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cupidmarwani-archive · 4 years

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Come Into the Water (14/15)

Waking up mid-morning scorches what’s left of her heart. Still alone, still herself, she leaves the sheets be and decides a walk into the city center will make her feel more alive, if only for a moment. While she’s there, she’ll get some breakfast. Maybe talk to people other than her neighbors or Ava. It’s the sort of thing her therapist would probably recommend. That’s what she thinks about as her feet carry her across pavement and to a little bakery whose morning crowd has waned by the time weekday hits further than the start of work for most. No line bars her way when she orders a croissant and a coffee, and no one crowds around her when she sits at a small table by herself. Solitude, of a different sort than she experiences at the beach, washes over her as she eats and wonders.

Her mind pulls her in a thousand different directions, fights for her attention at each corner in spite of how she can scarcely concentrate on one. The aggressive pod which seeks to cause nothing but harm. Ava and her injuries. Noah and his mothers who love him the way mothers are supposed to love. All things need her consideration, and instead of offering it, Sarah merely takes bites of her croissant until there’s nothing but crumbs dusting the paper bag it came in and a greasy film clinging to her fingertips. Then, with nothing left to do, she wonders around the shops properly for the first time since her initial exploration on the day she saw her local therapist for the very first time.

There aren’t really any chain stores. Everything is locally owned. There’s a couple clothing shops, a grocery store, and then mostly specialty wares that draw her eye. A glass craftsman, a candle maker, a seamstress, a woodcarver. People who’ve dedicated their lives to one skill, just one, and have perfected it in a way Sarah has never been able to perfect anything.

She wanders into the local book shop, a secondhand store which is rife with old oak shelves and books with cracked spines from being loved very much. For lack of something better to do, she looks through the maze of titles, organized by genre, and winds up in the nonfiction section. Fingertips trace hardcovers, glance embossed names, until she reaches a book which does not seem to have been officially published. Curiosity has her taking it from its place and flipping it open. Everything is hand written in swirling black ink, accompanied by sketches Sarah recognizes easily. Mermaids. Makos, more specifically with their stiff fins and sharp teeth and dark eyes. There are paragraphs upon paragraphs about them alongside bullet points and questions. It’s too much to read all at once right now, but it’s a book which might be worth buying. She flips it over and finds no price, but begins searching for the checkout counter just in case. She has so many questions that perhaps she’ll earn answers to.

When Sarah finally finds the counter, manned by a woman with grey-streaked curls and a resting smile on her face even before noticing Sarah there with a book tucked under one of her arms. She doesn’t say a word, but she does straighten up and gesture toward the book with a smile.

“I’d like to buy it,” Sarah says, setting it on the counter. “Please.”

The woman still doesn’t say anything, but points to the cash register and mocks a question mark with one of her fingertips. When Sarah hesitates, the woman points to her own ears and shakes her head. It strikes her, then. Deaf. She nods and pushes the book closer before grabbing her wallet and reaching for her plastic.

After a moment of examination, the woman gives Sarah a sympathetic look and puts the book beneath her counter. She hits her two flat palms against each other in an x and then points at the register. Not for sale. Frustrated, Sarah has no choice but to nod and find her way out. She should have taken a closer look at what was in there before trying to buy it, since she was unsure whether or not it was for sale in the first place. Too late now, though, and she finds her way out of the store in favor of continuing to explore downtown. There’s a jewelry store she goes into which specializes in that which comes from the sea. Shells polished into beads and pearls strung together hang in the window alongside blown up photographs of diamond inlays. Truly, it is a store designed for pretty things. Sarah doesn’t know why she goes inside, but feels she has no choice otherwise.

There seems to be no one at the front counter, but everything is behind locked glass cases. Some rings, some necklaces. Shells and diamonds and rubies and shark teeth. Everything is so pretty, and Sarah has to make a conscious effort not to put her fingers on the glass and leave behind prints.

Everything is beautiful, but her eyes land on a particular necklace in a case of its own, elevated with a plaque beneath it. The chain is gold, mostly polished, and beaded with mussel shells like Ava gave her and small teeth like the makos have. It almost unsettles her, but it’s so pretty. Her eyes wander down to the plaque.

In 1945, the Rhodes family extended this necklace as a peace offering for the local mermaid pod. However, it was rejected by the increasingly isolationist pod, found among the tidepools. Shortly thereafter, a body washed up on the shore. Her teeth were added to the necklace and it has been preserved as a peace offering on hold ever since. Since this initial offering, any contact with the mermaids have been isolated incidents. In more recent years, mermaids have been seen watching local environmental teams and playing in the water.

“I don’t recognize you, are you new in town?”

The voice startles her and Sarah looks around for the source, finding it in a petite woman with a sleek bob standing by one of the other counter. Something about her face is familiar, but she can’t put her finger on it as she steps away from the display.

“I am, I’ve uh-” she clears her throat, “I’ve been here a few months. I’m Sarah. Reese.”

“Claire Rhodes.”

Sarah nods thoughtfully. “Your family made this?”

“My grandfather,” Claire corrects. Sarah studies the shape of her nose. “He had an affair with one of the maids, and made this to try and appease them after. But it didn’t work. The maid he slept with, she- he found her dead not long after. My grandmother took her teeth out and added them.”

That’s awful. But Sarah doesn’t say so, and instead looks back at the necklace carefully, The beautiful peace offering which now has bloodshed on teeth from a carcass. It makes Sarah think, for some reason, about the office and the photos and the way she bled a little onto the carpet.

“Did you want to buy anything?”

“No, but thank you.”

Still, she thinks about the necklace as she leaves and goes back home. The makos didn’t used to be so angry, it seems. Maybe it was a byproduct of one of them procreating with a human. Then, suddenly, it hits her why Claire Rhodes’ face looked familiar. She has the same nose, the same jaw as one of the mermaids she saw yesterday. One of the men. And he reminds her of the little one who bit her too.

She thinks about it the whole way home, and then down to the water again, and as she rejoins the waning tidepools. Water rushes, and Sarah stares into the foam until she catches movement out of the corner of her eye. Hope bubbles up and, in answer, she sees a flash of blonde hair and then it’s Ava, watching her as she rises from the waves.

“Ava,” Sarah starts, and doesn’t finish.

She doesn’t finish because Ava comes close and pulls her even closer to kiss her, kiss her like she did in the beginning and Sarah is finally given the opportunity to lose herself in it. Eyes shut, hands falling to Ava’s waist before skin turns to scales. Her hands fit neat, and for a long moment, she buries herself in the feeling. But too soon, Ava pulls back and Sarah can’t help following her for a split second.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “For interfering with Liv and Maggie.”

Ava shakes her head and smiles, and she’s just so beautiful it hurts. “No, I’m glad you did. Thank you. I just reacted because of the pod. They’re angry.”

“Because of us?”

Although the answer comes hesitantly, it still comes and rings in the air. Yes, it’s because of them. Because they lit their candles on the top of the dunes, because they wanted to bring even a little light to someone who they all love, if not the same way.

Sarah realizes, then, that she truly does love Ava. She loves her, and if possible, would bring her entire life into the ocean just to see her all the time, even more than she already does because she can’t stay away.

“Can we go swimming today?”

Eyes cast down. Fingertips twitch against her face. “We can’t. They’re angry.”

Angry, and yet Ava is still here instead of the sheltered hollow in the cliffside Sarah saw when she was new, and she kisses her again like Sarah is her oxygen. The opposite is, at the very least, unbearably true. Nowhere does Sarah feel more alive and more like a human being than when she sits here with the water eating away at the warmth in her body. There she resides as she is kissed like a dying woman, and as Ava makes her whole.

For these handfuls of moments, she feels safe and secure in Ava’s grasp and the taste of her lips. The ocean breathes life into her, and Sarah takes the chance to keep touching the way she’s considered once or twice. Touching a body that is like her own but different. Not just in imagination, but in reality. Sarah finds it easy to drown in. And then Ava kisses her neck too, and allows hands under her jacket and it just feels like being wanted. Not like her teacher wanted her. No, this feels like being wanted as a person and not an object and she is in love and is loved. And it tastes like freedom.

“Ava,” she breathes, and it warms the air around them.

“Ava,” and the wind blows harder.

“Ava,” and the waves crash louder.

“Ava,” and the sun shines brighter.

“Ava,” and Sarah is alive again.

#ciwfic #fic #mine #reesker

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untapdtreasure · 5 years

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TV Show Ask Game 1, 3, 5, 7, 9-29, and 31-49.

TV Show Ask Game

1. if you could reboot one TV show, which one would it be? Earth 2. But only if they could go back in time with the same cast at those ages. It was a brilliant concept that maybe just came ahead of its time.

3. have you ever quit a show before it finished? why? No. But I've wanted to. Once I start something I like to finish it.

5. what’s your comfort show? H20: Just Add Water. I seem to go back to it when I need something light and fun and that doesn't require a ton of thinking in order to enjoy it. I know it's an Australian teenage drama, but I absolutely adore it and the characters.

7. have you ever been inspired to start a new show based on gifs or memes it has produced? The Man From the High Castle and Westworld.

9. what’s one show you thought you’d hate but turned out to really enjoy? Family Guy. I usually don't care for shows with that kind of humor, but it has turned out to be a true gem and favorite of mine.

10. what’s one show you thought you’d love but turned out to really hate? Sons of Anarchy.

11. which TV show has the best musical soundtrack, in your opinion? Cold Case. And Supernatural.

12. have you ever watched a show just for a specific actor? did you enjoy it? I tried to watch Californication because of my love for David Duchovny. I didn't get past season one, and I haven't had the urge to continue it further.

13. what genre of TV show is your favourite? Science-Fiction.

14. do you tend to stick to one type of TV show (eg, short-form comedy), or are you into many different genres? I love a ton of different genres. I mean, sticking to one type is mega boring. And I'm not always in the mood for something funny or drama or sad or whatever. So I like to have options. Lots and lots of options.

15. do you feel like there are any overrated TV show formats? I'm not really sure what this means so I'm not going to comment.

16. do you feel like there are any underrated TV show formats? I'm not really sure what this means so I'm not going to comment.

17. have you ever written fanfiction for a TV show? I started with CSI and The X-Files a long time ago (2004) and still write it today. So yeah. I've written fanfiction for a television show that I love. Several of them in fact. Fifteen years and still going strong.

18. have you ever drawn fanart for a show? I cannot draw to save my life. So the closest thing I've ever drawn for a show was stick figures for The Walking Dead for another ask meme. LOL.

19. are there any shows on your “to watch” list right now? Oh my heck! There are a ton of shows and movies that are on my list to watch at a later date. I even go through it sometimes and delete things that I've added in the past that I know I will never get around to watching. It drives my husband mad to see all the crap in there that never gets watched.

20. Netflix, Hulu, or Prime originals? I happen to like some of all of them, but my favorites just so happen to be Hulu ones. The Handmaid's Tale and Hollie Hobby!

21. if you could be a guest star on any show, which one would it be? The X-Files but that won't ever happen because I'm pretty sure that the show is likely done this time around. I hope anyway. LOL.

22. if you could write your own TV show, what would it be like? A complete disaster. It would be a feel-good show with characters that care more about others around them than anything else. So yeah! A complete disaster. I'll leave the writing to the professionals and stick to writing fanfiction because it's so much easier.

23. are you a fan of will-they-won’t-they plots? Yes, I am. Some of the best ships have come from just that scenario.

24. how do you feel about bottle episodes? I have a love/hate relationship with them. When I haven't seen a character or a couple of characters for a bit, they are fun to play catch up with them, but then I would rather every episode have a little of everyone than focus on one group or character solely.

25. do you prefer proper opening credits, or a simple title card? A simple title card is all that I need because I'm ready to watch the show. I know who stars in it. I don't need to see it every time.

26. favourite TV show theme song? Pretty Little Liars.

27. which actor do you think deserves an Emmy for their work on TV? Melissa McBride and Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead.

28. who would be your dream cameo on your favourite show? Kathryn Erbe in the Zombie Apocolypse would be an absolute dream come true! I'd love to see her play in a scene opposite Melissa McBride's Carol.

29. do you tend to quote TV shows a lot? have you ever started using a word/phrase because of a TV show? No, I don't usually quote anything from a TV show unless I'm talking to a fellow fan and we're discussing the show. And I can't think of a time that I've ever taken a phrase from a show/movie and used it in real life. OHHH! Yes, I have! There is a contestant on Survivor that says, "Oh my heck!" and I love that phrase now. LOL.

31. do you use subtitles while watching TV if you can? I will rewind a scene and turn them on if I'm confused about something that is being said, or I'm making a comic strip/photo or gif set where I need the exact quote.

32. what’s one show you could watch over and over? Earth 2, H20: Just Add Water, Mako Mermaids, etc. I could go on and on with some of my favorite feel-good shows.

33. would you be interested in trying a show in another language? I've tried to watch a new series on Netflix, but it just really takes me out of it when I have to read the words. I can't focus on the actions and scenery if I'm constantly having to read the dialogue.

34. what are your top 5 shows right now? The Walking Dead, Law & Order: SVU, Heartland, The Rookie, and 9-1-1.

35. who are your top 5 TV characters right now? Carol Peletier, Lt. Olivia Benson, Athena Grant, Howard 'Chimney' Han, Rookie Officer John Nolan

36. what TV character would you die for? Carol Peletier. But not really.

37. which TV show setting would you most like to visit? The Walking Dead.

38. do you prefer hour long episodes, or 30 minute? It really depends on the material. Sometimes thirty minutes is long enough to tell a complete story, but sometimes, you really need that full hour.

39. do you prefer 22 episode seasons, or 13? It really depends on the show and the story being told.

40. is there a show coming out soon that you’re really excited about? The sixth season of The 100. There is nothing new coming out that I'm that interested in.

41. if you could change 1 detail about any show, what would you change and why? I would change the way in which season four of The Walking Dead was executed so that it made better sense. I wouldn’t necessarily change the main plot points, but I would change how the story was told and would elaborate on whatever needed to be elaborated on so that it made more sense narratively speaking. I believe that certain things had to happen to get the payoff down the road, but the way in which it was written and executed was entirely bogus. Scott Gimple did not trust his audience at all.

42. what’s the longest amount of time you’ve ever watched a show in one sitting? Five plus hours when binge watching ER with my Mom on the weekends.

43. what do you think is a good amount of seasons for a TV show? Six or Seven. But that depends on the show and material for the show. Some shows really can't be wrapped up in that time frame, but some that really should end on a good note. Justified is a wonderful show, but those in charge knew that it was time to let it go. But Supernatural doesn't seem to know that it should end already. The first five or six seasons were brilliant, but it got a little (or a lot) stupid after that.

44. if you could replace any actor on TV in playing their role, who would you like to play and why? I wouldn't want to replace anyone because I absolutely love and adore the people chosen to play their specific roles. I wouldn't want to mess with the chemistry of the cast for even one minute.

45. do you own any TV shows on DVD? I own several shows on DVD. Too many to list.

46. do you prefer to watch TV alone or with friends? Alone because if you watch with friends there is too much talking going on.

47. are there any shows you love but your friends aren’t interested in? Like almost everything. LOL. My tastes and theirs do not usually mesh. It's rare that we have overlapping interest in a show.

48. are there any shows your friends love but you aren’t interested in? Yes. Just about as many of my shows as their shows, honestly.

49. who are your favourite couples on TV? Well, most of them are really canon ships, but there is Carol & Daryl from The Walking Dead, Olivia Benson and Rafael Barba from SVU, Regina Mills and Robin of Locksley from Once Upon a Time, Mulder and Scully from The X-Files. There are several more, but I think those are plenty to list right now. I have an otps page if you'd like to see the ones that I love the most. Oh! Han & Leia from Star Wars.

#& asks answered #fandom musings #anonymous #Anonymous

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