#grandma paguro knowing it all

[ironychan]

A Little Human (as a Treat)

Part 1/? - Un Voluntario

Part 2/? - Un Escursione

Part 3/? - Una Complicazione

Part 4/? - Una Famiglia

Part 5/? - Una Aiutante

Part 6/? - Una Ricerca

Part 7/? - Un Confronto

Part 8/? - Un'Emergenza

Part 9/? - Una Speranza

Part 10/? - Una Sera

Part 11/? - Un'Interruzione

Part 12/? - Una Fuga (Prima Parte)

Part 13/? - Una Fuga (Seconda Parte)

@dysphoria-sweatshirt @writer652 The squid is a Dana Octopus Squid, chosen because they're large, their range includes the Mediterranean, and they're really freaky.

Much like Flavia, Luca was already falling asleep as he walked back into the ocean. He could see that Alberto and Giulia were also yawning, and he expected they would return to his house, curl up among the seaweed, and drop off right away. Tomorrow would hopefully be less exciting.

As they crossed the moonlit seagrass fields, however, he started to realize that there were an awful lot of people out and about at this time of night. He could see sea monsters with glowing jellyfish lanterns beating at the seaweed and looking under corals as if to flush out a shark. That thought gave him a momentary rush of adrenaline, but it wasn't enough to really wake him up again. A rogue shark was bad, but it was something the adults could deal with while he slept.

At least, that was the way it seemed until Atinnia Trota swam frantically up to them.

“Oh, thank goodness you're all right!” she exclaimed. “I stopped in at your house and when I saw nobody was there I feared the worst.” Signora Trota turned to Arturo, who was following behind her – he looked almost as tired as Luca felt. “Go tell the Aragostas I've found the Paguros and they're all right.”

“Yes, Mom,” said Arturo, rubbing one eye. He headed off to do so.

“What's going on?” asked Lorenzo.

“You haven't heard?” Signora Trota asked. “There's a squid!”

Daniela grabbed Luca and pulled him close. “Another one?”

Now Luca's heart beat a little faster. He'd only been three or four years old when the community had their encounter with a giant squid, and he didn't remember anything from the time, but he'd heard the stories. It had helped itself to everybody's livestock, culminating it tearing the roof off Old Man Cormorano's barn to get at his groupers. Terzo Cormorano himself had been nearly killed, and was supposed to have had nightmares for the rest of his life.

“Not a giant squid proper,” said Atinnia. “It's half the size of that one, but that's plenty big enough. We were afraid it had eaten you all, and you know they eat things alive!”

Daniela's eyes went wide. “You said there was nobody home?” she asked.

Signora Trota nodded, and without a word Daniela let go of her son and darted off.

Still tired, it took Luca a moment to realize what had upset his mother. Then suddenly he was wide awake. “Grandma!” he exclaimed, and followed his mother. Lorenzo, Alberto, and Giulia were close behind.

They arrived at the house to find all the jellyfish glowing, and Daniela was at the table with Nonna Libera, who was thankfully just fine. She was merely a sound sleeper, and hadn't even heard the neighbours calling out to her.

“Honestly, Mom,” Daniela said. “What did you used to do when I was a baby and cried at night?”

“Your father handled it, dear,” Nonna Libera replied, looking up as the three children entered the house. “I think tonight would be a good night for you three to go sleep up top.”

“Oh, yes, definitely!” Daniela agreed. “Luca, you and your friends go right back to town, now. Your father and I will help hunt down the squid, and you can come back when it's safe. Mom, you go with them.”

“Wait,” Luca protested. He was starting to wake up a little more now, although his eyes still itched. “What about Ciccio? His Dad said he didn't know where he was staying.” If Ciccio had gotten hurt because they'd talked him into doing this today, Luca would never forgive himself.

“I'm sure he's fine,” said Daniela, “but that's not our problem right now.”

“But...”

“No, Luca. Go to the surface.” Daniela patted him on the head. “Now, look me in the eye...”

“I know you love me, Mom,” sighed Luca.

“That's my boy!”

“Come on, Luca,” said Giulia. She was worried, too, but the odds that Ciccio would be attacked by the squid were slim, surely. “We can camp out in the treehouse. That's always fun.”

“I'll go with them,” Lorenzo said.

Heading back to shore was a very different journey than going out to the house had been. Luca was still tired, but he was now far too terrified to nod off. Every shadow, every glint of moonlight flickering across the bottom, and every fish flitting through the weeds made him jump. He, Alberto, and Giulia stayed close as his father led the way and Grandma brought up the year.

“Do squid really eat things alive?” Alberto asked.

“They sure do,” said Giulia, and Luca nodded. Squid wrapped their catches up in their tentacles and then ripped chunks out of them with a sharp beak. Luca himself had never been bitten by one, but Cosimo Pianuzza had. The older boy had a wedge missing out of the fin on the back of his right arm, and that had been only a tiny squid. A giant one, or even one that was merely big, didn't bear thinking about.

“How do you catch a giant squid?” Giulia asked Lorenzo. “When Papà wants to catch the little ones he's got special lures with lots of hooks.”

“I wasn't there, but I think they got its arms all tangled in a net,” Lorenzo replied. “If even one tentacle is free, it can still attack you, and...”

“Hello! Lorenzo!” a voice called out. “I'm so glad you're all right!”

“Oh! Hello, Vittoria,” said Lorenzo, waving to Signora Aragosta. “Yes, we're fine. I'm just taking the kids and my mother-in-law up to the town. No squid up there.”

Signora Aragosta must not have thought of that. She was startled by the idea, but it was an illustration of how much the community's attitudes towards humans had changed that, after a moment's thought, she said, “would you take my twins too? I think the older girls can hold their own, but Gianna and Giola are so small.”

“Of course,” said Lorenzo.

“I'll be right back,” the neighbour promised.

“No, we'll go with you,” Lorenzo decided. “We don't want to just float around out here waiting for the squid to find us.” He began to follow.

“I'll only take a moment,” Signora Aragosta promised. “The last time anyone saw the quid it was over and the old Cor... I mean, at the Donzella's place.”

That got the children's attention. “That's where Ciccio said he was going!” Alberto remembered.

“Are their guests okay, Signora Aragosta?” Luca asked.

“I don't know anything about them having guests,” Signora Aragosta replied, “but I'll bet Silvestro and Giorgia are re-thinking their plan to move there if the place attracts giant squid.”

“Come on!” Luca said to his friends, and took off towards the Donzella home. Alberto and Giulia were right behind him, while Luca's father shouted for them to stop.

“Get your tail back here, young man!” he called out. “Your mother told me to take you somewhere safe... you can't go towards the squid! Come back!” He swam after them.

Signora Aragosta didn't know what to do about this. She looked at Nonna Libera, who smiled gently and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let's go get your girls,” she said. “I'll take them up to your aunts' place.”

“Thank you, Signora Gambero,” Vittoria replied.

Luca shot across the fields like a sailfish on the hunt. He would be in trouble when his mother found out, but that didn't matter. They had to make sure Ciccio was okay. They'd gotten him into this – if he got hurt, it would be their fault. More important yet, the book of magic said that both parties had to be present in order to switch back. If they couldn't find Ciccio, Flavia would be stuck out of the water instead of stuck in it.

He was gasping for oxygen as he arrived at the Donzella's house, and felt a little sick as he surveyed a scene of considerable chaos. The row of kelp behind the house was shredded and partially uprooted. The barn, which had been recently repaired, had lost its roof a second time and one wall had partially collapsed. There was no sign of a squid, but there was also no sign of Ciccio.

Signora Donzella was swimming back and forth between the barn and the house in an indecisive panic, while her husband sat quietly on the rubble of the barn, staring into the distance. A half-dozen neighbours were gathered around, trying to comfort or clean up, while others swam the perimeter looking for the marauding cephalopod.

“Signor Donzella!” Luca approached the community blacksmith. “What happened?”

It seemed to take Signor Donzella a moment to realize Luca was there. “I'm sorry,” he said, “what did you say?”

“What happened here?” Luca repeated. “Where's Ciccio?”

“We woke up when we heard the boys shouting,” said Donzella. “We saw the roof cave in and the squid swim out of the mess, and then it was gone.”

“The boys?” asked Giulia. “More than one?”

“Yeah. Silvio, Ciccio, and Ciccio's friend.”

“Which friend?” Alberto asked. They only friend they'd known that Ciccio would have had with him was Giordana, but she was definitely not a boy and nobody was likely to mistake her for one.

“I don't remember his name. The babysitter. The boy with the whiskers,” said Donzella.

Luca looked to see if either of his friends had any idea who that might be. Neither of them did. The only boy with whiskers who they associated with Ciccio was Ercole, but they didn't hang out any more. Even if they had, it wouldn't have been possible for Ercole to be down here... and he wouldn't have been babysitting young sea monsters under any circumstances.

Giorgia Donzella came darting over. “Your friends came to us looking for a place to stay the night,” she explained. “The one with the prickles said he'd had a fight with his father. Silvio was going to keep them company sleeping in the barn. He volunteered.” She was lacing and unlacing her fingers and playing with her fins, distracted and helpless.

“When we got outside, we found this,” her husband added. He gestured to the wreckage of the barn. People had been taking it apart, looking for anyone trapped in the ruins, but they had found nothing.

“They must have escaped,” Luca said hopefully. “We can help look for them.” As tired as he might be, this was clearly something that needed doing.

“Oh, no, you don't, young man!” said Lorenzo, panting as he finally made it to the group. “You three are getting out of the water, remember?”

From the row of damaged kelp, a teenage boy called out. “Signor Donzella! We're done checking the sponge beds, they're not there, and they're not at the Haunted Fish Graveyard! Mom and Dad are still going through the Kelp Forest.”

Giorgia nodded. “Thank you, Basilio!” she replied. “Oh... I hate just waiting here. We should be doing something... our son is out there somewhere.”

“No. We need to stay in case they come back,” Donzella told her. “If Silvio arrives and finds us gone it'll be him panicking.”

Giorgia nodded, and then perked up. “Wait! I bet they went to the forge!” she said. “Silvio knows that we stayed in the forge with his egg before, because giant squid don't like hot water!” Her face then turned from hope to horror. “This is a different type of squid, though! That's what people are saying. What if it doesn't mind the heat? I'm going!” She turned and swam off.

“Giorgia!” Signor Donzella rose from his seat to go after her. “Wait! What did I just tell you?” He sped after her.

Lorenzo tried to herd the young people back towards the shore. “Come on,” he said, “we're doing what your mother said, remember? We're going to dry land where the squid can't find you.”

“Yes,” said Alberto, “we are!”

“We are?” asked Giulia, startled. She'd expected Alberto and particularly Luca to insist on staying and helping to search for Ciccio and Silvio.

“Yeah, I have an idea,” Alberto told her. “I've seen your squid lures. We're going to the Island.”

“Daniela said to take you to the town!” Lorenzo protested.

“The Island will have to do,” Alberto told him.

-

Twenty minutes earlier, Silvio had told his guests that they needed to get to the forge, but there wasn't going to be time. The squid was remarkably fast for such a large creature, and by the time Silvio finished speaking, it was almost on top of them. Ciccio swam up again, while Silvio dived through the bar door past Ercole and slammed it shut. The squid collided with the doors, but the door was one Signor Donzella had made out of a section cut from a ship hull, choosing the solid metal specifically to keep such dangerous creatures out. Silvio had just barely had time to slide the bolt into place, and while the door shook, it held.

The door was not the only way into the barn, though. There were also a couple of windows. These were quite small, and for a moment Ciccio was reassured that the squid would not possibly fit – but its boneless body was almost infinitely malleable. The only hard part of it was its beak, which was easily small enough to get through. The water temperature seemed to drop almost to freezing as the rest of the animal squished and squeezed to get through.

Ciccio knew he had to do something. He could see where the fresh stones had been added to the roof just that day. How fast did barnacle glue set? Could he get one free to let Silvio and Ercole escape? He went to the base of the repaired area, grabbed the edge of a particular stone, and with his feet braced against the older wall below, pulled with all his might.

The stone shifted, but did not come free. Ciccio looked around for a tool and found the broken shaft of Silvio's pitchfork. He stuck that into the gap he'd made, and pried. This time, he managed to lever the piece to the side. The big stone didn't come out, but a dozen smaller ones that had been sitting on top of it were jostled enough to drop into the interior of the barn.

There was a startled shout, and for a moment Ciccio worried he'd buried Silvio and Ercole. Then they wriggled out the hole, panting and covered in scrapes, but alive and whole. For a moment, all three boys hovered there in the water, staring at the hole in the roof as a few more stones dropped out of the edges of the hole and vanished into the darkness. Had the squid been buried? Was it dead?

“Mom and Dad are gonna be...” Silvio began.

His voice was drowned out by the sound of the rest of the roof collapsing, and then the squid rose out of the billowing silt like a monster emerging from the crater of a smoking volcano. The light at the end of its tentacle was now blinking with regular, brilliant pulsations like a heartbeat, but with an odd quiver underneath them, giving the impression that the animal was shaking with rage. It only had one tentacle with a bulb at the end, Ciccio managed to notice. Was it injured? Had it come here into the shallows searching for easier prey?

Then Silvio grabbed his hand and shouted at him, and he managed to take in the fact that this creature was rising towards him, furious and hungry.

“This way!” Silvio shouted, and took off, leading the way into darker water.

“What about your parents?” Ciccio panted, as he and Ercole followed as fast as they could.

“They'll be fine!” said Silvio.

He might have been right, because the squid was determined to follow them. Ercole, not a good swimmer, was now having trouble keeping up. He could go forward, but he hadn't quite mastered steering at high speed and kept having to correct as he drifted to one side or the other. Ciccio grabbed him by the back of his shirt to drag him along.

Silvio led the way into a shallow trench that kept getting deeper and deeper – the ravine where the sea monsters set their eel traps. It would have been a creepy place on an ordinary night, with the glowing algae lighting it up just enough to make out the shapes of weird corals and many-legged crustaceans lurking in the cracks. With the flashing of the squid's single bright tentacle close behind them, it was terrifying. Dark shapes and black-edged shadows appeared and vanished out of nowhere, and Ercole kept yelping and whimpering every time.

“Shut up!” Ciccio told him. “Shut up!”

Ercole was not listening.

Ciccio had of course never been to the forge, and he had kind of wondered what such a place could look like underwater. He'd never been a decent mental picture of it from any of Arturo's mentions, and since Ciccio was usually wanting Arturo to go away so he and Giordana could spend time together uninterrupted, he'd never asked for one. It turned out to be very deep in the trench, where the walls were at least fifty metres high – looking very far away and ominous when silhouetted against the blue glow of the algae. The water was warmer here, and continued to heat up as Silvio led the way, until they found themselves outside a structure built of piled-up boulders.

Unlike the sea monster houses, where the stones were glued tightly together to keep out the currents, these had been chosen and piled in such a way as to leave wide gaps between them so that light and water could enter the forge – and the heat could leave. The centrepiece of the space was a chimney belching out dark, hot water from a point halfway up the wall of the gorge. This billowed up into a chimney of close-packed stones that directed it up and away.

“It won't come in there!” Silvio declared.

Silvio slipped easily through one of the openings. So did Ercole. Ciccio had more trouble. He was a lot wider than the other two, and some of the openings were not going to admit him. There had to be bigger ones somewhere, though, because Signor Donzella himself was much bigger, and he must be able to get in. Ciccio passed by several that were too narrow, and then found one that looked right. Silvio and Ercole took his hands and helped him through, then dragged him over to the far wall, the hottest place in the forge.

It was a deeply uncomfortable place to be. The water shimmered a little as it flowed up, and there was a smothering feeling that Ciccio didn't know the cause of. Had Luca been there, he could have given the answer, as it was another thing he'd learned in a book: hot water couldn't hold as much oxygen as cold. It made breathing hard work, and when Ciccio looked at his companions, he saw their gills flexing hard to get the water through them.

There was more light inside the forge than out. All around the chimney was a faintly bioluminescent slime that fed on the minerals in the outflow. Higher up, the softly glowing jellyfish sea monsters kept in their houses were also shedding a faint pink light. The boys were not able to make much use of this light, however, as it was entirely drowned by the angry strobe-like flashing of the squid's photophore outside. This flicked on and off with the regularity of a lighthouse, coming from a different place each time as the squid investigated the openings.

“What do we do if it comes in?” Ercole whispered.

“It won't,” said Silvio, but his confidence was a little shaky. “Anyway, we must've woke Mom and Dad up. They'll get help.”

“Will they? I've heard that some fish eat their young,” Ercole said.

“That's fish! Not people!” Silvio scolded him.

The squid flashed again, this time revealing several tentacles feeling around the rocks, testing the opening Ciccio had come through.

It was no good, Ciccio realized. Maybe this was a different kind of squid, or maybe it was just that desperate, because it wasn't going to let the hot water stop it. It found an opening it liked, and started squeezing through.

“Down the bottom!” Silvio ordered.

They swam down to the bottom of the forge chamber. The water was cooler here, which was a relief, but there was also an opening to a smaller cavern. This was lined with more glowing algae, and divided within into several rooms. Ciccio dimly remembered being told that the Donzella family had used to live here at the forge, but Giorgia hadn't liked how far it was from any neighbours. This must be their old house. It had several windows bigger than the ones back at the barn, but unlike those, they had thick metal shutters on them. Silvio darted inside, and began banging these shut.

Ercole went after him and dived under the overhanging shelf of stone the family had used as a kitchen counter, where he curled up with his hands over his head and his tail wrapped around himself. Ciccio came last and turned to shut the front door, which he assumed would also be made of salvaged metal.

There was no front door. The rocks showed rust staining where hinges had once been attached, but now there was only the yawning opening.

“Silvio!” he said. “There's no door!”

“What?” Silvio looked, and even in the wan greenish light of the luminescent algae, Ciccio could have sworn he saw the boy go pale. “Dad took it out to put on the new barn! I forgot!”

Flashes outside told them the squid was coming, and now they were cornered. Ciccio's stomach turned inside-out. For a moment he was frozen, unable to even think for fear.

Then, suddenly, he knew exactly what to do.

He had no idea where the urge came from, but he swam back into the opening, turned his back to the outside, and started sucking in water. It was like taking a deep breath, only instead of letting it back out again, he just inhaled more, and more, and more. His skin began to feel tight, and the waistband of his shorts cut into him until it became painful. Within a few seconds, he felt the button pop and the seams begin to stretch.

It belatedly occurred to him that maybe this hadn't been a good idea, but by then he couldn't stop. He swelled up until he filled the entire doorway, and then the fit got tighter and tighter. The stitches tore on his shorts. When he opened his eyes, he saw Ercole and Silvio staring at him and hanging on to each other in terror. A moment later, he was forced to close them again as his face, too, began to swell.

Ciccio had the poison spines of a pufferfish. Apparently he could also do this.

Finally, he reached a limit. He was well and truly wedged in the doorway now, incapable of moving even if he'd tried. With his eyes closed tight, he had to rely on hearing to tell what was going on around him.

There was plenty to hear and most of it was Ercole, wailing in terror. “I don't want to die! I don't want to die! Especially not as a sea monster!”

“Shut up!” hissed Silvio.

“It's going to eat us! There won't even be bones!”

“Shut up! It'll hear you!

“I wanna go home! I wanna... OW! Did you just bite me?”

“Yes! Now be quiet.”

It was too late, though. Moments later, Ciccio felt the questing tentacles. They wound around a couple of the sponges still on his spines and pulled them off, then retracted, not wanting to get pricked. Then the squid started feeling along the edges of the doorway, hoping to find a gap or perhaps a protruding limb so it could pull Ciccio out. He gritted his teeth, hoping it didn't find anything – and hoping it wouldn't actually prick itself on a spine, because he didn't want to know what that would do.

After what seemed like way too long, the tentacles retreated. Was the squid leaving, or was it only considering its next move.

“Ohhh, that's weird,” whispered Silvio.

“What's weird?” Ciccio asked through clenched teeth.

“We can see your bones when the light comes through.”

A few more moments crawled by in silence, and then Ciccio heard the rattle of metal on stone. Ercole let out another wail of despair as the squid moved along the row of windows, trying them one by one.

“Dad put the shutters in just in case we ever got another squid,” Silvio said quietly. “I hope they hold.”

“If won't matter if they hold if Ciccio can't,” Ercole said. “Ciccio – how long do you think you can stay... allora... inflated?”

“I don't know,” Ciccio replied. He was already finding it tiring and it was starting to be painful. He hoped it would be long enough.

Suddenly, the rattling stopped. Ciccio felt something brush against his over-stretched skin, and would have shuddered if he hadn't been wedged in far too tight to move. He started hearing what sounded like distant voices. Could this be a rescue?

-

Having gathered the stuff they'd need to carry out Alberto's idea, the kids plunged back into the water over the continued protests of Luca's father. They left Nonna Libera sitting on the beach with the two Aragosta girls, one under each arm. Luca at once set out for the forge, hoping Signora Donzella had been right about Silvio wanting to go there.

Signs were good. Halfway there, they ran into Signor Pianuzza, carrying his daughter.

“Don't go that way!” he called to them. “The squid is in the ravine! Vittoria told me she'd sent the girls up to Alberto's Island to keep them safe – I'm heading up there with Alessia.”

“It's okay!” Luca said, “we're going to catch it!”

By the time they arrived at the forge, there were at least a dozen people there ahead of them. Most of these were gathered around outside the big forge cavern, watching or throwing objects. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of the crowd that had been following the kids through San Giuseppe mere hours ago. That gave Luca a moment of pause, but he reminded himself that he and his friends hadn't gone to that town to hurt anybody. The squid had tried to hurt people already.

“Stay back!” one of the adults told them. “It's in there!”

Luca went and looked inside anyway.

It was difficult to see what was going on inside. The squid's single large photophore was flashing like a strobe, making things seem to move in jerks. There were three people Luca could see, and he managed to make out that one was Signor Donzella, the second was Niccolò Branzino, and the third Luca's own mother Daniela. The two men were holding sharpened spears, while Daniela had a harpoon Massimo must have given her. They were circling the squid, jabbing at it and then darting out of the way of the tentacles.

“Mom!” Luca shouted out.

“Luca?” she looked up in horror and surprise. “I told you to go to the town!”

“We've got something to catch it!” Luca replied. He moved aside, and let his friends bring up the item they'd hastily put together on the Island. Using Alberto's extensive collection of Human Stuff, they'd made a Christmas-tree-shaped cluster of ropes, cords, and nets with a fishhook on the end of each – a giant squid hook. Now, they just needed to get the squid to attack it.

Right now its attention was elsewhere. When it realized Daniela was distracted, it wrapped a tentacle around her ankle. She cried out, and the two men hurried to help her. Daniela jabbed the harpoon at the only part of the squid she could see for sure in the flashing – the bright bulb on the end of its tentacle. The sharp point pierced it, and glowing goo burst out into the water, coating everything and suddenly making the inside of the forge very visible.

Tools and half-finished objects had been scattered around, and part of the chimney that produced the hot water had collapsed so that the vent was now spewing out into the room rather than up towards the surface. Stones had fallen to land in a pile around the cave where the Donzella family had used to live. The windows there were shuttered, and the door was blocked up by something with long spines, like a giant urchin. Were Silvio and Ciccio hiding in there?

Alberto and Giulia helped Luca thread their giant squid lure through one of the openings and let it dangle, and then called out to the three adults still fighting the creature.

“Up here!” Alberto shouted. “Lead it up here!”

“This way! Careful of the hooks!” Giulia agreed.

By the glow in the water the three adults could see them waving, but did not understand the strange construction they were gathered around – except for Daniela, who had spent enough time in the Marcovaldo house to recognize it at once. She turned and swam for the opening, darting around the dangling hooks. The squid, furious and in pain from its burst photophore, gave chase. Signor Donzella and Niccolò followed it on either side to herd it towards the lure if it got distracted.

Daniela wiggled out, and the squid reached for her, only to get a tentacle caught on one of the many hooks. It reached with another to free the first, and the second arm caught, then a third. Daniela joined the kids in jiggling the ropes to get more hooks moving. Before long the squid's arms were hopelessly tangled, but it could still swim by squirting water out of its siphon. When it realized it would soon be helpless, it released a cloud of gooey ink and then took off into the bottom of the trench. Daniela and Luca had to let go of the ropes in a hurry so they wouldn't be dragged along with it.

It took a minute or two for the ink to disperse, but eventually the moonlight started coming through. Giulia and Daniela had gotten the worst of the blast, and both were covered with dark stains. Daniela's hands and arms were also splotched with phosphorescence. She tried to wipe some of it away on her clothes, but soon gave up and gathered all three kids in for a hug.

“You brave, amazing, brilliant... I am so proud of you, and if I had my way you'd all be grounded for a season! Why don't you do what you're told?”

“It was Alberto's idea,” said Luca.

“Wait'll I tell Uncle Massimo I helped catch a giant squid!” Alberto grinned.

Daniela shook his head. “Young man, I hope your uncle...”

“Get out of the way!” Giorgia Donzella interrupted. She pushed past the group, and she and her husband entered the forge and began calling out. “Silvio!”

“Junior! Where are you?”

“We're down here!” came Silvio's muffled voice. “We're okay!”

The Donzellas went down to get their son, while Luca wriggled out of his mother's grasp. “Is Ciccio with you?” he asked.

“Yeah, he's fine,” Silvio said. “At least... I think he's fine.”

That didn't sound good. Luca and his friends followed the Donzellas to see.

#pixar luca #luca 2021 #luca paguro #alberto scorfano #giulia marcovaldo #ercole visconti #fanfiction #a little human (as a treat)

[argent-l-p]

I Would Walk Backwards into Hell for You

One Shot based on my interpretation of the Encanto Madremonte AU by the lovely @c-rose2081

Trigger warning! Blood, Injury, Violence, Possibly Death, Swearing, and Description of Injuries.

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“Some people, they'll never accept him, but some will and he seems to know how to find the good ones.” -Grandma Paguro, Luca

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It becomes easy to track prey when its skin has been split open and blood begins to spill. Predators had adapted their senses to such a degree that they could pick out the metallic iron scent of blood from miles away. It didn't matter how far something tried to hide itself or how much distance one could try to put between them and sharp teeth, a hunter would always pick up the scent.

In much the same way, they can identify familiar smells; the flowers around them combined with the river, the smell of rot within another rival's territory, and the smell of rain about to fall. So, it should not be surprising that the oldest Madrigal grandchild immediately sprinted into the jungle at the smell of blood coming in the direction of her home with Mirabel. And neither should anyone have been surprised at what happened to the would-be murderers.

It was supposed to be a quick and easy trip from their hidden home to Casita. Isabela had seen how focused Mirabel had been on her sketches of the new flowers that had bloomed in the nearby river and had insisted on going by herself to Casita. It was supposed to be an opportunity for her to keep drawing and for Isa to begin to make her trips alone.

She had kept one ear trained on her sister as she had left, "No te preocupes Isa! I'll be fine." The smile on her face had comforted her anxiety about the situation then, but imagining it now as she ran and vaulted over dead trees, the screams of men off in the distance and the smell of fear, she wanted to tear her teeth into whoever made her bleed.

Isabela was finishing her visit to the Madrigals when the wind shifted and the smell of blood came from upwind. She had thought it had been an animal. It wasn't strange that other predators brought down a kill in her area of the jungle, most of the prey animals having moved closer to it for the protection it garnered. Her ability to sustain herself through photosynthesis had remained and that made her a somewhat safe option to prey animals. She was a predator, yes, but she had never needed to hunt like so many others. She had almost ignored it until she realized that it didn't smell like that of an animal.

Snapping her head around to look over the walls, dread had begun to pool in her heart and he stomach began to drop. She stood from where she was crouched next to Antonio and tuned out any noise coming from around her. Her ears flickered, she started to breathe deeply, and her muscled began to tense; she had never looked more like a hunter than she had now.

At her sudden movement, the little boy startled, "Isa? Isa what's wrong?" But she wasn't completely there anymore, Isabela was now completely focused on the smell. To the east there were a couple of homes built into the jungle, the people who lived there preferring a more secluded home to the bustling streets of the Encanto. She had seen their inhabitants before in passing, but their jobs didn't have a great risk of injury, so that meant, "Mirabel!"

The tree in the middle of the courtyard had suddenly, and almost violently, moved. Isabela had all but thrown herself onto the incoming branch, running up to the very end and was launched over the eastern wall. When she reached the ground, plants and trees began to sprout, helping her reach the jungle quickly and into the already reaching arms of the forest. Bark began to climb up and cover the little skin that had been exposed, the familiar weight of her mask settled along her temples and over her face.

Branches reached for her and a path was cleared as she sprinted through the dense greenery, roots erupting from the ground and strengthening to allow the trees to move. Vines wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the air, whipping around like snakes ready to strike. The jungle itself was livid and raged against the earth, animals that had been sleeping ran from the warpath being carved in Isabela's wake, and Madremonte, who had never once lost her temper, was out for blood.

It was almost too easy to track the smell of spilled blood once she reached the edge of her territory. Hearing the snap of wood, she turned on her heel and watched as Mirabel stumbled out from the right and lifted her into the trees before she hit the forest floor. Looking at her sister Isabela began to feel the beginnings of a growl rumbling in her chest as her more obvious injuries were noticed. Mirabel had a deep slash wound running down the length of her arm, her temple was bleeding as if she had been struck from the side, and there were cuts and bruises on her hands. Looking into wild eyes, she grabbed her sister 's shoulders and grit her teeth, "Que paso? What did this?"

Her sister took in a ragged breath and curled in on herself, "Cazadores, Isa. They snuck up behind me and they had machetes; They were hunting us, Isa."

Any thought of scaring away a large predator was completely ripped away from her. Hunters had been a somewhat common fixture in the jungle as far as she can remember, they were the ones that brought in meat that wasn't fish caught in the calmer parts of the rivers. There had been poachers before, those who had tried their luck in hunting the jaguars and rarer animals, but never had there been hunters who focused on her. She had been a legend and a guardian of the jungle, barely a superstitious entity in the minds of the residents of the Encanto. She didn't exist for the better part of a decade and Mirabel was a Madrigal, she would have been protected, but obviously that wasn't the case anymore.

Far below them, she heard the snapping of branches and slowly turned her head down in the direction of the noise, ears flicking into the best position to listen closer.

"She couldn't have gone that far. She was bleeding and I slammed the bottom of the machete into her head."

"Well, la perra isn't here. We had her right where we needed her! Just one more minute and her head would have been ready to present to Senora Madrigal!"

"Both of you quiet! We can still find her. It's early and we have all day, let's not lose any more ground on her."

There were three of them walking under the tree, two sounded young, younger than the men she had watched on the shores of the river, and the last one had a voice that felt like rough stone and smelled of smoke. They were so familiar, but where had she seen them?

The plants below shifted ever so slightly, creating a trail heading off to the right and away from them. The blood left on the plants during Mirabel's flight from danger was obscured by the movement and overlap of vegetation. The jungle itself had moved softly in order to not alert the men of their position, the leaves of the tree catching the dripping blood in their wide bowls, branches bent to gradually obscure their bodies from below, and far off in the distance a log was toppled by the roots of a tree.

The great crash of wood on the ground made the men whip towards the sound and seeing the path of pushed over branches the older one smirked, "Hombres! Looks like there's a trail. Stupid girl didn't even try to hide." He lifted his machete up to point, "Let's not waste any time talking, we still have the older one to hunt."

Their movement went past them and she could still hear them talking as they moved away, "What do you think Senora Madrigal will give us when we give her the abominations?"

A snort escaped one of them, "I think that getting rid of them will give us freedom to ask for what we want. Personally, yo quiero garantía que mi nina will have a betrothal to the boy."

"Idiota, delivering their heads will make them give us whatever we want. Senora Madrigal will be your tickets into guard and to higher positions, so don't speak when we are offered a reward."

Snickers sounded off the trees as the younger men laughed and Isabela had to restrain herself from dropping down on them and tearing their throats out. They talked about them like they were prey; like they were mere animals to kill and skin.

Not for long, she thought with a curl to her lip. There was a reason why she was the most feared being in this jungle and there was a reason why people from outside the mountain range kept the more foolish poachers from trying their luck in breaching the barrier.

Turning to her sister she helped her higher into the tree, keeping an eye on the direction the trees shifted, it wouldn't be good if they came back this way. When Mirabel was situated up in the canopy, she looked her in the eye and turned serious, "Stay here. Whatever you hear, stay and don't move until I come a get you, mi rayo the sol. Entiendes?" At her sister's shaky nod, Isa smiled, her teeth bared and climbed down part of the tree and into the waiting branches of the next tree over.

It wasn't hard to find the three men, they were noisy and could be heard far before she even approached them. Looking at them from above, they weren't very impressive. The younger two men didn't look anywhere near prepared to hunt anything and the older one repeatedly made louder noises that alerted anything with ears to their presence. She watched as they stood still for a moment and as they turned their heads to look for the trail, she realized where she recognized them from.

As far back as she could remember there had been groups of people patrolling the very edges of the valley, but closer to the interior were structures that housed more people. Some were older and looked like they had been through battle, while most were young warriors yet to see combat. She had evaded and walked alongside them from the shadows, but as recently as Mirabel's thirteenth birthday there had been discontent amongst some of the older men and women. She had gone to investigate once to survey the situation and discern whether or not she would have to intervene in some capacity, and watched as an older man yelled at one of the regular inhabitants of the barracks; he'd had two boys with him, barely old enough to be considered adults. They had ended up being run off when the older took a swing at the other man and dragged the boys away.

Isabela shook her head and refocused on the men as they were led away by sound of rustling branches further away, none of that mattered at the moment and if need be, she could always drag their bodies back for identification.

A pair of almost slitted golden eyes watched as all three walked in single file and waited for them to enter a particularly dense area of underbrush to let a low and sinister rattle loose. They all froze and she watched as one by one understanding began to bloom on until it appeared on the old man's face. He swallowed as his face started to pale, "Josue, was there any blood in the ferns this way?"

A startled and fearful voice answered, "N-no. I thought you had been tracking the trail, Abuelo! The plants looked like they had been moved through!"

"Espera, what do you mean?" The other Young One, looked around wildly, hoping in vain to spot where the sound had come from.

Isabela began to creep forward and the roots started to reach up like clawed hands when the older man finally understood what was happening. Already pale faces turned deathly in pallor when he breathed out in a trembling voice, "We're being hunted."

In an instant, roots shot out from the earth and pulled one of the younger men into the earth, his screams abruptly cut off as he was yanked under and away from the area. The root systems tangled themselves around his arms and legs, mercilessly taking him though the earth and out into the open air as rock face of the cliffs gave way to twisting trees violently shooting out to wrap around his body. The trunks tightened, constricting his limbs until sickening snaps erupted from all four. Both his arms twisted in unnatural direction and his legs dangled uselessly in the air, pain lancing across his body making him shriek and wail; He would live, if only to satiate her anger.

In the wake of the commotion, the other two sprinted away from their third and the Old One started to yell, "Run! Don't look back!" The groaning of trees echoed around them as they ran away, one ahead of the other and rapidly leaving their counterpart behind.

A large dead trunk was suddenly thrown in front of the one left behind and he was forced to turn sharply to the right, dropping his weapon in favor of getting over suddenly rising roots. His increasingly desperate attempts at escaping were met with growls and too close rattling from above. His mistake was made when he startled so badly at a hissing to his right, that he never heard the crashing of a large tree coming down. Too late to move, he noticed movement in his peripheral and was knocked down. An intense weight landed on his legs, the overwhelming pressure forced a strangled yelp from his lungs, and every attempt to free himself only resulted in more pain. So focused on trying to get up he lacked the foresight to make sure the danger was gone. A second trunk began to slowly topple over and by the time he went to look up the additional weight had landed and forced him into unconsciousness.

With two of three threats taken care of, Isabela crashed through the canopy and chased after the one in the lead, the older one, never giving herself away as the canopy closed overhead and it suddenly turned dark. Closed off from the light, Isabela was practically a phantom and the Old One, a dead man walking.

Something that most in the family didn't realize was that even though Isabela had returned to a more stable form and looked more human, she was more Madremonte than she was Isabela. She was not like Mirabel who had only lived with the complete takeover of her curse for less than an hour, Isabela had lived close to sixteen years co-existing with the changes of her body; Nails were claws and canines sharp enough to cause major injury.

So, when the Old One faltered in his step, when he decided that Mirabel was prey and not Madremonte's precious one, he made a mistake that would cost him everything. She gained on him quickly after taking care of the last man and now that it was just him left running, she outpaced him and launched herself back.

Knocking him down, she dug her claws into his skin and broke through the barrier. Isabela didn't feel the burning sensation of a blade slicing through her thigh, didn't feel the lacerations of a machete on her back, all she could feel was the boiling well of rage beginning to overflow. She slashed her hand down giving him the same injury they had given Mirabel and gave him more for the terror he had wrought.

When Isabela finally noticed the blade, she seized his hands and broke them, every bone snapping as if they were made of flimsy branches. The machete dropped to the floor, wet with her blood and his. I wonder if he used it to hurt Mirabel, she thought and it served to push her further into the punishment she had chosen for him.

As he writhed and screamed on the ground, the jungle quieted until only the sounds that could be heard were the shrieks and cries of the other men. She stood and brought the weapon with her, vines starting to slither and entangle him, binding his body to the ground with no way of stopping what was coming. That incessant look of arrogance was replaced by primal fear all prey had when they realized there was nowhere to run, and Isabela bared her teeth with a grin and leaned down, "No deberías de haber echo eso, maldito hombre."

In a quick flash, the blade was buried deep within his thigh and roots shot through his hands. Any blood that might have spilled was stemmed by the tight fit of wood through the wounds and the slight magic that lived within her plants. He would live even if she had to drag him back from hell itself to answer for his crimes against who she adored. Slowly, the noises of the jungle returned and light filtered down from above, the trees settled once more in their homes and watched the scene like tall sentinels waiting for the next order.

(Isabela couldn't have known, but in that moment every living thing released the breath that had been held in the moment Mirabel cried out.)

With only a twitch, branches began to form cages around her captive prey and vines swooped down to wrap around her. As she was lifted up into the canopy, patches of skin began to appear from beneath their protective cover and her mind mellowed now that the danger had been eliminated; all that mattered now was Mirabel who was waiting for her to come back.

Approaching from the canopy, she could see her sister waiting for her, eyes darting around to spot any incoming threat. There were no words that Mirabel could use to express the deep-seated relief that coursed through her at the sight of her rock-protector-sister-Isa. When she was close enough to hug, Mirabel simply fell forward into safe and protective arms, resting her weight on Isa as she was pulled in close.

A rattle vibrated against her cheek and Isabela soothingly rubbed her back, "It's okay, Mira. I'm here, I'm here." When she felt a thumb wipe under her eye, she realized she was crying and not the tears she would shed if she was sad, the type that dripped continuously without stopping and made it hard to breathe. No, these were tears of terror, relief, and pain. The type that leak out without warning and are the only reaction a body can muster under duress. She was too tired to think or speak, so Mirabel buried her face in her sister's neck and clung to her for a long time, until her exhaustion caught up to her and she was asleep.

Isa waited until she could feel breaths even and picked her sister up carefully, vines tying around them both, holding them together as she scaled down the tree to the canopy and moved away towards the distant light of Casita and the Madrigals who waited for them to come home. Blood dripped slowly from her back, leaving a trail of red behind, but she never stopped, never let it slow her down. She could eat some of the food Julieta made later, they needed to get somewhere safe for the night.

The next few hours were blur, when they arrived the Madrigals rushed to them, frantically calling for them. Their cries turned to screams as they saw the red painting their bodies and the last thing Isa could definitely remember with clarity was that she had been sat down with Mirabel in her arms and given food to eat, worried eyes staring at her from all around.

The following week would become chaos as she recounted what had happened to Mirabel and she had heard from the men, how she had hunted them down like they had done to her Precious One and how they had planned to do to her after. Prompting led her to bring the matriarch and the town guard to the guilty, and she watched from above as their eyes widened at those that stared at them from their prisons.

She, along with the rest of the village, would learn that Senor Guerrera had been planning hunt the "devil sent" Madrigals and deliver their heads to Alma in an effort to curry favor and allow his grandchildren entrance into the guard that they had been denied.

They were sentenced to exile, the town watching from all around as their judgement was handed to them and were told to ready what they could to be brought with them as they were taken away from the Encanto. The Old one would never be able to rid himself of the violent tremor of his hands, Josue Guerrera would lose all feeling in his legs and Simeon Guerrera would be the one to escape with only a limp as a reminder of her wrath.

Around the Madrigals, the Encanto stood next to them in support of Isabela and Mirabel, but this also became the reminder that while Isabela had begun to return to them in increments, they would be wise to remember one thing, if only to ensure they didn't become prey.

Isabela was Madremonte, the protector of their hidden paradise, and she would not suffer fools who decided to remain willfully ignorant of the fact she would burn the world for Mirabel.

#mirabel madrigal #encanto madremonte au #encanto au #madremonte au #isabela madrigal

[pessimistic-sloth]

"your friend talked them into it. wasn't easy."

look me in the eye and tell me that's not in-love behaviour, you can't.

BONUS :

#the way luca looks at him with pure love and adoration #alberto being shy and smiling at the ground #grandma paguro knowing it all #just #*chefs kiss* #luca 2021 #luca #luca spoilers #luca Pixar #Pixar luca #Pixar #Disney+ #luca paguro #alberto scorfano #luberto #alberto x luca #luca x alberto

[fruti2flutie]

luca (2021) post-credits+

massimo cries once the train is gone. so do daniela & lorenzo. "it gets better with time," giulia's papà tells them. it still hurts; alberto stays in the rain until he can't hear the wheels on the tracks anymore.

giulia & luca talk all the way to genoa. about motors, about cars, about classmates, about uniforms, about weasels - seriously, about things luca has no idea what to even imagine! "my mamma will love you," she gushes, and then she talks about her mamma, about paint, about clay... luca sits, heart pounding but thrilled nevertheless.

luca tells giulia's mamma his secret the night they arrive. whether she knows already or not, it doesn't matter; he wants to tell her himself anyway. she holds onto him, strokes his hair, and it's just like he's with his own mamma.

the school in genoa is incredible. luca learns a countless number of things: geography, literature, chemistry, architecture, food... the world is so much bigger than the waters below portorosso. he finds more friends he can count on, and telling them his secret is hard but gets easier. giulia is there when he needs her, and he's there when she needs him. luca still dreams of the vespa & alberto, and he wonders what else they can do for their adventure to come.

alberto does well in portorosso, all things considered. at first the cityfolk are awkward, the fishermen especially wary, but the children know alberto as alberto, regardless of his skin or scales, and they love him for who he is. the sea monster posters are pulled off the walls & the harpoons are put away. after some time, it feels like not much has changed at all in the city - though ercole's insults for him become exclusively fish-related. alberto looks the other way because he knows that there will always be people who don't want to change.

massimo teaches alberto about human living. he learns how to cook perfect pasta, how to count coins & bills, how to get machiavelli to purr. the days are spent in the sun making deliveries & on the waters catching fish. less & less alberto thinks, silenzio bruno. he gets comfortable, he feels safe, and the tally marks on the island become so faraway.

(and alberto gets his own knife!!!)

in turn, alberto teaches massimo about the sea. there are beaches with the softest sands, jagged rocks with the most unforgiving edges. small sea monster villages, crab contests, fish farms... massimo asks about the sea monsters who raised him, and alberto gives him a lie. but the lie doesn't last long, isn't meant to; alberto tells massimo about a mamma he's forgotten & a papà who forgot him. massimo doesn't say much, he never really does, but he always keeps the tableware set for alberto, always greets him with, "buongiorno," and when alberto loses his way, massimo tries to find him.

daniela & lorenzo visit the city often. grandma paguro comes ashore, too, usually to play scopa with the other elders. lorenzo talks for hours about crustaceans with the fishermen; daniela plays ball with the mothers & children in town. they have dinner at massimo's house, whatever pasta alberto is attempting to make & whatever massimo cooks just in case. they talk about the land & the sea, the weather & the seasons, about giulia & luca. luca's parents claim they don't miss him terribly, but alberto knows it's a brave front because he does, too.

there are birthdays. there are anniversaries. there are letters. there are phone calls. there are two calendars that are marked every morning until summer arrives. there is longing.

the train brings giulia & luca back to portorosso a year later. both of them are taller but so is alberto, freckled & tanned by the sun. alberto boasts that he's now the tallest of the bunch, and giulia bets she'll at least outgrow luca by year's end. defensively, luca says she's the smallest when they're in water; she can't refute the statement. still, the three's welcoming embrace is as warm as the summer breezes.

luca has missed his family. he returns to the water & sees his mamma, his papà, and even his uncle ugo. the fish & crabs welcome him home as well, and the water has never looked bluer. he tells them every story he can, and it still doesn't feel like enough. they tell him stories, too, and he feels whole.

when staying in portorosse, luca & alberto sleep outside. giulia's room had turned into alberto's while she was away, but he gladly gives it up to sleep beside luca atop the tree. they talk underneath the not-anchovies, and the conversations never seem to stop. it feels just like last summer, but when they awaken to dewy mornings they no longer hide their tails.

massimo lets them take the boat to sea. giulia paddles while alberto & luca guide her from the water. she only accepts a helpful push from the boys when her face gets as red as her hair. and then they arrive at the island, untouched for months, and alberto sheepishly shows her what used to be his home. there is the collection of human items, the spare parts to the vespa he & luca built, the tally marks. giulia, being giulia, tells them everything about the items, how the tower must've been a lighthouse, how the tree must be decades old.

alberto listens to her speak, how excited she is to teach them, how thoughtful she is to hear him, and he says, "sorry." she doesn't understand; neither does luca. it's all in the past, but alberto wants to own up to it. "i wasn't fair to you back then. i thought you were gonna take him away," alberto says. "i didn't want to be..." alone, he doesn't say, but they hear it.

"stupido," giulia remarks, but there are tears in her eyes as the word leaves her lips. her arms wrap around him in a tight hug. "you're my fratello now, okay? luca, too."

"is luca my fratello?" alberto jokes & giulia laughs, "only if you want him to be." and luca hugs them both, even tighter. when they return to land, they sit on the pier & eat two-scoop gelato.

eventually, alberto apologizes to luca, too. "i shouldn't have done that to you," he says. they are on the beach, facing the night sky, the shore keeping their feet webbed. luca doesn't know what he's talking about, doesn't realize what he means.

"that time when i biked us into the sea, and then we... we fought," alberto continues, and luca remembers. of course he does. the dread, the frustration, the shame... the fear of being different, and the regret that he didn't say he was. alberto being his true self while luca just couldn't bear revealing his secret.

"hey," luca says. "it's okay. i'm okay." because alberto never said i forgive you to him either, but he was okay then, and they're okay now.

the summer goes on.

they enter the portorosso cup race as a team of three (granted alberto & luca don't swim) and they win - fair & square. giulia doesn't throw up along the way & no rain comes down for any surprises. the prize money doesn't go towards another vespa but to a new boat for the marcovaldos. granted, the underdogs would need to win a dozen more cups to buy the entire thing, but it's a start.

#luca #pixar #luca spoilers #my writing #a stronger person would've written the ao3 fic but i am Not Strong #i've only watched it once plz spare my brain for doing this spontaneously #luca is a love story (fact) #i thought abt that betrayal scene for a long time :| #fanfic #(kind of not really aksjwkdls) #idea brain

[reef-of-ideas]

Continuation from this promt of @luca-x-alberto-prompts

UNDER THE SEA

Giulia was starting to feel a little hurt. It was her birthday at the end of the week and the boys had ignored her for days.

She knew the Nerei didn't usually put much emphasis on birthdays, but they'd lived with humans (and they were her family) long enough to know how important it was. Mainly for her. But she gave them her space, respecting their choices and trying not to let it affect her.

On the morning of her birthday, she was shaken and woken by a pair of hands and greeted by brown twins and hazel twins.

"Happy birthday, Giulia," they both whispered, looking very serious.

"Grazie, ragazzi. You remembered!"

Of course I do," whispered Alberto indignantly. "Where did you think we were this week?"

Luca pulled what appeared to be a small clump of semi-dry seaweed from behind him, but held it as if it were extremely fragile.

"What is it?"

"Your gift."

She took it as gently as Luca had given it to her, though she didn't know why. She smiled at the gesture. "Grazie."

The boys looked at her expectantly in the dim light, as if she wasn't doing something important.

"...oh! There's something in the seaweed, isn't there?"

They nodded and Giulia started to unwrap. It was a very interesting looking necklace. It was tied with stones, shells, scales and corals. All parts were gently admonished and carved with symbols in a language she had never seen.

"This is beautiful!" she applauded and the boys silenced her. "What?"

"We want to run away and experience it before Massimo wakes up."

"Try?"

The two looked at each other seriously again before Luca explained, "This is an ancient relic that can turn humans into Nereis."

Giulia gasped, understanding why Luca had been so careful about this.

"What? How? I-"

"It's ancient and powerful, made at the same time that our people are said to have been given the gift of transformation. It wasn't that hard to find, actually. Because the people of the sea tend not to make friends with many humans. Much less wish- them to join us. "

Alberto took her hand and continued. "But you, Giules. You accepted us before anyone else, taught me and Luca a lot and gave up the victory against Ercole. You were a true friend and a half decent sister."

"We want you to see what it's like. Will you try?"

She was staggering out of bed and pulled on her boots immediately. "Try to stop me!"

<...>

"How is this going to work exactly?" Giulia looked from Alberto and Luca to the water in front of her, the necklace cool and dry against her skin and hidden inside her pajamas.

"My grandmother said it will be instantaneous, as will our transformations" Luca's voice was reassuring as Giulia removed her boots and placed her feet in the sand.

"Just go into the water, try not to think too much" Alberto encourages trying to hide his obvious excitement with indifference and enters the sea as if to serve as a leader

"Not thinking is your specialty Beto" the girl laughs gaining confidence and taking her first steps into the water, Luca's hand holding hers as the two walked towards Alberto.

Giulia didn't feel any different as she imagined when the water touched her feet, just an itch halfway down her shin that just as quickly disappeared as well.

"Ragazzi I don't think-" whatever Giulia was about to say was cut short as Alberto's hands grabbed her wrists and pulled her into the water.

"Giules you can open your eyes you know" Alberto's voice came from somewhere, which made Giulia realize that she had closed her eyes when she was pulled.

Green and brown eyes looked at her fascinated and with wide smiles, Luca even swam around her, the blue and green scales glistening in the water.

"It's alright...breathe" Luca takes the girl out of her trance making her release her breath, the water flows like the air making Giulia laugh with excitement

"I'm breathing underwater" she speaks softly as if analyzing the situation "I SPOKE UNDERWATER"

The two boys laughed at their friend's delight and took a look at her appearance, her skin was covered with yellow scales that mixed with shades of orange and something that looked like brown, her hair and fins were a gradation from orange to red, the irises of her eyes were a shade of honey brown.

"WORKS" Alberto celebrates doing a somersault underwater, before faking a cough and regaining his posture "I mean...whatever"

"This is the best gift of my life" Giulia looks at her feet and at the tail that swayed a little lost

"Come on! There are so many things we want to show you!" The green and blue Nerei says swimming excitedly "can we stop by my house first and then go to the island? Or maybe…"

"I think I'd like to learn to swim first" The red one tumbles forward trying not to be carried away by the water

"I'm an expert" Alberto says making Luca and Giulia looked at each other smiling "it's like walking, only it hardly uses its feet and it's in the water...and with a tail...but besides that it's identical"

"I've heard a similar explanation before" Luca laughed swimming up to Alberto who looked a little embarrassed, but smiled

"Although it's an excellent explanation, I don't know if I can do it" Giulia throws her body to the right to avoid being upside down

"I had a idea" Luca swims until she stands side by side with the newcomer "try to move your shoulders like that and then follow your body with the movement"

As if to demonstrate Luca leaned his body forward and moved his shoulders slightly left and right and pushing forward, the rest of his body followed the movement more subtly except for the tail which used its strength to stay straight. .

"Good Luca" Alberto joined the demo and teaching the best ways to make turns and avoid obstacles "Andiamo Giules"

The two boys held Giulia's wrists and guided her to a swim together, little by little it got easier and the girl was already swimming alone (although she could have lost her balance once or twice)

"THIS IS AMAZING, BEST BIRTHDAY EVER" Giulia did somersaults in the water smiling and swimming around her two best friends

"Luca and Alberto? What are you doing here? I thought you'd be with Massimo for Giulia's birthday…..GIULA?" Daniela Paguro was swimming along with her husband and mother.

"LOOK GRANDMA, IT WORKED" Luca swims in a hurry to see his grandmother who smiled looking at the newly transformed Nerei

"Hehehe, beautiful Giulia scales" Nonna paguro says smiling friendly

"Thank you Nonna Paguro" Giulia smiles excitedly, her left hand going directly to the center shell of the necklace.

"Why don't we go to Massimo's house and then the three of you don't go for a walk around the reef, Luca could you introduce Giulia to our neighbors and show her our town" Lorenzo suggests calmly beside his wife

"Great idea" Daniela says clapping my hands and together the six swam towards the surface.

As she took her first steps on the sand, Giula felt the scales entering her skin, the colors faded and shrink back to their human hue, her hair returned to pure red curls.

"This...this is weird" Giulia put her hand to the back of her body where her tail was a few seconds ago

"You get used to it" Alberto hangs his right arm around his adoptive sister's shoulders

Taking one last look at the waters lit up in the morning, Giulia can't resist touching the necklace and imagining how many new adventures await her.

#pixar luca #luca paguro #alberto scorfano #giulia marcovaldo #fanfiction #fic prompts

[tipolover22]

AO3 GAME

So, I was tagged by my wonderful friend (I know we don’t talk much, but I still consider you a friend) @etherealbutterflie !!!! Thank you so much for tagging me in this!!! I usually don’t do these (Mostly because my adhd makes me procrastinate for so long that it’s too late to do it when I finally want to), but I really wanted to do this one because it sounded like fun! I love talking about my writing! Here we go!!! 

How Many Works Do You Have On AO3?

I have 9 works on AO3 currently, and (Just because I want to mention them) I have three other fics of FF.net.

      2. What Is Your Total AO3 Wordcount?

It’s 370,348. Jesus fucking christ. I did not know that until now. That’s...that’s a lot of words XD. (Excuse me while I go cry for second because my stupid spotify decided to play “Go find out for me”, like seriously?!?!?) Anyway, out of curiosity, I also added the word count from FF.net and that all together equals 474,309. My fucking god. I write a lot for someone who’s only ever finished, like, 2 fics XD

      3. How Many Fandoms Have You Written For and What Are They?

I have written for 6 fandoms in total. Those are...

Luca

Coco

How To Train Your Dragon

DreamWorks Trolls

Gravity Falls

Kung Fu Panda

      4. What Are Your Top 5 Fics By Kudos?

Ok, so, Here we go!!

Betrothed (Trolls) with 853 kudos

Siempre (Coco) comes in 2nd with 245 kudos!

Listen To Your Heart (Trolls) is in 3rd with 153!

Uncharted Waters (Luca) (Which I’ll probably never finish) comes in 4th with 122 kudos!

And, finally (I’m so happy this actually made the list) Caro Luca Paguro comes in at 5th with 93 kudos!!

      5. Do You Respond To Comments? Why Or Why Not?

I do my very best to respond to comments because I really love doing so, but with my ADHD, it’s kinda hard to do it cause I’ll respond in my head and say I’ll respond for real later, but then I never do. I like talking with others about my fics, especially if they’re fans!

      6. What’s The Fic You’ve Written With The Angstiest Ending?

Ok. So, like. I don’t like angsty endings. I’m the kind of girl who loves happy endings. I don’t really like there to be any real villain. Just a lot of misunderstandings that become cleared up by the end of the story. HOWEVER! If you ask my good old friend @geekgirles , she will fucking tell you I’m a horrible ass liar because I wrote a fic based off this song called One Headlight by the WallFlowers. So, naturally, the fic is called One Headlight. It was a Human Broppy au (Trolls), where they’re teenagers in a small town of Nevada (God, I miss Nevada) where Branch has lost everyone he loved to this disease called Bergen’s disease. It was a heart disease that ate away at your heart and the only true cure was a heart transplant. So he was pretty distant in this new town until he met Poppy, this upbeat girl who was the fire in his cold heart! They had a great night at a dance, but when he met her friends, he knew he didn’t fit in her life with his depressed attitude, but Poppy always did her best to get him into her friend group. So he had become already attached (though he would never admit it) to her when she had told all her friends that she had Bergen’s Disease. He was pretty shitty about it at first, not believing she was gonna make it. But, the thing about Poppy was that she was hopeful. He had never had someone like that before. Someone who had hope. When his grandma had found out she had bergen’s disease, she had tried her best to prepare him for the day she would die. She had no hope of getting a donor on time. But Poppy always had hope. It was refreshing to him. In the end, after they confessed their feelings and shit, I did the most horrible thing I have ever done to the Trolls Fandom. I killed Poppy. She had gotten a donor in time, but her body wasn’t responding to the new heart. It killed Branch inside. And, years later, he killed himself because she was the only one he had ever felt happy with. This was meant to be sort of a bittersweet drama like “All The Bright Places”. It had actually been a challenge to write this fic, because I had never written anything so fucking sad before. I actually ended up crying myself while writing certain scenes for this fic. But I did it. I proved to myself I could write a story like this.

      7. Do You Write Crossovers?

No, I don’t think I ever have? Siempre, though, if I had ever actually finished it, was going to be one because I was a Higuel fan (Hiro from Big Hero 6 and Miguel) and they were gonna sort of end up together in the end because Honey Lemon’s real name was going to be Jimena and she was going to visit the Rivera’s since they were putting a new photo on their Ofrenda. That’s how they were going to meet, but I never finished it. I am, though, trying my hardest to write down a small synopsis of what was going to happen in the entire story and posting it along with notes and scenes I had written beforehand but had never gotten to just to give some fans a little closure, but, with my adhd, it’s hard to focus on a fandom I’m no longer in.

      8. Have You Ever Received Hate On A Fic?

Oh my fucking god! YES! Seriously, The HTTYD fandom doesn’t fuck around, especially the toxic Hiccstrid fans. Jesus christ. In my fic, I Didn’t Mean To Come Here, people were going to have to suffer through a bit of Eretstrid (Which I don’t really ship, I just did it for the plot), and I got death threats for that shit. It was the worst feeling ever when I got those comments, but now I just take them in stride because, like, imagine sending death threats to someone because of a fucking ship. Like, this wasn’t even a problematic ship either. It’s two fucking teenagers. Not to mention, I made Hiccup bi in the fic, and some people didn’t like that and had the fucking AUDACITY to tell me that they were gonna stop reading the fic because of it. Like, Ok? I’m not writing this fic for you anyway, I’m writing it for me. Not to mention, in my Gravity Falls fanfic, Forever Love, people throughout the years just fucking LOVED to tell me how overrated my fic is and how it wasn’t even that good. Like, so fucking what? I was 15 when I wrote it. Get over it. I still like to revel in the fact that, at one point, it was the most favorited fic in the fandom. I still live off of that high because I was only 15 at the time and really made my year.

      9. Do You write Smut? If So, What Kind?

Yes! I have written smut before. In the trolls fandom. I don’t really know what kind of smut there is, but I was told that the scene I wrote felt like something out of a romance novel, so I guess more Sensual than a BAM! WHAM! Sex scene! I don’t think I would write smut for any of my other fandoms though, especially because it’s all kids and teenagers and I am no longer one so it feels weird? I’m not that old, only 21, but teens feel like babies to me now and fictional characters that are teens are just like my barbie dolls now where the most I’ll make them do is kiss. Probably write awkward scenes just for comic relief, but nothing even close to smut.

      10. Have You Ever Had  Fic Stolen?

OK BUCKLE FUCKING UP!!!! I once had a fic called ‘Destiny Calls’ for the Kung Fu Panda Fandom that I had actually finished when I was, like, 15 or so and it was about how Tigress ran away from the Jade Palace to go find herself and actually finds her Birth family in the process. It turns out her birth mother had six or seven other kids, I don’t remember, but there was this special one that she grew to like the most, Gushi, which means Story. (I probably had her ND coded without even realizing because I made her like me, kind of a self insert) Well, it turns out that the reason Tigress’s mom gave her up was because a Demon was after her (I don’t even remember why, but I’ll chalk that up to 14 year old me who thought this was a good plot) because the demon was destined to be defeated by a tiger named Ming Yun, which was Tigress’s birth name. So, the demon attacked the family and that’s when Tigress’s mother had to give her up, lest her child die at the hands of a demon! Well, it turns out that it was not Tigress who ended up defeating the demon, because the demon got his own story wrong. Ming Yun means Destiny in Chinese, which meant it was the demon’s destiny to be defeated by a tiger, not necessarily named Ming yun. Gushi was special because she was the only one who could hold the Sword of Heroes without being cut and for plot reasons because she was actually the one who was destined to kill the demon. But, in order to kill the demon, she had to die herself. It was a hero's sacrifice to save the valley of peace (which actually got destroyed, but no one had died because, if I remember right, which I don’t think I am, they had escorted everyone out when they found out the demon was coming). Tigress, in her grief, goes with Po and the Furious Five, forgetting her life as Ming Yun and her siblings reluctantly let her because the mom now wants nothing to do with her if she’s gonna be like that. And that’s how I ended it off because I had a sequel planned but in the end, I deleted the whole fic and it’s sequel because it was starting to become those Next Gen fics I don’t like and, as I grew as a writer, I was looking back at it and thinking “TiPo, what the fuck is this?”. Anyway, someone tried to repost it as their own fic. I remember being 16 and pissed as fuck! Especially cause the person who stole it put the title as “Destany Calls”. The typo really sealed the anger because I was like “You’re gonna steal my fic but you’re not gonna write the title correctly? Bruh?!” But that’s all in the past now. I guess, now that I look back at it, it’s kind of funny because that story was absolute shit! But this person thought it was good enough to steal, so I’m sort of flattered in a way. But, nah, if someone tried stealing any of my fics now, I would call them out on their shit.

      11. Have You Ever Co-Written A Fic Before?

No, I don’t think I have. Though, I do remember when my sister was, like, 8, she wanted to write KFP fanfiction just like me, so she would write small, cheesy stories that, ya know, an 8 year old would write and ask me to post them on my FF.net account. So I guess that kind of counts?

      12. What’s Your All Time Favorite Ship?

Po and Tigress. No fucking doubt. I’ve been in the Pandom since I was 8 years old, the year it came out, before I even knew what Fandom was. They were my ultimate favorite ship and when KFP 2 came out, it only sealed it. That’s why I’m TiPoLover 22, because I love TiPo. But don’t ask me who the other 21 are, I don’t know. I’m actually still a huge fan of TiPo, but my preferences for them have changed. I used to ship them in that Hetro bullshit way, but now I headcanon Tigress as Asexual, biromantic and Po as Asexual, Demiromatic. I was going to update Friendship because a while back I was editing chapters and I added a new one and I had decided that I wanted to add a real plot to it where in the end, Tigress and Po realize that the friendship they have became much more but because they don’t experience feelings like everyone else, they hadn’t realized it before. But I never got around to doing that. Even so, TiPo will always be my ultimate ship.

      13. What Was The First Fandom You Wrote For?

If it wasn’t obvious already, Kung Fu Panda. I had so many fics planned for them, but I never got around to them and the only one I ever finished was Destiny calls. Though, Friendship, as it is now, is technically finished cause each chapter, though connected, were stand-alone oneshots. I’ve deleted a lot of my KFP fics because as I grew as a writer, I realized how hectic and unsolvable the plots were and how horrible I was at researching Chinese culture. I’m not active in the Pandom anymore, but I still consider myself in it because it’s a fandom and a community that will always be dear to my heart.

      14. What’s Your Favorite Fic You’ve Written

I don’t know. I kind of love all my fics, really. They’re all my babies! But, I guess I would have to say Forever Love because it was the first fic I ever finished. All the hype I got through that fic was amazing and really boosted my confidence as a writer.

AAAHHH! This was so fun!!! I’m so happy I was tagged. Now, for MY tags!! 

@geekgirles , @eyeloveu , @peppermintyboy , @flying-princess , @anchoviesinthenightsky , and anyone else who would love to do it!!! 

#Luca pixar #Pixar Luca #kung fu panda #kung fu panda 2 #kung fu panda 3 #how to train your dragon #httyd #pixar coco #coco pixar #Gravity Falls #dreamworks trolls #trolls world tour

[lluvguts]

Cool Blue ; Chapter Five

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

sneak us through the rivers

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

☽ warnings: sexual tension, heat cycle talk, touching

☽ fic masterlist

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

Luca slept through Lorenzo's gentle wake-up of kneeling beside the cave bed and prodding one caring hand against his shoulder. Ever since he was a child the action became normalized, with Luca curling around his father's touch along with a quiet yawn and a sleepy lopsided grin at his level eyes. But now, with the blues of his bedroom brightening as the sun hung above their home, he wouldn't budge. Lorenzo cleared his throat and removed his hand from Luca's shoulder for a moment, seeing how his son looked like a stone at the bottom of a river.

"Hey, Luca," Lorenzo rubbed his back. "You slept through the morning chores. I think the goatfish are missing you."

He stirred in the stifling water making his scales feel congested and stiffened when his eyes opened to his father wading next to him. Now that he was awake, the uncomfortable heat radiating off his skin made Lorenzo pull away with a frown.

"Luca, are you okay?"

"Giuseppe?" Luca slurred, disoriented. He rolled onto his other side to face Lorenzo, who was now floating back to the far wall of his room, gingerly tracing the ripples of warm water that chased his movements.

"Daniela!" Lorenzo cast a fearful look to his son then darted from the room. Though Luca's room was separated there was still the mouth of the cave entrance that had no means of a door and allowed Luca's grandmother (or, alternately, anyone) to peek her head inside at Lorenzo's little shout. Daniela soon followed.

"Y-You said he still had a few months!" Lorenzo returned clutching the hand of Daniela, while grandma Paguro trailed behind wordlessly, smirking to herself.

"All I said was that seventeen was the normal time for this, Lorenzo," Daniela said in a frustrated whisper, her dark tail making rivulets in the water.

Luca blinked at the three of them, now in his private space, then growled. He couldn't really stop himself from doing so, he had been sleeping peacefully enough until they all decided to ruin the dream he was having.

Oh, cod. The dreams he'd been having...

Daniela bent down to look Luca in the eyes, taking hold of his shoulder. Luca winced and placed his hand on top of his mother's. She clicked her tongue in response.

"Yep. Scales are hot...He's sensitive to touch...Been sleeping away most of the day already," She murmured more to herself than to her concerned husband.

"Will be be alright?" Lorenzo piped up, leaning toward Luca.

"Oh please, Lorenzo. You went through your heat too, remember?" Daniela sighed and looked back to him with a scowl. Lorenzo flushed and averted his gaze away.

Luca found his voice. "My...what?"

"Your heat cycle," His grandmother added in, being the third and final family member to join Luca at his bedside. She snorted. "It means you're going to be ready to find a mate soon."

"Mother! I said we should ease him into it! Does that sound like easing to you?"

Mate? A mate? Or...mating? He squirmed at the thought.

Three very different pairs of eyes, all holding separate emotions, glimmered back at him. Luca felt their gazes burning into his scales and crawled away from the ledge of the bed to the point where his dorsal fin brushed the rock wall. The stone cave was smooth and cool to the touch. So silky against his tender scales and spines it made that odd pain burst through his abdomen again until it blossomed into an even more peculiar sort of pleasure. It soothed his feverish scales and reminded him of the practiced hands that had been all over him in his dreams, and as his parents argued only inches from his trembling body he bit down on his tongue to keep quiet.

"Are you in pain, Bubble? Where does it hurt?"

"Oh, poor thing, look at him shaking. Great job, Daniela," Luca's grandmother chided with a light chuckle.

Not for what you may think, Luca thought with an internal groan of discomfort.

"What did I do wrong?" Daniela turned to growl at her mother.

"He's your son."

Daniela's tail flicked angrily. "Well what did you do when it was my time, mother?"

The older woman examined her scales, and, without missing a beat, "Sent you out to the breeding grounds. Don't point the claw at me, missy. You and Lorenzo had a fairly nice time."

"Breeding grounds?" Luca shrieked. His back was fully pressed to the cave wall now, to his parents it only confirmed their assumptions on his fear but really Luca was doing it because it felt better than the boiling water around him.

Even the word sounded primitive. Luca had seen--not by choice--a few of the goatfish going through a particular season of...breeding, and if what he'd been forced to watch while sheperding was anything remotely close to how it was for sea folk, he didn't want in on it. Well, he knew how it was for sea folk, of course. Daniela had been hell-bent on initiating that conversation much earlier than Luca would have preferred.

"Can we talk about this later?" Luca begged, sliding back down onto his kelp bed with his claws raked through the fins on his head. "Please? I just want to go back to sleep."

"Go back to sleep?" Lorenzo chuckled. "Son, you've been sleeping this whole time--"

"Oh, nonsense," Daniela put her hand on Lorenzo's snout, quieting him. "He'll need all the rest he can get if he really is in heat. Besides, it'll keep him away from the neighbor's. I think they have a young girl around Luca's age, and that's the last thing we need."

"Uh, I'm right here?" Luca said angrily. His whole body felt like it was spinning on a wheel of emotions with no axis, just one blending into the other.

Lorenzo gave Luca a sympathetic smile before he was pulled away by grandma Paguro into the cave channel outside his room.

"Don't worry Lu," Daniela took hold of both Luca's hands, squeezing them. "This'll all be over in a few weeks."

"But," Luca looked to her algae dress swaying with the water, feeling his face warm up. "You're saying that...all of these things I'm feeling are just because of the heat?"

"Yes, baby." She tapped the back of his hand reassuringly. "I know it's confusing, but I promise after you get just a little bit more rest, we can explain it later. Okay, Bubble?"

Luca had a million things to say, and he wanted to say them now. He wanted to tell his mother that he thought he was going crazy because he'd had the best and most vivid dreams of his entire life. Well, maybe not say exactly that, but it was definitely up there. Or the fact that every time he moved, a starburst of pain cramped in his stomach, low and threatening, but all that came with it were thoughts dirtier than the time uncle Ugo decided to make whale for dinner. He wasn't supposed to think things that vile!

And, most of all, the beautiful land monster boy he'd met at the cove. With his tanned skin that reminded Luca of the tender underside of the brown conch shells he used to collect. And the sun kisses on his skin! Each one like a splash of color gifted from the fish in the sky! His eyes, bright expectant shards of sea glass Luca wished he could touch. Alberto, marvelous and witty, painting the rocks that lined the pool at the cove. Luca, marveled and wincing with feeling. Just thinking about him made his stomach ache. It made him ache all over. But it wasn't a sorrowful, sore pain.

It was an ache of need. Of want. Once his train of though passed through thinking innocently of Alberto's kind eyes and lopsided grin, it focused more heavily on the way Alberto bit his lip and the lean muscles that made up his body until he had to catch his breath because his mother couldn't catch him like this.

So all Luca did was nod at his Daniela's words, all worked up again, and wave weakly as she swam out of his room.

He fell back onto the bed, chest heaving.

This was impossible. And she had said it was going to last weeks?

"Oh, sharks. I'm so dead," Luca groaned, digging the flat part of his hand to his belly. He traced one of his gills with his eyes closed, savoring the feeling and the memories of the night before. Luckily for him, the entrance to his bedroom was facing out into the hallway, where there was only silence.

A considerable amount of silence.

Then an idea broke through his hazy thoughts of Alberto. Luca flipped himself over and swam to the mouth of the cave, glancing at either side of the hallway. No one was in the rooms beside him, and from the eerie quiet they all must have left the house so he could sleep.

Guilty bile rose in his throat, but Luca didn't care. There was no feasible way he was falling asleep. He checked the hallway one more time before taking an old blanket made of sea moss and throwing it on top of his bed, along with stuffing a few lumpy pieces of coral he'd stashed away underneath that until it formed a lumpy version of himself under the covers.

He didn't believe that what was burning in his chest for Alberto was just because of some stupid sea monster thing.

/ / /

"Alberto! How are you already here?" Luca popped his head out from under the still water to stare at his friend. "I didn't think you'd be wandering around."

When Luca had snuck back to the wide rock opening to the cove underwater, he could already smell Alberto from above. His salty scent, mixed with other delicious things too overpowering for his sensitive nose, but he could find it anywhere. There was a sweetness lingering in Alberto's scent, it was honey and flower petals.

Alberto smiled apologetically with his hands on the straps of his bag. "I wasn't wandering around. I came to see you." He undid the latch on his bag, the very one where all of the fun paint colors came out of if Luca was correct, and produced a towel. Luca's brows were pulled low as he watched from the edge as Alberto crouched down to him and dunked it into the water.

"What're you doing?" Luca pointed at the towel, once light and radiating weird land monster smells but was now dull and soaking in sea water.

Alberto's face went pink, a color Luca loved looking at, and shrugged. "I, uh, thought that this might help with the sun." He knelt down on his bare knees and draped the dripping towel across Luca's shoulders. "You can come out of the water now. Now it shouldn't hurt as much."

Alberto helped Luca up until they were both sitting, cross-legged, staring at each other. The towel was heavy with the weight of the water around him, but was nice against his scales. He pinched the corners of the towel and nestled deeper inside of it.

"Thank you," Luca whispered with dark cheeks. When he looked at Alberto now the words mate and heat and breeding grounds appeared in his head unannounced and his skin crawled with the indecision of everything spinning around him.

"You good, Luca?" Alberto leaned closer toward him, growing concerned. Luca wanted to smack him, with his face inches from his nose the stench, albeit a lovely one, rippling off his tan skin was too much. They were things Luca did not know the names for in the human world, but all the same he smelled intoxicating.

Luca took in a deep breath, his gills still clogged with sea water, and nodded uneasily. "Is it okay if I try something?" He rushed to ask in his preheat, head-pounding state.

"Uh, okay?" Alberto sat back normally. "Are you gonna take me to Atlantis or something? Hate to break it to you, Luca. I might be an expert at swimming but I don't think I can breathe underwater like you."

The arrogance rolled off Alberto in waves, and Luca fought to keep his head steady.

"No! That's not what I meant! It's not even called Atlantis, you know. And if I wanted to take you, the water pressure is too deep for your ears. You'd probably die or something."

"Then what did you mean?"

Luca scooted closer, claws still gripping the towel like a cape. "Sorry, it's just that...you're the only land monster I've seen. Ever. So, like, there's a lot of weird things about you that I need to know about."

Alberto snorted. He placed his arms behind his back and looked to Luca with a glint of a challenge in his eyes. "Like what?"

"Like your stubby claws, for one." Without hesitation Luca grabbed for one of Alberto's hands, crawling to sit beside him and examined his fingers and nails chewed down to tiny stubs. "They're so weird. You can't do anything with these."

Alberto only watched with a smug look to conceal his awe.

"I'm gonna skip the whole no-tail thing," Luca continued, scanning Alberto's body. He drank in his skin and the shiny stuff that looked like water beading along his temple and around his tank top. It seemed cool, and he wanted to touch it but he kept his hand back.

"Alright, have you had your fun already? I know I'm not as amazing as you are," Alberto asked while Luca crawled closer to pat his fluffed up curls. "Not everyone can be a sea monster."

"Okay, now this is weird," Luca commented on Alberto's messy hair. His hands moved slowly to his forehead, checking to see Alberto's flat expression when his claws grazed the sides of his face.

"...What?" Alberto asked, leaning closer. "So, you're touching my face?"

Luca blushed and let his hands rest on each side of his jaw, holding him in place. "You don't, uh, feel anything?" If he could only slip his fingers beneath Alberto's ears...that was the most delicate part. That was where he'd scent him.

His breath hitched, and all he'd done was touch his cheeks. Scent him? He couldn't, he wasn't a sea monster. But...something in him wanted to. It really, really did.

"Am I supposed to feel something else? All I feel are your slimy paws on my face."

Luca hissed playfully. "Slimy? It's a natural coating. I'd dry up out here if I didn't have it...And they aren't paws, Alberto. They're hands just like yours."

"My fingers aren't webbed." Alberto held up one hand to make his point.

"Whatever."

"Why are you asking anyway?"

"Because," Luca let his gaze drift over Alberto's face, shiny with sweat and dotted in freckles. "Because it's supposed to, uh--"

"Does it...feel differently for you?" Alberto stared with new knowledge at Luca's face. "Is that why?"

Luca couldn't breathe. He only nodded. Alberto registered the breath Luca was holding, his yellow eyes wide and pupils blown.

"Ah, okay," Alberto whispered. He sat up straighter and lifted one hand off the grass, placing it directly on Luca's cheeks, his thumbs just grazing the base of his audial fins. His thumb and index fingers gently took hold of them, feeling their slippery texture almost in the way Alberto might relish in the softness of velvet. His touch was soft, tentative and curious but most of all wholly him.

All of the sea water that was dripping down Luca's face had dried up, and in its place was the shock that Alberto was touching him, not just touching his hand or his shoulder, but his hands were--

He couldn't even finish his line of thought. When he was touching him, the pain that had pooled in his stomach lightened. But it didn't stop the tingling that spread all through his legs and up his spine.

Alberto hummed his interest, gauging Luca's pinched face for any sort of reaction, before letting his wonder get the best of him as he slipped his fingers behind his fins, just above his gills.

"Hmm," Eyes shining, dark pools leaving Luca helpless as to what Alberto was doing. "These gills are interesting. They don't feel like the normal ones you see on a fish or a shark. You know, my Papa taught me all about marine biology, but maybe it's a bit different in your case. Though this seems to be the same..."

To refer his point Alberto ran his index finger in a slow, agonizing circle there on his skin.

A pathetic little purr rose in Luca's throat, and he hurried to correct his mistake by slapping his hand over his mouth.

He spoke around his own hand covering his lips. "Mngh! I'm sorry! I just! You're--"

Alberto shushed him and peeled Luca's hand away. "S'okay. Sensitive, huh? I guess I didn't think of that."

Luca bit his lip and nodded, clamping his tongue between his teeth. "Very."

His gaze lightened a bit, flicking over to Luca's cheeks tinged a deep, flushed blue. He let his eyes roam down to his throat, where he could see his frantic pulse beating away, trying to keep himself under control. And, finally, to the dappled line of brighter, more opalescent scales that trailed down Luca's waist until they disappeared into the hem of his mossy shorts.

Luca knew those what those markings on his skin were, such a light blue it teetered on the edge of pink.

They were signs of a sea monster in heat.

Luca swallowed hard, his throat much too dry, while Alberto's green eyes soaked him up. Alberto's next words were chosen carefully, softly spoken, barely a puff of electric air around his warm scales. When did they get so close?

"Is it...a bad sensitive?" Alberto pressed, genuinely interested, and lifted the pressure of his hands off of Luca's gills. "Or a good one?"

Luca snapped his jaws tight, he could feel the blood drumming in his throat at that. Somehow he found himself drifting to Alberto for the curve of his chest, both arms on him created a little curve for Luca to hide in. His heady scent drove him further, enough to rest his temple on Alberto's collarbones, lungs burning to keep his breathing normal. Alberto stiffened around Luca's touch, but only for a moment. He sighed and his fingers resumed their teasing touches along his neck.

"A g-good one," Luca breathed out. That painful burn pooled in his stomach, making those pink scales itch and Luca couldn't help but put his hand there on his belly to suppress the cramping. But that wasn't all that was bothering him. He realized, as the pads of Alberto's fingers pressed on his gills, on his scent glands, a warm pleasure bubbled up like molten honey hidden in his shorts, and he knew he had to scoot away before it was too late.

What would he think of him then?

That he was just some gross, horny little fish seeking comfort from everything that didn't make sense and find the answers in the arms of a boy?

But Alberto wasn't just some boy, Luca chided himself. As much as he wanted to side with the rational portion of his brain the other, more primal parts of him knew that there was someone here, there was a boy here, in his space.

A strong, tall boy who had his arms wrapped around him and could probably smell the heat on him.

But that boy also was so tantalizingly close, the dull ache in Luca's stomach erupted when he buried his face into the crook of Alberto's neck. Alberto's scent changed in an instant. A deeper, muskier smell that had a spike of fear that dissipated in an instant. He growled, and nudged his nose up to the base of Alberto's jaw, tasting his richness in the air.

Luca's tail whipped out from behind him and latched onto Alberto's bare ankle, tugging lightly and flaring up his fins to display. He would make such a good mate, Luca thought deliriously, letting his mouth part. He would leave such lovely marks on his skin to show for it.

"Luca, are you alright?" Alberto tensed, and his grip on Luca loosened.

Luca wriggled uncomfortably with the heat that trembled and throbbed between his legs, opening his mouth poised on Alberto's neck, only thinking of the blood rushing through him and the need to be full. His teeth kissed the sweat on Alberto's neck, and Luca let out a whimper in surprise.

"So pretty...you smell so good, Alberto." Luca mused. The heat wasn't allowing him to think clearly anymore, his head was muddled with Alberto's scent and the overarching desire to claim him. He rose off his knees, while Alberto held his breath in confusion, and Luca pressed his full weight onto Alberto in one sloppy motion. His hips stuttered as they met Alberto's waist, relieved to have some friction, and Luca already knew the other boy could feel what had been dripping there. "P-Please, I need you."

Alberto gasped and shoved him off, harshly. Luca fell back into the hot grass, the towel around his shoulders stank of mildew and heat. He blinked back at Alberto, who was scrambling up on his feet, chest rising in uneven bursts of air. As he stood he blocked the sun and his entire front half was bathed in shadow. But the absence of the sun did not hide the blush that blistered along Alberto's nose, not a delicate rose in bloom but like an aggressive blaze that colored its path. So much that it reached the tips of his ears.

Neither spoke for minutes. Both breathing heavy, one in shock and the other in embarrassment, sweat dripping from their skin. Alberto felt the spot Luca had left on his neck, then shuddered when he saw the unhinged glint in Luca's yellow eyes.

"I'm sorry...I can't control it," Luca whispered. His breath caught on the wind, raw with shame and a tumult of conflicting emotions, and he wouldn't be surprised if Alberto didn't hear him.

Alberto took another step back when Luca crawled out of the towel and went to the edge of the pool. "What do you mean you can't control it? What the hell were you even going on about?"

Luca, eyes streaming, slipped into the water without a sound. The cool waves lapped at his hot scales and they soothed him, but only on the outside. There was something twisting around inside of him that wouldn't go away, even if he wanted it to.

He couldn't control the way he felt.

He glanced over his shoulder before murmuring. "I'm in heat."

#luca #luca fanfiction #luca paguro #luca x alberto #luca and alberto #luberto #luberto fanfic #luberto fanfiction #alberto scorfano #luca disney #pixar luca #luca movie

[the-resurrection-3d]

I think it really depends on the circumstances under which they get to know each other. It could go a lot of ways and feel correct. I just am quite amused at the idea of Luca forever battling his mother and Alberto never really seeing the problem. Or even Alberto and Daniela getting into mischief together *because* they have some similarities and Luca feeling like he has a bigger problem to deal with.

If you really think about it, Alberto's whole life is just hopping from one Girlboss to another (girlboss being a gender neutral term).

In all seriousness, you're absolutely right-- given what the end of the movie implies, I wonder if Daniela might try and make things work with Alberto because she was NOT ready to suddenly have an empty nest for eight months out of the year. Of course shenanigans then ensue because Alberto is absolutely not Luca and Grandma Paguro absolutely enables Alberto in all the funniest ways.

You could also make the argument that she lightens up more after the movie's end because she no longer has to organize her life around fear (thinking specifically of the concept art of her playing in human form with baby Luca). I'm not saying she would use Alberto to covertly sabotage the other PTA moms except that's exactly what I'm saying.

#2d asks

[anchoviesinthenightsky]

Lmao Sebastian I’d just grandma paguro, except without the anxiety, she just like “Pft he likes a human so what” “SO WHAT WHAT DO YOU MEAN SO WHAT?!” “I mean so what that’s literally what I just said Danni”

omg i love that!! For whatever reason I always forget about grandma paguro, but she's such a fun character!!

actually what if her and the Aragosta lesbians* would be a really funny substitute for sebastian, flounder, and scuttle. like, maybe they all stay old ladies but they're also too old to care about human/merfolk politics. so they keep each other updated on the gossip around town and hang out and play cards. and when Luca ends up in the castle as a human, the aragostas watch over him and give advice.

* I know one of the creators referred to them as sisters, but I absolutely refuse to. They give --old married lesbians who have been together for so long that they've taken on similar styles and mannerisms so people assume they're sisters-- energy /light hearted

But anyway, back to your point lol. I love that idea and I LOVE Grandma Paguro calling Daniela Danni. That's so stinking cute. I am absolutely using that for whenever I end up writing Grandma Paguro.

#ask box

[anchoviesinthenightsky]

Alberto, the open sea sea folk in a vegetarian esq. like village of reefers.

What’re your headcanons for the species difference since you think they’re different?

Oh good question! They're the same species just with two different life styles that reflect the type of environment they live in (shallow water/reef, open ocean, deep ocean.

The biggest differences in character design seems to be fin shape (a sliding scale from spiked (Alberto) to rounded (lorenzo/ugo) with most people falling somewhere in the middle), coloring (greens/blue vs. pink vs. purple/dark blue vs. translucent/grey), and antenna (present (uncle ugo) vs. not present)

But in all actuality, I think both the reef communities and the open water communities probably have a mix of fin shape and coloring.

And that there isn't one specific trait that makes someone an open ocean fish or a reef fish. Like if we look at Luca's village (screen shots below), we see a mix of those characteristics. Sea folk have rounded tails and spiked tails. They vary in color. I image that an open ocean community would have a similar amount of variance.

But we could also zoom in on Luca's family, particularly Daniela and Grandma Paguro. Grannie has pink coloring and sharper fins. Daniela as semi-sharp fins and blue-green coloring (and then Luca has blue green-coloring and smooth fins), so clearly these traits can still change a lot generation to generation.

(or we can look at Lorenzo and Ugo, who are brothers and have vastly different appearances. both have rounded fins, but lorenzo is green/ ugo is translucent blue/grey, and ugo has an antenna while lorenzo doesn't) So that's another example of like... these traits seem to be pretty wide ranging even within a single family.

The main differences between the communities, I think, would more so be in life style? The open ocean communities travel more, so they're probably really good at making mental maps and likely have a wider knowledge base of different ocean species. The reef communities, largely stay in one place, so they have a deep knowledge of everything in their region. Deep sea communities, don't have as much of a need for making mental maps-- but they might be better at knowing how to pass the time.

So these things like meal times, how they sleep, how they tell stories, might vary some. But I also think that people from each community could pretty easily adapt to living in one of the other communities, and that there's not a huge difference between them.

And the communities (esp. reef and open ocean) likely interact with each other on a frequent (maybe semi-yearly) basis. At least, that's my current head cannon

And as an aside: remember that like-- this is a movie, so characters are designed for specific narrative purposes. Like, a lot of the background characters in Luca's village tend to be be green, and that could be due to a world building explanation OR it could be that making them green makes them literally blend into the background. And characters are designed to reflect their personalities. Alberto's design is sharper/ more angular as a reflection of his sharper more fending for himself personality (esp. at the start of the movie). Luca's design is more rounded/ circular in line with the sort of "friend shaped" design common in animated movies (think: pooh bear, mike wazowski, mickey mouse, jumbo, pumba, nemo)

which is all to say like-- when it comes to thinking about world building hcs, I try to take the character designs with a grain of salt.

And instead think about the different types of ocean environments, and the ways that different types of animals (human, but also whale/dolphin/seals) tend to interact with their environment and with the communities around them. Which means thinking more about different life styles and less about if those communities are physically different from each other (which I don't think they are for the most part).

#all pointy finned fish are part of the open ocean community #smooth finned fish are part of the reef community #ask box #long post #hc chitchat #im still fleshing this hc out #but one of the things im trying to make sure of is that we don't develop a binary view of what sea folk communities look like #or what sea folk look like themselves #part of that is trying to keep a queerness to everything. saying #and all is putting them into boxes #which is why you kind of see me pushing against that idea in this. and thinking of the communities are not having a particular look #and instead having different cultures/ lifestyles that can and do overlap

[anchoviesinthenightsky]

With the talk of Franny, what are your headcanons or thoughts for either of albertos biological parents?

That's a really good question. I feel like... I don't have any super strong head cannons for either of them, which also means that a lot of my hc conflict. I think that they're both interesting characters that can really be shaped to whatever you need for the story you're trying to tell.

I came up with a bunch of hc's below, but if we're talking purely about the vibes of the characters I think it's useful to look at other adults in the movie.

Massimo very much represents steadiness, someone who makes room for others, and someone who is flexible in his beliefs when presented with new information.

In that way, I feel like Alberto's Dad would be the antithesis of this-- someone who represents instability, someone who cares more about himself than others/ pushes people away/ doesn't open himself up to others, and someone who is inflexible in his beliefs and can't be convinced to change his mom.

Daniela, Grandma Paguro, and Giulia's mom are the moms we see in the film and they're all different from each other. But in particular, Grandma Paguro and Giulia's mom both allow their children (and grandchildren) to go explore and experience things for themselves. Daniela is the opposite at the beginning of the movie-- she's protective and overbearing and has to set some of that aside to grow as a character and let Luca go to school.

So I could see Alberto's mom functioning as the opposite of Daniela-- she gives Alberto a lot of space to learn and grow and experience things on his own, and she's there to help if need be.

(That said, I've always sort of pictured that she died during childbirth/ really early in Beto's childhood and that he doesn't get to know her much).

anyway here are some of my other thoughts:

- I like the hc that Albreto's dad was named Bruno, because of the angst potential

- but I don't personally think that's his name. I feel like Alberto might have picked the name up randomly from something he collected

- I also love the hc of Alberto's mom being alive during his childhood/ maybe she's still alive but can't return to Alberto for one reason or another (maybe she was captured/ badly injured/ Alberto's Dad moved him and Beto somewhere else and now she can't find them).

- At the same time... I kind of hc that she died while Alberto was really young and/or she died during childbirth. I don't feel like this is as fun of a concept to play around with for writing, but from context of the movie-- Alberto never mentions her at all. Could be because his feelings about her are even harder to talk about than his feelings for his dad, or bc he doesn't have any memories of her. missing someone you never knew is... an abstract kind of grief.

- I also think that Alberto's dad is probably more complex than a lot of the fannon makes him out to be (which is just as a flat out villian)

- and to some degree... I agree with that. I mean, who the fuck just leaves their kid after telling him that he's old enough to take care of himself??

- but also the Bruno in Alberto's head is frequently concerned with his safety, and I do wonder how

#ask box #hc chitchat #long post