Aether:

Aether: 😑😶

Aurora, giggling and running past the ghouls in the common room:

Phantom, chasing after her. Stopping and facing the other ghouls:

Phantom: Can I say a bad word?

Aether: What?

Phantom: Can I say a bad word!?

Aether: Yes-.

Phantom, at Aurora: YOU MOTHERFUCKING BITCH!

Yep

Okay seriously. Reblog if you're OLDER than 11.

Yep.

I'm dying inside, this is so sweet!!!!!!!!!

Since I'm now the self appointed CEO of pregnant ghouls...

The band coming back from tour. Aether and Sunny stayed behind, having to deal with the Ministry taxes.

The band ghouls get off the bus in front of the Ministry, where Aether and Sunny are waiting for them.

From a distance, Aether looks very well fed. But, as the pack get closer and closer, they realise it's something else entirely.

Aether's standing there, one hand on his rounded belly, one hand on his back. And he smells of a mix of milk and baby powder.

Swiss goes to tackle hug him, but gets held back by Cirrus. Cumulus and Aurora move closer and coo over the bump sweetly. Dew's just in shocked silence. He needs to process this alone, with just him and Aether.

Rain offers a soft "Congratulations!" but stays back, he's not been around many pregnant ghouls and it makes him a little uncomfortable. Mountain leans down and kisses Aether's head, then whispers a quiet blessing in Ghoulish. Phantom's never seen a pregnant Ghoul before, he thinks Aether just has a beer belly.

When they're alone, back in Dew's room, Aether and Dew cuddle in silence for a long time while Dew works it over in his head. He is excited, he just needs to process it first.

Finally, Dew asks the question. "How many are in there, then?"

"Two, love."

"Oh... I thought quints had big litters..."

"They do. Two's the average size for a fire ghoul litter, though."

And Dew's head snaps up.

Well I mean, if quint ghouls have a pouche........ And if fire ghouls are excellent at hiding their kits (so good they sometimes loose them)....... It would be possible to hide 5 kits. And with the help of their pack.... I mean, Ifritt and Zephyr would totally steal the kits to snuggle them. And the newer ghouls? Just Phantom being buried under 5 kits cuddling him🥰

POV ur a sibling of sin and Alpha visits the nursery

aka Alpha is great with kits (and i have just, devastating lore for this image and Alpha's life in the pits)

Yep, Dewy and Aeth are mates. They're just made for each other ❤️

Mushy May Day 31: Looking at/Taking Pictures

The fridge in the den kitchen tells a lot of stories.

Thank you so so so much to @forlorn-crows for putting Mushy May together again this year, and to @ghuleh-recs for making us the dividers. Love you guys, cannot thank you enough. I had so much fun doing this again <3

Arguably, the kitchen is the central point in the entire ghoul den. It seems like someone's always there, cooking or cleaning or making a snack, coming in from the gardens or slipping out to have a smoke.

So naturally, it makes sense that the fridge is the pack corkboard. Magnets from just every stop the band's ever made cover the stainless steel, holding up shopping lists, reminders on bright colored sticky notes, a calendar, but most frequently, photos. Polaroids and glossy film and printed out on paper, the kitchen fridge is an amalgamation of the big moments and the little ones.

There's one right next to the freezer handle, a little blurry, out of focus. It shows the inside of the band tourbus, a soft purple blanket covering two sleeping forms. It's dark, but if you look close enough, you can make out Dew's spindly fingers, arm wrapped tight around Aeon's waist as he big spoons them. Rain had taken it, the first night they had shared a bunk, early into Aeon's first tour. It makes the little quint blush every time they see it, but the way their tail wags betrays any semblance of embarrassment.

There's one in the center of the fridge, a polaroid film, the flash bright and a little over exposed, two ghouls with their backs to the camera. Aurora is easily recognizable, her hot pink hair covering the bottom quarter of the image. Dew's in the background, sitting in Mountain's lap, a little out of focus as he throws up an As Above gesture. Rain's the star of the show though, his blue black waves pulled back into two French braids, decorated with clips and baubles and ribbons. Dew's hair is in a similar state. There's a caption written in Aether's blocky handwriting below it that reads "Playing Barbies."

A glossy 4 by 6 print is stuck to the fridge with a magnet shaped like a palm tree, from Cirrus's disposable camera. It's summertime at the Abbey, taken from the edge of the dock. Mist's perched on Alpha's shoulders, successfully shoving Dew from Swiss's shoulders in a game of chicken fight. She'd taken it at the perfect moment of realization, Dew's eyes wide in panic just as he tips backwards. They had all laughed when she had gotten the print developed, even as Dew grumbled. He couldn't hide the fond look on his face when it had been pinned up, though.

On the side of the fridge is a picture of Omega and Terzo, the big ghoul sprawled out in an armchair during one of the pack's frequent movie nights, Terzo practically in his lap, smudging paint against the side of Omega's neck. They both had passed out within the first half hour of a particularly loud action movie, much to the snickers of the pack.

There are several from the road, new scenery and places and tourist stops, a polaroid of Aurora proudly holding up a soft drink that's almost the size of her torso captioned "Baby's First Big Gulp." One of Aeon sticking their face through a cut out that makes them look like a video game character in some mall. Swiss giving Dew bunny ears while the fire ghoul takes a picture with Rain and Mountain. Cumulus floating on a blow up raft smuggled into a hotel pool. All three of the ghoulettes squeezed onto a greenroom couch in a way that cannot possibly be comfortable but they had sworn up and down that it was.

There are close to two dozen pictures with a similar set up, the entire band and crew all lined up on stage after the last show of a tour. The lineup changes and shifts, familiar faces running through several photographs, looking bone-deep exhausted but with grins on their faces, satisfied with a job well-done.

Aether approaches the fridge, a photo in hand, searching for an empty magnet. He finds one, chuckling as he grabs one shaped like a bat but in a hot pink plastic, pinning the picture front and center. It shows Aeon and Aurora, both ghouls grinning, wearing cheap plastic party hats, the elastic hooked under their chins. There's a cake on the table in front of them, a sparkler candle lit in the middle. There's words frosted on it, in red frosting in Mountain's loopy handwriting that proudly display "Happy First Summoning Day."

He sighs, smiling at the picture of his newest packmates, before his eyes drift up to a picture pinned to the top corner of the fridge. Aether always looks to it when he's in here, feels a warmth settle in his heart as he takes in the picture. He's memorized it, it will be seared into the back of his eyelids for the rest of his time Up Top and long after that.

It's him and Dew, standing at the front of the chapel, grasping each other's forearms as Copia wraps a multi colored cord around their wrists, the fondest smiles on each of their faces. The cord was a four stranded braid of ribbon, he remembers, purple and black and blue and orange. He remembers the warmth of Dew's hand on his arm, the glint of the gold jewelry in his ears, hair soft and falling over his shoulders, every inch the ghoul he had fallen in love with the moment he had arrived Up Top.

Aether smiles, running a finger along the edge of the photograph reverently, reaching up for the bunch of bananas on the top of the fridge, breaking one off and going to rejoin the pack with his snack.