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Victoria - Blog Posts
I had a really, REALLY weird dream about The Amazing Digital Circus last night!! ( @gooseworx you wanna weigh in on this?)
I have had a lot of wierd dreams but I’m usually in all of them as the main protagonist in first person view, but this is the first time that it felt like I was watching an actual episode of a series.
The cast was on some adventure and the main npc villain was actually someone who used to be at the circus, but abstracted and is now used as an antagonist npc (I think her name was Victoria? She’s themed as some giant aquatic monster with a bunch of starfish and kelp on her, think of like the Big Daddies from Bioshock, but with more sea life on her, and you could see her scarred up face).
Pomni gets paired with Jax throughout the episode and Jax FINALLY gets some character development instead of just being some kids cartoon bully with no background or character other than just annoying & torturing people. The entire cast is supposed to defeat Victoria but Pomni being the hero that she is, tries reaching out and helping her, despite Jax constantly trying to mess this up. Jax Finally gets the character development I was talking about and is still a jerk but is now more like Buford levels of jerk (still mean, but you can tell he cares and he’s a bully friend that you would invite over for a game of baseball) instead of being like Denzel Crocker (Fairly Odd Parents) or Brad (Kick Buttowski) levels of bully.
One thing I forgot to mention is that in the adventures, Caine gave the characters the ability to fuse together to become more powerful and fight through. At first, Jax simply just uses Pomni to get stronger and the fusion they start out with is like; INCREDIBLY toxic! Think of it like from Steven Universe, with Lapis and Jasper becoming Malachite and showcasing a toxic and abusive relationship. (As Garnet said; “They’re a bad match for each other”) But as time goes on, Jax starts to see how fast Pomni’s already non existent mental health is deteriorating faster and faster, even when he stops fusing (mostly because he’s annoyed with how Pomni is slowing them down and making the fusion weak with her problems) her problems starts showing on Jax. After the both of them almost abstract because of Jax trying to do something he sees as “fun”, (trapping the rest of the cast in a cave to make them panic) Jax and Pomni have a heart to heart and realize how they need to work together to complete this adventure and get back to the circus. Once Jax finally realizes that, he lets go of the controls a little bit so that Pomni can also take charge. By the end of it, they’ve bonded and their fusion relationship is more like Stevonie with the fusion even changing to show both of them equal amount.
For some reason, Caine absolutely HATES the idea of Victoria coming back to the circus, something about “it’s not up to him” and “against the rules and company policy” several times the cast has to stop him and beg for him to not turn her into confetti like he did with Gummigoo. Caine ends up putting the cast into a new adventure and sets them up with an impossible task. They all have to agree on something or team up together to let Victoria stay.
The cast is transported to some falling apart school that is floating in the middle of space with some dim sun in the center, yet it’s freezing cold. The way I can describe the school is like Elmore Junior high (from amazing world of gumball) I think I even saw some of the gumball characters here and there? But the students and teachers were more like demonic zombies…
The cast is split up and only Pomni and Kinger are the only ones who believe that Victoria should get a second chance at the circus, after all, she was human just like them. Even Ragatha doesn’t want to know what might happen when they bring Victoria back (as she’s been playing the villain for so long she doesn’t know how be a supporting role) not to mention for as long as any of them have been there, they’ve never seen Caine act so hateful towards any of the npcs or avatars. But when Jax is struck with an ultimatum, and chooses to save Pomni and the cast over himself, the rest of the cast says Victoria’s name and they are all transported back to the circus with Victoria.
Victoria’s look has changed almost entirely. I’ll do my best to describe it… she had blue skin now, blonde hair in a high bun, but she looked very abstracted (not tadc abstract! Like an abstract painting) very blocky, and chunky, and she only had one eye now and it was on her right side of her face, which still looked scarred, but no where near as bad as before.
The dream ended with the cast showing her around, and telling her to take it easy as she’s the first person to not only come back from being abstracted, but also the first so-called “npc” to come back to the circus. Caine was floating near by still glaring at Victoria like she was a piece of filth that shouldn’t be there, while bubble is annoying him. Before I wake up Pomni and Jax are wondering if all abstracted humans became npcs or if this was just something new that Caine tried like with Gummigoo ai and making something actually scary for zooble like before.
That’s when I woke up. I’ll tell you that had to be the weirdest dream I’ve had in a long while. @gooseworx you wanna say anything about this???
Kidd Pirates Month Stories - Part 1
Oneshot Prompts
Most of these chapters / days have been self-sufficient, apart from "Modern AU", where I just kept on going and going to avoid prompts I didn't want to write about. I think I'll post that one separately.
Content warnings: Plenty of cursing. Kid pirates being Kid pirates.
New beginnings - Day 1
Severely injured, stranded and alone, Kidd makes a landing on a mysterious island. Spoilers for 1100s!!
Pain. He’s in so much pain. There’s blood smeared all over his body and he’s pretty sure that there’s something wrong with his left eye, his vision is blurry at best and black spots keep dancing in front of him. Nevertheless, he pushes himself off of the cold shore he stranded at. This must be some cold winter island, the ground he laid on felt completely frozen, leaving his skin where the clothing had been shredded to burn painfully.
Where are the others? The thought strikes him with a searing intensity. He’s captain, he shouldn’t be focusing on himself more than his crew. He grimaces, his neck hurting when he turns his head to look around.
There’s nothing. Just this awfully cold surface that feels like ice but not entirely. Some freakish oddity of the New World, or so he assumes.
This supposed “ice” raises high into mountain-scapes far taller than the Victoria Punk, circling around at the end like waves. The Victoria Punk. What happened to her? Her and the crew. Did they make it out? Are any of them even still alive? He curses, the sound fading to nothing in the vastness of the space he’s in. Where the hell is he gonna go from here?
This island doesn’t look inhabitable in the least. Unless there are some sort of animals living on this ice, he’s gonna starve to death if he doesn’t freeze first.
But even if there are any animals, he’s going to have to be careful. He glances down at his left arm, ending right below the arm stump where his metal arm had been before that cursed battle. Judging by the look of this island he’d be lucky to find any metal in the vicinity to build anything with.
He tries pulling any closeby metal to him, but stumbles back when he’s met with a metal presence so strong it feels like he’s the one being pulled towards it instead of the other way around. He narrows his eyes, staring into the direction of where he can feel the presence’s location, but he can’t see anything. Thick clouds hang low over the island, making sure he can only see the mountains around him.
He's never felt a presence that strong. The metal must either be of a special quality, imbued with some type of Haki or devil fruit he’s unfamiliar with, or just be really incredibly large.
But maybe he can use this phenomenon to his advantage. Looking back, there’s nothing but the empty, wide ocean around him. Not even any signs of the Victoria Punk having been wrecked, no debris swimming around and most worryingly, none of his crewmates either.
He focuses on pulling the metal towards him again, and just like he suspected, he’s actually the one being pulled towards it. He intensifies the pull, until it’s so strong that it actually starts to overcome gravity in pulling him upwards.
This might be a terrible idea, but what has he got to lose at this point? He’s barely alive as it is, if he doesn’t find help soon that’ll be it for him.
Given his state of exhaustion it’s difficult, making sure the magnetic pull is strong enough to pull him in while also not crashing into any of the ice mountains and blocks around him in his flight. He has to take longer and longer breaks as his journey continues.
Eventually he’s made it far enough for the clouds not to intercept his vision anymore. An involuntary tremble of a mix of both excitement and fear runs through him as he views the large longsword before him in the distance.
Large isn’t even the right expression. It’s so huge that Kidd has to crane his neck to follow its sheath upwards, and even then the continuation of the sword is obstructed by green foliage.
Just where the hell is he? Is he even still alive? Is this all just a dream or a fever hallucination caused by the severity of his injuries? There’s no way a sword that large should exist. Because if there is a sword of that size, there would need to be a forge large enough to house it. Beside the smith needing to make it and a wielder to carry it.
Even giants wouldn’t be cut out for the task, and Kidd absolutely hates how small and insignificant this huge-ass longsword is making him feel.
But nonetheless he carries on, letting himself fly towards the large sword which he later learns goes by the name of “Sumarrbrandr”, a sword which would shape his destiny more than he’d ever have had the gall to imagine.
Kidd Pirates as Kids - Day 2
“Ow!”, he yells, immediately drawing back the finger which he’d gotten squeezed in between two metal parts of his newest invention. He curses as he puts his finger under freezing cold running water to soothe the pain. The piece he’s currently working on has been incredibly hard to make, but it’s all going to be worth it. Now if these damn joints just finally stopped popping off…
Three hours later, he’s bathed in sweat but entirely content with the end results. He tests out the fluidity of the motions before making sure to pack his newest invention carefully, after all it’s a gift for a very special person and he definitely doesn’t want anything to fall apart on his way to her.
When he arrives, he does so at the same time as Killer. They’d both ridden their old run-down bicycles here. Killer also has a big package with him, but by the smell of it, it’s more of the edible kind.
While Killer is part of a rival gang on the island, Kidd doesn’t really dislike him. Killer’s pretty cool, actually, Kidd just can’t say that to his face or he’ll think he’s all that.
After a short dispute of who gets to go through the door first, they finally arrive at the hideout of the one and only Victoria. This place is a peace-zone between all the four gangs led by Kidd, Killer, Heat and Wire on the island, where Victoria reigns supreme.
Kidd and Killer, who are both in love with her, have been trying their damned hardest to get her to join their respective gangs, but to no avail so far. Every single time Kidd asks her to join his gang – and he asks her that a lot – she says that him and Killer should merge their groups, and then she’ll join. Which of course Kidd can’t do. Asking Killer to do that would basically mean submitting and asking anything of Killer. Which would put Kidd in a lower position than Killer, and there’s no way he’s gonna have anyone above him in the hierarchy.
Not even if said person makes some killer food. Pun intended, or so Killer says every time. Kidd rolls his eyes each time he has to hear that, but somehow that bastard makes Victoria laugh with his cheesy lines.
Which is totally stupid. Kidd should be the one making her laugh, not that freaking long-haired, blonde good-for-nothing. Seriously, what self-respecting man has long hair like that? Totally stupid. Not that he's ever gonna say that again.
The first time he'd done that, after getting into a huge fist-fight with each other Killer hadn't shown up at their meetings for a whole week, after which he'd reappeared with hair that he insisted he hadn't cut, but it was pretty obvious to everyone that he had.
The peace between them is rather fragile, but for the most part, they manage to get along. Even though they're constantly fighting over it, they're somewhat okay with sharing Victoria's affections. Begrudgingly. Kind of.
______________________________________________________________
But things change with time, as they always do. A group of criminals docks at the island, trying to take control over Kidd's island. Well, the island he technically shares with Killer, Heat and Wire. But still, mostly Kidd's island. He's the coolest out of the four of them, after all.
Things take a turn for the worse as the newly arrived criminals start terrorizing the towns of the island. Kidd calls in for an emergency meeting with his gang, receiving intel on these new threats from his trusty scouts.
The criminals don't seem particularly organized, but they have the numbers, plus they're all grown-ups, which gives them a boost in strength over his own group. It might be time to do something he'd much rather avoid.
______________________________________________________________
Once they've all assembled around the table at Victoria's place, Kidd stands up and speaks up. He fixes Victoria, Killer, Heat and Wire with a passionate glare. "We need to do something. These criminals are terrorizing the towns. Towns that are ours to terrorize. Not theirs. I propose an alliance. We can't just stand and watch as they ruin everything."
Heat and Wire exchange a look, nodding in agreement. They had already spoken to one another about something of the sort, but hadn't been brave enough to approach the oftentimes volatile Kidd.
Killer frowns. "An alliance. Then who's gonna call the shots? One person will have to. If we just command our respective groups on our own it'll be chaos."
Kidd immediately preens. "Well, obviously that should be me." Heat and Wire speak up loudly in protest and everyone starts arguing until Victoria slams her hands on the table. "Shut up! All of you."
The boys fall silent but keep glaring at one another. Victoria sighs. "You're the same as always. Bickering and bickering for no good reason at all. I'm gonna call the shots."
Everyone turns and stares at her in complete and utter bewilderment. Heat sputters. "B-but... you're a girl. What do you know about fighting?", prompting him to immediately receive two hits from both Kidd and Killer who glare at him furiously.
Killer: "She's twice the man you are, bastard!"
Wire tries to deescalate. "Calm down, both of you. What Heat's trying to say is that all four of us have experience in leading our gangs. Victoria doesn't."
Victoria nods. "Yeah, but while that's true, me not leading one of your gangs means that I don't have my head full of nonsensical competition, like all of you do. And what we need to beat these little shits is unity. Which none of you are capable of, I'm pretty sure. Hence I'll be our shot-caller."
Kidd clearly wants to protest, but he doesn't know how to do it without being as offensive as Heat was, so he stays silent, his head progressively turning more and more red.
______________________________________________________________
Things somewhat work out. The four gangs manage to unite and defeat the intruders, but Victoria takes a serious hit during the course of the battle because she had insisted fighting at the front like all of the other gang leaders. Beyond countless broken bones she loses sight in her left eye, giving her a nasty scar right on her face.
Her recovery is slow and gruelling, but she does recover, much to the relief of Kidd and Killer.
She starts to hate the way she looks now, trying out some eyepatches to cover up until finally deciding to wear a helmet instead. Kidd never tires of telling her that she's still beautiful even with the large scar and her blind eye, now fogged over and staring into nothingness, but Victoria doesn't listen.
Killer tells her the same things, but once she decides to don the helmet, he gives up on trying to fix her self-esteem, and instead makes another helmet just like hers, which he then starts wearing. He makes some for Kidd, Heat and Wire as well. Heat and Wire wear them at first but grow tired of it, while Kidd doesn't want to hide his face away like a coward in the first place.
As the island returns to a somewhat peaceful state, Kidd manages to convince everybody to start a pirate crew and leave home behind.
Seeing as he'd been the only one strong enough to take down the leader of the invaders Kidd gets to become captain, while Victoria becomes first mate, with Killer, Heat and Wire all getting to be officers. Kidd promises them that once they're a big crew they'll get to lead the divisions of their grand fleet. Though he makes Killer promise that he'll always stay on the main ship, because he'd rather not be missing out on his awesome cooking skills. Or his best friend, but that part is left unsaid.
Besides, they are both kind of dating Victoria now, so it'd be unfair to send Killer off elsewhere. As much as Kidd wants her all for himself, he cares for his best friend way too much to want to ruin things between them.
Victoria undergoes plenty of training to become strong enough to be worthy of the position Kidd bestowed upon her.
But even with plenty of training under her belt, she still doesn't take the helmet off.
Her and Killer become known as the massacre soldiers, a formidable duo of sword fighters that tend to fight back-to-back, only surpassed in strength by their captain alone.
Victoria Lives AU - Day 3
They've made it to the New World. It's been one huge hassle trying to get here, but they're finally here now.
Kidd is currently crucifying some moron who had wanted to go back home from the New World.
What had even been his plan? Take the perilous journey through Fishman Island once more without anyone to coat his ship for him? Beg the nobles for a safe passage across the Red Line?
What a moron. Kidd's basically doing him a favor by crucifying him.
Victoria's off to the side, drinking beer through a straw going through one of the holes in her helmet. Killer's sitting beside her in silent companionship.
Kidd lets out a sinister laugh as his victim screams out in pain. Victoria rolls her eyes and sighs.
"You just have to be this loud, don’t you?"
Kidd frowns and strolls over. "What's wrong? You don't usually mind this kinda stuff." He waves his hand, gesturing to the man flailing on the crucifix.
Victoria shrugs. "I don't care, I just don't understand why you have to be so damn loud about it. Just get it over with. It's not like you've gotta put a show on for anybody."
Kidd exchanges a quick glance with Killer. Usually Victoria would be the first to terrorize victims with him.
Killer scoots a little closer to her on the bench and puts a reassuring hand on her back. "Talk to us, Vicky."
She grumbles for a bit, but eventually relents. "Fine. It's just... another headache. I swear there's something wrong with these islands."
Kidd and Killer exchange another, longer glance. She's not being doing well ever since they entered the New World, the different magnetic fields of the islands somehow affecting her body.
Once he'd found out about it, Kidd had been doing research by raiding libraries as well as torturing scientists of islands they came across for information, but to no avail so far, at least not in that regard. He has been learning a lot of really neat things about island magnetism that he's still working on integrating into his devil fruit usage in the future.
Killer sighs. "None of the other crew members have been experiencing this. But you don't have a devil fruit, so I don't get how you would have any sort of connection to these islands. Hell, if it is even the islands. Maybe it's something else altogether."
Dive, who's been coming closer, beer mug in hand, chimes in. "A lot of the boys got diver's disease from our trip up from Fishman Island. I've managed to treat them, but maybe Vic here has something similar. It only started after we entered the New World, after all."
Victoria grunts and shrugs, dismissing their concern. "Whatever. I'll be okay. Not like some headache's gonna hold me back. Just stop being so fucking loud all the time and I'll be fine."
She heads off towards her tent, leaving her two worried boyfriends and the crew's doctor behind. Kidd sighs. "God dammit. We need her to get better soon. Things are dangerous enough as is without our girl haivng some mystery disease."
Killer nods. "Maybe you should give her a break from being first mate for a while, let me take over temporarily. Maybe she's just stressed? I don't fucking know."
Dive snickers. "She'll bite both of your heads off if you do that."
Kidd snaps at her. "Yeah well then you recommend something if you know better."
Dive falls silent at that and quickly scoots back to the rest of the crew.
Kidd sighs. "Fuck, Killer. I hate not knowing what's gotten Vicky down so bad. How can I protect her from mysterious headaches? I can't fight those."
Killer moves over to sit beside him, wrapping a strong arm around his shoulders. "We'll figure it out eventually. I'm sure of it. Until then, lessen her duties a bit. Let's see if her being less stressed makes anything of a difference. And if nothing else helps..."
Kidd looks at him scrutinizingly, trying to see through that damned helmet. "Then what?"
"Then we should get in contact with that other Supernova. The Surgeon of Death. Let's face it, Dive doesn't have that much of a clue of what she's doing, she's never had any proper training, her knowledge is purely from combat experience. Maybe someone with actual medical training can figure this out."
It goes over about as well as he expected. Kidd jerks up to stand upright, spilling some of his beer through the quick motion. "Beg that spineless bastard for help? No way. He's become a government dog recently. One of the seven warlords. No way am I going to crawl to him begging for help. Over my dead body."
Killer sighs. "What's more important - your pride or Victoria's health?"
Kidd grumbles for a while but eventually settles back down. "Hmpf. Maybe if we just send him a message asking to pay for his services. Like a neutral business deal. Not begging that asshole for shit."
Killer chuckles faintly. "I never said you should."
Kidd smacks him on the head. "Yeah well whatever. Hopefully Vicky stops getting those damn headaches so we don't need to get in contact with him in the first place."
First Island or Leaving Kutzk - Day 4
The first island they had encountered after leaving their home island had been one situated in the South Blue.
Victoria had had a lot of pent up frustration from having to lay still and heal for the past two weeks (during which they'd waited back on their home island, they didn't want Victoria to miss out on the joys of her first voyage across the sea.)
Once they'd finally arrived at their first island, everyone steps off their small nutshell of a boat with sighs of relief. They're all pretty glad that they hadn't had any storms seeing as the small boat would have tipped over the second the waves got too large.
Building a new one or improving their current boat was the first directive the newly formed Kidd pirates agreed on.
While Kidd knew how to build a lot of things with metal, he didn't know much about how to build a ship. Heat thankfully did, and through the flame-spitting ability he was born with he made sure to char the surface of the wood they built with to carbonize it.
Kidd grumbled plenty about knowing better about ship building than Heat did (which he didn't), his ego didn't take too kindly to having to accept help, especially with Heat being a former rival gang leader.
The Kidd pirates would need a bit of time to really grow together as a crew and start trusting each other.
They ransacked the local workshops for the materials they needed, giving everyone who tried to stand in their way a rough beating until they were left alone to take whatever they wanted.
Eventually, Killer says what they've all been thinking. "We need an actual ship-wright. We can't just wing this. If our ship is no good, we're as good as dead out on the open sea. Especially once we get to the Grand Line."
Victoria giggles, the sound echoing in her helmet. "You guys are all idiots. You've been so hell-bent on building your own ship, you didn't even stop to think of the easiest solution."
Everyone bristles at the insult, but Heat and Wire have learned their lesson from ever insulting Victoria again. (Even playfully, a story the bruises on their body tell all too well.)
Kidd huffs. "Then what's the great plan, Vic?"
Victoria shrugs and gestures towards the harbor. "Easy. We wait for the next big ship to dock, and then we steal it."
Wire pipes up. "You sure this is a good idea? What if it's a marine ship?"
Victoria rolls her eyes. "Oh, grow some balls already, Wire. We're pirates now."
The next ship that docks at the harbor of the island is neither a marine nor a pirate ship, but a luxury cruise ship. It has a large swan head as its figurehead. Stealing it from the civilians isn't so hard, the leftover employees are quickly thrown overboard as the Kidd pirates make themselves comfortable on their new ship.
Kidd immediately sets out to change the swan figurehead ("That's not manly enough!") into a dragon, although it mostly just ends up looking like a ugly snake-bird with scales and bulging eyes.
The five of them argue a lot over what their jolly roger is supposed to look like.
Kidd wants nuts and bolts, Killer wants his and Victoria's helmet and some blades, Heat wants fire and Wire wants some wires on their logo. Victoria is fine with anything so long as it has a really cool sword on it.
They end up all painting the flag on the main mast together, so the end result is completely unrecognizable. While they had all agreed on Kidd's design in the end - with him being captain - they'd all secretly decided that they were going to paint their own design. The end result being one large mess, that is sure not to intimidate any foes. But maybe confuse them into a strategic retreat? Or so Wire suggests.
Card games - Day 5
Introduction to my Kid Pirates OC Pound!
Quincy slams her cards down on the deck and yells. "ARGH! Can you just NOT cheat for once in your damn life?"
Pound shrugs and grins at her, not an ounce of regret on his face. "You have no proof."
Quincy throws two of her throwing knives, aiming them at the sleeves of his sweater, making his ace cards fall out as the tips of the sleeves are cut off.
Pound's grin widens. "Huh! I wonder how those got there? That's weird."
Quincy gets up and yells at Victoria who's standing on deck a couple meters away. "Yo, Vics! You're first mate, get this lousy cheater to actually abide by rules!"
Victoria comes over but doesn't seem to want to do anything. "He's your man. You gotta raise your boys well."
UK, another one of the card game participants, giggles. "Yeah. You gotta do it like Victoria. She's got captain and Killer at her beck and call."
Pound grins, gets up as well and hugs Quincy from behind, mumbling into her ear. "Y'aint ever taming me, babe."
She grunts and rams the back of her elbow into his stomach. "That's for cheating. You're such a crappy loser."
Pound doubles over and clutches his stomach. "OW! Fucking hell, Quince!"
Quincy and Victoria high five each other and head off, talking with each other about how their boys barely listen to anything but direct violence.
Feast - Day 6
Content warning: Kidd Pirates being Kidd pirates and Pound suggesting plenty of violence, cussing, explicit descriptions of injuries, somebody burning to death.
Whereever the Kidd pirates go, they bring chaos. Be it due to them raiding local shops for useful gadgets and berri, or due to them torturing and killing civilians.
Right now, most of the crew are in the local renowned restaurant. Jaguar, Hip and Mosh had a lot of fun beating up the place's security, and now the crew's settled into the place comfortably, legs on the table, feasting on the dishes that the chefs and waiters keep cooking for them.
Pound and Killer are in the kitchen together with the chefs to make sure they don't rebel, poison the pirates or run away. Killer is just silently browsing through the local recipe books while Pound keeps making comments that unsettle the chefs greatly.
"I'm sure your head would look good on one of those fancy platters."
"How about we use your blood as a spice? Might make your crappy cooking taste a bit better."
"Oi, you almost chopped your finger off. Are you struggling to concentrate? Are you scared? Are you a big coward?" And then he distracts the chef in question, who's trembling in fear already, by stepping up right behind him to intimidate him even more. Pound's never been shy of physical contact.
Killer, busy scouring through the recipes doesn't bother correcting his behaviour either.
Meanwhile, Victoria and Quincy are strolling through the town, exploring the other sights. They come across a large tent with the large letters "MADAME FORTUNA" written on top. Quincy scoffs. "Wow. How clichée. How hard is it to come up with a good name when lies and manipulation are your entire business?"
Victoria stops in front of the tent, giving Quincy a sharp look. "I'd like to go in."
"Seriously? Do you believe this kind of superstitious crap?"
Victoria shrugs. "Eh. I bet most of them are scammers, but you never know, right? What with devil fruits and haki being a thing. Maybe there's actual fortune tellers who have such insane observation haki they can see the future."
Quincy groans. "Ever since Kidd read up on haki that's all you guys talk about. Jeez. Damn tryhards."
Victoria immediately defends him. "Oi, he's our captain. He needs to know his stuff. You know damn well he takes our safety seriously. So be fucking grateful."
Quincy rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, princess." She loves mockingly using Kidd's nickname for Victoria whenever the two bicker.
"Go on ahead without me. I'm not asking you to do this with me.", Victoria orders, stepping inside the tent.
Quincy sighs. She'd love to do just that, but she knows that if she runs into Kidd or Killer and they find out she left Victoria behind on her own, they'll have her head on a spike. Figuratively. Maybe literally? She's not so sure with those protective psychos.
They do trust Victoria to handle herself, or so they say, but they've instructed the crew to protect Victoria with their lives. Which is totally favouritism, but noone's really brave enough to argue with Kidd or Killer.
Grumbling to herself about her crew being led by absolute morons, Quincy steps into the tent after Victoria.
The place looks pretty expensive, with velvety walls and carpets laying around. The walls of the tent seem to be rather thick, as it's pitch black inside, safe for the small table shortly above the floor, dimly lit up by a table.
Of course there's a clichée glass ball and a set of tarot cards laying on the side of the fortune teller. Quincy scoffs, already thinking to herself that this must be another charlatan.
Victoria's already sat down on her knees in front of the fortune teller. She seems suprisingly calm and almost solemn, a state Quincy has never seen her in before. Not that it's easy to read Victoria's moods whenever she has the helmet on. Which is practically always.
When Quincy steps closer, she finally gets to see the fortune teller, previously having been blinded by the candle right in front of their face.
Not that their face is visible in the first place. It's hidden away behind a mask, and a creepy one at that.
The eyes of the mask look like somebody took a pencil and drew manic circles over and over and over until the mask broke in at the center.
The mouth of the mask is large and unnatural, teeth painted on with plenty of lipstick present around the masks lips.
But the probably worst part is the stench. Quincy would have expected for a fortune teller to have some sort of scented candles around, some decently smelling herbs, or just, anything appeasing to clients.
Instead it stinks worse than it does in the boys' crew quarters (and that's to say the smell is so bad you could pass out from it if you had a weak stomach).
It stinks of decay, rotten eggs and like the fortune teller hasn't bathed in at least one year.
Quincy is absolutely disgusted, but Victoria seems almost entranced as she's waiting for the fortune teller to speak.
At least the voice of the fortune teller sounds like what you'd expect, a deep, velvety female voice. "Take off your mask, child. Bare your soul to Madame Fortuna."
To Quincy's endless surprise, Victoria abliges. Not even a word of protest leaves her mouth as she takes off the mask she's been wearing for a few months now.
Even in the dim light Quincy can clearly see the abhorrent scar marring Victoria's left side of her face. It's the first time Quincy is seeing Victoria without a mask since Quincy only joined the crew two islands ago, so she can't help but gasp in horror at how bad it looks.
She can only imagine how bad it must have looked immediately after the injury. The skin is still red and welted, the stitches on the outlines of it ugly and obviously not done by a professional.
Quincy feels sad for Victoria. She's always admired the fierce woman, but Victoria must be feeling absolutely terrible about herself to have been hiding her face from her own crew for this long. Quince wonders if she even takes the mask off when in private with her two boyfriends.
And yet, despite apparently being so eager to hide her face, she's taken the helmet off in front of this stranger. It automatically makes Quincy grip her throwing knives. Never know when foul play is present.
The fortune teller herself doesn't give an audible reaction to Victoria's looks. She puts her hands on the table and demands: "Give me your hand, child".
The hands of the fortune teller are decidedly old and wrinkled, sporting ugly dark-green splotches that look very unhealthy. Quincy's starting to assume that the foul stench in the air might in fact be portruding from the fortune teller.
Once more, Victoria obliges wordlessly, holding out her hand for the strange woman to take.
The terifying mask leans closely over Victoria's hand, her long, slender fingers stroking Victoria's hand in a way that makes the hair on Quincy's neck stand up.
"Ahhh yes, my child. You are with death."
Victoria tenses up, but her voice is unmistakably shaky as she asks. "With death? Explain yourself, old hag." But the insult lacks the bite it would usually have.
"Your life line. It's thinner than I've ever seen before. You're not supposed to be alive. Death will come to you soon."
Victoria jerks her hand back towards her own body. "That's bullshit. I'm young. Not gonna just topple over and die." Quincy's pretty sure she can detect fear in her first mate's voice.
"Fear not, my child. Death is but the next step. The stars cannot discern whether it is your death that will come to you or the death of one of those two men close to you."
That's not something Victoria would ever tolerate hearing. It sounds like a barely veiled threat against Kidd and Killer, so she pounces on the fortune teller, knocking aside the table and candle to hold a blade against her throat. "How do you know about the two men?"
The fortune teller cackles, a haunting noise that makes Quincy and Victoria even more uncomfortable. "I know more about you than you know about yourself, Victoria Shiruton Doruyanaika."
Victoria flinches, accidentally drawing blood with the blade. "How the fuck do you know my name?"
The woman cackles again. "I know everything. That's why you came to me, after all. You know I have the answers. You can feel it too, can't you? The omen of death looming over your head."
Victoria stands up abruptly, pushing the fortune teller away with her foot. "Quincy. Come. We're done here."
It's becoming rather urgent that they leave, granted that one of the carpets and now the walls of the tent have caught fire from the candle toppling over.
Quincy looks at the woman laying in the corner. "Are we-"
Victoria cuts her off with a wave of her hand. "Let's get out of here."
The fortune teller doesn't make a move to stand up, just laying there, keeping up her ramblings. "Deny it all you want child. Your demise is imminent. Think of me, in those final moments. I will welcome you into the afterlife."
Quincy and Victoria head out of the tent quickly, the entire fabric now on fire.
Quincy tries to peer inside but they have to step back to avoid the smoke getting into her lungs.
Something inside the tent explodes, and they can hear the fortune teller scream in pain. Quincy is about to run back inside and kill the woman to not have to listen to her screams anymore at least, when the pained screaming suddenly turns into loud, manic laughter.
"VICTORIA!", the fortune teller yells between her fits of manic laughter. "Your omen of death has already brought death to this island! You will join me soon!"
Quincy drags Victoria away by the arm. Victoria seems somewhat dazed, eyes glazed over.
Quincy advises her to put her helmet back on before somebody sees her, but when Victoria slowly starts to want to put it on, Quincy's suddenly knocked back in a flurry of red hair and a waving black jacket.
It's Kidd, quickly holding onto Victoria's arms, shaking her slightly, worry flashing in his eyes. "Vicky. Vicky, what happened? Why aren't you wearing your helmet? I saw the explosion."
Victoria shakes her head. "I'm okay. Don't worry about it."
Quincy, gathering herself and getting back off the ground from the rude shove, scoffs. "Had a freaky run-in with a fortune teller. They knew Victoria's full name. And about you and Killer."
Kidd's body tenses, not liking this at all. "That's not good. Quince, get everybody. We're leaving this island. If they have intel like that on us without us even having bounty posters yet, this might be some form of trap. Make sure everyone's accounted for."
Quincy heads off to do just that.
Kidd, who's a bit unsettled by Victoria's dazed expression and getting to see her without her helmet for once, pulls her closer and kisses her desperately, trying to snap her out of it in the only way he knows how (that doesn't involve slapping her, at least).
It's like he can feel the life return to her during the kiss. Eventually she breaks it off and shakes her head as if to clear some bad thoughts. "Huh. Sorry, Kidd. Didn't mean to scare ya."
Kidd grunts. "Yeah. Don't do that again. Fucking hell. You okay? You didn't get hurt?"
Victoria shakes her head. "Purely emotional damage."
She musters a small smile when she sees Kidd's furious expression. "I'm kidding. That fortune teller just seemed a bit too legit. Creeped me out a good deal."
Kidd nods and looks at the tent of the fortune teller, now reduced to a pile of burning ash on the ground. "Not very good at her job if she couldn't foresee her tent burn down. And she was still in there? Didn't try to get out?"
Victoria shrugs, before donning her helmet again. "She was. We heard her screams. It was creepy as hell."
Kidd nods and grabs Victoria's hand roughly. "Come on. Back to the ship we go. This place is starting to creep me out too."
Thankfully the Kidd pirates had all managed to get off of the island unscathed. Kidd mentioned Victoria's strange adventure to Killer not long after, and it made the two of them even more protective towards her.
Masks - Day 7
One morning, as Killer and Victoria wake up next to one another (Kidd having been particularly grouchy and not wanting to join them the previous night), Killer wants to address a topic that has been weighing heavily on his mind.
"Vic. Do you still feel uncomfortable showing your face around the crew? You know you can trust everyone here."
She sighs, looking up at him, sleep still heavy in her eyes. "I don't want any sympathy."
He caresses her face, thumb lightly grazing over her scar. "You know that they won't pity you. Noone even talks about Heat's scars, and he has plenty."
She huffs. "Are you asking me because you're sick of wearing the helmet too? I never asked you to. You know that."
Killer shrugs and smiles faintly. "I don't really mind. I'm used to it at this point. I just want you to be happy with yourself. That includes your looks."
He supports his words by planting a light kiss on her scar.
She lays her head back down, leaning her forehead against his chest. "It's gotten better. I was thinking to maybe stop wearing the helmet soon."
K: "Good. I'm glad."
V: "You're starting to like it for yourself, aren't you? I saw your reaction when those marines mocked you the other day. You practically went feral on them."
Killer sighs. "Yeah. I can't stand that they all think they have any right to make fun of us. Just cause we're a new crew."
"It wasn't just that. They were particularly insulting you and your looks. Kidd and I love your looks, and we're the only ones that matter in this. Well, besides yourself."
Killer shudders involuntarily. "Yeah. I mean, I'm not wearing it around you and Kidd, I just- I can't help it. My negative thoughts spiral every time someone insults my face and my- my laugh."
"Oh, Killer." Victoria doesn't say much else for the rest of the morning, just showering him with affection, trying to show him just how beautiful she thinks he is through her love alone.
Music - Day 8
Sometimes, the Kidd pirates don't attack the civilians on the islands they dock at. Well, not at first at least.
Sometimes they start things off by giving a concert. Which a lot of the folks living at these islands are too scared to attend, so the crew members head out to force them to watch their concert.
Killer's the band's drummer, Kidd's on the electronic bass, Victoria and Heat are the lead singers, Quincy and Kidd are backup singers and ocassionally UK will come in on the saxophone.
Mostly it's just about having fun and getting to fuck around with the type of music these punks like.
Pound is usually the one responsible for setting up the stage and making sure everything's going to work fine for the Kidd Pirate's next concert.
Eustass Kidd Playlist in case you'd like to listen to it!
Spotify variant:
Get ready - Day 9
So many preparations have been made. The Kidd Pirates have locked Kidd in his room so he can't see anything until everything's ready. Which he's been rather mad about, but none of his complaining and cursing made any difference.
Seeing as they're all still kids, it can be very hard to reach the ceiling to put decorations up, so they use Wire's taller stature a lot to have him hang things high up and when they need to go even higher, Heat's usually the first to sit on his shoulders and put the decorations up.
Killer has been hard at work baking a cake for the past few days. It's going to be human-sized and resemble a large, open treasure crate with "coins" - golden-coloured baked goods - spilling out. It's the most difficult cake Killer has ever set out to bake, and he's been laying awake at night worrying about the cake's structure collapsing in on itself or his greedy crewmates not being able to keep their fingers off of it.
Victoria, in the meanwhile, has been making sure to go ahead and raid the local junkyards on the islands the Kidd Pirates have docked at to get the best and most useful stuff before Kidd got his grubby hands on it. Because of that, she now has a large collection of gifts to give to Kidd (she's even sold some of the parts to her less-prepared crewmates, making good profit off of their lack of planning).
Pound and Quincy - as some of the more responsible and mature members of the Kidd Pirates - have been tasked with organizing everything for Kidd's birthday. They have a whole schedule of games planned as well as an outing by their band with songs that the siblings Hip and Hop wrote for the special ocassion. Usually planning and structure is very much not the Kidd Pirates' approach when it comes to partying, but they're all dead set on making it work for once to make their beloved captain and good friend happy.
(talking about the big day tomorrow in bed at night)
Captain's birthday! - Day 10
Kidd's birthday is a roaring success.
No matter if Quincy's and Pound's planning was mostly for naught and the band members all got so drunk that they totally butchered all songs but the first (the first song being "Happy Birthday", they couldn't possibly butcher that one!).
Kidd had been like a dog possessed by a scent when they've finally let him out of his room come midnight and the day of his birthday.
They'd all wanted to congratulate him but he'd just gruffly thanked them abruptly and then went off, nostrils flared, searching for Killer and the huge cake he already knew he'd made.
Unfortunately, he had startled Killer so much by creeping up on him shifting around some decorations on the cake that Killer had almost fallen into the cake himself.
Kidd had managed to grab Killer and pull him back just in time. Killer would have blamed himself for ruining the cake for years to come if he hadn't, even though Kidd mostly just appreciates the amount of effort put in - and whether it's going to taste good or not!
It does in fact taste amazing. Kidd doesn't even know where to start eating - whether to eat the cake in form of a huge treasure crate, or to eat the baked goods pouring out of it first, but Killer had cut him down a slice of the crate and grinned that he should just see which one he liked better for now.
Once Kidd's stomach had been sated, he'd finally felt ready to welcome all of the congratulations, so everyone wished him a happy birthday, even the ones that had already.
Kidd was never a tolerable person to be around when he was hungry, and the other Kid Pirate kids respected that.
They all give him a big hug - except for Victoria and Killer, whom he receives a kiss from (Mosh tries to get a kiss as well, but he smacks him down quickly) - and then everyone starts talking all at once about what decorations they've put up, wanting to show all of their craftwork off all at once like the proud children that they are.
Frankly they're all talking over one another and Kidd can barely make out what anyone is saying, but once he's got a beer and his birthday cake in his hand he's more than happy to just grin and nod at whatever enthusiastic story his friends are telling him.
Once they've all had a slice of cake, Kidd is led to a large table with copious amounts of presents on it. It's huge, and he's not sure he's ever been gifted so much stuff in his life.
He gets super weird about it, continously saying that nobody had to get him anything and that they're stupid idiots for getting him so many gifts, but the blush on his cheek and the sparkle in his eyes betrays his absolute excitement at having so many gifts to open.
Every new treasure he uncovers under the wrappings gets a squeal followed by a manly "Damn, this is kinda nice" together with one out of various insults towards whoever gifted him the gift in question.
Overall, the birthday party is chaotic as all hell, but Kidd loves it to bits. While he's not so good at showing gratitude, he couldn't feel any more of it if he tried.
When the day grows late and the crew plays a bit of spin the bottle and Wire dares him to make out with Victoria, the two start snogging like there's noone else in the room.
That they've both already drunk plenty of beer definitely adds to their lack of shame, and the other participants of the game just start to play on without them as Kidd ends up falling asleep snoring like a chainsaw on Victoria's lap, completely spent, content and happy with the world.
Relaxing / winding down - Day 11
The day after Kidd's birthday is marked as "hangover day" in the calendars of the Kidd pirates. Well, that and every other day following one of the crew's birthdays, but they always celebrate Kidd's birthday the most.
It's not that they appreciate one another any less, but he's their captain, after all. He's the greatest and coolest and so his party needs to be the greatest and coolest as well.
Cleaning up the mess of the party, however? Neither cool, nor great.
Which is why nobody ever bothers doing so.
Victoria lets them get through with it on the day after the party - feeling the effects of the hangover plenty herself - but on the second day she starts kicking the lazy butts of her crewmates and starts assigning clean-up duties for everyone.
The one's that grumble the most have to do the most work, Victoria tends to be a little evil in dishing out cleaning chores.
Because of this, Killer usually ends up with the least amount of work assigned to himself, but he doesn't mind so much as some of the other crewmembers, so he can usually be seen helping out even when he's already done with his own load.
Kidd, being the birthday boy, gets to do nothing whatsoever. Victoria did get him a silly cheerleader outfit for him to cheer on the crew while they work, however. It looks absolutely ridiculous and at first he yelled at her to put that crap on herself, but then he got curious how it'd look.
It's completely in blue, so it's not a total pink embarassment at least, but did Victoria really have to give him a cheerleader skirt? Looks so stupid.
But when he does put it on he finds that Killer is very much into the outfit and will start doing even more niceties for him than usual, and Kidd is certainly not above using Killer's new-found simping to his own advantage.
Later on in the night, when the three are all snuggled up together and Killer's already asleep, Kidd asks Victoria. "Did you know? That Killer would be so into the outfit."
Victoria chuckles. "Yeah. He mentioned it to me while he was drunk a while ago. Though he said he wanted to see me in that sort of outfit, I didn't know if he'd be into you wearing it too."
Kidd snorts. "Damn good idea, Vicky. Might need to put it on more frequently if it makes him so happy. But don't tell him I said that."
She presses a kiss to his cheek. "I won't. Maybe once all the cleaning's done we should both wear matching outfits. Although he might faint if he sees that."
Kidd laughs quietly. "That's a risk I'm willing to take."
After this the Modern AU continuous story starts which I'll post separately once it's done!! I think I'll make a separate post for the second half of the writing prompts that aren't the modern AU cause they'll only start back up in a little more than a whole week.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52585972/chapters/166283593
To Touch the Star(s) - Chapter 2: Of Shop Boys and Boys Who Work in Shops
Summary: Just because Matt worked at a Shop, didn't mean he was a Shop Boy at heart. Even if Victoria wanted to see him as one so badly.
Pairing: Matt Murdock/Yvaine (eventually), Victoria/Humphrey
Word Count: 2683
Rating: Mature
Tags: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Canonical Character Death, Retelling, Fantasy, Blind Character, Blind Matt Murdock, Blind Tristan Thorn
Written for:
@anyfandomangstbingo : Proposal
@anyfandomfluffbingo : Throwing Pebbles at the Window
@fandom-free-bingo :
Friendship of Convenience - August Chaos Friendship Edition
"I love you," "So you should" - Book Night Edition
"I don't have anything left to lose.", I'm Tryin' to Matter in Someone' Else's Eyes', Travel to Every Continent - Dream Edition
FREE SPACE, Sword OR Letter Opener, Date Gone Wrong - Fool's Edition
Dueling - Half-Baked Edition
Unemployed - Maritime May
Not Understanding, Sword OR Letter Opener - Tolkien Edition
Unemployed - Wild Edition
"In every walk with nature, one receives more than he seeks." -John Muir Rounding out pictures from my Victoria trip. Most of them are from Hatley Castle and it's surrounding gardens, but some are randoms from the day to day adventures. I can't wait to return Victoria. There is so much more I want to see, and an amazing burger joint I'll need to find again. On to life's next adventure :) . . . . . . #finance #financialplanning #entrepreneur #workhardplayhard #hustle #quotes #blessed #victoria #castle #ocean #pacific #hatley #hatleycastle #royalroads #royal #leader #goals #legacy #flowers #garden #forest #beyourownbanker #yacht #nature #exploring #exclusive (at Victoria, British Columbia)
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." -Albert Camus "Change your opinions, Keep your principles; Change your leaves' Keep your roots intact." -Victor Hugo "All the trees are losing their leaves, and not one of them is worried." -Donald Miller Hatley Castle and it's surrounding gardens are jaw-dropping. The breif respite, and return to nature between seeing friends and clients is regenerating. Reviving to one's spirit. Now to return home Calgary, knowing I'll be back next year. I wonder if they allow picnics? . . . . . . #finance #financialplanning #entrepreneur #workhardplayhard #hustle #quotes #blessed #nature #victoria #castle #hatleycastle #hatley #royal #royalroads #leader #goals #legacy #exclusive #marvel #logan #xmen #Deadpool #deadpool2 #travel #garden #ocean #pacific #brogues #thekingly #beyourownbanker #sharecalgary #exclusive (at Hatley Castle)
"Rocks in my path? I keep them all. With them I shall build my castle." -Nemo Nox "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." -Confucius, Confucius: The Analects Hatley Castle, the many gardens, Royal Roads University, the Pacific Ocean, every inch. Every single inch. They should have sent a poet... I know why they filmed Logan here, Deadpool, and Deadpool 2. Its an oasis like Banff, transformative. When you're here for a private event during filming and get to go in the blocked off areas, it's even better. I wish I had brought sneakers, not wingtips I was wearing, but that's the dress code of the event. The a upper and lower Japanese Garden I found particularly nice, and there was an Oak tree on the way to the Italian Gardens that wandered and towered like something out of a Robert Frost novel. Go to Victoria, spend a day here. Breathe. Relax. Recharge. . . . . . . #finance #financialplanning #entrepreneur #workhardplayhard #hustle #quotes #blessed #nature #victoria #castle #hatley #hatleycastle #royal #royalroads #leader #goals #legacy #exclusive #marvel #logan #xmen #deadpool #deadpool2 #travel #ocean #brogues (at Hatley Castle)
Kids in Seattle Example of a mid-sized transitional children's bathroom with shaker cabinets, white cabinets, a one-piece toilet, gray walls, an integrated sink, solid surface countertops, white countertops, and a freestanding vanity with gray and white ceramic tile, gray flooring, and vaulted ceilings.
I love trying different styles and seeing how they work for me. Needless to say, I like the one I used for Victoria a little bit more than Electra’s, but Exotica’s is okay. I’m not keeping these though. I drew them for my aunt, along with several others I won’t be posting because I did use styles from actual artists I looked up and don’t wang to take credit for the work they did that I just redrew.
Meet Persephone: The only Platoria kitten there is and ever will be that is biologically theirs. Once Victoria gave birth to this cutie, her owners had her spayed so it didn’t happen again. Plato is honestly dissapointed at this, but that doesn’t mean they can’t adopt more. He loves his beautiful girl and is very protective of her.
Persephone adores both her parents and cuddles up between them every night to bed, but she really likes her uncle Mistoffelees. He’s just so cool with his magic and she’s jealous she doesn’t have any like him. Her uncle Tugger is okay…ish. She doesn’t like HIM very much.
"I'm a lot bravier than people think"
How it feels to listen to good music while walking on a treadmill
