and into RCMP custody.

Y/N lifted her hand up to high five JJ, pulling her into a half hug as they walked back to the surveillance van.

She never had a sister before, JJ was probably the only woman in her life that she felt this close to. It was mostly to do with the fact she’s always been so wonderful to Spencer. She helped him feel loved before Y/N, and that was important to her.

“Can we search the boat? Or are we still waiting on the warrant?” Y/N just wanted to check with Hotch before she barged onto the boat. Not wanting to jeopardize what they’re allowed to enter into evidence.

“We got it, you can start looking,” Hotch said, handing her a pair of gloves and a handful of evidence bags.

JJ went with her. They walked in together, noticing that he wasn’t lying about wanting a photo to go with the story. Below the deck, the entire wall was filled with Polaroids of terrified people moments before their deaths.

They bagged them all into evidence, dreading having to put them all into the system and match them to missing person’s reports. Delivering the news that someone’s loved one was gone for good was never fun.

Telling 58 families that their loved one was dead was a nightmare.

chapter 17

She’s a little confused when she wakes up to the sound of geese honking. Rolling away from Spencer’s embrace and immediately being blinded by the sunlight in the room. She sat up in a small panic.

She had forgotten that they stayed the night at the new house.

The large windows in the bedroom faced the water. She could see the sun’s reflection on the lake as it stretched over the house from the east. It was absolutely stunning. She could get used to waking up early with a screaming baby if this was the view.

Then she remembered it was the day they got their test results, she bounced a little as she reached for her phone to check her messages.

“Morning bunny,” Spencer’s groggy morning voice startled her a little.

“Bunny?” She questioned, never hearing him call her any form of nickname before.

He reached out of her, wrapping his arms around her growing belly, resting his head in her lap. “Have you ever noticed you hop a little bit when you get excited?”

“Yeah, it’s called Asperger’s,” she smiled as she ran her fingers through his hair. “It’s honestly better than bugs bunny though, just don’t throw carrots at me okay?” She laughed to herself as she recalled the childhood trauma.

It was a little funny, looking back now.

“Never, you’re my bunny. I love my bunny.”

He was so soft in the mornings. Snuggling in against her skin as he slowly woke up. He stretched and yawned a bit, making the cutest little sounds as he did so.

She kept her fingers in his hair, twirling the ends every once and a while. Mostly running her nails along his scalp, soothing that big beautiful brain of his that she loved so much.

“We find out what the sex is today,” she reminded him.

He lifted up her shirt to expose her belly. Kissing the skin as she laid back against the pillows.

“What’s going on in there today?” She asked softly.

“They’re the size of a prune,” he mused. “speaking of, as you enter the fetus stage this week you’re going to get constipated.”

She couldn’t help but laugh, “thanks that’s exactly what I wanted to know!”

“Right now the fetal development is focusing primarily on the bones, tummy and teeth,” he explained with the largest smile on his face.

“There we go.”

He hovered over her, brushing the hair from her face so he could look at her, “You look so beautiful right now.”

He said that as if he wasn’t blocking the sun from her view, perfectly casting a halo glow around him. She placed her hand on his cheek, “I love you.”

He leaned in and kissed her, pressing his body softly against her’s. “I love you,” he whispered between kisses. Covering her face and neck with small pecks, making her laugh as he covered her body in kisses.

The phone rang on Spencer’s night table causing him to press his forehead against her hip, letting out a deep sigh. Y/N reached over and picked it up. “Doctor Spencer Reid’s phone,” she answered. “He can't come to the phone right now, can I take a message?”

“Funny,” Penelope replied.

“We have a case,” Morgan added.

“What time do we need to be on the plane by?” She asked.

“Uh, it’s 7:46 now, so you’ve got an hour, tops?” Penelope guessed, “why?”

“I said he was busy. I’ll see you later.” She hung up.

“You did not just do that?” He looked absolutely horrified, his whole face turning pink.

“They could either think you got some, or you could actually get some?” She teased. “We have an hour.”

—

“All 3 Vic’s had been strangled and raped before they were wrapped in plastic and released into the river,” Garcia explained to the team over the laptop as they travelled through the sky. “Washing away all of the unsub’s DNA, however, they did find carpet fragments under the victim’s finger-“

“Like the ’84 Oklahoma Child Murders,” Y/N cut her off.

“What?” Garcia asked.

“Oklahoma 1981 to 1984. Local black children between the age of approximately 6 and 17 were being abducted, raped and murdered. Their bodies were mostly discovered in wooded areas and along the edges of the river, never submerged. The BAU worked the case, only ever being able to solve the last 2 murders before the Oklahoma governor, I think, kicked you off the case, right? They cared more about the money going towards the investigation than the black children going missing,” She explained.

“Gideon and I tried,” Rossi said. Still very bothered by the ending. “We wanted to catch the guy, the last 2 murders were so different from the others and yet the local cops considered it the same guy. Much like this new unsub, he raped young men before strangling them and dropping them in the river. All the way down to the carpet fibres.”

“It ended up being a local man named Oscar Pope, they caught him dumping an older male victim at a police checkpoint. They matched carpet fibres at his house to the 2 rivers Vic’s, but none of the children,” Prentiss cut in. “This has to be a copycat right?”

“We don’t know that,” Y/N added. “The BAU was working the angle that a local boy who knew the majority of the victims was in on it. Um, Daryl Livingston, he was in foster care at the time. He was the 7th boy to go missing and then every one of his friends was found dead after that. However, his body was never found. They suspected that he formed a bond with his captor and offered to bring him, other boys, if he let him live.”

“Any chance that this unsub could be the same kid, using Pope’s tactic to get our attention back on him?” Morgan asked.

“I was about to say that too,” JJ cut in. “they might’ve even been a team back then as well. That would explain why the murders stopped when Pope was caught but they still never found that boy.”

“That’s possible. They concluded that the last victim Pope dropped into the river was a long-time, secret boyfriend of his who found out what he was doing to the children. His MO changed when he didn’t want people to tie the murders together,” Spencer provided the extra information. “Only backfiring when local cops patrolling the river heard a splash.”

“Garcia, can you see if any of the Vic’s have any relation, contact or even geographical coincidences with the original murders?” Rossi asked. “If this is a victim continuing Pope’s work we need to find out who knew him.”

“Sir, Oscar Pope is still alive in a local correctional facility,” Garcia added. “I’m going to run background checks on all contact he’s had in his entirety at the prison, it might take a while but I’ll get it.”

“Garcia, I can go to the facility and just read everything they have there. It might not be all digital yet,” Reid offered.

“Good idea, take Y/N with you. You two bounce ideas off each other better than the rest of us,” Hotch agreed. “Morgan and Rossi join the search teams at the rivers. JJ and Prentiss, we’ll set up communication with the locals and go through old case files.”

“Reid’s good at bouncing somethin’ off her, alright,” Morgan teased him. “You were on speaker this morning.”

Spencer turned bright red once again, burying his face into the table as everyone laughed, reaching across the aisle to give Y/N high fives.

—

Being in a prison was always weird for her.

Having to hand in her gun just to read papers in a dusty office made her uncomfortable. She understood the protocol and she knew the guards would keep them safe, but knowing she was near men she helped put away, that scared her slightly.

“I’m not finding anything,” Spencer sighed. “There was a flood 2 years ago that destroyed most of the files near the ground. Including the Pope documents.”

“We can always just go ask him?” Y/N suggested, “he’s in D cell, he’s behind bars. We can just talk to him from the hallway unofficially. Pretend we’re here for someone else. I’ll say I never thought he really did those murders and gain his trust, see what happens.”

“I don’t like it but, I think we have to,” he agreed. Opening the office door for her to lead the way, “after you.”

Spencer felt very protective, she could tell. He was never pushy or controlling with her, but for some reason, he was now manhandling her. Making sure she walked on the inside of the hallways, closer to the brick walls so that no one could get her through the bars.

“So Doctor Reid,” she picked up the conversation as they hit the D block. “I was reading the book you lent me about engineering.”

“Oh,” he tried to play along. “How did you like it?”

“It was good,” she replied while trying to look at each inmate she passed. “I loved page 187— oh my gosh?” She stopped at Pope’s cell.

“You’re Oscar Pope?” She pointed at him.

“and you’re?” The old man questioned her. “A fed?”

“We’re here for something political, nothing to concern yourself with,” she lied, getting closer to the bars, whispering. “I just want you to know I never thought you did all 16 of the child murders back in the day.”

“Thank you,” he was suddenly enthusiastic. “Now why can’t all the fed’s be as smart as you?”

She laughed, tapping his arm through the bars. “How are you doing? Is there anything I can get you while I’m here?”

“Phone privileges!” He answered quickly, “the mail’s taking forever and I’ve got people to talk to before I croak in here.”

“I’m sure you do sir,” she smiled at him. “I’ll pull some strings, you have a good day!”

“You too, beautiful!”

Spencer placed his hand on her hip and led her away from the bars, she waved as they walked away.

“Agent Y/L/N,” a voice stopped her at the end of the hall.

She turned to see a man sitting cross-legged on the cell floor. His orange jumpsuit gathered around his waist as he sat in an undershirt. She glanced over his body, stopping at his face. She’d know those eyes anywhere.

“Didn’t I say only good boys get to talk to me, Bitch?” She snapped at him.

“Congratulations on the little one.” He replied. Laughing as Spencer placed his hand over her small stomach and led her out of the room, through the big metal doors.

“Keep walking with me,” Spencer insisted. “Or I will turn around and I will kill him.”

She huffed and continued down a narrow hallway with him. “We need to call Hotch.”

“Yeah,” he flipped his phone open and hit the speed dial.

“Reid?” She heard Hotch answer.

“We couldn’t get any of his information from forms, they all had water damage so Y/N and I walked past Pope’s cell and struck up a conversation,” He explained.

“And?”

“She got on his good side, pretending that she could get him a favour while she’s here for political reasons. He said he’s desperate to make a phone call today.”

“I’m on my way, get Garcia to prep paperwork to allow us a meeting with him now,” Hotch instructed, hanging up.

Y/N dialled Garcia on her phone. “How’s it going love birds?”

“Not good,” she replied. “We need you to get the paperwork going to allow us to sit down with Oscar Pope today. And we’re going to need to tear through his cell.”

“Oh, damn okay,” She replied. “Ask him about Cody Kollins.”

“Who?” Spencer asked as his phone rang again. He flipped it open, “we’ve got Garcia here too.” Putting it on speaker.

“Morgan and Rossi just intercepted a man dropping a body in the river,” Hotch confirmed. “I need you to rush that paperwork.”

“Sir, what was the man’s name?” Garcia asked.

“Cody Kollins.”

They sighed at each other, “let’s do this.”

—

Y/N watched him through the mirror. She could see him fidgeting. He was frustrated. He was exhibiting the exact same behaviour as he was when he was caught the first time.

“Every time we one-up him, he breaks down,” she whispered to Spencer. “Even in his interrogation tapes, he was like this. When they found the single patch of carpet left in his closet and were able to match the fibres, he lost it. He likes to play it cool and under control, he wrote the story and he wants us to stick to it.”

“How upset do you think he’d be if we went in there and told him we actually caught the original killer and he’s going to be released pending DNA testing?” Spencer suggested.

She tilted her head, biting her lip as she thought. “I think he’d be violent.”

“Sit here,” he said as he walked into the interview room.

She hated having to just watch. It helped that Pope was cuffed to the table, and the table was drilled into the concrete floor, Spencer wouldn’t get hurt. The guards are right behind the door. It’s fine.

“Sorry for the abrupt interrogation, I promise this isn’t what you think,” Spencer smiled softly. “We have reason to believe that the original killer has returned, the state is running the DNA now.”

Y/N watched as Pope’s right eye started to twitch, his finger on his leg was tapping at an odd rhythm as Spencer talked.

“The second we can prove you had no hand in any of the killing’s we’ll issue a pardon and your discharge papers will be filled out,” Spencer finished his sentence and moved to open the door once more.

“You’re a fuckin’ idiot,” he hissed. His voice was completely different than it was when they were speaking in D block.

“Why?” Spencer asked, easily playing the innocent and stupid role.

“You think some crazy-obsessed, fuck toy of mine whose doing half-assed attempts at my signature, is the real killer!!!” Pope spat his confession out. Literally covering the table in spit as he became more feral. Shaking violently.

Spencer walked right out of the room. Y/N watched as Pope smacked the table, tugging violently at the cuffs, scratching himself all up. The guards had to run in and hold him down, shooting a sedative into his neck.

“Jesus,” she whispered. Taking her phone out of her pocket to call Garcia, when she noticed the voicemail notification in the bottom corner. She ignored it, calling her friend instead.

“Hey,” Penelope answered quickly. “So turns out we were right, who would have thought, Cody Kollins is actually Daryl Livingston.”

“We just got a confession from Pope,” Y/N shared her news. “They had to sedate him so we’re going to come back to the station. Wait until tomorrow to interview him again.”

“Yeah, sounds good, Hotch and Morgan are in with Livingston right now,” she updated them. “Make sure to eat something when you get there.”

“Yes mom,” she teased, hanging up and smiling.

Spencer put his hand out in an invitation to hold it. She interlocked their fingers and followed him back to the filing room, gathering their things before exiting the prison.

She sat on the passenger side of the SUV, she and Spencer just sat there and took a few deep breaths. Processing everything the exact same way, quietly and on their own.

She cut the awkward silencer by taking out her phone and playing the voicemail. Putting it on speaker.

“Hi Y/N, this is Doctor Korrapati calling. I’ve emailed you your results. The gender is at the bottom, under the little read more button, in case you wanted it to be a surprise. Call the office and let us know when you’re free to go over the results and we’ll book you in, as far as I can tell everything looks good, so don’t feel the need to rush. Take care!”

Spencer looked over at her with a soft smile on his face, reaching out for her hand once more. Holding her hand with both of his now, “do you want to do this?”

“I’m ready if you are?”

He nodded, watching her contently as she opened her email up, finding the right one and scrolling to the bottom. Her heart fluttered a little as she looked at the read more option.

She took a deep breath and clicked on it.

Chromosomal sex: XY

“Well?” Spencer asked softly.

“I’d really love to tell you,” she bit her lip trying not to laugh, “but I don’t remember what this means?”

He laughed, shaking his head as he looked at the screen. He blinked with glossy eyes as he read it, a light chuckle escaping his lips as he cried softly.

It had to be a girl, she knew he wanted one. She convinced herself in that millisecond that it was a girl.

He reached over and placed his hand flat against her belly. “Hi Matthew,” he said softly.

“You’re kidding?” She couldn’t stop herself from crying.

Spencer wrapped her up in a hug, the two of them happily crying into each other. She wasn’t sure if she was giggling or sobbing, she just knew she was shaking in Spencer’s arms with happiness that this was her little family.

He kissed all over her one cheek as he held her close. “I love you so much,” he reminded her.

She pulled back, wiping her tears off on her shirt sleeve, laughing at the serendipity of it all. “I love you too, dad.”

“I have to drive, don’t make me cry again,” he laughed, wiping his own tears before tucking his ever-growing hair behind his ears.

“Let’s go.”

—

Y/N sat beside JJ in the break room of the police station, salad bowl in her lap, shovelling the dressing-covered leaves in her mouth.

They weren’t tasked with anything until Hotch and Morgan attempted to get some info out of the unsub. “Were you crying earlier?” She asked.

“A little,” Y/N smiled at her. “We’re having a boy,” she whispered.

“Oh my god!” JJ whispered back at her, reaching out for her arm and shaking her a little. “I have a feeling your little guy will be bigger than Henry was so he’ll fit into all Henry’s summer stuff when he’s born!”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah!” She confirmed. “By the time he grows out of everything I might have a second boy and we can rotate it around again,” she laughed. “This is going to be so fun.”

“Matthew and Henry are going to be best friends,” Y/N smiled.

“Matthew,” she repeated. “That’s a nice name, I like it.”

“My brother’s name is Levi, I thought it was a nice way to keep a family name in my baby’s life, and his middle name is going to be Gideon,” she spoiled it for Spencer.

JJ looked a little emotional, “sorry it’s just so surreal thinking about me and Spencer having kids who are friends.”

Y/N moved her dinner out of the way and hugged her then, holding her tightly. “You better not be pregnant too,” she whispered in her ear. Not wanting to give it away if she was.

JJ just laughed, rocking Y/N back and forth in her embrace, not answering. “Right?” Y/N asked again.

“We’re trying, so who knows,” JJ replied.

“Shut up?” Y/N pulled back and stared into her eyes to see if she was telling the truth or not. “Holy shit? Since when?”

“Honestly, I think the night we celebrated Canadian thanksgiving,” she laughed. “You and Spencer got us talking about babies, and you got Henry to sleep through the night, so this is technically your fault.”

“JJ,” Y/N started to cry, “I’m so happy for you.”

“They’ll only be a few months apart, so they’ll be best friends too,” JJ smiled. “This is going to be really fun.”

chapter 18

For Christmas this year, Y/N just wanted to be fully moved into their new home before they had to leave for Vegas. Spencer followed through with the present. Inviting the entire team over for drinks if they promised to stop by Y/N’s apartment and bring a few boxes to the new house. It was basically just free labour.

She spent the night nesting while her friends drank in her kitchen. They understood why she was nervous, she was going to tell her parents about the baby and the engagement, and the house, in 3 days.

It was all going to be a lot.

She was 16 weeks along as of Christmas Eve. Waking up the morning of their flight to a weird twitching sensation in her gut, like butterflies or a muscle twitch but right where the baby would be.

“Spence,” she shook him awake. “Spencer.”

“What’s wrong?” He sat right up, squinting at her as he tried to figure out what was going on.

“It’s like, I don’t know how to explain it?” She worried.

Spencer placed his hand on her belly feeling the slight flitter. “He’s kicking.”

Spencer’s early morning smile was the best, he tackled her back against the pillow and dug his face into the crook of her neck. “That’s my baby in there.”

“I wouldn’t have known,” she laughed, wrapping her arms and legs around him. “We have to go to the airport soon.”

“I know,” he mumbled into her neck.

“If you get up now, we can go get breakfast before we have to board?” She enticed him, “we can get sprinkle donuts for the flight.”

“Okay,” he said as she freed him from her grip. “Are you nervous?”

“I know they’ll be happy, just not ready for them to ask why I didn’t say anything sooner,” She explained. “I’ve been really distant since I got the job, I’m really excited to spend time with them this weekend.”

“Same,” Spencer smiled. “Come on you two.”

They took a 9 am flight one-way to Las Vegas. Y/N slept most of the ride, spending the last 45 minutes just snuggled into Spencer’s shoulder as he watched a documentary on some form of science or math. She couldn’t hear what it was about, all she saw was a man writing out numbers on a chalkboard.

She ran her hand over her belly lightly. There was no way she could walk into her mother’s house in a few minutes and just pretend it wasn’t there. It was there. So were the 5 pounds of baby weight on her hips and the swelling in her face and knuckles.

She was pretty quiet during landing and baggage claim. Thinking in her head what she was going to say to everyone, how she would explain it. She sat in a cab beside Spencer, absentmindedly following him through the airport they’ve both been through at least 20 times.

It was a short trip to her parent’s house. Spencer traced little shapes into her leg with his finger to distract her. A flower, a 4D cube, the words I love you. It was sweet, non verbal comfort was very important to her.

When they arrived, she stayed in the cab to pay while Spencer got their bags out. Taking as long as possible so she could avoid it a little longer.

Biting the bullet, she took a deep breath and walked out into her parent’s front yard. Taking the handle of her suitcase and dragging it up the walkway.

She walked right into her house, her parents and brothers all standing up from the living room and rushing into the entryway. She was wrapped up in 7 hugs within a matter of seconds.

“You look so different,” her mom said as she pulled back from her hug. Holding her arms as she examined her, “what did you do?”

“I got pregnant,” she replied, scrunching her face as she waited for their response.

She could’ve sworn she went deaf at that moment, reaching down to cover her bump as everyone cheered and jumped around her. She was pulled into a group hug before she could process anything. Laughing awkwardly at the whole experience.

“Be quiet, he can hear this week!” She laughed.

“He?” Her father inquired.

She looked back at Spencer, smiling at him. “It’s a boy,” Spencer confirmed.

“Holy shit!” Her brothers cheered, high-fiving each other. “When are you due?” Harrison asked.

“June,” she smiled. “3 days after mom’s birthday, see I do remember it.”

“Come sit,” her mom insisted, pushing everyone out of the way and dragging her to the couch. “Put your feet up, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Y/N insisted. “You’re almost worse than my co-workers.”

“Are they taking good care of you?” Her father asked.

She waited for Spencer to join her on the couch, they had all been so excited about her they forgot he was there. “Yeah. Um, we have a lot to tell you,” She explained, holding Spencer’s hand for comfort.

“I asked Y/N to marry me,” Spencer announced. “I am so in love with her, this baby is a dream come true and I’m very excited to become a part of your family.”

Her mom cried, tossing her hand over her eyes as she sobbed. “Mom,” she was so overwhelmed with everything she started to cry too.

“You’re a wonderful man Spencer,” her father interjected. “It’s an honour to have you.”

Spencer smiled and nodded towards him, silently thanking him for the approval.

“So, it’s kind of insane how it all happened. It wasn’t intended, but we love him so much already,” Y/N glowed as she spoke. “Are we going to tell people the name yet?”

Spencer nodded, “we can.” He smiled down at her with such wonderment, the moment she had been scared of for 16 weeks turning out to be the best time she’s had with her whole family in one room.

“His name is Matthew Gideon Reid,” Y/N smiled. “After my favourite brother, no offence Harry, and Spencer’s mentor.”

Levi was her more emotional brother. He was her best friend growing up. The 5 year age difference gave them the time to grow up separately but still find common interests to bring them together. They were the closest in the family before she moved to Virginia full time it became hard to keep up with him as much.

Now they were both parents, their kids only having a 3 year age difference. Meaning next year there would be 2 little ones at Christmas.

“That’s a lovely name,” Levi smiled. “Thank you.”

“It’s whatever, don’t expect our kids to have your name either,” Harrison replied as he held his wife close, pretending he was a little offended.

“We also got a house,” she added to change the topic, “Jason Gideon, he kinda gave us his place in Virginia.”

“You’re kidding me?” Debbie gasped. “For free?”

She laughed, “it’s complicated.”

“I grew up without a father, and Gideon neglected his son for his work at the BAU,” Spencer chimed in. “We bonded, and he wanted his house to be used for good. He specifically asked for us to fill it with love and laughter. We’ve just finished moving into it. You can visit any time!” He panicked and rambled by the end.

“I don’t know if you know this,” her mom tried to joke with them. “But there’s this thing called a phone, where you can call your mother and tell her these things.”

“I wanted to!” she hurried the words out. “But I’m still working in the field, I was weary with who really knew besides the team. It’s my only weakness on the job.”

“I get it,” Debbie smiled. “Honestly, I’m so happy for you both.”

“Thanks, mom,” Y/N choked back tears. “Sorry,” she laughed. “Pregnant things, y’know.”

—

Visiting hours at the nursing home changed during the holidays. Spencer and Y/N were permitted to enter anytime between 8 am and 10 pm, giving them lots of time to spend the afternoon with Y/N’s parents before visiting her.

They borrowed her dad’s truck, driving to the nursing home with a special gift for Diana. Spencer had spent the last 2 weeks making a scrapbook page about Matthew for her, he knew how much her book meant to her and he wanted to add to it.

Her mom’s co-workers all stared at them as they walked in hand in hand. Her bump on show under the T-Shirt she chose to wear.

Diana was in her room, then walked down the long hallway to her suite. Knocking lightly on the door, waiting for her to greet them.

The door swung open, “Spencer!” She cheered. Hugging him tight in her arms.

“Hi mom,” he held her just as tight. Knowing he was a mama’s boy always made Y/N’s heart flutter.

She pulled back and looked at Y/N, “you look so nice!”

“Thank you,” she smiled. Stepping in close to give her a hug as well.

Diana welcomed them into her room, closing the door behind them. Y/N took a seat on the couch while Spencer looked around at the new things she had on display.

“I made you something,” he said softly, taking off his bag and pulling the pressed cardboard out of the protective sleeve. “here.”

She held it in her hands, looking at the ultrasound photo they got a few weeks ago at the anatomy scan. “What is this Spencer?”

“You’re going to be a grandmother,” he explained. Watching her run her fingers over the words on the paper. She was in shock, she had nothing to say. She just looked at the photo.

She quietly walked over to Y/N and sat beside her, “may I?” She asked, holding her hand up.

Y/N leaned back a little, “absolutely.”

Diana placed her hand on the bump lightly. “I was so worried I wouldn’t get to really experience this one day,” she whispered. Trying her best not to cry. “Thank you.”

Y/N cried, not realizing how special this must be for them. She was so focused on her family that she forgot that this was going to change Diana’s whole world. She now had 2 boys to love unconditionally.

“His name is Matthew?” Diana asked, running her hand over the bump softly.

“Yeah,” Y/N smiled. “He’s due in June. If you can, you can fly out and stay with us for a little?”

“I’d love to,” Diana replied. “I have enough points for a trip, and I’ve been feeling really good on my medication.”

“If your doctors clear it all, Debbie and you can fly in together,” Spencer confirmed.

“Wow,” Diana smiled like Spencer. Wide thin lips, straight white teeth, big rosy cheeks and glistening eyes. She hoped Matthew inherited it too. “This is my best Christmas yet.”

—

Y/N woke up Christmas morning with Spencer cuddled into her side in her childhood bedroom. She slipped out of his grasp and sat in her windowsill instead.

She pulled her knees to her chest as best as she could now that she was pregnant, looking at the lone swing across the street that swayed in the December morning breeze.

It should be 8 am back at Quantico, her parents must have let them sleep in while they opened presents. She could see Chloe in the front yard trying out her new car. Levi smiled as he pushed her down the road, Lizzie filming the whole thing on her phone.

Her whole life was so different from the last time she really sat on the windowsill in her bedroom. Back then she was about to move to Virginia, graduating college in Nevada and getting into the training program at the academy. Harrison was already there at Fort Meade, she was about to move into his house with his wife for the first semester before settling into DC. Levi and Lizzie had just started dating, Chloe wasn’t even conceived yet. And she had no idea when she’d run into Spencer.

She rubbed her hand over her belly as a tear rolled down her cheek. She couldn’t wait for the day that she was pushing her own child on that swing across the street. The day she and Spencer tell him about the love story that bubbled between two kids with books who looked at each other for years before they fell in love.

“What are you doing?” Spencer asked, removing her from the moment she allowed herself to have.

She wiped the tear from her cheek, “they’re happy tears. Go back to sleep.”

“Come cuddle?” He pouted, his big puppy dog eyes drawing her back to the bed.

She snuggled into him, running her fingers against his bare chest as she watched him breathe. “Can I tell you something?”

“Always,” he kissed the top of her head.

“When I was 17, I had my appendix out.” She rolled over and laid back, showing him the 3-inch scar on the right side of her stomach. “It was pretty bad, they said I would have died if my mom waited 15 more minutes to get me to the hospital. They had to fix parts of my stomach and intestines that were eaten by the ruptured appendix bile.”

“I had no idea,” he whispered, running his finger along the scar. “I always thought that was just a scratch.”

She shook her head lightly. “It was December 5th, ’98. They uh,” she took a deep breath before resuming. “They put me on a drug called Dilaudid, they told my mom it was a non-addictive version of morphine and that I’d be fine but, I kinda got addicted to the pill version when they let me out,” she scrunched her face as she told him. Not wanting his opinion of her to change.

“You’re kidding?” He asked, a chuckle fell past his lips as he sat up. “In my second year at the BAU I was kidnapped by a man with dissociative identity disorder and he drugged me.”

“Dilaudid?” She asked, sitting up too and shaking her head in disbelief.

He laughed at how absurd it was, “yeah.”

“I moved to Benadryl for the sleepy and calm effect after I couldn’t get any more refills and didn’t want to admit I had a problem, and weed in college” she added. “but I haven’t even taken a Tylenol in the last 5 years now.”

“I had a small problem with it after everything, but I’m also clean now,” Spencer smiled at her. “Why did you want me to know?”

“Because I don’t want to take any drugs when I deliver the baby, even if I beg for them I don’t want them to give in. I talked to Dr. Korrapati about it but I wanted you to know too,” she explained. “Being in here all night got me thinking about a lot.”

He wrapped his arms around her and tackled her back against the pillows. “I love you,” was all he said.

“I love you too?”

“Seriously,” his voice was so soft and low. “I’ll never stop.”

chapter 19

She woke up to the feeling of hair tickling her face. She swatted at her face to try and get it to stop before opening her eyes. She blinked into the early morning sunlight, only to Spencer looking down at her, his hair long enough to tickle her skin.

“You were snoring,” he whispers down to her. “Also, Happy Birthday.”

She smiled, pulling him down and into a hug. “Thank you.”

Every morning with Spencer for the last 10 months had been special. Something about the warmth of his body against hers, and the sunlight bouncing around their new bedroom made this morning her favourite.

It was so calm on the water. She could see the snow settling on the ice as the sun made it glisten like diamonds. The birds had all but disappeared for the winter, the stillness in the world was lovely. It was like time stopped with Spencer laying in her arms.

“What do you think Penelope has planned at work today?” She asked him softly, playing with his incredibly long hair. It was almost longer than hers now.

“She told me to bring you in after 8.”

“So does that mean you have to distract me for a little while, Doctor Reid?” She teased him.

He pushed himself up, leaning on his arm as he hovered over her. “Any requests?”

She spread her arms and legs out like a starfish. “Have at ‘er,” she couldn’t stop herself from laughing as Spencer just shook his head.

He dipped down to her belly, blowing a raspberry onto her protruding bump. “Good morning to you too little dude,” he whispered against her skin. “Go back to sleep.”

She shoved him lightly, not able to stop herself from smiling, “he is asleep, leave him alone.”

It was the best morning ever.

Every time she thinks that she’s reached peak happiness she discovers another level. It felt like every time he touched her, she wanted to describe it as the best she’s ever felt.

When they finally got dressed and made their way downstairs for the morning, she found it incredibly odd that he wasn’t asking her what she wanted for breakfast, like he did every morning. Very concerned that she had all her meals and then some.

She fed the cat, picking him up and giving him a little snuggle after he finished his breakfast. “You are getting so big and chunky buddy, I might have to change your food timer.”

He meowed at her, sounding really pissed, making her laugh. “Fine but when you can't climb all the stairs in this house it’s your fault.” She placed him back on the ground and watched him wander into the sunlight. Plopping onto the hardwood and stretching out. Just living the life.

“Ready to go?” Spencer asked.

“Yeah, are we stopping for breakfast?” She asked, the second trimester making her hungrier than ever before.

“Penelope has it covered,” He said, placing his hand on her back as he leads her to the foyer.

“Oh this’ll be good,” she smiled, putting her shoes on before arming the alarm and heading outside.

Spencer locked their beautiful green front door, it was colder out than they had expected. He held her hand as she shivered slightly, they walked down the 3 steps together, Spencer not wanting her to fall if it happened to be icy.

Seat heaters were a blessing from god. The car was freezing when they first got in, the heater barely kicked in by the time they reached Quantico. Living 10 minutes away now was really nice.

Up the elevator they went, she was basically bouncing with excitement. “See?” Spencer nudged her with his shoulder. “Bunny.”

“Shut up,” she smiled as the door dinged before opening.

They walked into the bullpen to find it empty. She took off her coat and placed her bag on her desk before slowly walking up the small set of stairs and heading towards the briefing room.

All her co-workers were sitting around the table waiting for her and the boy wonder to arrive. Strawberry cheesecake danishes sat on a tray on the table, a strawberry milkshake in front of Y/N‘s regular spot.

“Happy Birthday!” They cheered as she walked in.

“You guys!?” She was so flattered. Never in her life has she been thrown a party by someone who wasn’t her mother. “Thank you.”

“Sit, sit,” Penelope insisted. Placing a danish on a napkin and putting it on her spot on the table. “I know you can’t have ice coffee right now, I thought a milkshake was the next best thing.”

“I seriously love you, come here,” she pulled Penelope into a hug, kissing her right on the mouth as everyone cheered.

“See that?” Penelope blushed. “Kisses are how I should be thanked around here.”

“HR already hates us,” Hotch made everyone laugh, “don’t push it.”

They all ate breakfast together, sharing stories from their weekend. They decided to spend New Years’ apart, everyone taking time to themselves for the first time ever.

“Where did you go, Prentiss?” Morgan inquired.

“Sin to Win weekend in Atlantic City,” she sighed and leaned back in her chair.

“Oh my god?” Y/N looked at her with absolute astonishment.

“What’s that?” Morgan and Spencer asked at the same time.

“Nothing.” Emily and Y/N replied in unison. Making a look at each other that screamed: ‘tell anyone and I’ll hurt you.’

Like a saviour, the fax machine in the briefing room turned on, spitting out 15 sheets of paper in a few minutes. Penelope cleaned off the table while Hotch ran everything over.

“Last night a family in Boston had their home burned down with them inside it,” Hotch explained.

“How is that something for us to look into?” Rossi asked.

“Because the unsub broke in and turned the water off and tampered with the gas system, causing CO2 to render them unconscious. He stabbed the father to death in the bed before laying gasoline all over the floors and lighting the house on fire.”

“Damn,” Y/N whispered under her breath. “That is personal.”

“I’d say,” Hotch agreed.

“Who was the family?” JJ asked.

Garcia looked through the sheets of paper spewed across the table. “Thomas Greenway, 61. His wife Alison 43. And 2 children aged 8 and 12.”

“We need to head to Boston,” Hotch announced. “I’ll call about prepping the plane. Y/N you can stay here with Garcia if you’d like, your insight will aid her search greatly.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind,” she smiled at Garcia. “Good luck out there.”

“Wheels up in 30.”

Everyone sighed before standing up. Spencer leaned in and kissed Y/N softly before standing up. “I’ll see you later.”

“Come home to me safely Doctor Reid.”

He smiled down at her, fixing his shirt before he left with Morgan.

“I hate to see him go, but I love watching him leave,” She said softly towards Penelope, making her laugh in the process.

“Come on mama, let’s go to my office,” Garcia said, putting her arm out for Y/N, the two of them skipping down the hallway with their arms linked as the team filled the elevator.

Y/N sat in Garcia’s office and immediately put her feet up, still drinking her milkshake as she flipped through the case files. “Can I suggest possibly the dumbest thing ever?”

She laughed, “shoot.”

“So, homeboy here breaks in and knocks out a family with co2 poisoning, just to stab the father to death and light the house on fire.” She ran it down once more, “What if we just search mothers stabbed before dying in a fire and just see if this is some traumatized kid, at this point that’s what they all end up being.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Garcia said, typing away as she added the parameters. “It’s like you can see the fucking future?”

Y/N threw her head back in a laugh, “did you get something? Seriously?”

“Adele Hollis was found dead in a burning apartment building in Boston in 1978. ME reports say she was already dead from co2 poisoning before she was stabbed 6 times in the chest. The whole apartment complex went up in flames after the unsub doused the bed in gasoline and lit her up.”

“Well fuck,” Y/N replied. “Does she have children?”

“Yes, her son Cameron was at school when it happened. He was 8, he moved in with his step-dad shortly after, they ruled him out and never found the guy,” Garcia added.

Y/N leaned across the desk and dialled Hotch, the plane hadn’t even left yet. “I think I found the unsub?”

“How?” Hotch asked.

“I jokingly asked Garcia to search and see if there are any men whose mothers died in a fire after being stabbed cause we deal with sooo many traumatized kids, and we found one,” she laughed at just how insane it sounded.

“Video in and give us a rundown.” Hotch hung up. Ever the conversationalist.

Garcia and Y/N squeezed into the same frame seeing everyone gathered in the little plane seats. She gave them the basic rundown of her findings, watching them all shake their heads at the fact she solved the case already.

“Have the local PD issue a warrant and bring him in. Can you check and see if he knows the victims?” Hotch asked.

“On it sir,” she smiled, clicking away.

“How did you do that so fast?” Morgan has to ask, “it’s not human.”

She laughed again, “If I’ve learned anything in the last 10 months it’s that traumatized little boys can fuck up a lot of people’s lives.”

“Preach,” Rossi added.

“Um, guys,” Garcia’s tone changed. “Cameron Hollis’s birth father is the father who was stabbed in this case.”

“You’re shitting me?” Y/N couldn’t believe it. “Do they have any kind of relationship?”

“His father is on the birth certificate but it looks like Adele left him when Cameron was 3, after some domestic disputes that had the cops at their door. She was remarried when he was 6, it doesn’t look like they ever really talked,” Garcia explained while continuing to dig.

Y/N watched through the monitor as the team gripped their seats, the plane was taking off now. They would be in Boston with this guy in just a few hours.

“Thanks, Lady Wonder,” Morgan winked at the camera for Y/N before leaning in and turning the monitor off.

She sat back and put her feet up once more. “Best birthday ever.”

—

They had Cameron Hollis in custody with a full confession before 5 pm that day. Everyone was beyond thankful that they would be back home with their families shortly.

Y/N had said goodbye to Penelope shortly after, driving home to have some alone time. Rossi would drive Spencer home, they lived close enough now that they could all carpool if they wanted.

She had never been in their new house all alone before. She took the time to just walk around and admire everything, being thankful that her life ended up like this. Not taking a second of it for granted.

She sat down on her bed finally, taking her phone out and calling JJ.

“Hello bestie,” she answered.

Y/N smiled, “Hey, do you think Will could find a babysitter tonight?”

“Probably, why?”

“Tell him to drop Henry off and head to my place. I’m going to have pizza delivered and you can come here with Spencer when you land,” Y/N offered. “Have a date night with us.”

“That would be amazing, I’ll call Will right now. See you later,” JJ sounded happy. It made her smile.

“See you.” She hung up, laying back against her bed softly.

She changed quickly before heading downstairs, wearing a pair of leggings and an academy t-shirt. She was getting too big for almost everything she owned now.

She placed an order for a few pizzas to arrive at 8:30. Next, making sure she had more beer in the fridge, for the nights when Will wandered over with JJ. They had visited almost every weekend since she and Spencer moved in.

That’s when she saw him.

chapter 20

Previously...

The dream was always the same:

A man would get into their home, he knew their schedule, he knew when she’d be alone.

He’d get in without any trouble and he never made a sound. She wouldn’t even know he was in the room until she felt the cold metal gun press against her face, as shaking hands instructed her to tie her own behind her back.

He’d always use her supplies. Duck tape, shoelaces, scarves. Anything at his disposal that he didn’t have to bring with him. Almost as if he didn’t fully choose her to be his victim until the very last minute.

He assaulted her all for what felt like hours, stopping occasionally to cry in the bathroom or eat a snack in their kitchen. And he always showered at the end. Sometimes, he’d wrap her up in a housecoat, put her sheets in the wash and sincerely advised her to invest in a better lock for the sliding door.

Then he was gone.

Slipping into the night, on his way to become someone else’s nightmare...

There was a man in her yard, he was dressed in all black, with a backpack wrapped around his shoulders and a ski mask on his face.

He couldn’t see her from where she was in the kitchen, but she could see him. She ducked to the floor and crawled towards the stairs, booking it up the steps and grabbing her gun. She made sure it was loaded, grabbing a second clip from her nightstand and tucking it into her pocket. Then she detonated the alarm system from the remote on Spencer’s bedside table.

She crawled into her closet, making herself look like a pile of clothes.

And she waited.

She felt a little insane, she tried to convince herself that it could be anyone from a neighbour to a lost person from the trail. For all she knew, it was someone from the academy lost in the woods.

She tried to calm her breathing, calling Will with her cell phone. “Hey, JJ just filled me in-“

“There is someone in my backyard in all black with a backpack, how fast can you get here?” She panicked in a whisper.

“Fuck, okay, I just dropped Henry off at the sitter. I’ll be right over, stay put and I will call you when I’m there,” his southern accent came out more when he was stressed.

“Okay, thank you,” she hung up and took a deep breath.

She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds in her house.

She remembered what the house sounded like that morning. The stillness, the quiet peacefulness of her and Spencer in the bed only 12 feet away from where she was now hiding.

She remembered the way the floors creaked as it popped and settled with the heat, how the tree outside would sometimes tap the window, the sound of snow tumbling off their roof. Passing cars on the main road kicking up gravel, the odd bird singing in the cold breeze, her own heartbeat in her ears.

Then she heard the alarm turn off with its overly happy welcome home chime. Only knowing one man would be able to disarm her alarm system without a code, and he was in the air right now.

“Open,” she heard the alarm’s voice as the door opened.

Footsteps travelled along the hardwood floor in wet shoes. She listened to the sound of the wet rubber on hardwood explore the first floor.

There were 2 people in her house, splitting up as one went to the kitchen and one went up the stairs.

She aimed her gun at the doorway, aiming to shoot anyone who walked through the door in the leg. Not wanting to kill anyone who she knew that might’ve gotten in for a different reason, unannounced.

In the rare happenstance that this wasn’t her worst nightmare coming true.

Her hands were shaking as she kept the gun pointed for what felt like hours, just waiting for him to find her. The door handle started to turn slowly, she heard the sound of the old metal grinding ever so slowly.

The first thing she saw were his eyes, yet again. The same eyes that haunted her dreams, the eyes every woman she spoke to for 2 years remembered from behind the ski mask.

Fuck Wichita, he was her own personal nightmare. He had been for a while. Those eyes, big and black all the way around, not a single glimpse of colour or life or hope. Every single dream came flooding back as she saw him in her doorway, the same aura of death, destruction, loneliness and despair from all those months ago was now filling the most special place in her home.

He still hadn’t seen her in the closet, looking around the room carefully as she watched him. Waiting for him to get closer, and closer to where she was. Finally peeling back the wooden closet door.

“Surprise, bitch,” She said before aiming higher and shooting him between the eyes, knocking him down.

She stood and stepped out of the closet, “Travis fucking Johnson,” she shook her head as she looked at the man bleeding on her bedroom floor. Taking his pulse to ensure that he was dead.

She couldn’t hear anything for a second, trying her best to zone in on the sound of someone tiptoeing in her kitchen, “WHO ELSE IS IN MY HOUSE?” She screamed.

Suddenly she could hear the sound of a car on the gravel and then a door slamming. She stepped into the hallway, gun pointed, looking over the railing towards the front door.

“Y/N?!” Will yelled. Gun pointed as he entered her house.

“I’ve got one down, I think there’s another in the kitchen,” she replied.

“On it.”

Y/N looked down the hall, none of the upstairs rooms were open, every door exactly how it looked when she ran up the stairs. She headed down the steps when 2 shots were fired.

She quickly ran to the kitchen to see another man on her floor behind the counter, his feet the only thing she could see as he laid there, dead. Will was standing over him, taking his pulse.

“He’s gone,” Will confirmed.

Y/N finally let herself panic, shaking as she tried to catch her breath, pulling out a chair from the counter and sitting down. Her adrenalin was running wild in her bloodstream, she didn’t even know how to speak let alone think about what had just happened.

“Y/N,” Will’s soft voice brought her back to reality. He was right beside her, wrapping his big strong arms around her to try and calm her down. “Shh, it’s okay.”

“Who was it?” Is all she asks him.

“I have no idea, who was upstairs?” Will asked.

“Travis Johnson, from my first case with the BAU,” she calmed down a bit, breaking away from the hug to get off the chair.

She walked around the counter island, looking down to find another man she knew, bleeding on her brand new hardwood floors. “Oh my god,” she felt sick at the sight.

He smelled the same, stale and rotten. The same look on his face even as he slipped into eternal damnation. Empty as when he was alive, pure evil down to his core. Dead to match how he felt inside as he did those awful things to undeserving mothers.

The second worst man she’s ever come in contact with.

The Winnemucca Womb Raider.

She backed up into Will, he held her close so she didn’t drop to the floor, helping her back into the chair. “Do you know him?”

“Yeah,” she felt herself starting to cry. “How? They were both in prison?”

“We need to call the police,” Will said softly before taking his phone out.

“911 what’s your emergency?” She could hear the muffled woman’s voice as he pressed his phone to his ear.

“This is Detective William LaMontagne Jr. Two men just broke into my friend’s home and tried to kill her,” he explained the situation, making her shutter.

She watched as he talked to the woman, suddenly not able to hear anything as her body slipped into shock. She was completely numb. In the last 10 months she hadn’t fired a single shot on the job, and yet on her birthday, the one time she's alone, she has to kill someone in her own home.

The place where she was supposed to feel safe and happy. Where her new life with Spencer and Matthew was supposed to start. They promised Gideon love and laughter, having that dream stripped from them when Pure Evil stepped over the threshold.

It was just like the dream, the last one she had before Spencer wrapped himself around her, calming her down.

This time he wasn’t here, he didn’t even know that this had happened, he wasn’t always going to be there to save her. She pulled herself back into the moment, calming herself like she had all those years before him.

She wasn’t a damsel in distress, he knew that.

A man walked into her home, the one time he knew she’d be alone and vulnerable.

That was the only part of the dream that matched.

Unlike her dream, she wasn’t a victim. Not in this house. Not in her space. Not ever.

The sound of the sirens echoed in her ears finally, she turned to the commotion of officers running into her new house. Will walked them through it all, telling them who Y/N was and that this was her home. How she saw a man in her yard and hid before killing him upstairs.

“Ma’am?” A stranger in a uniform tried to get her attention. “Ma’am, can you come with me?”

She nodded, standing up and finding support in the man’s arms. He wrapped her up in a silver blanket before he led her outside and into an ambulance. She had her vitals taken and an oxygen mask placed on her to help her calm down.

“Is the baby okay?” She asked the EMT, pulling the mask off her face so he’d hear her.

“Yes,” he smiled. “Strong heartbeat, no signs of distress but you need to relax so we can keep it that way.”

Will climbed into the ambulance then, taking her hand in his, “hey doll, are you okay?”

She nodded, “just a little shook up.”

“I called Spencer,” he said softly. “They’re 30 minutes from landing, then him and the team are on their way. No one told the team about the prison break in Oklahoma, they didn’t even think to connect them back to you.”

She sighed, “two cases in 2 different states, where the offenders ended up going to a 3rd state to meet and do time together and bond over the women who put them away. Makes sense.”

“You put them both away?” He asked.

She nodded again. “I basically made it my life goal to get Travis Johnson, he’s the reason I have this job, he’s the reason I’m pregnant right now,” her words trailed off into whispers. “I saw him in November, he congratulated me when he saw the bump.”

“Who was the other guy?”

“The Winnemucca womb raider, he would kill pregnant women by strangling them before removing their wombs,” she looked at him, horrified. “They wanted to kill us...”

She wrapped her arms around her own stomach, she had almost forgotten to worry about him. To even think that she was more than just one person at the moment.

They weren’t after her, they were after the most important thing to her. Her son, her baby boy. Like all the mothers before her, like their own. They wanted her to suffer, for her son to be spared a future worse than death in their opinion.

All the images from the cases came flying back as she blinked faster and faster. Strangled women, removed wombs, thanking God for a second that Spencer was the one to see the recovered organs in his trailer. A sick feeling bubbled in her body, a chill ran deep in her bones.

Then everything went black.

—

The first thing she remembers when she gained consciousness again was that Spencer was furious. She could see him and Hotch in a heated conversation from inside the ambulance, she tried her best to wake up and zone in on what was going on.

It was too dark for her to read their lips, but he was angry.

JJ was sitting beside her now, holding her hand. “Hey, bestie.”

“Did the cat get out?” She doesn’t know why that’s the first thing she asks, “the door was left open, did he get out?” Still in shock, still trying to understand everything.

JJ shushed her, petting her hair as she leaned in close, hugging her softly. “He was in the laundry room, Will said he made sure to find him when you were getting checked out.”

“Good,” she nodded along as she listened. “I’m so overwhelmed.”

JJ let out an awkward laugh, “I can imagine.”

“I’m also starting to fall in love with your husband,” she found her sense of humour then. “He has perfect timing.”

JJ laughed a little harder, causing Spencer’s focus to shift to the ambulance. Y/N watched him run towards it and jump in.

“Y/N, oh my god,” Spencer wrapped his arms around her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replied. “I’m safe, the baby’s healthy,” she assured him.

He kissed her all over her face, making her giggle when he wouldn’t stop, repeating kisses all over her face, her ears and her neck. She could hear JJ also laughing as she watched with Hotch just outside.

He finally stopped to catch his breath, hugging her again with his face in her neck. “I love you,” she reminded him.

“You love me?” He pulled back, “I love you so fucking much, I am never leaving you alone again.”

“Spencer,” she laughed, “I think I handled it pretty well.”

He huffed and shook his head, “you shouldn’t have had to handle this in the first fucking place! It’s not that fucking hard for someone to call the god damn FBI and say hey two psychopaths that your genius new girl put behind bars, fucking escaped!”

She finally knew what Hotch meant when he said Spencer’s anger scared him. She looked at him like he was a whole different person, “Spence, baby, I know. It’s okay, I’m fine see?”

She placed her hands on his cheeks as she looked into his beautiful hazel eyes, watching his pupils change size as he focused on her. Love and life behind them, true happiness clouded by horror at the thought of losing the love of his life.

He was what a true man was supposed to be, a real genuine person with love and kindness, and empathy. Her soulmate, her Spencer.

“We can’t control everything, that’s what you told me. We handle what’s in front of us, and we do it well,” she smiled as she reminded him.

Spencer started to cry, pulling her in close. “I can’t lose you.”

She cried at the sound of his voice, his heart shattering as he cried in her arms, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. Terrified on a level she’s never seen in him before.

She rubbed his back as she held him, rocking him lightly as she shushed him absentmindedly. Soothing him as if her life depended on it, it broke her heart to see him this broken about the idea of losing her. She loved him so much it made her heart physically ache in her chest as she held him.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, whispering against his hair. “I’ll kill a million men if it means coming home to you.”

He laughed in the middle of his cries, she could feel him smile softly as he sniffled against her shirt. “Promise?” He asked as he pulled back to look at her.

She wiped the tears from his cheeks, his beautiful eyelashes clumped together in the wetness. He was so sweet, she couldn’t help kissing him quickly, “promise.”

—

Hotch insisted they head to the BAU with the rest of the team while he handled the crime scene and the forensic clean-up, knowing on a personal level what it was like to clean Evil’s blood out of your bedroom carpet.

Y/N was sitting in the car waiting to leave when she saw Will coming out of her house with 3 pizzas. “I forgot I ordered those,” she gasped at the sight.

“You should’ve seen the look on the delivery guy’s face,” JJ laughed.

It was really bizarre having a pizza party in Rossi’s office after shooting someone in her home. Everyone was trying to be as chipper as possible to try and take the tension off the situation, but Y/N was pretty quiet.

Morgan got everyone to settle down before closing the office door, sitting close to her and Spencer. “Everyone in this room has either been shot, in danger, held hostage or worse,” he offered her some support.

“If you want to share anything, express any feeling or just tell us to fuck off, you can,” his words were soft, she watched him with soft eyes as he spoke.

“The only thing I can think of is that fate is fucked up,” she replied, the honesty slipping off her tongue like it was made of butter.

“You have the floor,” he insisted that she continue.

“I moved into a tiny apartment, farther away from my job, because I needed somewhere to live, and I found Spencer in the hallway. Spencer led me to you, and you guys helped me find Travis Johnson, my personal nightmare case of 2 years,” she explained like they never knew that. “But it’s so much more than that now.”

“We ran into Travis at the prison in Oklahoma a few months ago,” Spencer added. “He noticed that she was pregnant and congratulated her.”

“But the thing that’s fucking me up the most is that, and sorry TMI,” she warned them before continuing. “but we conceived the baby in Kansas when we caught the VICAP counsellor, only a few towns over from where we arrested Travis. Then we ran into him on a different case in Oklahoma, and he happened to be in the same prison as a man from New Mexico I put away for killing pregnant women. Something about this all lines up so perfectly... I hate that I find it so interesting.”

“That is kind of insane,” Morgan agreed. “I think it just means you and Spencer are being pulled together by something with bigger plans than you realize. And you’re a good shot, so thankfully you have nothing to worry about now.”

“Thanks,” she smiled.

She held Spencer’s hand, looking down at the ring on her finger that meant she was his forever. As much as she hated the idea of a man owning a woman, she loved the idea that Spencer was her person forever.

They were tied together in a way no one would understand, she loved him deeper than she ever thought possible.

Everything happened for a reason. Her reason just so happened to be Fate wanting her to spend the rest of her life, Happily with Doctor Spencer Reid.

—

She woke up around noon the next day, Spencer was sitting up beside her reading a book when she finally clued into where she was. They had spent the night at Rossi’s house while the forensic cleanup team handled her kitchen and bedroom.

“Good morning,” she smiled up at him, stretching against the sheets as she fully woke up.

He put his book down and joined her, wrapping her up in his arms and kissing her neck softly.

“Good morning,” he replied finally. She loved his voice when he hadn’t spoken yet. His vocal cords yearning to be used.

She smiled against his skin, holding him against her chest as she breathed him in. Her safety, her cosmic soulmate.

Everything just felt better in the world when they were pressed this close to each other. This was how they were meant to be.

“How are you feeling?” He asked after a few minutes of silence.

She rolled him onto his back, snuggling into his chest and lifting a leg over him so the baby wasn’t squished. “Good, I’m excited to go back home later.”

“You’re not scared,” his fingers ran through her hair as she felt his breath on her face.

“No,” she shook her head against him. “Yesterday could’ve been a lot worse, but I’m trained to think on my feet and the danger is gone now. I’m never going to let myself be a victim in my own home.”

“I love you,” he reminded her. “And after yesterday-“

“I want to get married soon too,” she cut him off, getting up and sitting on his hips. She ran her hands over his chest as she looked down at his beautiful, still puffy, morning face.

He beamed up at her, “I feel it too, I want to make it official. I want to shout it from the rooftops that the love of my life chose me too.”

She nodded softly, “and we agreed that in April this year we’d go to Vegas, and we’d do it. I think we still should, I just want to plan it a little.”

“Of course,” he agreed, squeezing her thighs in his excitement. “Come here.”

She held his face in her hands as she leaned down, rubbing her thumb over his bottom lip as she looked at him ever so softly. “I love you,” she said before kissing him.

His hands wandered over her back, holding her into the kiss. Breathing in deep through his nose, kissing her as if they hadn’t seen each other in months.

Spencer was desperate to love her, and she was desperate to be loved by him.

She broke the kiss to just look at him, moving his hair back and pressing her forehead against his. “The park across the street from my parents house,” she whispered.

“Mhmm.”

“I want to get married there, I want to start the rest of my life in the spot where I first really fell in love with you,” she explained, her lips close enough to him that the words could have stuck to his skin.

“I think I can pull some strings and get us a permit by April,” He smiled against her lips, “what day are we thinking?”

“The 23rd, 1 year exactly,” she said before Spencer pulled her back into another kiss, this time it’s soft and delicate. “Until forever,” she whispered against his lips.

“You need to promise me one thing,” he added. Feeling her nod as she kissed down his neck. “I know you said you’re fine, but the second you’re not I need you to tell me.”

“Okay,” she agreed, sitting back up as she straddled his hips. “You have to do the same, I can’t handle you crying in my arms like that again, it really broke my heart.”

He held his pinky out to her, she smiled as she wrapped her own around his. Both leaning in to kiss the other's knuckle, a small tradition Y/N adored.

—

They were back at their house by 5 pm. Hotch had ensured that everything was completely cleaned and there was 0 evidence that a crime had even taken place on the property. Penelope on the other hand had taken it upon herself to break into their alarm system and reset it for them shortly after everyone left.

They changed the code, closed the door and sighed at the beautiful home that felt a little different now. “I think I want to paint,” she announced.

“Yeah?” Spencer laughed at the suddenness.

“It’s too blah, y’know? I see what they were doing with the whites and beige for all the light. But, I’m thinking green in here to flow with the cabinets in the kitchen,” she walked through the foyer as she imagined the colours that would look good. “Like an olive or forest, maybe even jade. It’ll look nice with the dark wood.”

“That would be nice,” Spencer agreed. “Make it feel more like the old apartment.”

“Exactly,” she smiled. “I miss the clutter and the intimacy of the last place, and I know you miss the look of books everywhere.”

“I’m still alphabetizing them in my office,” he added. “I’d like to paint in there as well, I’ve been looking at antique chairs and couches for my reading.”

“Hotch is going to make us take 2 weeks off again,” Y/N looked at him with excitement. “We can put all our energy into this place now.”

“Let’s make it ours,” He agreed.

“Wanna go to the hardware store and look at paint samples?” She hopped with excitement, grabbing his arm and tugging on him.

He laughed, pulling her into his chest. “Sure, bunny,” he pressed his cheek to the top of her head as he held her. “What about Matthew’s room?”

“Oh, me and Penelope have it all planned, all the stuff is being delivered next month. She kinda went a little nuts,” Y/N laughed.

“He’s going to be one loved little boy,” Spencer chuckled. “Come on, let’s go.”

#hypothetically #spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid x reader

[squarefriend]

Mermay ended yesterday, but I’m sitting on the beach at this very moment so let’s fucking do this:

🌴🐬BEACH HEAD CANNONS!!!🐬🌴

Chara

❤️ They are actually rather neutral over the ocean. Far more of a skipping stones and playing in the lake kind of kid. Though, they do have a respect for the water’s raw power and changing tides. (Also seeing how much Undyne loves it made them want to appreciate the ocean more)

❤️ Thanks to being attached to Frisk’s soul, they kinda have to go to the beach all the time now. They like to go out as far as they can and walk along to the bottom, or float above Frisk and try to freak them out.

❤️ All that being said, they ADORE sharks. They nerd out every time they get to go to the aquarium. (Then get kinda embarrassed about it).

❤️ They have (on more than one occasion) convinced Frisk that because they’re a ghost they can see all the ghosts of everyone who’s drowned, and that yes, pirates ARE coming to get them...... It backfired at the notion that now Frisk WANTED to go meet the ghost pirates.

❤️ Had a brief period of wanting to be a mermaid, purely because A) Not a human and B) Typically man eaters. It suited their style

Frisk

❤️ They LOVE the ocean.... or rather, they love the beach. There’s one right at the edge of Ebbott City, so in the summer, they get to go up every weekend or so. And you can bet on that weekend, they have an absolute ball with whomever family/friend took them this time.

❤️ Their favorite part is exploring. They love to run around on the beach, looking for shells or any critters, as well as going out into as deep as the can in the ocean (usually only to be called back by their mom). Speak of the devil, Toriel bought them a snorkeling kit for their gotcha day and that thing has been used religiously ever since!

❤️ Every time they go the the car to go home, Frisk has to be checked by an adult (not either of the skelebros, they are WAY to lenient on this one) to make sure that they don’t have any stow away sea critters. One too many times of Frisk trying to keep a pet crab.

❤️ They take swimming lessons from Undyne! There were only a couple of misunderstandings over wether or not a humans could breathe underwater, but its all been sorted out! They’re doing really well!

❤️ They refuse to learn how to dive. Undyne has been trying to teach them for MONTHS now. It’s cannon ball or nothing, and they’re determined to keep it that way.

Flowey

❤️ Back when he was Asriel, he’d wanted to see the ocean. They don’t exactly have HUGE bodies of water in the underground like that, basically only the river. And no one swims in the river. Add in Chara’s talk of mermaids and their stories about lakes and skipping stones and all that.... It had been a big goal of his. Now that he’s there, and without the capabilities to swim or get in the water, and without the person who said they’d show him the surf.... it’s uh, it’s lost its appeal.

❤️ Frisk and Papyrus tried to get him to go out in one of those dog floaties. It looked pretty ridiculous and nearly tipped over a couple of times. Inevitably it was decided that it was just best to just keep him on the shore or in the shallows strapped to someone’s chest.

❤️ Usually he just sits on the shore with Paps, Frisk, or Toriel. He (begrudgingly) likes to make sand castles. He’s actually gotten quite good at them. Either that or eat nice cream.

❤️ Papyrus made him tiny sunglasses. He wears them every time they go to the beach.

❤️ When he does go into the water, he likes to stick his head under the serf and try to find fish. He actually managed to catch one in his mouth once, both impressive and terrifying.

Toriel

❤️ She is fond of the beach. Not so much the water, but she does enjoy the occasional swim with Frisk. Would probably like going out on a boat, though she has never tried it.

❤️ Usually while the rest of the family swims, she’s on the shore in her beach chair, reading a good book and keeping a watchful eye on her kids. She can usually get through half of the thing before its time to go home.

❤️ That being said, when she does go out in the water (usually to cool off or check on Frisk and/or Flowey) she is remarkably good at floating along. That, and she’s abit of a beast when it comes to X-treme monkey in the middle. That lady is huge and can use that height when she needs to. Also she has to shake off when she gets out of the water.

❤️ She ALWAYS has a beach bag on her, and in that beach bag is pretty much anything you’d ever hope to need. Pool toys, goggles, fresh water, extra sunscreen, at least three books, money, Your scocial security number, you name it.

❤️ Toriel’s usually the go to ‘hold tired swimmer gently’ person. And has done so for everyone in the main cast but Mettaton and Undyne. You could just fall asleep in those big ole’ arms.

Sans

❤️ He’s, as with most things, pretty nuetral about the ocean. Though, he adores the fact that it’s a day he can just slack off and relax in the sun (and sometimes water). He’s usually on the beach in a beach chair or sitting in a pool floaty, just drifting along. Sometimes he’s just latched onto Paps or Toriel, it’s kinda a wild card where he is at any given time.

❤️ He has never been sober ONCE while at the beach with the family. Mostly thanks to the fact that he somehow always has a martini in hand. No one knows where he gets it, let alone how it is almost always at least half way full. Needless to say, he’s at least buzzed by the end of the day.

❤️ Every time they go to the beach, he wears the most insane sunglasses. I’m talking Elton John style, but if they came from dollar tree. Normally it’s a pineapple pair, but they change on a whim. Once again, no ones entirely sure where they come from.

❤️ He briefly moved the illegal hotdog stand to beach, before the threat of getting fined was close enough to scadattle. This, the limited addition ‘Colddogs’ (now for 5g, wait he meant 50g, actually its 500-) became a thing. They were followed shortly by ‘Frozendogs’ (available in 50 flavors!)

❤️ The two never breathe a word of it, but every once in awhile Papyrus will rent a canoe and the two of them will go out on the water. They only do this at the dead of night, when the water is still and clear. Way out past the buoys, where it’s hard to see the shore, the moon and the stars bounce off the water in a shifting, funhouse esc reflection. Being out there, together, in practically silence..... It brings a lot of comfort to the two of them. It reminds Sans that yeah, this is real, and some things are worth remembering.

Papyrus

❤️ Paps is very fond of the shallows, but not a huge fan off big, open water. Unless he’s in the comfort of a canoe or boat. It’s just too big of a space. One can feel so... alone out there. But!! If he’s in chest or higher or with a group of close friends, he’s good!!

❤️ He bought special spandex gloves to wear in the water, ones that cover his fingers and palms without being skin (bone???) tight. They help him tread the water better, since he’s the opposite of buoyant. Which is definitely the only reason he bought them! No other reason in sight! Why would you even ask that?!

❤️ He, Undyne, and Frisk play ALOT of beach games, all far more extreme than their originals. The current turnomemt is over X-Treme volleyball, this time featuring antigravity magic and spears. Frisk is, somehow, winning.

❤️ A good portion of the time, he eats nice cream and makes sand castles with Flowey. Their creations are startlingly structurally sound and flourished. Though, they are also usually next to a life sized sand-Papyrus. No one knows where the sand came from.

❤️ He tried catch and realease shark fishing with Undyne once. It um, got interesting to say the least. Especially when they tried to use Papyrus as live bait. They only had to go to the ER twice!

Undyne (Aka my entire reason for writing this)

❤️ Undyne doesn’t love the ocean. She doesn’t even like the ocean. She ADORES the ocean. You can find her there almost every day after work, sun or storm. She never realized how much she would thrive in salt water until she was there, and now she can’t believe she lived without it. Its so raw and passionate and buetiful, and she’s just at home in the waves.

❤️ Her favorite time to be out is during a good storm, when the ocean is at her roughest. Undyne has learned how to boogie board and body surf since she got on the surface, and uses those huge waves to catch some air. She WANTS to learn how to surf, but has yet to find someone to teach her. Storms are also the best for letting the water roll over her and letting herself drift in the tides, both are pretty damn amazing feelings.

❤️ Because she can breathe and see under the water, she also likes to swim out really deep into the open ocean. No one in the family can follow, but it gives her a lot of time to think. Also, there are sometimes HUGE fish out there, which she greatly enjoys seeing and interacting with. She’s. she’s fought a tiger shark before. And probably other, larger and more dangerous things. (Also when she gets home, Alphys always talks about how her kisses taste like salt. Undyne loves it).

❤️ Before she became Asgore’s body gaurd, Undyne was pretty much out of work. Not a whole lot of people wanted a massive, sharp toothed, she-shark selling retail in their stores. But, being a fish and all, she got managed to get a job as a life gaurd over the summer! This ended in her actually giving swim lessons to a couple of kids (starting with Frisk)!! She is actually a pretty good trainer and still teaches a few kids every once in awhile over summer breaks.

❤️ Her and Asgore went on a fishing trip once! The boat nearly capsized, Undyne ended up going in to fish instead of using the pole, there were life lessons taught about patience, and Asgore got horrendously away sick. Needless to say, it was a good trip. They still have pictures on Asgore’s fridge!

Alphys

❤️ As much as her girlfriend loves it, she’s not actually a huge fan of the water. It’s overwhelming and dries out her scales, and when she’s in super deep it makes her really uncomfortable. She’s stared into oblivion before and, well, it’s not a good feeling. The deep sea reminds her of that.

❤️ That being said, she LOVES the beach itself. She could sun bathe for hours while Undyne is swimming. Just pop on her head phones, lay on the sand, and embrace her lizard heratage! Also, she likes to watch her hot girlfriend do hot things like catch fish in her teeth and throw skeletons, so it’s a win win.

❤️ Naturally, this means a lot of her and Undyne’s date end up at the beach one way or anouther. Every time they go now, Alphy makes a point of collecting a seashell. They all hang on a string over her bed, it’s her favorite part of the room.

❤️ More times than not, if the sand is particularly nice and warm, Alphys falls asleep on it. Like, hard core passed out asleep. She just loves the fluffy parts of the sand so much??? And it’s so comfortable??? And she’s gotten more than afew overheating from sleeping ALL day, but she can’t help herself. It’s just too cozy!

❤️ Her favorite thing about the ocean is always going to be seeing Undyne’s smile though. She loves it. She loves the way her girlfriend’s kisses taste after she’s been in the sea. She loves how content the girl is after a good swim, and how cuddly they get in the living room. She loves smelling the air and holding her hand and seeing the sun on the water. She wants to spend forever in her arms, on the sand, eating nice cream and watching the sun set.

Mettaton

❤️ So. He’s a robot. Alphys is currently working on waterproofing his body, but until then he’s shore bound. That doesn’t mean he won’t done his best sun hat and glasses, steal a life gaurd’s chair, and pose dramatically on the beach though!

❤️ Truth be told, he actually quite enjoys long walks on the beach. His boots are well protected enough to go a way into the water as well, so he takes them sometimes with Alphys. Also, night time on the beach holds SPECTACULAR song writing material! There’s something so inspirational about the atmosphere.

❤️ That being said, summer concerts are the bomb. Litterally. There’s pyrotechnics. He’s not as big a star as he was in the underground, but some local beach performances are well within his pay grade. The thrill of the stage! The cries of the people! The personality and connection to his adoring fans! The one time he crowd surfed! The fashion! It’s all just perfect!

❤️ He also frequents beach side shops, thanks to the atmosphere and outfit selection. One can NEVER go wrong with a floppy hat and a sheer coverup. It’s just impossible.

❤️ He relates WAY too hard to the little mermaid, both in the original story and Disney. There’s just something that hits too close to home about longing for humanity and a new, more comfortable body... He gets Ariel man, he gets her.

Asgore

❤️ He likes to go on long morning walks on the beach alone. There’s something comforting about the sun rise and the sound of the waves rolling around him. There’s something even more sweet about the rare conversations, only lasting a hello and small talk, all few and far between. Sometimes he finds himself wishing he had a dog to walk with him, but in the end decides against it. He’s been alone a long time, he can last one more day.

❤️ He really enjoys going shelling. Sometimes, he even likes to paint his finds and put them up in his windows. Frisk helps him, he likes that.

❤️ He’s become a vollenteer to help find and aid sea turtles’ hatch sites. He loves watching them hatch and get to the sea safely. Though he’s not supposed to, he’ll protect them from the gulls.

❤️ Thanks to being in so close to the sea, he had a brief phase of being rather in love with verities of seaweed and kelps. He tried to keep afew using water tanks, but could never quite get them right. Ah well, at least the petunias and roses are doing nicely.

❤️ He has a hard time reading or watching things about mermaids. They make him sad.

#undertale #whole cast #Asgores section made me tear up a lil ngl #I love him so much #Also!!! Fun fact of the day!!! #A lot of the stuff put on Undyne’s section are based on my own experiences and feelings! minus the breathing under water parts tho #I just. love the ocean man. #Can you tell I wanted to be a mermaid as a kid? #Because I wanted to SO bad #long post

[jurassicparkpodcast]

Setting Sail Into Dangerous Waters with Camp Cretaceous Season Four | Where Will They Go?

At the end of Season Three of Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, the camp fam set sail into the vast unknown in search of rescue from Isla Nublar and the fallen Jurassic World theme park. With only a compass to lead the way and Kenji at the helm, the six kids set out to rescue themselves with a ship left behind by Season Two's villains, Mitch and Tiff. Nothing yet has been revealed about where these kids will call their next port, but I'm sure they are intent on making it to mainland Costa Rica... but will they actually make it there? There are a lot of variables in the mix, so let's take a look at some of the routes our camp fam may take on the way home.

Costa Rica

Isla Nublar lies 120 miles West of the mainland, so with enough luck and fuel, the kids of Camp Cretaceous certainly hope to make it to Costa Rica. It's their salvation. In the canonical timeline of Jurassic World, the campers set off of Nublar about six months after the events of Jurassic World, which means the hangar at the end of the 2015 film would no longer be ground zero for rescue operations. After six months of no rescue, it seems as though no one is looking for the lost children anymore. Hopefully they can find safety with the authorities or someone that may have heard about the missing kids from the Jurassic World incident. This outcome is their safest sanctuary. It's the ultimate goal.

There is one issue with this goal - what is on the boat? We certainly heard what seems to be a dinosaur within the locked cabin, so our campers could be responsible for a dinosaur loose in Costa Rica. It could make for an interesting tie to the original Jurassic Park novel with loads of reports of small lizards harming people around the coast. Ultimately, would one dino lost on the coast of Costa Rica be all that interesting? Depending on what the dino is, it could be interesting... but I think there are better alternatives.

Back to Nublar

This option is certainly the least interesting of the bunch. With the kids setting out for a hopeful future, having them backtrack to Isla Nublar would be a huge step backwards for the show. We've already spent three seasons trying to escape the island, so setting course for somewhere new is the best option. Of course there are still plenty of unexplored sections of the island, but it feels like it's time for a change of scenery.

The Mosasaurus

At this point in the franchise timeline, the events at the beginning of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom have occurred, which means that the Mosasaurus has escaped into open water. Our camp fam set out on the open seas, hoping to head to safety, but what if something got in their way? It's highly possibly that along their trip towards the mainland, they encounter the Mosasaurus. This outcome could be utterly dire for our campers, as the Mosasaurus outsizes their yacht and could capsize them in an instant. While nothing too drastic will happen to our core group, I wonder if this encounter sets them off-course... potentially to another island.

Isla Sorna

The campers set sail with hopes of floating eastward towards mainland Costa Rica... but what if they went the wrong way? The Mosasaurus could be the perfect catalyst for them chartering the wrong course, but it's already been hinted at that they could easily lose their way. During Season Three, Kenji couldn’t figure out how to use the compass that they picked up from his dad's penthouse, so who's to say he won't get turned around again. Isla Sorna is one island in the Five Deaths island chain, 87 miles West of Isla Nublar - 207 Miles West of Costa Rica. If they hit Sorna, they are heading in the wrong direction. The wrong direction for the kids, could be the correct direction for the show. Let's consider all Isla Sorna has to offer.

The island originally seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park and further in Jurassic Park III could be the answer many secrets this franchise holds. It's an island shrouded in mystery and potentially even lies. As we've been told, Isla Sorna is supposedly vacant. The DPG website repeatedly mentions the animals being shipped from Sorna to Nublar to populate Jurassic World as the park was building up operations, but also for the well-being of the creatures on an ever growing mysterious island. Did they move all the animals? That's to be foreseen, but at this point it seems unlikely.

One animal that could still be roaming Isla Sorna is the formidable Spinosaurus. The Spinosaurus could hold the key to the origin of hybrid dinosaur testing, giving the kids something to solve. The Spino's story was unresolved in Jurassic Park III, so it would be welcoming to see what happened after Paul Kirby sent a flare hurdling towards the vicious creature, setting the lagoon ablaze. According to the DPG, the dinosaur could be the reason for decreasing population and well being of other species throughout the island, so is it alone or does it have any island-mates?

There's also the possibility of animals lurking around old research facilities or creating nests near the coast lines - the Velociraptors of Isla Sorna. We have seen three variations of Velociraptor on the island - the male Tiger raptors of The Lost World and the white females and quilled males of Jurassic Park III. It seems doubtful that these variants would have been killed off by the Spinosaurus or shipped to Isla Nublar for the park opening, so the opportunity still exists for the raptors to be alive on the island. It would be wonderful if the campers stumbled upon the answers regarding why there are so many variants of raptor.

One problem with heading to Isla Sorna is how similar it looks to Isla Nublar now. The campers lived for months at their fallen Camp Cretaceous tree house, which was set among Redwood style trees, a look synonymous with Isla Sorna. At this point, how would Dreamworks Animation distinguish these two islands, as to make it seem like they are not just back on Nublar?

Shipmates

Let's further consider the Camp Cretaceous crew's current situation with a stowaway on board. It sounds like a dinosaur locked in the onboard cabin and I've heard speculation on everything from a young Scorpios, to a Troodon, a Baryonyx and Hap, the mercenary from Season two. I do like to consider the dino on board to be a baby Velociraptor bred directly from Velociraptor Blue due to parthenogenesis. It's been alluded to in the Jurassic World Aftermath VR game that Blue may have been able to reproduce asexually, so this could be a fun way to further that concept see in Jurassic Park and in Season Three of Camp Cretaceous with the second Scorpios Rex. Anyway, that's all besides the point, because a dinosaur is on this boat and it will have consequences.

Does the dinosaur on board force them to turn back to Nublar? Will it sidetrack them to a different island? Does it somehow signal the Mosasaurus toward their yacht? Will this dino cause mischief on the mainland? Pretty much all options are on the table when you have a dinosaur on board, but ultimately I hope it becomes the next Bumpy. Season three seemingly gave us a send-off for our favorite young Ankylosaurus (until the future, we hope), so we could use another fun dino side-kick. If it's a sweet young dinosaur, then maybe our camper friends won't get too sidetracked, but will still need to deal with the consequences once their arrive at their final destination.

Mantah Corp

Our final option sends the campers directly into the hands of the enemy. Mantah Corp have been on the peripherals of the Camp Cretaceous story from the beginning. We've seen their drone pop up in season one and in season three, plus we've heard their stories and connections. So when do we actually see Mantah Corp play a larger role? From what has been relayed within the series, it sounds like Mantah Corp has been in the shadows from the very beginning - even before Jurassic Park. Mantah Corp has wanted dinosaurs since before Wu made the first cloned creature, so we know they are dead-set on getting the DNA or better yet, some dinosaurs themselves.

From the previously outlined concepts, there could be a few results here for Mantah Corp. If our camp fam does encounter a Mosasaurus in the ocean and needs rescue, who better than Mantah Corp? There's also the chance of Mantah Corp setting up shop at a nearby island - Isla Sorna anyone? The team from Mantah Corp has to be close to Nublar, as they sent drones on recon missions to grab data and spy on the dinosaur activity. Sorna would give them a great base of operations. Let's say that Mantah Corp doesn't have the means currently to transport big dinosaurs off the islands, but they could have the capability of smuggling something small, a baby perhaps? I think Mantah Corp has to play a big role in Season four and I'd love to see it all play out on Isla Sorna.

What do you think? Are there any other alternatives that interest you? The kids from Camp Cretaceous certainly will have an adventure ahead of them in Season Four and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

Written by: Brad Jost

#article #camp cretaceous season 4 #camp cretaceous season four #camp cretaceous speculation #camp cretaceous isla sorna #camp cretaceous mosasaurus #camp cretaceous spinosaurus #camp cretaceous costa rica

[lady-sci-fi]

Classic Who Whumptober 2021 #13: Adrift

Liz and Benton

“Benton! Over here!” Liz shouted out into the harsh winds of the storm. She could only hope the sergeant in the water could hear her.

They had been among the last to be evacuated from the oil rig several miles off the coast of Norway. Unfortunately, that meant the helicopter that they were supposed to get on with the crew had nearly crashed when it had tried touching down again as the rig began to collapse under them. Which left Liz and Benton to fend for themselves and scramble for the lifeboats.

Benton struggled to swim over, in the tossing waves and mayhem from the storm. Thankfully, it was only a short distance. Liz helped haul him up over the side of the small motorboat.

Thunder boomed overhead, and lightning streaked across the sky only a couple seconds later. Rain pelted their faces as Benton engaged the motor and started to steer them in the direction he had last seen the shore,

Another part of the rig exploded, sending another wave of fire and debris up into the air. At seeing one large piece coming towards them, Benton threw himself over Liz. They both cried in surprise as it struck the backside of the boat, nearly flipping them over.

Benton quickly returned to motor and moved the yoke to steer, only to realize the motor wasn’t working. He tried restarting it, only to grunt in frustration as it didn’t.

“Not working?” Liz asked, having to shout over the wind whipping around them.

“Afraid not. That debris must’ve hit it.”

“Lucky it didn’t blow, then.” Liz glanced around, not that there was much she could see in any direction, except the orange of the fiery and mostly-collapsed rig. “Great…”

With nothing else they could do, the pair hunkered down in the middle of the boat, hoping the lightning wouldn’t strike them or the waves would capsize them.

********

They’d been adrift for several hours. Mercifully, the storm hadn’t battered them too much. The boat was still upright, and they were not drowned or electrocuted.

But they had drifted far from the rig, unable to see it, or any hint of land. Surely they would at least see the shape of land in the near-pitch blackness of the night.

Liz violently shivered again, from being damp and from the chilly air. Nothing either of them could do about that. “Lost at sea,” she sighed.

“They’ll find us.”

“Maybe, but who knows how far we’ve drifted.” She shook her head, her damp hair clinging to her skin. “Not that I doubt the Doctor and the Brigadier and Captain Yates, but it might be a long shot.”

Benton hummed, and tightened his arms around himself. “Maybe you’re right. You are the scientist, Miss.”

“Sorry, Benton. I didn’t mean it like that. I mean…” She gave up and stared out at the endless dark water and sky. “I do have faith in them, of course.”

“They’ll start searching where the rig went down and radiate out from there.”

“No doubt the Doctor can estimate a good search zone, based on time.”

Benton glared at the destroyed motor. “If only we could’ve gotten back to land ourselves. And even if we do see any land, we can’t get there ourselves.”

Liz nudged the sergeant with her elbow. “At least the boat didn’t break, or we were stuck on a floating hunk of wood. I don’t fancy our chances at all if that had happened.”

Benton sighed. “That’s true. I just don’t like being forced to sit here and do nothing to get us to safety.”

“Me neither, but here we are.”

They were quiet for a few minutes. Then Benton asked, “Do you think it’s more likely we might drift to Norway or to Britain?”

“Well, if it gets noticeably colder, to northern Norway. Otherwise, Britain. I don’t know which is more likely, without having much knowledge of prevailing ocean currents and winds, or the sun to know which direction we’re going.”

Benton took the chance for a light moment. “I thought you knew everything.”

Liz chuckled. “Not quite everything.”

********

As the morning sun climbed higher in the sky, Benton looked down to Liz, laying on her side with her head in his lap. He pulled his jacket spread over her up to shield her face from the light better. Best to let her sleep a little longer.

He stared out again at the endless blue. “Come on, find us.” He glanced down as he felt her shiver under his hand on her upper arm. He blew a quick breath into his other hand, also feeling the chill.

There were three possible outcomes. They kept floating in the open ocean, or washed ashore somewhere, or were rescued. One would, with little doubt, lead to their deaths. Benton shook his head to stop thinking about it. They would be rescued, he had to believe. No matter what the odds were the longer they drifted aimlessly.

Benton looked out to the featureless water again. The two of them, lost, alone, and adrift.

#classic who #Liz Shaw #Sergeant Benton #whumptober #Fic

[whirlybirdwhat]

our souls in the ocean forever will be - chapter 1

the sequel to till the sea gives up the dead now a series titled sing songs of the sea ! !

READ ON AO3

Summary:

Zoro’s earrings chime in his ear as he looks over the side of the boat, to deep, dark blue waters and small, foamy waves and…

And… to where…

A human- like face, smiling, sharp fanged and brilliant, stares back.

“SHIT!”

-

Luffy drowned, once, but his call still rings throughout the seas.

(Things change when the Ocean takes what is hers, but dreams remain the same - bold, unyielding, and reaching for the crown.)

—-

Chapter 1 - join me on the sea today - zoro

Zoro has been lost for about five days now, or so he thinks. It’s hard to tell when the sun is high and the winds keep changing with the tide. Time melds together out on the waves, and everyone knows the sea is a cruel mistress.

Many love her.

Few can say she loves them back.

(And even then, they are often lost to the sway of the tides.)

Once he realizes he no longer knows the time or the place, he gives up keeping count of the times the sun has passed overhead, or the times the stars have winked at him in the night. He merely focuses on his growling stomach and broken swords, and tries to keep Wado sharp as all she is used for is a kind of of spear fishing.

He’s thirsty, but he won’t die out here.

Not in this desert full of saltwater.

(Zoro’s smart, but in the kind of way that doesn’t get you killed. He knows how to survive, even if he doesn’t know how to live, so he will get through this.)

He has a promise to keep.

(His thoughts, like time in an hourglass, are melding and slipping together. He’s tired. Men were not made to be in the seas embrace without company this long. It’s dangerous.

Those that were made for this suffering isolation aren’t really men at all, and Zoro may be more than mortal but he is not of the sea. He is not meant for blue solitude.)

He won’t die.

Splash!

His head turns slowly to the front of his small, small dinghy.

Zoro doesn’t think that was a normal wave. Was it?

Splash!

There. Again.

Was he hallucinating?

(Kuina had told him to quit his moaning yesterday…)

Splash! Splash!

Fine. He’ll get up.

Zoro pushes himself up from his relaxed (half dead) position and, using the sides of the boat and Wadi Ichimonji, crawls his way to the front of the boat.

The sea is calmer than it has been, but his actions still tilt the boat from left to right. He doesn’t trust it, but he doesn’t capsize, which is enough for him.

Splash!

Shishishi!

Oh. He was definitely hallucinating if he was hearing laughter out at sea.

(Has he heard it before?)

A pause.

Splash!

Eh. He was already up. Might as well look.

Zoro’s earrings chime in his ear as he looks over the side of the boat, to deep, dark blue waters and small, foamy waves and…

And… to where…

A human- like face, smiling, sharp fanged and brilliant, stares back.

“SHIT!”

-

So.

There’s a face in the water. After Zoro didn’t stumble backwards, he had gone back for another look, and there it was again, smiling and scaled.

(There’s a scar under this mysterious person’s eye, sloping like ocean waves, and black hair drifting about their face. Handsome, in a youthful, drowning kind of way, but scales drift across their face and their eyes are so wide, so they cannot possibly be human.

Perhaps they were, once. Just not now.)

A hand, sharp tipped and surprisingly not webbed (or was it? it might have changed -), had sunk its hands into the soft wood of the dinghy. Something silver and sunset scaled and long had been making soft waves, something else spinning about the creature’s waist.

Whatever the creature was, it wasn’t leaving. Just pulling Zoro along with the ocean currents.

They haven’t spoken to him. Not at all, unless one counts the laughter.

Shishishi!

Usually, his hallucinations yell at him, or at least Kuina does.

Zoro’s trembling and weak from hunger, and doesn’t know what he’ll do if this thing is real and attacks him.

But honestly? Honestly, as the day wears on and the sun starts to set and his eyes adjust to the darkness instead of the blinding light – Zoro finds he is starting to not care.

It’s something different.

Something that is not monotonous ocean spray and hunger.

Zoro moves to the front of the boat instead of the back, and casually lays his head down at the bow, face looking towards the sky.

“Hey,” He says, to nothing at all, expecting splashing in return.

SHISHISHI! He gets in response, accompanied with a giant splash of water on his head.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” He shouts, and turns to his right, and there, grinning, is the face from the waters.

They’re leaning towards him, entire torso pulled out of the water, eyes bright and close in the dimming light, and they are smiling.

Still.

It’s like their face is fixed into it – that grinning D shaped smile. Frozen in a smile for eternity.

The creature pauses there, indescribable eyes glinting at Zoro as he slowly settles down in the dinghy when it is clear the creature isn’t doing anything.

Well, I did speak to them, is all Zoro thinks as he stares back.

The world seems to hang still in that moment, and Zoro can’t help but think that if this were any other creature, he would be terrified right now. Paralyzed.

(Or angry, slashing, in the way that his terror manifests – in demonic rage and sword.)

And he is, but in the same way he knows the darkness in his chest and the gleam of Wado’s blade despite the red covering her. It’s a familiar terror, one that he knows he can grasp in his hand or mouth or soul and conquer.

Zoro moves once more, and determines that he will never flinch again.

“Hey,” He slowly repeats, shifting upright in the dinghy.

The creature slides down in response, until their head is resting on crossed arms, settling on the rim of the dinghy. The dinghy lilts dangerously to the side but with a quick balancing act, Zoro slides to the other side and manages not to get dropped in the ocean.

Shishishi! the creature says, and it’s a hey, back to Zoro.

“Do you… want something?” He asks cautiously.

Nah! You gave me food, so I’m just bringing you to the Away Place!

“Away?”

To the shore! Its away.

“Ah. Wait – when did I give you – actually, never mind. So, you know how to get there?”

Shishishi! The creature’s grin widens if that’s physically possible and they laugh. Yeah! I think!

Zoro gives a nod and relaxes then in the center of the dinghy. The creature, sensing Zoro’s tiredness, if not the way the sun is now almost fully below the horizon, turns back to the front of the dinghy and slips into the water. A hand grips the front of the dinghy, rocking it a bit, but Zoro finds it soothing.

A lullaby by the water, rocked by a creature of the sea…

Sleep takes him fiercer than it has any other day on this voyage, and he does not spare a thought to think that possibly, possibly it could be because this sea creature makes him feel safe.

-

Zoro wakes to a hand shoving at his shoulder and the lack of rocking waves beneath his back.

He opens his eyes and oh – it’s the creature, again.

Damn, he needs a better name than creature.

Shishishi! We’re here! The away place!

“Land,” Zoro says, absentmindedly, and looks around the white sandy beaches.

Finally, he thinks, jumping out of the dinghy to bury his feet in the sand.

It’s hot, but it’s land.

Huh. He wiggles his toes, feeling sand slip between the cracks. He lost his shoes at some point. And its day time – midday really. How long did he sleep?

Eh. Whatever.

He makes sure Wado is secure by his side, checks the shattered pieces of the other, unnamed blades to see if they are salvageable, then turns inland.

Splash!

Oh.

Right.

Zoro turns around, kicking up sand and letting it stick to his wet, salty skin. Damn. He needs a shower. But first…

“You going to be good here?” He asks the gentle waves.

Shishishi! Yeah! The creature splashes whatever they have for a lower body beneath the water, a grin adorning their face still. (Their teeth are sharper, now, Zoro thinks.) They slide slowly back down into the waves till they are near completely submerged. Their bright eyes hairs, sea crusted and inky, float above the water, the ocean wave scar beneath their cheek splashing above the waterline.

Hidden, unless you were looking for them.

“Alright then. Be back soon.”

And with that, Zoro goes in search of booze and maybe food under the blazing sun of a strange island.

-

It is walking to some sort of civilization that Zoro realizes the creature did not actually speak – that their mouth, shaped in that sharp toothed smile, never moved, never changed, never spoke.

Zoro just knew, in the same way he heard Wado sing when he dueled, what the creature was saying.

He thinks he should be more worried about this.

He isn’t.

Huh, Zoro thinks, and wonders if the creature has a name.

Then he realizes that the creature is also waiting for him back at the dinghy, even though they don’t have to, and also that the creature probably ate his boots and the scraps of bone and fish heads Zoro wasn’t able to eat and tossed overboard in his journey on the dinghy.

Huh.

He’s so lost in thought that he barely registers knocking into the signpost for the island town’s tavern and blacking out either to dehydration, starvation, or the hit to the head.

It’s probably all three, to be honest.

-

Zoro was called a Sea Child once. He’s sure he still is back home, with the way Koushirou and the others watched his back as he set out in his boat.

Lost boy, they, the old ladies in the village, said in pitying tones, as he wandered around the island, he keeps looking for the sea.

The sea calls him, they would say, ushering Zoro away from the shore, we can’t let him close, not yet.

It’s why he can’t make sense of the land, they say, worrying over Zoro coming back with broken teeth and moss in his hair, he belongs to Her. The Sea.

Zoro knew it was bullshit. Is still bullshit, really.

(He doesn’t mention how ever since he was nine, every time he has gotten lost he has ended up by the shore, answering some unknown siren call.

It sounded like a laugh in his mind, sometimes.)

He’s no Sea Child. He’s heard the stories.

Sea Child, lost child, dancing by the waves…

The kids who go out to the shore and never come back, the women who sing to the sea and hear its call, the men who die at sea and smile in the ocean’s embrace.

There were people who didn’t belong to the land. Whose hearts were the Ocean’s from the second they breath the sea salt air.

Zoro belongs to nothing but the destiny he creates.

Sea child, siren woman, singing to the waters…

Suspicious, though, the way the stories never mention what happens to the Sea Children after they embrace the sea. What is like, to become one with the ocean? What is it like, after a not quite death?

Questioning this, Zoro finds he does not care – for answers or for gods, whatever the choice.

He was here now, a sword in hand. His dream is what truly matters, not the sea or the voice of the wind.

Sea child, fishing man, heading to the depths…

He’s not a Sea Child, no matter what the old ladies say, or the way he ends up by the water and feels less lonely or the way the sea is a comfort.

He’s not.

(As he sets out to sea for the first time and doesn’t feel the urge to jump in the ocean, he worries that something greater has its control over him.

After all, how can he explain the laughter of the sea breeze?)

Sea child, Sea Child, Sea Child lost…

-

The old lady he wakes up to is pretty nice, despite all her ramblings about him being sea-shook and the strange tides in the bay.

She gives him a bit of money for the bar and sends him on his way, so in thanks he drinks out the bar and eats half the food without spending a penny. A sword with the intent to use it will get you that kind of reputation.

He does, however, bring a bit of pie back to the lady’s house next to the bar.

The actual coins he trades for two steel blades that should hold up to all the bastards in the East. Its good enough till he can get his hands on some real blades.

He’ll need them, if he wants to be able to stand up against Mihawk and his Great Blade Yoru.

(Zoro is perfecting the three-sword style for a reason after all.)

He’s now walking back to the shore, belly sated and a pleasant buzz in his head, with a bag of meat over his shoulder. The old lady also made him take some water jugs with him, complaining about how dehydrated he was, so that’s on a rope over his other shoulder as well.

The sound of splashing and laughter reaches his ears as he draws closer to the shore, a Shishishi! ringing out amongst growls.

It all sounds happy. Still, Zoro quickens his pace and for once, meets his destination on the first try.

(Like a compass, like a Sea Child, he can always find his way to the shore, but it’s not the shore he’s drawn to, not at all.

It’s the horizon.

(It’s the laughter))

He arrives at the waves to a strange sight.

A sea king, golden scaled and small, playing with the creature a little way out in the bay. Both of them are splashing, looking so out of place amidst the calm waters. It’s almost funny, in a way.  The creature is practically dwarfed by the sea king – who looks oddly puppy like – yet the sea king seems to defer to them as the bigger, stronger creature.

Then again, Zoro has no idea what half the creature looks like, so they may actually be longer than the sea king under the waves.

Shishishi! The creature seems to call out, laughter echoing across the ways and lilting in time with the waves, Shishishi!

Zoro can’t hear the sea king, but he assumes by the way the creature’s smile seems slightly wider that it is laughing in turn.

He walks closer to the shore, where his dinghy is still digging into the shore, and slings the food off his shoulder.

“Hey!” He calls, hand casually resting on his swords to keep them above the waves. “You! I brought meat!”

MEAT! The creature shouts, face still never changing, and they leave the sea king in a second to come barreling on to shore.

Literally, actually. They nearly miss Zoro, slamming head and shoulders first into the sand in their haste to reach the food in the bag.

“Hey! Chill out! I don’t want any, it’s all for you, dumbass.” Zoro maybe should not have called the sharp toothed sea creature a dumbass but if they haven’t eaten him now they won’t later.

(They never would in the first place, really.)

The sea creature takes it in stride anyway with that laugh again. Shishishi!

Zoro spares a smile, and tosses one big piece of meat to the sea king out in the waves. Hopefully that will stop the kicked puppy look it’s giving him.

It’s peaceful, for a moment, as Zoro settles into the sand. He didn’t get a shower at the village, but this is nowhere near the longest time he’s gone without, so he’s pretty sure he’s okay. He’s not dead at least, and now that he’s dry the sand doesn’t stick to his clothes, only to the feet still buried in the waves.

The creature shuffles for a moment, and pulls themself up out of the water almost entirely – all in order to drag the bag of meat even closer to them.

The shine of scales almost blinds Zoro, and he has to blink a few times to truly look at this creature.

Their torso is shorter than he’d thought, bare and toned in the light with scales the color of fire and silver drifting up from the back. (And drifting, drifting, scales never in the same place for more than a moment.) A fin, vibrant and color shifting, sits folded upon their back and is disappearing into their skin the longer Zoro looks. Clawed web hands, dripping with salt water and red juices, retract into tanning, brown skin – the claw tips remaining, sharp and deadly.

A tail, long, slender, and powerful drifts from the creature’s body and out into the waves, melding into the waves as they crash over them.  

Zoro spares a thought to think mermaid? Before realizing what ever this creature is it is more than myth or legend, or the very real people from under the sea.

It’s in the danger, this creature should be emanating, their tail is spiked and deadly, barbed, beautiful fins fading into the sand and waves in colors of the sun. It is nothing sweet or calm or safe – just fatal shine, drifting out to the waves.

(Every time Zoro blinks, it is as if the color of the scales has shifted – like the sea, ever changing, ever more dangerous, dark as ocean deep or green as tropic waves in the same moments.)

Yet – his eyes flash three times and there is no tail, just two legs, covered by shorts and a sash, torn, like from some sunken sailor.

A mirage – a hallucination, still? – but nothing is right about this creature.

Zoro can’t make sense of it all. Everything changes –

Except for that smile and that ocean sloped scar.

Even as the creature devours the food and opens their maw bigger than thought possible, it is still in the shape of that smile.

(Zoro wonders why.)

Saltwater drips off limbs and makes little splats into dry sand, marking where fins were and weren’t. The creature shakes their head and more water flies, hitting Zoro in the face yet – in the same motion, something more obvious, more important, more constant that the smile and ocean scar.

A straw hat, as glowing as a crown, draped across their back with a ribbon like blood wrapped around it.

(So human and alive, unlike everything else about them. This hat was not pulled from a drowning man. This hat was pulled from a dream on fire.)

The creature pauses for a second, as if sensing Zoro’s unwavering stare.

Their head drifts to look at Zoro, slow, the sun highlighting the points of their face and the wave of their hair. In an instant, they make eye-contact with Zoro, and it is as if the breath is pulled out of him by a siren.

He’s seen their eyes of course, before, in the moments the face smiled at him from the waters.

Just not like this.

This creature –

(Webbed hands drifting between human and sea, a smile like ocean depths and fear-)

This sea creature –

(Have you heard the tales? Of those that belong to the sea and no one else? Of those that hear the legends of the waves and know that they are real, like death and life?)

Isn’t a sea creature, not entirely, no -

(Zoro was called lost to the waves, once.)

They’re a Sea Child.

(And Zoro is lost to their pull – to their human-not-human body and ocean soul.)

-

He’s never quite wondered before, what Sea Children look like.

All that ever has come to mind is people with lost faces setting out to sea. Not what came after. Not what it looks like when the Ocean claims you.

(Koushirou, with a firm line to his lip, had mentioned the Drowned once. Bloated bodies of dead men and women and children – dead bodies of sailors swallowed up by the sea, that still reach up towards the light.

Run, he had said, if you see them.

Koushirou didn’t believe in legends, but he had an old boat from a distant country by the shore. There were scratches in hull made by gouging hands.

They weren’t Sea Children, not even close, but the stories said they were Claimed.

When a dead body from the sea washed up on the shores one day, Zoro had wondered if that was the fate of Sea Children.)

Now, he knows.

This Sea Child changes with the flow and ebb of the waves. A human drowned alive and still breathing, still loving, still dancing with the tide. Saltwater veins and coral eyes, skin breaking apart in scales and the way of tides.

The Ocean born again – that is what a Sea Child is. A child born to the land of the waters.

Zoro will never forget the Ocean’s claim – not now.

Shishishi! The Sea Child laughs, scales drifting across their face like sundrops on waves. You see now!

“Yeah…” Zoro says, and passes the sea king another stick of meat. “I see. The Ocean nice?”

The best! The Sea Child wiggles further up on the beach, tail seemingly gone leaving them to dig bare feet into the wet sand. You should listen to her sometimes.

“No thanks,” Zoro says to the Sea Child, and lays back on the shore. With four limbs, the Sea Child seems only a little younger than him, a little shorter, but power comes in waves off of them, like the shore in a storm.

Zoro shakes his head, and tries to distract himself from the thoughts of ocean, ocean, ocean – if he’s not careful, he’ll be wrapped in her sway eventually. He’s already wrapped in this Sea Child’s sway, if he can hear their voice.

The Sea Child chomps on the bone in their hands and swallows it whole with an odd slurping noise. Zoro raises an eyebrow, and is met with that laugh - Shishishi! - again.

(He’s gotten used to it, like he’s used to the chime of earrings in his ear and the swish of a sword. Constant, natural, and loved.)

Belatedly, he realizes he still hasn’t gotten the name of this Sea Child. Names are important, especially those of those lost to the sea, if they still remember them. It is better than calling them Sea Child forever, at least.

Well, it’s polite to introduce yourself first, isn’t it?

“Hey. My name’s Roronoa Zoro. I’m going to be the World’s greatest swordsman.”

(His name will echo across the heavens, but even children know that the sea only hears the will of men.

After all – what is a name, to a dream?)

The Sea Child stares at him, grin ever wider, and does not laugh. Instead, they reach behind their back and pull the straw hat up upon their head.

I know.

(How? Zoro wants to ask but it doesn’t even matter, does it?)

My name is Monkey D. Luffy! they say, loud and victorious and sure, and I’m the man who will be KING OF THE PIRATES!

The way he says it is like a promise and the way the unsaid words echo across the world is like a golden bell.

Zoro looks at this Sea Child who will be king, and feels something settle in his chest.

(This is the call of the sea – to dreams, to life, to adventure, to crew. Nothing less is equal, and nothing more is greater. It simply is, and it is a call that sings in every heart and every soul.

This is call of the sea.

And it will not be ignored any longer.)

“A pirate, huh?” Zoro’s own smile turns feral. “Where’s your crew?”

Shishishi! You’re the first! Luffy’s smile is kind but his eyes look into Zoro’s and take.

Zoro has no objection.

He stands, hand steady on his blades, and lets the wind chime through his earrings. “Then know this, Pirate King. If you ever stand in the way of my dreams, I will cut you open and leave you to the earth.”

He knows it won’t happen. The sea does not stand in the way of the dreams of the strong, and Luffy is the sea, or a small portion of it.

Still, Luffy does not falter.

Shishishi! He says, a Fine with me! Ringing loud in Zoro’s head. The Pirate King should have the world’s greatest swordsman by his side.

He stands to face Zoro head on, and he’s smaller than Zoro but his presence is just like the sea. Bright, giant, and everything. He reaches out a hand and Zoro clasps it in his own.

A crew of two, formed in an instant.

(It’s how legends start, anyway.

What’d’ya say to turning the world upside down with me?)

The sun shines brighter, the sea splashes higher, and the sea king lets out a victorious howl.

When Zoro lets go of Luffy’s hand, he knows he’s found his place.

“So,” he says, as Luffy turns back to the sea they will soon conquer, “Where to now, Pirate King?”

Where else? To the Grand Line! To Adventure! Shishishi!

Luffy steps forward into the sea then, laughing and changing all at once, and Zoro has no choice but to follow the man who will be king.

He climbs in the dinghy, slinging the water and remnants of food into the bottom, and shoves off into the water. Luffy grips the edge of the dinghy and drags Zoro forward, other hand gripping the edge of the sea king’s fur.

Starving, Zoro did not think he would end up being pulled by a Sea Child and a sea king into the unknown, but now…

Now, Zoro looks to the sun and dreams of victory.

Shishishi!

(Zoro is not a Sea Child. He does not belong to the waves and he does not answer the Ocean’s call. He belongs to Luffy, and the cry of the king is the only on he will bow too.

It’s the way of the world, after all.)

-

Splash….

Splash….

Splash….

“The sea’s happy today, isn’t it Makino?”

“Aye, captain…. I think Luffy might be happy today.”

(A tear trails down a cheek, not hidden by a straw hat.)

“Perhaps he found his dream, aye?”

“Sesese! Perhaps!”

(The sea splashes at the feet along the beach, as a pirate’s memorial is held for a boy who never set out to sea.

For Luffy, the small jolly roger on the beach seems to say, for the King.)

#one piece #opau #opfic #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #op #whirlywhat #whirlywrites #yeah I killed luffy then brought him back what of it #luffy #zoro #makino #shanks #the ocean #au #sing songs of the sea #:DDDDD #opfanfic

[kieraambers]

Out To Sea AU - Chapter Two

(tw: drowning)

Eloni could hear the pitter patter of the storm outside. The rocking of the boat indicated it wasn’t small, and it sounded like gunfire up there. Neon J had gone to sleep mode early during it. Good. Eloni was worried though. Haym and Eloni hadn’t been able to tie all the bags to the ship, it was jostling more than usual. Eloni looked upstairs, debating between two options. He could go up there, with the proper protection, to secure the boat, but have the risk of getting thrown overboard...or he could stay here and just pray that the boat wouldn’t capsize.

A wave crashed against the boat side, quickly startling the five robots inside. Eloni quickly made up his mind and stood up, grabbing the waterproof suit from the wall.

“Eloni? What are you doing?” Rin quickly spoke up.

“I’m going out there and securing those bags.” Eloni spoke with determination.

“WHAT!?” The other four robots leap up in surprise.

“I’m not risking this boat capsizing!” Eloni said as he got the tight yellow suit on to him.

“Are you insane?!” Purl-hew shouted. “You’re more likely to get thrown overboard!”

“I’ll go with him to make sure that doesn’t happen!” Haym said as he grabbed another suit from the wall.

“You two better stay safe out there or I swear to god.” Zimelu snapped as the two robots quickly head up to the top deck. Eloni nearly lost his balance due to the water and the rain making him lose grip. It was raining so hard it was hard to see in front of them.

“WE ONLY HAVE THREE MORE BAGS!!!” Haym called through the mist, having to shout thanks to the loud, pounding rain. Eloni staggered towards the faint voice and managed to find Haym with the remaining bags.

“THIS MIST IS REALLY THICK!!!” Eloni shouted back. “WE NEED TO STICK TOGETHER!!!”

“AGREED!!” Haym nods as he grabs a bag. Eloni grabs it as well and the two slowly navigate to the railing. They hoist the heavy bag over the metal bar and Eloni grips it tightly as Haym pulls on the rope to tie it tightly. It takes a few seconds, but eventually Haym grips Eloni to lead them back. They grab another bag and drag it to the remaining spots. Haym hoists it over, when he feels his foot slide, causing him to slip and fall. Eloni grabs him and the bag, neither going into the ocean, thankfully. Eloni groans as he pulls Haym back with one hand, Haym barely managing to get on thanks to the metal bars being so wet.

“THIS IS REALLY DANGEROUS!!!” Haym shouts in desperation.

“WE ONLY HAVE ONE MORE TO DO!!!” Eloni snapped back. “COME ON, IT’LL BE WORTH IT!!!” He helps Haym to his feet again and Haym ties the knot on the bag. Eloni guides Haym towards the last bag and grabs it.

“I HOPE YOU’RE RIGHT ABOUT THIS!!” Haym shouts as he hoists the bag over the railing. He has to grip it before it falls off, leaving Eloni to tie the knot. Eloni stumbles with the rope, cursing his luck. Last bag, and Haym, the more experienced one, can’t tie it. Eloni ties doubly, triply even, doubt his abilities, before Haym lets go of the bag.

“Alright, that’s the last-” Eloni’s mumble was cut off by a harsh whack from a wave. Eloni barely processed what was happening, he felt himself hit the bar, his legs slide against water and flew upward behind him and he tumbled straight into the water. He barely heard Haym shouting his name before he went under. The water currents dragged and pulled at him, sending him spinning and whirling through the cold. His fan began to whirl as he heated up in panic. He felt himself slam into a rock wall, feeling things go offline in his body. Eloni could barely think and did the first thing coming to his mind.

Shut down in 3...2...1…

#Out To Sea AU #nsr #no straight roads #1010 #1010 white #1010 rin #1010 green #1010 eloni #1010 haym #1010 yellow #1010 zimelu #1010 red #1010 blue #1010 purl-hew #tw: drowning

[paiges-and-dragons]

Blease tell me about your dnd characters, just all the info, dump it on me

You. You are my new favorite person.

In no particular order:

Trix

Haven’t actually played her yet but I am soon

Zariel Tiefling Scout Rogue

Was raised in a church and hated everything about it, ran away and became a rogue 🔪

Raisa

My first character ever

Human Ranger 🏹 - started with a homebrewed subclass but I hated it so we changed to Beast Master

Had recently taken a level in rogue and I think that’s gonna be the rest of her levels

Was transported out of her reality into a creepy alternate reality of Disney world

Bijou

Comes from a race of gemstones - is modeled after an Opal so her skin is pure white that has a rainbow sheen under light

Bard 🎶

Just wants to make music and friends

Has an adoptive brother that she adores who is a fighter ⚔️

Probably gonna be either college of swords or valor because of that

Favorite Spell: Dissonant Whispers

Done by playing a horrible note on her carved flute recorder

Quartz

Earth Genasi Fighter

I’m playing her as a twin with a friend and it’s the most chaotic thing and I love it

Doesn’t speak much

Not good at brainpower or talking tbh, but has a mean swing 🗡

Leo

My baby, I love her so much

Half-Elf Tempest Cleric

Used to be a Viking

Lost her crew due to a storm capsizing their boat

Woke up on the beach alone

Had no other choice than to join a specialized group, but it helped her meet her current party so 🤷‍♀️

Not a fan of the group and kinda wants to leave and get back to the sea

Favorite spells: Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon

Her Spirit Guardians look like Viking warriors and her Spiritual Weapon looks like her old ship

Might soon be romancing another party member 👀

#characters #trix #raisa #bijou #quartz #leo #ask me more about them if you want 👀

[teddystrap]

Drama CD: [黒吉原メランコリア] The First Night: Agumo Hibari - Part 1

Heyyy everyone I’m back~~~ with a series that is not like all the rest... except for the recycled seiyuu (#Rejet #eye-roll) and the setting (Yoshiwara; well at least this time you are not the courtesan).

The story revolves around a *rumour* that mermaid tears contain powers of eternal youth/life. And to test this out, a game has begun in the black quarters aka. ‘Kuro’ part of Yoshiwara. The rules for the players are as follows:

You must enthrall her.

You must not hurt her.

You must not let her escape.

The one who successfully achieves the three criteria above is the winner, and he can make the mermaid (i.e. YOU/the listener) his wife/mistress and wield the power of her tears. There are six players in total, including the game creator Agumo Hibari (cv. Toriumi Kousuke).

So, let the game begin.

*

NB. Each story in this series has two discs, so to keep this from becoming too long I will be doing a two-part synopsis and giving my thoughts at the end. 

[Disc 1] 

You can't sleep and are arranging flowers in your room, when Hibari comes over. He helps you and starts reminiscing about your first days here in Yoshiwara:

...It was the end of plum blossom season, the birds are chirping and the weather is nice. Your pimp (/guardian who raised you) brings you over to Kuro Yoshiwara in a horse-drawn carriage, and Hibari comes out to greet you. You glare at him in anger, and he's all like: 'Instead of hating me, why don't you hate your useless debt-ridden parents for selling you off?' #he’sgotapoint #burnnn

He promises your life will change now that you have come to Kirarou, the top house of Kuro Yoshiwara. Taking you up to the rooftop, he shows you the panoramic view, pointing out the burgundy gate of Yoshiwara - he warns that if you try to escape, you will face harsh punishment and possibly death.

He introduces himself as an old-timer/factotum and #1 oiran: Agumo Hibari. And oh btw he was the one who spent a fortune to get you into this place. ...But there's no time to be mad at him. You have to hurry up and get ready to serve the clients.

...Ofc he's not really going to make you perform hooker duties. He takes you into the lounge and blindfolds you, claiming that you are not allowed to see the customers' faces. But! Tonight *it just so happens* that there are no clients. So he's gonna evaluate you to see if you are a good fit for Kirarou.

Before he even starts, you hit him, and he bear-hugs you to restrain your movements. He starts assessing your appearance, mumbling to himself that he can't believe that you are actually a mermaid with the blood of the mythical Happkyaku-bikuni and who's gonna win this game---

He gives you your courtesan name: Nanami, which means 'the seven seas', in commemoration of your origins. You try to kill yourself by biting your own tongue, and he stops you and knocks you out to prevent any more funny business. Thus concludes your first day in Kuro Yoshiwara...

*

After putting you to bed, the barkeep brings Hibari the old newspaper he asked for, and informs him that there are suspicious characters hanging around the brothel quarters. The papers reveal news about a boat that capsized near the coast of Kumano, and a girl who drifted to shore with all her memory lost.

He speculates that this girl is Nanami, but cannot be sure that you are the rumoured mermaid, since your anatomy is fully human. He decides to investigate further.

Next morning, he makes you promise not to take your own life again, before loosening your restraints. He comments that your hands feel cold and are covered in scars - probably from your previous fishing job.

He tells you that he, too, was sold to this brothel just like you. However, he did not despair, and eventually became the Top Host here. He can afford whatever he wants and is allowed to exit the gates freely as he pleases. He admits that, if he ever quits, he has no relatives left and hence nowhere else to go.

He gives you a dried specimen of the oiransou plant - so named because its aroma is similar to the powder used by courtesans - and asks you to put it in his room if you make up your mind to become the next oiran; he would be your mentor.

After his morning nap, he bumps into you near the dressing mirror and asks you to sit down. He proceeds to... do your makeup. He wants to take you out to Asakusa for the day, to lift your spirits and prepare you for courtesan training.

*

It's your first time in a big city and, upon arrival, you almost get run over by the tram, so he holds your hand to keep you by his side. First he takes you to his acquaintance tailor and acquires a yuuzen uchikake-kimono and some casual wear for you; he insists on paying for them as part of his mentor duties.

After the dress fitting, he takes you to a newly opened parlour, and you both try this thing called an 'ice cream soda' for the first time. You stare at him as he shows you how to eat it, then you finally crack a smile when you get your first taste of this treat.

He remarks that you look more childlike and approachable when you laugh, but warns you not to show this side of yourself easily to clients if you want to become a good oiran.

As a special treat, he takes you to Ryōunkaku, the tallest building in Japan at the time, and the first to have an electric lift. You ride up to the 12th floor to see the panoramic view of Tokyo (the lift scares you half to death XD), and he points out all the landmarks to you: Sumida River, Sensou-ji,...

With the coin-operated telescope, you notice a disturbance near the gates of Yoshiwara. The two of you hurry back via rickshaw. There has been a disagreement, and some women tried to escape but were caught. They could neither return to the brothel nor start over elsewhere, as a result, they were forced to either seek death or take a medicine that would render them invalids.

Hibari warns you to be careful not to end up like them.

*

In the middle of the night, Hibari is awakened to news that Nanami has tried to escape. He rushes to the dungeon where you are held captive and asks you why you're doing this, despite his repeated warnings.

You attempt to bite your tongue again, but he stops you and claims that, since he's the one who bought you, you are not allowed to escape nor die without his consent. He calls you a 'caged bird' and explains the origins of the 'pinky swear':

For the courtesans of Yoshiwara, the only path to freedom is to rise through the ranks and become an oiran, who would then have unrestricted mobility and the ability to choose her clients/work.

In the past when a courtesan fell in love, she would *work extra hard* in order to be an oiran. During this time, she would make a pinky promise with her loved one: even though her customers may do whatever they want with her body, her heart belongs to him alone.

And so Hibari offers his pinky, in order to show you how committed he is to making you an oiran. He gives you the option to bite it off, but your *inner vampire* is off that day. Before he leaves, he asks if you still want to die, and seems content to see that you have wavered a little.

*

You knock on his door the following night, dressed in the yuuzen robe he bought for you, and hands him the dried oiransou to signal your resolve.

Aaaand you are on your way to courtesanhood. First things first, he will teach you some basic rules of Yoshiwara. He starts off with the toko-sakazuki: the practice of a mutual toast between newly-weds before their first night together - this tradition is also observed at Yoshiwara for the first time between a courtesan and a client.

Hibari tries to make up excuses for using amazake (a type of light, sweet wine), but later admits that he can't hold his liquor - although he is still Top Host without being three sheets to the wind every night. As the two of you drink, you share your childhood stories, and he thinks living in a fishing village sounds like fun, with surprise items floating to shore that make every day feel like a treasure hunt.

He tells you that he's already been sold off to Yoshiwara since he was old enough to remember, and so he's always been curious about life outside of these gates. While he has no complaints about his current situation, he isn't exactly ecstatic about it either.

As he gets more inebriated, he studies your face and says that you will become an oiran very soon, you've got what it takes. Men will be fighting for you, and he advises you to *snort in the face* of those you don't like, until you find the one that you really want. You are his chosen pawn in the Kuro Yoshiwara Game, and he wants to see you achieve happiness with your own two hands.

Finally, he plants a couple of drunken kisses on you before passing out... Whoever said romance was dead? ;3

#otome #drama cd #rejet #kuro yoshiwara #melancholia #kuromela #seiyuu #toriumi kousuke #supernatural #historical #wafuu #yoshiwara

[whiskynottea]

The Ripple Effect

Previously Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21

AO3

It feels strange to say goodbye to a story that’s in your life (and in your mind) for more than six months. I loved these two and their journey dearly, and I’m leaving them knowing that they’ll be alright. 

Thank you all, for your support and the love you’ve showed to this story. It wouldn’t be the same writing it without you. ❤️❤️

Epilogue

Life is a wide, calm lake – until the first rain falls.

--

There were three things Alex Randall and I had in common.

We were both English, born in the same year, and we had lost our parents at a young age.

All of them insignificant. Commonalities, shared between thousands of people. Details that would never predict the way our lives intertwined.

A mutation in Alex’s DNA brought cancer to his path, and him to mine. The first raindrop on life’s serene waters.

It wasn’t that exact droplet that had changed everything -  it’s never the initial drop. It’s the ripples it creates. They take their time, expanding across the surface, forming circles that get wider as they go; casting life’s shape.   

My inability to save Alex - his death. The first undulation, the one that brought Black Jack Randall, thirsty for revenge, after me and Alexander MacGregor. A strong, dangerous ripple, threatening my life, taking me away to Scotland.

A current, that brought me closer to Jamie.

The ripple effect.

MacGregor’s suicide, my move to Paris, my return to Scotland.

The decision to stay with Jamie – forever.

A gift – our Faith.

The gift taken back, as unexpectedly as it came. A ripple capsizing our boat, threatening to drown us. 

We swam to the surface holding each other’s hand, aware of how precarious it would be to get separated, knowing that the currents of sorrow might tear us apart. When we reached safe waters again, when the tears dried and the only thing we could do was to go on, we took stock.

Black Jack Randall’s life.

A mangled hand and a scarred leg.

Two shattered hearts that, miraculously, could still love.

A part of our soul, a little angel, forever lost.

Ripples, expanding, oblivious of good and bad. Ripples, disturbing the quietness.

--

My life is never quiet. There is always a voice, a cry, a giggle around me.

I’m sitting on the bench at the corner of my herb garden - the one Jamie made for me. It’s a simple wooden bench, the top plank of the back a little uneven, but still beautiful. It’s on the perfect spot, because sitting here I can see them no matter how far they’ve gone.

I smile at Bree as she runs towards me, her red hair flying in the wind like flames, her da’s blue eyes glinting with happiness.

She stops only a few feet away from me and looks behind her, at Willie. He tries to match his sister’s wider strides and fails, stumbling down only to rise again. His curls fall on his forehead, brown, like mine. I search his whisky eyes for tears, but all I can see there is laughter.

“Come on, Willie!” Bree encourages him, but I can sense her exasperation. The little brother is holding her back. She’s in a hurry, always in a hurry this one, but when Willie flashes her a wide smile, and all she can do is to smile back at him.

I’m waiting for them, trying not to giggle at first, trying not to chide Willie afterwards, when he steps on my lavender beds.

Bree sees this and walks back to him to take him by the hand. “Be careful of mama’s flowers, Willie,” she advises, trying to sound old and wise and I feel my giggle tingling my throat, desperate to come out.

It’s when they stand in front of me, that I see the wildflowers in their hands. Bree smiles smugly, and says, “This, for you mama.” She gives me a bloodroot, it’s petals white, beautiful. “This is for Da,” she continues, showing me a bur marigold, almost as yellow as the sun in her drawings, matching the stamens of my flower. “This is mine…” She holds a bloodroot for herself, a little smaller than mine. And…” Bree pauses for suspense, turning to her brother.

“This is for Willie,” she continues, and Willie shows me another bur marigold, its roots still attached, evidence of a violent act against it.

“Illie!” he shouts excited, and grins, before extending his other hand towards me, the little chubby fingers holding a daisy tight. “Feif!” he cheers, and I bit my lip to hold back the tears.

But I can’t.

My arms are open and they both rush inside. I press their little bodies against mine, squeezing them, and I close my eyes, feeling the hot tears rolling down my cheeks. Two children in my embrace and the third one in my heart. Always in my heart.

Jamie’s head pops out from the front door a few moments later, his hair ruffled and his face beaming, asking who is ready for pancakes. Before I have time to reply, Bree and Willie hand me the flowers and run to the kitchen.

“Wash your hands first!” I shout, laughing, and brush the tears away before I make my way back to the house, five flowers in hand.

They know, of course they do. They don’t need the pictures in the little purple box to know. Jamie and I rarely open the box that holds our memories from eight years ago.

Me, during my first pregnancy.

The ultrasound pictures.

Faith’s measurements as Mrs Crook had written them down for me and I had memorized them forever - 710 grams, 14 inches.

A tiny lock of her red hair.

A picture of the three of us in Jamie’s bed at the hospital. I’m holding Faith in her oversized bodysuit with the pink elephants and Jamie is holding both of us. Eyes that reveal hours of crying. Lips that still whisper the secrets we need her to know.

Jenny took the picture with trembling hands, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. We wanted to have it. We wanted to have Faith, immortal in time.

We rarely open the box, because we don’t need it to remember. She is always with us.

I fill a glass with water and set the flowers inside while nodding at William, impressed on how well he’s cleaned his hands from the dirt. With a smile, I set the flowers in front of Jamie’s first book. Faith-tales. It’s the one he wrote for our little fairy, with all the tales he didn’t have the chance to tell her. It was his way to give her something from him, and it became the beginning of his new career as a writer when we moved to North Carolina.

I turn to go to the table but I stop in my tracks, unable to contain the feeling that floods my soul at the sight of them. This is happiness, I think, and I take a moment to watch them.

Jamie presses his lips tight as he concentrates to pull Bree’s long hair back, securing it away from her food with a blue rubber band, in a way I’m sure she’ll dislike when she’ll look at herself in the mirror. Willie is licking a honey-covered finger, making sounds of approval. When his little hand finds its way back into the jar in a fist, I realize that my little contemplating moment has come to an end and I have to act. I rush to him, laughing, and I capture the offending hand in mine.

“What do you think you’re doing, Willie the Pooh?” I ask, and he gives me a look that says he knows exactly what he’s doing.

When we all sit around the table, my eyes dart from the three of them, back to the flowers. It feels safe, that Bree and Willie know Faith. It’s a relief, that she’ll live through them when Jamie and I will be gone.

“I tried for teddy bear pancakes,” Jamie says, bringing me out of my reverie, “But the lady on the Youtube video made it seem much easier than it really is. I dinna think I’ve made it right.” He looks at his plate with a frown, and I look at mine, smiling at the undefined shape of my pancakes.

“Mine looks like an alien,” Bree says, mirroring her da’s frown. “And it’s not ‘dinna’, da. It’s ‘don’t’,” she corrects Jamie with her mixed accent, which is neither American, nor Scottish or English. She has taken her wise voice again, but Jamie knows better and tickles her sides until she forgets all about accents.

When Bree’s laughter quiets down, Jamie looks at me and I see the lad I met in the pub years ago. I get lost in his eyes; the sea I’ve dived into, the sky that lifted my wings. A smile curls up my lips, and I see it mirrored on his face, and in that moment, we say it all. Millions of words we’ve already said before, and others, that will dance upon our lips later; hours, months, years later, because we have a lifetime to spend together.

Ripples shook us, but we rode them with our hands always clasped tight and they took us close to the shore. There are always more to come, but we have stable ground to hold onto.  

We have each other. We have our family.

We’re strong. Let them come.

The End

#The Ripple Effect #modern au #jamie x claire #epilogue #outlander fanfic #outlander fanfiction

[twitchesandstitches]

The water rippled, but it is important to note the scale that things were happening here. Everything is relative; to a human, a small pebble shifting aside onto a sandy trail a few inches wide is barely worth noting, but to an ant, it's a major alteration of the world they know and going to cause serious trouble. Or consider how the passage of ships means a lot to humans, carrying their cargo and the immaterial travel of etheric worth, means food and wealth and the promise of greater success if only it kept going. But to a whale, drifting in the sea on their own cetacean-y business, those big hunks of metal inexplicably floating in the water is at most a surprising blip in the echolocation. Why do apes even bother with floating on shiny things? Whales don't know, they don't ask but sometimes they sing about it. The songs are not very flattering.

(Tsuyu knew the songs of whales and could speak fluent whale. This was not in any way a function of her powers, neither her innate froggy-themed mutations nor the blessings of One For All. She said that all you to do was listen. Mostly, what people learned after listening was that whales were very sarcastic.)

The ripples moved, and by the perspective of the titans lurking beneath the waves and engaging in the traditional past times of such gigantic beings - usually, a lot of punching - the ripples were too small to even notice. And in truth, the small ones would have been grateful if they knew the sheer power being restrained; one was going all out, savagely attacking with everything it had, tentacles and wings and telekinetic force hammering with enough force to tear mountains from their bases and rearrange continents, but the heroine held back, using her power not to destroy her foe but to prevent its attacks from doing unfathomable damage; catching blows that would raise hurricane-force winds on the surface, stopping attacks that could break ships into splinters with the slightest movement.

But by the perspective of a human, the ones on the boat, it was... worse. Rather worse, really.

"Oh god oh god WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" The captain was a poor and tragic side, tied to the mast of his ship with a number of sturdy ropes, openly weeping as waves arced high overhead; to the titans beneath the sea the waves were just ripples, but to the people on the misplaced cruise ship the waves broke beneath the sky higher than buildings, millions of tons of water displaced up into the sky, and it was only by heroic action below the sea that it wasn't causing greater damage; those waves would soon break, without harm to anyone, but for those caught on the ship as it flew up the side of a wave and surfed back down - nearly tipping over all the while, skidding so much on the side it nearly went vertical again and again - the distinction was not easy to notice.

Alone of all the people on the boat, only one person was not running around, cowering in the hole, or pleading desperately for salvation. Though again, he knew that salvation was already there, so no point in trying to get some more. Midoriya Izuku sat quite still, visibly flinching as the boat flipped over a few times in a particularly impressive mid-air bout, but he emanated such absolute surety of their safety that it was soothing a few people. "We're not going to die," he said firmly, eyes shining as his gaze shifted to the coursing sea. "We'll be just fine!"

A nearby tourist gave him a dubious look. "What makes you so sure?!" she had to yell over the roar of the waves, and a crashing noise as if of distant thunder.

Izuku - Deku, to his friends, particularly the one beneath the ocean right now - smiled faintly. "Because I believe in Froppy!"

And, with a remarkable sense of public relations, the world stopped being really distressing.

"...Huh?..." was the general sound of people as the horizon-spanning waves (whales, the occasional broken wreck and prehistoric leviathans visible through them) descended slowly for want of constant titanic blows to stir them up, and the ship was carried down to a sea that was suddenly quite calm. The water twisted and shifted as new currents poured it, returning the sea to something closer to usual behavior, and the sea life saw that any further threat was minimal, and swam off without much interest. The ship bobbed up, bobbed down, and the sudden silence was stark. It felt like a physical presence, not weighing down on them but leaving them just as tense as if it had been.

Deku looked up and around. He yawned. "Oh! That was over kind of faster than I was expecting. I guess not even having to look after bystanders slows her down much."

The captain wailed, "THIS IS ONLY A FORESTALLMENT! DOOM LOOMS HIGH! NO ONE IS SAFE! ONLY THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM IS NOW! SOON WE SHALL DESCEND INTO DEPRAVITY AND CERTAIN DOOM!"

Deku gave the captain an uncertain look. "Should I maybe... let the captain out now?"

Another tourist - a Quirky fellow, mutated to look something like a fish, complete with scales and functional gills - shook her head. "I don't think so. Might want to give him a bit to let it out?"

The captain screamed at her. "BEHOLD! THEY ALREADY RISE TO LAY SIEGE TO THE SURFACE! WE SHALL BE TAKEN TO THE LOST EMPIRES OF MONSTROUS FISH CREATURES, WEDDED TO THEM TO PRODUCE HYBRID OFFSPRING! THE WEDDINGS WILL NOT HAVE CAKE!"

"...See? Please wait until he stops yelling things like that."

"YOU CANNOT SILENCE MY SONG OF PROTESTING WHEEDLING!"

Deku shook his head. Now confident that the danger was passed, he undid his own restraints - all the better to stop himself from, say, flipping out of the boat and into the tides at heights and velocity that even his dollop of One For All would do little to save him from - and stepped out, peering towards the sides. "Froppy? You there?" he called out hopefully.

Sure enough, and perhaps in answer, there was a small ripple in the water, a few miles away. Normally none of them would be able to see any... but considering that it was happening over a radius of hundreds of feet, they could see quite well. And it was a small ripple. Not a gigantic 'the tides are about to break loose' kind. An ordinary ripple, the surface of the water bubbling impressively.

Something great and black slowly rose up from the water where it had bubbled, and if it was a little bit closer, it would have been right beneath the ship and carried it back up. As it was, the people on the ship got a view of what looked like a mountain rising right up out of the sea, and water-slick strands dangled down from a huge mass, shining faintly green and almost glowing with a brighter shade of the same color-

But no, people on the ship were bright enough to recognize hair, even when it was strands thicker around than entire trees.

Not a mountain, but a head, larger than a real mountain. The black hair, cascading down in front like a curtain, just barely revealed a face that wasn't completely human - the eyes shaped to instantly detect motion, the face too smooth, the jaws too wide - but still astonishingly cute, and at this scale most everyone on the ship gasped in shock at the beauty looming before them. The eyes just barely visible behind the hair glanced at them calmly, blinking slowly and the rising hulk moved a bit back, to avoid swamping the boat. Those eyes focused on Deku - barley a speck - and a pair of enormous lips, dominating much of that face, rose into something that might have been a faint smile.

Slowly she rose up, in her full glory, and Froppy (Tsuyu, to her friends, and the great heroine of the world to everyone else) stood to her full height, rising out of the water like a leviathan goddess from some ancient mythology... and one that placed frogs in high esteem, like that. Water continued to bubble up as more of her had soared up, and there'd been a brief scare as two matching swells bordered the ship, and for a moment the passengers had thought something was about to swamp them. But it was nothing to fear, two immensely big spheres rising from the ground and the ship safe between them as they cleared the water, blocking out the sun as they continued rising up and she stood taller, and they saw that the two globes were part of her body - breasts, in fact, larger than most of her torso, grown absolutely massive as more of One For All seemed to settle down there for some reason - and as she had settled back, wobbled faintly.

After this point, there was not a lot of talking. She tended to take people that way, Deku thought fondly. Even the captain settled down into a kind of distracting mumbling that 'this enormous woman will surely devour us all, just you watch'.

At her full height, and at her size, there was not a lot of detail the people below could make out. Initially, with red faces and nearly insensate brains, they thought she was nude. Her legendarily thick frame, nearly as wide as she was tall at her immensely powerful hips and her gargantuan thighs slabbed with smooth muscle, seemed to have no clothing on them at all. A few brave souls peered up, past the walls of those thighs, and noticed somewhere in the clouds (and her waist) some thin straps winding around hips broader than some geographic regions, down to the slight rise of her sex; a triangle of cloth, bright green, made for some extremely minimalistic costuming but no one but her could wear a slingshot bikini so well.

Froppy peered down, slowly leaning over and careful not to capsize the ship as her breasts sank into the water, making the local water level rise considerably. At her current level of power, it was a trivial manner to 'lean' on localized reality - her strength having reached the point where it was frankly abstract - and make it so that the whole world didn't get drowned. She was cool like that.

Her breasts dipped in, and a swell made the ship rise closer to her. "Are you okay?" she asked slowly, speaking gently so her voice's volume did not shatter the ship. Beside her, a strange creature floated up to the surface, quite unconscious. It was a slimy and monstrous thing, a shuddering horror from a bygone age; a face full of tentacles lapped at the water, it's grotesque shape forced the onlookers to not look directly at it, and one huge wing curved up. By coincidence, it nicely outlined the shelf-like bulk of Froppy's plump backside; her butt was so big that it was visible, even at this extreme angle and their ant-like size.

Deku made a thumbs up sign at her. "You did perfect! As always!"

She nodded, not disputing it. Her huge lips pulsed, and her jaws opened wide as a monstrously wide tongue lolled up, snaking between her cleavage and diving into the water, and then they saw nothing at all but the flesh of her tongue curling around their ship.

"I knew it!" the captain said despondently. "I told you, she would devour us all, it was just a matter of time."

Deku gave him a look. "Please stop saying bad things about Froppy. Or you will make me sad and that will make her mad, so please, for your health, don't be mean."

"I make no promises."

Froppy did not, of course, eat them, but gently hoisted them upwards. She held her hand out, and deposited the ship into her hand, webbed fingers closing gently around it. She turned and began to march towards the nearest landmass, to bring the ship to its destination. A thought struck her, and she said to Deku, "My costume. It looks okay?"

He made a thumbs up, all starry-eyed. "Of course it does! It's perfect!"

She thought about it. "Feels nice, having the water on... everything."

"I knew Mt Lady was onto something when she suggested this."

Froppy shrugged, and glanced back at the strange creature now sinking into the water, no threat to anyone; she was a bit concerned about a sudden monster attack when she was just modeling a new costume.

A comment from All Might, a long time ago, came back to her. From a talk about escalation; that as heroes grew stronger, villains and monsters grew larger, got meaner, became more powerful, and the more she pushed herself, the more she would encounter challenges that pushed her limits... no matter how far those limits were pushed.

She stared at it for a moment. A beast, that was promised to end the world... and it was the third one this week.

She shook her head. Well, she did like saving people; she supposed fighting monsters was part of that. She walked onwards, every inch of her wobbling faintly, and enjoyed the feeling of the sea spray against her body.

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #queued #crossthicc!tsuyu #crossthicc!bnha #crossthicc!izuku #my writing #fics #bnha growth AU #repost

[paladin-andric]

When Worlds Collide (Part One)

The start of a story I’ve had on my mind for quite a while. A fantasy/real life crossover! This could be a book if I really wanted it to be...

What will happen to our lost army? Will they ever find their way home? How did they get here? How can they cope with the fantastical world of Deaco, and can someone stop them before they do any damage?

“Steady...STEADY!”

The howling winds and mad currents were paired with the pouring thunderstorm, all around them only the fierce and deathly oceans as their ship lost all control.

“The sails are down,” a sailor cried, the sails are down!”

The sight of the quarry of sharp stone rocks they were approaching signaled what was about to happen.

“HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!” Edward screamed, clutching onto the handles beside him before the entire ship rocked violently. The nobleman was thrown overboard, hitting something and losing consciousness immediately. He did not see the rest of the ship capsize.

The Hundred Years’ War was raging on in Europe. It had taken a turn for the worse in recent years, with the English power base in France relegated to Normandy and Gascony.

In an ambitious and risky move, the English Crown decided to ferry a relief force around the French coast to Gascony, to assist in holding the line against the French troops, who were gaining more and more ground by the day.

However, the ship never made it to port. It vanished somewhere in the Bay of Biscay, after having crossed the English Channel. It was assumed they were sunk by the French navy, and all soldiers and navy men aboard killed.

This was far from the case, however. In the ocean, a freak hurricane suddenly came from nowhere, sank the navy, and vanished, leaving no witnesses...and though the fleet was sank, its inhabitants certainly didn’t drown.

“Sir...sir!”

The first thing Edward felt was the icy and wet feeling of soaked clothes. He felt water lapping at him from below, submerged up to the waist. Above that he could feel sand on his face.

“Sir...get up! Come on!”

Edward groaned, slowly pushing himself off the ground and raising his head, blinking as his vision began to return.

A blurry figure was kneeling above him. He shook his head and wiped the grains of sand from his beard before focusing on the figure.

“Ah, you live! Thanks be to God.”

He could make out the face of a young and clean-shaven man.

“Agh...Harry?”

“Yes, it’s me sir! We’ve been looking all over for you!”

There was still a dull pain at the back of his head. He’d slammed into the rocks and been knocked out when the ship fell over.

“What happened? I thought we drowned at sea…”

“That’s what we all thought, but...it’s a miracle! Look around you!”

Shaking himself fully awake, Edward finally managed to get a good look at where he was.

He was on a beach, his legs still at the very edge, water washing over them as the waves peaked. All around them was white sand, trees, and sunny skies.

It was beautiful. To think he had been in a hellish nightmare of darkness and cruelty just a short while ago…

“Looks like we washed up ashore! What grand luck! Jesus is surely protecting us!”

“B-but...I thought we were out away from the coasts...in the ocean.”

“Perhaps there was an island nearby,” Harry said with a shrug, “Here, take my hand.”

“Not necessary,” Edward answered hastily, quickly getting to his feet. He took a deep breath and wiped at his clothes, wet sand clinging to them. “Huh...I’ll need my things washed at some point...how many made it?”

“That’s the thing sir,” the soldier answered, “It seems...everyone.”

“W-what?!”

“Yeah! I mean, the teams are still spread out searching, but...the vast majority of the army has been found, and we’re still not done sweeping the beaches yet.”

“Maybe Jesus really is protecting us…” Edward muttered.

“Well, we were looking for you, sir. As the commander, you’re the one who’ll decide our next moves. We’re not sure what this means for the campaign...what shall we do?”

Edward scratched his beard for a moment. “...we move out. I want this island explored, and its resources identified. We need a steady supply of food and water, and after that we need to start assembling tools and cutting down trees. After that, we make rafts and try our luck in the sea again.

“Sir?! Rafts...in the ocean?!”

“No one knows we’re here. The Kingdom probably thinks we’re all dead. If we wait for rescue, we’re gonna be stuck on this island for the rest of our lives.

“Someone must pass by eventually...we’re just off the coast of France!”

Edward shook his head. “We can’t assume that. Besides, we gave the coast a huge berth. This could be an undiscovered island for all we know. We need to build rafts, set off on a clear, calm day, and try for the French coast. We can try to make a run for Gascony once we’re there. It’s our only chance of getting back home.”

Harry nodded. “Yessir.”

The group continued scouring the beach, finding the remaining members of the army. Stranger still was the fact that not only did every man there seem to be alive, but the horses too! How in world could every single soul aboard the boats survive such a violent crash?!

Soon they set out, surveying the area. Of course, things took a strange turn almost immediately. They thought they were on a small island, but as they left the beach, they found not a tropical jungle, but a temperate countryside. There was no end in sight, and the sight of it reminded them of the cultivated farmlands of their country.

Furthermore, their exploring appeared without end. No matter how far they sent scouts, they never did reach the other side of the island. Was it possible...had they crashed onto the French mainland somehow?

No, the French countryside was heavily populated, they would have ran into fishermen, or farmers, or craftsmen or SOMETHING by now…

“This...doesn’t seem like an island,” Edward said quietly. He was atop his horse, a white stallion that had carried him across several battlefields.

The Earl frowned as he looked at the eerily familiar countryside. Harry moved beside him, on his own horse. All around them, knights rode and soldiers marched.

“Indeed,” the soldier agreed, “It’s almost as if…”

“...we never left,” Edward finished.

Harry nodded. “T-that’s right.”

The chief difference was that it was a lovely day right now. The warm and sunny skies was a stark contrast to the seemingly endless thunderstorms that had been plaguing England shortly before he left.

A rustle from a nearby bush broke the silence, and the Earl’s eyes widened in response. He moved his lance to the right and pointed it at the shrubbery. “Who goes there?! Show yourself!”

Nothing.

“Probably just a rabbit, sir.”

“I give you to the count of three!” Edward cried, “One...two…!”

Amazingly, a figure did indeed emerge from the bushes.

“Hark! We-BY GOD!”

Edward’s announcement was cut short by the one that showed themselves to the Englishmen.

A small, bizarre creature slowly rose to its feet and stood plainly in sight. It looked like a lizard, but stood upright. It wore ragged brown fabrics, and stood hunched over, looking guilty.

It was a monster.

“W-what in God’s name?!”

“R-reptile! Reptile!”

“MONSTER!”

“BEAST!”

The army erupted into pandemonium, reeling from the shock of seeing such a beast.

Edward pointed at the creature. “D-demon! It’s a demon!”

“Demon?!” the thing shouted back in confusion. It had a high-pitched, scratchy voice. This only furthered their shock.

“It can TALK?!”

“It knows such things…”

Harry was wild-eyed as he too joined the shocked crowd. “My God!” the soldier cried, “It can speak! The demon can speak the tongue of the Englishman!”

“Stop calling me that!” the beast cried.

“Demon! You’re a DEMON!”

“No I’m NOT!”

Edward lowered his lance. “Cut the fiend down! It has no right to live!”

“N-no, wait, you can’t!” it insisted, “You can’t hurt us! You promised!”

“We made no such promise, hellspawn!”

“It’s TRUE! The humans said we can live here in peace with them! I-if you hurt us...the wrath of the kingdom descends upon you!”

“The Kingdom?!” Edward yelled back, “France KNOWS about this?!”

“France…?” the lizard tilted its head.

“My God, I always knew they were depraved Satanist FIENDS! Once I deliver your head to Rome, the king himself will be excommunicated for summoning demons!”

“Degenerate scum!” One of the soldier screamed, “Heathens!”

“W-what are you talking about?! What’s France?!”

“Don’t play stupid, servant of hell!” Edward’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at the lowly creature before him, “France is the Kingdom you speak of! The ones who shield you from Christendom!”

“I-I don’t know what France or Christendom is, honest!”

“Enough lies! We will cut you down!”

“WAIT!” the monster held its claws up, “Y-you want proof, right?! Wouldn’t I be better proof alive?! Take me captive, I won’t cause you any trouble!”

The Earl frowned. “And give you a chance to work your black magic? Never.”

“I-I don’t know any magic, honest! This must be some misunderstanding…”

The commander readied his lance. “I am Lord Edward, Earl of Oxford! Remember me well, demon, and tell Satan who sent you back to the depths of Hell!”

The lizard stepped back, head shaking wildly. “Y-you can’t be serious...please, don’t…”

“Get BACK!”

Another voice made the army turn.

Another small lizard jumped out, claws waving around wildly. Around those claws, flames danced.

“Get back! Leave my friend alone! Or else I’ll...I’ll burn you to cinders!”

He flung a fireball at the crowd, the burst of flames thankfully hitting the ground. Everyone reeled back in sheer disbelief.

“Black magic! They ARE demons!”

“SLAY THEM!”

The lizard turned to his friend. “Mepin...RUN!”

The pair bolted, the cavalry in hot pursuit. Their speed was shocking, and they vanished into the forest behind them. As the army gave chase, others observed…

A pair of women watched the army chase the kobolds off into the woods, huddled behind a wooden fence. The army carried strange banners that neither of them had ever seen before.

One of the women spoke. “France? Oxford? These are not places in Geralthin...are we under attack? Are there other human kingdoms out there?”

“Impossible,” her friend answered, “There’s none in the entire world! We’re all that there is…”

The woman frowned. This was bad news.

“We’d better tell someone.”

Tag list: @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad, @lady-redshield-writes, @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword, @sheralynnramsey, @tawnywrites, @writer-on-time, @oceanwriter, @zwergis-spilledink, @fluffpiggy, @elliewritesfantasy, @homesteadhorner,  @laurenwastestimewriting, @elaynab-writing, @the-ichor-of-ruination, @reya-writes

#england #fantasy #writing #kingdom of england #possible book? #maybe

[osmw1]

Dimension Wave   Chapter 8—The Horizon Beyond

Going back to beside the bridge, I set afloat my boat. I slowly get in the boat, being sure not to tip it over. Whoa. I’ve been on a boat in real life before and this feels exactly the same. I take out the oar and start paddling.

“… it doesn’t go too fast, does it?”

I’m thinking that there’s probably a skill for it, maybe something like Embarkation or Oar Mastery. In any case, I keep a-paddlin’ out towards the deep blue sea.

One hour later.

Maybe because I’ve yet to unlock the skill, but I can still see land. Well, actually, it’d be dangerous if I venture too far out. I should probably start fishing here.

“Hmm? What’s that over there?”

Between the land and me is a black shadow flying closer and closer. Upon closer inspection, it’s a bird. It looks it has a pointy beak, but it’s quite a bit bigger than a hawk.

… isn’t it a mosnter?

I take out my Cetus Longsword. But… The boat tips to one side and almost capsizes.

“Shit! Is it too heavy?!”

I’m quite sure it’s the weight. I immediately store away the Cetus Longsword into my inventory and take out the gutting knife for fowls. Alright! We’re still floating.

“Take this!”

I swing my Iron Boning Knife at the large bird—Killerwing—but missed. I’ve never battled on a boat before, so it’s a little tricky. The Killerwing takes the chance and comes at me with its prominent beak.

“Gah!”

50 damage taken. I check my status screen and confirm that I lost 50 Energy. It’s just as I’ve heard; every single stat of mine is managed by Energy. As I’m learn the game, the Killerwing lines up to attack again. Damn, that’s not very fair. I swing my Iron Boning Knife once again.

schuk!

A sound effect plays as I make contact with the Killerwing. It lost about a third of its HP. And this is even an expensive weapon like the other frontline adventurers use. Maybe the Killerwing is just strong… but whatever. If it bleeds, I can kill it.

“Argh!”

I swing the weapon in my hand for a third time.

The fight resulted in me taking 550 damage and earning 300 in return. That’s a net loss. My excuse is that it’s hard to get good footing on a boat. If I were on land, it’d be a whole ‘nother story. Anyway, I make sure that there aren’t any other birds around me before taking out my fishing rod. I made sure to buy some bait beforehand too. This time, I’m using itty bitty shrimp. It’s a few steps above earthworms and the price to match. Consider it a celebration for being the owner of a brand new boat. With that smug sense of superiority, I cast my line into the sea. And as always, I focus on the tip of the rod and wait.

—Sea Bream obtained.

Nice, I finally caught one! It’s bit hard, like the time I caught that sea bass. I guess it’s all thanks to my Fishing Mastery III. I fix another piece of bait on the end of my hook and cast my line again. Oof, this one pulls. It’s nothing to the level of that giant herring, but maybe I’m fighting the rockiness of the boat as well. It’s hard to put much strength in. But I’m not about to lose. I muster all my strength.

—Bluefin Tuna obtained.

“Alright! At long last, a tuna.”

Maybe it’s because I have a boat. My heart races as I pull the tuna closer. Whoa! The boat almost went under. I forcibly stuff the tuna into my inventory. Moved and filled with a sense of accomplishment, I casted my line again.

  It’s been one week since. I promptly forgot my goal and fell into a fishing frenzy. Man… fishing out at sea is more fun than I thought. A bunch of stuff happened. I went out so far, I couldn’t see the shore anymore. Monsters surrounded me, and I barely escaped alive. An orca-like monster called an Aquawhale hunted me down. Another monster named Blue Shark destroyed my boat. A large bird monster called Brave Bird chased me while I continued to fish.

In the end, I realized the safest spot for me was where I caught that Bluefin Tuna. I even earned skills for helmsmanship and naval combat. They’re both important skills to have when you’re on a boat. The helmsmanship skill affects the handling of the boat as well as the oar. Naval combat is as the name suggests. Any debuffs from being on a boat gets nullified. I can even get buffs by upgrading it.

“But still, I wanna head farther…”

I’ve heard rumors from Alto that other players almost found the boss to unlock the third city. Compared to them, what am I even doing? As if to answer myself, though, I look out into the sea.

I want to explore the farthest ends of the seas.

There’s got to be something out there. If not, there wouldn’t be so many monsters here. But it’s not something I can accomplish with my current abilities. Not only will I lose Energy if I mess up, but there’s bound to be monsters stronger than orcas and sharks. Getting my Energy up should be my first priority. I’ve even used Transmutation to get Energy from the tunas and sea breams. But the time-based production skills have a limit of 1,000 per hour.

I want to live my life as an angler, but I have a long way to go. I’ve got to first step up my game and so I’ve decided to train on land. And not that I really need it, but tuna and sea bream sells for quite a bit of money.

contents: /prologue/ /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /next/

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(check out another title by the same author! or perhaps a bit of teenage romance?)

#Average Translations #AvgTL #osm #light novels #ln #web novels #wn #syosetu #一般の英訳 #ライトノベル #ラノベ #オンライン小説 #オンラインノベル #小説家になろう #Dimension Wave #DWV #Yusagi Aneko #Aneko Yusagi #ディメンションウェーブ #アネコユサギ