Gonna be changing my name to something more appropriate for this ST worshitposting acc.
It funny how I originally intended for this blog to be about reposting post about statues and hopefully post my own facts about them but alas an occult british man (equally statuesque) had decided to come bust down my hyperfixation door!!
Follow me on instagram! If yall have it! I need moots there!
Oh gods I had a dream recently of meeting him during the 2010's but with our accurate ages! IT WAS SO WEIRD cause i was back to being that weird 10-ish yr old girl who got shipped to London, end up getting bullied and decided to join a school talent show!
Except i dont have any talent but next thing I know im standing in the door of a 18 yr old boy waving a 5 dollars in his face (or his crotch, bro was so tall) asking him if he can teach me piano like he does on youtube. 🤣🤣
Like why!? How!? Oh gods.. it became a whole lucid multi part fanfic in my head where he became like a dad/older brother figure (platonic btw) i cant! 🫣
He is so cute and meaty istg. You cant help but wanna bite 'im.
Although... I am scared that he would bite back harder tho and I would literally die on the spot (cuz of rabies or heart attack, not sure with that sexy cryptid man ngl)
dom!ivy anon here, i have read that ficlet so many times 😭😭😭
since you’re open to request, i would love to know when each vessel knew (and why) they wanted to “keep” spark. we know they gossip like old ladies 😂
and big teeth?! don’t get me started, i would love to see vessel and big teeth co exist more together as one (if that makes since) i love the acceptance of the vessels and spark.
Yay:) Dom!Ivy was a fun one to write.
I love this ask so much. What a lovely thing to think about.
Here's my take, which is longer than I expected it to be, mostly tooth-achingly fluffy (Eden-style) and comes with a bonus of Big Teeth and the Vessels.
Relationships: Polyvessels/Reader
Content: past children in danger, references to Big Teeth doing what he does best.
"When did you know?" II asks as he and III sit on a boulder beside the creek, ostensibly on watch.
He wipes the back of his neck with a scrap of cloth as the sun beats down on them. Fuck it's hot. Being in the mountains again makes him feel even closer to the sun, if that were possible.
You and Vessel and Sixie are in the shallow end of a rock lined pool formed in the boulder eddy, ostensibly looking out for the small pack of kids who went in to cool off and have turned it into a water fight. Except Vessel lost his footing and is now on his back in the water, flailing. You're laughing so hard you're no longer making any noise at all.
It's knee deep. Your knees.
The kids have all piled on him and Sixie is barking, dancing around you all because she approves of games that involve roughhousing.
"When did I know, what?" III is annoyed to have his afternoon amusement interrupted.
"Spark." II insists, not picking up on the hint.
III exhales sharply. What's Drummer Boy overthinking about now?
"What about her?" III gives him his full attention.
"When did you know that you wanted…" II looks out over the trees lining the creek, scanning for movement as he searches for words.
"To keep her?"
"Her to stay, with us." II rolls his eyes. "She's not a stray."
"Point of fact she was a stray." III bats his eyelashes at II and pitches his voice high. "'Can I just go along with you a few days? Till we get to a settlement, or you decide to keep me because I am so smart and feisty and adorable and have nice tits and a cute ass?'"
"Jesus." II laughs. He can't help himself.
"And we are keeping her." III grins, pleased that he's been able to pull II out of his internal yap. "Keeping her happy, keeping her satisfied, keeping her fed—so she keeps that ass— trying to keep her from doing anything stupid, and keeping her alive when she does it anyway. Pick any of those you like, drums."
"Fine." II snorts. "Answer the question."
"It was the blood that did it." III says bluntly.
He counts it as a victory when II is completely stumped. Good. That will teach him to interrupt III enjoying his new favorite show: what goofy shit will you get Vessel to do because he's so gone for you.
"You thought I was going to say when dug a bullet out of Ivy." III smirks.
"Well that would be the obvious…"
"Nah. That was just her being a doctor. Hippocratic oath and that." III rolls his eyes. "But the blood was above and beyond. She opened up her veins for him, mate. Didn't have to do that. Doesn't know when to quit giving. And I just thought, this bird is going to give everything she is to keep people alive out here. Her own fucking blood. Crazy. And it's going to get her killed because 99% of these assholes wouldn't do the same. Needs someone to have her back, make sure she doesn't go too far, and reel her back when she does. Case in point, all these damn kids."
He jerks his chin at the pool. The oldest is no more than ten, the littlest ones still need to be carried and cry when they fall down. Are all kids so freaking…kidlike? Trappers had them. Rounded them up because rumor had it some city farm was testing "cures" on exposed post-shimmer kids and paid well for subjects.
"So, fuck all if I let her die out here because she can't help herself," III says. "She's ours now. Plus she gives me shit when I'm fucking her. Real mouth on her. Gets me going. Love it."
They look up at a familiar roar as Big Teeth emerges from the pile. The kids all shriek in delight at the sight of the that impossible black spreading over his limbs, and the six lambent eyes.
They're not afraid of the monster. This is the one that came for them when the nice lady with the scar on her face tried to sneak them out of the trapper camp and got caught. He put himself between them and the men who had killed their families and he pulled those men apart, limb by limb, while the scarred lady held them close, told them, "Close your eyes. He's my guardian angel. You're safe now."
Now, he emerges from the pile of kids and the knee deep water in that Vessel-Big Teeth hybrid shape. Mostly human, or as Ivy puts it "a bit void around the edges," six-eyed, only two extra limbs. Enough to gather most of the littlest ones up as he rises to his far more agile feet.
II wonders if he settles in that shape because they associate it with the night he brought Annie to them. Maybe it's his way of signaling that he's safe.
Vessel shakes, spraying you all in water, and as the tiny feather scales on his shoulders tremble the light flickers around them, like an inhuman disco ball.
"What about you?" III turns on II. "When'd you know?"
III shifts a little. He's still not sure this is the right thing, keeping you, taking you with them. Kinda still wishes you were on the island, safe. Because even after the talking he'd given to you about waiting to follow the trappers away from the settlement before going in for the kids, you'd still went off on your own to take care of it. If Vessel hadn't gone Big Teeth and taken off when he did…
II doesn't want to think about it. Turns out you're no better than the rest of them at not doing something stupid when there are lives on the line.
He's saved from having to answer when Ivy's nightmare pushes through the brush to the creekside, one of the older kids riding behind him.
Vessel lets you go and you charge through of the water, wading through the creek to the other side to meet Ivy as he slides down.
They all feel the white ribbon ripple with relief and Ivy's answering cord draw tight. Then you're in Ivy's arms and off your feet.
"Come on." III nudges II and clambers down. "Let's deal with the horses and camp so Ivy can teach someone a lesson about running off to be the hero."
When they reach you two, Ivy's got you tight and your ribs shake.
"Yeah, girl. It's good." Ivy murmurs in your hair as II grabs the bridle. Ivy gives him a grateful nod, mouthing over your head. Dealt with. They're done.
And then he turns his full attention on you, gripping the back of your neck.
"Look at me, girl." He demands, rough. His eyes are hard and his jaw tight.
You're barely able to meet his gaze. "I'm sorry, Veasy. I know I should have waited. I just couldn't let them—"
"You did good." He says, dragging your mouth to his. "Real good."
"Fucking christ," II mutters.
Someone has to keep you, all right. Because III's right, and Ivy's an enabler.
***
A few hours later II's at the fire keeping dinner warm in camp. III has watch and heads out on a perimeter patrol with Sixie. God only knows where Vessel is off to. II suspects he keeps his own watch these days. But he's actually looking less haggard. And has put on a few pounds, which is a good sign. Whatever agreement he's made with Big Teeth is working out, so who is II to argue?
Except II misses the few hours they spent together in one's bedroll or another. Mostly just talking, sometimes making out, or sleeping.
It's well after dark and most of the kids are asleep when you and Ivy wander back through from the deeper pool downstream they'd used for bathing. You're both damp around the edges and Ivy has an arm around your collar. Good. Somebody needed to show you there are consequences for going off plan.
Ivy sends you to bed with one final forehead kiss. Doesn't matter how rough things get with him or III, you always get forehead kisses.
On your way past the fire you tangle fingers briefly with II. "Night, love."
"Night, sweetheart."
Ivy drops beside the fire with a contented grunt, flinging his long legs out in front of him and twisting his spine until it pops satisfyingly.
II hands him a cup of stew and a hunk of bread. They'd had time this afternoon for him to do a quick cornbread and Ivy grins, leaning over to drop a kiss on his head.
"Goddamn, you are a marvel." Ivy chuffs, ripping off a chunk. "Best fucking thing I've ever tasted. Best bread in the whole goddamn world."
Oh yeah, whatever you two got up to at the creek must have been good with you, because Ivy's rarely so effusive. You're so good for them. All of them.
"When did you know?" II asks after he's had a moment to eat.
"This about keeping Spark?" Ivy's brows lift. He's prepared. III must have warned him between moving downstream and setting up camp.
II nods.
"When we left her behind." Ivy says bluntly. "I walked way from her. She's so strong, you know. Had to pry those little fingers off and it broke my heart. Hardest thing I ever did and I knew it was wrong. Decided if we made it back to the island, I wasn't leaving her again. Didn't care if what Vessel said was the right thing to do. I love the guy but he didn't know tits from an asshole some days, especially when Sleep was wringing his neck. You?"
II shakes his head, jabbing at the fire. They both look up at movement from the brush. It's too early for III to be back from watch.
But it's just Big Teeth. As he moves closer to the fire he rises on to hind legs, going blurry in a mess of shadows that seem to absorb even the flickering light of the fire until what's more-or-less Vessel approaches slowly, as if he's trying not to scare them.
He nods, and hunkers down across the fire. He still seems vast in some indefinable way, and the void dark moves away from the center of his chest it fades to his edges. All six eyes blink in alternating. The rest of his face is human enough, jaw, ears, shaggy hair full of whorls. He stares at his hands and the claws retract—sort of. He shakes them, annoyed, but they don't fully disappear.
"You don't have to do that, Boss," Ivy says before II can. "We're ok with it if you feel like staying the other way."
"I can't stay that way fully for long." Vessel says finally, his voice almost normal. "It's easier to be somewhere in between than on either end. I just can't always control which side of center I wind up on."
Ivy nods accepting that with an ease II still finds challenging. He can't stop thinking Big Teeth is something else.
"Hungry?" II offers.
"Nah…I uh…" Vessel says simply. "I ate."
What? II drops his gaze as his stomach squeezes. Is that thing hunting in Vessel's body? Making him eat whatever it catches. He doesn't look to troubled by it.
"Go to bed, Blue." Ivy nudges him, a glance at your bedroll in a suggestion. "I'll clean up. Chat at the Boss here a bit about the plan for tomorrow. Got a lot of bodies to keep track of, and if this shit about the bounty on kids is true, we need to move fast out of TahomaPower territory."
II takes the excuse.
***
In the morning, Vessel's mostly back to normal, except for the eyes. They watch you at the creek bed with the kids, handing out toothbrushes from your never ending stash and squeezing out pea sized drops from one of the tiny tubes of toothpaste. Vessel's stash is finally coming in handy.
"She's kind of neurotic about the teeth thing, eh?" His slow smile unfurls as you model for the little ones.
"Oh you're one to talk," II chides. "You and your Big Fucking Teeth. We're a cavalcade of weird shit. Let her have her thing, mate."
"I am, I'm not…" Vessel lets the protest drift away. He was. A little. "Hey. You and I. We good?"
"Yeah." II says automatically.
When Vessel meets his eyes, he sees the question in it —really?
II takes his hand, lacing their fingers together. "I'm getting used to it, ok?"
"It's me, it's always been me. In me." Vessel frowns. "Just given shape."
"I know, you said that." II says. "Thing is, we've been treating it like some kind of monster, a parasite. And now we know it's you, and that's all well and good intellectually, but…I'm trying, ok?"
Vessel rests his chin on his knees and all six eyes slide shut.
"When did you know?" II asks to distract him.
Six eyes open slowly, fixing on him.
"Spark."
Vessel blinks.
"That you…that she belonged us." II says.
"Always." Vessel answers, a little distantly, dreamily. "Even when I didn't know it yet."
"Very helpful, vess." II snorts, sighing. What did he expect out of their resident dreamer? He should probably consider himself lucky it didn't come out in verse.
Vessel looks wounded for an instant, then he gives a sly grin that reminds II of the old days. "When she came up from your bed and brought me into hers, warm from your hands and with your scent on her skin. I wanted to taste every place you had touched her."
Ok, that's more like it.
And then he goes on, "I thought, this woman is meant for us. Her body moves between us like air, and water and sunlight, her heart a divine element, meant to bind us together. We have been given the ordinance to tend to her. It's our purpose."
"I thought killing offerings was our purpose." II sighs.
"Nothing lasts forever." Vessel smiles as if for once this truth gives him peace. "And you, my lover? When did you know?"
"I don't, Vess." II allows him to see the worry in his heart. "I don't know. I still think maybe it's wrong to have her here. Look at us. Look at this. Is she meant for this? Are we? What the fuck kind of happiness are we supposed to find out of living like this?"
He stares around them, the broken down camp. Saddled horses. Somehow they're going to have to get eight kids across a world deadly and strange to an island where they might find some peace.
"We're back where we started." II mutters, thinking of those early days trudging north. "Nothing changes."
"Ah, but everything has changed." Vessel puts an arm around him, curves long fingers under his chin. "Look at who we are now."
Ivy has swooped into the tooth brushing, doing "inspections" and sending those that pass on to help III. He's grinning. When it's your turn he drags you in, kisses you stupid and pronounces you minty fresh. The kids left standing around all screech in delight when he sets you back on your feet and turns you loose with a rear slap. Then he calls to the two eldest to help him with the horses and shows them how to manage tack and dodge teeth.
You shake your head, grinning as you pack and portion out the supplies into saddle bags and packs so that even if you should have to split up everyone will have enough until you can find each other.
III has more help than he knows what to do with and camp breaks down quickly while he and Sixie do tricks to amuse their little worker bees. You bring the bags to him and he rests a forearm on your head, pretending to lean his weight on you until you tickle his ribs and he howls, squirming away. "Woman!"
"How often has III laughed on the road?" Vessel asks. "Ivy is teaching again. He's very good at it." He leans in, eyes narrowed. "You sang to Spark last night."
II's face heats. When your best friend and lover can fill a stadium with the sound of his voice you'd probably just better stick to banging it out on your kit. But you'd told him you liked his voice and so sometimes, he let you talk him into using it.
"Uncle Vess, Uncle II, clean!!" A small bright-eyed figure drops in front of them. It bares a respectable set of teeth at them, canines sharp as little pointed ears twitch and shake in excitement. "Clean?"
You wander through, catching the small set of shoulders. "Horses or packs, what's your job this morning?"
"Packs!" The kid barks and races away.
You glare down at Vessel and II, hands on hips. "Are you taking the morning off?"
Vessel reaches up one long arm to your waist, dragging you down onto his lap. "I am talking sense into our beloved, Lighthouse. Please explain to him what happiness we might find out here. In this world."
"Together?" You settle against his chest, fingers threading through the long hairs behind his head.
Your opposite fingertips settle on his forehead and he closes his eyes as they pass over each set, opening them again to fix on you. It's a new little game you and Big Teeth have devised. His addition is the kiss to the tips of your fingers when they reach his mouth…and the little play bite that makes you glare at him.
You look very serious, very thoughtful for a moment, grimace a little, then you lean over and kiss II full on the mouth.
"Every fucking happiness there is." You promise, drawing back but cupping his cheeks. "And double on Sundays."
"Hey! I thought Ivy was your boyfriend!" One of the kids demands. "OOOH, she's kissin' Uncle II."
"Is she now?" Ivy laughs. "Good. He looks like he could use it, grumping around all morning."
The kid stares then looks at you, clearly replaying the last 24 hours and seeing you all exchanging affection and touches. "Are they all…your boyfriends?"
"Alas, they are." You sigh extravagantly, levering yourself up off Vessel's lap. "And they're stuck with me."
A half hour later it looks like there was no camp here at all. Helped, no doubt by the little conversation Ivy had with the nearby walking trees whose roots have no begun to erase any final traces of your stay.
It's a long day of walking. The vessels alternate riding point, putting the kids up in pairs on the remaining nightmares or occasionally their shoulders. There's squabbling and crying and an accident or two. You and III have the most patience with the little ones. Ivy is good at keeping the older ones who are restless busy, and they seem to like being treated like his assistants. Big Teeth spends the day patrolling and scouting around the edges of the group.
The littlest one starts puking the following morning and has a fever by sunset. Just a little bug, you assure an anxious Ivy. Big Teeth nests and purrs around you both all night. The fever breaks in the morning.
Still, you spend the day after riding with the still recovering child. II stays close to Hecate, rifle at ready. He looks up at the sound of your voice. Your spine sways easily with the horse's motion in that way that usually gets him going. But the kid is passed out, mouth open, seven little fingers tangled in the braid of your hair. You're humming, a bit drowsy from being up most of the night, and it takes him a moment to recognize the song. Telomeres. The spike of want settles into something softer, broader.
You catch II watching and smile sleepily, reaching out. He laces your fingers lace together and brings your knuckles to his lips.
"I love you." You whisper so as not to wake the little one.
He wonders briefly what it would be like if the little one on your chest was theirs. Not on the road, not like this.
Nah.
But once the offerings are returned to sleep and VIC burned to the ground, they could all spread out in a big white farmhouse on a hill over looking the sea, the lights of St. Bernadine flickering on in the distance as the sun goes down. Vessel inside at the piano. Ivy and III in the kitchen making a mess out of dinner because II won't be bothered to leave the porch swing beside you when you're singing lullabies to the small body who insists its too early bedtime. However many-eyed and -limbed would be just fine. He only wants them healthy, and knowing they are loved.
This, II thinks. This is the moment.
He's keeping you. Forever.
A/N: II is my hopeless romantic. Of course he's dreaming of happily ever after first.
As celebration for my 100 days streak on Duolingo!
Who among the bois do you all think can keep a streak going long? Also what language?
For me my headcanons are:
Definitely II. Could be on something like Japanese, Chinese or German. Something useful for traveling about and conversing with other musicians, industry folks.
Vessel might, since theres Valyrian and Klingon on there, but then he might be old school and had no need for a silly owl app to learn conlangs. Also can be curious with expanding his vocab for lore purposes with Latin and Greek. Other than that.. he might be the competitive type, obsessed with the ranking too much, gets frustrated with Duo's incessant emails and notif and so he had to uninstall it. 🤣
Something I also see III might be. He definitely on Japanese or Nordic languages. Imagine them just competing on who gets a higher rank at the end of a tour. No Super, just pure free version. Cant be friends with each other cause they would know who is in the lead, or maybe they do so alliances are made for those extra gems. Oh.. they are so gonna rope in the others into playing.
IV might do something he can use locally like Gaelic, Welsh or even Indian. He could have joined for the fun of it but would prefer learning in person instead of apps. He end up winning tho, at the end of the tour cause everyone loves him and he is the only one consistent with it.🤣🤣
And not me fallin for another 6 foot british twink (eventually turned into a hunk) with mystical powers and saviour complesx who unwittingly acquired a harem of men by being a dork but his main relationship was doomed by the narrative despite giving it his all.
