pluviosa | [Open] I'm On A Boat

[Open] I'm On A Boat

Who: Casper and ???
What: Boat shenanigans! Digging! Trees!
Where: Several locations
When: Day 3-4ish
Warnings: One prompt has a dead body, one thread is getting into some serious/dark subjects.

Jungle Cruise

[Casper does not have many weapons - certainly not the kinds of powerful magical options other people on the ship have. But he's not out of all options. He heads down towards the bottom of the ship - or at least what he can reach. Deck 9 is about it, so he starts there.]

[The water is a problem. The water might be too much of a problem for him to handle - so he freezes it. At least a good chunk around him is frozen, so anyone coming down there might need to be careful not to slip. That done, he starts digging. He doesn't have a shovel or any tools so it's just him pushing at dirt trying to find some kind of bottom.]

[This is probably not going to work. Come either mock him or help him?] (See next prompt.)

Kill it with Fire

[Casper has been digging and he absolutely does not like what he's found. He's read enough horror books and seen enough horror movies to know that letting this thing spread is an incredibly bad idea. He keeps looking around for anyone, covered in dirt and mud and probably other things with his hair all wild.]

Do you have fire magic? Or the ability to make a fire that's really hot?

[He needs a hand, because a campfire is not going to do it. He needs extremely high temperatures in an extremely controlled environment.]

On the Treetops

[He likes to be up high. Some of these trees are gigantic so he's having fun climbing them. It's very much an easy thing for him - he's just scrambling up them and jumping from tree to tree. He's making a lot of noise though so he might be being too disruptive. Either way he's having fun and it's not like there's a whole crowd to bother.]

[Occasionally he rests, and stares out at the barren wasteland around them. What could be out there? He wants to know, but he also doesn't want to die again.]

Night Sky

[Casper is enjoying himself just chilling out on the deck at night. There are no constellations that he's familiar with, so he starts making up new ones.]

That one's the Cat. That one's the Rabbit. ... Maybe that spot on the moon is the Monkey? It's definitely not the Bunny.

[He's mostly talking to himself - Bob is asleep in his hoodie pocket - but he'd welcome company, if you'd like.]

[Wildcard]

[Got another idea? Either grab me on Discord (artematthew) or Plurk (

atrypical).]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I... died at the hands of someone from my group. He shot my leg off. I was trying to prevent him from stealing a car that had kids in it and injecting them with gods know what? And he won the fight. Obviously. So whatever I tried to do didn't matter."

Did anything he did matter?

"I'm just... I'm trying to - like. You're - you and a few others here are the only people who've ever wanted me around? So it's like... what do I even do? My mother wants me as a chess piece, that's it. You... actually give a shit about me."

"Well, apparently that guy was the fucking worst, so it... matters that you know you aren't the fucking worst? Sometimes you... can't stop things. Like I--I tried to make the Immortal Alliance Conference less deadly than in the book, and it ended up being worse and also my king threw me into a tree for trying to protect my protagonist son, which, I should have known better, my bad, and anyway there's no way I could have precluded the Eternal Abyss arc and it was stupid to try, but... the point is sometimes people are shitty and sometimes they're stronger than you and you can't do anything about it, but you can't help trying anyway? I guess? I... you wanted to help people. Because you're a good person. Even if you couldn't--I think it matters."

"I... yeah. I definitely give a shit about you, and I'm not used to people wanting me around either. But... we can at least stick together, then? Two guys fucked over by shit we can't control. I've... never met anyone like you."

"He was. Caspian was... terrible in many ways." He listens to Shang Qinghua and tries to focus. He's... he's not really following, he feels like he's missing a lot of context, but... he squeezes a little tighter in the hug.

"I've... I've never met anyone like you, either. Can I..." No. He turns his face away, flushing. For all he knows this guy has a relationship, and he mentioned a son and he's just... he doesn't want to be That Guy.

Casper squeezes back tighter, so maybe he's doing something right, or at least vaguely useful?

"Can you what?" Oblivious, population Shang Qinghua. But Casper is turning away and blushing and... "I can't imagine there's much of anything you might want to do that I'd object to. I mean, um. Pretend that didn't sound pathetic."

"No, I - you've got a whole... you... you said something about your son, and I'm sure you have someone waiting for you at home, and I... I don't want to mess everything up just because I'm a stupid teenager with a crush and I can't..."

He has to control his inhibitions. He pulls away a bit and moves like he's preparing to hop off the branch, never mind how hight up they are.

"I-- no, my protagonist son, like, because he's the protagonist of my book I made him and he's sort of metaphorically my son and I feel vaguely proprietary about him, but also I'm pretty sure he would kill me if I said that to his face, he doesn't like me anyway. I don't have--I mean, if anyone is waiting for me it's just my king waiting for a report from his spy, and-- crush?" His voice goes up into a squeak. "You-- you're so nice and heroic and handsome and, and I'm a pathetic old cowardly weirdo? You-- please don't jump off the branch, I'm pretty sure I could catch you, but--you-- crush? On me??"

"I -" He pauses, his brain backtracking onto what he just said and covering his face with his hands. "Oh my gods..." His voice is muffled and he can't seem to even look in the other's direction. "And you're not pathetic? And if you're a weirdo so what? I'm also a weirdo. And I'd be fine if I jumped off but..."

He tries to take a deep breath, but there's a lump in his throat. "I... I mean... yeah. You're one of the first people who was ever nice to me, and you're really cute and I don't... I don't care if you're older and - I mean it's not like it would look weird unless people knew about the age gap and - never mind. You probably don't even want to... I just met you and I'm already rushing into... gods, I'm so sorry."

"I-- Casper you're so cute and nice and... nobody likes me, I can't believe you... I just, I, you would really... want? To... be, be associated? with? me?" His voice is cracking with nerves and he's not even phrasing this in a comprehensible way. "There are... presumably someone else on this boat is like, better than me? I... you don't need to be sorry, I'm not..." He reaches out to cover Casper's hands with his own, reasoning that it certainly made him feel some kind of way when Casper did that to him.

"I... I like you a lot." The age gap is... honestly the entire PIDW setting is so bizarre about ages that it doesn't register to him as much as it probably should. Once someone hits adulthood, no one really asks questions about how long they've been there. He's pretty sure some of Bing-ge's wives were like, three hundred years older than him. "I still don't... think there's anything you might want to do that I would... object to." He's pretty sure he is also blushing, now, but he's just going to have to live with that, his hands are busy.

"Well I like you, and I'm not nobody, am I?" He peeks over his hands and - oh, they're being taken from him and his face is still bright red. "I can't believe anyone gives a shit about me, not when I've been kicked by everyone and everything, sometimes literally? Especially when I'm down?"

Oh. Well. Hm. "I... I mean... can I... kiss you? I've never - I'm sorry if I'm terrible, I've never kissed anyone before and I just... you're the first person I've genuinely wanted to..." He's rambling again, so he trails off. Help.

"You're-- definitely not nobody. You're very somebody." Oh god Casper is so fucking cute when he blushes, help. "Somebody and I definitely give a shit and..."

"I--" Shang Qinghua has to swallow hard. "I've, um, never? Either? But-- yes?" He squeaks again, he cannot imagine how the image he is giving here is appealing, but Casper is certainly looking at him like he is. "Very yes?" His face is on fire and he might die? He's definitely leaning closer, he can't help it, not with Casper looking at him like that.

Edited (typo) 2024-02-28 20:03 (UTC)

"You aren't - oh. I. Um." Hm. How does he - you know what, fuck it. He adjusts his balance a little bit and leans forward to meet the other's lips, arms wrapping around his torso. He tugs and picks up the other as easily as he might pick up a bag of groceries and plops him on his lap. Shang Qinghua's lips are gentle and soft and gods does he suddenly just want to shove him against the tree trunk and kiss him until he can't breathe properly.

But he controls his urges - mostly - and tightens his grip around the other. It's protective and fierce and full of the desperate passion that only a repressed teenager can really exhibit.

Holy shit.

Casper's lips meet Shang Qinghua's and, oh. That's why people want to do this all the time, okay. Then Casper picks him up like he weighs nothing and puts him in his lap and Shang Qinghua is pretty sure he makes some kind of embarrassing noise because holy shit that was hot, Casper can mandhandle him whenever he wants. He wraps his arms around the other man's neck and absolutely loses himself in what he's pretty sure is the best first kiss anyone has ever had. Definitely better than Cucumber-bro's, ha ha, Airplane won at this one, his hot boy isn't trying to eat his lips.

...His hot boy? Maybe? He thinks he would really rather like that? He tries to put his sheer affection for Casper into the kiss alongside of his decades of loneliness, and he hopes Casper is keeping track of their balance because he doesn't really want to fall out of this tree but he's kind of too dizzy to be entirely positive whether they're tilting.

He grunts into the other's lips and holds him tightly before finally pulling back and pressing his head into the other's shoulder and... he's trying not to cry? It's only kind of working. "Th... thank you."

To be fair he does want to eat Airplane's lips but he's good enough at controlling himself to not do that. As it is he's doing his best to breathe like a normal person and not do exactly what he wants to do because he doesn't want to scare the other guy. "Um. ... Shit. What now?"

Do you thank people after kissing? Sure, why not. "Thank you, fuck." He's breathless with it, still wobbly.

"Now... uh. I don't know? You could... you can do that whenever you want. I. Um. We... tree. Um." Yeah, his brains have sort of melted, he's making even less sense than usual. "Mm. You're pretty."

"You're.. uh. Welcome?" He's not sure what people do after kissing either. "But. Uh. Yeah. Tree. We should... get down? I think?"

Wait. "Fr - from the tree, I mean!"

Shang Qinghua tries to sit up straighter. "Down. Yeah. I can-- fly back down." He thinks he can balance well enough for that, anyway. "Less-- falling, not in tree. Um. Yeah."

Casper just... gently places the older man on the branch next to him and whistles for Bob. The raven flutters down next to him and he closes his eyes for a moment. Large black wings appear on Casper's back, matching Bob's.

He opens the wings and glides downwards, landing on the deck near the tree. He grins up at the other, stretching his wings out as far as they can go.

Getting picked up and moved around has not gotten less hot.

But that's not the point right now. Shang Qinghua closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, steadying himself and trying to think about something other than Casper's mouth, then forms a sword seal with his hand and summons Kao Ci out to float where he can carefully step onto it, then drop nearly straight down to the ground, angling to land next to Casper, where he then makes Kao Ci float back up into reach and stows it back into its sheath.

"...You look good with wings," he says before he realizes he's going to say anything. But fuck, he does. The black feathers contrast against his blond hair and... god he's pretty.

"Oh." He ducks his head a little a bit. "Th... thanks." He walks over to the other and folds his wings around him. They're warm, if a little itchy. Still it's a good excuse to pull Shang Qinghua close. "Well. You look pretty good on that sword."

Definitely not thinking of something else. "I've got you. You're going to be safe. I promise I'll do everything I can to protect you."

Oh, fuck, it's like that one scene in Howl's Moving Castle, and he's Sophie, and oh god, Casper has surrounded him in feathers and warmth and... oh. He's-- he's definitely blushing. Casper has said he was cute before, but... god, no one else has ever thought he was... like, he knows he's not ugly, but... "Thanks," he croaks.

The utter sincerity he promises to protect him with... Shang Qinghua wishes he was strong, for once, so he could... "I-- I'll do anything to keep you... keep us both okay." Is this kind of thing why so many women swooned for Bing-ge? He feels sort of like swooning. Casper is so close and so... I've got you, he said, and something in Airplane's chest... He wants this, desperately, wants Casper to be by his side and... He's staring at Casper's face like he's trying to memorize it now that there's proper light, and as far as he's concerned there isn't anything else in the world.

"Of course." He puts a hand on the other's cheek, fingers sliding up into his hair. "I'm - I'll... try. It's not - I'm not used to relying on people. But I'll try." He presses a kiss to Shang Qinghua's forehead and lets out a long sigh.

This... definitely wasn't what he was expecting when he woke up on the boat, but... mm. He should probably tell the other what he found but... maybe later? He doesn't want to kill the moment. "I'm not... I'm not perfect. I'm going to mess up at some point. And you can walk away at any time." It hurts to think about let alone to say, but there has to be that established. "But... I'll be here when you want me to be." He wraps his arms a little tighter around the older man and lets his wings disappear in a flurry of feathers that vanish before they hit the ground.

"I... when I do eventually go to sleep, I can... take the room next to you or something. But I can keep watch while you're sleeping if it'll make you feel better."

Casper cups his cheek and kisses his forehead and it is impossibly tender. He would… he would very much like to get used to this.

“Someone perfect wouldn’t want someone like me.” Like Mobei-jun. “I like you the way you are, you don’t need to be perfect. And you… you can walk away from me if you want, I… I really don’t think I’m going to walk away from you.” The momentary whirlwind of feathers makes this moment even more goddamn anime, and Casper pulls him closer, and… Shang Qinghua tilts his head up the necessary tiny bit to press his mouth to Casper’s again. Because he can do that. He can kiss a cute guy who likes him and is just impossibly nice.

Sleeping… oh. “I, um. You need to sleep too? It’s, fine? I can, like, cultivate instead of sleeping, if it’s not safe?” He’s not at all thinking about Casper watching him sleep. “I, um, next door sounds? Good? If you want?” He may be a shameless porn author, but that doesn’t mean he has the nerve to come on strong in real life. And this is… it’s only been a couple days. Casper is sure to… wise up or get over the novelty or something. But he’s not thinking about that, he’s thinking about how the younger man is warm and close and… kissable. Before his nerve fails, he kisses him again.

"I don't... for a while. I can go for about a month without sleep or food - not that it's enjoyable, but I can. Or two weeks without water. ... Air's a little more of a problem, but I think my record was about twenty five minutes? Close to half an hour, at least."

The little kisses are nice, and he presses back - trying not to use too much force because knocking Shang Qinghua would be rude on top of being awkward? And he doesn't want to. But he holds the kiss for a little bit, stroking the other's hair again. He seemed to like that, at least?

Edited 2024-03-01 00:48 (UTC)

“I can go without most things other than air for like, a while, I just like, usually don’t because eating and sleeping are nice? And cultivating inedia is boring and takes more work.” He sighs. “The sect’s grocery bills would be so much cheaper if we all cultivated inedia properly. But I wanted to write about food, so here we are.”

Casper presses into the kiss and strokes his hair and Shang Qinghua makes a satisfied sort of mmph and winds his arms around the younger man’s neck without really thinking about it. For once, his mind isn’t going a mile a minute, it’s mostly just going ‘!!! Casper! Kissing! !!!’.

"To be fair, food is good..." He chuckles and rubs the other's back gently. Eventually he does pull his head away and leans against Shang Qinghua. "... You should... um. Know. That I have a problem with... um. Sea life? Especially crabs. A - and I'm bad around guns. So if that happens... please help me? I don't..."

How to even explain this? "It feels like I go... far away where everything is muffled. So I'll need... you or someone else to snap me out of it." Usually he gets snapped out of it by being hit, but he'd like to avoid that.

cw: needle mention

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