#fishing rod he might be a pirate now

[cow-smells]

Worth your While | Opla! Sanji x reader

Request: I've read that you are in the need for some Sanji request or ideas so here's one for a fic :D

The crew gets into a fight ( it can be the Navy or anither pirate crew) and the reader gets badly hit and Sanji just loses his shit seeing the person that he cared for the most getting knocked out?? I just genuinely wanna see Sanji just go ape shit on people because of it XD and maybe hiw the others in the clue will react to seeing Sanji like that? @smolracoon25

Summary: You and Sanji have been playing the flirting game for way too long. When you get injured, Sanji shows a side of himself you had yet to see.

Word count: 2.1k

Warnings: none

A/n: I'm going purely off the live-action so pls have that in mind, also I'm just getting back in to the rhythm of writing after such a long time so sorry if this is poop/ooc/both, love ya :)

Read on AO3

“Don't you ever take a break?”

Zoro's voice coming from behind startled you, forcing you to break your longing gaze at Sanji who was fishing at the bow of the ship. “Huh?” came your wise response.

Zoro looked from you to Sanji. “You've been making moon eyes at him for months now. Don't you get tired? Or are you waiting for him to take his shift staring at you so that you can clock off?”

You felt heat rising to your cheeks. This was far from the first time crew members commented about you and Sanji's – whatever was going on between you two – but this was the first time Zoro called you out so blatantly.

When you didn't respond, Zoro went on. “I just came to tell you we should be docking soon. I'll leave you the pleasure of telling the cook.” with that, he left.

You closed the book on your lap. You really did have the intention of reading when you first head out to the deck, having some time to kill, but then... you noticed Sanji. At first you thought you'd go sit with him for a while, flirt and banter a little as you always do, but you found yourself absorbed in taking him in instead. He was different when he was alone. The way he looked so focused, so deep in thought when it was just him and the sea. Maybe even a little sad. So different from his usual sunny exterior that he put on when he was with people. Falling in to deep thoughts wondering what he might be thinking about – maybe about you? - you sat and stared, not reading as much as a word.

The book discarded, you felt a spring in your step as you made your way to the ship's chef.

The creaking floorboards alerted your arrival. Sanji turned to see who was creeping up on him, and when he saw you, he set his fishing rod aside as a wide smile grew on his lips, his dimples deepening and making your heart miss a beat. “There's my favourite girl. Come here, let me hear all about your day.” Sanji held his arms open, beckoning you to come sit on his lap.

The flirting was nothing new. When you first joined the Strawhats, Sanji was as flirty to you as he was to any other woman; he did not expect to meet his match in you. You were quick to play along, always one-upping him, dancing along the line that separated playfulness and seriousness, never quite picking a side.

The problem was, in reality, you had chosen a side long ago.

You would flirt and giggle and make him blush but never actually act upon anything. Neither would Sanji. He, however, took your playing along as though it was a battle to be won. Sanji would flirt, you'd reply with something raunchy, he would surprise you with something heartfelt. It was as though he knew exactly where to hit in order to get you a little closer to buckling, every time. As time went on he had become so devoted to your back and forth that you noticed he had gradually abandoned all other efforts flirting with other women, to focus entirely on you.

You had to remind yourself that this was a game to him. An instinct, almost. It hurt to think of your relationship that way, but you had to keep that thought at the forefront of your mind if you didn't want to fall even harder for him.

So you would continue to play along, even if that's all that you could have with him.

You chose not to indulge him completely – that was too dangerous for you – and so you opted to bend a knee over the armrest of his chair. Close, but no contact. “Come on, Sanji,” you bent your head in what felt like a bashful manner and said, “you know I spent all day thinking of you.”

You weren't sure if he was blushing or if that was just your wishful thinking. Composing himself, Sanji wrapped an arm around you to hold your waist, lightly tracing circles on your hip. “I beg of you, darling – next time, come find me instead of just thinking of me. I'll make it worth your while.”

You wanted to ask, how will you make it worth my while? Just to hear Sanji go in to detail of what you've been fantasizing about for months. But instead, you opted for a tamer response. “I came to tell you we're docking soon. Maybe I'll find you then and you could make it worth my while with a drink.”

Without missing a beat, Sanji took hold of your hand, bringing it to his lips. “There's nothing I'd enjoy more.” With that, he kissed your hand, his eyes never leaving yours.

Docking started out normal. Everyone knew what their usual chores were when you reached a town, restocking and fixing so that the ship would be in top condition for its next leg of the journey in your search for the One Piece. So while Sanji went in to town to restock on groceries (you didn't pay much attention to the others), you, Nami and Usopp stayed around the ship to fix up some of the damage it took when you last encountered a rival pirate ship. That also happened to be the reason it was just you three when the same rival pirates noticed your ship docked, ready to take their revenge.

The three of you had your individual talents, but you just weren't enough to hold up against an entire rival crew. They had attacked so suddenly and so fiercely – it didn't take long before you were on the sand, fighting to stay conscious. You lost that fight as you watched Usopp try his best to fight off three attackers at once.

You really thought that would be the end for you. You should have known better; it was Sanji's voice you heard as you regained consciousness, motivating you to open your eyes despite the pain that flooded your body.

The beach area all around you was covered with pirates who were taken down, just like you – only that they were your enemies. You first noticed Nami's orange hair – she seemed to be taking care of a bleeding Usopp, his condition worse than yours. Following Sanji's voice, you found him holding the last one of the rival crew by his shirt, throwing punches like you've never seen him before. It took you aback – thinking about it, you had never seen Sanji use his hands in combat. Too precious – need them for cooking, he'd once told you before adding, the only thing more precious to me is you. It had made you blush at the time before you had laughed him off. Now, you were questioning if it was a joke at all.

The man Sanji was holding wasn't putting up a fight – he was far too battered for that, but Sanji didn't stop. He was too far away for you to understand what he was saying to the guy, but focusing hard, you could just about make out half sentences – "to hit a woman" – "don't deserve to breath" – "finish you" – you searched for the strength to get up and stop him. You had never seen Sanji – your happy, cheerful Sanji – so angry, feral even. It scared you a little; but mostly, you knew Sanji would regret it if he were to kill a man who no longer posed a threat. So you grasped at the sand, forcing your aching bones to pick yourself up. But as you were regaining your balance, Sanji finally threw the man to the sand, a look of disgust painting his handsome features. "Finally made a date with her and you ruined it... You hurt her. You're lucky I don't kill you." The man groaned in pain.

In a sharp change, his features went from anger to concern as he finally left the man and turned to where he last saw you laying. His eyes were full of honest pain, until he saw you on your feet – then they read of hope. "Y/n!" Sanji called, rushing to you as he could see your struggle to stand upright. "You- I-" he scanned your body as he reached you, taking in all visible injuries. "Are you – are you okay? Can I help you?" he reached an arm around your waist, waiting for your approval before he held on to help you stay up, so afraid he might hurt you.

"Thanks." his arm around you really helped you to stay up. It was a practical measure, sure, any one of your crew mates would do the same – but when you look up and meet Sanji's eyes, you know that the tense feeling between you two wouldn't have been replicated with anyone else. "I mean it. You saved us. We'd... I'd be lost without you." at that, Sanji smiled that deep-dimpled smile of his at you, the playfulness not reaching his still-concerned eyes.

"Y/n," he started. "are you really flirting with me, at a time like this?"

It was strange how despite all your injuries, you felt less and less of the pain the longer you leaned in to Sanji, close enough to smell his fragrance. A half-smile reached your lips. You couldn't play this game any longer. "Did you really beat that guy up that bad because he ruined what should have been our... date?"

Sanji tensed, obviously not ready to have this conversation now. His gaze dropped momentarily before he wrapped his other arm around your waist, holding you tightly to him. "I had a hundred reasons to kill him," Sanji said, and you felt disappointment bubbling through you until he continued, "but the most pressing reason is that he ruined our date."

Sanji took the opportunity to tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear and you couldn't help but smile so big you were embarrassed by it. "I really wanted that drink with you, away from the ship and everyone else. Just us."

You recomposed yourself. You needed clarity. "I'm not playing anymore, Sanji."

Sanji chuckled. "Fancy that. I was never playing at all."

You must have forgotten how to breath at all when he leaned down, his hand finding a rest on your neck as his thumb caressed your cheek. Nearly a whisper, he asked – "Can I kiss you?"

You leaning in served as the consent he searched for. After months of pining over each other, wondering what it would be like – his lips met yours, in a mixture of softness and passion like you'd never felt before. Forgetting you were injured at all you sneaked your arms around his neck, pulling him in, almost afraid of letting this anticipated moment of passion go. Sanji was more than happy to pull closer, a hand on your lower back holding you impossibly close to him.

The moment did, however, find its end as you heard your Captain whoop and holler from afar. "Yeah! Way to go, Sanji! About damn time!"

Breaking the kiss, Sanji nodded at Luffy, his smile lines prominent as he looked the proudest you'd ever seen him.

The crew was more than happy to make a quick exit that night, preferring to not stay around until the rival crew regained their strength. You were helping Nami untie the ropes anchoring the ship to the dock when she said, "I really thought he was going to kill him earlier." you didn't know how to respond. "I've never seen Sanji like that." Nami managed to untie a knot, and Zoro began pulling the rope up on to the ship. "He's really got it bad for you."

Despite that questionable context, you couldn't help but smile. In a burst of honesty you confessed; "I hope so, because I've got it real bad for him, too."

On cue, the ship's chef leaned over the ships railing, looking down to you. "Y/n, my love!" he called, as though the rest of the crew wasn't surrounding the both of you. "I hope you're finished down there, because I've got a candlelit dinner waiting for you up here. And drinks. You know, to make it worth your while," he finished with a wink.

From behind Sanji you could hear Luffy ask, "What about our dinner? Just because you're lovers now doesn't mean we don't need to eat..."

Sanji sighed and turned away from you, probably to go protect your dinner before Luffy demolished it.

"Right then, let's go," Nami said as you finished untying the last rope. "While there's still food to eat."

And for the first time, you boarded your ship not to find the One Piece or the All Blue – you were just happy to be there, with the man you loved.

#vinsmoke sanji #one piece sanji #one piece live action sanji #sanji x reader #sanji imagine #sanji fanfic #sanji fanfiction #vinsmoke sanji x reader #one piece sanji imagine #one piece sanji x reader #one piece live action sanji x reader #opla!sanji x reader

[enjoy-guilt]

Stede and Ed are both a Nietzsche-ian fish (ofmd season 2 spoilers)

I’m having a massive brain rot so stay with me pls

The people who watched Hannibal are probably aware of the term “Nietzsche-ian fish”. I did my research back then to understand what Hannibal meant exactly, so what if I tell you that Stede and Ed are also a “Nietzsche-ian fish”? 

In Season 2 Episode 5, Ed and Stede are having this conversation:

Ed: Sometimes it’s nice to be patient. And wait. You can’t catch your fish unless the fish wants to be caught.

Stede: And you are the fish?

Ed: We are the fish, I guess. I think?

Stede: Okay.

And in Season 2 Episode 7:

Ed: You said it was a good fish.

Stede: It was a fine fish. It was… whatever.

Ed: Whatever? You don’t want to take my fishing seriously, fine. 

Stede: Come on, it’s not about that.

Ed: It’s everything about that. It’s everything about fishing! 

Ed: Fishermen and pirates are nothing alike.

Stede: You are a coward!

---

In “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Zarathustra at some point describes himself fishing. He believes that only the worthy fish will be caught. He doesn’t have time for net-fishing, because with this fishing technique there is a high risk of catching bad fish. But with his own way, that he calls “angle-fishing”, he won’t. He uses this technique: an angled rod and bait. With the best bait he will allure “the strangest human fish”. Only in high mountains, Zarathustra says, can one fish effectively for the “strangest” and “finest” “human fish,” for  altitude requires an effort that only the finest can deliver. He says that other Gods might want to “cast their nets into the human sea,” but he himself chooses to fish with bait and hooks—not nets— and only in mountain lakes. 

Net-fishing is not selective (just like farmed fish is not selective), unlike angling. Not all fish are worthy, and in order to catch only the “finest” fish, one must not catch the helpless and passive fish as in a net. On the contrary, we want a process where the fish chooses the fisherman in an active way. 

Now, let me explain a bit what I mean by farmed fish. A farmed fish is defined by its captivity, the only environment known to it is the one it was put in, it was meant to be there and be caught. Therefore, a farmed fish has no free will. But a sea fish is free and is able to make decisions. It’s more flavorful and firm because it's experiencing the world only as relevant to its own existence. A farmed fish has limited abilities, its world is not the truth, but rather something that someone else decided for it. But a wild fish is able to explore, to live, to make decisions. To experience the world without anyone intruding into its existence.

This is interesting when we think of Stede and Ed. Stede only managed to meet Ed because he escaped his environment, he escaped the “farm” he was put in and decided to explore the world, to make decisions, to live. Or better, Ed met Stede because Stede became part of the wild sea. Stede was ready to be caught on a fisherman’s bait the moment he left the environment he was in and became a wild fish. 

It’s also interesting to note how Ed joined Stede’s world. How they shared their worlds to each other and got to experience something entirely, got to experience both of their realities until they created their own. Ed’s life is not the way it was before and Stede’s life is not the way it was before. But both of their realities exist in a world they created. 

The fisherman and the fish belong to each other. One finds those that belong to one by fishing and being fished. So one must follow one’s taste in both senses of the word: our taste will lead us to those we have a taste for, just as well as our taste will attract those that have a taste for us. That leads to a healing relationship of shared presence. They were both willing to fish and to be fished, if they weren’t they wouldn't end up meeting each other. Both need a healing relationship after everything they’ve been through, and it’s important to keep in mind they were the ones causing each other pain. In “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” Nietzsche writes: “And whatever in all the seas belongs to me, my actual me in all things – fish that out for me, bring that up to me – that’s what I’m waiting for, I the most spiteful of all fishermen.”

A fisherman spends a long time until he catches a good fish, and an active fish takes its time until a bait seems worthy enough. A process that is long and even painful. 

Nietzsche insists that there is only one appropriate way for someone to fish. The few who can be fished must be selected according to two criteria.

they must be active in their own capture. Net-caught fish does not get caught as a result of their behaviour, only as a result of their presence (that’s why I said that farmed fish has no free will. Farmed fish is passive and unworthy). Nietzsche-ian fishing is intended to heal solitude.

They will be chosen according to their tastes. Only a select few will be attracted to the bait Nietzsche and Zarathustra uses.

Angle-fishing in mountain waters (this is where Zarathustra fishes) translates into the selection of superior men, and therefore allows the solitary philosopher to gain “company”. Nietzsche is clear: bad company is not a company at all. The company he seeks is a company of equals. It is because the fish eats the bait that the angler eats the fish. For Nietzsche, angler and bait ate one and the same. The angler places pieces of himself on the hook, pieces of the self that he is. The new self that he is.

The angler is not fully passive either. In the same way as the fish’s activity relies on the angler’s passivity and vice-versa, we may see that the relations between fish and angler are constantly reversed. So are the relations between Stede and Ed. They charge from being the fisherman to being the fish and vice versa, therefore they are the same. 

This mutual reduction, of course, is but an echo of the mutual encounter of the fisherman with the fish, and indeed, their mutual catching. Only the superior shall be attracted to this bait. The idea of ownership, which Zarathustra reiterates, doesn’t suggest that one subdues the fish they catch but rather, that the kindred spirits naturally belong to each other without being reduced to each other. For in the same way as one may be affected with “habits” that “do not belong to” one, one may be distinct from what belongs to them.

Ed says that they are both the fish, and Stede agrees. They both agreed that they were caught by each other. They were both patient and waited for each other no matter how painful it was. They remained and when they were ready they were caught on each other’s bait.

When Stede agreed with Ed that the fish was “a fine fish” (he also called it beautiful in the first conversation), after taking all of this in consideration, I believe that he basically agreed that it was all worth it. All the waiting, all the fighting, all the wounds. It all happened for a reason and that reason was for them to be ready to be caught. Their relationship wouldn’t work if one of them were to pull his rod out of the wild waters. Their relationship wouldn’t work if Stede were to remain captured in his old life and stop looking for a worthy bait to eat (I dare to say that his old life was given to him because of the environment he grew up in, he was meant to get married, he was meant to live his life, therefore his wife was a net-caught fish), or if Ed were to remain in his dark place as Blackbeard without acknowledging his feelings and his needs.

But then Stede says that it was “whatever”. It was at that point in their relationship that Stede started changing. He wasn’t feeling like he was enough so he tried to become what Blackbeard was because Ed was all he ever wanted/wanted to be. This is exactly what Stede was to Ed too. So when they started changing they weren’t attracted to each other. Stede was looking for Ed and Ed was looking for Stede. They were with themselves for long enough, and when their roles reversed (I’m not talking about their roles as the fish and the fisherman, these are always changing) they felt like they weren’t good together. They weren’t looking for someone like them, they were looking for someone “strange”, for someone to have their taste, for someone to want them for what they were. We could see from the beginning that Ed was getting excited by Stede’s reality, he was showing his interest in the books, the clothes, when everyone else didn’t feel the same way. And Stede never saw Ed the way others saw him, always appreciating his reality and wanting to be part of it. And by the end of season two they managed to balance everything out, they returned to themselves but in a reality they created just for them, where they could exist together. 

Then Ed says “you don’t want to take my fishing seriously” and that I believe that right there Ed thought that he was wrong. That Stede couldn’t take seriously everything they went through, that he wasn’t taking seriously the harm that he caused him, that he wasn’t taking seriously all the time he waited for him. When Stede left to go back to his wife (when him and Ed were supposed to leave together) it was proof to Ed that Stede wasn’t taking their relationship seriously. Like Ed says, “it’s everything about fishing”, it’s everything about the time they put into this, it’s everything about not reducing themselves in front of the other, it’s everything about what they did and how they were drawn to each other. It’s everything about not changing themselves and remaining the way they were. 

Ed then says that “pirates and fishermen are nothing alike”, and even though I’m still not sure what it means exactly, I believe he’s referring to their nature. A fisherman needs to be calm, to not talk much, to be patient, to cast his rod and simply wait for something worthy to come to him. A pirate is loud, he will attack, he will steal. A pirate will forcibly take what doesn’t belong to him, he won’t wait for something special. A pirate will cast a net and take whatever is caught in there, but a fisherman will wait for what belongs to him to eat the one bait he made for it. I believe that’s the main difference. 

Nietzsche used fish to describe loneliness. A loneliness that will be healed, gone with the help of a worthy companion. There is a Nietzsche saying that I really like: “My solitariness which, as on very high mountains, has often made me gasp for breath and lose blood, is now at least a solitude for two.” In the last episode we are shown just that, a solitude for two, while carrying the wounds and memories with them (I’d like to use Izzy’s grave for that, a constant reminder of the life they are leaving behind).

Their roles are constantly changing, and they have been playing with that since season one. In 1x04 they changed their clothes, Ed became Stede and Stede became Blackbeard. In that episode Stede was the one to give Ed marmalade and in 2x07 it was Ed that served marmalade to Stede. The scene in the moonlight is, I believe, the perfect example. In 1x05 Stede said to Ed “you wear fine things well” and then Ed said the same thing to Stede in 2x05. In 1x08 we see Stede on a boat and on his way to find Ed, and in 2x08 we see Ed on a boat and on his way to find Stede.

So, in conclusion, they are both the fish and that means that they are both the fisherman, both of them searching for each other until they found themselves in a solitude for two.

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd spoilers #ed x stede #ed teach #blackbonnet #ofmd analysis #gentlebeard #nietzche #philosophy #friedrich nietzsche #brain rot #help lol #hannibal ruined my brain fr #i love them your honor

[tachvintlogic]

Some Author's Commentary on A Fishing Rod in Hand is Worth 2 in System Memory

This was in my drafts for two years when I finally posted chapter 6 of A Fishing Rod in Hand is Worth 2 in System Memory, and since it ain't gettin' any younger, might as well post it.

------

I have thoughts about chapter 6 of my System Memory fic and figured to just put them in a post.

I'm so happy I got to the part where I traumatize Twilight. The best part about basing the Links not just on their games, but on a specific speedrun is that I get to write angst unique to that particular run. The story is supposed to be a mix of humor and angst, and I got the humor down if the feedback is any indication, so it was nice to turn up the angst.

This section was really helped by the fact I had access to an actual copy of Twilight Princess to explore the world and find things, like that the postman hangs out in the goat barn in Ordon. (Which sucks because that's not going to be the case for most of the other eras.)

I've played at least a little of one game for each Link except Four, and I think he suffers because of it. I have basic mechanics knowledge from first hand experience for everyone but him. All the glitches come from research and I have to research games I've never played or finished, but for him everything has to be researched.

I remember seeing a post that complained that Hyrule was rarely being given opportunities in fics to be badass or something along those line. So I thought, "okay, I'll give Hyrule an ability so overpowered that most of the other Links can't handle it."

----------------

It's been a while since chapter 6 was posted, hasn't it?

I'm very satisfied with finally completing the second arc of System Memory, where I tortured Wind after torturing Twilight (emotionally). The arcs followed a similar progression, though I only noticed it in the middle of writing. Both went hometown → Zelda → Gerudo settlement → dungeon → portal. Both also had a battle where Hyrule was a total badass using an overpowered quirk of his games' controls. The 3rd era will probably not follow this progression (but Hyrule will still be a badass).

At first, the hardest part of that arc was the conversation between Grandma and Wind. I literally wrote the entire chapter with the Savage Labyrinth because I was avoiding that conversation just as much as Wind was.

But once it was done, the hardest part was definitely the naval battle. Which isn't good from a writing perspective because the navel battle was 1.5 chapters long.

From writing those chapters, I've found that the thing that really gets me in a writing mood is being a passenger on a plane or a long car ride with no internet and only my laptop with an open fic document for company. After 2 five hour car rides, the arc was "done" and I started updating it again.

Another thing that helps is having research notes from the actual game. They were very helpful for getting a sense for the Forsaken Fortress and Wind Temple layout, the sunrise scene, and visualizing where the pirate ship was supposed to do in relation to the islands.

(For the 3rd arc/era, I fortunately own a game set in that era for easy reference.)

...But having a first draft with all the necessary scenes present doesn't mean it's done, now does it? So, the battles in particular had lots of revisions because the story beats were happening too quickly and it was just too barebones.

I never meant for the time between chapter 6 and 7 to be as long as it did. I was kind of in denial about hiatus for a while, thinking "I'm only a month at most away from posting chapter 7!" for a lot of 2021 and 2022.

What basically happened was that I didn't want to post a chapter before the next chapter is fully written with all the necessary scenes. This is because I figured I wouldn't have anymore major edits to make to a chapter once the one after it is complete. But then chapter 8 was split into 8 and 9, and posting 7 without finishing 9 would be cheating, and then 10, 11, and 12 still needed to be written...

And that simple rule ballooned into a requirement that chapter 7 can only be posted once the entire arc has a complete draft.

(Arc 3 will probably follow the same rule, so there's aren't long waits between chapters in the same arc. Chapters between arcs is another story.)

I don't think this arc would've turned out the way it did if I hadn't taken that hiatus. For one, back when I finished chapter 6 I hadn't started reading Moby Dick, which definitely influenced Wind's narration. (I searched up crossovers between Moby Dick and Wind Waker and found nothing. Kinda disappointing.)

The chapters of the second arc are shorter than the first. I had felt the chapters were getting too long and wanted to cut them up (chapter 8 and 9 used to be the same chapter), but they all ballooned to be longer than I had initially expected. I guess that's just how it is.

All the comments on each chapter are very appreciated, even if I don't reply to them. They do a lot to boost my motivation to overcome writer's block. For those who commented, thank you.

#linked universe #system memory fic #tach's commentary #(also if you find typos in system memory just send me an ask so it doesn't have to remain there)

[shadydirt]

I’m looking for Ironluck with Penny & Nora as their children and if I cannot find it I will create it

#yes clover still wields a #fishing rod he might be a pirate now #but he’s still a big himbo #pirate AU #james ironwood #clover ebi #nora valkyrie #penny polendina #ironluck #rwby #rwby james #rwby clover #Rwby nora #Rwby Penny #Rwby ironluck #rwby designs

[lawslessons]

ummm, ummm, Ace x female reader, of course but this time, Ace have to face a mood swing, pregnant reader. (oh my god, im so weird) fluff af please!!🙈🙈🙈

Oh this was such a joy to write! I hope you enjoy this, dear!

Cravings and Sea Kings 

Warnings: Nothing, just fluff!

Synopsis: Wait, what? Is that even possible to get here? Given an impossible task by his woman, Ace is forced to try and get the impossible to occur in order to make her happy and to hopefully save his own hide from her pregnant wrath.

 “You want what?” Ace asked in disbelief as he currently sat on the ground, massaging her feet for her while she rubbed her middle.

“Sea king meat, is it possible to get some now? Oh! And some of those berry tarts we had at the last island too!” She said as she sat up and looked around the ship as if she could find any sitting there. Of course there wasn’t any, but that didn’t seem to deter her.

“I don’t think there are any sea kings here, we’re no where near the Calm Belt. Are you sure regular meat won’t suffice?” Ace asked as he used his devil fruit ability to warm the palms of his hands to make the massage more comfortable for her. She hummed and went back to relaxing against the chair that was out on the deck.

“No.” She stated.

“So blunt…” Ace grumbled. Marco heard the predicament and laughed.

“I’m sure Ace could go fishing for one if he wanted to,” Marco teased. Ace glared at his friend while she looked at Marco with wide, excited eyes.

“You think so?” She asked before she looked at Ace with an expectant look on her face. “Well? What are you doing still sitting there? Get me my meat,” She pouted. Ace sighed and moved his hands away from her feet and stood up with a small groan. With her being pregnant, he had to pick up more of the slack on the ship and it was slowly taking a toll on his body and his mind too. All the sleepless nights he was experiencing and the kid wasn’t even here yet! He sighed and rubbed his hands against his shorts.

“Marco, why don’t you help me since you suggested it?” Ace asked with a devilish smile on his face. Marco’s earlier confidence faded when Ace looked at him like that. He frowned and rose a brow.

“What do you — “

“Oh! I think that’s a great idea, Ace! Then there’s a higher chance of the sea king coming!” She said with a bright smile on her face. That smile was enough for Ace to do anything. He wanted it to stay there forever but he knew with her being pregnant that chance was slim. She could be scary if she wanted to be and he wasn’t sure if he liked that.

~

“Ace!” She yelled as she waddled through the door with her hands on her rather plump middle. Her face was flushed and frustrated as she looked for Ace. “Get down here right now! You left your socks on the ground again and I almost tripped over them! Do you think being pregnant is a joke? I can’t even see my feet and here you are leaving your disgusting socks everywhere!” She yelled on the deck as she stormed the area and tried to find him. The crew around her snickered and shared some hushed whispers as the woman in front of them ripped open the tops of boxes and tried to find Ace. “Ace!” She yelled again.

Ace was hiding up in the crows nest, he could see her but there was no way she would be able to see him from this height. Or that was what he thought. She snapped her head up at the crow’s nest when she heard a sound and looked at Ace in disbelief. Ace noticed her, and before he could duck down, he heard a small gasp coming from her.

“Ace!” She yelled a little more tenderly. “Are you mad at me? Why are you hiding? Did I do something wrong?” She asked with a shaky voice as tears welled up in her eyes. Ace flinched and quickly jumped down from the crow’s nest and moved to place his hands on her shoulder. He didn’t think what he did would be enough to make her cry, he hated seeing her cry. In fact, she rarely cried so this took the poor man by surprise. 

“No! No, it isn’t like that I swear,” Ace tried to assure her as he pulled the crying woman in for a hug. “I thought you were mad at me, it was kinda scary,” Ace admitted. Her crying ceased instantly and she pulled back with a scowl on her face.

“Scary? Scary?! You thought I was scary?” She asked before she humorously punched him and went about scolding him for the next couple of hours. Short story short, he never left his socks out again.

~

“Why is it taking so long to get one of these fish to bite?” Ace groaned as he rested his chin against the palm of his hand as he dully stared down at the water.

“That’s because there aren’t any sea kings here,” Marco reminded him as he shook his fishing rod in an attempt to get a fish to bite. Ace glared over at Marco and scoffed.

“You’re the one who got us in this situation in the first place,” Ace grumbled. Marco rolled his eyes, he wasn’t in the mood to get into a fight with Ace right now. Before Ace could make another smart comment, his fishing pole jutted forward and the young pirate tensed. “I think I got a bite!” Ace said as he stood up and moved to step back and pull with all of his might. And much to his surprise, a large sea king came bursting from the water and into Ace’s excited arms.

“How the hell is that even possible?” Marco asked in disbelief as he watched the fish squirm around in the laughing pirates hands. She seemed to have noticed what had happened and gasped in surprise.

“Oh my gosh! You caught one!” She smiled to him as she got off of her little chair and waddled over to Ace to examine the fish he had gotten.  “This is amazing….” She praised before she licked her lips. “Thank you!” She chirped before she hugged Ace. Ace grinned and looked back over at Marco with a confident smirk on his face. He never doubted himself for a moment. Nope. Not at all.

When dinner came around and the sea king was being served, she looked absolutely thrilled.

“You’re welcome,” Ace teased to her as he ate his own share of the sea king. She wasn’t even paying any attention to him, her mind was completely taken by the feast in front of her. Sea king stew, sea king roast, sea king fried up and served with a mouth watering sauce. She wanted it all, and she ate it all. Ace watched as she practically inhaled half of the sea king during the banquet and found himself falling even more in love with her.

“Ace?” She softly said after she had her fill. She moved to hold onto his hand and smiled up at the warm pirate. “Thank you,” she said before she rested her head against his shoulder. Ace turned a soft shade of pink and looked down at the woman next to him and smiled. He ignored all the laughs from his cremates and focused on her, her and their child.

“No, thank you…”

#one piece #one piece writing #one piece x reader #one shot #portgas d. ace #portgas_d_ace #portgas ace #portgas d ace x reader #ace x reader #ace x female reader #one piece ace #one piece portgas ace #one piece fandom #one piece fanfiction #requests open #request #taking requests #fluff #one piece fluff #ace fluff

[moonbeamsung]

Sink or Swim

You plunged deep into an ocean of love for Huang Renjun, the boy who had already fallen for the sea itself.

member: renjun

au: sailor!renjun x gn!reader

word count: 2.7k

genre: angst, fluff, slightly dystopian

warnings: character death/drowning, mentions of water (one passing mention of a typhoon and a very heavy focus on the ocean), light profanity

recommended song: when i was older by billie eilish

author’s note: Not only did the lyrics to the above song inspire this fic, but so did the general mood and sound of it :) I would recommend listening while you read, since I think it really adds to the atmosphere. My creativity took quite a while to cooperate on this one but I like how it turned out and hope you do as well, feedback is highly appreciated as always. Thanks to @astroboy-lele for her help beta-reading this (like 2 hours ago), and enjoy!

taglist: @astroboy-lele @kyuwoyo @rvse-hvvck @nakamotocore @kisshim @hunjins​

network tags: @kpopscape @neo-constellations @culture-cafe @dreamlab-nct @k-dinernet 

The sleepy little fishing village you call home seems to sigh with the tides, waves lapping at the shore in a rhythm not unlike that of steady breaths. It’s the world’s way of inhaling the salty air, sometimes laced with the pungent scent of a fresh catch.

The sport itself is a life force here, the key to any sort of contact with the rest of civilization. Without it, the hill that the small town is nestled into might just swallow up the dozens of small brick buildings, reducing them to nothing but a memory. The murky waters would carry minuscule traces of its existence far and wide, but not even a name could break the surface.

Unfortunately, the village’s dependence on exporting fish leaves little room for the personal aspirations of its residents. At some point in your life, you’ll be called to assist with a certain aspect of the product’s distribution. The elders in charge find ways for even the most unskilled of hand and mind to participate, but they always save the hardest work for those who were born into it: the sailing families.

Quite literally, a love of the sea is in Huang Renjun’s blood.

His great-grandfather was around to see the beginnings of the seaside community, and he became the most famous fisherman known to the village by returning to the docks with large nets in tow, just bursting with sharp fins and thrashing tails. Those were the glory days, and generations later, the Huangs want their young son to follow in his footsteps, to become just as well-known for legendary angling expeditions.

But... he’s not really interested.

He would much rather take to the waves in a boat and chase the horizon, not bothering with casting a net or even a rod. To him, the ocean air is beyond suffocating, like a poison meant to expel any wanderlust from his lungs, to rip it from his soul. Renjun is a fiery spirit, and not even the crashing, slate-colored waters can dampen the adventurous spark burning bright and warm inside of him. It would take more than a typhoon to do so.

You admire that about him, too. How he holds a strong but steady resistance to the traditions of the village, the limited and meager expanse of the world that you’ve both lived in—no, been confined to—all your life.

Just think of the endless possibilities that await, beyond the hazy fog obscuring the fine line between land and sea. The faint shapes that loom in the distance, perhaps a trick of the eye but perhaps another sign of life besides you, seem so close but are still just out of your reach, teasing you both with what could lie outside this languid, ashen realm. Your heart races at the mere notion of such a thing.

The waves are impossibly blue when their image is reflected in Renjun’s dark eyes; you notice this one dreary afternoon as you let your feet dangle above the gentle ripples, sitting at the edge of one of the many docks that tangle through a mess of sailboats and fishing gear. The burnt orange of his threaded sweater stands out against the rest of the scenery, so monochromatic you sometimes swear the world is black and white.

He’s a splash of color, a splash of adventure and determination among a colorless mass of villagers who wouldn’t trade the way things are right now for anything. The dull, scuffed toes of his boots drag along the wooden planks as he trudges towards you, settling down at your side with a small gust of wind. Both anticipating and dreading the impending day when his father would teach him how to take to the seas and steer the boat that’s run in his family for generations, Renjun finds himself at the humble and rickety marina often. Anticipating because that knowledge would enable him to change the course of his own life on his own terms, and dreading because he knew of the harsh disapproval those actions would receive.

But still, Renjun stays right there on the dock next to you, diving past the shallows of his conscious mind and into the darkest, deepest abyss of his own thoughts, letting them bubble and sputter up and puff into the air like sea spray. If both your hearts are oceans of their own, they collide in this moment, as his ambitions and aspirations spill over into yours and settle on the seabed below. He’s chosen you to entrust these secrets with. You, the only other resident of the village with a familiar restlessness in your eyes when the sun disappears below the distant horizon, gaze wistful and longing to do the same.

And as if they’re the precious riches of a mythical swashbuckling pirate, you keep them there, each word a golden coin or sparkling gem hidden away in a long-lost treasure chest. The twilight sky that evening is the most vivid you’ve ever seen it, and daylight is fading fast by the time Renjun finishes telling you everything.

“I never knew there was someone who felt the same way I did about all this.”

The realization sets in late, just as the weathered surface you’re both perched on sways in the wind. You fear for a second that you might slip forward into the icy water; that’s how strong the breeze whipping through the air around you feels. That, or it’s due to the sheer force from your heart as it swells at finally meeting someone you’ve admired from afar for what feels like an eternity, ever since you understood what life was like and what it meant for you here.

Sure, Renjun’s grandfather may have been well-known in the past for one reason, but to you, Renjun is creating a legacy of his own for another, one of more than just adolescent rebellion and defiance. It’s one of undoubtable self-awareness, of an adamant refusal to conform to an existence he hadn’t chosen, and he’s finding a way to alter what he’s been seemingly destined for all his life.

“Me neither,” you shake your head, still in a small fraction of euphoric disbelief. “All that’s left to do now is stow away on a ship together in the dead of night, I suppose.” The comment is joking, but he takes it more seriously than you anticipated. The cloudy sky above brightens with his eyes.

You convene in shadowy alleys when no one’s looking, wasting away the hours as you mutually yearn for just a sliver of knowledge of the unknown, enthralled by the waves in the distance and what lies below and above and beside. Renjun sometimes whisks you away to a steep overlook that provides a panoramic view of the beach, the powdery sand so far beneath your bare feet gray enough to pass for finely packed pebbles. You find yourself melting into his embrace like the sea melts into the sky, blurring the already thin lines between air and water and between friendship and love. The way his fingers encircle your wrist with a curl like that of a cresting wave is telling enough on its own. His heart belongs to two bodies now.

You can’t help but notice all the similarities he bears to the element you’ve never lived a day of your life without seeing, without hearing the undulations of, without smelling or tasting the salty tang it brings to the air. Always moving, a force to be reckoned with, and evidently a possessor of the ability to travel far and wide on even the most fleeting of whims.

He’s utterly himself around the water, too. You’re almost positive he could effortlessly duck beneath the surface, take a breath, and his lungs would drink it in as if it was air. The only place he doesn’t feel like drowning is below the waves.

“Look!” Renjun points out an unfamiliar vessel tied down at the far end of the pier one day, sails torn in jagged lines as if they had been slashed by a larger-than-life creature. Upon closer examination, you find that the wooden bow of the sailboat is splintering and the windows into the cabin are shattered. The name carved into the hull is simply too faded for you to decipher the letters.

“This boat must’ve gone through hell and back,” you comment, your response delayed like an echo. “Who do you think it belongs to, anyway?”

He’s lost within a symphony of thoughts before he answers, “No one.”

Both incredulous and doubtful, you whip around to meet Renjun’s assured gaze. “No one ever comes and no one ever goes, it’s that simple. These same boats have been docked for years. They’ve belonged to the same families one decade after another.” The boy sighs, scanning the horizon for anything that might appear the slightest bit unusual. “The real question is where it came from.”

You have no answer for him.

“Regardless,” he speaks up again, quite matter of factly, “It’s ours now.”

“Ours?”

“Yes, ours. You said you’d sail away with me, right?”

It certainly isn’t the aspiration you would have envisioned yourself pursuing. You could have chosen to quietly obey, to live and work exactly as you were told by a community so rigid that you felt frozen to the bone. Not like the pleasant chill of the ocean, rather a restrictive pair of icy shackles, ever-tightening around your limbs and subduing your mutinous thoughts. But here you are, longing for a little something more both in life and with the only person that understands your heart’s deepest desires like they’re his own. And at their core, they are.

Without fear, Renjun takes a confident stride onto the boat’s deck, turning back to you and offering his hand as you mimic the action. “What are you waiting for?” He asks, eyes twinkling.

A warm thrill courses through your veins, growing hotter with each small preparation you make towards your inevitable departure. It’s an affair of many weeks, but at last you’ve gathered all of the necessary supplies and courage to carry out your plan.

The day finally comes, the day you’ll spring into action and take hold of your futures by the ropes, no one but yourselves telling you how or where to steer.

On the most moonlit night you’ve ever been alive to witness, you and Renjun both slip out from underneath your fraying comforters, unbeknownst to the rest of your households. Save for your two restless souls, the entire village is sound asleep, the unceasing lullaby of the tides casting its steadfast spell on bodies and minds like clockwork. Wooden floors so hollow and dusty that they barely creak under your weight, you successfully glide out your respective front doors in silence like translucent spirits.

No one else in the village had even acknowledged the foreign ship’s presence, but this shouldn’t surprise you, not in the slightest. The thick, colorless fog of life had long since settled around the shoulders of anyone and everyone who allowed it to, ensnaring them in a mind-numbing, monotonous routine. It blocks out the sun and the rain, the light and the darkness. It’s all so sickeningly the same. Empty eyes can’t pay any mind to their surroundings. Meanwhile, yours are full of hope, the brightest in the land.

In the distance, Renjun appears as vibrant and sprightly as ever. His form cascades down a flight of stone steps, leading from the sheer hills clustered with homes onto sea-level ground, and glides over the small dunes of sand separating you. He reaches the edge of the beach and your side a minute later, the thump of his heart keeping time with the tides. A nod, and you’re sprinting towards the docks, fingers trembling in excited anticipation.

It isn’t until after you’ve clumsily set sail that you see the ominous shadows of dark clouds laid out ahead, directly in your path. Even in the dead of night, a flash of distant lightning illuminates the world in a harshly jagged blaze for as far as the eye can see, as it strikes some unknown location out in front of the sailboat.

You’re certain the repairs you’ve spent days and nights working on with Renjun will be enough to keep the ship intact, despite the weather you’re sure to endure if you continue on this route. So you press on, missing the apprehension furrowing his eyebrows.

But because every force of nature has decided to convene against you both for reasons eternally unknown, the harsh winds weave their way in between the threads your careful hands had stitched on the canvas, meant to catch the breeze but being torn apart by it instead. Suddenly you’re struggling to hold on to your balance and you feel as flimsy as a leaf in a blustering current of cold, crisp wind.

Perhaps you should have practiced first. Renjun had not yet received a single ounce of training from his experienced father, and it was far from wise to leave the only life you’ve ever known without any knowledge of how to get to your next one. He’s trying to hide his panic now, wavering between the steering controls and warily glancing up at the gloomy midnight sky. One more flash of lightning, and all goes awry, all at once.

The water around you surges, as if physically drawn to the heavens, and more falls from above. Raindrops pelt down onto your arms and soak your hair, drenching the sails and filling the shallow hull almost instantly. Wave after towering wave crashes down, hard, and you’re no longer certain which way is up. About to lose your footing, you feel a pair of arms wrap around your middle like the snug hold of a life preserver.

Before all vitality can be lost and smothered by the raging ocean, a desperate Renjun holds fast to you, your thin clothes clinging to the damp skin of his hands. The storm is just too much, and there’s no way you’ll see the journey through like you had hoped. It’s difficult, excruciating even, to accept, and even more difficult for Renjun to let go of you like this. He’ll fight until the end, fight the fates and the invisible forces that life entails to hold you for just a few more seconds.

He won’t be able to live with himself, even in whatever afterlife may or may not come after the darkness he already sees, feels closing in on him, if he doesn’t sacrifice his last breath for a final moment of bliss, of you.

The sensation of Renjun’s wan lips pressing into yours overwhelms and surpasses all others, his palms tracing the edges of your figure like the tides trace the sandy shore. Urgently he draws you close up against him, trying his best to shield you from the inescapable terror of the sea. A lifetime’s worth of energy and emotion and passion is expended, making up for all the time in the world he wouldn’t and couldn’t have. The tang of saltwater meets your tongue, and you’re not sure if it’s the taste of him or of the ocean.

A weak tug on your palpitating heart, an internal scream in your ringing ears tells you that you should resent him for this, for propelling you forward in your apparently unachievable fantasies of living the life you wanted for yourself. But you don’t, you can’t. It’s no one’s fault, really. With this thought, a peaceful stillness washes over you amidst the chaos, and your awareness of the boy in your embrace fades steadily, slowly, then rapidly. Reality is getting paler, more black and white than ever, and you’re sinking further and further down towards the ocean floor miles below. The faint light of the moon becomes distorted from underneath the water, blurring with your failing vision. It all slips away, and then there’s nothing.

It’s a shame no one in the village takes notice of the two extra stars that blink into existence on that moonlit night, but yours and Renjun’s souls take their place among the rest, both a warning and a calling to anyone who dared attempt what you did. Two guiding lights pointing any other dreamers towards the hope of a better, brighter future.

#kpopscape #neo-constellations #neoculturecafe #nctmentary.net #kdiner #nct #nct au #nct fanfic #nct dream #nct 127 #wayv #nct dream fanfic #nct dream scenarios #nct dream au #renjun fanfic #renjun fluff #renjun angst #renjun x reader #renjun scenarios #renjun imagines #nct dream imagines #nct oneshot #renjun oneshot #nct dream oneshot #nct fluff #nct angst #fluff #angst #huang renjun #renjun drabbles

[chaseatinydream]

pirate king (30) || atz

You follow them along the side of the street.

The night is cold and your steps echo in the silence of the town. There’s barely a soul out and about at this time of the dark, and you shiver a little in your thin mission clothes. Even though he’s walking in front of you, he seems to be able to sense something intuitively and turns around to glance at you.

“Cold?”

You blow on your hands in an attempt to warm them up slightly.

“A little.”

Wooyoung ignores your words, taking your hand in his warmer one and puts it in his pocket. You smile at him gratefully but he isn’t looking at you, instead eyeing Seonghwa walking silently in front of tow of you, head bowed in thought as he leads the two of you through the town.

He squeezes the hand nestled in his pocket lightly.

Now should we talk to him?

You take his pinky finger and wave it back and forth.

No. I think we’d better let him absorb what he’s just heard.

The pad of his thumb traces small circles on the inside of your wrist.

But shouldn’t we comfort him or something?

You pinch his finger and a small yelp leaves his mouth.

Let’s not rush him. Give him some time.

You glance up just in time to see Wooyoung puff out his cheeks a little, obviously wanting to comfort his friend but knowing that he needs time to himself as well. In an attempt to reassure him, you intertwine your fingers with his and squeeze a little.

I’m sure he’ll be fine.

Wooyoung gives you a weak smile.

I hope so.

You leave the paved roads of the town behind you, moving into a beach dotted with sparse patches of grass. Your boots crunch a little on sand and it’s hard to keep your footing, but Wooyoung guides you over the dunes with easy grace that makes you almost envious.

The three of you walk in silence along the stretch of beach, the sounds of waves lapping against the beach soothing your soul. You gaze out to the ocean, there’s something beautiful about it tonight that you can’t quite place. Then you feel Wooyoung come to a stop beside you and you look up to see where you’re at.

It’s a craggy outcrop of rocks outlined against the sea, perfect for fishing and prawning. You can imagine a man with Seonghwa’s nose and jawline, holding a young boy’s hand as he teaches him how to tie a hook to the rod, as a woman with his soft grey eyes smiles fondly at them while patting the head of a girl in her lap. A younger Seonghwa runs up to them, a fish wriggling about at the end of his hook, and his father ruffles his hair proudly, telling him how he’s going to be the greatest fisherman in the future-

There’s a grave marker in the sand.

Seonghwa stares at the tombstone for a moment.

“Can you two… give me a moment?”

Wooyoung frowns in concern and open his mouth to protest against leaving him alone, but you pinch the inside of his wrist and he yelps.

“Of course.” You tell him and he gives you a grateful nod, before you pull Wooyoung with you to the side as Seonghwa turns to face the weathered grave marker alone.

The two of you sit at the side, staring at the sea.

“Do you think…” Wooyoung begins hesitantly, without really looking at you, but then he trails off before he can say anything else. You frown, turning to stare at him.

“Do I think? Yes, I do. Why?”

His eyes shift a little edgily, trying to make up his mind. A little confused, you tug at his sleeve, and he finally meets your gaze, soft green staring into yours. A part of you really loves the colour of his eyes, but another thought invades your mind.

Not as green as his.

You’re shocked for a moment, but the thought fades like smoke before you can catch it.

“You don’t have your memories, don’t you? Do you think… that you could be suppressing your memories like hyung did?”

Fear spikes through you for a moment. You don’t have your memories. Seonghwa had heard the words of the town official for sure but had somehow forced his mind to forget that single fact, how, you didn’t understand.

You don’t know. You really don’t know if you’re suppressing your memories or if they are well and truly removed. What you do know is that every time you close your eyes and try to remember, you see that same beach with waves crashing against it, the night sky sprinkled with diamonds. Besides the one with the green eyes, you have no memories of your past in the least.

Green eyes.

Ever since your near fatal attempt at healing Yeosang, you’d seen the same pair of green eyes in your sleep every night, haunting your dreams. A phantom pain throbs in your chest for a moment, right above your heart, before it vanishes.

Your fingers reach up to brush it subconsciously.

The knife.

But there is no scar there. When you had woken from the week long coma, you had immediately checked your chest for any signs of any physical harm, but you had found absolutely nothing at all, leading you to believe that it had been nothing more than a dream rather than a memory.

The green eyes still lingered at the back of your mind.

The words that he had whispered in your ears.

I will be with you every step of the way.

The words etched in your necklace.

The necklace that had been a vial.

The vial containing the liquid that you had drunk.

You groan and bury your face in your arms, utterly lost at trying to put your shredded memories back together. Wooyoung glances at you a little worriedly. “I have no idea-”

There’s crunching of footsteps in the sand and you look up to see Seonghwa trudging his way back to you, now with a gentle, content smile on his face. You and Wooyoung rise to your feet to meet him, and he calls to the two of you.

“Can you two join me here for a second?”

A little confused, Wooyoung turns to look at you, but you shrug and make your way over to Seonghwa’s family grave marker, slipping and sliding your way across the sand. The two of you come to a stop before the tombstone, where you can see clearly the words engraved into the cool marble.

Here lies Park Seongho, Eun Jung, Hyunjung and Ha Rin.

“Did you need us for something, hyung?” Wooyoung asks, staring at the grave marker just like you. Seonghwa nods.

“I wanted the two of you to be here when I said something to my family.”

His voice is earnest, firm, pleading. You are shocked that Seonghwa would want you here when he needed to say something to his family, but you aren’t going to deny him this one request about something so close to his heart.

Seonghwa turns back to his family grave, kneeling before it. He presses his forehead against the stone, fingers tracing the carvings of their names, as if by doing so it could bring him closer to them. Something in you feels like you’re intruding on this intimate moment between Seonghwa and his family, but he did ask you to stay, so you listen.

“Mother, Father, Hyunjung, Ha Rin…” Seonghwa murmurs softly against the cold stone, eyes fluttering shut. “I hope you can forgive me, but I have no intention of joining you for a very long time.”

A gasp almost forces its way from your throat, and from the way Wooyoung is staring at his crew mate, slack jawed, he’s just as shocked as you are at Seonghwa saying something like that to his family.

“I love you all. I always have. You’ll always be my family.” Seonghwa continues, apparently oblivious to the looks you and Wooyoung are exchanging behind him. “But I have a reason to stay now.”

A warm feeling rises in you, spreading from your chest down to your toes.

“I’ve found another family. Please let me stay with them.”

A tear slips from your eyes, and from the way Wooyoung is wiping his eyes desperately with his sleeve, he’s crying too.

In that second, you hear the shattering of something in the air, soft and barely noticeable, but Seonghwa’s eyes fly open in shock. Then tears start pouring from his eyes and you and Wooyoung approach him in alarm, horrified at what might have happened. But Seonghwa merely waves the two of you off reassuringly, and you’re surprised to see him wiping the tears from his eyes with the happiest smile you’ve ever seen on him.

“They’ve stopped.” He can’t stop grinning, joy radiating from him. Wooyoung looks a little confused, frowning.

“What’s stopped?”

Seonghwa laughs through his tears, elated and jubilant even with the tears still streaming down his cheeks.

“Their voices. They’ve stopped.”

With that declaration, he gets to his feet, wiping his eyes as he turns to look at the two of you with a bright grin that you can’t help but return. Wooyoung claps his crew mate on the shoulder gently with a smile on his face, the shackles on his wrists jingling.

“That’s good, Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa nods enthusiastically, turning to face the sea once more where you know the Treasure is moored, just out of sight of the town. “Well then, let’s get back to the ship-”

But there’s someone standing there.

Your heart skips a beat at the dark shape there, until Wooyoung’s eyes open in surprise and recognition, the man’s name leaving his lips.

“Soobin?”

At the name, Seonghwa’s mouth falls open in shock as he stares the man down. The man too, is gaping at your crew mate in shock.

“Hwaseong?”

“Soobin?”

Then the two take down across the beach, sprinting full speed towards each other like two wild horses on a collision course. And collide they do, the resulting sound of the two men crashing into each other makes you wince and wonder if either of them broke any bones, but they don’t seem to care, leaping up and down in sheer excitement.

You turn to look at Wooyoung, who’s gawking at the two of them in shock as realisation dawns on his face.

“Well, I definitely didn’t expect that.”

Your mouth falls open as you finally get what is happening. Back when the two of you had escaped from the guards of the officials’ building, you had entered this man’s house, the woodcutter with two missing fingers.

“Apparently when he was younger he had a run in with them and helped his friend escape them too, but he lost a couple of fingers in the process.”

You would have never thought that the friend would have been Seonghwa.

“Maybe it’s fate.” You shrug, and Wooyoung grins at you for a moment, before he dashes across the sand and throws himself into the hug as well, tackling the two men off their feet and into the sand. Their shouts and cries ring across the beach to you.

You simply shake your head and move to join them at a more sedately pace.

“I can’t believe you’re still alive after that little stunt you pulled!” Seonghwa wraps his old friend in a hug as Soobin grins widely, something you hadn’t seen the last time. In fact, you’re a little unnerved how that stoic, fierce man’s face can change so much.

“I barely escaped with my life.” Soobin tells him dramatically, raising his left hand so Seonghwa can see the two missing fingers. “One of their bullets ricocheted off a wall and hit my hand, so I lost two fingers, you know! If I had known how much trouble I’d get into for trying to save you, I wouldn’t have done it-”

Seonghwa’s mouth falls open and you see his head hang in guilt. “I’m sorry, Soobin-”

“-so late! Do you see this, my friend?” Soobin flutters his ring finger and Seonghwa’s eyes widen almost comically at the sight of the silver band resting there.

“Someone wanted to marry you?”

The disbelief in Seonghwa’s voice forces a snort from you and you rush to cover your mouth with your hands, but Soobin has already heard it and glances at you. “Ah! Gunshot! I see you’re not dead yet! That’s amazing. And Hwaseong, how dare you!”

Seonghwa is grinning so hard you’re sure his cheeks must be hurting. “So who’s the unlucky girl?”

“Only the most beautiful woman in the world, Kim Seohyun.” Soobin pretends to flip his non existent long hair over his shoulder and you’re sure you’re goggling at the complete attitude change of the man who’d threatened to chop you and Wooyoung up into tiny pieces with his axe. “She was so awestruck by how I had sacrificed two fingers to save your ass that she started talking to me more and more, and that’s how we ended up together.”

“That poor girl.” Seonghwa gushes in pity and Soobin screeches, wrapping Seonghwa in a headlock.

“Shut up! So who are these two?” He gestures at you and Wooyoung, who’s come to stand by you, smiling at Seonghwa’s exuberance. Seonghwa’s smile softens as he turns to look at the two of you.

“My crew mates, Choi Chin Hae and Jung Wooyoung.” Soobin’s eyes widen at the information, glancing over at you. Wooyoung smiles and waves proudly at the mention of his name.

“So you really stayed on that pirate ship?” The woodcutter gapes, and Seonghwa nods happily.

“I’m with them.”

“How is the baby?” You ask Soobin, who grins proudly. You don’t miss the way Seonghwa’s jaw literally drops to the sand as he stares at Soobin.

“Seohyun is pregnant?” His eyes are shining, celebrating his friend’s joy like it’s his own. Soobin nods, a proud father.

“The baby is coming along well. Seohyun and I’ve agreed on names, whether the baby is a girl or boy... the name will be Hwaseong.”

A tear falls from Seonghwa’s eye and he laughs, so happily as if he couldn’t be more joyful. “Don’t be stupid, Soobin. You’re supposed to name your child after something meaningful, not after a wanted criminal on the run-”

Soobin shakes his head firmly.

“You’re not a wanted criminal anymore, Hwaseong.”

Seonghwa’s eyes widen in shock. “What?”

“A few months after you escaped, a mysterious source from within the town officials removed your name from the wanted list.” Soobin tells him and happiness bubbles within you. Seonghwa is no longer a criminal, and he can return home to Nassau! “If you returned this very second, everyone in this town would welcome you back with open arms, Seonghwa. We’d help you establish a new life here, a house, a eatery, anything you want. We’ve missed you so much the last six years.”

“That’s amazing.” Wooyoung says, turning to glance at Seonghwa. “Hyung, you’re a free man now.”

There is joy in Seonghwa’s eyes as he turns back to look at the soft glow of the town, the place he had grown up in, running along the dirty streets with Soobin and Hyunseok, helping his parents out in the eatery. He can return to Nassau, build a new life with his old friends at his side, meeting the town residents once more and establish himself once more. A life of safety and comfort, one of warmth and joy.

It had been his dream his whole life, to open his own restaurant when he grew up, only for it to be shattered by that terrible event. But now?

Now, all those dreams can come true.

The sea breeze caresses his cheeks, and he turns back to look at the ocean.

What is your Treasure?

Something settles in Seonghwa’s chest, warm and content. He already has his treasure.

Then he shakes his head as he looks at Soobin.

“I can’t.”

The three of you are confused for a moment, all staring at Seonghwa with some sort of shocked expression. What does he mean, he can’t? He can! He can return to Nassau, no longer on the run from the Royal Navy, no longer with a bounty on his head, no longer in fear of death every waking moment. But Seonghwa is insistent.

“I really can’t.” He smiles, turning back to look at you and Wooyoung as he explains himself to Soobin. “I have a new family now.”

Soobin’s eyes soften as you and Wooyoung gape at Seonghwa in shock. “I understand.”

“Well, I don’t!” Wooyoung smacks the back of Seonghwa’s head. “Why don’t you want to return to your hometown, hyung? You’d be safe and have a comfortable life! Soobin and all your friends are here too!”

Seonghwa grins at the smaller man meaningfully.

“Not all of them.”

Your mouth falls open. Seonghwa is choosing to stay a pirate over a comfortable life in Nassau as a cook, like he’s always wanted. He’s giving up everything he’s ever wished for.

“And I haven’t taught Chin Hae all of my kitchen tricks, so how are you going to explain to Captain when the standard of the food drops?”

“Hey!”

Seonghwa laughs, shaking his head as he turns back to Soobin, who’s simply eyeing his friend with a smile. “I have these people who were willing to risk their lives to sneak into Nassau, get shot and whipped just so that I could have closure. I want to stay with them, come what may. Whether it be fair weather or stormy seas, I can’t leave them behind.”

Happiness and disbelief wells up in you. He’s going to stay with the crew. He’s not going to leave all of you behind.

“I know.” Soobin embraces his friend one last time and steps back. Seonghwa moves to join you and Wooyoung, who is still staring at Seonghwa in shock. “I wish you all the best, Seonghwa. Make sure you come back and tell little Hwaseong about all the adventures you’ve had as a bloodthirsty pirate on the high seas.”

Seonghwa gives his friend a smile. He regrets nothing, even as the needle in the compass of his heart settles on a new course.

“I promise.”

#ateez #ateez fanfic #ateez fanfiction #hongjoong #seonghwa #yunho #yeosang #san #mingi #jongho #wooyoung #ateez pirate king #w; ot8 #w; pirate king #w; fanfiction

[dezemfarm]

Year 1 Spring 5 part 4: Mine, Meeting Marlon, Saloon with Sam and Meeting Sebastian

When I entered the cave I saw a man. He kinda looked like a pirate. Gray hair, eye patch and a circle beard. And a cape?  “Hmmm...” He was looking at a hole with some stairs in it. Then he heard me and looked up. “...I was just wondering how far down this mine shaft goes. I’m going to take care of some of the monsters in here before they start climbing out into the valley.” He said while he laid his hand on what looked like a sword handle. “Monsters?” There is no such thing. Right? The man looked me in the eye. “I’ve met a lot of adventurers in my time. I recognize that look n your eye. Old age hasn’t robbed me of my eyesight, or my skill with a sword, quite yet.” So it was a sword. But what look? “Take this weapon.” He handed me a old and rusty sword. “What? A sword? I-I what?” I didn’t understand what was going on. “Who are you? Why are you giving me this?” I asked him. “I’m Marlon, and that...” He pointed at the sword in my hand. “It may not look like much, but it’s imbued with magic. With it, you'll be able to battle the monsters here.” “Fighting monsters with a magic sword.... Are you okay?” I asked him. He was clearly not well. I understand if kids believed fairytales... “I’m fine Dezem.” “How do you know my name? I haven’t said it.” “You’re grandpa used to write me letters. I’ll keep my eye on you. Prove yourself and I might think about making you a member.” He patted my shoulder before walking out of the cave.

I think I stood there for 5 minutes before I moved again. My grandpa knew the guy? And he was talking about the same fairytails. They must have came up with them together. But it made me curious. I stepped down the ladder and moved towards the level below.

Just an ordinairy mine... Nothing but rocks. Might as well mine them I guess. So I started mine the rocks. Maybe I can make a well sooner then later then. And then underneath a rock there was an other hole and stairs... 2:40pm... I didn’t want to miss my meet up so I didn’t go to the level below but instead went back up again and left the cave. Monsters... the hell. The don’t exist. Right?

I walked back to the town and entered the Saloon. “Hey! You made it!” I heard Sam shout from the Arcade room. He smiled and I felt my cheeks... “Of course! You invited me right! How could I not come!” “Glad you could make it. The others bailed last second.” He said while putting a coin in the Joja machine. “Nothing like an ice cold Joja Cola on a sopping wet day, huh? Want one?” Gesturing to the machine. “Oh uhm...yeah that would be nice.” I didn’t actually like Joja Cola but he was being so nice I couldn’t say no. “Here you go. Let’s sit down. Tell me about you fist few days here in Pelican town.” We sat down on the red couch in the corner of the room and talked about all kind of stuff. “So uhm... the others that should have come today?” “Right! Sorry I never told you who normally meet up here. Well Abigail and Seb usually join me here. But apparently they had other things to do.” He said while rolling his eyes. “I saw Abigail earlier and she said she would be here. Did something happen?” “You told her you would come?” “Yeah and since you told me that Seb was you best friend and I hadn’t have the chance to meet him yet... I was looking forward to meeting him to be honest.” “Aha... That’s what’s going on then.” I must have looked confused because he explained right after. “You see Abigail and Seb have this on/off thing. So I think she called him up to... well do stuff” he air quoted the last part. “Oh” I felt my head change into a tomato. They were doing... stuff. “Well maybe you’ll meet him an other time then. You never know with those two. I’m glad you’re here otherwise I would have been waiting on no one. Cheers!” He held up the can. “Wanna play some pool?” We spend the rest of the evening chatting and playing pool. He was a nice guy. 

When I left the Saloon I wanted to go and fish for a bit but while I started to assemble my rod I poked someone with the end of it. “Sorry!” I said. “I didn’t hurt you right?” He turned around, his black raincoat covering his head. And the bit’s that would have been visible were covered by his black hair. “It’s okay...just be careful next time. Oh hey, You just moved in right?” His voice was soft and sounded a bit sad. “Yeah!” “Cool.” He said while nodding his head. “I’m Dezem.” I held out my hand. “Oh right, Sebastian.” As he shook my hand. “You’re Seb?” “U-Uh yeah? Why?” “Well you left Sam hanging today!” “I-I... I know but it was important.” “Whatever it’s none of my business.” I felt annoyed. He looked at me quite shocked. It was silent for awhile and I could see he found it uncomfortable. He looked around and finally said “Out of all the places you could live, you chose Pelican Town? You should have stayed in Zuzu.” “What this town not good enough for you!?” I didn’t know why but this guy annoyed me. Maybe it was the fact people seemed to like him and it was just a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it was because he let down his best friend to do stuff with Abigail. “Are you mad at me or something?” He asked me. “No!” I almost yelled. “Seems like it. What did I do?” “You let your best friend hanging to bang your girlfriend!” “Ugh... I wasn’t... She isn’t... Fine think what you want... I don’t have to explain myself to you. Bye.” And he started to walk away. “I...” What did I do? I should apologize! “Sebastian! Wait...” “What now?” he didn’t even turn around. “I... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.” “You shouldn’t have... “ he turned around and looked at me. “but it’s nice that Sam has made a new friend. Start over for his sake?” He said with a small smile. “Let’s!” “It’s good someone looks out for that doofus. See you around Dezem.” “Bye...”  

It got really dark so fishing was out the window... Well then time to wrap this day up. It’s weekend tomorrow... Still the new crops need watering. And I might buy some new ones. Oh and Fishing? Or the mine? I don’t know yet. For now I wanna warm up next to the fire and have a good night of sleep. 

#stardew valley #stardew story #New Hope #Dezem's farm #y1spr5

[cherrysweather]

Claudeleth Week, Day 7: Free day

[Pairing: Claude von Riegan x F!Byleth]

[Genre: Fluff, sfw]

The movements of the waves under the wooden beams of the boat made Byleth feel closer and closer to vomiting “How long before a dry place?” she looked at Claude at the helm, trying not to pay too much attention to the constant movements below her “We practically sailed not even ten minutes ago, do you want to go back?” he kept his eyes between her and the horizon “If you give me something to distract myself with I might even be able not to vomit my soul” “Then come here, I’ll teach you to steer the helm” he smiled at her, going to help her move without falling and leaving her space once in front of the infernal device that moved the boat, standing behind her and placing her hands on the helm correctly “Of course, you can’t control the speed since we are using the wind, but with this we can avoid bumping into something” “Since when have you been able to use a boat properly?” “You know, here if we’re not warriors we’re pirates or fishermen” “Oh really? So, since you can’t even take correctly a fishing rod in your hands, you’re a pirate?” “Why don’t you just enjoy this lesson without asking every detail?” “Because you’re cute when you struggle to be kind” she smiled and kissed his nose, but then, she let him finish explaining to her how to move the ship.

Like a good person,

for once.

Once the horizon was clear and unobstructed as far as their field of view reached, Claude decided to give up the helm to go to Byleth

“Are you feeling better?” he sat beside her and waited for her to turn towards him before taking her hand in his. “I’m sorry I took you on a boat even if you’re seasick, I didn’t know”

“You didn’t know, and I didn’t tell you, so you don’t have to apologize, and to be honest, I’m starting to like this kind of wave cradle” she patted his arm gently

“Glad to hear that” he sighed with relief and wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead

“Actually, thank you for taking me with you” 

“I have to keep all the eyes I have, mine and not, on you during this period; I can’t let anything happen to you”

“You know, I can handle myself”

“Not as much as you should” he pinched her cheek sighing “Even now, you should go under the shade to avoid a sunstroke but you’re here under the scorching sun” he touched the top of her head, hot as a flame, and took her where the slightest bit of shade was “Wait here” He took off the tissue from around his neck and dipped it in the cold water, squeezing it so that it would not drip before placing it on her head “Put it back in the water sometimes”

“Thank you” she approached the limits of the ship to see the surrounding landscape, always remaining in the shade not to give Claude a reason to scold 

her.

After another half hour of navigation, Claude stopped the boat closing the sails “We've arrived!” he happily said, going down from the boat and using a sturdy rope to tie it to the first trunk that he found “Arrived where?” Byleth got up with some difficulty, looking out where Claude had gone down “At my secret place!” He climbed back on the boat and approached her “My mother used to bring me here when I was a kid to escape from the palace or from my father who wanted me to hold a silver sword ten times bigger than me at four years, glad I remembered how to arrive here“ he laughed and started to take his clothes off “That explains why you’re good with bows I guess..” “I can use swords too!” “Yes yes..” she shook her head smiling “Going for a swim?” “Absolutely! The sea here is clean and cold; perfect for a day like this” he was happy like a child at the start of the summer, like his first day at the beach after a cold and merciless winter “Care to join?” “If momma Claude permits me to, I’ll gladly come” “I’m inviting you, so move your pretty, backside” she pushed him when he was near the limit of the boat, causing him to fall in the water “Rude.” she undressed too and sat on the beams, dipping her feet in the cold water “Rude? Me?! I’m the finest person in the world!” “Wasn’t that Lorenz?” she smiled at him as he approached her from the water, taking her ankles and pushing her in the water with him, placing his hands on the back of her thighs to push her towards him and prevent her from crashing into the wood of the boat “Don’t compare me to, him.” he bit her shoulder, holding her from under her thighs with his arms “It’s cold you dumbass!” she squeezed his arm, waiting for her body to get used to the sudden temperature “Your fault this time” he winked at her, receiving a flick on his head as an answer.

When she got used to the temperature, she tried to chase the fish that passed by, trying several times to catch even one with her own hands, without being too successful. Instead, Claude continued to dive underwater and always came back to the surface with something, starting from basic shells to small animals like urchins or crabs “This isn’t fair” she pouted at him, freeing the animals he captured “You’re better off with a fishing rod in your hand than with your bare hands“ he gave her a tiny starfish he found, sticking it on her cheeks. She touched the starfish, feeling its “legs” moving on her skin “I guess they’re too slippery for my hands” she hugged his neck back with her arms and his hips with her legs, smiling amused seeing him struggle to stay afloat “You’re heavy” he used one arm to hold her, using the other to swim near where he could touch the bottom “Rude.” she hit his head with her finger, shivering when she felt his hand on her belly “Are you sure it’s good for both of you to be in the cold water for so long?” he softly rubbed his hand on her growing belly “I see no harm in some cold water, you shouldn’t worry so much” she smiled and pulled back his hair attached to his face because of the water “Mmmh, I’ll ask Manuela later and, if she says something bad, you’ll hear me” he touched her nose with his finger, trying to put on his face a threatening expression, failing miserably “No one will die for some water you know” she gave up, hugging him with all her strength, feelings his arms hug her body back.

When the sun started to set, the two came out of the water; Claude rushed on the boat and took something to dry themselves, helping her before thinking of himself “Keep this around you, I’ll go get what I brought to eat” While he was on the boat, Byleth took the starfish off her face and freed it, placing it gently on the sand, watching as it fled in the water. Claude climbed on the boat once more and took his bag that he had filled with all the thinkable “I’ve got a lot of fruits and rice with spices that, in theory, it would be better for you not to eat, but I made it, so I think it’s edible” “You did it? That’s so sweet. Thanks” She took the container when he gave it to her, placing the tissue around her body as a tablecloth, finding a space between the plants to eat, inviting him to sit next to her once she was on the ground, feeling the consistency of both the sand and the grass under the fabric of the temporary tablecloth “I don’t know what came out, but at least I tried” “If you hadn’t put any of your concoctions to make the people feel bad like the ones you prepared at the academy and that you probably never stopped preparing, I’ll gladly eat it” she looked at him smiling, opening the container to smell the spices “No, they’re all in my office, not in the kitchen” he poked her head and waited for her thoughts when she tasted it “This isn’t bad at all! Maybe there are few spices and so it is very delicate, but you are not so bad with the stove! Next time we go to Fòdlan, you should ask Dedue for some tips on the basics” she giggled looking at his surprised face, continuing to eat that rice “Well, I guess this is edible at least” he listened to her and ate with her to fill their bellies

“Woah! I’m completely full!” Claude stood up first, stretching his legs and arms before helping her to stood up too “Tonight, if the sky is clear from the clouds, I want to show you something that happens only during this period of the year” he jumped for the last time on the boat and helped her to come up too. He brought her down in the cabin where he already settled a bed full of puffy blankets and soft pillows, being buried by all that soft when she leaned on it. “I like this bed” “Really? It’s a bit old but the blankets are still soft” he searched for her body in that forest of scented fabric, taking her hand once found it to better put the only ring she wore on the chosen finger “It still looks so good on you” he smiled proudly, kissing her hand and squeezing it for a few seconds before leaving it with hesitation “I’m going to do something, make yourself comfortable here and, if you get hungry, there’s the leftover fruit” he smiled at her and left the cabin, closing the door behind him. While she waited for him to return, Byleth cleaned all the fruit in the basket; she removed the grapes from the twigs, the petioles from the small apples, she opened tiny holes in the durians’ skins and, in the meantime, she thought back to Claude's words that, although she had remained silent, everything thundered in her head and made her blood warm, especially in her face that turned to look at the ring he touched

“I’m back!” she jumped at the sudden voice that interrupted her thoughts; as she looked towards the door, however, she didn’t saw anyone

“Claude?”

“Up here!” she raised her eyes and saw those two green eyes upside down, with him climbing down the hatch above the cabin

“:..What are you doing exactly?” she was confused but amused at the same time, laughing when he nearly fell like a sack of potatoes on the bed

“For what I wanted to do, I needed this hatch open!” he tried to lean on the bed but one of his hands slipped from where he was holding and, he fell dead weight on the bed

“Are you ok?” she patted his back laughing, cuddling his head

“I’ve been better” he touched his nose, now completely red, but when he saw her smiling face, he couldn’t do much but smile too “Ok so, come here” he laid down under the hatch and opened an arm, inviting her under his wing

“What do you want to show me?” she asked curiously, looking at him and then towards where he was pointing: the starry sky.

“In Fòdlan you all believe in the Goddess Sothis and her amazing four but, in Almyra the people are polytheistic and the stars represent a good part of the Gods they pray” he didn’t want to bore her, so he searched curiosity after this little introduction, finding tons of it in her eyes. “If you see, those seven stars vertically and the five attached horizontally form the constellation of the Fool but, if you find the same constellation but mirrored, together form the Lovers. Magicians and fortunetellers turned these constellations into cards to read people's future, or so they say”

“So... Since there’s the same constellation but faced in the other verse, we have the lovers?” she indicated the stars she individuated, trying to understand his logic

“Exactly! Old people say that the constellations must be perfectly identical but, I don’t think that in a star is two millimeters more to the right than the other the two do not match” She nodded and kept looking at the sky, inventing with her mind other constellations

 “How do you know these things since you don’t believe in anything?” she placed her head on his chest and looked at his eyes “Well, I was forced to learn these religious things but, now I must thank who helped me because instead of religion, I can use what I know for the science” he winked at her chuckling, taking a grape from the fruit basket and pushing it slowly in her mouth “Do you know something about astrology? Or also religious things about the stars” “I only know that they’re beautiful to watch” she said while chewing “But! I am more beautiful; right?” “Of course, Lorenz 2.0″ she smiled when he looked at her, offended “Love you” she kissed his shoulder and then she started to kiss him everywhere on his chest, trying to make him laugh “Stop it” he sighed with a smile on his face, hugging her tightly when she dived into the exact center of his chest “M-y bones-” he lost his breath feeling all of her weight on him all of sudden  “Sorry sorry” she passed her finger on his chest, “brushing” his body hair with it.

“People also ask for help to choose the names of their children to the stars, maybe they think that a name with a specific meaning will bring joy to the child” he looked at her, waiting for her eyes to be on his “Do you want to ask help to the stars too?” she tilted her head in confusion “Of course not! I was just saying, pour parler” “So what names do you have in mind?” she loved to tease him for anything related to his non-existent faith or future parenting values “I don’t know yet! Don’t ask me such questions!” he was red from ear to ear, so he had to hide; he took her hips and put her under him, but he immediately hid behind her belly, taking advantage of it to gently pass his lips on it. “How do you want to be called?” he touched the belly like it was some kind of sentient being already.

She remained in silence, listening to the praises he was giving to both the baby and Byleth, feeling her cheeks red again and some movements inside her as he did “He’s getting embarrassed in there” she shook her head  “Oh really? But I just started! I’m speaking to the belly that holds the most beautiful and intelligent baby in the world inside!” he could see the tiniest feet he had ever seen kicking against Byleth’s skin “HE KICKED!!!!” “Yes. I definitively felt that.” she held her belly for a moment before letting that baby get excited about another baby, enjoying the show and trying to calm both of them now when they had to go to sleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so guys! I finally finished this “week” XD I hope you all liked it and now, don’t worry AA fans, I’ve got two requests for Franziska and other NaruMItsu headcanons so, I’ve got work to do and I’ll probably post them tomorrow and the day after tomorrow if I can! Thank you always for supporting me, love you all ;3;

#claudeleth #fe3h claude #Claude von Riegan #claudeleth week #claude x byleth #byleth #byleth eisner #byleth x claude

[make-it-mavis]

Homesick (Entry #26)

(cw: drugs/addiction, themes of depression, very brief reference to sex) ----------

01/13/88   12:40 AM

Hey.

The trip got more solid after that. Sort of. Also sort of the opposite. 

After that last flash, I found myself still sitting at the table, still across from Fix-it, still not quite eating the destroyed pie in front of me. My hand was completely intact.

My finger slipped in a slow, idle circle of cold red syrup. I had my knees pulled up to my chest and my heels on my seat. I’d draped the blanket over my head like a hood and cocooned the rest of it around myself, only exposing my arm to touch the plate. I was too hot, less from the blanket and more from what felt like a fever.

Fix-it’s voice was just finishing a sentence. “--can hear me, just nod your head. If you can hear me.”

I gave one small nod, more entranced with the feeling on the tip of my finger than anything else.

He asked tentatively, “What’s your name?”

My voice was muffled against my knees. “Mavis.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Fix-it Felix Jr.”

He sighed in relief. “Mavy… I need you to listen to me. This might be hard to understand right now, but… a lot of things you’ve seen or experienced tonight… that you’re experiencing right now… are not real. You’re safe, okay? You’re very safe. But you’re not in your right mind. You’re on buffs,” he swallowed. “You’re on… on Game-- Game Changers.”

I blinked without looking up. “No, I’m not.” 

“Mav--” he paused to contain himself. “Mavy, honey, listen. Let me tell you what really happened tonight, okay?”

Pain in my head flared, scratching blue lines in my vision. I tried to listen, but buff-fueled stimuli did its best to drown him out. 

As the stripes on the wallpaper lifted and arched like a hissing cat, he said, “You broke through ---------- second floor. You ---------- bed frame and ---------- like you were being attacked. You even ----------- when I ---------- understand what I was saying…” his voice and eyes lowered. “You… didn’t even know who I was…”

The windows shattered into jagged teeth in yawning mouths that stretched so wide, the curtain rods crumbled off. Tiny, pink, hairless bats flowed from the holes in the walls and flew in circles above our heads. Niceland itself seemed to break from the earth and float on rolling waves like a pirate ship, and he continued, “You went on about ‘a dog in the hive’ and ---------- saw Gene and chased ---------- had him backed into a corner ---------- in time to stop you from -----------”

“Wait,” I said, watching the table leg divide itself into pieces, “Gene? No, it was a dog!”

“It was definitely Gene, Mavy. You scared the daylights out of him.”

“I almost bludgeoned Gene to death with a bat?”

I could hear resigned disapproval in his voice. “Leg of a bedframe, actually, but, yes.”

Pretty sure I laughed an unwholesome, violent, and spiteful laugh, but it played from my throat like a rolling xylophone. Fix-it was less amused.

“Mavis.”

Suddenly, I felt a bit pissed. “Why did you stop me? He would have respawned! That little sausage roll had it coming!”

“This isn’t funny, Mavis! This couldn’t be farther from funny!”

I forgot what we were talking about. “What happens next?”

He explained insistently, “I had to stop you, of course. I knew you wouldn’t like it when I touched you, but ---------- scratching holes in your arms ---------- blood all down your arm, but you wouldn’t let me ---------- out the window to the dump.”

While he spoke, I pushed my finger into a cold, mushy cherry and took way too long to pop it in my mouth. It tasted… in a word, obscene. My feet were yanked to the floor, my knees pried apart, and when I peeked down into the dark of the blanket, binary-blue glowing eyes leered up at me from between my legs. They winked.

It suddenly became way harder to listen, even as I stared intently at the speaker.

“Ralph actually brought you back up here when he found ---------- heal ---------- shouting about being a bird ---------- slow ---------- started to even out ---------- were very chatty, but still couldn’t understand me ---------- on my couch for two hours ---------- talking to me, but ----------- get through to you ---------- with that pie for an hour and a half…”

The wallpaper peeled down like banana skins, and suddenly, we were surrounded by an aquarium. Rather, we seemed to be in a glass box in the ocean, with a panorama view of the life around us. Rainbows of shimmering fish rippled over a coral reef blooming with funny, fingery flowers. Silhouettes of dolphins twirled in the distance. Pink jellyfish floated around like half-filled party balloons. I felt my little hood fall back as I took it all in, spellbound. Part of me wanted to break out and swim away. Would being a fish be so bad?

“Your eyes are still so blue…” he told me then.

I turned my head, and screamed as I felt a wall of icicles shoot through my body.

A dog was in the water. The one that got away. Looking like a deathly thin shark, it floated limply and stared at me with those dead, black eyes.

“THERE!”

I grabbed the nearest object and hurled it with all my strength. When the plate smashed against the wall, the illusion broke. All of them did. The apartment was just an apartment. I sat back in my chair and tried to steady my breathing, tried to level out my heart’s tantrum. Once I settled, I settled hard. I fell into an eerie sense of calm. A peaceful numbness.

When I saw the pie splattered over the wall and the plate shards on the floor, I said, “Aw. The pie.”

Then I heard a sniff.

I looked at Fix-it. He was crying. He covered his mouth and leaned on his elbows, quietly watching me through watery blinks. I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.

“I can…” I said slowly, “cut another slice… or get another plate, you know… There’s no need to, uh…”

He didn’t answer.

Finally, I asked, “Why are you crying?”

For a moment, he only shook his head. Then he said, through his hand, “I just… I look at your face, and I just--” he shook, “-- I’m so afraid that this’ll be the last time I see it.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t even sure what he was talking about. My knowledge of my high state was unsteady.

“Why? Are you sick?”

“Make-it Mavis,” he said forcefully, “you’re going to corrupt yourself.”

I took a moment to contemplate that, long enough for him to ask if I still understood him.

“I hear you,” I nodded.

“I-- I thought,” he shook so hard, he could barely speak. “I watched you lying there on-- on my couch, and-- and your eyes were so bright, they cast beams on the ceiling, and-- and you were twitching and kicking and your--” he choked on his words, “-- I thought I could see a blue tint over your sprite-- it might have been my imagination but-- but I didn’t know what to do, because I was so-- so scared that you were-- were gonna corrupt right then and there, right in my living room, right-- right before my eyes!”

I felt around inside my cheek with my tongue. “If that’s the case, why would you worry about never seeing my face again? You’d see my face every day,” I shrugged. “Y’know, just in pieces.”

“Mav--” he broke right into sobbing. I was hopelessly confused.

I asked, “What’s the matter?”

After a period of collecting himself, he said, “Mavy, this isn’t a joke. If you take enough GC, and you get addicted, it’s-- it’s all over. The--” he seemed to go green, “-- the other sprites that have been found corrupted, they-- they all--... None of them had a code deficiency, Mavis. Do you know how long it took for a GC addiction to kill them?”

“Two weeks.”

He fell silent. As if he were afraid to ask, he breathed, “How many have you taken?”

I answered, even though I felt like I didn’t know, “Just two.”

“...Over how long?”

“I… don’t know. A couple days?”

Tears poured from his eyes. “Mavy… Mavy, do you want to corrupt?”

“What? No. I don’t even want to die, much less… y’know, that.”

“Then why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you--...” he made vague, upset gestures. “You’re hurting so bad, Mavy. Why do you medicate with-- with this? None of this fixes anything. There are sprites who are able and willing to help you. Just let them. You don’t have to do this alone -- please, please realize that. None of us can undo… the past, but we can make the present and future better. Things can and will get better, Mavy, you just need to--”

“It can only get so much better, though, can’t it?”

He froze. I just blinked and sat in my chair comfortably, as if we were having a quaint conversation over tea. I didn’t even know where my words were coming from -- I just opened my mouth and let them flutter out like moths.

I continued, “It can only get so good. I think I almost found what ‘good’ really felt like to me, but… it’s over now. I don’t know if I have it in me to look for ‘good’ again, not when losing it hurts this much. I don’t know how to carry on, knowing what I do. I don’t want to die -- I just want to forget. I don’t want to corrupt, and I’m not trying to. I haven’t lost my will to live or anything, it’s just that… I’ve been looking for ways to be happy here my whole life, and… that search has never been more daunting than it is now. I’m tired. I want to rest my head for a while. I just want little vacations from life. That’s what GC is to me.”

We were both quiet for a moment. I spoke before I realized I’d opened my mouth.

“I’m too big for the life I was made for, Fix-it. I can only cut off so many pieces of myself to fit into it.”

He seemed stunned. With good reason, too. I’d never opened up to him quite like that before. He was lucky I was so high.

He muttered, “You… You mean being an Easter Egg?”

“Yeah. Everything that goes with it,” I thought for a second. “I probably have the smallest code out of any playable character in the arcade, and I’m still too big for this place. I don’t belong here. I’ve known that my whole life.”

I thought for a second. “I’m not sure I belong anywhere.”

“Mavis,” Fix-it said, suddenly firm, even with red eyes. “That is, if you’ll forgive my potty-mouth, a whole lotta hooey.”

“Hooey?”

“I know it’s hard for you to feel at home… anywhere, Mavy. I know the Devs served you the short end of the stick. And if I meet ‘em after I delete one day, you can bet I’ll give ‘em a good talkin’ to for treating my cousin like that -- but good golly, Mavis. You know this, you must know this,” he leaned on the table. “You are more than just an Easter Egg.”

I just looked at him, waiting. I expected him to tell me a bunch of stuff I already knew and that never helped me before. I was… mostly right.

“Mavis, I have not seen a single sprite less defined by their coded role than you. Most of the time, you don’t even show up for work! And, you know what? That’s okay! Because… I know these words hurt you real bad before, but…” he swallowed, determined. “This game… doesn’t need an Easter Egg.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear a distant echo of Gene’s voice saying that, even after all these years. I didn’t have the emotional presence to be upset by Fix-it bringing it up. I just waited for him to finish his point.

“But this arcade,” he slapped the table, “needs a Make-it Mavis.”

I’ll admit it. That was a nice thing to hear.

I can’t tell if I was in a good or bad state to be receptive to it.

“Well…” I said, eyes wandering. “I’d like to believe you. Maybe it did. But it sure doesn’t want me right now.”

He considered that. “Times are really tough right now, but… they won’t always be. Someday soon, it’ll be okay. Once it’s all died down. And until then, you still have sprites who care about you.”

“Like who?”

“Me. Tapper. I-- I think Ralph… maybe? Uh…” he trailed off. I could see panic in his eyes.

I looked at him quietly. I could hear the effort in his voice, the genuine desire to help. More than that, I heard the fear. He was desperate to help me, but lost as to how, and afraid that he wouldn’t figure it out in time. I know I’m not easy to help. I know that. It’s kind of hard to put into words the reasons why. I just need to be able to know that I’m in charge of my own life, whether that lands me in good or bad places. I have a lot of reasons to fly solo. But as Fix-it threw himself so wholeheartedly into some kind of verbal rescue effort, I recognized that there was no way he could understand any of them. If the worst happened to me, I bet he would blame himself. 

I knew all too well what that feels like.

I may not exactly be Fix-it’s biggest fan, but I don’t strive to be cruel. If I really was boarding a one-way train to corruption, attempting to dig up the seeds of guilt before they could take root would be the least I could do.

I wouldn’t have been good at that while sober. I don’t think being high made it any easier.

I asked, “Do you really love me?”

Fix-it froze as if I’d punched him in the chest. I just watched him.

“Of course,” he said quietly. “Of course I love you. Don’t you know that?”

“Sometimes. I think. There’s just something I need to tell you. I’ve been waiting for you to figure it out on your own, but, y’know...”

I looked at him. He was waiting on bated breath, already overflowing with tears. I’m sure he was expecting something better than what I said.

“You’re wasting your time.”

I genuinely took no joy in the stricken look that broke over his face. “What..? No, I’m not.”

“You’re wasting your time and your pain. You can’t keep wasting your love on me.”

“It’s not…” he shook. “I’m not wasting my love. How can you say that?”

“I…” I suddenly felt my shoulders getting heavy. “I… can’t... accept it.”

“Why, Mavy..?”

“I can’t,” I said a bit more forcefully. “No matter how much love you offer, I’m not built to receive it. You’re going through all the trouble of worrying about me all the time, and for what? Doesn’t it hurt you when you get nothing back? Loving me isn’t kind, it’s stupid.”

“Mav--”

“I have nothing to offer you. I can’t give you anything for your trouble. There’s no way for us to have…” I gestured, “a real, functioning relationship. I know it’s very hard to understand why, but trust me. The best thing you could possibly do for yourself is to stop caring so much about me. It’s just going to keep hurting you. Especially right now. If I really do get addicted to GC, and I corrupt myself, you’re going to feel like the entire Devs-forsaken world is ending. You’re going to think it was your fault for not doing more. You’re going to hate yourself every day for not protecting me, but you couldn’t have protected me. If I’m going to be corrupted, it’s going to have everything to do with me, and nothing to do with you. But if you love me so much, you won’t be able to understand that. You have so many reasons to hate me already. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll use them.”

He took a second to breathe, clearly dwarfed by the massive plate of emotions I was serving him. I could see in his eyes things that I didn’t quite understand, but they felt so invasive. I’d laid myself just open enough for him to peer inside, and even in my numb state, I felt horrendously naked. After a period of silence, my eyes fell, and my voice lowered.

“You can’t help me,” I said, and fell into barely a whisper. “I… don’t know how to let you.”

We were both quiet for a minute. I was hesitant to look up, but when I did, I was thrown for a loop.

He was smiling. Through tears, but still. There was a quivering, wavering smile on his face.

“Why…” I said cautiously, “...are you smiling?”

A short, single-note laugh burst wetly from his mouth, and he shook his head. “Mavy, don’t you see what you’re doing?”

“...No?”

“You’re giving back. You’re trying to protect me,” he nodded. “You do care about me.”

Yeah. Gross. But at the time, I was just stunned. I couldn’t fathom how I could have broken such hard truths over his head and still have him smiling. “You… wait, what?!”

“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t even try. This is just one of the things that makes you so wonderful, Mavy -- you’re so full of surprises. You think you don’t know how to be loved, but you do. It just… might not be in the way everyone else does. You give back in ways you don’t see,” he said. “Like right now.”

I stared, agape.

“And, you know…” his smile weakened a bit, “I’m sorry that accepting help is so hard for you. And… yes, it is frustrating a lot of the time. It does hurt. But, no matter what you think you can or can’t accept…” he shrugged a bit, “I still love you. I don’t need your help with that. And you can’t protect me from it, either.”

“You…” I muttered, “ought to have higher standards for yourself. Don’t you want more?”

“Mavy…” he looked at me earnestly, tears flowing, “please listen to me. I don’t care about you just to get something in return. I care about you because I love you. I don’t care if you change or not. I just care that you’re safe.”

I said nothing. I don’t know what my face read.

He continued, “So please, please, Mavy. If I can’t protect you, please protect yourself for me. No more Game Changers, please. Please don’t take my cousin away.”

I blinked slowly and swallowed. “I’ll… try. I just don’t understand how you could care so much when I so clearly... don’t... want you to. Suppose I survive. Just how long do you think you could keep this up?”

Without a single thought, he answered, “Forever.”

The word was barely out of his mouth before I felt it quite physically slap me hard across the face. I reeled and pressed my palm into my cheek, sucking my teeth. I asked, “What in the eight bits was that..?” as pain in my head began to climb.

Fix-it straightened up. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I guess, but…” I pulled my hand from my cheek and saw a bright red streak over the palm of my glove. “What…”

Looking at it shot blinding pain through my head and tore holes in the oddly calm veil I’d been hiding behind. Clutching my head with my other hand, I asked, “Fix-it, am I bleeding?”

“No, Mavy. Not for a while, now.”

“Then what’s…” I stared at the stain, and my heart began to pound. I showed him my hand. “What is this?”

“That’s… your hand.”

“No,” I insisted. “The stain. On my glove.”

He put his hands up in a deescalating way. “Mavy…”

“I’ve seen it before. Why do I keep seeing it?!”

“Mavy, listen. You’re not wearing your gloves.”

It was still there when I turned my palm towards me. “Yes I am! It’s right here! What is it!?”

The sight of my hand became so sharp, so crisp and defined, the scarlet streak so vivid that it bore into my eyes, while the world around me began to wobble and distort at the edges. A hundred jackhammers in my head threatened to split my skull open. Wires of binary scratched, hissed, and sparked across my vision. I felt myself hit the floor.

Squinting through the stinging blue, I didn’t recognize the apartment anymore. I felt like I was looking at it through waves of warped glass. Patches of greyscale cut through the shifting colors. The lines on the wallpaper swelled and shrunk like a ribcage, and with each breath, the lights flared and dimmed. I heard a voice, far away and muffled as if underwater, and a mess of blurry pixels bent over me.

I was suddenly hit with an overwhelming panic. I was dropped into another mental timeline entirely. I was suddenly lost, unprepared -- I felt like I should have known what to do, but I didn’t. I had to act quickly, but I didn’t know on what. I had no idea where any of this was coming from.

I screamed almost involuntarily, and heard glass shatter.

I dodged the blurry figure with a roll, hit my already throbbing head on what I quickly recognized as a table leg. Almost on instinct, I dove for cover under said table, and folded myself up tight. I hid my face in my knees and pulled angrily at my hair, as if I could rip a hole in my scalp to vent out the pain. The crashing and smashing grew louder and more frequent. 

When I dared to peek up from my knees, I saw the walls beginning to push inward with a groan, but not in a comforting way, this time. The drywall began to split and crumble with the pressure, and the room’s light started to struggle and flicker frantically, each frame of darkness seeming to plunge me into a completely different room. The shattering glass rang out like deafening warfare. I couldn’t take it. It was ravaging my brain in ways I didn’t understand. I had so many phantom emotions running my thoughts in circles, it just left me reeling.

“Stop,” I said into my knees, “Stop, stop, stop --” and I screamed, “STOP, STOP IT, YOU’RE GONNA PASS OUT!”

A hand made of dense, metallic code touched my arm.

I shrieked and scrambled backwards. Fix-it knelt in front of me, perfectly tangible, his hand still lifted. When I saw his worried face, I noticed that the rest of the room had snapped back into place, too. My heart wanted to break out of my chest, my head was still killing, and my throat was parched, but everything seemed intact and steady again. My arm still tingled in a sharp and gross way where he touched me. Apparently, the shock of his code was enough to snap me out of it. I wanted to be pissed at him for touching me, but I was too stunned. I took in the sight of him completely, crouching there in full work clothes sans hat, looking ready to collapse from exhaustion, yet still going through all the effort of trying to help me.

I was floored by the fact that he succeeded. 

As I clutched my chest, trying to catch my breath, he sat down very gently. “Easy, easy,” he whispered, “it’s okay.”

I swallowed.

He asked carefully, “What’s your name?”

I breathed, “Mavy.”

His eyes widened a bit, and he held his breath for a second. He asked, “Do you know who I am?”

I stared at him. The bare bones of it, at that point, seemed obvious.

“My cousin.”

I swear I heard his heart thump. 

He slowly brought up his knee to rest his cheek on it, and he took deep breaths. That episode clearly stressed him out, too -- hardly a fair comparison, but still. A weak smile appeared on his face. “Your eyes are starting to dim.”

For a moment, I tried to remember how much time had passed. Then, a pressing thought occurred to me.

“Wait. What time is it?”

“Uh,” his eyes shifted. “Around 3:30?”

“AM?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, crit--” I hit my head on the underside of the table. “Ow-- Okay, I gotta go,” I said as I climbed out and stood. “I’m so cussin’ late. Even for me.”

Fix-it got to his feet, too, and looked more than a little confused. “You had to be somewhere?”

I pulled my gloves on. “Yeah, I was supposed to meet Turbo in Paperboy like, five hours ago,” I grabbed my conveniently materialized leather jacket from the chair and shrugged into it. “He’s probably gone home by now to anger-sleep. You’d never believe that’s possible ‘til you’ve seen it.”

Fix-it just turned white. 

I strode to the door in a place it hadn’t been before. “Toodles,” I said, before grabbing air and walking into the wall.

There was no door. There were no windows. 

I was very late, and there was no way out.

Flash.

My game’s screen loomed in front of me.

I sat cross-legged, wrapped in the blanket, on the grass in front of Niceland, staring up at our inverted title screen with dry eyes. My body felt hot and riddled with aches that would only get worse as my high continued to fade, and my brain felt fizzled to a crisp. I was so tired, I couldn’t even recognize that I wanted to sleep.

Someone next to me didn’t have the same problem. I heard the honks of Fix-it’s cartoonish snoring. He was just barely upright, his face smushed against his bent knee, a bit of drool staining his pants. I wondered how long he’d been there. I wondered how we came to be there at all, but not enough to wake him. Maybe if I had been sober, I would have painted an airhorn. But, being hazy and braindead and with a faulty brush, I just idly flicked colors onto different parts of his sprite. Red hat, orange shirt, yellow shoes. Red hair, orange skin, yellow pants. Red, orange, yellow.

Past my sleeping canvas, I saw movement. Wreck-it was climbing onto his kingdom of bricks, presumably coming home after a particularly long night at Tapper’s. He came to the little peak behind which sat his stump, and paused. His head turned, and he saw me.

I looked at him blankly.

He held my gaze for a minute. It was hard to tell just what expression he was making, but even from my distance, I could see him sigh. He shook his head slowly and stepped out of view.

I couldn’t manage any thoughts on that.

Red, orange, yellow. Red, orange, yellow.

#fanfiction #fanfic #wreck it ralph #fix it felix #make it mavis #original character #homesick

[cynthiaandsamus]

Game Blondes: Tekking101 One Piece Isekai Adventure!

“Hey I’m Blonde!”

“...I’m also Blonde.”

“AND WE’RE THE GAME BLONDES!!”

Game Blondes Logo by @game-overture​

One Piece Isekai Setup created by Tekking101 and found here:

https://youtu.be/zHInvsopBtQ

“Wait this isn’t a video game.” Samus pouts.

“The show’s called “GAME Blondes” not Video Game Blondes, that means any game is fair… game!” Cynthia cackles. “And today we’re doing the One Piece Isekai Adventure Game created by Tekking101!”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“That’s fine!” The Champion nods. “We’re going to roll some dice to determine how and where we get sent into the One Piece world and what goal we have to achieve in order to come back to our own world. They’ve made some reference tables to show everything about our situation and we’re gonna make little stories based on them!”

“Okay, sounds simple enough.” Samus flicks one of the dice around. “So what’s first?”

“First the Isekai Fairy comes to take you away! As per the rules the Isekai Fairy is extremely attractive for some reason and is your ideal type of attractive person. For me they look like Dawn.”

“Okay that’s strange, I guess my fairy looks like Tifa.” Samus shrugged.

“Fair enough! Now the fairy lets you get hooked up with your starting gear!”

“You get to take what you’re wearing, plus two sets of clothing and one free set of winter clothing in case you end up somewhere cold, though they have to be extremely unfashionable.”

“That seems unnecessary but given I’m weak to the cold I’d better take it.”

“You get a backpack to carry this stuff in and also arrive in perfect health, get 1 million starting beli ($9,500) and one object of your choosing.” Cynthia read down the list. “So you gotta choose something to take with you, it’s one thing and most kinds of electronics and stuff won’t work. Though pets are allowed.”

“Guess I’ll take my arm cannon since I don’t think my whole suit would fly here, and the basic laser of the arm cannon works off my own energy instead of external missiles or power sources.”

“And I’m taking Garchomp, if pets count that must mean pokemon do too!”

“But if Garchomp is one object doesn’t that mean you can’t take its pokeball?”

“… fuck, so I gotta walk around the One Piece world with a giant sand shark following me everywhere… well they’ve seen worse so I guess it’s fine, it’ll work for the intimidation factor at least and keep people off my back.”

-Cynthia’s Inventoy-

1 Million Beli, Large Backpack, Champion Coat Outfit, Summer Blouse Outfit, Hideous Plaid Winter Clothes, Garchomp

-Samus’s Inventory-

1 Million Beli, Large Backpack, Zero Suit, Workout Clothes, Neon Pink Winter Clothes, Arm Cannon

 “Okay so we’re ready to go, got our starting gear, we’ll get a bonus item once we arrive but first we have to decide where we arrive at.”

“Fuck, the One Piece world’s huge, how do we do that?” Samus blinked and tilted her head.

“More reference tables! We roll a die to determine the region we end up in and then another to determine the exact island, let’s check out those tables.”

Cynthia’s Result: 2

Samus’s Result: 6

“So I’m in the South Blue, the buttfuck nowhere of the One Piece world, and you’re in the New World, the hellish crime-littered frontier of the current storyline. We arrive at the same day the One Piece story starts so none of the events have happened yet but we do retain our knowledge of their events. Now to find the islands we’re going to!”

Cynthia’s Result: 5

“I’m in the Black Drum Kingdom, a snowy desolate area that Wapol will eventually come to rule after Luffy kicks him out of the Non-Black Drum Kingdom. For now I guess it’s up for sale though since he only becomes King of it by getting lots of money so I might have a shot at ruling it before he does.”

Samus’s Result: 11

“You land on Applenine Island, a land neighboring the country of Dressrosa ruled tyrannically by Donquixote Doflamingo. I don’t know much about it except the terrain and houses look like Apples but it’s probably a short hop over to Dressorosa if you feel like going over there and making some connections.”

“You said something about a bonus item once we arrived?”

“Yes! For this one we roll a D100 and get an extra potentially useful, potentially useless item to add to our inventory. Let’s see what we get!”

Cynthia’s Result: 38

“A fishing rod with line, tackle box and bait. Well I’m pretty good at fishing up Magikarp so that might come in handy, though I don’t know how good the fishing is on the Black Drum Kingdom, maybe ice-fishing or something…”

Samus’s Result: 42

“A bag with EXACTLY 37 green apples.”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE APPLES!?” Samus pounded her hand on the table. “I get warped to appleburg with a bag of fucking apples!! Is this rigged!?”

“It’s all random I swear, the apples of chance just seem to favor you.”

“Ugh, I don’t know how I’ll put that to use… what’s next?”

“Well before we get our objective and figure out or paths in this world, we have to look at… the risk table!”

“You don’t have to roll it if you don’t want but you have a 50/50 shot of getting a fair boost or a horrendous hindrance to your goal.”

“Ehh fine why not, there’s no apple-related choices so what’s the worst that could happen.”

Samus’s Result: 7

“A Yonkou wants you dead.”

“FUCK.”

Cynthia’s Result: 2

“And I get to bring a family member or friend! Considering most of my family are either young or elderly and I’ve already counted pokemon as pets for the sake of this game, I’ll bring a friend! You’re already having your own adventure so I guess I’ll pick Zebes, never know when a Tentacle Metroid might come in handy around here.”

“Which Yonkou wants me dead? Like if it’s Shanks I may be able to get away from that but if it’s Kaidou like Doflamingo works for him and he’s right fucking next door.”

“Let’s roll another dice to see! There’s no reference table for this one but considering it’s pre-timeskip we’ll go with 1 is Whitebeard, 2 is Kaido, 3 is Big Mom and 4 is Shanks.”

Samus’s Result: 4

“And it’s Shanks.”

“…okay, still not great but Shanks has a small crew and doesn’t seem to personally go out hunting a lot so I might be alright.” Samus breathed a small sigh of relief.

“And now last but not least the Objective Table! This will be your goal to achieve so you can get sent back to your own world and consider the challenge successful.”

Cynthia’s Result: 7

“I have to meet a Straw Hat, specifically meet a Straw Hat while they’re on the crew. That’s not going to be easy, I know where they’ll be but they never come to the South Blue so I’ll have to go out and find them/intercept them somewhere along their journey, meaning I’ll have to go out and find my way into the grand line, this might be tricky…”

Samus’s Result: 2

“I have to Walk on a Sky Island? I mean I guess there’s a lot harder goals out there but I don’t know where the nearest place to find one would be.”

“Okay, the stakes are set, let’s make our Isekai Stories!!”

Cynthia arrives in the South Blue in the Black Drum Kingdom, with a bit of money to her name, some clothes, a Garchomp and a tentacle blob. Needless to say the townspeople are all terrified of the woman that wears hideous plaid snowgear and controls strange creatures to do her bidding but with her trusty fishing rod and the hunting of her two partners she’s able to gather some supplies, some semi-frozen fish and a few other trinkets and uses some of her money (as well as some she earns by selling some of the fresh caught fish, doing tricks with Zebes and Garchomp as a street show and various odd jobs the team of three can do for the townspeople that aren’t scared stiff of her) to book passage on a sailing ship, the goal in her mind of meeting one of the straw hat crew.

By the time she makes it to the last island in the South before the Grand Line, working up the money and supplies as well as travel has taken her over a month and murmurs of Luffy’s first bounty arise. The exact timeline is sketchy but he seems to have already beaten Arlong and is heading for the Grand Line. Judging by the timeline and how difficult it seems to buy passage on a ship heading towards the Grand Line, she’s a little bit behind Luffy and will have to find a place to make up some time.

Luckily thanks to her One Piece knowledge she knows the Straw Hats do make a few detours coming into the Grand Line, and where they’ll be spending a lot of time: Alabasta. Using the remainder of her money and some intimidation thanks to her dragon friend, she is able to buy her way onto a ship running supplies into the desert country. They have an eternal pose pointing to Alabasta and as long as the trio catch lots of fish for the crew to eat, they’re welcome to stay on until they meet their destination.

Making a straight shot from the South Blue up Reverse Mountain and to Alabasta takes a good while but Cynthia, Garchomp and Zebes arrive in the desert country where the two creatures feel right at home and Cynthia has just enough money left over from fishing that she can buy herself a desert dancer girl outfit and a horse to make it to Rainbase, the luxurious casino town where Warlord Sir Crocodile is stationed and where the Straw Hats will arrive eventually.

Cynthia stakes out the casino day and night, getting a small part time job as a waitress there to keep an eye on things until the Straw Hats inevitably arrive, assured that none of her prior actions have changed the One Piece timeline and altered the Straw Hat pirates’ path. Eventually she hears the uproar of Luffy making a scene, screaming that he will kick Crocodile’s ass. She heads over to the commotion to jump in, and just misses Luffy running past, though she collides with an equally scantily-clad dancer girl: Nami.

“Hey, I’m Cynthia.” She gives a sly wink as her face is buried in the desert-clad navigator’s chest.

And thus her mission is complete in more ways than one.

“So you buy your way into a slutty waitress job and dive into Nami’s cleavage to win?”

“I mean luckily we don’t have very combat-oriented goals here so it’s probably mostly buying our way from place to place.

“Well I guess I’ll have to see what I can come up with…”

Samus enters the New World on Applenine Island, carrying a back of apples and her arm cannon while wearing her zero suit. Far from able to just do things on her own or in a group like Cynthia, Samus has also somehow incurred the wrath of Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Yonkou that rules the New World. Acting quickly, Samus uses some of her starting money to book passage to Dressrosa, led by Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo. She allows herself to be captured by them while sneaking into the castle of the Young Lord Doflamingo, claiming that Shanks wants her dead and the best place to protect herself is under the wing of another Yonkou, Doflamingo’s Master: Kaido of the Hundred Beasts.

Intrigued by her strange weapon and the idea that the mild-mannered Shanks wants this random woman dead, Doflamingo keeps her around but fails to see why he should bring her to Kaido. Thinking of a scheme, Samus tells him a quick lie: the reason why Shanks wants her dead is because she knows the location of the Ancient Weapon Pluton, it’s location? A sky Island.

Little is known about the Sky Islands by the surface dwellers but Doflamingo is in the know enough to at least confirm their existence and the legitimacy of the usually mild-mannered Shanks wanting her head combined with a few other predications she makes about the rise of Straw Hat Luffy and certain other world events lay credence to her claims, Doflamingo starts to believe there may really be an Ancient Weapon hidden among the clouds where no one else can see.

Having already been in talks with Kaido thanks to the Smile Devil Fruit trade, Doflamingo sweetens the deal by offering Kaido the woman that knows more than she lets on, the enemy of Shanks and supposedly the keeper of an Ancient Weapon. More than happy with this and her seeming ability to predict the future as more months pass, Samus is taken to Onigashima on Wano to forcefully become a member of Kaido’s crew. He doesn’t seem ready to embark to the Sky Island just yet but he finds the insight and story she tells to be rather interesting, until one thing seals the deal: Shanks arrives at Onigashima’s gate to demand to kill Samus.

Fascinated by the fact that Shanks would show up in person and risk clashing with another Yonkou just to kill this woman, Kaido decides that her story must be true. Having already thrown himself off a Sky Island or two for kicks, Kaido decides to take her to the nearest one: the Balloon Terminal not far from Wano in the New World. The Beast Pirates decide not to fight Shanks right away, opting to make a break for it and destroy Shanks’s fleet with ease once they have Pluton as not to rack of casualties. Kaido personally leads Samus to the Balloon Terminal under the promise that she’ll be able to pinpoint Pluton’s location once she arrives In the sky.

Shanks gives chase, sinking may of Kaido’s ship in his oddly single-minded approach to killing Samus. Eventually he makes his way to Kaido’s flagship and a clash between the giant dragon god of Wano and the Red-Haired powerhouse begins. The sky splits above them and both incur injuries, Kaido taking heavy damage and eventually retreating, using his Dragon Devil Fruit to fly Samus high into the air, up to the clouds and screaming that he’ll come back down for Shanks once he has Pluton.

“Who said anything about Pluton?” Shanks asks, but too late to reach Kaido’s ears.

Kaido lands on the Sky Island of the Balloon Terminal and lets Samus off his back, transforming back into a human and demanding that the bounty hunter tell him where Pluton is NOW so he can go back and crush Shanks.

However as soon as her feet touch the cloud-like ground of the Sky Island Samus’s goal is complete and a wry smirk crosses her lips. “Goodbye, and by the way, I hate Dragons. Have an Apple” She says, tossing an apple to him as she disappears back to her own world, the great dragon emperor realizing all too late that he’s been duped and is at war with a fellow emperor, wounded and stuck on a floating cloud feeling much like the lost balloons stuck under it.

“Well that was fun, got to con a Yonkou and ride a giant dragon demon thing.” Samus smirked, fiddling with the dice. “That was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it’d be.”

“See? Told you it’d be fun! Well now that we’ve got everything sorted out and our One Piece Isekai Adventures are complete, guess we’ll see you…”

“Next time on Game Blondes!!!”

#Game Blondes #Tekking101 #One Piece #Isekai #Game #fanfiction #Game Grumps #Let's Play

[immabethehero]

Chase and the Treasure Hunt

Part one of my new multi-chapter!!!

For Chase’s birthday, the egos decide to go extravagant. What adventures await them as they sail through the beautiful ocean on a magnificent pirate ship?

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

“Alright kids, you all knew this day would come.” A single lamplight turns on. Sabrina and Noah squint against the harsh light. Chloe pays no attention to the four men staring her and her siblings down and simply plays with her doll.

“Uh… Guys? Is this… necessary?” Noah asks.

“Absolutely. Your father’s birthday is one week from now and we still don’t know what to get him!” Jackie exclaims.

“You could just get him another book,” Sabrina suggests.

“He still hasn’t read the books we got him LAST year,” Henrik grumbles. “We’re not getting him any new ones until he’s read the others!”

“A new hat?” Noah recommends.

“And add another ugly snapback to his collection? Gross!” Marvin interjects.

“A trip to Disney World?” Chloe asks.

“We went last year! We’re not blowing our budget again,” Jameson says. “Nice try, Chloe.”

“That’s all we got!” Sabrina says.

The Septics groan and grumble. Marvin turns the lights back on. Jackie flops onto the couch. Jameson gets up and begins perusing through his library.

Sunlight shimmers through the curtains of the Septics’ Library. Bookshelves line up against the walls, holding books organized by genres, or rather, the Septics’ favourite genre. The bay window has cushioned seating to sit on, so one could read then look wistfully out the window. Chase came up with the idea.

There are two low coffee tables in the middle. Noah gets up and looks outside. “Hey, it’s stopped raining!”

“Wait for it to dry up a bit, and then you can go outside,” Henrik says. “In the meantime, help us find more gift ideas!”

“You are surrounded by books, why don’t you go through them?” Sabrina asks. “Maybe you’ll find ideas inside.”

“That’s a great idea!” Marvin pulls a book off the shelf and thumbs through the pages, before putting it back. “Nothing in there.” He shoves the book back and takes out the next one, thumbing through it. “Nope.”  He continues on to the next book.

Chloe looks outside. Both the grass and the pavement hold large puddles that look like lakes. Her eyes light up.

“What if we took Daddy on a cruise?” she asks.

“Isn’t that a bit expensive?” Henrik asks.

“We’ll make our own ship! Uncle Marvin has real magic, so you can make a ship!” Chloe says.

Marvin pales a little. “Uh… kid? I appreciate the enthusiasm but…”

“Seriously? This could be the least expensive gift for his birthday and you’re rejecting it?” Sabrina says.

“It could be fun!” Noah agrees. “Us, Dad, and you guys all going for a sail in our very own ship that you don’t have to pay for!”

The Septics exchange glances. Henrik motions for a group huddle. After a minute of loud whispering, the egos turn around. Jackie clears his throat and says. “OK! Let’s do it!”

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

Not even an hour later after the kids left does another fight break out. This time over what kind of ship to make. Jackie has presented a video of an excavator on a barge, using the giant shovel as a paddle, and suggested they create a ship from that. Henrik retorted that it wasn’t safe, and that Jackie’s presents never met safety regulations, which made the hero explode in a fit of rage.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ‘SAFETY REGULATIONS?’” Jackie yells” “I’M A FREAKING SUPERHERO. MY JOB IS TO KEEP PEOPLE SAFE-”

“THEN EXPLAIN THE LAST FEW GIFTS YOU’VE GIVEN THE BRODY FAMILY!” yells Henrik. “YOU GAVE SABRINA AND NOAH FLYING TOBOGGANS LAST CHRISTMAS!”

“So they could get a sense of what it was like to fly like me!!! And those toboggans came with seatbelts and helmets and padding! It’s not my fault Chase decided to do a barrel roll and ended up in the hospital with a concussion!”

“At Chloe’s 3rd birthday party, you gave her a taser and put bottles of pepper spray in the guests’ party bags!”

“We are living in a society where females face attacks from horrible misogyny everyday! I was simply preparing them for how to respond in an attack!”

“You gave Stacy and Delilah machetes for their 3rd anniversary!”

“Girls like swords!” 

“My point stands!”

Marvin flies past the kitchen, wearing a pretty maroon coat. “I’m heading to the store, let me know if you need anything!”

“I’m coming with you!” Jameson yells, jumping out his seat. He quickly shoves on his own coat and follows Marvin outside.

“Not enjoying the match?” Marvin asks.

“They’re so loud when they argue,” Jameson complains.

“They’re Septic Egos through and through, it’s in their blood,” Marvin explains.

Jameson laughs. “Where are we heading? I don’t believe they sell boat parts at the grocery store.”

“We’re not going there, Jameson,” Marvin says. “We’re going to the one place where we might find a working ship.”

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

In the calmer parts of the town, nestled on the edge lies the Survival Kit, a store with fascinating trinkets and other things needed for emergencies and of course, survival. For Marvin, it���s where he can grab whatever items he needs for a spell or a potion and not be questioned by his strange purchases.

The store itself looks like a normal store, with a gable roof and stone bricks, but when one walks inside does the magic begin. Fishing rods, boats in bottles, bikes, even ice skates are lined up on shelves and walls, ready for use. Among the useful outdoor items and the emergency supplies are cool little trinkets from different parts of the world.

Jameson marvels at the gramophones, each decorated to represent different genres of music. Jameson finds one such gramophone whose records only play symphonies. When he plays the test recording, his heart soars along with the music. He sways side to side, basking in the beautiful noise.

Marvin peruses the shelves of nautical items, looking for the perfect Boat in a Bottle. He can simply resize it into a real-life ship and transfigure it to make it sail. He’s done resizing and transfiguration before, this won’t be any different!

“Need help finding what you’re looking for?” a voice with a strong Australian accent asks. Marvin jumps and turns around.

Angus McLoughlin, self-proclaimed “Survival Hunter'' and owner of the store, stands beside Marvin. Like the other egos, Angus has Jack’s brown hair and blue eyes, though his hair is often hidden underneath a dark green crocodile dundee hat. His left eye is somewhat glassy, and two long scars run down it. For a little while, the egos were fairly certain that Angus was connected to Jack somehow. When Marvin asked, Angus said that while he did share a last name with Jack, neither were related in any way and Angus didn’t really know the Youtuber that well. It was simply a coincidence.

“I’m looking for a boat in a bottle…” Marvin says, turning back to the shelves. “It’s for a friend’s birthday…”

“Fascinating!” Angus surveys his shelves. “Well, what kind of boats does he like?”

Marvin shrugs. “I don’t know. Something cool, I guess. Nothing too boring. Perhaps a pirate ship, I remember Chase saying he loved the Pirates of the Carribean series.. Or was it Treasure Island… wait… was it that stop-motion animation pirate movie-”

“Might I interest you in this?” Angus holds up a bottle with a little model brigantine ship inside. The wood was a beautiful mahogany and shimmered in whatever light the bottle caught. The flag colours consisted of blue and red. A tiny mermaid was carved into the bow of the ship.

Marvin slams a twenty euro poun noted into Angus’ hand, grinning like a maniac. “It’s perfect.”

“I’m assuming you’re also paying for the gramaphone?” Angus asks with a laugh. Marvin turns to see Jameson holding up the symphony-themed gramophone, eyes pleading.

Marvin chuckles. “Yes.”

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

The egos, minus one rad dad, gather around the little ship.

“What are we going to do with it?” Henrik asks.

“First: we need to take it apart and rebuild it. Jackie, you’re in charge of remodelling the ship,” Marvin orders. Jackie nods.

“Then we need to repaint it so it will fit Chase better. I want to use sails that go with our theme. Maybe Septic Sam wearing pirate hats and holding little swords. Jameson, you’re decorating.” Jameson whistles.

“Henrik, I need you to work on some clothes for the big day. We can’t go in our usual get-up! I’ll give you the designs to work with!” Marvin shoves a stack of papers at Henrik, then runs out the door. “I have more work to do! See you guys soon!”

The egos stare suspiciously at their retreating friend.

“What’s Marvin hiding from us? What is he doing?” Henrik asks.

“Probably just some more ideas for Chase’s birthday,” Jackie says, scribbling away on blueprints.

“It’s not like him to hide plans like that,” Jameson notes.

Henrik skims through the designs. “Are we… going on a pirate adventure?”

Jackie and Jameson stare at the blueprints.

Jameson grins. “Looks like it. Could be fun!”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because it’s fun! Chase would love to have a little fun and adventure for his birthday!” Jackie exclaims. “Besides, it’ll give Stacy and Delilah enough time to set up the house for the party after!”

“I wonder if there’ll be treasure!” Jameson muses.

“It better be worth all this trouble. It’ll take all night for me to make these costumes!” Henrik groans. “Jameson, could you help me?” JJ nods.

One of Jameson’s time manipulation tricks is the ability to speed up tasks, so that a task that could take an hour would only take seconds. Chase’s children used to bribe him with treats so he would use this gift and speed up their homework time, which worked until Chase found out and banned Jameson from homework help.

While Henrik and JJ work on costumes and sails, Jackie tinkers away at the ship, remodelling it to be more modern and fit for the six egos and the kids. j is out all night, but returns in time to paint the ship and transfigure it.

When the ship is done, the egos head to the docks. Marvin performs a spell, and soon, a large ship floats on the water, ready for use.

The egos take the ship out for a test run, Marvin pinpointing each place they need to take Chase too.

Back at home, Chase Brody doodles in his journal, humming softly. Nothing, not even a cryptic hint from Jack, can prepare him for tomorrow.

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

@graysun, @florenceisfalling, @miishae​​, @lonelyseiren, @goldenoceanaart, @egopocalypse, @oasisofgalaxies, @fleecal, @kofi-king, @myspatialspace, @jo-ann-ahh-2, @writerwithdepression, @huffletrax, @gemstone6, @dumbasticart, @lunaarmada, @deadlydevine, @meteorshowersfillthesky, @bupine, @the-yandere-kitsune, @climbing-starrs, @the-spawn-of-loki, @jadehowlettthewolf, @obsidiancreates, @rammypaige, @hollenka99, @cest-mellow, @randowaffle, @green-protects, @dezi-popp, @badlypostedeverything

#chase brody #jacksepticeye #jse egos #writersofjack #apparently i can write #Chase and the Treasure Hunt #marvin the magnificent #jackieboy man #jameson jackson #dr. schneeplestein #angus the survival hunter #chase's kids

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

Llyr and the Pirates - Day 2

Day Two: Harpoon

For @amonthofwhump‘s Water Whump May, where I write a part of this story every day according to the prompt. Day two and going alright lol.

Tag list: @spiffythespook and @castielamigos-whump-side-blog

Content Warnings: references to hunting and killing animals, brief drowning

“Oh hey, buddy? Are you okay?”

Llyr startled at the deep voice, tensing and curling up further. His knuckles were nearly pale with how tightly he was clutching his skin. How was he meant to explain himself? Humans didn’t know about selkies--or weren’t supposed to know about selkies--and if this one found out then it would certainly take his skin and keep him here forever.

“No, it’s alright, I’m not gonna hurt you,” it said, and Llyr was acutely aware of how quickly he was breathing, his heart pounding in his chest. A hand settled on his shoulder and he gasped, sitting up to avoid the contact so quickly it made him dizzy. He stared up at the human standing over him, its hand still outstretched but with a worried look on its face. Its skin was darker than his, and shiny black locks of hair curled down to its shoulders.

“Oh, you’re… you’re already hurt, huh?” He glanced back down to his now exposed side where the human’s eyes were staring. It looked further past him and followed the trail of blood he’d left in the sea, and he shrunk under the pitying gaze that fixed on his face. When it knelt down to his eye level, he scrambled back a few steps, only stopping because the water was rolling and lapping at his feet. He didn’t know how to swim in this body yet.

“Poor thing, you’re shivering. Come with me; I can get you some clothes and help with that gash in your side. Do you speak English?” it asked, tilting its head in a strange manner. He realized then that he wasn’t wearing clothes like most people seemed to, but that didn’t hit him so hard as that word. Thing. Did it know? Did it see him transform? Did it already hate him, was it already trying to lure him away so it could keep him?

“I-I’m,” he rasped, voice hoarse from drowning, “...not a thing. A, a person, not-” he coughed, spiraling into another fit. Each cough hurt more than the last and he fell to the side, forearms on the ground trying to hold himself up even as his strength failed. 

“Oh, my bad, I didn’t mean it that way! It’s just a phrase, you know, of course you’re a person,” the human soothed, leaning a little closer.

“Ray!” Another voice shouted, coming closer with loud footsteps. 

“Mabel, everything alright?” Llyr looked over at the two weakly, coughs subsiding and tear-filled eyes clearing up enough to see. A pair of even darker skinned legs were standing by the first human, a different voice accompanying them.

“Yep, just letting you know some of us are headed north to fish,” it seemed to pause before continuing. “Who’s the kid?”

He realized they were talking about him when the second one crouched down as well, dark eyes settling on him. His eyes trailed down its face, examining it until they caught on the weapon in its hands. He froze, eyes wide, the blood draining from his face.

The long wooden rod and sharp metal tip were far too familiar, burned into his memory. The first one may have said something else, but everything went fuzzy and colorless except for the harpoon held in steady, capable hands. Then all he could see were the splashes of water, water so old, from back on the day he lost his sister to flashing metal and spilled blood, and she was hauled over the side of a boat and he never saw her again.

He had felt the cut of the metal that day too, when it struck his back but his mother pulled him away, helped him, and saved him. 

She wasn’t here. She couldn’t stop this from happening all over again. 

“Stop, s-stop please I’m- I just said, I’m a person don’t- I can’t-!” he stumbled to his feet and scrambled backwards, only to trip over his own inexperienced toes and fall backwards. The flat surface of the water slapped against his back, and he fell under only to hit the sandy floor.

His breath was taken from him all over again and his eyes flew open in a panic, only for him to squeeze them shut just seconds later. The salt burned his human eyes, an acute pain as he writhed with limbs that didn’t want to move. At once, he felt a grip on his torso, hauling him from the waves and he gasped desperately when he felt air against his face.

“Woah, hold on! Just breathe, come on, don’t pass out on me,” it shook him slightly, hands moving against his shoulders to prop him up and holding the back of his neck when he couldn’t hold his head steady. He coughed again, but it was easier this time. 

“There you go, breathe.” The voice was calmer as he steadied his breaths, opening sore eyes to see it close to him, and the other one farther away at shore. He was able to calm himself down seeing that the harpoon was no longer in his line of sight, but he was still wary of it. 

“Please, please, don’t kill me, please,” he begged breathlessly.

“We aren’t going to kill you, man, I promise,” it said, running a hand through his hair. “You dropped your cloak, though, I figured you might want that back.”

Llyr snapped to attention when he saw his skin in the human’s hands, about to snatch it back when it was laid over his shoulders and wrapped around in the front, almost like that’s what it had been made for.

“...thank you,” he said slowly.

“Of course. Now let’s go get you cleaned up.” It offered its hand and, tentatively, Llyr took it.

Next part

#whump #selkie whump #fear #drowning #briefly #referenced death #referenced animal killing #referenced animal hunting #uhh yeah seems good #don't have lots of tags here #but ayy my pals ray and mabel are here gotta tag them #Raymond Bates #Mabel Forbes #Llyr and the Pirates #Llyr the Selkie #time to go eat dinner even though i'm not hungry and my parents are upset yeet #WaterWhump2020 #ww-no.2

[riaofthestars]

The Anchor

Part 2

Uma x Harry

Warnings: Swearing, angst with a happy ending, near character death, and Harry should come with a warning, sorry have you seen him🥺

Flashback

“Uma!” Harry called out, pouring when he didn’t get a reply, “Uma-la-la-la!”

“Call me one more time and you’ll find yourself at the wrong end of your own hook.”

The sea witch in question scowled as she appeared behind him.

“Ye so sure you’ll be able to steal it from me?”

He asked, smirking, quickly checking if anyone was around before wrapping an arm around her firmly.

“I can steal anything from you.” Uma stayed confidently, just about managing to not melt under his touch. It was broad daylight, after all, and she had a reputation to maintain.

“Including me poor heart, ye siren.”

He flirted casually, and she laughed at his antics.

“We’re you just calling to annoy me?”

“No, no!” Harry suddenly got excited, stopping his walk down the hallway of Serpent Prep.

“Me dad’s holding a boat race, and who wins gets an old vessel of his. And guess which one?”

“He wouldn’t give away the Jolly Roger?” Uma questioned, wide-eyed. This was huge. With a ship, they could start assembling a crew properly, just like they’d always wanted to.

“Not on yer life.” Her boy said, “But it’s nearly as good. The Lost Revenge, Uma, our ship!”

She almost squealed.

“We’ll win it, easy. And then we’ll have a ship and a crew and when we get off this aisle, we’ll sail off, and I’ll be Captain, and you’ll be First Mate-“

“Wait just a second, lass,” Harry interrupted, looking a little insulted, “Who said that I wouldn’t be Captain and ye First Mate?”

“As if,” Uma snorted, and hit his arm lightly, “We both know I’m the natural leader of this little gang.”

“Fish-bait,” Harry growled in disbelief, “Me dad is the most dreaded Pirate Captain-“

“Yeah, and my mom is the most feared Sea Witch in every land! Plus, your dad was defeated by a ten-year-old!”

Harry looked affronted, but he was probably going to with her plan. She knew him, and that was his Let-Uma-Win face. Then, he got all brightened up, and she knew it whatever he said would be trouble.

“We’ll make a wager,” he announced with finality, “After we win that little shindig event, we’ll have our own boat race. And whoever wins, becomes Captain and the other becomes First Mate. Deal?”

“Deal,” she replied instantly, “Prepare to serve under me forever, Hook.”

“I already do that, me goddess.” Hardy replied dramatically, even bowing his head towards her for theatrical effect.

“I only wish,” Uma teased, tugging on one ear, “You’d be a lot more useful then.”

He laughed, loud and hearty, and rested his head on hers for a brief second before pulling away, and making to walk to his next class.

“And Harry?”

He turned around at the sound of his voice, unable to escape the feeling that something was missing from him.

“Told you I could steal it.”

Uma said with a wink, as she brandished his hook in the air. He stared down at his hand in bewilderment, amazed to see himself clutching a metal rod instead of his trusty weapon, as her laughter echoed down the hallway.

That was when he realised that she really had him, in every way possible.

-X-

Uma patching up Harry after a few bottles thrown by Captain Hook in a drunken fit had hit a little too close to home-

“I’ll kill him,” she’d hissed, already clutching a knife in her little hands, as he talked her down from her rage.

She would do anything for him.

-X-

Harry and Uma doing dishes together at Ursula’s seafood joint, even though he had chores back home-

“Why’d you stay back all the time?” She asked him one day, curiosity too much for her.

“Who else will finish off the leftovers, eh?” He’d answered cheekily, but had squeezed her hand too, clearly indicating where it was rubbed raw from working all the time.

“You’re welcome to them anytime.” Uma has retorted with a snort, but something warm welled in her heart. And he understood what she meant- that she appreciated him coming by and helping her.

So he smiled almost softly as he rubbed his own hands raw cleaning the mangy leftovers of the strange customers of the shop.

-X-

“He’s slipping.”

Someone said it in a hushed voice in the present, and it jolted Uma back to a reality she didn’t want to face.

Everything was a dull thrum in her ears. She faintly registered a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Honey,” Belle’s maternal voice sounded near her, “you should get some sleep. You aren’t going to help him by running yourself into the ground.”

Uma didn’t respond. She didn’t think it was a very good idea to yell at the Queen Mother.

I’m going to sleep? My first mate might die any minute and you want me to sleep?

Ben spoke next, and she wished he hadn’t.

“I don’t want to be the one to say this, but they’re not going to make it.”

She didn’t want to even think about Harry dying, and what that might to do to her, so she just gripped his hand tighter, digging her nails in, and spat out,

“And who cares if she lives or dies?”

Belle and the Beast looked affronted, while Ben was a mix of understanding and firm.

“Audrey is my subject too. Obviously, she had some mental issues which she needs to work out. Believe me, she will be punished according to her crimes, but in a fair court of justice.”

“Fair? Fair?” Uma laughed hysterically, and spoke, “She has almost killed my first mate. He is my goddamn life. If you don’t punish her, Ben, peace or no, I will hunt her down and kill her myself. Nobody touches my people.”

“That’s not something a young girl should say-“

Fairy Godmother began, only to be cut off.

“Really?”

Evie broke in, milder but disappointment still shining through, “Because everyday on the Isle was like this. Uma had to hurt people to protect her own, and she doesn’t have to be sorry about it- she did what was necessary. You made us grow up there, surrounded by violence and hate, and then expect us to fit right in being normal?”

“That’s not what they meant, E.”

Ben tried to defuse the situation, and it mostly worked, but Gil said something to shut them all up-

“Uma, I don’t understand. Audrey tried to hurt Auradon and Harry and we’re saving her? But when we did it, didn’t people try to kill us?”

None of the elders in the room were ready to accept responsibility for what they had done, but they were shaken to the core. To fill the uncomfortable silence, Fairy Godmother moved to the side of the bed again, recasting the spell to check their vitals, and then gasped.

“They have roughly three hours, and that’s the end of the line.”

Uma clenched down on Harry’s hand so hard she was afraid she had broken something. Three hours? What were they going to do in three hours? Slowly, she brought his knuckles to her lips, kissing his calloused hands. What wouldn’t she have done to see him up and flirting and winking at her while she did this?

I love you.

She would never even get to tell him.

Mal took a steadying breath.

“The only person who can do anything to help them,” she paused and restarted, nerves visible, “is Hades.”

“Hades?” Uma asked in surprise, her mind working fast, thinking of possibilities and hopes, something that could save Harry. A little rumour she had heard down at the docks, on Ginny’s side, knocked at her head...

“Why would he help? It’s too risky.” Ben asked, ever the voice of reason.

Uma was just about ready to leap up and say fuck risky, I’ll barter my soul to him if Harry gets to live, when Mal spoke up again.

“Actually, he might for me. Hades’s my father.”

“What?” Gil asked out loud, eyebrows rising high up.

“So it’s true then.” The sea witch said in an impressed tone.

“You knew?” The purple haired fairy whipped her head around to look at her in surprise.

“I heard about it, wasn’t too sure whether to believe it. That turncoat Zeke heard a conversation at Hun’s and reported back to me.”

“Why did the Huns have any of my information?”

Mal asked, her brow furrowing.

“What do you think Claudine was doing with the two older Gastons all the time? And Boogey tells us all about the things he hears while going about looking cute.”

Belle interrupted the conservation.

“You have quite the.... information agency set up. It sounds a bit like running a kingdom.”

“It is,” said Uma simply, and then showed teeth, “Except bloodier.”

Ben started, “Uma, Gil, does Harry have any family back in the Isle? We’re not bringing Captain Hook here, obviously, but if his mother or someone- we could get the guards to bring them along with Hades.”

“Yeah,” the daughter of Ursula said quietly, “His sisters, Harriet and CJ, bring them here. Don’t worry about Old Hook- I wouldn’t have asked you to bring him anyway. You’ll need to ask one of the guards to carry something to show them my face through video- they won’t go anywhere with Auradon dressed guards. Harriet will come for her brother, and CJ trusts me.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you say you wouldn’t bring over Harry’s father even if you had the choice? I mean, surely...”

Fairy Godmother interjected, all sweetness and concern, and the Captain immediately tensed.

“Not my story to tell,” she said tersely, and then added, “You let these monsters raise children, and then you worry about us now? What about when he was so young he couldn’t fight back? When I couldn’t fight for him, either? Every kid there is-“

Her voice broke, and Carlos gravely put in his confirmation.

“It’s true. None of us had a good life there, and none of the kids there do. We fought against you then, Uma, but I can understand why you have so much anger for the people here. The four of us-“

He gestured to Mal, Evie, Jay and himself-

“We were so caught up in our shiny new lives here that we forgot about the ones suffering there. We’re sorry, Uma.”

“Don’t apologise to me,” she said sadly, “Say it to Jura who got beaten up so bad he can’t walk no more, and say it to Mandy Mim whose mother died cause they don’t have hospitals to give a safe birth there, or Quilla Heart and Ginny Gothel who got knocked around pretty awful near the center area.”

“Quilla?” Surprisingly, it was Jay who looked the most pained at that, “She was the sweetest out there.”

The silence that followed was deafening. The former King and Queen looked horrified, and Fairy Godmother was fanning herself in consternation.

With an almost defeated sigh, Uma settled herself closer to her first mate, clutching tight. The emotion of the day almost overwhelmed her.

“Just come back to me.” She whispered, bending down to press a kiss on his closed eyelids.

A single tear ran down her cheek.

-X-

Uma’s back was sore. Really, really sore. That’s what happened when you sat on a ramrod straight on a bed without a backrest for two hours after having the most gruelling and emotionally fraught 24 hours ever.

None of it even registered with her.

A scuffle of shoes at the door interrupted her silent vigil. Uma looked up to see the Auradon guards accompany both Harriet and CJ into the room. The Hook girls stopped hissing at the officers the minute they saw their brother’s body, staring at it.

Her voice was scratchy as she instructed, “You can leave now.”

The guards didn’t move, until Ben popped his head in and ushered them out.

The minute the rich mahogany door was shut, CJ allowed her eyes to show her tears and ran to Uma immediately, hugging her waist.

“Uma?” She asked, fear in her voice, “Harry’s going to be okay, right? Why’ve they called us here?”

Harriet, who had been in a shocked, vulnerable state till then, snapped out of it.

“Don’t be stupid, CJ.” She bit out, and her lain leaked through even though she tried to sound hard, “You think these people would’ve let us out if it weren’t to say goodbye to Harry?”

“Not goodbye,” Uma said sharply, holding CJ a little tighter, “Not yet at least. Hades, he might...”

“Oh yeah, Hades,” Harriet snorted rudely, “Sure, Hades who’s sat around listening to opera music for twenty years in his lair, is somehow going to get my brother back.”

“We have to try!” Uma argued, even though the sinking feeling in her chest pessimistically whispered,

He’s gone, Uma, and you did that.

“Tell me something,” The eldest Hook spat, “How did it happen? The bitch must have known that you or Mal were the real dangers.”

The sea witch bent her head in shame and resignation, “He took it for me. Told me to make sure you two were okay.”

Harriet laughed bitterly in disbelief.

“Of fucking course it was for you. Of course. Mad about you, my brother, and I don’t see why. You’ve done nothing but boss over him, use him, and now you managed to kill him. Congratulations, should I-“

Uma saw red.

Harriet and her weren’t always like this. They were good once, and she used to call her Ettie and run around with all the siblings. But then Uma grew up, and Harry preferred to spend his time with her more than anyone. Everyone knew that the first person in his life was Uma. And Harriet thought he was being foolish, especially when he was First Mate instead of Captain, and when Uma became a rival Pirate Captain on the Isle to her. Their crews had never gone to war, mostly because of Harry, but relations weren’t too friendly either.

And that was okay. Uma got it- she wasn’t so fond of the hard-and-fast talking Harriet Hook, roughest and toughest out there, either.

But to say that she killed Harry?

“HE’S NOT DEAD YET!” Uma exploded, moving away from CJ to come threateningly close to the eldest girl in the room, who stood unfazed.

“HE’S NOT DEAD YET, SO STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT. GODS ALIVE, YOU THINK YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE WHO IS HURTING? I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR HIM! I NEED HIM, HARRIET, I-“

Harriet’s cool facade broke, and the smallest flinch registered in her. She backed down, looking away and sitting on the couch nearest to the bed. A clear sign of defeat- Uma won this one. Even victory over Harrie Hook didn’t taste as sweet as it should have.

Uma was breathing hard and harsh, and she had to take a few seconds to compose herself.

CJ, who had been silent up until now, spoke up, her voice raw.

“If he does go,” she breathed, “It’s the way he would have wanted to. He would’ve been okay with this. Anything for his Captain, he would have said.”

Uma could barely stop herself from breaking down right there and then, so Harriet filled up the empty space with words of grudging acceptance and grief.

“Yeah,” she said, “He really would have.”

The three pirate girls sat together silently until the door opened again a few minutes later, to show Ben and the God of the Underworld himself, accompanied by Mal and Evie. Gil hadn’t come- seeing Harry like that had been to much for him when he first saw the body and the high of victory was immediately replaced by devastation. He’d been holed up in Jay’s room since then, who’d offered it out of sympathy and goodwill.

“Hey,” Ben said, “He’s holding up, right?”

“Just about.” CJ said squeakily, before squinting at him, “You’re the King, aren’t you?”

“Uh, yes,” he replied, a little taken aback by her springy curls and cute face.

What, was he expecting Isle kids to have horns and a devil tail?

“There aren’t any rotten bananas around.” CJ said disappointedly.

“Why do you need them, CJ?” It was Evie who asked, taking over from Harriet and Uma as the sole entertainer of the kid. They were too numb to do it.

The little girl looked right at Ben and scowled darkly, saying, “I promised Ginny that I’d throw them at the King if I saw him.”

Mal laughed out loud, while Ben looked both amused and serious. Hades winked at CJ, and said, “Atta girl.”

Even Uma had to crack a smile at that.

Considerably relieved now that the atmosphere of the room has lightened due to the small influx of humour, Ben conveyed the information.

“Hades here is going to use the ember to wake him, hopefully. It worked with Audrey a few minutes before-“

“Audrey?” Harriet interrupted, looking at the royal incredulously, ��Ain’t that the name of the bitch who cursed Harry?”

“Yeah, but, we can’t let her die. She’s a person too-“

The eldest Hook stood up abruptly, and Mal and Uma exchanged glances. This was going to get ugly. Already, the tension had risen all over again.

“In the Isle, we would have left her to die and then strung her up in the town square. Where’s your justice? My brother dies and you’ll save his murderer?”

“I understand your anger, but please-“

Harriet cut off Ben’s pacifying sentence with a terrifying snarl, her lips drawn back over her sharp teeth, anger gleaming in her eyes, easily slipping into her pirate speak when angry. Unlike Harry, both the Hook sisters disguised their accent everyday.

“Listen, King. Me brother may be the one with the hook and his looks, but I got me daddy’s temper. Ye don’t want to see me show it.”

Fear was obvious in Ben’s face- and who wouldn’t be scared, faced with a knife-wielding, angry as fuck Harriet Hook- but he stood tall.

“I understand,” he said, his voice gentle, “I really do. If that was Mal, I’d have done the same. But there are rules, and I knew Audrey before. I’m going to change the way things work around here. We’re going to save your brother, Harriet.”

Uma wished she had his confidence.

“Alright,” Harriet sighed loudly, plopping back down, “I need a fucking drink.”

At Ben’s gesture, Hades moved to Harry’s side. He began whirling his ember around, chanting in an ancient language, and swirls of blue floated around. Uma refused to let go of Harry’s hand through it all.

Something changed, and Hades’s chanting grew more intense. All of a sudden, Harry’s body jerked on the silk sheets, and Uma let out an involuntary gasp at the motion.

The pulse in her hands started beating faster, and she almost stopped breathing. Thank god, thank fucking Auradon, and Mal and her crazy powerful dad, Harry was going to live, she felt it, she knew it-

“He’ll be okay now-“ Hades said.

Uma screwed her eyes shut before she could cry again, dear god, everyone would think she was going soft-

“But he almost wasn’t.”

“What? Why?” Mal demanded, hands on her hips.

“Even though the sceptre didn’t have your mother behind it, it still packed quite a punch. And I think the girl fuelled all her hatred into it, and it was a lot. He barely made it, but there was something he was holding onto very strongly here. A connection he wouldn’t let go of.”

As he spoke, Hades glanced meaningfully at Uma.

“Oh, you magnificent sea bitch!” Harriet burst out, and everyone, even Ben who had just met her, were shocked to see tears in her blue eyes, “I don’t know whether to skewer you or hug you!”

Uma laughed through her own tears and CJ got up to run towards her again, and she gladly flung the girl round and round, while Harriet watched, a somewhat sappy smile on her face.

It would be perfect if Harry was there to see it.

“There’s one more thing,” Hades added apologetically, “He might have some trouble breathing properly for a couple of months, and his lungs will always be very slightly vulnerable. There’s only so much a God in chains can do.”

“Don’t worry,” Ben said quickly, “We have good medicine here in Auradon. We’ll make sure he’s taken care of.”

Well, that sucked. But anything was better than what Uma had thought was going to happen, and so she was okay with it. Before she knew what she was even going she made her way to Mal’s side and touched her shoulder lightly.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely, “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for spelling your boyfriend. Without you, Harry... I’ll always be grateful.”

“You don’t have to be.” The future queen assured, returning a smile. Right then, grinning at her sworn enemy for years, Uma felt a little bit of that hope she’d been thinking about earlier.

Maybe some fences could be mended, after all.

-X-

Part 3 coming!

#harry hook #harry x uma #huma #huma descendants #uma x harry hook #fanfiction #descendants fanfiction #disney descendants #angst with a happy ending #near character death #mutual pining #ginny gothel #harriet hook #gil #cj hook #jay #mal #evie #ben #carlos #hades #belle #beast #fairy godmother #audrey rose #uma’s pirate crew #claudine frollo

[lovecraftian-druid]

Pactborn VI

“You ready to do some treasure hunting today, kiddo?” 

K’Sirr’s voice broke Ka’l’s concentration as she stared absentmindedly at a pod of blue whales swimming along the surface of the Rocsanee Ocean, their blowholes spewing water like great geysers.

Ka’l never fully understood the liking K’Sirr had taken to her. Perhaps it had to do with feeling responsible for her after inviting her to join his crew; or maybe it was because she was so much younger than any of his other shipmen; or possibly that he felt a kinship based on their mutual love for sailing; some even speculated that it was because of her relation to a famous admiral of the Felgran Fleet. Whatever the case, it was no surprise to the rest of the crew when Ka’l quickly rose through the ranks. It was even less surprising when K’Sirr - after only seven months aboard the Sea Wolf - invited her along on a Trover quest, a type of hunt for great treasure hoards. Lore of these massive bounties were usually only learned about within the Trovers Guild, a group of pirates whose life’s work was to discover legendary riches and wondrous items. 

The young pirate pocketed her compass as she made her way to the side of the ship that housed the utility boats: there, two other Trovers perched on crates, preparing for the dive ahead of them. One of them - a blue dragonborn sorcerer by the name of Zandynn - sat cutting a small reed into pieces in preparation for a ritual spell while the other (Candid, a roguish tiefling) fitted her many daggers into her belt. As K’Sirr arrived on the scene, a lumpy roughspun sack clutched tightly in one hand, he looked expectantly at Ka’l: “Aren’t you missing something?” He smiled a toothy grin as he lifted the weighted bag in his hand, and Ka’l realized that the others also had similar sacks waiting on the deck next to their feet.

“Oh, uh, no, I didn’t think I’d need one - I’m a pretty strong swimmer,” Ka’l stammered, trying her best to speak with confidence.

The three of them chuckled wryly before Zandynn spoke: “Little lady, the way we’re traveling, you won’t need to swim.”

“It’s Ka’l,” K’Sirr corrected him with a sidelong glance, “she prefers Ka’l, so that’s what you can call her.” Zandynn rolled his eyes as he commenced his casting of the ritual spell, and K’Sirr turned his focus back to Ka’l, winking at her as he lifted the lid of a nearby barrel to retrieve one more bag that - as she learned upon inspecting it - was filled with a single large rock. He handed it to her and explained, “You’ll tie this to your waist to keep your body from trying to float back up to the surface.”

Ka’l gave a nod of understanding and began tying off a neat square knot about her mid-drift while Zandynn finished his incantations. She wasn’t expecting the odd sensation of the set of arcane gills that suddenly formed along the sides of her neck as he finished the casting of the spell with a somatic flourish, and it took her a moment to realize that she could still breathe air normally as she ran her fingers over the foreign bodily addition. Her eyes widened as she turned to face Zandynn: “this is amazing!” she gushed, genuinely.

K’Sirr smiled proudly and stepped to the edge of the ship, motioning for the dinghy to be run out for the small group. “With that, I believe we should be ready to depart - Gahjeel, you’re in command while I’m away!” he hollered up to the black tabaxi as he lept gracefully into the small boat. Ka’l and the others followed, and as they rowed out towards some shoals, Ka’l continued to play with her strange new gills.

The two shipmates carried on a lighthearted conversation as Ka’l watched K’Sirr, his eyes pressed shut in concentration as he twirled a forked twig around with his thumb and forefinger, all the while humming a tune under his breath. Ka’l always marveled at the use of magic and was so impressed by K’Sirr and those with whom he associated: she hoped to one day be able to achieve the same arcane wonders these folks were able to accomplish.

Lost in thought over what it must be like to cast such incredible magic, Ka’l jumped a little when K’Sirr declared loudly, “Here! Stop!”

The rare and elusive Necklace of Fireballs: K’Sirr and his crew had been seeking this treasure for the last few months now, since before Ka’l had joined the Sea Wolf. Now, thanks to a reliable tip and a handy divination spell, they were merely a dive away from having it within their grasp.

The others situated their things securely in the small boat as Ka'l dropped the anchor and peered down into the waters below: the shallows afforded her a view of what looked to be large shoals of multicolored coral growing all shapes and sizes. The dinghy began to rock a little, and Ka'l turned to see the others holding their stone-filled bags, ready to take the plunge. Ka'l followed suit, gathering up the rough sack in her arms.

"Are we ready?" K'Sirr asked, making brief eye contact with each member. Nods gave him the affirmation he needed, and he looked at Ka'l with an ornery twinkle in his eye as he patted her on the back. "After you, my dear."

Eager to impress her captain and establish some credibility among her crew, Ka'l scrambled to her feet in the wobbly boat as it swayed unsteadily. Without hesitation, she pulled the stone close to her chest and made an attempt at jumping overboard - this exciting milestone quickly developed into a bit of an embarrassing one though as her toe caught the lip of the dinghy, throwing the boat off-balance (to the gasping surprise of the others) and sending her splashing torso-first against the surface of the water before sinking deeper, her stone having knocked some of the wind from her now-waterbreathing lungs.

As bubbles floated with urgency from her mouth rising rapidly towards the light of day above, Ka'l opened her eyes to behold the beautiful underwater world she had just entered: schools of fish flitted in and out of reef croppings while small crustaceans skimmed the currents for tasty food particles; a neon-colored parrotfish crunched its hard beak down on some faded coral as a eel lunged from within its kelpy hiding place to catch its prey.

Enraptured by this tropical wonderland, she took a moment to explore the tiny reef. It wasn't until she felt something aggressively ram into her followed by a sharp, piercing pain that she realized something was wrong - as the water around her plumed with crimson clouds of her own blood, Ka'l twisted at her hips to find her thigh locked down upon by the jaws of a hungry tiger shark, seemingly drawn by the sound of her loud dive. More bubbles escaped her mouth as she tried to scream for help, flailing violently in an attempt to tear herself free of its razor-sharp teeth. With her hands extended before her, pushing with all her might against the creature's sandpaper-like snout, Ka'l felt a surge of arcane power course through her panicked body. 

Something happened in that moment of terror: something Ka’l would ever forget, something that would change her life forever. As she felt her body begin to go into shock, the blood pumping loud within her ears, two golden slitted eyes flashed within her mind, sending her body into overdrive. With her hand pressed against the shark’s face, her eyes shot open again as her hand released an unbridled beam of crackling turquoise energy: as the eldritch blast struck the creature in the face, it sent a shock wave of force rippling through the water between them, swirling the streams of bloodied water billowing through the reef. 

The shark - surprised and perturbed - released its hold on Ka’l as it felt itself pushed back a bit from the force; however, this was not enough to frighten it away. With resolved bloodlust, the shark circled back for another attack. Her head still swimming with adrenaline, confusion, and blood loss, Ka’l looked on in absolute horror as the massive beast swam hard in her direction. As the rock tied about her waist began to sink her like a stone, she was able to see the familiar form of her captain standing at the bottom of the shoal’s sandy floor - with one hand extended, she watched as K’Sirr pointed up at the tiger shark and conjured a great sphere of yellow gas right in front of its path. The shark, writhing and reeling as the stinking cloud’s poison assaulted its hypersensitive sense of smell, began thrashing in the water, mingling the red of the blood with the yellow of the gas in a beautiful disaster of brilliant orange for a moment before it turned and swam off at full speed. 

Taking the opportunity to act without risk of attack, K’Sirr cut the rope that tethered his weight and swam with haste towards Ka’l. Pulling her into his arms, he pressed his calico hand firmly against her leg, humming a tender ballad as he comforted her. Ka’l felt the warmth return to her body as the wound slowly closed up. As her eyes regained focus, she tried her best to form the words “thank you” through the water.

Pointing to the noxious cloud of stench that was beginning to thin as the sea cycled the current about, K’Sirr did his best to communicate to her that time was of the essence. 

Ka’l scanned the watery depths for Zandynn and Candid: she saw them striding towards them, kicking up small bits of sand as they moved. Candid appeared to be sheathing two of her daggers as they walked - it looked as though they had not fully escaped without an encounter of their own. 

K’Sirr waved them closer, pulling the forked twig from his pocket and casting his locating spell once more after fetching his weight stone. Like a divining rod moving in response to hidden water, K’Sirr concentrated as his material component began leading him in the direction of his prize. Ka’l and the others followed closely, looking about in all directions out of a well-founded fear for what else might be lurking in the waters around them. 

After only a minute, Ka’l noticed that K’Sirr’s pace had quickened as he followed the path bestowed by his spell. Nearly beelining towards an embankment of fuchsia coralline, K’Sirr stashed his component and dropped to all fours, digging in the silty sand at the base of the coral and fan-like seaweeds. Ka’l joined in, shoulder to shoulder with him as she dug. Dirt and soggy debris littered the water around them as they clawed at the loose ground while Candid and Zandynn stood watch like sentinels. 

Ka’l felt the contagious excitement of the hunt creep up on her as they scooped more and more sand aside - tossing a glance in his direction, she saw the boyish look of absolute joy on K’Sirr’s face as he dug for the long-awaited treasure. Plunging her cupped hands into the granulated floor with renewed enthusiasm, she felt her nails scrape against something hard and metallic. She paused, her head spinning like a swivel to lock dilated eyes with K’Sirr in unspoken amazement. Sinking their fists deep into the sand, they groped about to find a pair of round anchor-chainlink handles. With a few struggled heaves, Ka’l helped K’Sirr dislodge the chest from beneath the seafloor. 

Stepping forward from his post, Zandynn put his face close to the lock that dangled from the chest, its metal crusty with rust and barnacles, as he spoke a muffled incantation. At the last punctuation of the spell, the padlock slid down, unlocked, as it dangled loose at the front of the chest. Wiggling its corroded loop free, K’Sirr slowly and almost reverently lifted the lid of the iron trunk.

Ka’l had never seen so much gold in all her life. 

Candid and Zandynn moved in, discarding the stones from their sacks and replacing them instead with fistfuls of coins, while K’Sirr - unconcerned with the monetary treasure - sifted through the riches for his trophy. Finding the necklace, he held it up to his own chest for a moment as if to mockingly model it to Ka’l as he brimmed with exuberance from ear to ear. He delicately draped the piece of jewelry into his chest pocket (careful not to jostle its eight magma-colored beads too roughly) before reaching back into the iron box to retrieve a single ruby gemstone along with a simple gold chain, its middle links slightly damaged. Pulling two lodestones from his pouch, his wild jade-colored eyes met Ka’l’s as he touched the stones against the chain and the gem, causing them to fuse into one. 

With a circular motion of his index finger, K’Sirr had Ka’l turn around so that he could gift her his creation: a beautiful maang tikka which he helped fit to her forehead. Ka’l pawed at the piece of jewelry - she wasn’t usually much for wearing any sort of ornamentation, but she could sense already that this item would hold much sentimental value to her for years to come. 

At long last pleased with his find, K’Sirr motioned for the group to wrap up their adventure. Excited to return with her own plunder, Ka’l emptied her bag of its rock as well and quickly shoveled the remaining gold and gemstones into the woven sack. Zandynn and Candid gave her a pat on the back and a sincere thumbs-up as they tied off the openings of their stuffed bags.

With a hard push off the ground and several propelling kicks, Ka’l swam upwards towards the glistening fractal rays of sunlight; and for the first time since joining the crew, she finally felt like she belonged.

=============================================================

Sorry for the delay in posting: I had a terrible case of the flu last week and just COULDN’T.

If you enjoyed this chapter of Ka’l Bahriin’s story, please be sure to read the previous five chapters of her series, Pactborn.

Ye Olde Taglist: @serenewrites​, @mayvinwrites​

If you’d like to be included in the taglist, send me a message. :)

#writing #fantasy writing #DnD #DnD PC #character backstories #DnD backstory #aasimar #warlock #pirate #buried treasure #shark attack #Ka'l #K'Sirr

[lawssword]

ZoLu~ Meetings, Jealousy, and Marines

Info: awwe Zolu, i love them so much here's a little drabble that i desperately wanted to write <3 The story takes place after Wano probably. The meetings between the Strawhats and Hearts are rarely, if ever, dull.

Rated G

4.4K words

Zoro smiled as Luffy pulled away from him. Not much could make the day better. The breeze was in their favor and the ocean was calm as any sailor could wish it.

"Well, good morning to you too, captain," Zoro smiled up at Luffy. He was still foggy from his nap and Luffy kissing him as soon as he opened his eyes wasn't much better.

"Shishishi, Zoro, it's afternoon, almost evening," Luffy corrected with a smile that always lightened Zoro's mood.

"Screw time," Zoro muttered. He took hold of Luffy's shirt and pulled him into another kiss. Zoro bit hit captain's lip and Luffy fell into Zoro's lap. Luffy ran his hands through Zoro's short, green hair. Luffy pulled away from Zoro's lips.

"Your hair is so soft," Luffy said. Zoro brought his hands to Luffy's waist and pulled him closer so their chests were pressed together.

"You say that every time you touch it," Zoro stated, it was true, almost. Zoro was sure Luffy ran his fingers through it while Zoro slept.

"Well, it's true, every time I touch it." Luffy countered. Another kiss was shared. This one was much shorter. The two interacting like this was far from unusual. Luffy was the kind of guy that liked contact, the crew all too used to it by now. In fact, Robin and Usopp would often poke fun at the two. They weren't alone in it either.

"Anything planned for today?" Zoro asked.

"Yep," Luffy nodded vigorously. "Nami said we're gunna be coming up on the island we're supposed to meet Torao at tonight."

"We're hitting land soon?" Zoro asked. Luffy nodded. "Good, we're almost out of booze."

"Are we?" Luffy tilted his head.

"Mhm," Zoro hummed.

"Luffy!" Usopp shouted, running down the steps, onto Sunny's grassy deck. "Brook said he saw a seaking, let's go catch it!"

"Sanji can make the best dinner with a seaking!" Luffy said, moving out of Zoro's lap.

"One second," Zoro muttered, pulling Luffy back down and kissing him.

"Shishi, see you," Luffy climbed off Zoro and ran to join Usopp on the railing across the deck. Luffy nearly crashed into Usopp and knocked the fishing rod off the rail.

"Oh!" Luffy stretched out to catch it just in time. Try as they might, Usopp and Luffy couldn't catch a single thing all day. It was like the seaking outsmarted them or something! Luffy told Usopp as much. Sanji started making dinner before they could catch it.

"C' mon Luffy, there's no way the seaking is still around," Usopp said.

"We'll catch it!" Luffy insisted.

"Give it up Luf," Usopp sighed.

"Dinner's done!" Sanji called.

"Oh! FOod!" Luffy gasped and dropped the fishing rod and ran into the kitchen, leaving Usopp to clean it all up. Could he blame Luffy, though?  Sanji's food was always the best! The crew gathered in for dinner and sailed on.

Now, when Nami told Luffy soon, Luffy thought they'd hit landfall at right after dinner. Or, even better, during dinner. But that hadn't been the case. The Thousand Sunny docked alongside two fishing boats at dusk. The colors of sunset had given way to the dull blue of a darkening, cloudless sky.

"Let's go explore!" Luffy declared, already heading to the ship's railing. Nami took hold of Luffy's infamous strawhat, the string tightened around Luffy's neck and Luffy dash for land fell short.

"I already told Law we were here, he's at the bar up the road with the rest of his crew, that's where we're going," Nami said.

"I wanna explore the town first!" Luffy argued.

"You can do that tomorrow, we have to stock up on supplies so we'll be here a few days," Nami suggested, letting go of Luffy's hat. It fell against Luffy's back.

"Fine, Torao's cool anyway," Luffy gave. With that, the crew made their way off the ship. It was late, and the docks were quiet. The only noise came from the ocean's breeze blowing between the fishing rigs and dingies floating on the choppy water. Further, into the town, lights were on in houses and the faint smells of already cooked meals lingered in the air.

The bar was only down the road a ways from the dock, sailors never wandered very far from their ships, and sailors enjoyed a drink when they were on land too. Of course, the bar was close by. The little bar that the strawhats came to was small, humble, but professional. The building was old but clean and well kept. Luffy pushed the door open to an atmosphere that he didn't expect based on the exterior of this building.

It was loud, loud and full. Full of pirates. Specifically, the pirates that were strangely adorned in the Jolly Roger of Luffy's ally, Trafalgar Law. Sure there were others too, locals probably. They were just faces in the crowd.

"No weapons in the bar," the bartender said. Zoro sighed but relinquished his swords.

"Those are important, take care of 'em," Zoro said.

"Will do," the bartender agreed. The rest of the strawhats emptied their weapons unto the bartender too. Nami's staff, Usopps slingshot, all of Franky's ammunition, and Brooks sword.

The others started to join Law's crew. Usopp and Chopper were already talking to Shachi. Nami was giving another guy the cold shoulder. Sanji was fawning over Ikkaku. Jinbei and Brook seemed to be in a meaningful conversation with Uni. Robin and Franky were at the bar with Penguin.

"There's Law," Zoro pointed out, gesturing to a corner of the bar. Law sat alone at a table with a half-empty plate in front of him, sipping from a glass when Luffy laid eyes on him.

"Oh, I see him," Luffy said. Zoro pressed a kiss to Luffy's temple.

"I'm going to the bar," Zoro said. Luffy expected nothing less.

"Don't drink too much."

"Not in my vocabulary," Zoro stated as he walked away. Luffy made his way through the bar, greeting some of Law's crew as he went until he made it to the table Law sat at.

"Hi, Torao! I hope you didn't go on any adventures too fun without me!"  Luffy greeted, sitting across the little table from Law. It was old and worn down at the edges. It still left clean and smooth when Luffy leaned onto it.

"Probably nothing you'd consider fun," Law replied, his voice professional.

"Awe, you can have some fun without me," Luffy chirped.

"I'm well aware." Law turned to Luffy, tucking his legs beneath the table. Law took a sip from his glass and met Luffy's eyes. Luffy really was something else... Law had no qualms admitting his attraction to the younger captain. At least no qualms admitting that to himself.

"What'd ya wanna meet for?" Luffy asked. The truth was simply that Law has wanted to see Luffy. But Law couldn't just tell Luffy that. Luffy was with Zoro and there wasn't anything Law could do about that. So Law would just have to get over this little crush of his.

"I think some of Kaido's men have been tailing my ship, I'm not sure how," Law said. That wasn't entirely wrong... someone had been tailing the Polar Tang. It just wasn't Kaido. But Law couldn't use that as an excuse to see Luffy. It was probably just some bounty hunters.

"They haven't attacked you, right? I'll kick Kaido's ass all over again!" Law chuckled at Luffy's words. Maybe he had been drinking this scotch a little too much.

"No, nothing like that, I just wanted to know if you had something similar going on," Law lied. "Since I knew we'd be close to crossing paths, it was a decent enough reason to meet up. I didn't want to use the snail in case they were tapped."

"Nami hasn't said anything about being followed," Luffy said.

"That's odd, I wonder what he's planning in that case..." Law thought out loud and stared into the space beside Luffy.

"Eh, who cares? It doesn't matter unless he tried to fight us," Luffy decided, stealing a fry from Law's half-eaten plate. Law frowned but didn't say anything to the Strawhat's captain.

"I suppose, but it's unsettling that he can even track me, we travel underwater after all," Law rested his jaw against his closed fist and glanced about the lively room. Mostly lively because the pirates weren't cooped up on a ship anymore.

"Oh yeah! How is he doing that?" Luffy asked, not really asking Law, but the question was there nonetheless.

"Tracking my transponder snail's signal, probably..." Law trailed off in his thoughts, taking another sip of his scotch.

"Hey, hey Luffy!" Penguin hooked his arm around Luffy's shoulders. Law frowned at that."Don't let my grumpy old captain keep you from having fun, here have a drink and join us when grandpa lets you go."  

"What is that?" Luffy asked, looking at the brownish liquid in the cup Penguin had sat down.

"It's Brandy," Law interjected.

"Oh, I don't like booze," Luffy declared. Penguin stared at him a moment.

"Okay, then I'm just going to leave that there." Penguin sauntered off. Luffy tilted his head, looking down at the glass.

"You want it Torao?"

Well, Law couldn't let a good spirit go to waste. He finished off what was left of his scotch and took a sip from the Brandy. "Thanks.

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Essentially," Law confirmed.

"Ah, okay, I'm gunna get some food, I'm starving!" Luffy took off, darting between the tables and people.

"Of course you are," Law said to no one but himself seeing as Luffy was gone. The night went on and Law drank, mostly by himself, he was joined later in the evening by Bepo. Zoro drank too, but Zoro was always drinking. Once Luffy had stated his hunger, he demanded Brook play something at the small piano in the corner of the bar, near the bartender. Of course, Brook complied with his captain's orders.

That sailor's shanty started an old one. Bink's Sake. As old as it was, and as young as they were, neither crew missed a beat. Luffy was the loudest of all. Singing off-key without a care in the world.

Zoro joined in, at the parts his drunken brain remembers. He slurred some of the words, but most of them were slurring words so that didn't matter.  When that song was over, Zoro found Luffy sitting in his lap. Whether or not Luffy put himself there, or Zoro had pulled Luffy into his lap, was not information Zoro was privy to.

Still, he held his arm around Luffy's waist and drank his booze while Luffy found some chopsticks. Which really meant one thing.

"Zoro, let me go!" Luffy squirmed around, pushing on Zoro's arm.

"No, mine," Zoro mumbled into Luffy's ear, hugging Luffy to his body.

"You're starting to stink like booze," Luffy said, pushing Zoro away as he leaned in to kiss Luffy. "I take that back, you already stink."  

Zoro sighed in defeat and relaxed his arm. "Alright fine." Luffy grinned and stood up. Luffy turned to Zoro and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"I'll be back," Luffy assured, Luffy took the chopsticks, gathered a few more and ran off calling for Chopper and Usopp. The room broke out into laughter when the three climbed up onto some tables, dancing and singing very badly. Even the bartender was laughing his ass off at the idiots. Luffy only came back down from the table when Brook changed to a slower song. Law had made his way to the bar for another glass.

Luffy came running to the bar, knocking into Law. "Do you have orange juice?" Luffy asked.

"Plain orange juice?" The bartender asked. Luffy nodded. "Yeah, I'll get for ya."

"Strawhat-ya, watch what you were doing," Law grumbled.

"Huh?" Wow, Law was standing really close to Luffy.

"You ran into me," Law said.

"Oh, sorry!" Luffy smiled at him. That stupid fucking smile. Luffy really was an oblivious idiot.

"Whatever," Law muttered. The bartender set Law's drink down just out of Law's reach on Luffy side. Law leaned over Luffy to grab it. It was just Law's luck that someone happened to bump into him while he was doing that. Law fell against Luffy, pinning him between the surgeon and the bar. Law caught himself on the bar, arms outstretched on either side of Luffy.

"Torao?" Luffy muttered. Fuck, Law was really close now. Their noses were almost touching. Law took a step back.

"Sorry," Law muttered. Someone bumped into him again, shoving him into Luffy.  Law was pressed up against Luffy's body and wow that was too close, their noses were inches apart.

Zoro wasn't very far away. He noticed Law on top of Luffy. Zoro ignored it the first time, knowing Luffy would correct the situation. But then Law was still close and Luffy wasn't doing anything, or he tried and Law wasn't listening.

Zoro made his way over to them. "Trafalgar!" Zoro bellowed. The room fell silent. Law moved away from Luffy. Zoro didn't give him time to even think. Zoro took Law's shirt into his fists pulling the captain away from his captain. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Holy fuck- Roronoa-ya you must be wasted." Law turned his face away from Zoro's because he really did wreak of alcohol. That probably wasn't wise to say to an angry drunk.

"I'm not wasted enough to beat your ass!" Zoro barked.

"Hey! If you're gunna fight you'd better take your asses outside!" The bartender shouted over them.

"Over what? A fucking accident?" Law scoffed and tried to push Zoro's hands away. Zoro didn't budge.

"Oh, don't give me that shit, I've seen the way you look at him!" Zoro snapped, getting up in Law's face. Given the smell of Zoro's breath, Law really preferred if he didn't.

"I don't have damn clue what you're talking about," Law lied. Zoro pulled Law forward and shoved him back against the bar. Pain shot up Law's spine, fucking christ.

"Take it outside!" The bartender hollered, "I'll have the village guards here in less than five minutes!"

"You're lucky I the took my fucking sword." Zoro, let go of Law only to throw a punch that hit Law square in the nose. The whole bar broke into chaos. The Heart's crew started shouting, Sanji was making his way over.

"Hey!" Luffy shouted, over everyone, his concur's haki all but shook the building. It didn't faze Law or Zoro a bit. Law pushed Zoro back and Zoro stumbled into a table, knocking it, and all that it bared, onto the floor. Zoro charged at Law, and both of them went flying over the bar, almost into the bartender.

"That's it!" The bartender pulled a transponder snail from beneath the counter.

"Those are my friends!" Luffy snapped, grabbing at the snail.

"Luffy, let it be," Sanji grabbed Luffy's arm before he could stop the bartender. The guy made the call. Law punched Zoro in the eye. Zoro threw Law onto the bar. Punching him one, two, three times.

Law rolled to the other side and took a few steps back. Blood dripped from his nose. "That all you got Pirate Hunter!?" Law taunted. Zoro jumped over the bar and charged at Law again.

"Room." Law's room engulfed the bar and Zoro was traded in for a table. Zoro crashed directly into a wall.  

"Why'd you do that?" Luffy shouted at the bartender.

"Luffy, he's just doing his job, it's not his fault his bar is full of dumbasses," Nami said.

"He didn't have to go and call the guards, now they're both gunna get arrested!"

"Don't worry about it kid, bar fights happen all the time. They'll be held overnight and released in the morning if someone comes to get them," the bartender explained.

"Trafalgar, you low life bastard!" Zoro growled.

"If I'm a lowlife, what the hell does that make you?" Law retorted. Zoro threw a table at Law. It stopped mid-air and fell to the ground.

"Stop hiding behind your devil fruit you fucking coward!" Zoro yelled from across the from.

"Devil Fruit users, of course, entitled bastards," the bartender muttered. The bar door burst open and guards filled into the room.

"The dark-haired one's a devil fruit user," the bartender warned. One of the guards pulled out something that looked a lot like a gun.

"Hey!"Luffy shouted, marching over to the guards. "Don't you use that on my friend!"

"Luffy!" Nami yelled. "Sanji, stop him." Sanji jumped into Luffy's path. The guard shot the gun and a net fired out, engulfing Law. The room fell and objects clattered to the ground.

"What the fuck!" Law yelled. The other guards restrained Zoro.

"You can't just take them!" Luffy shouted. Sanji lifted Luffy onto his shoulder.

"You heard the bartender, it'll do 'em good to sit in a cell overnight," Sanji grumbled.

"That's our captain!" Shachi shouted, getting onto his feet to intervene. Jinbei stuck his arm out to stop him.

"You'll only make it worse," Jinbei said.

"Oi! Sanji!" Luffy pushed on Sanji, squirming to get away from him.

"Luffy! Cut it out!" Sanji snapped. "Let's get back to the ship, we'll get them in the morning."

"Hang in there Zoro!" Luffy called, outside the bar. The crews collected their weapons and went back out to the docs. The breeze was much gentler than earlier in the night and the fishing boats weren't so creeky. The Strawhats and Hearts parted to their respective ships and called it a night.

In the meantime. Zoro was cursing out Law.

"Shut up, you big, drunk idiot," Law muttered. He had had enough of Zoro's shouting and cursing to last a lifetime. The man really could curse like a sailor. It's not like the seastone shackles Law was in made the situation better.

Zoro fell silent, which came as a surprise to Law. Zoro was in the cell next to Law's. There would be no more fighting tonight. Zoro didn't say anything else to Law. And it wasn't very long until Law could heat Zoro snoring in the dark cell. There was no way Law was sleeping tonight. Law watched the soldiers come and go, he had drunk a fair bit last night and he could feel the headache settling between his temples. It wasn't until Law could see traces of the rising sun that sleep finally overcame him.

Zoro woke early, maybe. He wasn't sure. He could hear talking but the words were hard to focus on over the hangover he had. Zoro may have a high tolerance for booze, but he had greatly overestimated it last night and he had a blurry memory of whatever the hell had happened. He knew he got into a fight with Law, but he hadn't a clue what it was over, and had no idea where he was. A cell of some sort.

It was dark, only a window on the opposite end of the building. A window Zoro could only see as a result of an open door. There was also a desk Zoro could see, or part of one anyway. There were people speaking there, guards Zoro assumed.

"-Surgeon of Death-" the familiar name caught Zoro's attention but that's about all Zoro caught. Then, "-Strawhat Luffy-" Shit. If they knew who they were, that couldn't be good.

"Law," Zoro muttered. Just that made his head pulse. Still, Zoro moved closer to Law's cell. He was leaning against the wall of the building and the bars that separated their cells, asleep. Zoro grabbed Law's shoulder and gave it a shake. "Law."

"Hm?" Law mumbled, adjusting his hat and stretching out his legs.

"I think they know who we are now," Zoro said.

"What?"  

"The guard mentioned the name on your bounty, and Luffy's," Zoro explained.

"Shit," Law murmured. Zoro nodded, thought Law didn't see him. He had his back to Zoro.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Law replied, he shifted, sitting up a bit more. "I can't use my powers, and neither of us has our swords..." Law trailed off. Thinking.

They were screwed.

_

"Luffy, there are marines in the harbor," Robin said, she had just come down from the crow's nest.

"We'd better hurry and go get Zoro and Law then," Nami said.

"Oh yeah!" Luffy declared. Usopp gave him a skeptical look.

"How do you forget your boyfriend is in jail?" Usopp asked.

"Let's go get them!"

"Make sure to get Bepo before you go," Nami said. Luffy nodded and left the ship.  Luffy found the Polar Tang docked a little way down the docs from the Thousand Sunny. He banged on the door that led into the submarine.

"What the hell!?" Shachi answered the door looking tired and annoyed.

"I'm going to get Torao and Zoro," Luffy stated.

"Oh, shit," Shachi muttered. "Right, guess I'll go with you then." Shachi stepped out and closed the door.

"Nami said we should hurry since there's a Marine ship coming into the harbor," Luffy stated, already leaving the submarine.

"A Marine ship!?" Shachi's eye widened and his eyebrows rose.

"Uh-huh, let's go." Luffy and Shachi made their way to the guard's station. The little town was quiet, almost too quiet. No kids playing outside, very few people hustling between sales stands. It was the quietest Luffy had ever seen a port town. A few directions and turnarounds later, Shachi and Luffy found the guards station.

"Hello?" Luffy called as he walked in, Shachi right behind him. A guard came from another room, closing the door behind him. She wore the same long coat the guards were wearing last night, so the assumption wasn't a bad one.

"Can I help you?"

"We're here to get our friends," Luffy said.

"We're they arrested?" She asked.

"Yeah, those two dumbasses just drank a little too much last night and got into a fight," Sahchi spoke up before Luffy could. "We're not from here and we're supposed to be leaving the harbor in a few hours."

"They were arrested, that means they'll be stuck here, from the damage they caused at the bar, it'll be until they can pay it back."

"That's no-" Shachi elbowed Luffy's side.

"Money's not a problem Ma'am, how much?"

"They're bounties worth," the woman said with a smug grin. "And his."

"No way in hell!" Luffy snapped. "Where are they?"

"Luffy!" That was Zoro's voice, it came from the other side of the door. Luffy walked up to the guard that stood between him and the door.

"Get the hell outta my way," Luffy challenged.

"Hey, Strawhat, you wouldn't punch a woman-"

"If she doesn't get outta my way I will," Luffy snapped.

"You're not going anywhere, Monkey D. Luffy," the woman said. She pulled a gun from her coat. Luffy smirked.

"That won't work." She shot the gun and is burrowed into Luffy's arm. Stretching out his skin and ricocheting into the wall behind her.

"Devil Fruit user?" She asked. her cocky disposition fell and she took a step back. Luffy moved to step around her but she stopped him.

"That's my first mate you have in there, now move!" Luffy's demand was so intense, so demanding Shachi fought the urge to move from where he stood.

"Your tricks don't work on me, demon." She stuck her nose in the air and pulled that cocky demeanor back together. Luffy pushed past her.  She moved to attack Luffy.

Shachi hit the back of her neck, he may be without a bounty, but that doesn't mean he was someone to ignore. She dropped to the ground on her hands and knees, shit, he didn't hit her hard enough. Shachi did it again before she could get back up.

"Thanks," Luffy said, glancing back as he went on into the room.

"My captain's in there too," Shachi said.  He followed Luffy.

"Zoro!" Luffy called.

"Here, Luf," Zoro said from the cell. Luffy ran over to it.

"Are you okay?" Luffy asked. Zoro got to his feet and met Luffy at the door to his cell.

"Captain!" Shachi yelled, running into the room too. Zoro and Luffy ignored him.

"I'm fine, no thanks to you leaving me in a cell all night." Luffy stuck his hand through the bars and grabbed Zoro's.

"Nami said I'd make it worse!" Luffy argued.

"Uh-huh, just get me outta here."

"I guess we need keys for that."

"One step ahead of you," Law said, motioning to Shachi who was re-entering the room with a set of keys in hand. Zoro and Luffy were so focused on each other, the didn't even notice Shachi or Law. Shachi Unlocked Law's cell before tossing the keys to Luffy. Luffy let Zoro out and didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Zoro.  

"There are Marines in the harbor," Shachi told Law.

"In that case, we should get out of here, I'm too hungover to deal with Marines today," Law said. "Coming Strawhat-ya?"

"Yup!" Luffy chirped. He pressed a kiss to Zoro's cheek.

_

Luffy pouted as he watched the island get smaller and smaller on the horizon. Zoro slipped his arm around Luffy, making Luffy jump just a little bit.

"What's the matter?" Zoro asked he pushed Luffy's hat off and it hung around Luffy's neck. "Pouting 'cause you couldn't cause any problems?"

"I wanted to explore the island and I didn't get to!" Luffy leaned against the Sunny's railing and sighed. Eyes glued to the spec of an island.

"So cause problems?" Zoro asked he rested his chin on Luffy's shoulder.

"No! I just wanted to explore!" Luffy was almost whining and Zoro couldn't help but find it cute.

"Sorry for cutting our visit short," Zoro kissed Luffy's cheek. Luffy smiled and leaned into Zoro "What did me and Law even fight about?"

"I'm not sure, I think you were mad that he was really close to me," Luffy said.

"Hm." Zoro wrapped his arm all the way around Luffy and hugged him close. "Well, there's always the next island."

"I still wanted to explore that one," Luffy huffed.

"Even you can't always get what you want." Luffy turned his head to face Zoro. Luffy kissed him and Zoro tried not to smile into Luffy's lips.

"I will when I'm the Pirate King!" Luffy declared once they parted. Zoro squeezed Luffy in his arms a bit.

"We'll see about that."

#ZoLu #Roronoa Zoro/Monkey D. Luffy #roronoa zoro #monkey d. luffy #one piece #fanfiction #my fanfiction