Don't know if you're still doing the July Prompts, but in case you feel like it... Treasure Hunt, please? 😁🤗
Hello, my dear!
I love this prompt and I had more than one idea for it honestly but settled on a Mermaid AU. It needs a continuation at some point before I think I'll post it on ao3 but I hope you'll enjoy the start anyway!
(and this will be the last of the July prompts I'll be able to do)
**
A foggy morning upon the southern sea and a lone cutter with sixteen souls aboard ghosts across the surface where a tired, young sailor rubs his eyes.
The captain rises from his bunk and joins him on the bridge. “Where’s Thorne?”
Jon jerks his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the head. “Hobb’s chili’s not agreeing with him, captain.”
Mormont winces in sympathy for his second in command but Jon secretly hopes Thorne stays there another half hour. He hates my ass and the feeling is mutual at this point.
“Very well. Anything on radar, Snow?”
“No, sir. Clear and quiet.”
“Not been any sirens tempting you to jump ship then?”
Jon’s surprised that the old man is pulling his leg this early as Mormont is far from a morning person. There are legends surrounding these waters but it’s all a load of horseshit. Of course, the sunken treasure they’re seeking off this coast may well be one too but men are known to risk much for even a bit of gold.
“No, sir. No sirens, giant krakens or merfolk so far. I’ll let you know if any pay us a call though.”
Jon anticipates a wry grin in answer to his sarcasm but Mormont looks to be in deadly earnest when he says, “Don’t mock things you don’t understand, boy.”
He softens the scolding tone with a pat on the shoulder though and makes to leave again when Jon cannot help asking, “Do you think we’ll find my uncle out here?”
He’s told ‘maybe’ but the old man’s sorrowful look says ‘no.’
Benjen had commanded the first expedition out here last year looking for the Wolf’s Eye, the fabled shipwreck from years past with a ruby the size of a man's fist reportedly part of its treasure. The ship never returned and neither has any of the crew.
Alone again, Jon looks back over the water and his eyes begin to grow heavy once more. It’s been a long night on duty.
A sudden, steady beeping from the radar has him sitting up straight. What is that? It’s huge, twice as big as the ship. It’s not possible that a vessel that size could’ve snuck up on them so quickly and quietly, is it? Must be a whale or an uncharted reef.
He cuts the engines, sounds the alert and lets the ship begin to drift to a stop. The captain will probably be back up in a minute.
Stepping out from the bridge, he goes to the rail for a look and sees her. There’s a girl in the water! Where did she come from?!
“Man overboard!” he shouts with all his might as he reaches for a life preserver.
He takes aim and tosses it skillfully towards her. It lands less than three feet from her but she makes no move to grab it. She continues treading water and looking up at him with curiosity.
“Grab the float, miss! I’ll haul you in!” he cries.
A confused smile, a shrug. She gingerly taps the life preserver, a look of frank suspicion. Then, she seems to understand and waves at him.
And even in the early morning light and fog, Jon can tell her eyes are a lovely cerulean blue and her hair is a blaze of red. It’s not the shade of the ruby which they seek but more of an auburn, like a cozy fire in one’s hearth on a cold night, a more tangible sort of treasure to Jon's way of thinking.
She’s smiling up at him and…gods, she’s beautiful.
The ship is coming to life. Men race along the deck trying to figure out what’s going on. He can hear Thorne bellowing at him from the bridge but he keeps staring at the girl in the water who seems concerned by all the hullabaloo she and the radar has caused. She still makes no move towards the ship.
“If you won’t save yourself, I guess I’ll be saving you,” Jon grumbles with conviction as he begins to tug off his boots.
The girl in the water laughs at that. She seems to want him to jump into the water with her.
What sort of game is this? What had Mormont teased him of just a short time ago? Should he be more cautious than this? That's what he's most often being rebuked for aboard, flying headlong into an uncertain situation without giving it enough thought.
But his hands are already on the railing, preparing to climb over…when an almighty jarring crash knocks him to his knees. Have they struck the reef?! Is there an invisible ship out there they’ve run square into?
No, there’s a tentacle coming up over the side. An enormous tentacle, as big around as a pig! There’s more than one! It’s wrapping around the ship and pulling. The bloody thing seems to be intent on taking the ship under!
His eyes find the girl’s again and those big blue eyes are frightened. She gestures wildly for him to jump, to come to her. (And her gesturing brings Jon’s attention to the fact that she’s not wearing any sort of clothing or swimsuit on her top half at least. Seven hells.)
Regardless of her state of dress, there’s bigger problems at hand. Panicked and not knowing what else to do, Jon jumps towards the girl in the water, barely clearing one of those huge tentacles.
Perhaps it’s the impact of hitting the water or perhaps something hit his head as he jumped but Jon feels pain and the blackness is closing in and he immediately gulps in a mouthful of seawater.
Sputtering and disoriented, he’s briefly aware of the girl wrapping one thin, cool arm around his torso and pulling him rapidly away from the cutter. They move so quick, like dolphins through the water. She's stronger and faster than he would've ever guessed.
There’s shouts and cries from the men aboard the ship and subconsciously Jon knows something very bad is happening but in his drifting, foggy state, he can’t seem to comprehend it all.
"Who are you?" he asks the girl...or maybe he just thinks it.
She looks so worried over him and he wants to tell her not to worry. He may find his uncle here.
She shakes her head and gently kisses his aching brow and gives him what he thinks is an attempt at a reassuring smile.
One of his hands is tangled in her wet hair and Jon would swear there’s a silvery fin beating against his dangling, useless legs before consciousness leaves him completely.
4. A film you could watch on repeat for the rest of your life?
Oh definitely the Pride and Prejudice 2005 film. It has my soul and owns me. I've lost count of how many times I've watched it. It's everything you want in a timeless peak romance story. It's the romance to end all romances.The angst, enemies to lovers, comedy, a hilariously rude proposal and last but not least the line 'I love you. Most ardently'.
Just saw there are some August Prompts! If you're still up for it, #28. Polaroid Photos, please? 😊🤗
Okay, I wasn't necessarily doing the prompts but it's you and I love you and I love this prompt too so here you go...
I'm going vintage here for my polaroid photos so check out this old commercial with James Garner I found to show off Sansa's spiffy Christmas gift...lol.
Fic under the cut. Mentions of Marijuana use.
Christmas Night 1978
For years, Sansa had known she wanted to be a photographer someday, to take amazing photos like the ones she’d see in her magazines. Fashion, nature or wildlife, she was sure she was meant to do something like that.
So this year, she’d begged for her own camera, a Polaroid One Step, and she’d received it. One button, just aim and click and out came your picture. She was going to take so many pictures! Except she’d have to raid her piggy bank to buy more film. The camera had come with 3 8-exposure packs of film but she’d had to test it out thoroughly, right?
Not all of them had turned out so great. Rickon and the dogs wouldn’t sit still long enough. Bran and Arya liked making faces at her too much. Some were too dark and one got touched while it was still developing. Mother and Daddy had cooperated at least and she had a nice one of them tacked up on her corkboard to display.
Jon and Lyanna had shown up for coffee and cake and final presents around nine. It was nearing midnight now and the adults were playing cards in the kitchen. Robb had disappeared to his room with Jon a while ago and the younger kids were in bed. Sansa was starting to yawn and thinking about slipping into her PJs and listening to her other gift on her record player, the soundtrack for Grease.
Jon had gone for his mandatory trip to his dad’s today as per the custody agreement which was why they’d been so late coming over. He’d been in a bad mood when they arrived. It sounded like he still was. Robb’s door was ajar and she could hear him fuming about something. It also smelled like marijuana in there. Robb rarely did it when Mother and Daddy were home but it was Christmas and maybe he thought he could get away with it. He was probably right.
“I’m not going next year,” she overheard Jon telling Robb. Alright, she’d stopped to eavesdrop a little.
“But I thought you had to go.”
“I’ll be eighteen next year and they can’t make me then. I’m not wasting another Christmas with him just because he likes pissing off Mom and then be ignored the whole time. Fuck him.”
Sansa gasped at Jon’s language and then covered her mouth, standing still as a statue and hoping neither boy had heard her.
“What do you want, Sansa?” Robb asked in annoyance as he poked his head out. (Of course, they’d heard her.)
Jon poked his head out too as she was trying to come up with an answer. She didn’t necessarily want anything. She’d just been curious. She didn’t want them to think she planned on snitching on them for smoking pot either. Scrambling, she blurted out something that sounded plausible.
“I wanted to take Jon’s picture before I go to bed! With my new camera.” It was still in her hands and she held it up.
Robb rolled his eyes but she saw Jon cracking a smile, the first one she’d seen from him today. She’d made him smile and that made up for the fact that she’d be using her next to last picture on him.
Robb held the door open wider and told her not to say anything. She knew what he meant. The ashtray was sitting on his window sill with the window cracked. She nodded. She could be cool. She wasn’t a little kid.
“You really want to take a picture of his ugly mug?” her brother asked, teasingly.
“He’s better looking than you at least,” she snarked back before she’d thought those words through.
Robb laughed and now she was blushing…dammit. But Jon was blushing a bit, too.
And when she thought about it, she didn’t think they had a recent picture of Jon, not since he’d been ten or so. That’d been when he’d started going to his dad’s on Christmas and Christmas was one of the few times a year Catelyn Stark made a point to get her camera out for a photo or two. Her mother was always busy on holidays. It seemed a shame not to have a more recent picture of Jon.
“Where’d you want to take it?” Jon asked, his hands shoved in his pockets. He looked kind of self-conscious. It was kind of cute. He was kind of cute actually. She hadn’t really considered it before.
In an attempt to hide the fact she was still blushing, Sansa looked around her brother’s room and took more than three seconds to consider the lighting and background…like a real photographer might.
“Stand there and, Robb, you stand beside him. I’d like to get you together.”
Robb grumbled but both boys were grinning when they heard “Say cheese!” and she clicked the button. She thought it might be the best photo so far. It was definitely going up next to the one of Mother and Daddy on her corkboard.
“What about you?” Jon asked as Robb was trying to shoo her back out of his room.
“What about me?” she asked as Robb groaned.
“Have you had your picture taken today?”
“I…well, there’s only one left and I don’t know if…no one would…”
Jon reached for her camera, his warm hands brushing hers and making her blush all over again. “There should be at least one of you with your new camera. I just aim and click, right?”
“Right,” she stammered as Jon held it up, grinning at her and making her tummy do the silliest little flips and flops.
Deciding he liked being photographed apparently, Robb wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze. “Smile, Sansa.”
She thought she looked more like a deer caught in headlights once the picture developed but Jon said she looked pretty in it. “Can I keep it?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah…sure.”
“Thanks.”
He was carefully placing the picture on top of his jacket as Robb kicked her out for good this time. She thought she might have floated to her room more than walked. She laid down in her bed that night, staring at the picture she’d taken of him, listening to her new album and daydreaming a little.
🌹❣️This is the Amazing Person Award! Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask box of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you’re amazing inside and out ❣️🌹