dragonfireridge

[dragonfireridge]

Villains and Vampires part 21

MORE MAJOR WARNINGS: gore, animal brutally mauling man, person being ripped to pieces and bloody ribbons

The black veins stretched across the whole side of Villain's neck in a large area all the way down to his collarbone and beyond -- but it looked like it had stopped spreading. And in the middle of the gnarly mess was Hero's handprint, burned into his injury where the tattoo had been, the skin charred and black. Like a brand.

Hero shook Villain's shoulder, but he was unresponsive. Passed out from the pain. But alive. The relief crashed over her in a giant tidal wave.

But now she had another problem to deal with: Supervillain. And she'd drained a lot of her power to stop Villain's bleeding -- she was no longer at full strength. And while Supervillain himself didn't have the type of powers capable of hurting her from a distance, she had no idea what Other Villain was capable of. His superpower was a mystery.

She lifted her head to glare fiercely at Supervillain, whose brows were arched up in surprise. He clapped his hands slowly in mock approval and praise, the movements heavy and exaggerated.

"Impressive. I didn't think it could be done!" He laughed wickedly. "Too bad Villain's out of commission now -- he's the only one I'd have to worry about in a fight. The only one who would stand a chance against my allies. You, on the other hand... there's two of us, and only one of you. And Other Villain here will shred you. You won't win this one." He flicked his hand in signal, and Other Villain took a menacing step forward, electricity crackling in the air around him.

Hero's heart sank. That particular superpower could definitely kill her.

But then a different kind of realization hit her, and her head whipped to Villain's cat, who looked back at her with his orange, slitted eyes.

"Maybe not on my own," Hero growled. "But I have a friend who'd like to join the party."

Mocha limped over to her, eyes full of canny intelligence as he came close.

Hero smiled wickedly, touching her fingers to the metal collar on Mocha's neck -- and melting it off him.

Mocha bared his teeth in what could only be interpreted as a cat's way of smiling, a demon freed from its prison, and shifted right on the spot into his alternate form.

He lunged for Supervillain half-shifted into the giant panther with a primal roar, single front paw outstretched with claws fully unsheathed.

Supervillain was too busy gaping in shock to react before five hundred pounds of pure muscle slammed into him, crushing him into the floor.

Other Villain snapped out of his surprise and screamed in terror as Mocha tore into his boss, raking razor-sharp claws down his torso.

The huge panther whirled around at the scream, shifting targets to Other Villain and launching at him next with a loud hiss, forgetting Supervillain altogether in his bloodlust and leaving him to weakly army-crawl out of the way, trailing a wide smear of blood across the white floor.

Other Villain spun on his heel and ran for his life, but the giant cat was onto him in two mighty bounds, sinking his teeth into the criminal's arm and dragging him to the floor. The animal's jaws clamped down hard, and Other Villain shrieked in agony as bone shattered between big teeth with an awful wet crunch like biting into a potato chip.

Even Hero flinched, nausea churning her stomach at the horrific sound.

Mocha growled around the meat of Other Villain's arms and shook his head violently, flinging the man around in the air like he was a weightless ragdoll.

Other Villain screamed louder as Mocha's teeth sank deeper into his arm, whipping him around hard enough that his shoulder dislocated entirely.

Then Mocha threw him to the floor in a crumpled heap, pouncing on him before he could scramble away.

The panther's hind legs landed on Other Villain's shins, pinning him down as he raked his front claws across his face in long, vicious gashes, over and over and over again, blood spraying with every strike.

Other Villain wailed and struggled as the blows rained down, writhing in pain, electricity sparking off him in short bursts in a futile effort to fight back, but Mocha was too powerful, too strong to escape.

Mocha ripped him to bloody ribbons until his whole face was unrecognizable and his torso shredded, his flesh torn to gorey strips.

Other Villain had long since stopped crying out, laying limp and lifeless on the floor, but the cat clawed him up a bit longer for good measure, blood spattering and streaking his scruffy black fur by the time he was satisfied.

Mocha's chest was heaving from the exertion, eyes narrow with murderous rage and blood dripping from his whiskers as he turned back to Hero, a nightmare brought to life.

Hero stiffened in alarm, hand twitching nervously toward the knife sheathed in her boot in case she needed to fend the beast off.

But Mocha's gaze flicked down to Villain's limp body, and the anger left his feline features, replaced with what could only be interpreted as concern as he limped over and nudged Villain's hand with a low whine, smearing enemy blood from his face onto his owner's fingers.

“Supervillain–” Hero choked out hoarsely, gaze darting over to the smear of blood leading down a nearby hall. “You can’t let Supervillain escape.”

Mocha bared his teeth with a snarl, whipping around and thundering down the hall in pursuit while Hero stayed with Villain, soaked in his blood and sitting in a puddle of it with him.

Villain's face was pale, far too pale, but at least he was still breathing.

Hero winced as she checked on the giant cauterized wound in his neck, a disgustingly perfect handprint-shaped brand in the middle of it. Her handprint. It was so, so wrong.

The wound would likely permanently scar that way, and Villain wouldn't be happy when he found out. Hero wouldn't be either if she woke up and discovered her nemesis' handprint forever branded into her neck. A constant reminder of her enemy.

Hero flinched violently when screaming started up in the distance, her heart plummeting all the way to the soles of her feet at the raw intensity of it. But she knew what it meant.

It meant Mocha had found Supervillain.

⏪️ Back Next ⏩️

Masterlist

@scoundrelwithboba @lumpofsand @isikedmyself878 @iamheretohurt @fleur-a-whump

@ay5ksal @otterfrost @sausages-things @togzy @whump-till-ya-jump

@cravesunconditionallove @whumpwritinglover222

@nevermore-ramblings @mj-or-say10

@morning-star-whump @f1sh-bone @everynameistakencarrots @snaillamp

[dragonfireridge]

Fun Story to Share.

I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.

Well - she got this email this morning:

The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.

Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).

Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.

———

Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.

[dragonfireridge]

The Ruins of Eden

[dragonfireridge]

[dragonfireridge]

[dragonfireridge]

He'd gone to the livestock auction for chickens. His great uncle had died and left his smallholding to him. Overgrown land full of weeds and a small house in desperate need of updating. He'd cleared out a section of the yard and had planned on getting half a dozen Bantums to get him started. Eventually he thought maybe a couple of old donkeys when he got the field cleared.

The boxie looked old for a pet, maybe 30 or so. Covered in scars and looked like he'd been hastily hosed down after a long period of being covered in his own filth. Long streaks of muck still clinging to him in places.

The men by the cage were jeering at the boxie.

"Nah look at the state of it, it's barely fit as dog bait"

"I thought Owens was meant to be coming today he usually has something decent"

Turning the tag on the cage to show the guide price

"£500 they're having a laugh, most expensive dog meat on the market at that price"

"Might be worth a punt if it goes cheap enough though. Give the guard dogs something to keep em busy this weekend"

The auction thankfully didn't drag the animals up one by one, the bids going too fast for that to be practical. The Bantums came up and he got them for less than he'd thought. He should go, something made him stay. The boxie came up. Opening bid a measly £50 it climbed slowly to £200 peering around he spotted the man he'd seen at the cage. Taking a deep breath he raised his number. The other man bid another couple of times but soon gave up, the worn out boxie not worth much.

Well this was a stupid idea. What the hell was he gonna do with a box boy at the end of its use? Maybe he could at least make him comfortable in his last days, like he'd planned to do with his donkeys.

The dog cage was hefted up onto the bed of his defender and strapped down. The cage of hens beside it then he was off home

[dragonfireridge]

You know, rivers catching on fire used to be a regular occurrence.

[dragonfireridge]

(❁´◡`❁) its like the sunshine/grumpy ship dynamic but not even slightly

[dragonfireridge]

An aquarium in Japan was closed for renovations, and their resident sunfish got depressed not seeing visitors. So the staff put some uniforms with printed faces against the tank, and it immediately recovered.

[dragonfireridge]

me watching monsters inc as a kid: how did it take so long for anyone to figure out that human child laughter not only produced energy like screams, but was more effective, and that children aren’t actually dangerous at all?

me watching monsters inc now: monsters incorporated, a multi-billion dollar corporate giant, stood to make extra profits off a scream shortage because low supply with high demand makes it possible to charge a fortune for a necessary commodity and everyone has no choice but to pay the high prices because they can’t go without electricity. Therefore Monsters Inc, as well as any other major powers that may have existed at the start of the era of using scream energy, fabricated the idea that only screams could generate sustainable energy sources in order to create artificial scarcity, because laugh energy was far easier to obtain and far more efficient, and therefore stood to lower the value of energy due to surplus. They also fabricated the idea that human children were toxic, in order to a) make other monsters too afraid to go near them to do research and possibly discover the secret of laugh energy, and b) to make monsters so afraid of going near them that there is a shortage of scarers, making it harder for rival companies to rise up and create competition. Even in the monster world, capitalism is based on lies, greed and cruelty, and even monster companies have no qualms about using and abusing children to maximize profits.

[dragonfireridge]

As a kid, I was really upset that Bill Watterson wouldn't license Calvin & Hobbes so I could have plushies or so there would be a Saturday morning cartoon. Now, I realize his resistance is the reason we don't have a Calvin & Hobbes DreamWorks movie starring Chris Pratt.

[dragonfireridge]

You can fight AI in indie publishing by leaving reviews.

Seriously.

Ai-generated garbage is flooding the self-publishing market. It works as a numbers game- put out ENOUGH fake crap and eventually someone’s aunt will buy them the ebook as an unwanted gift, and you’ll have made two dollars. This tactic works at SCALE, which means real independent titles are now a needle amongst a haystack of slop.

If you have read a book this year that has less than 5 reviews, your rating is an algorithmic spotlight on that needle.

A one sentence review helps. Really. A star rating helps if you really can’t think of anything to say, but if you can muster up even “I laughed at the part about the tabby cat” you are doing indie authors a favor like you cannot believe.

(Also if you left a review on one of my books this year I am kissing you so softly on your forehead and I adore you)

[dragonfireridge]

This comic makes me so stupid emotional. She might have never known.

[dragonfireridge]

memes are fun and relatable and all that, but don't let them discourage you. all of that stuff that doesn't make it into the final product is part of how the final product gets made

[dragonfireridge]

Why is my writing the most amazing and humiliating thing. I look at it, can write paragraphs upon paragraphs about how much it is my beloved, how I built her shrine with my own hands, brick by brick, until it was complete. And then I polished it until it shone brighter than the North star.

But then someone wants to see my shrine? My family members want to come to it? No, no, no. I block it with my body. I cover it with a blanket. The greatest thing I ever made and I am ashamed for anyone to see it.

When my friends ask about this wonderful shrine, one that I spent years of my life on, I hang my head and mumble words to the floor.

My writing is apart of me, yet I cannot let myself open to show it.

[dragonfireridge]

i’m back with art to share

[dragonfireridge]

favourite fact I learned during my visit to the Highland Wildlife Park is that somewhere in Britain there is a top secret bird sex area