#(Merfolk use song to control their magic) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ariellewm · 11 months

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Character Profile: Adonis, "The Male Cecaelia Sea Warlock"

!! Note: Please do not use my character for roleplaying or fanfiction. He is still a work in progress. If you wish to draw him out, please contact me for more information !!

Artwork done by Shio

"Why don’t you come a little closer my dear? Mustn’t lurk in the darkness. Don’t be shy. Come to me, come to me darling..." - Adonis Acquati

Full Name: Adonis Acquati

Aliases/Other Titles: The Wicked, The Banished Cecaelia, Atlantis' Sea Warlock.

Gender: Male

Race: Cecaelia (Half Human, Half Octopus)

Age: Unknown

Height: 6'1ft

Eye Color: Dark teal sclera with light blue irises.

Hair Color: Silver, medium length sometimes slicked back.

Skin Color: Pale with hint of dark blue and light blue freckles along shoulders, back, chest, and under eyes. Hands fade to ink black.

Tentacles: Dark teal with blue and light blue spots. Suction cups are white.

🌊🐙About/Backstory🐙🌊

Adonis is descended from an esteemed family of sea witch cecaelia’s that have resided in the underwater realm. He is the only child of Azriel, a noble well-known sea witch/warlock. They specialize in the arts of aquamancy and other sorts of magic. The Acquati family is associated with the gentler aspects to the craft compared to other chaotic sea witches. They brewed a multitude of magical potions, practices in “blue magic” (water elements), and the blessing of crops or merfolk. Bargains are used in exchange for their services and most of the time, bargains are met.

After being left in charge of the shop by his father, the daughter of King Neptune would pay a visit to Adonis one evening. The mermaid princess wished to be with a human and Adonis would concoct a potion that would turn her into a human for a few days. If the princess kissed the human, her voice would be returned to her. But the bargain would not be fulfilled. The princess would end up retreating to the ocean to only turn back into a dolphin. As rumors spread of Adonis’ “dark magic” on the king’s daughter spread, the cecaelia was exiled from the realm. The “wicked sea warlock” would find residence at an underwater cavern with an opening for him to also visit the surface world.

Since his exile from the kingdom, Adonis has been looking for ways to return the princess to her formal appearance. When the rumors spread of his human transformation potion concoction, merfolk would visit his dark dwelling in hopes to also become human for a few days.

🐚🔮Personality🔮🐚

Of all the sea witches in the undersea realm Adonis is very flamboyant and animated. He isn’t afraid of showing it off with merfolk that come with their problems or wishes. Adonis is bold, will take risks in helping those fulfill their deepest desires and thanks to his charming ability, he can easily influence them even with his voice. He is the type to shower others in compliments and take genuine interest in the customer. He likes to be noticed by others, showing his colorful side. Many of the merfolk have known Adonis to be quite the charmer, especially with his alluring songs when not in the shop crafting potions or spell crafting.

Adonis, however, has another side. Since his exile from the kingdom, Adonis has had a bit of malice against the king. The king had always had a hatred over the Acquati family, cecaelia’s alone since the king’s rise. But unlike those cecaelia’s that have a dark demeanor, Adonis is somewhat different from his counterparts. He has looked into wicked ways, mischievous ways, to seek revenge, but at the same time has looked into finding ways to bring back the princess from her dolphin form.

🫧Abilities🫧

Aquamancy – To perform magic that is connected and drawn to the ocean or other bodies of water. They can generate water blasts, vortexes, ice breaths and attacks, and other water related abilities. Additionally, they can purify water and other liquids. Some malevolent, wicked sea witches use a deeper, darker magic to control others or creatures using their blood, which contains water.

Potioncrafting – The ability to craft beverages with magical properties. These potions can include enhancing mental or physical abilities, healing, granting powers, bewitching someone, etc. Using plant, herb, floral, animal, or other substances, such as magic, it is used in potion concoctions. Since Adonis’ exile from the kingdom, he has created more physical changing potions for merfolk to turn them into human form, which he dreads crafting.

Shapeshifting – Adonis can shrink or grow large. He rarely ever uses this ability but when in danger, he prefers to shrink rather than becoming gigantic.

Charm/Temptation – The male sea witch can easily influence or charm any merfolk, including humans. It enhances their attractiveness, socially attracts those in their proximity, and persuades them into accepting deals or offerings. Sometimes his kind are known to release pheromones that attract or repel others.

Alluring Voice/Song – Just like mermaids and mermen, Adonis is gifted with the siren song. It is uncommon for the cecaelia race to possess the siren song. Like hypnosis, users can captivate others with their alluring vocals. Their songs are known to be both enticing and dangerous. Whoever hears it will be drawn and lured to the source. Adonis was top class in his choral group, and his voice once lured fishermen to the sea cliffs.

Grasping Tentacles – Capable of grabbing victims, holding on to prey or objects. This is accomplished with the cecaelia’s suction cups that are on their tentacles. Even when stationary, their tentacles are always in motion, coiling and twisting.

Other Known Abilites – Camouflage (blend in with their environments), Amphibious (ability to breathe on land), Ink (blind their enemies when threatened), Sea Creature Communication (can understand and communicate with a multitude of sea creatures), more TBA.

🔮🌊Concept Artwork🌊🔮

Artwork done by Shio

Artwork by @wyyvernn

📖Stories✏️

SFW OC's Valentine's Day Day Headcanon's Special

Inspired Spotify Playlist: Adonis, "The Male Cecaelia Sea Witch" Playlist

Inspired YouTube Playlist: TBA

#fantasy #mermay 2023 #cecaelia oc #my oc #original character #male cecaelia #sea witch #cecaelia #siren #fantasy writer #fantasy character #mermay

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fantasy-anatomy-analyst · 1 year

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What kind of magic exists in your world?

oh boy I have a whole lengthy document that goes into detail about my magic system lol. I'll try to giev you the simplified rundown, and while I don't want people to outright copy all my personal story ideas, I don't mind if people take inspiration from it. I like sharing my ideas!

essentially, the world is full of magical energy. it's referred to as "ambient magic". This ambient magic can affect different species in different ways, being connected to souls and usually manifesting in some form of enhanced ability by way of the nervous system. I haven't decided how much this applies to animals. It is also a matter of debate amongst magic-biologists whether people get extra powerful abilities because they are people, or if having the extra powerful magic boosts is what drove them to evolve into sapient people.

through the nervous system, pretty much every people species has experienced some boosts to their endocrine system, allowing them to have longer lifespans than their base species might usually have. This is why elves live multiple centuries. Some people species simply got a bigger endocrine system boost than others, and it seems to be shifting in recent generations, bringing some longer lived species to a shorter lifespan while the shorter lived species are gaining years. Like the ambient magic is starting to balance them out.

Outside the endocrine system boost, pretty much every people species has a bonus ability. In the sylvanids (elves, vampires, drow) it varies more. Elves have the most varied abilities, because they adapted to a wider range of environments. So one elf might have a boost to the muscular system, but another might have a boost to their immune system. Vampires and drow kept their enhancements in the endocrine system, with vampires specializing in the production of chemicals in the salivary glands and drow just going hog wild with their bizarrely specific hormones.

The orciformes/urukin (orcs, gnomes, haufin/"halflings") the boost went to the occipital lobe. they each have a different form of "vision" that aids their lifestyles. It's kinda like a species-specific form of synesthesia. Orcs can "see" the way ambient magic gathers around living things, gnomes can "see" the trace lines between things like stars and safe hand/foot holds on cliffs, and haufin can "see" by scent.

There's a lot more people species, of course, but these are the big two groups of related people. So that's a sample of how the ambient magic affects people by giving them some form of enhanced natural ability.

Outside of this, I have three methods for controlled magic. People discovered ways they can get ambient magic to do specific things.

the easiest and most mundane form is written magic. Dwarves and gnomes pioneered this. Runes and sigils carved into wood, bone, or stones/gems/metal, as well as those written with organic-based inks or blood, can make magic do a few simple things. it's used largely as a replacement for many things we might use electricity for, such as stove tops, indoor lighting, and water heating. Circular magic sigils created on flat surfaces that can be moved to break or join the lines allow people to turn them on and off.

spoken/singing magic, largely developed by elves with some unique forms developed by other groups like goblins and merfolk. this form of magic requires more careful study and focus, as a caster cannot break concentration or fumble their words/song. It's inefficient for mundane tasks, but has a much wider range of uses than any other form of magic. Controlling organic matter is a main function of this type of magic. Elves will sing trees into homes, doctors will work with a chorus to aid in medical operations.

the final and most risky method is soul magic. ambient magic is connected to souls, after all. people have developed a lot of spiritual rituals around this form of magic, so it is mostly used by religious leaders, like clerics and priests. To channel magic through one's own soul, deep meditation and a strong will are required. Many rituals involve harming one's body in some manner, always with a bone tool. This is because you can access much stronger magic if you put yourself closer to death. these rituals are usually supervised with magic singers around to ensure the soul magic user does not die. anchoring items like heavy ceremonial accessories or incense are often used as well. It is a very niche form of magic. It can be used to enhance one's personal ambient magic ability, use one's own life energy to heal another person in an emergency, and also communicate with the dead.

There are also some ways to combine the three forms of magic, though this usually just means a combination of spoken and written magic. Experimenting with magic can lead to dangerous results. There are also forbidden things, such as necromancy, soul binding, and time travel. these are all forbidden because they come with devastating side effects and don't actually work the way people want them to. there are limits to what magic can do, and trying to force it to do the impossible will always backfire.

#magic system #worldbuilding #ambient magic #soul magic #written magic #spoken magic #my writing #long post

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lost-locket-antiques · 1 year

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The Fae Species and it's Races

Fae, unlike their Human counterparts, are not known to live together in multiracial countries. Instead, they tend to keep and build with their own: Centaurs with Centaurs, Merfolk with Merfolk, Trolls with Trolls, Goblins with Goblins, and Harpies with Harpies.

Also, because of this, there are multiple different types of Centaur, Merfolk, etc. countries that do not align with each other. The only thing keeping the Fae races from infighting are rulers known as the "Decks of the Fae".

The Decks of the Fae are the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of their specific race; titles given to 4 people of said race by the gods themselves.

I will speak more of the Decks later, for now, let's learn about each Fae race, I'm so exited to show you!

Centaurs, The Earth

Height Average:(animal: kepi-kepi) (male) 213 cm (7 ft 0 in)/(female) 201 cm (6 ft 7 in)

Weight Average:(animal: kepi-kepi) (male) 905 kg (1,995 lbs)/(female) 893 kg (1,969 lbs)

Physical Description: Centaurs have something called a two-body system, their top half that of a normal looking Fae: two toned skin, darker mask covering the top half of their face and their forearms. However, A Centaurs animal half is very different from person to person. Unlike Gnomes, or Harpies, who's Spirit Animals are completely genetic, Centaurs' are born with completely random animal halves. It is very rare for a Centaur to be born with an animal half similar to their parents.

Magical Affinity: Speed; Centaurs have quite the ability to move unbelievably fast, despite their size when a Centaur uses this magical ability they are nearly invisible to the naked eye. However, the longer a Centaur is in this state, the more dangerous it is to themself.

Animal Control: A Centaur can... more convince their Spirit animal to do their bidding. They can "control" as many as they want, but it is far less affective the more minds they have to "control".

Nature: Centaurs are the most open of all the Fae races, tending to be quite willing to let strangers stay in their home, and are stereotyped to be kind as well as a bit naïve. In almost every Centaurian country, it is normal for every Centaur to have at least 1 animal companion. Even animals that are considered very dangerous.

Centaurs Are the most wide-spread Fae on Nijezdo, and are usually the first race that comes to people's mind when you say the name "Fae", they are also no stranger to living in Human countries as well, with is considered very odd to the other Fae races.

Merfolk, The Water

Height Average: (on land/bipedal) 150 cm (5 ft 7 in)/(in water/Aquatic) 183 cm (6 ft 0 in)

Weight Average: (on land)50 kg (110 lbs)/(in water/transformed) 53 kg (116 lbs)

Physical Description: Merfolk are born in their transformed state, needing to stay underwater for the majority of their childhood until they hit puberty, shedding what they call their Second-Skin. It is used for them to transform, as well as an article of clothing that can mold itself into whatever shape. Because of this, Merfolk have 2 forms: in their bipedal form, they have two toned skin, the darker tone covering the top of their head, their forearms, lower legs, and tail. Noticeable gills are seen on their neck and small fins protrude from their forearms, and thighs, with a small nubby tail.

In their Aquatic form, their legs turn into one long fish tail, and their darker skin tone covers their entire back, arms, and back half of their tail, while their lighter tone covers their neck, chest, stomach, and front half of their tail. Their already existing fins grow, and they gain tail fins as well.

Merfolk do not have Spirit animals, their fins, markings, and even skin tone are entirely genetic.

Magical Affinity: Water Control: Most Merfolk can control a specific aspect of water, some can boil it, others can freeze it, and others still can telekinetically move it. It is very rare for a Merfolk to have the ability to control more than one aspect of water.

Song: Merfolk have the ability to, in a word, "hypnotize" people with their song. They can make a person, or a group of people feel very strong emotions with their songs, where Merfolk both consider it a blessing, and a curse.

Nature: Due to the fact that Merfolk children must be born and raised near water, Merfolk tend to stay on coastlines, near rivers, lakes, and islands. Most people tend to see them as mysterious, and rather lude compared to other Fae. Many a joke has been made of a Mermaid or Merman stealing your spouse with their songs. However, this is entirely fiction, and most would be quite offended if you said a joke like that to their face.

Trolls, The Strength

Height Average: (male) 221 cm (7 ft 3 in)/(female) 208 cm (6 ft 10 in)

Weight Average: (male) 142 kg (312 lbs)/(female) 136 kg (300 lbs)

Physical Description: The tallest and broadest of the Fae, Trolls have 2 sets of arms, one set host huge hands perfect for heavy loads and are located where most Soulbound races arms are also located, these are called their primary hands. The second pair, called secondary hands, are for more delicate things, these are located under their primary pectoral muscles. Their irises cover most of their eye, much like a cat's, and have slits for pupils. Like other Fae, their skin is two toned, darker colors placed on the top of their head, forearms, and lower legs. They have horns protruding from their temples, and tusks that protrude from their mouth. Female Trolls (aka Trollettes) tend to have smaller horns and tusks.

Magical Affinity: Strength: Trolls are the strongest of all the Soulbound races, able to carry or break through anything as long as they are magically strong enough. They use this magical ability with their primary hands.

Music: Like Merfolk, Trolls are able to "hypnotizes", for lake of a better word, with their music. After finding their instrument, they can make people feel any extreme emotion they wish. If you put a Troll and a Merfolk in the same room, gods have mercy on your soul.

Nature: Symmetry is one of, if not the most important thing to Trolls. It is considered the most beautiful thing in the world. Their names, clothing, and buildings are almost always symmetrical. Of course, there are outliers, and while most do find the chaos of nature to be quite beautiful, you will rarely see any type of artistic expression from a Troll to lack symmetry.

Most see Trolls as uptight, and haughty, with very little time for play. While this, of course, isn't true, it is very rare to see a Troll act more that cordial to any other race other than themselves, or Merfolk, who they have been allies with since nearly both races conception.

Goblins, The Silent

Height Average: (male) 69 cm (2 ft 3 in)/(female) 61 cm (2 ft 0 in)

Weight Average: (male) 20 kg (44 lbs)/(female) 18 kg (40 lbs)

Physical Description: Not counting Faeries, Goblins are the smallest Soulbound race. They have the same markings as the other Fae races, though most Goblins have spots, stripes, or other markings on their lighter toned skin. They are digitigrade, with pads on both the bottom of their feet, and palms of their hands and finger tips, with retractile claws on both their hands and feet. Goblins have lion-like tails to keep them balanced when running on all fours, or climbing.

Magical Affinity: Camouflage: Like octopi, Goblins are able to nearly make themselves invisible, though, they are not able to change their texture, or form like octopi, it is extraordinarily difficult to spot a Goblin while they are camouflaged.

Teleportation: Over very short distances, Goblins can teleport themself or one other person to a different location. The stronger the Goblin, the farther they can teleport.

Nature: Goblins are the most secretive of the Fae, usually living deep in forests, jungles, deserts, and even caves. While Goblins do tend to live in technical countries, their borders are hard to define.

Goblins are known to be collectors of sorts, most Goblin homes are filled to the brim with trinkets, tools, and gadgets they've acquired over the years. However, this has given them the unfortunate reputation of being perceived as kleptomaniacs.

Harpies, The Sky

Height Average: (male) 163 cm (5 ft 4 in)/(female) 175 cm (5 ft 9 in)

Weight Average: (male) 53 kg (117 lbs)/(female) 54 kg (120 lbs)

Physical Description: Harpies are the most physically different of all Fae, and are considered the strangest by far. Unlike other Soulbound races with animalistic traits, a Harpy's spirit animal is not one native to birds of Nijezdo. They are known to have beaks, bodies covered in feathers, with wings protruding from under their shoulder blades, and tails for flight. They are digitigrade, and have talon-like feet and hands. The men are far smaller, and more colorful than their female counterparts.

However, unlike birds from Earth, Harpies do not lay eggs, they give live birth, like every other Human and Fae on Nijezdo. Which also means, yes, the women have mammary glands to feed her young. Though, they are usually covered by her plumage.

Magical Affinity: Weather Control: Most Harpies are able to create small clouds of rain, snow, or thunder, while benign by itself, can be quite detrimental in large groups of Harpies controlling the weather, so that practice has been largely banned.

Venom: Harpy talons are highly venomous, making the venom more or less deadly depending on their magical skill level. Though, most tend to mute their venom when not fighting for their lives. Most Harpies are amune to it as well.

Nature: Harpies are matriarchal in nature (unlike most other societies who are patriarchal), and tend to live in caste systems relating to either their bird's intelligence, or how well they can fly. Most Harpy countries are just their migrating paths, area's in which they hunt and stay for a season is where they put their cities. They tend to look down on the other Soulbound races, really only caring about Faeries, who they consider the messengers of the gods, though, they give a little bit of respect to Gnomes, or Centaurs with the ability to fly, but only if they are women.

Of course, not all Harpies are this way, if you are able to befriend one they would die for you, however, they are very much stereotyped as sexist, flying supremacists.

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charkyzombicorn · 10 months

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So theses are apparently some of the selkies powers, I’m pretty sure this is just for dnd and is not mythological accurate . But out of these powers which would you choose for your selkie au to be Selkie abilities?

Enhanced agility: Selkies are able to go fro one movement to another effortlessly, allowing them to effectively dodge attacks, do backflips, and numerous other gymnastic, martial, and athletic implements with little to no effort.

Enhanced balance: Selkies have an extremely well-developed sense of balance, the positioning of limbs in space, center of balance. and the physical condition to use these facts.

Enhanced bite: Selkies, due to their fangs, have a powerful bite.

Enhanced dexterity: Selkies are able to control their limbs, muscles, and digits extremely well.

Enhanced endurance: Selkies are able to survive with little to no energy for an extended amount of time.

Enhanced reflexes: Selkies have extremely enhanced reaction speed, allowing them to dodge magical attacks, catch falling objects, and react instantaneously to what would take others more time to react.

Enhanced stamina: Selkies are able to be physically active for longer periods of time than most other beings.

Enhanced strength: Selkies are able to exert a great amount of strength from their muscles.

Night vision: Selkies are able to see perfectly in total darkness.

Speed swimming: Selkies are able to swim at incredible speeds, unhampered by water resistance.

Cold immunity: Selkies, being adapted to the ocean, are completely immune to cold.

Pressure resistance: Selkies, being adapted to the ocean, are completely resistant to water pressure, especially at the bottom of the episode.

Water sense: Selkies are able to perceive the movement of/on a body of water with extreme accuracy, and determine where threats are located in aquatic environments and water sources.

Siren song: Selkies, similar to merfolk and cecaelia, are able to sing a song that is capable of hypnotizing anyone that hears it.

Sonic singing: Selkies, similar to merfolk and cecaelia, are able to sing a highly destructive blast of sound at high amplitude.

Water manipulation: Selkies are able to generate, shape, and manipulate water.

Aquatic life communication: Selkies are able to telepathically communicate with aquatic creatures.

1) 2)

3) Usopp doesn't like the idea of biting people because it makes him feel animal-like and he hates being compared to an animal because He Is Not. Also the nose makes it hard for him to bite people I would imagine. His molars are a little sharper than they maybe should be and he's got pronounced canines but he doesn't have the coral-shaped molars seals (apparently) have. His dad does tho, Buggy too but Buggy shaved his down a bit to hide better in the East Blue

4) yeah he's good at a quick draw but he still trips and stumbles sometimes on land. He's much more graceful in water because there is nothing to trip over

5) About as much as Canon, with is quite a bit.

6) His reflexes are pretty quick because his eyes are better than a human's, it doesn't mean he's perfectly co-ordinated and just because he can see something coming doesn't mean he can dodge without tripping. He gets a bit more graceful post-ts but he grew up without fighting, so he's learning as he goes

7) Yeah he's got more stamina than you would expect, but that's pretty much just canon

8) Stronger than you would think unless you tried picking him up. He can change his appearance but he can't change his weight and seals are 4000 pounds. He's very physically dense, even if he looks like the skinniest 17 year old you've ever seen, so picking up 300 pounds to him is like a normal person picking up 12 pounds he's not athletic pre-ts tho so no picking up twice his body weight or anything. The 1 ton hammer could have been real tho.

9) He does have really good night-vision, he does use his tinted goggles more because seal-eyes are more dilated than humans' and if it's too sunny it hurts his eyes

10) Yep! He can swim just as fast if not faster than most mer-folk

11) 12) He is a bit less resistant to cold and pressure than most selkies because his mother was human. He can stand pressure changes but he needs to take breaks and he can stand cold but can still get hurt when he's frozen.

13) He does have some extra spacial awareness in water, this is just how most selkies naturally pick up observation haki a bit more intuitively

14) Usopp has no idea, he only sings for Luffy but Luffy seems pretty hypnotized so,,,

15) Nope, and Usopp screams a lot

16) No

17) He convinced some of the crew he can, he can't actually

#one piece #selkie usopp au #usolu #long post

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dailycharacteroption · 11 months

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Fey Prankster (Bard Archetype)

(Art by SirTiefling on DeviantArt)

Today and tomorrow we’ll be seeing double, since we’ll be tackling another two archetypes that share a name!

This first one is the Fey Prankster for the bard class, representing a variety of bards that delight in causing mischief and mockery for others, their magical abilities geared towards making fools of their foes.

In this way, these pranksters emulate the Lantern King, fey Eldest associated with mischief and pranks.

Part insult comic, part slapstick aficionados, these performers might have a sadistic streak, using their powers to shame those weaker than themselves for the amusement and mockery of themselves and onlookers, or they might seek to use their powers on the powerful to bring them humility.

Either way, they’ve got plenty of tricks to keep things interesting, as we will soon see.

Dedicated to their trickery, these bards train hard to master the skills needed for such a role.

They also have a variety of performances meant to make fools of their foes. The first of which is a song that induces clumsiness in foes, causing them to fumble items and trip on the terrain.

Another incites erratic behavior in a single foe, causing them to accidentally harm themselves or their allies or simply fumble with their equipment.

The final performance can mock a foe so thoroughly that their face breaks out in painful blisters and lesions, distracting them and embarrassing them.

Naturally, when in direct physical conflict, they are quite adept at fighting dirty.

They also perform acts of deception and stealth so regularly that their ability to perform them becomes remarkably reliable.

With the ability to impose conditions not only with their performances and spells, but also dirty tricks, this archetype is perfect for anyone seeking to make a debuffing and control bard build with a mix of melee combat. It pairs well with ways to make difficult terrain, though it is less powerful against foes that don’t use equipment or are immune to mind-affecting. Still, if your plan is to make fools of your foes, this may be what you’re looking for.

The important thing to remember about being such a prankster is that pranks and tricks are inherently disruptive, and people are going to react to such humor in different ways. If you’re playing a villainous prankster you probably don’t care, but goodly or at least non-evil ones probably will use discretion to decide when is the right time for a prank, lest it upset, rather than amuse.

The merfolk of Malvu Bay tend to keep away from the human sailors and pirates that come to use it to restock. All except for young Giia, who delights in playing tricks on the sailors before slipping back into the water. However, one of these days she is going to annoy the wrong crew, and her life will be in danger.

The sprites the Whitescar Wood are a malicious bunch, liable to play pranks upon travellers. Some have taken to leading wayward travellers into the waiting branches of a jinmenju tree, mocking them even as the predatory plant draws them in and slays them.

Every day, more and more rain comes down on the city, flooding the sewers and even some of the homes at the bottom of the hill. Additionally, the lord has banned merriment as well. These two mood-dampening facts have the same source, when the court jester, a fey-empowered prankster played a gaff on a visiting witch, who cursed the city to drown in despair.

#pathfinder #archetype #bard #fey prankster #merfolk #jinmenju #gathlain #Legacy of the First World

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thicctails · 2 years

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Under The Falls

(new AU?? we’ll see)

Lore dump under the cut

Sooooo this idea has been rattling around inside my brain for a bit, and now that I don’t feel like I’m going to keel over and die from the yearly Every Kid Ever Is Bringing Sickness Into The House season Ontario is experiencing, I’ve finally got some art done for it!

So, in this au, the Pines family aren’t humans, but a very rare subspecies of Merfolk/Sirens. They can’t lure sailors to their deaths with songs like sirens or swim nearly as fast as merfolk, but instead can use their magic to appear human. They must frequently rehydrate, but even that can be lessened with practice. The timeline has been fucked with here as well (Let’s pretend Shermie was older than Stanley and Stanford by, like, quite a bit, around 16-17 years maybe. Not outrageous, its around the same age gap I have to my younger sibling ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) so we get Mullet Stan and younger, more Feral Ford when the twins are born.

Now, adults of this species have mastery over their magic, but children do not. Therefore, the kids must stay in the water until they can control their magic enough to appear human enough to pass as normal. Well, one day, someone slips up and is seen by the wrong person, an enthusiastic monster hunter that would love to add some new additions to their collection...

...leaving two very little Pines to fend for themselves, at least until their Grunkles, who catch wind of the slaughter a day or two after it happened (people obviously knew the Pines family, so their disappearance raised alarm bells. Everyone assumes that the family was just doing cosplay or having an early Halloween party and some psycho murdered them. The only reason Dipper and Mabel weren’t discovered is because no one outside of the family knew they existed), put aside their issues to deal with this crisis situation. With Stanford so enthralled in his dangerous work and Stanley... well, Stanley’s situation is definitely not child-friendly, the two decide to co-exist to raise the twins. Stan converts part of Ford’s house into the Mystery Shack as a way to earn extra money, and as an excuse for the twin’s appearance as they age. What? Mermaid kids? Nah, just costumes for that wacky tourist trap.

Maybe Bill gets involved as well, intending to lead the kids astray, but ends up getting attached to the weird little meatbags lol. They’re an endless source of chaos and entertainment, and him hanging around them pisses Ford and Stanley off to no end, which delights him.

#gravity falls #gf au #Under The Falls au #gravity falls dipper #gravity falls mabel #gravity falls ford #gravity falls stan #merfolk au #siren au #bill cipher

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starrymused · 1 year

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Bae was born somewhere deep in the Pacific and is the youngest of eight brothers. He has always been different; he lacks the charm and boldness of his siblings but makes up for it through his wit and intelligence. However, he is the quiet, introverted type who won’t come out of his shell unless he really likes someone. If there was ever such a concept as a “goth” in merfolk society, he’s it. To anyone who doesn’t know him, Bae can come across as sullen and unwilling to talk to anyone he doesn’t know. However, with a little bit of time and patience, he can open up and become friends with those he believes will be good company (just as long as he can still be on his own when he needs to be.) Bae is twenty-two years old.

Unlike other merfolk who like to bask in the sun, he hides in caves and hates the feel of the sunlight on his skin — he claims he has sensitive skin and that even a little bit of sun will burn him badly. His family knows he’s just being dramatic. He is the apple of his mother’s eye, though, and she tends to be a bit overprotective of him. His father tends to spend more time with his brothers as he has more in common with them, but he still loves Bae despite their differences — it can just be a little awkward between them sometimes.

While his mother, father, and brothers all have shining, bright and colorful tails, Bae was born with one of black and gold with burnt red shades flecked throughout (they show the most when he’s in the sun) so this only makes him stand out further as the odd one among his merfolk family:

Like all merfolk, Bae has sharp, pointy teeth and claw-like, webbed fingers. Similar to this in color and the way it stretches up his arm:

Bae was born with a rare condition that means his hair changes color depending on his mood (blue - sad, red - angry, green - envious, white - scared, blonde - cheerful, pink - in love) He’s good at controlling his emotions, though, meaning that it usually remains black. This condition can be controlled, meaning that even if his hair turns a certain color, he can will it to change back to its original. This is something he’s practiced to avoid embarrassment.

A merperson’s tail will turn into human legs when out of the ocean. They can learn to walk like a human quite easily. They won’t revert back if they’re put in a bath or any other pool of water — it has to be saltwater from the ocean. They can live on the land comfortably for a week, but then they’ll begin to feel fatigued. They can feel re-energized if they go back to the ocean for a few days, then they can return. However, if they are kept out of the ocean for longer than two weeks and don’t return to the ocean, their hair will lose its natural shine and their skin will start to look pale and sickly. Eventually, after three months of being out of the ocean, a merperson will die.

Each merperson is given a special item at birth that is connected to their spirit and powers - this can be anything as long as it’s wearable such as a necklace, bracelet, hair clip, hairband, etc. Bae has an obsidian pendant that can be split in two — one half is a phoenix and the other is a dragon. If one of these halves is given to another merperson or a human, it will bind them together for all eternity:

These objects are magically bound to each merperson so they don’t lose while exploring the water. However, humans have the ability to steal it from them if they use violence and physically tear it from their being (and tearing a piece of their soul in the process.) If a merperson feels they are being threatened with this, they will become aggressive, often wailing to call their allies to fight the wicked human. If the human succeeds in taking possession of their special object, the merperson becomes under the human’s control to do what they want with.

The human can use their powers for their own benefit - siren songs to kill their enemies or force other humans to fall in love with them, use their tears to make pearls, and the ability to control the weather.

If a merperson falls in love with a human, they will offer them their special object to keep. However, this is a huge deal within their species and it will bound the merperson and human together. The human will be able to call for the merperson whenever they wish to meet them — they’ll hear the call no matter where they are in the ocean. The merperson also becomes their guardian of sorts, ready to fight anyone who might be an enemy to their lover. This means they can put themselves in grave danger just so they can protect what is most precious to them.

However, the dark side of this bond means that if a human decides they want to see other people and cheat on the merperson, their lover will find out no matter how hard they try to hide it (like an added sense) and will hunt down the “other” man or woman and tear them apart. It’s in a merperson’s nature to kill any other being that holds their lover’s affection — it’s instinct and there is no stopping them.

#&; ( ABOUT BAE )

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starlightspun-archive · 2 years

Video

youtube

“Yea?”

“Ghost found a song. Who’s got the record player?”

“I-I think th-the t-twins and I l-Ieft it in the b-back r-room.”

“I got it!”

~*Four minutes later*~

Uhh...

Hmm...

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! “Let Earth receive her King, “Let every heart prepare Him room! “And Heaven and nature sing!”

“Who wants to sing the next verse?”

“And Heaven and nature sing, “And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing! “Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, “Let men their songs employ!”

“While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, “Repeat the sounding joy “Repeat the sounding joy “Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy!”

“He rules the world with truth and grace,” “And makes the nations prove “The glories of His righteousness “And wonders of His love,”

“And wonders of His love, “And wonders, wonders, of His love! “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! “Let Earth receive her King!”

“Let every heart prepare Him room, “And Heaven and nature sing! “And Heaven and nature sing! “And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!”

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! “Let Earth receive her King, “Let every heart prepare Him room! “And Heaven and nature sing!”

“And Heaven and nature sing! “And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!”

“And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!”

#(Merfolk use song to control their magic)#(Hence why Penelope's holding a lil glowing ball)#🎼 A hymn for the soul (Muse music)#🎄 Merry Christmas!#Muse chat #🌲 Deathless and Deceitful (Aspen)#👻 Ancient but never aging (Little ghost)#🌒 The Shadow Weaver (Elias)#🪔 Lively as a Lily (Aleksei)#💎 Snow White (Livna)#🪆 The rose that blooms in the frost (Ekaterina)#👯‍♀️ Color Coded Kids (Shani and Livna)#🧜‍♀️ A soul like a lotus (Penelope)#🌬️ Son of the Wind (Dmitri)#🌠 Her Heart and Hopes as Vast as the Sky (Dyanna)

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earthlynnlp · 3 years

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Mods List: Occult Stuff

A list of mods that I use in my game. These are mods to expand on the various occults in the game from vampires, to ghosts, to mermaids, to spellcasters.

Updated for the July 2023 🐴 Patch!

Things marked with a ⭐ you need to download an update to be compatible.

Things marked with a ⚡️ are possibly broken and are not currently compatible according to Better Exceptions.

Things marked with a ✨ are new to the list since the last patch.

General

⚡️ Occult Hybrid Unlocker & Stabilizer - If you use Zero’s Immersive Vampires be sure and install the overrides in this mod to make it compatible.

Random Occult Ley Lines - Allows the increased chance of a random occult to be born, there are also individual ones for mermaids, aliens, and witches. (Requires Trait Tracker Injector)

Occult Holiday Traditions - Okay to use but not working perfectly.

Occult Toddler Quirks

Psychic Sims + Psychic Connections

More Dormant Occult Traits - (Requires Trait Tracker Injector)

Fairies Vs Witches - Adds fully fledged fairies and witches to the Sims. I do have a custom edited venues mod my Venues Changes and Go To School mod compatible with this one. They are not compatible as is.

Occult Recipebook

Occult Socials - Adds show teeth to vampires and werewolves, and rub belly to werewolves.

Supernatural Traits

Ghosts

Better Ghosts - Expands on ghosts and allows them to have good or evil alignments. They either enjoy interacting with the living or enjoy scaring them, and if they are evil attempt to murder Sims in the same way they themselves died. Please read the text of the mod . (Requires Death Interactions.)

Spiritualist Seance - Must have ghosts for this event.

Graveyard Lot Trait

Possessed Grounds Lot Challenge

Paranormal Holiday Traditions

Haunted Locations Lot Trait

Happy Haunts Graveyard Mod - A Sims style friendly reworking of the death system.

Séance Animation Fix

Servos

Three Traits for Servos - Make them more like the unemotional automatons they are.

Servos Auto Download Enhancement Data

Aliens

Alien Bloodlines

Alien Landing Zone Lot Trait

UFO Hot Spot Lot Challenge

Alien Discovery Tweak - Aliens will only be discovered when they are undisguised.

Enhanced Aliens Mod - Adds a new brain motive (like vampires need blood) that they can utilize when doing various Alien interactions (mind control, analyzing Sims, transmuting metals, reviving dead alien pets).

Mermaids

Mermaid Bloodlines

Expanded Mermaids - Really fleshes out mermaids, giving them powers and abilities. 2.0 Now adds mermaid children!

Merfolk Cove Lot Trait

Mermaid Motive Tweak

⚡️ Three Mermaid Aspirations - For some reason the individual aspirations don’t throw errors but the merged one does, be aware.

Mermaid Power: Cryogenesis

More Powerful Siren’s Songs - Please read the text of this mod.

Full Weather Control for Mermaids

Mermaid Transformation Animation Replacement

Mermaids Can Use Dock Ladders

Vampires

Vampire Bloodlines

Vampire Initiation Ritual

Death Before Turning

Dracula Aspiration

Bloody Party Event

Vampire Pass Out Animation Replacement

Evil Sims Don’t React to Vampire Drink

Scared By Vampires

Scared Snacks

Mind Power, Burst of Fear Fix

Emotional Dampening Vampire Fix

Vampire Slayer Mod

Immersive Vampires

More Drinks For Vampires

Vampires Auto Drink Plasma Fruit

Occult Activities - Witches + Vampires - Go Hunting and Coven Gathering as rabbit hole events for Vampires.

Bloody Vampire Bites and Wounds

Tasty Sim Mark - Adds a bit on the relationship panel to show which Sim was particularly tasty for your vampire.

Heart Fruit Tree - Edible heart fruit for vampires that can be grown and harvested.

Vampire Food Set - Set of foods that can optionally be gross for humans to eat depending on which set you get. It’s bloody food, ya’ll. (Requires Custom Food Interactions)

Vampire Age Traits

More Vampire Powers

Vampire Tweaks

Spellcasters

Occult Activities - Witches + Vampires - Forage in Granite Falls, Visit the Magic Realm, Go to Coven Gathering, Walk in the Forest as rabbit hole events your spellcasters can go to. The first has a chance of giving you potions ingredients, the other three can refill your spellcaster power and gives you a chances to learn spells in different schools depending on where you go.

Spellcaster Covenstead Lot Trait

Magical Study Spot Lot Trait

Magic Training Fix

Useful Wands - Wands actually decrease your charge when you use them.

Better Familiars

Read Normal Books with Magic

Nature Spirits - A new way to learn spells!

Cast Spells Club Rule Tweak - Can now practice duels and can no longer randomly rob people with Burgliate during club gatherings.

Witches Sabbath

Magic Rituals at the Séance Table

Runes for Magic Rituals + Create Motes

Master Duelist Career

Wandmaker Career

Magic Healer Career

Broomstick Maker Career

Atelier Alchemist Career

Brew Herbalism Recipes with Cauldron

Potions Ingredients Overhaul

Potion of Immortality Really Immortal

Real Potion of Rejuvenation

Herbio Can Spawn Outdoor Retreat Plants

Repairio Spell Out of the Spell Menu - Repairio is now directly available on objects, no more casting out of spell book.

Dedeathify Children

Stay Ugly Longer

Love and Fight Spell Tweak - Can now include the caster in the spell.

Castable Jungle Adventure Curses - (Requires Spellbook Injector)

Skeletonize Spell - (Requires Spellbook Injector)

Conjuring Spell - Click on a tomb and summon a skeleton servant or butler. (Requires Spellbook Injector)

Secret Sages Spells - A total of 11 new spells! (Requires Spellbook Injector + Death Interactions)

Expanded Spells

Obsidio Spell - Set things on fire by glaring at them. (Requires Spellbook Injector)

Stra-Strangeify - The Beauty and The Beast - I love the idea of this for a challenge! (Requires Spellbook Injector)

Enlargio - New spell to make a regular fish bowl hold up to 50 fish, great for fish potion ingredients. (Requires Spellbook Injector)

Functional Spell Book

Kids Can Perform Spells

Ars Goetia + Magic Sigils - Sigils to summon demons with. They can give you gifts, or curse you, or scream in rage, ymmv.

Fly on a Broomstick - Adults and Kids can take joyrides on broom sticks together or apart for fun!

Celebratio Spell

Incognito Spell

New Potions

TS3 to TS4 Functional Wands

Werewolify Spell + Werewolf Fury Enhancer and Reducer Spells

Werewolves

Werewolf Bloodlines

Werewolf Tails + Werewolf Feet

Temperament Affects Needs - Special werewolf moods affect needs differently. Negative ones cause relevant motives to decrease twice as fast, positive ones cause relevant motives to decrease twice as slowly.

Moonbathe Lowers Fury - Only works if you have the Natural Healing Perk.

Fury Reducing Werewolf Abilities - Mainly different types of howls, mainly.

Meditation Lowers Fury

Mudbaths Lowers Fury

Zoomies Lowers Fury - You can choose to start Zoomies on your terms and even do it as a human!

Transformation Mastery Overhaul

Werewolves Return Naked - Because of course they would.

Feral Containment Unit

Twisted Fate - A special trait in the rewards store that makes a werewolf's Fated Mate a vampire instead of a werewolf.

#sims 4 cc #sims 4 mods #sims 4 occult #sims 4 ghosts #sims 4 aliens #sims 4 mermaids #sims 4 vampires #sims 4 spellcasters

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voidstilesplease · 3 years

Text

there you are, and I run

pairing: stiles/theo | rating: M | word count: approx. 5,500 (chapter 5) | tags: Hogwarts AU, Triwizard Tournament, Slytherin!Stiles, Durmstrang!Theo, Magic, Witches and Wizards | warning: sexual content (chapter 5)

summary: The Room Where It Happened of Requirement. That's all.

chapter 5/ Read on AO3

---

January 10th – 15 days after the Yule Ball; a month and two weeks before the Second Task

“ In ancient Greek mythology ,” Allison started with a little frown, reading from the tome that Stiles had handed to her as soon as the Slytherin got her alone in an empty classroom. “ – a Siren is a hybrid creature with the body of a bird and the head of a human .” It hadn’t been as easy as Stiles thought, convincing Allison to come with him, which was, really, kind of insulting and maybe a bit gratifying, too (actually, plenty gratifying). She’d warily observed each turn they made even as she focused on Stiles, reading his body movements for any potential assault. Her body was tense the entire trip, arms rigid at the sides, ready to slide her wand out of her sleeve should the need to defend herself arose. If Stiles were Theo, he would understand the suspicion – he would be, too. But what did Allison think Stiles would do to her, seriously ? “ Sirens are dangerous creatures who live on rocky islands and lure sailors to their doom with their sweet song –“ Allison cut off, dropping the book to her lap and raising an exasperated look at Stiles. “Stiles, will you just tell me the point of this?”

Stiles huffed, pushing his back from the door to walk closer. “You French school people are so snooty and impatient.” He muttered as he hopped and situated himself on top of the teacher’s desk, shaking his head lightly. Allison rolled her eyes, mouth twitching a little at the comment, but continued staring pointedly. Stiles exhaled in defeat. “Sirens,” he said, at last, pausing a little. “That’s the next task.”

Allison’s brows furrowed, “Sirens?”

Stiles nodded, reaching inside his pocket for the wing locket – the clue he’d won during the First Task. He showed it to Allison, “I’ve cracked the clue,” he paused, considered it, and amended his statement with a little exhale, “Actually, we’ve cracked the clue – Theo and me.”

The Beauxbatons girl raised both eyebrows at that, looking more skeptical by the second.

“Something about the rune positions, apparently,” Stiles offered in explanation, gesturing at said runes on the locket. “He translated them. And that led to me thinking about the Mirror of Erised at the Room of Requirement . We went there, and the mirror showed me the next task – Sirens.” He crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes a little. “You have heard about both the Mirror of Erised and the Room of Requirement , right?”

Allison bit her lip a little hesitantly, but she nodded. “Lydia has told me about them.”

Stiles knew that. Lydia had mentioned that she had indeed shared to Allison the wonderful mysteries of Hogwarts in exchange for the wonderful mysteries of Beauxbatons. An academic trade was what Lydia called it. She had even suggested that Stiles could use Theo’s inclination for mouthy Slytherin wizards to collect intelligence about Durmstrang and the dark arts. After all, if any school had more mystery than the others, it was Durmstrang Institute. A school that wasn’t on any magical map? Sounds exactly like something right up Lydia and Stiles’s alley indeed. But he had immediately shut her off. Although, if Stiles squinted really hard, he would find he was already doing that, wasn’t he? Not deliberately, no, but all the same. Being around Theo so much, he had already amassed lots about his life in Durmstrang – the rough training they go through, all the commonplace near-death experiences, the impossible expectations sitting in their shoulders, never trusting anyone not to smother you in your sleep. Fun stuff. He had even demonstrated dark magic right in front of Stiles.

“ The Mirror of Erised is a magical mirror that shows the deepest, most desperate desires of the heart.” Allison recited as if repeating the exact words that Lydia had told her. “And the Room of Requirement is a secret room within Hogwarts Castle that only appears when a person is in great need of it.”

“Five points for Beauxbatons.”

Allison rolled her eyes good-naturedly. At least she wasn’t regarding him like a snake about to eat her anymore.

Stiles smiled at her before continuing. “Anyway, that’s how we decoded the clue. We’ve been reading about it for the past two weeks.”

There was a thoughtful look on her face as she silently pondered on the information she was given. Finally, after a long moment, she lifted her eyes and nodded to herself, closing the tome and putting it on the desk before her. “Okay, but why are you telling me?” Allison asked, crossing her arms and raising a questioning brow.

Stiles shrugged. “It seems only fair,” he replied honestly, fastening the locket around his neck. He gave it a soft pat afterward. “Theo knows, I know, so you should, too. Sirens are dangerous creatures.”

“Do you really believe that they are in possession of a live Siren?” Allison gestured at the book. “I know a little about these creatures; we studied them at Beauxbatons, too. They’re truly more mythical than real now, Stiles.”

Stiles nodded in agreement, “And the closest kin we can associate to them are the merfolks, which are very much real .”

“So, the merfolks could be the actual next task?”

Stiles shrugged again, “They’re part of the next task. The last Triwizard tournament coordinated with them for one of the tasks, after all. They could do it again.”

Allison lowered her eyes in thought.

“Look,” Stiles hopped down the desk to stand directly in front of the girl. When she looked up, nibbling on her lower lip, he continued. “I’m not asking you to trust me. I just want you to know, that’s all.”

Allison hummed, giving Stiles a speculative look. Slowly, the slight frown on her lips formed into a smile. “So,” she straightened up, tone light and playful now. “What else did you and the Durmstrang boy do in the Room of Requirement?”

Instantly, Stiles felt his cheeks getting warm. He snatched the book from the table and rushed to say, “ Nothing .”

***

Nothing that he was insane to share with Allison, or anyone else, for that matter.

It had been almost 3 in the morning when the pair of them arrived at the seventh-floor corridor where the door to the Room of Requirement was located. It was harder to escape from pissed Malia and Erica than sober Malia and Erica, apparently. And there was Jackson, completely off his trolley, who attempted the jelly-leg jinx on Theo and backfired tremendously because the tosser had pointed the business end of his wand on himself. They were hollering and hauling Jackson’s body to the sleeping quarters by the time they exited the Slytherin Common Room.

They stopped by a familiar expanse of wall. Theo was the first to break the silence. “Last time we were here, we had an unfinished business.”

Stiles’s lips thinned to a line. He did not want to think about the last time they were there. Especially not after the heated events of the past hour. Stiles was sure that had Jackson not been his usual wanker self, they would have been kissing, tongue and all, right there in the Slytherin Common Room for everyone’s viewing. Or, if they had not been distracted by the wing locket, they would have been horizontal on the bed now, frotting against each other, and Stiles would have lost the challenge – proven to Theo that he had not an ounce of control when it came to him. But they were not there for that . They were on official Triwizard champion duty.

“Last time we were here,” Stiles gritted out, facing away from Theo to hide his inflamed cheeks. “You made up my mind to put my name into the Goblet of Fire.”

Theo scoffed, looking put out, stepping closer so he could confront the side of Stiles’s face. “I told you the exact opposite of that.”

Stiles still refused to look at him directly, choosing to side-eye the Durmstrang boy. “Which is why I did the exact opposite of what you told me.”

There was a brief pause from the other boy before he scoffed again, utterly disbelieving. “You’re so contrary .”

This time, Stiles looked up to meet his eyes in the dimness of the corridor. With a tiny upward tug on the corner of his lips, he repeated Theo’s words from earlier. “It’s part of my charm, though, right?”

Theo did not answer with words. Instead, his eyes fell on Stiles’s lips once more and remaining there until the door to the Room of Requirement appeared.

They both know the answer to their question.

***

When they entered the room, it was like they opened a portal into a dimension filled with all kinds of objects you can think of: broken and functioning, ancient and modern, small and gargantuan, ordinary and dangerous. But the powerful magic surrounding the room, converging from all of the objects it held, even the defectives, was unmissable. It shrouded them like an invisible cloak the moment they entered – as if the very air they breathed was magic. It was very different from the first time they had been there together. Then, there was only a king-sized four-poster bed in the middle of a spacious but otherwise empty room. When Stiles went before that, it was the same, except the bed was sometimes a table and a chair or a cozy settee beside a crackling fire. Now, it was a whole dumpster site of magical items.

There was a wood dresser on the left side overflowing with golden trinkets; hundreds of piles of tomes and parchments; several instruments littered about, including a grand piano with a missing leg, a cello with broken strings, and a rusty harp that was playing music by itself. On their right were potteries in various sizes and shapes and artwork, brimming with sparkling gemstones; a whole cupboard of old broomsticks and random pieces of broken furniture. Even the ceiling had many embellishments hanging up like dozens of old, flickering chandeliers, levitating lamps, and even a lonely, single, time-worn shoe. It was impossible to find anything there – especially something you'd not seen in your life. But the Mirror of Erised was there somewhere, and they had to try. If only Stiles knew a summoning spell that would not call the furniture to crush Theo and him to mangled bones and flesh…

“How are we going to find the mirror?” Theo spoke behind Stiles, gaze wandering the vastness of the room. “This place probably has hundreds of them.”

“The Mirror of Erised is only one,” Stiles responded with more confidence than he actually felt. But he had enough. He already had a mental list of spells they could try. “We’ll find it eventually.”

“Yeah, in a decade, give or take.”

Pursing his lips in annoyance, Stiles turned to Theo. “You can turn back, you know? I’d still tell you the clue.”

“And leave you here alone?” Theo gave him a dry look as if Stiles was daft for even suggesting it. “Yeah, fat chance, babe.”

Stiles sneered at the endearment, but Theo ignored him and walked ahead of Stiles, procuring his wand in his hand. “If you get trapped in here, there are many witnesses that knew I came with you.” Halting in his steps, he wrinkled his nose at Stiles. “I’d rather not be the primary suspect for kidnapping you.”

Stiles snorted, “So you’d rather get stuck?”

“With you,” Theo added smoothly, smiling widely because he knew exactly what that did to Stiles. “That’s the vital bit.”

Stiles wanted to retort with something witty; he was usually good at that. But he wasn’t as sober as he thought he was, it appeared. His brain was still muddled, and Theo was a pretty strong toxin.

Shushing the traitorous uptick in his heartbeat, Stiles rolled his eyes and exhaled a long-suffering sigh. It was not the time.

Pretending he was less affected than he actually was, he took his wand from his pocket and muttered the first spell on his list – an advanced magical-signature tracking spell. Ignoring the wide grin still plastered on Theo’s face, he pushed past the git and barraged deeper into the sea of artefacts without looking back if Theo followed. Of course, he followed. He followed because he was infuriatingly dedicated like that. Dedicated on driving Stiles to the brink.

And Stiles was not far behind.

***

They found the mirror quicker than they expected, which made sense to Stiles because they did seek the help of the Room of Requirement to find it specifically . So, more than likely, the room had opened to the exact section where the Mirror of Erised was nearest. It wasn’t Stiles’s tracking spell that found it, though – not conclusively – but Theo.

Stiles was still walking ahead of the Durmstrang boy, resolutely keeping his distance, as he followed the tug of his magic and checked side-by-side, up-and-down thoroughly, trying his damnest not to pause and gawk at every single fascinating thing he came across. He unveiled every looking glass they passed by, running his tracer magic on each one, hoping to catch a unique signature that would identify the artifact as old, rare, and extremely powerful – anything that would separate it from the other magic in the surrounding. The spell had drawbacks, of course, Stiles recognized that. The room probably had thousands of old, rare, and powerful artefacts (most might even be older than the mirror they came for) – it wouldn’t necessarily isolate the Mirror of Erised from everything with similar magical signatures.

He contemplated switching to the next spell on his list when he heard Theo speak.

“Do you see that?”

Stiles drew away from the set of portraits he accidentally uncovered – everyone in it grumbling and cussing Stiles for disturbing their slumber. Stiles quickly draped the cloth back over them – to look at Theo.

The Durmstrang boy was looking onward, a little farther from where they stood, and Stiles followed his line of sight. All he saw was a darker pathway with more antique broken objects.

“What?”

Theo pointed, “That,” he muttered, walking towards whatever it was that he saw.

Curious, Stiles tailed closely.

Theo had stopped in front of a huge ornate mirror with a gold frame. Stiles inched nearer and almost jumped in glee upon reading the inscription around it: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi . Unbelievable. It was there; they had found it! A quick tempus charm would confirm that they had only begun searching less than twenty minutes ago. And it was now in their presence!

Stiles grinned, turning to his companion. “This is it! The Mirror of Erised .”

But Theo only stared at the mirror, brows furrowed in deep concentration. Stiles could only see Theo watching his reflection. But from the way his eyes moved around, his face flickering with different emotions (more than he ever saw Theo wear), Stiles quickly realized that the mirror was serving its purpose – showing people their desires. Stiles wondered silently, what could Theo be seeing ? What does someone like him desire the most ? More wealth? Prestige? More possession of the Dark Arts? Does Theo desire something mundane and vague as love and happiness? If so, what scene does he see himself in that includes being in love and happy? Around a family of his own, maybe? A wife, their two-and-a-half children, in a country manor with a vast field of green dragon berry trees?

Stiles broke from his stupor when the Durmstrang boy stepped away from the mirror, eyes alight in awe and trepidation. Then, softly, he chuckled without humor. “This mirror is cursed.”

Stiles glanced at him questioningly. “Because it shows you what you want?”

Theo turned to him, face set in a hard expression. He almost looked pained. “Because it shows you what you want that you evidently can’t have.”

Their eyes met, and Stiles saw the yearning and defeat in Theo’s. It was probably the most earnest he’d ever seen Theo. Something had truly rattled him. What did he see ? He thought again. What did the mirror show him that he – who, on the face of it, has everything – desires so much because he believes he can’t have it ?

Stiles shook his head and replied, “You don't know that,” He pressed on even as Theo scoffed. “If you want something enough, Theo, you devise means to achieve it.”

“Even at the expense of everything else?” Theo challenged.

“Yeah!” Stiles cried out. “Who said ambitions were always smart?”

There was a moment’s pause following Stiles’s statement before Theo lowered his eyes. Stiles wanted to say something sarcastic to break the ice – he wasn’t used to Theo like this – but he didn’t think it would be helpful at the moment. When it became apparent that Theo wasn’t going to say anything more, Stiles decided to take his previous position and face the Mirror of Erised as they came to do. Anyway, if Theo allowed it, they could talk about… feelings , after. Although Stiles reckoned Theo would probably pretend this moment of vulnerability didn’t happen once they were out in the real world, he was oddly hopeful. Because it actually felt nice, even if he would never admit it out loud, to be the only one to see Theo this way. At least, he thought he was the only one.

Stiles internally sighed and shook his head. Emotions were so weird . He was never not conflicted having them – too many and too foreign and always in-between.

He cleared his throat and stood before the mirror, forcing his mind to clear. He heard Theo shuffle behind him but otherwise remained silent, watching Stiles as Stiles had done with him earlier.

Stiles swallowed, taking a deep breath, and barred any other thoughts in his mind apart from one – his longing to win the Triwizard tournament. His victory during the First Task ignited it fully; he wasn’t just in it for the thrill – he wanted the galleons, the look of awe and jealousy directed to him, the pride, the fame, the glory. He wanted to emerge victorious on the other side. And he was going to get that if he knew how to arm himself for the Second Task. He would know how to arm himself if the mirror showed him what he would need to arm himself against. The mirror could show him.

He repeated it inside his head like an incantation.

Soon enough, his reflection started distorting, forming vague shapes like images through water, until it became a vision of him brandishing the Triwizard Cup in the air as fireworks of silver and green erupted in the sky. It was quick, but it brought the biggest grin on his face, then the mirror cleared once more. He was about to think “ that’s it ?” when the wing locket around his neck began unfurling. Stiles’s eyes widen, and his hand immediately flew to the jewelry. When he looked down, however, it was still the same: a pair of wings enclosed together, cold on his skin.

He looked up to the mirror, but his reflection was holding an opened locket. Stiles gaped in astonishment.

“Do you see anything?” Theo asked, stepping forward.

Stiles nodded, eyes still fixed on the figure inside the mirror.

Faintly, the runes glowed, and so did the encryptions that Theo’s spell created on the locket. Listen to the desire of the heart . Belatedly, Stiles thought that the opened locket now resembled a heart, actually. Then slowly, Stiles’s reflection raised the unfurled locket to his ear and held it there. Confused, Stiles mimicked and brought the golden wings to his hear.

Merlin’s fruit basket , Stiles swore, but he could hear whispers from within the locket! Listen to the desire of the heart – Stiles wanted to laugh out loud because that was almost too literal, wasn’t it? Excitedly, he pressed the locket more firmly to his ear, but the melodious whispers, almost as if singing to him, stayed garbled and incomprehensible. He started getting pissed after a moment – he, unfortunately, didn’t speak nonsense – until he caught on to a specific word: Seirḗn .

A Siren.

***

“The next task is a Siren ?” Theo asked dubiously, as they were tracing back to the exit.

“It makes sense, actually,” Stiles replied, glancing sideways at Theo, and his mind wandering to each clue, making sense of them now. “First, this is a wing locket. Sirens are depicted as half-woman half-bird hybrids. Then, when the wings open, it forms into the shape of a heart. The rune on the locket says: ‘ listen to the desire of the heart ’. And sirens are mythical creatures known to sing the yearnings of a person to lure them to their death.” Theo nodded along to his points, brows drawn together in musing. “And now this .” Stiles opened his palm to reveal a small, white object.

Right after Stiles heard his final and most concrete clue, the Mirror of Erised returned to being a simple looking glass, and the wing locket in Stiles’s hand pried open unprompted. A white object fell from the locket and into Stiles’s curious hand.

Theo looked down at it, wrinkling nose. “What’s that?”

“Wax.”

“ Wax ?”

“For noise-canceling,” Stiles explained, giving Theo a dull look. “It was what ancient Greeks used to survive a Siren’s song. You should know it since you apparently read Greek literature.”

Theo returned the look with a mild glare. “I know about that . It's why I also know that a tiny glob of it won’t do any good. It doesn’t even look like there’s enough for one ear.”

“I can make additional, Theo,” Stiles answered, already mentally listing ingredients he thought would be needed. “But obviously, it’ll take time. Thank Merlin, we have over a month to get ready. And we also have to read more about Sirens.”

“Hurray.”

They fell into silence, Stiles drawing a plan inside his head and Theo wordlessly walking beside him. He was more or less back to classic Theo – Stiles was convinced that the brief moment they shared would be pushed down to forgotten lane – and though a part of him was disappointed, it might be for the best. If Stiles were hard-pressed on not crossing the line, then confiding weaknesses should be out of the trade. This tension between them was frustrating, but it was safe. Safe was okay. Safe was preferable.

Suddenly, he found himself being shoved to a wall. He was too surprised and tired – it was past three in the morning – to react quickly. He grunted softly, but the impact hardly hurt. One of Theo’s hands cushioned his head protectively, and he only stared wide-eyed as Theo pushed closer and caged Stiles between a random wall and his body. His really hot body – Merlin, he was a furnace. He knew the Durmstrang delegates could create sparks with the tip of their magic canes, but Theo could make fire . Stiles saw it – many, many times after the Welcome Feast. Theo was always eager to demonstrate. He enjoyed watching Stiles’s open-mouthed response and the way his eyes would glaze over. Theo was always burning, and Stiles would have complained if only the burn didn’t feel perfect.

He only hoped he wasn’t leaning against temperamental portraits who cursed in seven languages because then, it wouldn’t be as perfect.

“What are you doing?” He hissed, but his hands grappled on both sides of Theo’s waist, the wax still clutched in one.

Theo’s other hand curled around Stiles’s neck and started playing with the tips of his hair. His eyes locked on Stiles. “You said that if I wanted something enough, I would have to make ways to get it.”

Stiles’s pulse quickened. “Your heart’s greatest desire isn’t seriously to have sex with me.” He tried to sound jeering, but he had turned into a gasping mess. One of Theo’s knees had parted his legs and pressed their lower halves together.

“No,” Theo’s hot breath fanned across Stiles’s face, his calloused thumb caressing Stiles’s jaw, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “But I want you badly, nonetheless.”

--------

hello! I've reached the maximum limit for a long post, apparently (didn't know there was one!), so I had to cut the scene. Sorry. If you wanna continue reading, it's on AO3! If not, thank you for still reaching this part!

Byeee 🖤

#steo #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #theo raeken #stiles x theo #hogwarts au #fics tag #after 9 months here's an update heh

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higuchimon · 3 years

Text

[fanfic] Treasure Trove

Fubuki wandered by the ocean, partly listening to the way the waves lapped on the beach, partly listening to the music that rose from his guitar as he strummed it delicately. He'd written the song just the night before and he wasn't sure if he liked it this way just. He needed to find the correct chords, no matter how long it took.

Carefully he settled down on one of the rocks splashed by the ocean, and kept on rehearsing, humming under his breath as he did, slowly working it out. So deep was he in his efforts that he didn't notice anything off about the way that the water splashed until a sharp voice snapped.

"Could you stop that racket?"

Fubuki jerked his head up and stared. If someone had asked him, he would have assumed that whoever spoke would have to be on the beach near him. But the voice came from right in front of him - and someone bobbed out in the water, arms resting on top of it, glaring at him.

Pretty eyes, was his first thought, and he smiled brilliantly as it dawned on him someone was actually there in front of him. "Well, hello there," he said, setting his guitar aside. "I wasn't bothering you, was I?" He offered another of his best smiles as he did.

The stranger in the water sniffed, splashing a little. "Of course not. What are you doing here anyway? No one ever comes out here."

"I was just practicing." Fubuki shrugged. "What about you? If you're out here, then people come out here."

"I'm not a person. Not a human, anyway." The stranger shifted a little more, and Fubuki spied what looked like a tail. He did a double-take, then looked even more closely.; "You're a merperson!" Fubuki declared in absolute joy. He'd heard of merfolk before but he'd never encountered one. Some people weren't even sure if they existed, but here was one of them. He wished he could show Asuka. She'd never quite believed that they were real.

Stormy gray eyes rolled. "Well, we can guess you're not blind." His tail swished through the water. Fubuki couldn't get a good enough look to be sure of the scale color, but it looked dark, and he thought it might match the other's black hair.

"Nope! I know something attractive when I see it." Fubuki grinned before he tucked his guitar away in the case and set it where it wouldn't get wet. "Hey, you don't mind if I join you, do you?"

"Huh?" The merman stared at him, tail swishing even faster. "Why would you want to?"

"Because I don't like yelling when I'm talking to someone," Fubuki pointed out as reasonably as he was capable of. "I'm a pretty good swimmer."

"Uh..." The merman shifted a bit, then shrugged. "All right. Come on in." He backed away, giving Fubuki space as the bard dived cleanly into the water. He dived downward, glad that the ocean was pretty deep even here, and then surfaced, right in front of the merman.

"My name's Fubuki," he said, wiping water from his face. "What can I call you?"

Again the merman shifted, but this time it looked more out of nervousness than anything else. "Manjoume. That's good enough."

"Nice to meet you then, Manjoume," Fubuki offered. "I'm a bard. I wander around making music for everyone." He made something of a face. "I'm supposed to be writing a song for my sister but I haven't been able to get it done right. That's what I was doing."

"Well, you could probably stand to practice a little more," Manjoume retorted. "I mean, it was okay, but not that great. You could do it a lot better."

Fubuki had heard that merfolk knew a lot about music. He darted towards the shore, reaching for his guitar. "Think you could give me some pointers?" If there was anything he wanted, it was to get this song done for his sister before they crossed paths again. He started to unstrap the instrument, turning back as he did.

"No!" Manjoume shook his head quickly. "No! I have to go! Good-bye!" He ducked down under the water, vanishing out of sight in a matter of seconds. Fubuki stared at where he'd been, head tilted a little.

That was weird. Did I say something wrong? He wouldn't have thought so normally but Manjoume had vanished so quickly when he'd just asked about music. He wasn't sure what the problem was.

He wrinkled his nose, then slung the instrument case over his back and started along the beach once again. He hummed as he did, trying to get the rhythm correct, and not paying much attention to what else was going on around him, and certainly not at all to the gray eyes that lurked just under the water and followed him along until he made his camp for the night.

Tiny sounds of a tail flipping through the water, then a splash as a large fish hit the beach near Fubuki. He regarded it carefully.

"I didn't know merpeople ate fish," he said, not looking in the water, but reaching for the fish and his knife.

"You don't know a lot about us," a grumbling voice came from behind a rock. Fubuki smiled briefly, before he set to work skinning and preparing his dinner.

Before he set the fish over the fire he built, Fubuki observed, "This is a very big fish. I don't think I could eat all of it myself. Wonder if I could share it with anyone."

He did hope Manjoume would either ask him to come closer to the water or come out on land. Among things he didn't know was that if merfolk could exist on land at all.

"Oh, I think we could help you eat that," came a rough voice from the woods that crept closer to the beach. Fubuki whirled at once, one hand reaching for the knife - or where the knife had been. Someone else had picked it up. Ranged in between him and the path that led away were ten or so large muscular types, set to make sure he didn't go anywhere. One of them stepped forward, the one who'd spoken before. "And you in the water, get up here - and bring some treasure when you do it!"

Manjoume snorted, tail slapping the water. "What makes you think I have any treasure? Or that I'd give it to you if I did?"

"Because if you don't, we're going to fillet and bone this guy like he did that fish," the leader declared, flipping Fubuki's knife in his hands. "Everyone knows merpeople have lots of treasure. You get it when ships sink. It's not even yours. So hand it over - the biggest one that you've got."

Manjoume poked his head out from behind the rock and glared. "It might not be mine but it's not yours either. So why should I give it to you?"

The leader flicked one hand, and Fubuki found himself with a sharp blade pointed at his throat. Thankfully it wasn't his; that would have been too embarrassing. But he didn't like having weapons of any kind pointed at him and he frowned.

"You'd better leave. I'm not going to be responsible for what happens if you don't." Technically he would, but if they didn't leave him be, then they would be asking for it. He didn't like their chances any more when one of them gripped onto his arms and the knife came closer to his throat.

"You stay quiet, bard," the leader declared. "You're not going to do anything except sit here and be a good boy."

"Leave him alone!" Manjoume declared. Overhead there rolled a peal of thunder. That confused Fubuki; there hadn't been any storms in the area that he knew of. But now steel gray clouds, much the same color as Manjoume's eyes, boiled up overhead.

"What we are going to do is wait for you to bring us that treasure." The leader smirked. "Otherwise, blood starts flowing and it's not going to be ours."

Fubuki sighed a very deep sigh. "I wouldn't be so sure about that." He really didn't want to do this. He didn't want to do anything like this, but he didn't want them getting mad at Manjoume and trying to hurt him.

The leader waved a hand at him, probably wanting his minions to shut Fubuki up. Fubuki raised one hand, shaking off the restraining grips on him, and rested his fingers on the leader's shoulder. Ice flowed outward from the touch and the captain shrieked in fear and pain, jerking away, dropping Fubuki's knife. Fubuki picked it up quickly and stepped closer to the water. His original intention was to get in the water and hide with Manjoume until the thugs went away. But he wasn't even in the water before another hand touched his shoulder, a much quieter and gentler feel than any of those bandits. He glanced over to see a familiar face - if only familiar by having seen it for a couple of hours. Manjoume stood next to him.

What Fubuki noticed first of all after that was that Manjoume wasn't wearing a single stitch of clothes. In the water he didn't need to but they weren't in the water now. Fubuki's eyes dropped, then he jerked his gaze up even more quickly. He'd not blushed since he was eleven years old and yet now he turned a deep shade of red.

If Manjoume knew what the problem was, he didn't say anything. Instead he turned to look at the bandits, who were busy regrouping and starting to bristle with weaponry. His gray eyes narrowed and overhead, the clouds thickened even more.

"You have no idea of who you're tangling with," he declared. "Let me introduce myself." One hand raised to the sky. "Ten - one hundred - one thousand - Manjoume Thunder!" And on those last two words, lightning arced downward from the clouds and slammed into the group.

When Fubuki could see again, a pile of very singed clothing and scorched metal that might have been weapons once upon a time draped over the beach. He rubbed the back of his head.

"You did that?" He'd never seen weather control on that level before!

Slowly Manjoume turned to him, and his own cheeks tinged just the tiniest bit of red. "Yeah. I - I'm a thunder mage." He glanced to one side. "I can't sing. At all."

Oh. That explained it. Most merfolk were excellent singers, or so the stories Fubuki had heard went. If Manjoume couldn't sing at all, then that was why he'd reacted when Fubuki wanted pointers! He had never been that embarrassed before.

Then he shrugged it off and grinned. "That was amazing! You're incredible!" He smiled brilliantly at Manjoume, who stared at him for a few moments before shaking his head.

"What about you? What did you do to him?" Manjoume waved one hand to the dust. There was also, Fubuki noticed, a faint hint of scorched meat in the air, that didn't include his fish. He would still have to cook that.

"I'm an ice mage," Fubuki told him, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, well, not really. What I really am is a bard. But I have ice mage powers and I have the training. Mom and Dad insisted the third time I made it snow on my sister's birthday."

Manjoume tilted his head. "What's so wrong about that?"

"Her birthday is on Midsummer's Day," Fubuki admitted. He hesitated before he asked something else. "Um, if I can save that fish, would you like to share it with me?" He wrinkled his nose. "Maybe a little farther down the beach, though?"

He wasn't sure if Manjoume would agree. Then slowly, the merman nodded. “I know a good place."

Fubuki grinned. Asuka wouldn’t believe this.

The End

Notes: Fubuki will also offer Manjoume a cloak later. Not that he would need it, unless he's going to spend time on land. I might do more with this later.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #ygo gx #GXRarePairsWeek #stormshipping #manjoume x fubuki #fubuki x manjoume #tenjoin fubuki #manjoume jun

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a-world-in-grey · 4 years

Text

A Year and a Day

@secret-engima Six curse it all WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME-

(Fusion with the new Mer AU because I ALSO have no self-control, ffs. Also, because I’m going off of the one posted story and a single ramble, I have absolutely NO IDEA how much of this actually fits in your Mer AU so like, yeah? See the end/tags for more.)

-It’s been a year since those horrible two weeks after Libertus lost Nyx in a storm (a year since Libertus nearly lost her forever) and a year since the realization that mythical merfolk aren’t quite as extinct as everyone thought.

-At first it was just Nox and his Uncle, but after that it seemed like the floodgates opened, because one particularly rough day - not quite a storm thank Ramuh - on the waves saw another merman with the fins of a Lionfish but in red and liquid silver clawing his way on deck and screeching at Nyx and Tredd and it wasn’t until Libertus’ heart stopping trying to beat out of his chest that he realized the merman was scolding the two idiots-

-Captain was the only merman to stick around near constantly, even more than Ardyn and Nox (to Nyx’s disappointment) but occasionally other mer would pop by to talk with Captain in that strange language the rest of the crew was slowly but surely beginning to pick up.

-It’s been a year since that fateful storm. No, a year and a day, and Libertus is maybe a bit on edge because if there’s something Libertus has figured out, it’s that Fate loves her Significant Numbers.

-(A year and a day. A decade. A century. A millennia.)

-A year and a day. If anything is going to happen. If anything is going to happen, it’s going to be today.

-And to top it off, it’s storming. Again.

-Nox is with them this time. Libertus isn’t sure he should be relieved by the merman’s presence or worried that a powerful mythical being shares his worries.

-The Flotilla is facing off against another Niflheim Fleet. Not Tummelt this time, though Tummelt had survived the storm that nearly claimed Nyx’s life. No, this time it’s led by the Aureus, captained by Caligo Ulldor and that’s the only reason they’re facing off in such a storm at all.

-(No matter the risk, they cannot let Ulldor reach land. Every Galahdian would give themselves to the Stormsender’s Wrath then allow the atrocities Ulldor would inflict upon their people.)

-But Ulldor isn’t the young and reckless captain Tummelt is, surviving by daring and wits. Ulldor, for all that no Galahdian would ever admit it to his face, is a match of skill for any Furia captain, and a crew equally sea-worthy. The Aureus keeps up with the Stormheart, even with Captain at the helm, even as the rest of the Niflheim fleet falls to Nox and the Flotilla.

-Until a note splits the thunder-struck sky, not so much a Song as a shriek, high and shrill and inhuman and panic-desperation-betrayal-runrunRUN hitting all of them like a rogue wave.

-And the scream cuts off with terrible suddenness and Captain roars, hate and fury blanketing the ship as he shouts for them to brace for impact, just in time for a ship - Tummelt - to somehow appear from nowhere and ram them from the port side.

-Libertus manages to grab Nyx and the rigging, wrapping one arm around her waist because he refuses to lose her a second time-

-It doesn’t matter, as the Stormheart splits, sending them into the waves and the last thing Libertus hears is Nox’s furious scream.

-(A year and a day.)

-He wakes.

-Libertus wakes with sunshine on his face, in his soul and lungs, hands helping him turn and vomit up sea water as his own clench in the sand beneath him-

-Heaving for air, reveling in the pain because Shiva’s tits it hurts but pain means he’s alive, how-?

-Nyx’s worried blue eyes, checking him over, helping him sit up before wrapping arms around his neck and sobbing. Libertus returning the hug because his brain still can’t comprehend anything his eyes are seeing.

-The crew of the Stormheart, laid out on the beach. Most of them awake and sitting up, being tended to one of the many red-haired Furia that must be from one of the local villages, given the children and Elders among them, handing out food and water and bandages.

-Nox and Ardyn - and when did the other merman arrive? - seeing to the worst of the wounded, blue and gold magic shimmering through the air. And Captain, beside him and Nyx, grim faced but guarding the-

-Libertus’ heart skips a beat, and he wonders if he’s actually dead.

-Nyx lets out a wet snarl and smacks his shoulder. Did he say that out loud?

-“Y-you were.” Nyx hiccups, hands clenching in his shirt.

-Libertus wants to disbelieve it. Coming back from the dead isn’t possible. Only, he can’t, because the Koi mermaid with red and gold scales in the tones of a summer sunset, trailing up arms and from sea-blue eyes, hair the same red-violet as Ardyn, bends over a horribly pale and still Tredd, pressing lips to his and breathes.

-And in a shimmer of gold, Tredd sputters, coughing up seawater as Luche and Axis help Tredd turn over.

-“Breath of Life.” Captain tells him, eyes dark. “A rare gift. And not one without consequences.”

-Consequences? What consequences-

-Sunshine on his face. But the sky is clouded over and Libertus can still feel a warmth in his soul, like the hearthfire of his childhood home, like the summer sun as he and Nyx played in the Galahd River.

-Breath of Life. Nox and Nyx mated with a kiss, “We didn’t just get married, did we?” He squeaks.

-Libertus might be panicking. The least Nyx could do is not laugh at him, thank you very much.

-The Captain’s chuckles are much more reassuring. Mostly because he wouldn’t laugh if it were serious. “No. Mating requires consent.” Captain shoots a wry look in Nyx’s direction. “If not informed consent. Of either party.”

-Nyx just snorts, a year of teasing on the subject inuring her to any embarrassment. Nox on the other hand still turns as red as Ardyn’s hair whenever someone brings it up.

-Libertus is relieved. Not that he’d necessarily mind being married to the mermaid who - on top of being very pretty - saved his life and the lives of most of the crew it looks like, but Libertus doesn’t fancy suddenly becoming part of a harem no matter how pretty said mermaid is.

-“So what happened, then?” Libertus asks, because if he’s not married, he’d like to know what Captain means when he says consequences.

-“A gift of magic.” Captain says bluntly. “Most merfolk aren’t capable of it, but most merfolk aren’t the Draconian’s either, and dragons have always been possessive of their Claimed.”

-What did dragons have to do with merfolk- wait. Libertus’ head whips around to stare at the fire-haired mermaid. At the Koi mermaid, and suddenly Libertus remembers the tales of koi fish climbing the mountain rivers to reach the Sky and become Dragons. “I thought- those are myths.”

-The Captain raises a wry brow. “So are merfolk.”

-And as Libertus sputters at the fact he’s been Claimed by a Princess, Nyx gives up and cries with laughter.

More notes on this so I hopefully don’t go any further down this rabbit hole-

-Sola was captured by Niflheim, and experimented on by Besithia who learned how to harness and shape her magic - and the magic of other mer - essentially turning Sola into a magical battery. She and other magically powerful mer are brought into battle to give them a magical edge against their enemies.

-Sola was most commonly brought aboard Caligo’s ship and used to hide the presence of other ships so Caligo could crush his enemies in flanking and pincer maneuvers.

-Sola sensed the presence of other mer, sensed Titus’ presence and fought back, if only by screaming a warning because she refused to be the reason another of her people were captured and used. She’d die first.

-She thought she would, when Caligo slit her throat and dumped her overboard. But Ardyn found her and healed her, and then he and Nox destroyed the Niflheim fleet and Sola helped rescue and heal the Galahdians.

-Like Titus, Sola has a lot of scars. The worst is the scar across her throat, the scar over her chest and back from someone running her through - the Kings of Yore, multiple times from when Niflheim pushed her magic too far - and the scar across her back from when they first captured her. The rest are from torture, experimentation, and being forced to heal her captors.

-Sola once had a beautiful singing voice. But now, despite Ardyn’s healing, Sola’s voice is a raspy croak and she can’t speak much before the pain gets too be too much, so typically sticks to sign language anyway. Sola doesn’t mind the loss, but Titus and a lot of the other Galahdians feel guilty because she lost it - and almost her life - because she warned them.

-Everyone Sola saves with the Breath of Life ends up getting the gift of her magic. Similar but lesser in scale to the gift of magic Nyx has from her mating with Nox. It also means that Sola becomes very possessive of the Galahdians she saved, because they are Hers.

-The day Sola decides to start Courting Libertus is the start of many Shenanigans and much hilarity for everyone on the Stormheart II. Because Sola’s picked up just enough of Galahdian Courting to know generally what to do (bring gifts/kills to show Ability to provide, bring dead enemies to show Ability to protect home, etc), but she’s a mer so like, not all of it comes across.

-Though, the day Sola presents Libertus with a beautifully made sash of woven sea-silk (that the Lazarus weep over) dyed in shimmering blue and black is the day Libertus finally gets a clue and everyone gets to see Libertus choke and turn bright red. Sola just laughs and kisses Libertus on the cheek.

-Sola and Libertus are very affectionate with each other, though they carefully never kiss on the lips. But forehead kisses, cheek kisses, hand kisses (the first time Libertus does this to Sola, she turns as red as her scales), and lots of cuddling is very common to see.

-Sola crafts a marriage bead out of a golden pearl that she gifts to Libertus. Libertus waits for Sola to braid it into her hair, then braids the Ostium braids into her hair, before he seals their marriage with a kiss. (And, if it applies in this AU, Sola gives up her mer form and most of her magic for the form of a human, and gets to learn how to walk on human legs.)

-(By the time they marry though, Libertus has met the entirety of the royal family including Regis and Aulea and has decided that Aulea is by far the scariest of his in-laws. Nox and Ardyn included.)

Fun Fact: in Japanese (and Chinese?) myth, koi swam up river to try to climb the mountains. If they succeeded in reaching the sky, they transformed into dragons.

#Shadow of Heaven's Light #ffxv #fusion #Nox verse #mer au #SE feel free to use any of this #I dunno what you've got already for this au #I'm going off literally two posts #so like this is an au #of an au of an au #AU-ception #all hail the author #who can inspire almost 2k words #at the drop of (ardyn's really ugly) hat

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percabeth4life · 4 years

Text

The Prince of the Sea

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || AO3

Triton heard the rumors from the fish. The whispers of a child controlling the water in the river. A child that smelled strangely mortal and yet a layer of the sea clung stubbornly to them.

Triton eventually went to see this child, perhaps a child of a minor god was learning how to use their powers?

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The child was so much more than a child of a minor sea god.

Triton watched him manipulate the water better than half the students of Atlantis’s elite academy. He watched him freeze it.

The amount of skill that took was ridiculous. Ice does not come easy to those of the mid seas. The northern most and southern most were skilled in it, but this child was definitely not of those.

The eye’s gave him away.

They were the same eye’s Triton had. The same eye’s that every child of Poseidon ever had.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He watched his half-brother for a time.

He wasn’t sure what he was doing at the start, but it seemed he was cleaning the river?

Did he lose something in it?

Triton watched though, he watched as the boy learned to raise the water, learned to make waves, spoke with the fish, studied some of the harder magics of the sea, seemingly without even realizing.

He spoke with an eel named Elli a lot.

Triton did not understand this spawn of his father’s. How was his scent so weak when he obviously knows his heritage? His presence only felt faintly of immortal power. It was strange.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

His name was Percy.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He knows nothing of his heritage.

He has no idea of the gods and no idea who Triton is.

Triton was… confused.

He called his control of the water, waterbending. Triton would allow it for now.

Triton studied him more though, he was cleaning in the middle of winter. That was a dangerous time for mortals even today. He was young, he shouldn’t be risking his health like that.

Triton wasn’t sure he approved of a foolishly reckless half-brother, even if it was to help the river.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

His half-brother asked if he was named after… himself. Triton had to hold back a laugh.

His brother was powerful yet ignorant, a dangerous combination. But right now, one that kept him hidden. Triton would not destroy that protection yet, he was not needlessly cruel.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton hid his knowledge of Percy from his father. He was good at keeping a straight face.

Triton also didn’t tell his mother though, she may not be vengeful but she would be rightfully angry with Poseidon. And that would give it away.

Poseidon didn’t seem to check on Percy often, perhaps because he didn’t want Amphitrite or Triton to know about him.

Jokes on him, Triton was already interacting with Percy.

He was careful not to visit him on days that Poseidon wasn’t busy though, no need to make it easy for him to find out about their meetings.

He wondered if his father had noticed Percy training his Hydrokinesis? (Or Triton supposed it was actually his Thermomancy, seeing how he wasn’t only controlling water. Ice control was extremely difficult for his heritage, perhaps he was able to do it so easily because he was emulating this water bending he spoke of.)

He doubted Father had noticed yet, his father cared but he would be too afraid to check often. It would not just be to keep Triton and Amphitrite from knowing but also to prevent any other immortal from noticing him checking on someone so often and investigating.

That would reveal Percy quicker than anything else.

It didn’t matter though, right now it worked in Triton’s favor.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton told off those two river god’s who’d been spying on his half-brother so much.

They had better things to do, maybe they could clean their own damn rivers instead of letting a child do it.

Truly shames to water immortals.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton decided that his half-brother should learn to use a trident.

It was the weapon of their family, and he would dishonor them to not learn it.

Percy was determined to prove himself more skilled than Triton expected. He made a trident out of ice. He wasn’t even trying to show off, but it was impressive.

Sure, it was brittle, but he could make actual shapes now, and they held for a short time.

He would be strong one day.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton could not believe his half-brother got expelled for doing as he was told.

So, what if they got dropped in a shark tank? Sharks weren’t dangerous anyways. They were absolute sweethearts as long as you didn’t try to hurt them. He’d had a dozen pet sharks over the years!

Honestly that guide should get fired.

Perhaps he should introduce them to a true dangerous sea creature…

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton decided he’d let Percy play around long enough, plus there were some incidents in the sea that were taking more of his attention.

If he’d been raised in the sea, he would already know the basics of sea law and culture. He could not remain ignorant there, not if he was to be a prince of the sea.

Thankfully, Triton didn’t need to worry about that weakening the protections around his interesting half-brother. Percy was convinced there was an underwater society. Triton could work with that.

He gave him books, just a few. It would be a good base for future lessons.

He also had to give him a dictionary for the Halmaheran language apparently, he didn’t know it. What did land dwellers teach anyways?

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton was not pleased that he’d had to go away, sure he’d expected to be busier with the incidents happening, but this was far worse than he’d expected.

There was a massive oil spill.

It required all hands-on-deck to try and save as many lives as possible, and to try and relocate all the coral.

It was a massive undertaking with a lot of merfolk and sea beings involved.

Triton was working overtime both in his duties as a prince to reassure the people and work with the rescue crews to show that he was willing to help, and also in his duties as a messenger and ruler of the tides.

He barely had time to breathe for over two months.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He finally had the time to check on Percy again.

He needed to be sure he’d been doing his reading and practicing the Halmaheran language.

He only spoke to Percy in Halmaheran, make sure he could get used to it. Percy actually did pretty good.

The river seemed dirtier than the last time he was there though.

His eyes narrowed, that was suspicious.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

His half-brother just called him a great friend.

Were they friends?

Triton hadn’t had a real friend in a long time.

His last few… they hadn’t made it to the current day.

And then there was Athena.

He supposed he would accept his half-brother calling him a friend.

It certainly meant nothing to Triton, he was an immortal, he was not attached to his mortal brother.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He couldn’t believe the little brat didn’t tell him about his birthday!

Birthday’s were extremely important for children!

This would not stand.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He gave Percy his presents, and almost turned to hunt down this mortal ‘Smelly Gabe’ who apparently wouldn’t allow his brother to properly celebrate his birthday.

How dare he.

He held his anger in though, watching Percy find the sand dollars he’d spent a week carefully compressing and shaping, along with the bracelet that he’d made for Percy.

The coral conch shell charm on it would keep him updated to Percy’s health.

He had a feeling he’d want that in the future.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I don’t get my brother’s obsession with going beyond in his thermomancy.

It’s a powerful magic, but he’s doing well so far. He should focus on using weapons now as well. He was able to make a solid trident that didn’t break so easily now, why did he need to work on drawing water from plants at his age?

Thermomancy was a dangerous magic, he was doing excellent at it but going too far to harm his source of power, the power he inherited from father. I tried to distract him from it.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

So apparently, Percy learned how to draw water from plants.

Well, if his brother wanted to work so much on that then Triton supposed he could humor him, at least then he would know when his brother was practicing.

Triton assigned him homework on drawing moisture from other sources, ones that shouldn’t be too hard with his base of skill.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton was touched by the gift Percy had gotten him.

It was clearly hand-made, it still radiated Percy’s power.

The bracelet fit his color theme, and the charm was a sparkling version of his trident. It was very well made.

He wasn’t sure his trident charm in return was as good, but Percy seemed happy, so Triton simply decided to get better presents for him in the future.

This one was practical, and something Poseidon should’ve done if he wasn’t off pretending Percy didn’t exist.

Maybe Triton was a little bitter on Percy’s behalf.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton added assignments for Percy to do.

Things that he should’ve been raised learning, Triton would fix his father’s failings.

He made sure to quiz Percy often, making sure that he was up to date on current events and knew about the different forms of magic he may face.

He made sure he knew the territories to avoid and how to identify them.

He made sure his brother could be the perfect prince when needed.

Triton would make sure he knew his heritage.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton couldn’t help being impressed.

He’d guessed already which magics Percy would probably be best at.

Thermomancy for one, but that was common in children of the sea (or at least Hydrokinesis was). Though Percy seemed to have a special knack for it.

He had the potential for Siren’s song, but that would have to be trained. It had some instinctual parts yes, but to really unlock it’s power you had to focus it. Percy would require a lot of time before he was truly skilled at it.

But what Percy had shown a subconscious skill for was Purification.

It wasn’t considered a dangerous magic at all, but it is powerful. And it was extremely useful these day’s with all the pollution around.

Percy had a clear talent for it, cleansing the water around him even without meaning to.

It seemed he’d started practicing some of it, though being him, he’d immediately jumped to one of the more advanced forms.

Sand dollars are extremely valuable when made by a Purifier (someone skilled in Purification). Triton could make some of course, and he was rather good at purification magic out of necessity, but Percy had an instinctive knack for it that was rare.

Triton needed to encourage that.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Of course, another of his brother’s schools were run by complete imbeciles.

Expelling him because an exhibit collapsed, how idiotic. He was not pleased.

But he gave Percy more work, distracting him from the expulsion.

He gave him more history to study, he decided to work with him with other weapons. A sword would be a good weapon for now. Perhaps knives next.

He still worked with him on the trident though, that was the weapon of the sea and the one he must know.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Those filthy idiotic immortal pieces of trash told Percy that he was a demigod.

How dare they, they ruined all the work Triton had put into keeping Percy untouched from the immortal world.

Percy had questions, Triton would have to be careful about answering them, less he reveal too much and completely destroy his little brother’s protections.

But first, he paid a visit to those minor river gods.

No one would miss them.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He played along in court, he needed to see Percy, but his father had requested his presence. So, he went to his father.

Playing the prince was tiring right now, he just wanted to talk to Percy about what he’d learned.

His only reassurance was the conch shell pin that was connected to Percy’s charm. It showed that Percy was safe.

He should give Percy a way to escape from danger.

Just in case.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Explaining the history to his little brother was… difficult.

He had to be careful, he couldn’t tell him about certain things, things that may lead to him understanding and accepting the immortal world around him.

Him accepting the sea was one thing, that didn’t damage his protection, but for him to accept the immortal world as his… that couldn’t be allowed. Not yet.

So, Triton made sure to explain it, made sure to tell him he would be in danger, because he would not allow his brother to be harmed.

Percy is his brother.

The sea protects its own.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy was getting better at purification magic. Triton was glad.

Percy’s gift was impressive, he kept it in his room.

The purifying stone probably wouldn’t work long. But it would last a few weeks probably. Triton liked it regardless.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton made sure his brother had an escape route now. The pearl would bring him straight to Triton if he was in danger.

Hopefully he would never need it.

He also gave him a book on the Siren’s Song.

It was one of the most basic though, just describing it in detail and explaining some of the most basic exercises to train it.

It wouldn’t help him much yet, not without an instrument to practice putting his power through first.

Using your voice was both the easiest and the hardest way, it was the most powerful, but the hardest to control once you’d unlocked it. It was always best to start with an instrument.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy was attracting monsters now.

He was very lucky it was a young, weak, empousai, the younger ones tend to reform slowly. He should be safe for a while from other monsters hearing about it.

He needs to get better at fighting with water though if it’s going to be his go to. Exploding the pipes was extreme, but if he was going to turn to the ocean first, then he would need to improve on controlling it in a fight.

Triton started drilling him in it.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton couldn’t help but be pleased, Percy had a large interest in the sea magics.

He seemed to have a strong affinity for some of them.

That usually came with drawbacks in other areas though.

Percy was young now, so it was hard to tell. Perhaps his mortal half would balance it?

Nonetheless, he was more than willing to help Percy learn more.

Even if it meant he had to go learn more, he’d never paid a huge amount of attention in those classes. His skills lay more in other areas.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton spent a lot of time studying sea magics, so he could teach Percy more.

His father was pleased that Triton was showing an interest at last.

Ugh.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

So maybe Triton assigned a Cyclops to watch over Percy this year.

It didn’t do any good it seems.

He was not pleased that the school was just as idiotic as the last five.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton got Percy a Rainbow stone.

Making them is ridiculously hard, but he was able to convince (read: bribe) Natia, one of the strongest in enchantments that he knew, to make it.

He added the protections himself though, he didn’t trust her to not try to tap into it.

The Rainbow stone’s were almost shaped like gems, made of a pale white stone that seemed flecked with rainbow glitter. Channeling a little power into it would make a rainbow form.

He also made sure his brothers had drachmas to pay for it if he needed to.

He was touched by the hair pin his brother made for him. He quite liked it, it matched his trident well.

The sand dollars though, those were very impressive. He was already matching the skills of mer’s Triton knew that had practiced for many years.

Percy may be skilled in his Thermomancy, but his purification was where he truly shined.

Father was confused as to where he was getting the small presents.

Triton didn’t tell him.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton was annoyed that his little brother’s school didn’t accommodate his differences. He was of the sea not the land, yet they expected him to learn through land methods?

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The Cyclops didn’t succeed in keeping Percy out of trouble, despite literally being an alibi, somehow they failed to get Percy out of trouble.

How troublesome.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

There was a small event coming up, between some of the younger high-ranking merfolk.

Normally he wouldn’t attend those, but it would be a good introduction for Percy.

He could make up a backstory for him and did.

They wouldn’t suspect much, Triton had helped do introductions before, usually because he was ordered to or as a favor, but they didn’t know that.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Making the stone to give Percy the tails he would have if he were changed to a merman was amusing.

His little brother was delighted by it.

It was… adorable.

He was determined to keep his little brother out of the mess that the prophecy would cause. He wouldn’t let this one go. Percy was his brother, he would protect him at all costs.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He was extremely pleased with how Percy handled the little event.

He showed he was strong, he showed he was polite, and he showed that he knew how to stand up for himself too.

Triton of course took over when the one brat thought that they could speak out of turn in his presence, but otherwise he let Percy learn.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton took Percy to a few events after that. He wanted to be sure that Percy could handle the politics that come with being high ranking in the sea.

He was doing well and had made some friends.

He found it every so amusing that Percy didn’t quite understand yet that the brighter and more visible you were in the sea, the more dangerous you generally were.

Percy’s tail glittered, even in the dark of the sea depths. It’s blues of many shades shone, the flowy additions almost glowing in the dark.

Percy was befriending quite dangerous merfolk to match.

Samoa was all white, though that wasn’t natural, she’d created a magic dye that lasted for a few years. Her hair was naturally a brown. She just wanted to seem scarier. She was very good at making sand dollars though. Her and Percy were bonding over that.

She was probably the least dangerous of his friends.

Elei was dangerous, but not in magic. She was the daughter of one of the generals of father’s army. She was trained as such too. Though she was young, and thus had little experience, she was still a good sparring partner for Percy. She usually won. Her hair and tail was a deep red, though it seemed green in the dark of the ocean. Her tail was also one of the sleekest he’d seen, a sign that she had zero skill in magic.

Masina was a rising expert in controlling the ocean currents. They could weave them in ways that most trained for years couldn’t even begin to imagine. And they were only a little older than Percy. Their tail was a blend of blues and yellows, some dashes of pinks mixed in as well. It was bright and very flowy, like Percy’s. They tried teaching Percy how to use the currents, but he definitely did not have an affinity for the currents.

He said he felt he would lose himself to them. That’s alright, it was a sign that the current’s just weren’t for him.

Triton couldn’t help but find it amusing.

Fetu and Lagi were twins, both were skilled in different magics.

Fetu had an unnatural talent for the Siren’s song, and many were wary of him for it. Lagi was one of the best healers around. Both were rarer talents, but their parents had been powerful themselves, so it made sense. Their tails were matching yellows, bits of orange shining through them, and they were flowy, though not quite as much as Percy’s. Their hair was obnoxiously bright yellow, a real sign of the danger they posed.

Triton was glad Percy was making such powerful friends, they would be great help to him should he need it.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The summer solstice was nice.

Percy had given him a box made of ice.

Percy seemed to like ice a lot. The runes were carved well, he was pleased with it.

He also liked the sand dollars. They were very well made.

Percy had clearly improved a lot, they now drew in power like they were supposed to. They weren’t quite perfect, drawing in the power far slower than a proper sand dollar, but he was improving.

He gave Percy a hair pin that he’d had made for him.

His hair was getting long after all, he needed it out of his face for battles.

Also, it may or may not be enchanted to keep him safe from poisons. Not many would be able to affect him with his Purification skills, but better safe than sorry.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Getting an enchanted waterskin for Percy’s birthday required a bit of work.

He could make one, but that would clearly have his signature on it. That wasn’t something easy to hide.

He ended up managing to get one when they had to go to a… dinner…. With Oceanus. His grandfather.

His mother didn’t want them to fight too much, but father was always very tense when they interacted with him.

The important thing was that Oceanus let him take one of his old waterskins (the proper name for this one was Oceanskin, but Percy probably wouldn’t care).

They were useful when on land, but Oceanus hadn’t left the sea in ages. It was one of the few that just felt like the sea in general, not a specific signature.

Percy was delighted with it, so it was worth the curious gleam in Oceanus’s eye when he left.

Hopefully Oceanus didn’t try to investigate.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy was back at school, and apparently had gained a sense for curses.

It wasn’t that surprising, he probably had the ability sooner, just hadn’t been around anything cursed.

It was a useful skill to have, very valuable. Father always had a skilled Purifier to check over any gifts given to those at the courts.

Nonetheless, Triton got him more books on Purification. He supposed it was time for Percy to branch out more.

Curse breaking was where purifiers really shone. Though none were skilled enough to break the great curses, perhaps one day.

He was curious how quickly Percy would get the hang of it.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy got him a variety of foods for the fall equinox.

Really that wasn’t good, Triton liked them a lot, and Percy had infected him with a matching love of blue food.

It was hard to explain to father.

He wondered how father didn’t know about Triton interacting with Percy yet.

He wasn’t exactly hiding it anymore.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton had worked hard to get Percy some clothes fit for a prince for the winter solstice.

It was hard because he’d never needed to buy them. Everyone was confused and interested in his sudden interest.

Father made a comment about him finding a lover.

Disgusting, as if any land dwellers were worth his interest except for Percy.

Honestly merfolk were so nosy.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy’s teacher was annoying. Triton didn’t like them at all.

He suggested Percy use school to practice his “princely” skills. Might as well, it would be good practice when away from the sea.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The stone horse Percy had enchanted was impressive. They were obviously done by a novice, but he could see the work his little brother put into it, he approved.

He kept it in his room, it made it feel just a little safer.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He loved the equinox, Percy got him a sunflower preserved in ice, they were really pretty flowers.

Poseidon had finally noticed that something was up, as had Amphitrite.

Apparently the three years of disappearing a lot to talk with Percy, and the last few months of literally bringing Percy down here didn’t give them a hint. But him bringing home a sunflower did.

Go figure.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton got Percy a star stone. They were one of his favorite things when he was a child. To see the stars underwater, he thought his little brother would appreciate it.

It was after all, something his father had failed to give Percy.

The stone could project the stars around, but otherwise it was almost like those snowglobes Percy had told him about, except with stars.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

So perhaps Percy’s latest school flooding had been his fault. But the school deserved it.

That pathetic excuse of a teacher expelling Percy just because he had been kicked out of schools in the past.

She was trash.

On another note, he got Percy more books on purification magic. It made sense that he failed to fully release the curse when Triton finally met this “Guinea pig”, though now it was a fish.

Circe was too powerful for Percy’s current level. His attempt to release the curse simply morphed it, changing it to more sea based instead.

It was a pretty good first attempt though.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton got Percy more new clothes. He needed to be sure Percy had a full wardrobe by the time he went to camp. That would be when Poseidon would notice.

Triton was perhaps being a little petty, but he wanted to rub it in his fathers face a little that he had been the one to raise Percy, he had been the one to teach him of his heritage.

Poseidon had done nothing for Percy, it had all been Triton.

He also got Percy an Ocarina, it was a good starting instrument for Siren’s Song. It would help Percy improve his curse breaking to mix Purification and Siren’s Song.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Triton liked the geode snow globe Percy made him. It was sparkly and rather unique.

It also matched his tail.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He thought it was hilarious that Percy’s mom didn’t approve of the hair dye. The hair dye was brilliant. It was made by Samoa after all, and her dye wouldn’t come out or let any of the original color show even at the roots for a long time. It was magic dye after all.

Those of the sea rarely had plain colored hair, there’s a reason Samoa created the dye.

Father was one of the few to have straight black hair, even Triton’s own was simply a very dark blue.

He quite liked Percy’s hair.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

He decided that Percy needed something to keep his belongings safe now.

He was growing older and would likely be going to camp soon.

Triton gave him a bag made by the Cyclops’s. It wouldn’t let anyone, but Percy, take things out of the bag, and would protect the contents from outside forces.

Percy seemed delighted, he was glad. His little brother needed more people looking out for him. He just hoped his gifts were enough to help.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Percy was going to a boarding school.

Triton was a lot less pleased than he let on.

Percy would be away, harder to reach, harder to talk to.

He was glad he’d given him the rainbow stone because otherwise he might have to influence Percy’s mom away from that school.

And that would be hard to explain.

Still though, he worried, Percy would be alone for the year.

But surely Percy would be alright for the year, it’s not like he’d be going back.

Nothing too horrible could happen in the space of one year.

Right?

#percy jackson #pjo aus #Avatar the legend of percy #avatar: the legend of percy #avatar fan percy #percy jackson fanfiction #pjo fanfic #pjo fanfiction #percy figures out how to control water young #percy calls himself a waterbender #waterbender percy #Triton #triton percy friendship #triton is a good big brother #triton is there #pjo triton

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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So just out of curiosity, what inspired the whole Beacon Bay idea? What kind of sharks and dolphins are they? This entire thing is very intriguing to me and I can't wait to see more.

So first off, anyone who’s ever played soundingboard to my original stuff like Moukie or Adam can attest to the fact that I’m ocean obsessed, so there’s pretty much nothing I’m interested in that isn’t a mere two or three steps removed from an ocean/merfolk/sea witch AU in my head. Gimme anything and like, five minutes, and I can make it ocean themed. Space operas included. I grew up near the ocean, been surfing for ages though of course I haven’t in years, blah, but like. I’m a big fan of the deep blue sea. Its just....neat. ghaskfhalkfhla

So I’ve always had a bunch of ocean-set concepts. This particular AU came about from like, smashing a couple of them together to preserve them when my plans for doing original stuff with them fizzled out, at least for the time being. Cuz the other thing about me is the way some people like, take their fanfic and file off the serial numbers to turn it into original novels, I more often do the reverse, lmao. When I have something I can no longer do something with original-content-wise, for whatever reason, but I still like the idea, I turn it into fanfic so I can still play around with it whenever I want and like, have purpose to that, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting time by still ‘indulging’ in that concept or whatever.

Like my Batfandom fic By Lost Ways, as I’ve mentioned before....that actually started out as an original high fantasy novel set in my ‘Tales of the Citadel’ shared universe. BUT the setting ended up being similar enough to a sci-fi project I wanted I to move forward with, ‘Waveriders’ (the one with the sky pirates and the ATLA-style benders only instead of evoking the four classical elements, waveriders could each ‘hack’ a different kind of wavelength, that one) like....basically, the projects FELT similar enough in setting and various superficial elements that I started to feel derivative of myself moving forward with both, so I picked Waveriders and then recycled the setting and a lot of the plot of the sky-set fantasy novel for fanfic, just for fun.

Same thing here, though Beacon Bay is basically the mash-up of two different shelved original projects. Basically, its the plot of a CW-style show about teen sirens and the sea witch making like the Fagin to their Oliver Twists, from a pilot I wrote years ago.....it got some interest but I refused to make it less gay because lol have you met me, so it ultimately never went anywhere but I still liked the plot.

And then remember the werewolf books I mentioned awhile back, that had the mongoose shifters in them? LOL. Yeah, so I’d written two and a half novels in that series and had this whole expansive worldbuilding of twelve different shifter clans each with their own innate magic, patron deity/creator, etc, but all my agent and editor contacts at the time were like yeah sorry, shifters are over for now, and I was like wow, can’t believe cancel culture’s real and publishing cancelled werewolves, wtf, rude, and then I was like eh, still wanna play in this universe especially with the dolphins and shark shifters which I never even really got to in those books, so I’m just gonna air-lift them out of that and drop them smack in the middle of my CW siren plot and fanfic away to my heart’s content and call that ‘being productive’ when I feel like it.

Anyway, found family was a big theme of those books and the world-building I did there in general, because again, have you met me, I’m not predictable or anything (shhh, the word is consistent), and one of my initial things there was I wanted the various shifter types to all have innate magic, because for literally no real reason that I can discern other than Whimsy, I have always been Team Werewolf in vampires vs werewolves, and I was tired of werewolves always being by default the underdogs in those narratives. Even if that does make for a good pun.

SO, I wanted to come up with werewolf magic that felt natural and organic to werewolves, like nothing too flashy or obscure, but that would make them a legitimate threat even to other supernatural creatures. And I made it so each of the shifter types were granted an active and a passive magic by the god that created their type of shifter, and with werewolves, their active magic was that of the pack gestalt. I took the idea of ‘their whole is greater than the sum of their parts’ that TW kinda briefly touched on when presenting (but never really doing much with) the idea that the more wolves in a pack, the stronger that pack was.....and I decided okay what if being part of a pack upped stats all across the board AND all shifters have a SLIGHT innate resistance to magic, being innately magical beings themselves?

So a werewolf pack, with enough pack members, would thus not only be formidable in strength, speed, senses and speed of healing....but compound that innate shifter resistance to magic, which in a single shifter is negligible, like, just enough to make them slightly harder to track with magic or curse or whatever.....but in a whole werewolf pack, that adds up to make the pack effectively immune to foreign magic. Vampires can’t compel them, demons can’t possess them, witches can’t curse them, etc. So a lone werewolf, not part of a pack, is formidable, but nothing another supernatural being can’t take on. But a lone werewolf who IS part of a pack....different story entirely, because now most other supernatural beings, no matter what their USUAL strengths, are reduced to taking on that werewolf hand to hand, as their own supernatural gifts or spells or whatever, like, aren’t gonna do them any good against these particular foes. And werewolves are USED to fighting with just brute physical strength and attributes, which gives them the edge against opponents who are more used to being able to fall back on magic in battle.

But as much as I like sticking to a theme, I like to diversify that theme where possible, so when it came to the other shifter types, I wanted to similarly come up with ways where ‘the whole would be greater than the sum of their parts’ but in like, entirely different ways.

So with dolphin shifters, their ‘passive magic’ (in quotes cuz that’s not quite the right word for it but whatever) is that they’re all empaths, with their more active magic being weather manipulation. Their empathy is a two-way street....they project emotions as well as just feel other peoples’, which ties into the fact that their patron deity was Dionysus. Dolphin parties....legendary. But in an extremely wild, dangerous and Bacchanalian kinda way. In terms of Beacon Bay specifically, this is a bit of a problem for the BB dolphins, as the closest thing they had to an official Triton (the dolphin shifter version of an Alpha) was Peter, but they were like nope, not loving this guy, and kinda drove him out of town in the AU S1 backstory of this ‘verse, which means Scott and the others are kinda just making it up as they go along, and don’t really know the ins and outs of BEING dolphin shifters. (Derek is....elsewhere, in this. Mostly).

So bottom line is they have reputations around school for being loud obnoxious goofs and trouble-makers, constantly playing hooky and such, but its because they don’t really know HOW to safeguard against spilling their emotions onto everyone around them so they try and err on the side of being the life of the party whenever possible, as that’s better than the alternatives in their opinion. And when they’re just having bad days and bumming hard, the whole pod will just skip school and glomp around the bumming pod member whilst self-caring, rather than like, accidentally bum out the entire school.

But their weather manipulation magic is where the gestalt idea comes into play with them, as I love weather manipulating powers, but I didn’t want to make them all Ororo Munroe, y’know? Only Ororo Munroe can be Ororo Munroe. Don’t make me scoff. I’ll do it. I’ll scoff so hard. SO I went with the idea of weather control married to manipulating storms via song and was like, okay what if a dolphin pod is like, a symphony of shifters.

Basically, its like each individual dolphin shifter is a single voice in a chorus, and there’s magical equivalents of being a baritone, an alto, etc. Like, none of them can whip up a storm on their own. Its more that each of them can summon or conjure a PIECE of a storm with their song, with it being different for each of them....symptomatic of their magic as an expression of them as an individual. So for instance, Scott’s song is ‘tuned’ to lightning. He can call down a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.....but he can’t summon so much as a drop of rain to save his life. Literally. Its an actual plot point at one point. Whereas Isaac’s song is all about calling down rain, Boyd’s is more of an arctic wind, and Erica’s kinda summons a pressure front that in harmony with the two of theirs can whip up a mean waterspout. And then Corey’s all about conjuring fog banks with low visibility while Liam can whistle up a strong, gale-force wind but sucks at using his song as a precision instrument. Etc, etc. But the real magic is when they all use their voices and magic in concert....as a group, they can summon huge magical thunderstorms.

Also, one thing I love about using different kinds of shifters is the opportunity to explore enhanced supernatural senses that aren’t just keen sight, smell or hearing. So the dolphin shifters aren’t like wolf shifters in being able to detect chemosignals or anything like that....in fact, their sense of smell isn’t much different from anyone else’s. But they do have an ability to use what’s effectively supernatural echolocation even above water, and their sight is adapted for optimal viewing underwater, making them particularly good at seeing in the darkness even on land.

(Also, related but somewhat tangential to both the shifter senses and dolphin ‘voices’....all dolphin shifters have a strong talent for mimicry, but this isn’t technically a form of magic, more just a combination of their control over their voice and their keen senses of pitch, etc).

The shark shifters, on the other hand, have some of the keenest senses of all shifters. Not only is their sense of smell even better than a werewolf’s, they’re sensitive to changes in pressure, for one thing. Which means on land, they can even feel changes in atmospheric pressure.....so like, the shark shifters of Beacon Bay could be in math class and then ‘feel’ a sudden drop in air pressure and thus even before some strange weather phenomenon occurs, they’re groaning like ugh fucking A, what the hell did the damn dolphins do now.

Also, their magnetic field perception is such that they can kinda ‘sense’ when people are around, just by being aware of the approaching magnetic field of another living being.

And then with the sharks, I was looking for ways to lean into the associations we have with sharks and blood, but subvert them to be less macabre and more communal. And another big theme of mine in general is like, I am DETERMINED to go to my grave shouting at the top of my lungs “Its THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS THICKER THAN THE WATER OF THE WOMB, NOT BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER, HOW DID PEOPLE GET THAT SO BACKWARDS ITS SUPPOSED TO BE THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF HOW ITS USUALLY STATED!”

Like, that’s just...HUGE pet peeve of mine. Its like nails on a chalkboard, lmfao, that drives me nuts. That phrase is usually cited by people using it to express like, the idea that there’s no greater force than family, specifically BIOLOGICAL, ‘blood’ relations, but its literally meant to be the exact opposite, that the blood of CHOSEN bonds, of covenants, of vows or promises, is a greater force than the water of the womb, ie being born of the same womb, as in biological siblings. The entire point of the phrase is biology ain’t shit, family is what we choose. And somehow it got turned ENTIRELY around.

(Note: Okay, so for the record, its not ‘somehow’, there’s actually a very clear reason for why that particular interpretation gained so much momentum, and that’s because for a long time it was conflated with an old German proverb from like a thousand years ago that basically translates to “kin-blood is not spoiled by water.” Which basically was meant to mean that nothing can ‘dilute’ blood relations, not time, not distance, not water. So that phrase DOES correspond to the idea that ‘blood is thicker than water.’ Problem is, there isn’t a direct trace from that particular proverb TO most USAGES of ‘blood is thicker than water,’ which when you throw in the OTHER phrase, which in its entirety is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” what you end up with is a lot of people SAYING that one when they actually MEAN to say ‘kin-blood is not spoiled by water’ and that’s where the meanings get switched. But I fucking digress. Per usual).

Anyway. So combine that particular pet peeve with my found family fixation AND the fact that this is about magic and magic means I can do whatever the hell I want, fuck your biological connections mwahahaha.....I decided to base shark magic on the idea of the blood-ties of family....but CHOSEN blood-ties, as in blood of the covenant ties.

What I mean is okay, so it first of all just made sense to me to have shark shifter communities be heavily focused around adoption, because like....let’s be real, shark shifters going around biting people to change them into shifters, and then people magically healing from....shark bites....was going to attract a lot more attention than people turning after being attacked by other types of shifters. Not to mention the fact that not only are shark attacks always big news, part of why they’re big news is because they’re actually pretty rare.

So, shark shifter communities were never really gonna propagate via lots of random shark shifter attacks turning people. So the way they DO expand and grow is by, well, family. Both biological AND adoption...as well as of course shark shifter communities taking in people who ARE attacked by rogue shark shifters, when that does happen.

But bottom line is, there’s an additional element in play in shark shifter communities, beyond just the gene pool....and that’s like, a magical tidepool of talents, let’s call it. Because I do love me some alliteration. But also tidepool of talents is just a cool phrase, IMO.

Anyway, the main part of shark shifter magic, and how THEIR whole is greater than the sum of their parts, is that any shark shifter can draw upon or channel the talents, skillsets or knowledge of anyone else in their communal family. And whenever that family gets added to, the talents, skillsets and knowledge of the new addition gets added to the pot, so to speak. So shark shifters are kinda all like Rogue, if Rogue’s focus was less on the superpowers of other people and more on things like Beast’s scientific knowledge, Cyclops’ strategic skills or Cable’s weapons expertise.

And then their ‘passive magic’ is a form of psychometry whenever they come into contact with blood. By touching even just a drop of someone’s blood, they can get a vision of how that blood was spilled or even get a sense of where the person who spilled it is now.

As to the types of sharks and dolphins they all are, for that I went with the thing about the shape you take reflects the person you are.....all the shifters here are full shifters, and there’s no genetic component to their shifting, its purely magical, so like....just because Peter turned the various dolphins of BB doesn’t mean they all turn into the same kind of dolphin he was. In fact, I don’t even know what kind of dolphin he was on account of I don’t really care tbh, lol. Whereas Erica’s an Atlantic spotted dolphin, Liam’s a pygmy killer whale which looks like an orca just tiny in comparison and is actually a dolphin, and I found that combination of factors hilarious, etc, etc.

Same thing with the shark shifters. Even among biological relations, there’s a ton of variety of shark types. Like the twins aren’t even the same type...Ethan’s a blue shark and Aiden’s a bull shark, Tracy’s a tiger shark and Hayden’s an angel shark. Danny’s actually a throwback to an unnamed prehistoric shark, not Megalodon big but big enough to shut up Jackson when he goes on about being a great white shark. Shark and crocodile shifters are the two oldest shifter clans, old enough that literal dinosaurs fall under the umbrella of their shifter type, and thus occasionally show up even in modern generations.

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the-blind-assassin-12 · 4 years

Text

in the arms of the ocean - intro

A/N: Ha...hahaha...hi. So um... I had not planned for this to be the next thing that I posted. I have a few lingering requests from my last event (3 more to be exact, one each for Billy, Benjamin and Logan) and I have created so many loose ends in all my many train wrecks, but here I go again with another...I don’t make the rules, I just play the game. Anyway! I have been wanting to write something *like* this for quite some time now, and though I never saw myself writing for Caspian (because it terrifies me more than Billy for some reason) here we are all the same. Don’t want to give anything away so gonna go ahead ad zip it here and now. I hope you enjoy!

Warning: death

Word Count: 3,276

25 years ago...

“Sereia!”

She fought back a sob as she pushed on, wading out into the shallows. Her long dark hair swirled around her as the wind whipped through it, heavy raindrops pelting her cheeks to mix with the salt of her tears and the spray of the sea. Each step she took cut into her heart, slicing like daggers the further she got from him. From them.

“Sereia, no! No!”

It was impossible to hear anything over the thrashing of the waves and the collisions of clouds overhead, but his voice reached her ear, broken by despair but clear as a bell. Vash. Her chest went hollow, his ache scraping at what was left of her heart after ripping herself from his kiss and from you, her daughter. She wanted to turn back, to see him one more time, let her eyes drink in the sight of the only man- the only being- to ever give her so much love that she had no choice but to sacrifice everything to protect it. But looking back would shatter her resolve to pieces, would send her running back into his arms, would make it impossible for her not to scoop you up and hold you tight and breathe in the sweet scent of your hair as she kissed it. Looking back would send you all to your death. Looking back would mean that Narnia would never be safe again. It’s the only way, Vash. Please understand.

“Come back! You don’t have to do this! Please, please! Don’t do this! ”

A small cry accompanied his pleas this time, and she froze, knees nearly buckling as the cold water bit into her skin through the skirt of her dress. Your name flashed through her mind then and she squeezed her eyes tightly against the burning at their corners. No, I have to… A barrage of memories swarmed Sereia’s mind as just a few meters away from where the sandy sea floor dropped off to the fathoms below, a whirlpool began to open. She felt the rushing of the surf as it flew out again, pulled back over her ankles and calves and out to the deepening funnel. Holding you for the first time, Vash’s arms around her as he kissed their daughter and his cheeks glowed with pride. Your first toddling steps aboard one of the many ships that passed in and out of her and Vash’s care, sure and more sturdy than most children double your age on dry land could manage. Your squeals of laughter as your pudgy little hand wrapped around her fingers and the two of you splashed through the foamy tide pools near your home. So much joy, so much love. Unsticking her feet from the soft, sucking sand, she carried on, her steps slicing deeper now.

Another rush pulled more icy water out into the threatening maelstrom and Sereia was hit again, this time with images of the things that would never come to pass if she faltered now. You as a tall, lanky young girl, climbing the rigging of a ship to join Vash in the crow’s nest, his wide smile softer on your face than his. Love, perhaps, your fingers twined with another pair as your eyes radiated the happiness you felt. A whole lifetime of memories and triumphs, growth and adventure that you’d never get to have if she turned back now. So much out there for her still, for both of them.

“Sereia, you can’t do this...please...please don’t leave me like this…”

Something in Vash’s voice was changing, the fight draining out of him as realization set in despite his continued begging. You know, Vash. You understand. You’ve always been able to understand. Their love story had never been a simple one, and therefore it made sense that the end would be no different. You understand, you have to. From the moment that she first saw him, clinging to that board out in the middle of the ocean, skin burnt and breaths shallow, she knew it wouldn’t be an easy love. The will of water was one of the most powerful forces in existence. Yet it was not powerful enough to take him like it had taken the rest of his crew, their souls already joining the ranks of those claimed by the sea. And by the merfolk. Sereia knew that her people had the capacity for violence, for vicious acts against the sailors that dared to brave the Bight of Calormen on their way out to the Great Eastern Sea. Domination, that was what they wanted, to control the glimmering expanse of ocean. Sereia never could grasp the concept that Narnians or Telmarines or any other man or beast that she shared these lands with were nefarious or unworthy of safe passage across their domain. Most of them don’t bother with us at all, they’re afraid. And with good reason.

She knew of the stories sailors told to greenhorns as warnings; tales of beautiful creatures, half human but with the glittering tail and fins of a fish, bottom half covered in radiant scales. The stories told of a song so sweet that men had no choice but to give in to the trancelike state that drew them away from the safety of their ships and into the dark, silent void, so deep and cold that not even moonlight could reach it. Sereia knew the stories the men told each other because she often swam close to their ships; close enough to see and hear but not to be seen or heard. She knew the stories they told, and she knew them to be true. She’d always felt a sadness in that, in knowing that the horrors that these men built superstitions and rituals to avoid were true and that they were carried out by her people. So the night that she first saw Vash, she made a choice not to be like them. She made the choice to be a protector instead of a combatant, an ally instead of an enemy. Sereia didn’t know it yet, in the moments when her fingers brushed the man’s damp hair out of his eyes, but she made the choice to love.

There was only one other that she knew who felt like she did, her aunt Coralia, who the merfolk had banished to the farthest reaches of their kingdom and labeled a witch. Coralia, like a fair few other merpeople, had been gifted with magic, but unlike the others, she chose not to use her powers for destruction. In secret, she cast protective spells upon the currents as they passed by her hideaway, enchanting the waters in an attempt to do all she could to undo the violence of her people. Sereia had been forbidden from seeing her aunt- contacting an exiled merperson was seen as an act of treason, as was Coralia’s refusal to use her magic to help conquer the seas. But as Sereia grew older and became more and more conflicted about what was expected of her, she began to care less and less about excommunication, and on the night that she pulled Vash safely to shore, she swam straight for Coralia’s dwelling without stopping and without even the idea of looking back.

She had thought she would have to beg Coralia to grant her wish, and had spent the entire journey working on her argument, strengthening her reasoning for wanting to leave this world behind and join the world above. But Coralia had surprised her, welcoming her with open arms and a compassionate heart. She agreed to grant Sereia the gift of humanity, because she could see that her niece could never truly find happiness if she were forced to forsake her kind heart and give in to the cruel tendencies of the cold blooded creatures that lived only to see the demise of those that were different than they were.

“Sweet child,” her honeyed voice filled Sereia with an unfamiliar warmth, her soft hands falling delicately on the younger mermaid’s bare shoulders. “You have love and compassion in your heart and peace in your spirit.” She shook her head slowly, her piercing green eyes never leaving her niece’s face. “I’ve been waiting for this day to come since you were small.” She tucked Sereia’s rippling hair behind her ear, and despite the free flowing water around them, the long silken strands stayed put at Coralia’s enchanted touch. “You don’t belong in this world, my darling girl. You never have.” Reaching up to her own crown of delicately arranged locks held in place by strings of iridescent pearls and bits of net pinned between golden starfish, and pulled a pin loose, bringing it down in front of Sereia’s wide eyes. “You were destined for far greater things, Sereia. Far greater things than you’d ever be allowed down here. You’re brave, child, and strong. You would not be here if those things weren’t true.”

Tilting forward, she pressed her lips to Sereia’s cheek. “It will not always be easy, I’m afraid. Becoming one of them means more than dancing and merriment.” Her eyes grew sad then, her lips turning down. “It means bearing the burden of their emotions, the weight of their pain. And child, I wish I could protect you from that pain, but even my magic would be useless there.” Smoothing back the hair on the other side of Sereia’s face, she arranged her features into a warm smile once more, though it lasted less than a second before dipping down. “You will know heartache and tears and loneliness, and those things can tear some people apart. Knowing all of this, is it still your wish to join them?”

Sereia’s heart raced and her fingers tingled with the memory of Vash’s hair and skin beneath them, the feel of the sand as she dragged him ashore, the rush she felt in saving the man that otherwise would have fallen victim to the violence of the sea. It wasn’t love then, not yet, but Sereia had known that she had crossed Vash’s path for a reason as surely as she knew that she couldn’t go back to life as she knew it. She could stay here with Coralia, doing what she could to keep safe the sailors that traveled above. But she’d never have anything more than that. She’d never see Vash again, she’d never dance, never know what it was to leave prints in the sand. “Yes,” her voice was small but certain. “Yes, that is my wish.”

Coralia smiled then, her eyes flickering with hope and happiness. “Then let it be.” Delicately gathering Sereia’s hair between her fingers, Coralia took the golden star pin that she’d pulled from her own hair, and secured it away from her eyes. “The spell will allow you to swim to shore,” she explained. “But once the water becomes shallow enough,” she looked down at Sereia’s shimmering silver scales and lacy tail fin and nodded, eyes narrowed, not having to tell her what would happen next. “It will hurt, at first,” she warned. “But the pain will be fleeting. By the time you reach the sand,” she nodded again, this time with more vigor. “The pain will be replaced with joy, and though the spell will have worn off,” She brought her fingertips up to brush at the points of the hair pin. “The magic will stay with you, Sereia. Use it for good. Use it bravely.” She squeezed Sereia’s shoulders. “Use it to protect the ones you love.”

If ever there were a time to use Coralia’s magic, hot tears ran down her wet cheeks as she reached the edges of the swirling funnel, forked spears of lightning striking all around, the sky and water both the same steely gray. Rising from the funnel, a great serpent reared it’s hideous head, an insidious glow in it’s many eyes and thick, sticky venom dripping from it’s fangs. As it surfaced, so did a dozen or so merfolk, tridents in hand and geared for battle. It’s now… Raising her trembling hands towards the beast, she finally allowed herself one last backwards glance at the man and child she had been seemingly created to shield with her love. You understand, Vash, don’t you? “I love you,” she spoke so softly that they wouldn’t have heard her even if she were sitting on the porch steps at home, holding them close. “Both of you.”

Before she ventured out into the roiling sea, she’d explained to her husband, as quickly as she could through trembling lips and burning tears, that the time had come for her to do all she could to save not only him and their child- you- but all of Narnia.

“They won’t stop, Vash.” She’d told him between desperate kisses all over his face. “They’ll never stop, their numbers are too great, and now they’ve joined with her.” She saw the truth break her husband’s heart. He knew. He’d seen it. The merfolk had grown restless in their quest for dominance. Wrecking the occasional ship and pillaging the treasures on board no longer satisfied them. But to get more power they needed to make a powerful alliance. “Jadis, Vash.” She couldn’t stop saying his name, letting him hear it, running her tongue over it just a few more times.

Sereia shook her head, tears blurring her vision, and when she blinked them open again she looked down at you. You were so small, clutching onto your father’s shirt, your eyes the size of sand dollars and filled with uncertainty and fear. Dropping her lips to your forehead, she repeated the same frantic kisses she’d given him over your cheeks and eyelids and hair. When she’d covered every inch of your little face, she looked back up at her husband and finally understood what Coralia had meant about heartache. “She’ll destroy this world, Vash. She’ll leave nothing for our girl...she’ll leave nothing for anyone.” You know it. She knew he did. Even as he begged and pleaded for her to turn back, he knew she wouldn’t. She took his hand in hers and placed it over her heart, and as soon as his palm made contact he released a sob that told her he’d accepted it- all of it. “You have given me so much more than I ever thought I could have, Vash. You will always have my love.”

The storm was growing in intensity, the waves pitching and crashing. I don’t have much time. Reaching up, Sereia plucked the old but still shining pin from her hair, and scooped your fine strands between her fingers. “You,” she took your face between her palms and wiped your confused tears away. “You, sweet girl, you are my love. And I will always, always keep you safe.”

That’s when she’d torn herself away, knowing that the longer she stayed the harder it would be to leave them. In that same impossibly soft whisper, Sereia sent one last blessing to her daughter. “Close to you I’ll always be, to keep you safe upon the sea.”

She waited one more beat, gave herself one last glance at her family, and closed her eyes. I want them to be the last thing I see, not...not some beast. Them. Turning back towards the towering monster, eyes still clamped shut with the imagine of you and Vash imprinted behind them, she released all the power that she had, all the light that would have lasted her so many more years, all at once, defeating the serpent and banishing the merfolk, a protective barrier forming to push them and their monsters and even the evil witch herself far from the shore. As the last of her power drained, Sereia rejoined the sea, dissolving into the foam as the ocean calmed and the skies cleared.

I will always keep you safe.

.. .. .. .. .. .. ..

1 Year ago

The air was full of crashing, cacophonous peels of thunder rolling so quickly after the other that they were impossible to discern from the smashing of the sea. Lighting rode right on it’s back to rip the sky open with sharp, white forked flashes. Caspian gripped the helm with both hands, adding to the strength of the several crewmen already fighting the waves, muscles straining like never before to turn the great wooden wheel even the slightest degree. Salty water splashed over the deck in furious, frothy waves making the boards slick and perilous, but he planted his boots firmly where he stood, weight down through the soles of his feet as he pulled and heaved, desperately trying to negate the torn sail.

“We won’t make it much longer, Your Majesty,” Drinian’s already gruff voice was reduced to a grunt as he too threw all of his weight behind the helm. There were no signs of fear or panic in the man’s words, only facts. Facts that Caspian knew well enough to be true.

He glanced up at the rigging, what was left of the sails hanging in limp tatters and flapping in the harsh wind. We won’t. We need to get to shore. He nodded, eyebrows pinched together in determination.

At first they had thought that they could push through the storm, sail hard and fast through the eye of it and out the other side. But there didn’t seem to be another side. They’d been battling the storm for hours without any indication that it would be letting up soon. Pushing through was no longer an option. Caspian closed his eyes and silently hoped that Aslan would send him a sign, an answer, some way to lead his men to safety, some way to keep Narnia’s King from ending up at the bottom of the sea. When he opened them again, he had to blink to be sure that what he was seeing was not an illusion. Is that?

“There!” He thrust one arm out ahead of him, his drenched sleeve hanging heavily from it. Drinian’s sharp blue eyes followed the line of the young King’s arm and widened when they fell upon the landform that had gone unnoticed until now. Or had it not been there until now? Just because he was King didn’t mean that Caspian was foolish enough to believe that he knew all of Narnia’s secrets. But regardless of how the island came into their line of sight, or why, it was their only option for safety.

“Aye!” Drinian agreed with a nod of his head before shouting orders to the crew without a second’s hesitation.

It was difficult to steer the massive ship with hardly anything left of the sails, but miraculously they did, throwing the anchor as soon as they were clear of the outcropping of rocks along the shoals. The storm continued to churn, angry waves tossing the Dawn Treader from crest to crest and rain lashing at the windows and portholes. But once everything was tied off and secured, Caspian had made sure that every last member of his crew had taken shelter, remaining on deck until only he and Drinian were left. More tired than he ever remembered being, and given his first real dose of fright- however fleeting it had been- in a long time, Caspian stripped off his soaked clothes and changed into something warm and dry, and collapsed into his mattress.

We have to mend that sail tomorrow… first thing… need to find a sailmaker and…

But the half thought slipped away as he slipped into a quick and heavy sleep, certain that they’d find all that they needed once they were able to go ashore.

please let me know if you would like to be added or removed from the tags! I know some of you troopers have told me you’ re down for all the rides in the park, but I didn’t want to assume otherwise!

@something-tofightfor @its-my-little-dumpster-fire @malionnes @suchatinyinfinity @gollyderek @pheedraws @russobill @thesumofmychoices @beautifuldesastre

#in the arms of the ocean #itAotO #King Caspian #king capian x #king caspian narnia #king caspian x you #king caspian x reader #the chronicles of narnia fanfiction #voyage of the dawn treader #I cannot believe i am writing this #instead of the 1000 other things i should be focusing on #but #the juices are FINALLY flowing and who am i to say no to a king?#no one that's who

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