#Incursion Pt 1

[spockvarietyhour]

Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter in "Incursion Pt. 1"

[mylovejimimi]

The Kims, your breeding problem | SJ & NJ TWO SHOT PT. 1.5

— PAIRING: mafiaboss!seokjin x mafiaboss!namjoon x mafiaprincess!reader — GENRE: smut +18. minors dni — WARNINGS: omg none? sorry i didn't include much smut in this one, i didn't have much inspiration so i just made this to add a little context and to move the plot forwards. — SUMMARY: Desperate to save your empire and your name, you walk into the lion's den with a plan. Turns out those two lions had a plan of their own, and now you're the piece of meat they had been so starved for. — WORDS: 6k >>> You can read part 1 here <<< Soooooo it's been a while lol I have so many things to do omg but i'm happy i can give you something, even if is a little lame like this continuation lmao I swear to bring you something much better in the next one, pls forgive my dry mind and busy life, ilyyyy Please remember you can send me a tip by buying me a ko-fi if you like my works, it will meant the world to me ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ And as always, i look forward your thoughts on this. Enjoy !

Namjoon had picked an interest in you since he started in the whole crime business thing. You were big in that circle, more for yourself than for your family’s history. News always carried your name around, and then, one day, he had the luck to run into you in one party.

Back then, he was an orphaned eighteen years old whose only chance at life was to be a construction worker or a bouncer at a club, given his prominent height and overall bigger frame. Somehow, he ended up being a bodyguard at the service of some minor drug lord that loomed the outskirts of Seoul; he saw all kind of illegalities at work but could be proud of having never participate in any of them. However, any little remaining morals he had were thrown out of the window the day his boss was invited to a big party – the party your father was hosting.

The opulence of your mansion left his jaw on the floor. There weren’t that many people, but the power and easiness all of them exuded left him green with envy: no one there knew what was to have bellyaches because of how hungry you were to get sick for eating moldy food from the trash and having no hospital that would treat you, to fight to death with people that wanted to rob you or take advantage of you. None of them had lived a single tragedy, none of them even had to worry for breaking the law to survive and the possibility of prison time because all those people were over the law. It angered him; that party got him so furious to the point that he almost resolved to get out of that business, out of that circle of rich people, and start over as a fisherman in the sea or something like that. Or just go and jump under a train.

Just when he was about to turn around and leave, he saw you. There you were, appearing in a cinematic sequence: strutting down the staircase in your flowy, red dress, while all eyes were on you. You were in the spotlight, as always; shining more than any of the dresses and expensive jewelry being worn there. You had all the power in the world and you knew it, of course; he could see it in your prepotent smile, your ruthless eyes, your arrogant vibe. Only nineteen years old, but you showed so much promise and hunger for more – didn’t even hope for more, you just naturally expected it, felt entitled to more.

You were also very beautiful physically – he felt attracted to you like everyone else, after all –, but the poise and status you had entranced Namjoon beyond words. He decided he was going to be just like you, or even better. He was going to have all the power in the world. He was going to have you.

Seokjin, on the other hand, had always been lurking around you. Waiting. Plotting. Achieving.

In the beginning, he was the good guy. He was a nice kid, introverted yet polite and pretty smart. His family had served yours since your grandfather began his incursions into morally questioning matters. He was born into the same opulence you were, but it wasn’t his. He had traveled with you, and get to know many places far away, but as a servant. He had dinner every night on the same table as you, but he was the one picking up the rests of food you threw on the floor maliciously.

Each and every time he had to clean after you, carry your things around and put up with your whims and spoiled bitch tantrums. Insults, degrading words, and even objects were shoot his way by you any time of the day for any random reason. No other family member of his was treated as poorly as him, and no one knew why you picked on him. But he put up with all of it from birth until he turned fifteen.

Seokjin was a nice kid, but he always had a short temper, and each time it was more and more difficult to contain himself around you and your shit attitude. He tried, tried, tried but one awful day, you were in a bad humor and went to punch your favorite sandbag – him – who was in a worse humor.

That one time, you were both teens and full of hormones, each one dealing with their own teenage problems. You hated all you had to do to be better than your brother, please your parents and gain a second of their precious attention; Seokjin hated you and how he was chained to you to be your slave for God knows how long. You made his life miserable, always reminding him how worthless and stupid he was, how useless for society he was since he was so damn poor and dumb. You had said to him once – after sniffing a little crush on you from his part – that you could never give him a chance no matter how hot he gets because he would always be the same pathetic, useless bastard good for nothing but cleaning her shit; and that was exactly what he was remembering while washing your dishes when you came running to him at the scream of ‘you piece of shit!’. A crystal glass flew your way, followed by a plate, another glass and a ‘shut the fuck up for once, stupid bitch!’

After the big scandal you made in front of everybody – your parents, his parents and other employees of the mansion – your father gave Seokjin’s father an ultimatum: the violent little shit that almost hurt their precious girl gets lost before morning or all of them lose their jobs and get wiped out the face of the planet. Needless to say, within an hour, Seokjin was chased out of the residential neighborhood by your father’s thugs.

He wasn’t homeless for long; knowing the people in the business, he was linked by somebody to the same druglord that, years later, employed Namjoon. The old criminal took a liking in him when he saw his thirst for blood, his recklessness, his egocentrism; Seokjin was afraid of nothing now that he decided he wanted revenge and nothing else. So, he learned the ways, the ins and outs, and soon enough he befriended Namjoon, forming an alliance with him to overthrow the old drug master and start their own illegal enterprise.

Years working, years scheming, both with very different motivations but the same target: you.

…

Stirring up from sleep, you were disoriented for a good amount of time. You opened your eyes and set them on the ceiling but didn’t move, feeling soreness taking over your body from your feet to the last hair of your head. When you tried to move your arms and couldn’t was when you remembered where you were, and realized that your hands were tied again. You groaned.

As you were thinking what to do next, a snore interrupted your train of thought. At your right, Namjoon slept soundly on his back, snoring from time to time. At your left, Seokjin slept on his side with a frown on his pretty features – and both assholes had their sweats on and let you stark naked. Was it that they trust you enough to sleep with you or they were just dumb? Though, you were tied up, really sore, naked, and unarmed, so you weren’t exactly a threat.

Moving as little as you were capable while depleted of energy and having your hands literally tied, you sat yourself against the headboard and waited until the men woke up.

Did they really mean it when they said they wanted to make you pregnant? Had they read your mind? Because that was exactly what you had in mind.

After years watching your father wreak havoc everywhere he went, you realized his method wasn’t the most efficient always. Murdering the enemy to take their place? That’s how you conquered kingdoms in the Medieval Era, but not in the modern day; not when your enemy was as elusive and as informed as you. The many ‘surprise attacks’ your father orchestrated failed miserably, resulting in many of his men killed and his enemies to declare revenge against him. That was how your family was losing all its former power and glory, how you were losing money and influence. But you were smarted than that.

“Look who just woke up.” Seokjin groaned once he heard your voice, hosting a frown even before opening his eyes fully. “Prince Charming, the father of my child.”

“You’re fucking insane” the man muttered, sitting on the bed and looking at you in disbelief. “Aren’t you even the littlest bit worried about being held captive and forced to give birth? I can’t fucking believe you.”

“I told you there was no one like me.” You grinned proudly at him. “Besides, you’re hot enough to not ruin my good genes, so maybe I’ll give you a chance for the sake of my linage.” You expected him to tell you to shut up or something along the lines but it was radio silent. You saw Seokjin’s face transform in a second; his previous grimace turned in a stoic seriousness and he looked at you dead in the eye, with the coldest stare anyone has ever directed your way. His reaction did spark a little worry in you.

“What did you just say?” he asked in a mutter while taking hold of your arm, gripping it hard.

“Hey, this isn’t –”

“What did you just say – give me a chance?” he repeated with the same neutral tone through clenched teeth.

“Okay, chill, I’ll resist and kick and scream or whatever, no need to –” He interrupted you by pulling you close to his face, which sported a lethal scowl. His clutch on your arm tightened to the point you were sure it would bruise, but you were pretty shocked by the change in his whole persona to react accordingly.

“You don’t know who I am? You still don’t know who the fuck I am?”

“A fucking Kim? I don’t know what you want me to say, dude.”

“Fucking bitch! After all you fucking did to me!” the man yelled on your face, now shaking you aggressively. You refrained yourself from yelping and showing signs of fear, but the reality was that, this time, he was genuinely scaring you. What was he on? You hadn’t known him personally until that night. What could you had possibly done to him?

Namjoon woke up from all the scandal his brother was making; however, instead of being surprised and maybe even stop him, he just sat there rubbing his eyes, watching the scene unfold with a frown. Immutable, he saw how Seokjin left your arm alone and went for your hair, using it as leverage to make you stand on your knees when he stood up from the bed.

“I’m Kim Seokjin, that name doesn’t ring a bell?” The sting on your scalp made you groan but that wasn’t the answer Seokjin was looking for. “Answer me!” he demanded. Disoriented, you shook your head no, making him scoff. “Of course, it doesn’t. You made my life a fucking nightmare but you didn’t even bother to remember my name.”

“Man, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about –” And it was the truth. You didn’t have a clue of what he was accusing you of. You were far from an angel, that’s for sure; you had made many people suffer and turned many lives into a living hell, but Seokjin’s? You would remember fucking up his life. You would definitely remember a man like him.

“It’s so cruel that you don’t remember him, baby” Namjoon added calmly while lounging there on the bed, watching you like he was on the beach just admiring the waves of the sea –so unfazed by his brother’s outburst. It can’t be that serious, you thought. “He was that kid with glasses that worked in your house. You know, the one you kept fucking over? Your pet or whatever.” Your clueless face was the last straw for Seokjin, who threw you onto the bed with force. You grumbled when all your weight fell on your hands at your back but none of them cared. Your scalp still burned from Seokjin’s strong hold.

“I’ll make you remember me, stupid bitch” he promised through clenched teeth as his hands tugged brutishly the waistband of his sweatpants. Maybe it was the good shaking Seokjin gave you and the following toss, maybe it was the insult, but suddenly a light bulb went on in your head and you recalled who the man had been in your life.

“Wait, you’re that whiny bitch that almost kill me.” The older Kim clenched his jaw and pulled your body by the legs to his own standing in the side of the bed. You scoffed, putting all pieces together at last. “That’s the reason why I’m here? Seriously? It’s been more than ten years already, man, just get over it.” Now that you knew what was going on, it didn’t even surprise you when he took hold of your face abruptly. It was always so funny to you just how men would turn into villains because a girl was mean to them when they were twelve. “Wait, wait, let me be the bigger person here: I’m sorry, okay? I had always been a spoiled bitch and all that, but who could have taught me manners in that house? I was raised by literal criminals.”

“I couldn’t care less for your fucking reasons; you were more than a bitch back then and are a nuisance in the present. I should have busted your head open that night.” Albeit his menacing words, you didn’t perceive the threatening energy they should deliver. If anything, Seokjin seemed annoyed by his revenge. Reasonable, you thought, he had stretched it this long it, it’s no longer fun.

“Well, as I said before, just kill me now and finish with your fourteen or fifteen-years-old vendetta.”

“I promised Namjoon he would have you.” Still immobilized by Seokjin’s hand, you looked at the mentioned man by the corner of your eye; he gave you a wink and a smirk. That… you didn’t mind that. “And, as I said before, killing you would be the easy way out. You have to go through what I did and pay with your body.” A spark warmed your insides when his unoccupied hand cupped your breast – however, you still had a deal to seal.

“As tempting as a life being your sex slave sounds, I have other plans.” Disregarding you completely, the older brother started kneading your breasts with both hands. Namjoon joined him taking you by the armpits and yanking you up the mattress into a sitting position against his chest. “You said I was a nuisance, why?” A miscommunication happened between the brothers, because, while Seokjin remained silent with the intention of ignoring you so you would eventually shut up and know your place, Namjoon, who liked you, spoke up.

“You’re too strong. Your pussy has some kind of magic that makes men be loyal to death to you. The most powerful won’t let go.”

“Goddamn, Namjoon. Why are you telling her that?”

“She’s not going anywhere, hyung, this information is useless now. Besides, I’m wifing her and it isn’t nice to hide things from my spouse, don’t you think, baby?” You turned your head to give him a tight smile. It was dangerous to trust any of them, but there was at least one snake in that snakes’ pit that wasn’t going to bit you that hard – or even bite you at all, if you were nice enough to it.

“The fuck are you saying, Namjoon? This is not a damn rom-com.” Seokjin looked way too annoyed at his brother’s excuses, and you thought that maybe it was more personal than it seemed, and maybe your hypothetical wedlock had something to do with it – though, it would be illogical to you if a man like Seokjin felt anything but bitterness.

“And so what? My life is not all about crime and money, I want a family too, man.” His brother scoffed and rolled his eyes. Namjoon wasn’t someone that took offense in things that easily; however, he lived for irritating his hyung. “Sorry not everybody is as miserable and unlovable as you. I’m actually a pretty decent guy.”

“What a load of crap.” Seokjin let go of your body and stood up. “You turned me off with all that bullshit. So whatever, I don’t feel like using this bitch now.” Expecting him to turn around and leave the room, you were surprised when he went to the mini bar in the room, poured himself a drink and sat on the sofa in front of the bed.

“What, you’re going to watch us?”

“What else is there to do? I’m not leaving you with this simp. He is likely to let you go with a kiss on the forehead. Fucking cuck.”

“Well, this bitch doesn’t feel like being used now.” You looked briefly to the man behind you, to see if he was on your side even the slightest. He was not.

“You really think you’re calling the shots here, dear?” Seokjin clicked his tongue in disappointment. “We have a lot of training to do with you. Hoseok! Jungkook!” he shouted. In an instant, two men dressed in black entered the room solemnly; not a single emotion on their faces when they saw your naked body. “You will give all of us a show now. Learn that I decide what you do and who watches you doing it.”

When Namjoon secured his strong arm around your waist and descended a hand on your folds, you knew there wasn’t a way out but obeying that bitter asshole.

…

It was very difficult to find someone in the circle Namjoon moved in. He had already experienced three attempts of murder with beautiful women as bait, and an endless number of pseudo-dates with gold diggers. He wasn’t romantic per se, but he did yearn for an authentic, loving relationship, and a big family as a result – and you, that didn’t need his money because you had much more than him nor could kill him while being their hostage, were the very possible solution to his problem.

Namjoon’s desire to have a family wasn’t always as evident as in that point of his life, when he got all the financial power and influence he once dreamed of. Although life was great and all for him, he realized a feeling of hollowness that no amount of money, designer clothes or prostitutes could fill, or even conceal. Not anymore, at least.

He was smart enough to trace that desire back to his lack of a family since birth, and even admitted to himself that he needed tight bonds in the present as much as he had needed them when he was three or fifteen years old. It was not easy, however, to open himself completely to meet someone for an authentic, loving relationship. How to let himself be loved if no one had ever loved him? As uncomfortable as the feeling was, he needed to feel loved. He needed to be cared for. He needed to be important and special to someone for who he was as Namjoon the person, not as Kim Namjoon, Mafia’s Grim Reaper. Plus, he loved Seokjin as a real brother would, but he couldn’t rely entirely on his only friend for the rest of his existence; that man had a life of his own, after all.

Luring you into their mansion, then, was hitting the jackpot for him; even after all those years since he first saw you, he still had the hots for you. Having you under their thumb gave them absolute power over your fortune and business, and gave him the possibility to have a somehow okay relationship with a woman he felt attracted to and who had the same ideals as him. Killing two birds with one stone, right? And he was so sure he knew enough about women to know how to manipulate you so you would love him. It was brilliant, in his humble opinion.

Although, there was one potential problem that became more evident day by day: Seokjin. The man acted all mighty and unbothered, but after all those years working together, Namjoon knew better; he wanted to have you just as much as him, and not in a reversed-roles-revenge situation – which wouldn’t be so bad, if he wasn’t in a permanent childlike tantrum state. They had shared before, they could do it again, but as long as Seokjin denied his attraction to you and disguised it as a physical retribution for all you did to him, he would just be a pain in the ass for you and Namjoon.

…

“You know, when you said I was being held captive, I really thought it was just a figure of speech. Didn’t even cross my mind that you would actually keep me in this room like I’m an animal in a cage.” Exiting the bathroom in a white bathrobe, not at all like the ones in your home, you looked at Namjoon with a frown and crossed arms. He just stared at you innocently while sitting on the bed and folding your clothes.

“Sorry, princess, orders from above. Seokjin is in a power trip since you came so he thinks of you as his prisoner.”

“Aren’t you on his same level? Why are you letting him do as he pleases?” The man’s response was a nonchalant shrug. You cursed under your breath, decided to not lash out on Namjoon because he could be the only way out for you – and you really needed to be out of that room or you would actually go insane. You were sure it had been weeks already. “And what are you doing here, anyways? It’s been days and you keep coming and acting like my maid.”

“I like the domestic roleplaying.”

“So, it isn’t only that Seokjin doesn’t want me out but you also keep me here to play house?” Putting the last of the shirts he bought for you on the pile of clothes he also bought for you, he grinned and made an affirmative sound. “Is it that difficult to find a real girlfriend?” In your head, you meant it in a mocking way, but out loud it ended up sounding like a genuine question.

“You know it is, baby” Namjoon replied matter-of-factly. “You can’t tell me that all men around you are fit for a serious relationship.”

“Why would I want a serious relationship? I was loved enough as a kid, I don’t need that fairytale bullshit.”

“Good for you but some of us didn’t run that luck of having love or a family in our lives.”

“So I have to believe that, because you didn’t have parents, you come and act as if we’re a couple to feel like you’re actually wanted by somebody.”

“Oh no, I am really wanted by lots of people, but what I want is to feel loved by a person I consider my equal.” You snorted. It was the most ridiculous thing you heard a man say.

“Haven’t you tried therapy?”

“Not my thing.”

“Who says I love you, anyways?”

“You will love me. On your own or by Stockholm Syndrome.” You chuckled sardonically at that.

“You know what? You’re right. It’s either falling in love with you or with the viper that is your brother.” Loving them or not was the least of your concerns; first and foremost, you had to look after your enterprises and striking a formal relationship with the Kims was the least risky way. The family business was a kingdom torn apart that could not stand a chance if being put up against the Kim’s mafia.

“You know he is not actually my brother, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“It wouldn’t be illegal to marry us.”

“You really care for legality at this point?” He shrugged once again. “And you think I would marry you?” He got uncharacteristically serious in an instant.

“Look, I’ll be straight with you: I want a family because I didn’t have one. I want a wife and children and all that. It won’t work with just any woman but it could work out with you.”

“Why me?”

“Unlike my brother, I don’t underestimate you at all. I know you’re pretty smart and I know you figured out by now that an arrangement between you and a Kim will be only beneficial for your decaying family.” So, Namjoon was the brain there. You were mildly impressed.

“And for you and your unstable connections, since I’m such a hindrance for both of you and your affairs with powerful people.” He smirked at you and your sharpness. Not a single thing escaped you and he really liked that. “As strong as you appear, not many people trust two nobodies, huh?” Now you were talking. Namjoon clicked his tongue and gave you a real smile.

“You don’t have to say it like that, baby, it hurts my ego.” You shrugged.

“I see which one of you two has the balls.” When he chuckled, you noticed his dimples for the first time. Was it the domestic ambience and the casual sweats-and-shirt attire what made him much more attractive then than when you first met him? Whatever it was, you wanted him to start negotiating or just leave you alone – small talk and thinking about his hotness would not help you get out.

To your dismay, he put his big hands on each side of your hips and pulled you to him until you stood between his open legs, looking up at you with his head tilted and wide eyes. It was so intimate you almost gagged.

“Women like you get on my nerves, but” the man said lowly, holding your gaze. “I really like you, Y/N.”

“That’s my pussy magic.”

“Yes, but I also like you whole, not just when I fuck you.” His thumbs caressed your hips over the robe while he talked, and, for a moment, it felt real; like you had a bond with Namjoon, like he truly meant what he said. Nevertheless, you knew you were just hallucinating as a byproduct of the confinement and Namjoon being somehow nice – and he was taking advantage of that to make you slip, you could tell. Would he succeed? You didn’t think so; it's been days interacting with no one but the Kims, but the only person you knew you could trust was yourself.

“Listen, I understand you’re too deep into this marriage fantasy shit of yours but cut the bullshit, you don’t really know me, bud.” You crossed your arms and looked away in indifference, but by your peripheral view you saw him biting his lip slightly. Was he trying to seduce you now?

“May I get to really know you, then?” His eyes never strayed from yours, barely blinked even, as he leaned his head on your stomach. It wasn’t surprising that a man like Namjoon was so well-versed in being enchanting women; he had such acting skills that he looked genuine in his actions. Like he was really into you. Like he actually wanted you.

“No, you may not. And get out of my space, you creep.” Tittering, he let you push him away from your body. “And stop giggling at everything, it doesn’t make you look friendlier.”

What would he gain from making you trust him, though? It was true that you had more influence than them, and they killing you would not change that. Their best shot was to join forces with you to gain the favor of anyone, but it was vital you showed that you endorsed them. Then, what was he trying with you? You had no idea.

Namjoon got up from the bed slowly, his frame towering over yours and making you look and feel tiny (which your personal trainer could testify you definitively weren’t). A sudden tension raised between you two. His energy shift was accompanied with a hand stroking the side of your neck and a sleazy smirk. By now you got familiar with his changes in behavior, and oh, you were in for a very eventful night.

Sleeping with Kim Namjoon was just as enjoyable as you expected, if not more. The man wasn’t just about his pleasure, no; it seemed he also got off from giving you pleasure, as much as he could for as long as he felt like. Like in that moment, when he caressed your lower lip with his thumb as his lips descended on yours – both his hands also descending on your body. It made you so mad that his sensuous movements stirred some intense heat in your core. From the way your body reacted to him, you were sure he pulled a Pavlov on you.

“I’m telling you, sweetheart, you will love me.” In a swift motion, his strong arms hooked under your thighs and he picked you up roughly like you weighted nothing, walking towards the nearest wall to slam you against it. You yelped and cursed at him. Namjoon just laughed. “Are you sure you don’t love me already?” Your poorly tied bathrobe opened and exposed your naked form to the man’s eyes, who always enjoyed the sight and didn’t miss the chance to thrust up his clothed crotch into your bare pussy.

“Fuck you, asshole” you gasped, but didn’t fight him when he buried his head on your cleavage, making a path of kisses towards your left breast.

Namjoon took your nipple between his lips, sucking lightly and stimulating it with kitten-licks, but before a single moan left your mouth, the door was whipped open and Seokjin strutted into the room. If he was the least surprised from finding his brother feasting on your chest, he didn’t show it; he just looked at you smugly. He seemed in a much better mood than the last time you saw him:.

>> The last time he went to your room he was in a rage fit. You didn’t know but that day he tried bribing a congressman that was close to your father, who refused to switch sides and go against your family – the tenth failed attempt of turning people against you in the week. He was really mad and so he went to your room to fuck you and rough as punishment for existing and to let out off steam – which resulted counterproductive, because one, you actually enjoyed the whole thing, and two, as soon as he came, you started nagging at him to let you out of captivity. It was his last straw that day; with only his briefs on, he stomped out slamming the door behind him. Then, it was only Namjoon visiting you daily.

“I have great news for all of us” Seokjin began, standing less than a meter away from his brother and you. Uncomfortably close. “Please, carry on and don’t mind me, just listen.” The younger man ignored his brother completely, focused on sucking a hickey on the tender flesh of your breast. Closing your eyes at the pleasing sensation, you weren’t able to see Seokjin arch an eyebrow and take your jaw harshly, so you would actually pay attention to him. The biggest of smiles adorned his face when your eyes opened. “Your brother gave up, so daddy is planning on giving everything to you.”

“What?!” you gasped when Namjoon bit your nipple hard, jerking away from the other man’s grasp. Goosebumps raised on your arms from the stimulation – but as the information of your family sank in, your heart raced faster.

“Well, I assisted him to give up on life with a bullet to the head and convinced your father with a punch on the nose, but now everything is lawfully yours, and so lawfully mine too” he added with a proud tilt in his voice. Taking everything from your family was all he had wanted for many, many years; taking revenge on you was on a close second place, and killing your father would’ve been the cherry on top – however, that would only make you a more insufferable bitch than you were already.

Getting rid of your useless brother, though, was favorable for them and a way to get on your good side.

Your response was to throw your head back, groaning as Namjoon rutted his growing bulge roughly against your now leaking core. Having your legs spread and perched on the man’s hips made your folds part and expose your clit to the harsh friction of his sweats whenever he moved, and to the air when he withdrew. His wet tongue ran up your chest to your throat once more and nibbled his way to the tender spot under your ear to abuse the flesh there. You squealed high-pitched, chills running all over your body and ending up on your pussy. Pants filled the room and Seokjin was completely forgotten, as Namjoon increased the speed of his shallow thrusts and grinded hard to make you whimper; which the older man didn’t like.

Taking hold of your hair from the roots, he pulled back and turned you to face him.

“I did this for you, bitch, can you show a little gratitude?” he grunted through clenched teeth. You just looked at him through heavy lidded eyes, conscious of what he was saying but deciding to disregard him and his alleged altruism in favor of focusing in Namjoon taking his cock out and rubbing its head on your folds. Once again, Seokjin was left out of the bubble of intimacy Namjoon and you had inadvertently built.

How could you keep disregarding him as if he was a mere dirty rag? Hadn’t you learned to respect him in the slightest in all that time?

Seokjin wasn’t as dumb as everybody thought – he realized instantly what were the emotions that invaded him in that moment. Anger – and envy and jealousy. His masochistic side had taken over his whole self and made him want the very same woman que hated the most. What was it with needing to posses the one person you despised and who despised you back? He would never know and he didn’t want to. All he knew was that it was impossible to keep denying how his carnal desires had evolved into something more.

“I’m talking to you!” he yelled before taking your arm and yanking you with such force that you fell from Namjoon’s arms straight to the floor at Seokjin’s feet. Then, he took you by the hair, pulling you up to land on the bed, tightening more and more his grip on your scalp. Bewildered by the sudden violence, you could only look at him and notice his very read face and how the vein in his neck was about to explode. “Look at me when I talk to you, you stupid useless whore!”

“Seokjin, fuck! Calm the fuck down, man!” Even Namjoon was taken aback by the vicious reaction and didn’t know what to do. His brother had a really bad temper, yes, but since when he let himself go so wildly around you?

“All I have done since you came and you keep being a fucking bitch to me like you had always been, shit!” Seokjin kept yelling on your face until Namjoon pulled him away. Your scalp burned like never before.

You couldn’t discern what was really happening: they tussled, yelled at each other things you couldn’t understand and Namjoon even grabbed his brother by the collar of his shirt menacingly. And then a blow, and another, and another, and another, and blood. Soon enough, the cockfight grabbed the attention of the men that guarded the room and a sea of thugs dressed in black barged into the room to put the brothers apart.

And you?

You feigned fear and walked backwards, away from the fight, until you reached the door. And then you ran.

[ananke-xiii]

My ranking of SPN seasons (based only on their PLOT) pt. 1

Okay so I've finally watched all 15 seasons of Supernatural and, I must say, what a journey!

The show has releaved itself to be a pleasant surprise, I've learned a lot thanks to it. I must confess that I had strong prejudices against it and had been avoiding it all these years because I thought it was... well, tbh not worthy.

Of course, since now I am here writing about it, it's useless to say that I was wrong. It's not the perfect show, sometimes it's not even a good show, but for sure it's an enjoyable, interesting and exciting show.

The following ranking is based solely on the plot (and subplot) of each seasons and my personal opinion about it.

15. Season 14: Frankly, I don't know what to say about this season, LOL. There is no real plot. We are led to believe that the story will revolve around Dean being possessed by Michael, okay. Basically Michael!Dean from the AU goes to Earth 1 to create an army of monsters (?) but then says bye bye to Dean and leaves (??), but oh wait, no, he re-possesses him (???), and then the army disappears (???) and then he gets trapped in Dean's mind and then he posseses Rowena (???????????). In the mean time, Jack is sick, dies, gets rescued by Castiel who makes a crazy deal with The Empty, then kinda goes crazy and starts killing angels (?????) and then gets killed by God. He also accidentally kills Mary Winchester (???????) in the process. I dont' get it, okay? Maybe it's just me! At any rate, we discover that Michael can possess whoever he wants since he easily changes his vessel without consent multiple times. This fact alone contradicts the whole of season 5 (Dean is the chosen one, the one and only Michael's vessel, hello writers?). Finally, the whole Nick/Lucifer thing. I get it, Mark Pellegrino was GREAT as Lucifer, I loved him, I wanted to see more of him. But his subplot was nonsense and meh. So, yes, the plot was bad. Reeeeeal bad.

14. Season 15: One of the the fun things about Supernatural is, for me, the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Throughout the whole series we have continuous meta incursions and I find that extremely interesting. However, I think that with the final season they went too far. The plot (kiling the manipulative and frankly insufferable God) is stimulating enough until the episode named "The Trap". After that, I felt like the writers didn't know how to fill the remaining episodes until the end and just wasted half of the show on basically nothing really noteworthy. Also, one could totally see that the main worry was not the plot but trying to tie all loose ends off. It was unsuccessful. I would have preferred a well-executed plot rather than a plot that aimed at"filling in" all the gaps of a 15-year-old TV show (read: it's almost impossible, also unnecessary). The final episode was just bad, like really really bad. The plot was resolved by episode 19, so the last episode really felt like something made to end the show forever, kill everyone off and never talk about them anymore. It didn't make any sense at all.

13. Season 7: I didn't hate season 7 per se, but the plot was not great. Like season 15, the season starts off strong with the main event but then it drags itself out until the end. There's no meat in between. The gist is to kill the Leviathans, the subplot is Sam's confronting Lucifer's mental abuse. The most interesting stuff (aka the introduction of the Word of God) happens around the last 3 episodes. This is one of those seasons that are needed to "connect" different points in the myth-arc, however it was not done brilliantly. I felt like Bobby's death was not necessary to the events, it was poorly done for emotional sake. The"Dick jokes" are funny at first, then they are tiresome. After a while I couldn't take the characters seriously, it was all one big dick joke after another, please stop. At the end, we find out that the whole subplot was utterly useless: Castiel shifts the Sam's mental problem from Sam's mind to his, goes crazy in exchange, ultimately to be cured once he's in Purgatory. I'm sorry, what? Also: the Leviathans (the close-to unkillable monsters the heroes have been fighting for the whole series) become just "regular monsters" and that's it. I'm sorry, WHAT?!

12. Season 3: This season contains arguably some of the best episodes of the whole show. The 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America Strike affected the way the plot was planned (I presume) but I think it was for good. As a result, the plot is clean, simple, easy: the heroes need to rescue Deam from the demonic deal he has made. I like when there's a sort of "deadline" in the plot, it keeps things interesing for me. That's it, that's the plot. There's no subplot either. So why this low in the ranking? WELL. The first half of the show made me very uncomfortable. The jokes sounded very, very problematic and I had a very hard time finishing the episodes. Now I know this has nothing to do with the plot, but hey. It made me feel uneasy and the ranking is mine so ranking n. 12 it is!

11. Season 6: I appreciated the writers' attempt with this season. Basically, both the plot and the two main subplots make zero to no sense until the end, when we discover "the truth". As a matter of fact, until episode 19 we don't really understand what's going on. The plot seems to be the hunting of the Alphas and, eventually, of the Mother of them all: Eve. One subplot seems to be a civil war in Heaven, although we are only told about it and never see anything. The other subplots is Sam being soulless + the fact that now he's been hunting with his resurrected grandfather who, in turn, was resurrected by Crowley and now works under him (LOL). For the plot and the first subplot to make sense the missing link is this: Castiel and Crowley have been pulling the strings all along without the heroes' knowing. For the subplot... well, for the subplot (Sam being soulless), too LOL. Cas and Crowley are having an "affair of sorts" and plan to open the door to Purgatory to take souls from there and use them as... energy? Yeaaah. I liked the "whoaa I didn't see it coming" factor. HOWEVER, for it to REALLY make sense one needs to acknowledge Cas and Crowley relationship. Like, seriously, the reason why everything starts to go wrong (and interesting) is because Dean feels "betrayed" by Cas. Which makes zero sense. But I digress. What I want to say is that the turning point of the plot is understated unless you get the "romantic" implications. It's left to the audience to get it but, honestly, I didn't get it at first so I didn't get why the characters were so angry at Cas and why Cas didn't tell Dean about his affair with Crowley. Then when you get it, you get it but anyway the plot is not the best the show has to offer.

[divineerdrick]

Warhammer 40,000 Balance Changes for December 11, 2024: Genestealer Cults

Yeah . . . I was afraid of this. This is one of my factions, and even I thought they got too much last time. While they can be swingy, they're still really good. And when you consider how skilled and dedicated their player base is, the results speak for themselves. Even their detachments are all doing well, with Host of Ascension probably the best one and Biosantic Broodsurge taking home the most trophies. The only detachment no one is taking is Brood Brothers.

Most of their Datasheets are seeing play too, though that's not really saying much considering the size of their Codex. Genestealers, Ridgerunners, and flamer Acolytes seem to be the most seen units.

And, um, yeah . . . There's a lot here. But before we get to it, let's check our detachments. Tunnel Crawlers is probably going to need a rewrite. We'll see if they do anything here. But now let's get to the big one.

Cult Ambush now grants you points you can use to bring back your units. You start with 6 at Incursion, and get 4 more for each further 1000 pts. So that's 10 in a 2000 point game.

Any unit you want to bring back costs a certain amount of these points. Going off the old MFM for now, this averages out to around 30 pts per token. We can check back on this when we get to the MFM and get more specific, but I am live blogging my thoughts and reactions here. So right now, that's 300 points of models you get to bring back.

This is an absolute gutting of Cult Ambush. The GSC armies I looked at run about 1500 points of these units. Even ignoring the +1 to Cult Ambush in the first two turns, and the fact you can bring back a unit multiple times, that's 500 points coming back on average. Now if you're running MSU, that's still quite a few units you get to bring back. It's up to 5 if you only use this on MSU Hybrids. Endless Swarm would kill for this. Though Endless Swarm will kill for any biomass, so that's not saying much. The good news is that it should be much easier to balance GSC around this. And these numbers can also be changed if players are constantly spamming a unit or something is never being used. For now, let's keep going.

They spell out how you add the unit to your army now, including that One Shot weapons haven't been fired. And they now also specify that Cult Ambush is a type of Strategic Reserves. So rules that apply specifically to Strat Reserves, and not just Reserves, affect Cult Ambush. Further, although you can't target Cult Ambush with Rapid Ingress, you can now use normal Strat Reserve rules to setup the unit, which would include using Deep Strike. It also specifies how big a Cult Ambush marker should be.

Tunnel Crawlers no longer cares about Battleline units. It's just a flat 6” Deep Strike. We then get some Detachment specific changes.

Ah! We're getting more changes to rules that provide bonuses to OC. GW is strengthening Battle-shock. I'm surprised they didn't just make a flat statement at the beginning of the Dataslate. Outlander Claw now only gets +1 OC instead of double. We also see that new wording again for sticky objectives.

Xenocreed's Deeds That Speak to the Masses enhancement has been updated for the new rules, and now just grants a flat 2 additional Resurgence points. Demo charges have had their range buffed to 8”. Finally the Kelermorph has had the range of its reactive move brought in line to 9”.

Despite all these changes, GSC hasn't received any Codex errata or FAQ updates. I'm guessing these are massive enough they'll have to wait and see what happens. And the MFM just hits two of the most taken units. The Abominant goes up 20 pts, which definitely hurts, while Ridgerunners go up 10 pts each. Both of these are relevant units. So this is a triple nerf, but possibly not as bad as Sisters got.

It's still going to hurt a lot! You'll have to be very careful with your trades and positioning now. Remember, GSC units are balanced around Cult Ambush. They don't really take damage or deal damage. So while you now know when you'll get your units back, you'll still need to be careful. Still, GSC players are extremely skilled and resourceful. It's possible they could make it work.

[taudad]

Poll Time!!

I have 185 pts I’m undecided on for my 1000 pt list and am looking for some input. Here are the current options I’m considering:

1) Riptide Battlesuit: A significant number of shots on a pretty durable body. Plus it serves as a good tanking unit and Overwatch target

2) Sky Ray Gunship: This significantly ups my Seeker Missile output and provides an extra source of Markerlights, while still allowing for 55pts to put into a Kroot Carnivore squad or an enhancement for my Ethereal

3) Broadside Battlesuit: I only have the one and I’m open to testing it as a heavy support option, but my biggest concern is it’s lack of durability as an individual model. However, it does leave me quite a lot of extra wiggle room at just 90 pts

4) Pathfinders + Darkstrider: I’ve been looking for an opportunity to field this combo ever since I painted up my Darkstrider. It provides a significant amount of firepower and 2 different Markerlights, but it is a relatively fragile unit and doesn’t typically last till turn 3

You can find my current list below the poll if you’re interested

Thanks Everyone!

Ko’Shi Cadre (815 Points)

T’au Empire

Kauyon

Incursion (1000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit (115 Points)

• Warlord

• 1x Battlesuit fists

1x Marker Drone

2x Missile pod

1x Plasma rifle

1x Shield Drone

1x Shield Generator

• Enhancements: Exemplar of the Kauyon

Ethereal (50 Points)

• 1x Gun Drone

1x Honour stave

1x Hover Drone

1x Shield Drone

BATTLELINE

Strike Team (80 Points)

• 1x Support turret missile system

• 1x Fire Warrior Shas’ui

• 1x Close combat weapon

1x Guardian Drone

1x Pulse pistol

1x Pulse rifle

1x Shield Drone

• 9x Fire Warrior

• 9x Close combat weapon

9x Pulse pistol

9x Pulse rifle

OTHER DATASHEETS

Crisis Battlesuits (180 Points)

• 1x Crisis Shas’vre

• 1x Battlesuit fists

1x Cyclic ion blaster

1x Missile pod

1x Plasma rifle

2x Shield Drone

1x Weapon Support System

• 2x Crisis Shas’ui

• 1x Battlesuit Support System

2x Battlesuit fists

1x Cyclic ion blaster

3x Missile pod

2x Plasma rifle

4x Shield Drone

1x Shield Generator

Ghostkeel Battlesuit (160 Points)

• 1x Battlesuit Support System

1x Cyclic ion raker

1x Ghostkeel fists

1x Twin T’au flamer

Piranha (55 Points)

• 1x Armoured hull

1x Piranha fusion blaster

2x Seeker missile

2x Twin pulse carbine

Piranha (55 Points)

• 1x Armoured hull

1x Piranha burst cannon

2x Seeker missile

2x Twin pulse carbine

Stealth Battlesuits (60 Points)

• 1x Stealth Shas’vre

• 1x Battlesuit Support System

1x Battlesuit fists

1x Burst cannon

1x Gun Drone

1x Homing Beacon

1x Marker Drone

• 2x Stealth Shas’ui

• 2x Battlesuit fists

1x Burst cannon

1x Fusion blaster

Stealth Battlesuits (60 Points)

• 1x Stealth Shas’vre

• 1x Battlesuit Support System

1x Battlesuit fists

1x Fusion blaster

1x Gun Drone

1x Homing Beacon

1x Marker Drone

• 2x Stealth Shas’ui

• 2x Battlesuit fists

2x Burst cannon

[night-gay]

Into the Anthill pt 53 - Age of Ultron

Hank is in barely any of this story, but he's undoubtedly the most pivotal character since the fate of the world depended on whether or not Wolverine and the Invisible Woman could stop him from creating Ultron (spoiler alert: they could but it just made a different inescapable apocalypse). My major takeaways from this were:

Earth-616 could not survive without Hank.

Narratively, we've lost any chance of him ever being more than 'the man who created Ultron.'

Hank's got even more collateral damage on his record now, since this time travel starts the domino effect that kills Earth -1610

Not a great time to be Hank Pym. To be fair though, that can be said of a lot of his life.

🐜🐜🐜

Age of Ultron vol 1 #6, 9-10, 10AI

After years of scheming and evolving Ultron was able to realize his goal and wiped out nearly all life on Earth. The remaining heroes discovered that he was enacting this plan from the future using Vision as a conduit so they made their way to Nick Fury's hideout in the Savage Land to regroup. While Fury, Cap, And Iron Man led a team into the future using one of Doom's time platforms, Wolverine headed to the past to prevent the apocalypse the only way he knew how: by killing Hank Pym.

Logan (and Sue Storm who snuck along to keep an eye on him) tracked down Hank, who had been studying the Dragon Man's body and theorizing that he could create a true A.I. with this breakthrough. Logan attacked him and Sue briefly interfered, but with no other way to spare her family from the fate they suffered at Ultron's hands she ultimately stood down. They returned to the present to see how much had changed, noticing immediately that the Savage Land has become an alien ship graveyard, the site of this timeline's Kree/Skull War. This Earth's heroes had apparently been unable to keep it offworld.

In this new timeline Janet van Dyne was Captain Marvel, Scott Summers was Cable, and The Defenders were the world's premiere heroic team. Thor abandoned Earth after Latveria and Asgard went to war and Iron Man's forces were the only thing stopping Morgan le Fay from conquering the world. And when her forces arrived the heroes were unable to stop her, leading to a new-but-different apocalypse. Logan jumped back again to stop himself and the two Logans worked with Hank and Sue to come up with a better plan.

Hank would still have to create Ultron, but this time with a time-release virus programmed in that Hank could trigger just before this apocalypse unfolded. To keep Ultron from discovering the plan, Hank's memory of it was wiped and a message from his past self was recorded to teach present-day Hank how to follow through when the time came. The plan succeeded and Ultron was (for real this time) stopped for good. However, the repeated abuse to the time-space continuum created the incursion that would eventually destroy Earth-1610.

[chanfictions]

Count - Pt. 5

Part 1 - Bonus Scene - Part 2 - Special Episode: Red - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Special Episode: Nightmares - Part 6 - Part 7 - Special Episode: Sick Day - Part 8 - Special Episode: Nightmares Pt. 2

18+ Content! MINORS, DNI.

Kakuzu x Reader, Hidan x Reader

Sensory deprivation, mind games, Kakuzu the Brat Tamer/Breaker, size kink if you squint, Daddy kink if you really squint, degradation-ish, punishments/funishments, flogging, sadism/masochism, overstimulation, dacryphilia, double penetration, anal, breath play, multiple orgasms, also some aftercare and fluff at the end.

7.2k

"Hey, Kakuzu, wanna go for a high score?"

With Deidara still out getting himself into who knows what kind of trouble with Tobi, you had astonishingly little to do in the absence of your accident prone, palm-tonguey nemesis. On top of that, Hidan and Kakuzu had been absent for weeks, which meant you were dreadfully bored, and boredom was dangerous for a mischief-loving miscreant such as yourself.

As you sauntered your way down the hall, drinking some hellish concoction of Hidan's through a crazy straw, you peered into a room you frequented -- Kakuzu's. Curiously, the old grouch was nowhere in sight, which you found surprising, considering he and Hidan were definitely back from their last mission. The high octane liquor you were enjoying was evidence of that. Snickering to yourself as you spotted a stray length of rope peeking out from a drawer, you wondered what it might take today to push Kakuzu's buttons. With another loud slurp, you tilted your head. There was something else sticking out from that drawer, which was curiously un-Kakuzu-like. He never left things looking so unkempt. Unable to see from your vantage point in the doorway, you peered around for lurking Kakuzus before padding into his room to investigate. Closer inspection revealed that the other object was a little slice of leather.

Just as you reached out to touch it, a large palm snapped around your wrist, spinning you around by it and pinning you against the dresser with a loud snarl. The panty-soaking presence that was Kakuzu had seemingly materialized behind you. Wide-eyed, you squeaked in surprise, nearly dropping your drink as you braced yourself against the chest of drawers now digging into your back. It never ceased to amaze you how quietly he was able to move.

"Do you make a habit of sneaking around other people's rooms when they aren't here?" He growled from behind his mask, leaning in close enough that you could feel the heat of his breath through that fabric, taking your drink from you and setting it down atop the surface.

"Only when I'm really bored," you replied with a cheeky smile, catching your bottom lip between your teeth. Oh boy, did you ever know you were in trouble, and you were just loving it. In the weeks they had been away, you had been sorely missing the romps that left you a drooling, incoherent mess. Heated anticipation pooled in your belly as the thought of him absolutely wrecking you for this incursion into his space bounced around in your twisted little head.

You could almost see the wicked smirk spreading across Kakuzu's lips. The corners of his eyes crinkled as those jade orbs zeroed in on you. "I just got back from an incredibly irritating mission with Hidan, and you think it's going to be a fun game to push my buttons because you're bored?"

"I'm not known for my wise decision making," you giggled, reaching up to give Kakuzu's nose a boop. "Daddy."

Threads shot out from his forearm, snatching your hand before you could go through with the sacrilege of booping his nose while his hand clamped around your throat. "Had you been a good little girl and waited, you would have found out later that Hidan brought back a little present for you, and it is in that drawer. But now, it looks like I'm going to have to punish you first."

Masking your excitement proved to be immensely difficult. A choked, lusty whine rolled into bubbling laughter around the pressure around your neck that just set your body on fire. Your eyes rolled back in your head for a moment. You missed this. Feeling the heat from Kakuzu's body radiating through his clothes and the ridge of every bulging muscle that pressed into your body was just electrifying. His thigh was now firmly nestled between your legs, creating just enough friction to be a horrible tease. "Define punish," you grinned, tonguing your teeth with a wild look in your eyes.

Kakuzu growled, threads winding more tightly around your wrist as more slithered out from the seam in his arm and took the place of his rough hand around your throat as well as the other that held your other wrist. Doing that just seemed to excite you more. Goddamn little masochist, he thought with a hidden sneer. Punishing you required a bit of creativity, as pain alone would be nothing but fun for you. With a sharp yank, he pulled you away from the dresser, caging you against his chest with his arm in order to open the drawer against which you were previously leaning. You lost yourself for a moment, the heat of his body, the pressure from the powerful arm around your back, and the familiar scent of sandalwood consuming your senses made you briefly forget the can of worms you just opened by taunting him. His free hand dug blindly for several long lengths of rope, which he dropped to the floor beside you with a heavy thud. "Strip," he snarled lowly in your ear as he released you from your temporary bindings.

A shiver raced down your spine and settled firmly in your belly with the twisting, needy heat that was steadily building between your legs. Mission, accomplished. Kakuzu's buttons had been thoroughly pressed, and the intensity pulsing from his body was seriously compromising your resolve. Your eyes darted behind him briefly, searching for your extra source of confidence that came in the form of Hidan, though his partner was nowhere to be seen.

A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest as he gripped your chin to point your gaze up at him and swiped his thumb across your lower lip. "What's the matter, girl? Lost your nerve?"

Twisting your face and making your best attempt at narrowing your eyes at him, you clicked your tongue against your teeth, initiating the staring contest you would inevitably lose. Your heart hammered in your chest as you weighed your options. While the bratty masochist chattering in your ear wanted nothing more than to taunt him further, you knew better. Too much snark would lead to him simply ending this little game and leaving you with an empty, unfulfilled ache in your core. Some compliance was necessary, at least for now.

Kakuzu leered down at you, tightening his grip on your face while tendrils taunted you from the seam in his arm and speaking in the low, threatening tone that made your legs quiver with delight. "Don't make me repeat myself."

Kakuzu could break your neck if he wanted to with just a twist of your head. That compounded with the painfully tight grip of his massive hand on your jaw just made the pulsing hunger in your core worse. Your panties were already soaked. It was divine. The snarl in his tone, though, shook you from the glory you were basking in. You drew your shirt over your head and considered flinging it at him briefly, but you were given no such opportunity. The hand at your throat snatched it from you, tossing it atop the dresser next to your forgotten drink along with the rest of your clothes that you swiftly shed.

While Hidan always complained about how long it took, being tied into one of Kakuzu's rope sculptures was one of your favorite parts of these play dates. A content little moan escaped your lips as Kakuzu roughly grabbed you by the hips, standing you precisely below the metal ring from which you would soon be swinging. Low, raspy laughter hummed in your ears as you completely blissed out with each methodical wrap the lengths of rope made around your body. "Do you have any idea what you're in for, little girl?" He growled wickedly, breath fanning your neck as he tightened a knot and gave your entire body a rough yank.

You just giggled and bit your lip, letting your head fall back against him as you slipped into your happy place while he continued crafting the chest and hip harnesses that would soon be supporting you from the ceiling. Every rumbling threat just made you hotter. "Mmmm… nope. Should I be scared?" You inquired in a playfully sarcastic tone, which earned you another crushing grip around your throat.

"Probably," Kakuzu sneered with his mouth directly beside your ear.

Still swelling with a chest full of lusty attitude, you licked your lips and locked eyes with him again. "Your threads don't scare me anymore, Daddy. Dare I say, I might even like them."

Grinning from behind his mask, Kakuzu grasped your chin again with an almost alarmingly light touch. "Do you really think that's the only punishment I have for you?"

"I think you're bluffing," you teased and swayed your hips, pressing your ass against Kakuzu's now obvious arousal.

Snickering at your continued defiance, Kakuzu hoisted you up by your ropes abruptly until you were eye level with him, knocking the wind out of you briefly from the sudden force. "I don't bluff."

Heat crept across your face as jolts of delicious anticipation rattled through your bones and into your core. That frighteningly soft touch and coarse, threatening tone sent waves of goosebumps across your exposed skin. You wound your thighs together for a bit of friction to alleviate the ache of your throbbing pussy as you dangled completely off of the ground. "Oh, what else, then?" You goaded in an effort to maintain your facade, though it was swiftly cracking under his menacing gaze.

"You'll see," he chuckled lowly. "Or rather, you won't." Suddenly, a swath of darkness obstructed your vision. A thick, delightfully silky cloth covered your eyes and was tied tightly around your head, giving you little ability to scrunch your face enough to see anything at all. More dark, raspy laughter echoed from his chest, and you swung idly in stunned silence, swallowing hard and struggling to collect yourself. He stepped away from you, just far enough that you could no longer feel his movements and circled you like a lion, admiring his not-quite-complete handiwork. "What, no snappy retorts this time?" He sneered in a deep rumble.

A whine got stuck in your throat as you struggled to zero in on where he was standing by sound, but he gave you little time to think, as that taunting laughter seemed to move out of sync with where you thought you heard footsteps. Gusts of air rushed over your skin, giving you the impression of ghosted strikes. It left you gasping in surprise as still, no strike came.

"I can break you without even touching you, little girl," his deep voice hummed in your head.

Gathering all of the courage you had left in your body, you choked out your challenge, masking the tremble in your tone. "Try me."

"You don't know what to do with yourself when there isn't anything to feel," he growled from everywhere at once, the sound seeming to echo off of the walls. Slow footsteps followed out of time with the words, and you found yourself slowly swinging as light pressure was applied to the rope. "You rely so heavily on pain to ground you that feeling nothing is unbearable." The turning of your head was enough to make you spin, disorienting you further. Another confused, lusty shudder rattled your body as phantom sensations haunted your exposed skin. The hints of motion and your inability to trust your senses began forming a knot in your throat. You jumped at the loud snap of leather and gush of air that whizzed next to your face.

Kakuzu actually made you flinch.

"Oh, is the bratty little masochist nervous?" He hissed in your ear, his voice seeming to originate from the inside of your head. Another crack thundered just millimeters from your inner thigh, heightening your intense, needy ache.

You flinched again and your breath caught in your throat. The sound of blood rushing in your ears was deafening. You bit your trembling lip hard enough to draw blood, seeking any sensation to focus on as the taste of iron filled your mouth.

Kakuzu hummed with amusement as he paused directly in front of you. The heat of his breath breezed across your ear as he spoke with that same deep, taunting tone. "Keep that up and I'm going to take sound from you next."

A whimper rattled in your throat as you released your lip from the crushing bite of your teeth. A tiny trickle of blood tumbled down your lip onto your chin.

"Good girl," he grinned from behind his mask, resuming his slow, stalking gait.

You swallowed back the growing lump of anxiety that coiled uncomfortably in your chest, twisting your bound up hands against the ropes above your head to which they were tied. Fuck, Kakuzu was good. Your confident facade had completely crumbled, and you were swiftly coming undone. Clenching your teeth tightly, you stifled a yelp when another phantom strike disturbed the air just beside your ribs. Your body hummed with adrenaline. Releasing the tension in your jaw left you with chattering teeth. Those impossible, silent footsteps of Kakuzu's were maddening. There was no knowing where he was at any given point, even with the quiet hums of mocking laughter and snaps of leather that marked his movements.

He reached over your head and gave your rope another push, sending you on a new, pendulous arc, swinging in soft circles as you spun from the ring above. "Your little superpower is the reason you enjoy pain so much," he continued. "No consequences, no reason to fear injury," he murmured. "You know what to expect. There aren't any surprises. You know them all. Canes, straps, floggers, kunai…" he trailed off with a twisted smirk beneath his mask as he watched your chest rise and fall with hitched breaths, building to what he knew would make you unravel. "Scalpels, even."

"K-kakuzu--" you stammered fearfully with a cracking voice, twisting in your bindings as air rushed across your belly. Your mouth went dry and your heart pounded wildly in your chest. Of course he would bring that up.

"But the last one," he mused, grasping your ropes and halting your motion, drinking in the sight of your absolutely coming undone. "There's fear with that, isn't there, girl?"

The words in your mouth meant to answer him crumbled upon your tongue as you squirmed, a high whine taking their place. All you could do was feebly nod. Terror knotted in your gut. He knew.

"That might make a suitable punishment for you, then," he growled wickedly. "What do you think, lab rat?"

Twisting wildly in your bindings, you furiously shook your head, stammering incoherent pleas as you jerked away from every phantom sensation that ghosted your skin.

Kakuzu had won.

He moved behind you, breaking the long pause of absent contact by pressing a heavy hand just below your sternum and running it slowly upward over the landscape of ropes and knots until it reached your throat, pinning your bound body tightly against his chest and feeling your pulse race beneath his rough fingertips. You couldn't stifle the shriek that bubbled in your throat as he drew a hard, swift line with cold metal from below your navel up to your solar plexus. Thrashing in his grip and kicking at his legs, your senses went haywire. You choked on your own gasping breaths and nearly tapped out when a deep chuckle rumbled through his chest and into your body. Craning his neck down slightly as he coiled himself around you to calm your panicked struggling, he whispered lowly in your ear, "I told you, little girl, I don't bluff."

Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes from beneath your blindfold as the heat of his palm pressing firmly against your stomach replaced the sensation of cold metal digging into your skin. The buzzing adrenaline coursing through your veins rang so many alarm bells in your head that it took a solid ten seconds for you to realize that he hadn't actually drawn any blood.

The sound of another person's sadistic laughter filled your head along with the heavy impacts of slow clapping. "Ooh, Daddy, that was mean."

Hidan. You could feel the rumbling growl in Kakuzu's chest at the use of that name.

"I don't even play the lab rat card, and I'm supposed to be the sadist," he snickered as he stalked in from his observation post near the doorway, the sound of his footfalls marking his approach toward where you were hanging. "Look at how worked up you got her over the hilt of a kunai. She actually thought you had a scalpel."

Kakuzu just snorted, continuing to run his knuckles over the line he had drawn with the blunt metal to erase the lingering sensations the cold left behind while you trembled and struggled to come back down from the ceiling. "Punishment for snooping."

Hidan grinned, leaning in to cup your trembling face with a palm, purring in a mocking tone. "Aw baby, didn't I tell you he's meaner than I am? Look at you. You're a wreck. I bet you've got some tears under that blindfold." His free hand traced along your side, enjoying every ridge and knot the ropes left where they still dug into your skin. "You're just dying for someone to hit you after all of that, aren't you?"

You swallowed audibly with a small nod, still trying to stuff your heart back into your chest where it belonged. Hidan was right on the money, of course. Your skin was buzzing and crawling from the itching teases of feigned strikes thanks to Kakuzu. He had tied the rope harnesses so expertly that even the pressure of your body being suspended in the air like this wasn't enough to scratch your masochistic itch.

Hidan's eyes ignited with a lustful blaze as he dug his nails into your inner thigh. "Maybe I'll even use the little surprise I brought back for you if you beg for it."

That sensation alone after the prolonged nothingness Kakuzu subjected you to was enough to make you groan contently and drop your head back. It was almost instantly grounding and became a singular point of focus. You nearly forgot that Hidan had just been talking to you.

"We're far from finished with you, little girl. It's been a long few weeks," Kakuzu gruffed from behind you.

That's for sure. The two of them were in prime form, working as a team instead of bickering, and they were just evil when they cooperated. Clearly, they had missed these romps just as much as you had. The sadistic aura radiating from both of them indicated as much. You swallowed back the dry lump in your throat, stammering out your plea, "Please hit me and make this crawling feeling stop," your voice cracked as your body trembled with broken resolve. Your request was met with quiet, rumbling laughter as Kakuzu shifted around you, keeping a hand on you as he moved and taking Hidan's place in front of you while his partner stepped away and rifled through a drawer. Kakuzu attached the remaining loops of rope around your thighs, posing you as though you were sitting on a swing, legs splayed apart and arms bound above your head. Always thinking ahead, he kept the remaining lengths of rope to your sides, giving Hidan ample striking space. Peering behind you and seeing Hidan standing ready with his new toy in hand, Kakuzu tapped you under the chin lightly with a knuckle. With a blissful sigh, you dropped your head back again and smiled as you murmured your response. "Green."

The first strike came so hard and fast that you could still taste your last word on your tongue when it landed. The weight of the impact stole the breath from your lungs, leaving you with just enough air to moan a thank you to the sky. You bit your lip when a rough hand snaked around your thigh and rubbed your exposed, dripping cunt. "Fear slut," Kakuzu gruffed in amusement.

You breathed an almost unintelligible maybe as Hidan found a rhythm for his bruising strikes with that flogger, painting the entire side of you that faced him with broken blood vessels while Kakuzu sneered and slowly sunk two thick fingers into your core. It was euphoric. A pathetic mewl rattled in your throat as Kakuzu took hold of your neck with one hand and drove you to the brink of failure with the other, rubbing rough circles on your clit while stretching you out enough to fit a third finger. Every impact of the flogger drove you down onto his hand like a hammer striking a nail, sending waves of rippling pleasure tearing through your body. Your bound legs shook and walls clenched as you struggled against the ropes to no avail. "Fuck, p-please--" you croaked.

Hidan paused for a moment, making eye contact with his partner as a wicked grin stretched across his face. "Hey, Kakuzu, wanna go for a high score?"

Kakuzu hummed in thought, enjoying the near pained look on your face as you struggled to hold back, considering offering you a bit of kindness after his earlier cruelty. "That should be fun," he mused, slowly pumping his fingers into your pulsing heat.

"Fuck," you squeaked, dropping your head back and clenching your jaw.

Kakuzu snickered, withdrawing his fingers from you just for an instant to wind up and give your exposed pussy a hard spank, sending shockwaves rippling through your body. "Count them," he grunted in your ear, thrusting his fingers back into you and grinding the heel of his hand against your slick clit in unison with the next strike from Hidan that definitely bruised your ass.

Your walls clenched and the knot of heat in your belly snapped, leaving you wailing in relief at the ceiling as you cried out a resounding, "One!" You shivered as the waves crashed through your body and relentless heat began to build again, as Kakuzu showed no signs of mercy while you bucked into his hand. The intensity of the strikes at your back increased, leaving delicious, stinging bruises everywhere the strips of leather contacted your skin. You wanted to thank Hidan for procuring such a delightful toy, but you currently lacked the bandwidth to make such a statement, as you swiftly found yourself coming down from one high and being thrown right into another. You grit your teeth with a stifled moan, taking in the sounds of the snapping leather and taunts from the pair as Kakuzu drew you toward another peak with a curl of his fingers.

Two. You heard yourself shriek and laugh wildly, clenching around the digits buried within you in blissful glee as the strikes to your back broke the skin.

Three. Kakuzu murmured soft threats in your ear as he landed another hard smack on your throbbing clit.

Four. You threw your head back and wailed, gushing all over Kakuzu's arm, panting for air like you'd been running for your life.

Five. You couldn't even get the word out properly and struggled in your bindings, seeing stars as tears soaked your blindfold.

The strikes to your flaming back ceased, and the sound of encroaching footsteps filled your head, breaking through the static and scream of blood rushing in your ears. "Fuck, I love it when you make her cry," Hidan purred from behind you, heat radiating from his body into yours as he ran rough palms over the welts and bruises littering your skin.

Kakuzu sneered from behind his mask, trailing hands over your thighs. "And we're only at five."

Struggling to catch your breath, your head came to rest against Hidan's shoulder as he moved in closer, reaching around you to grope your breasts and pinch your pebbled nipples for the delicious whine you inevitably let loose. "I hope you're ready for more, babe," he hummed with a devious smirk. "We still have a score to beat."

You stammered a whimpering reply that vaguely resembled the word "fuck", but even you weren't totally sure what you said.

"You gonna be a good girl and take us both?" Hidan murmured while raking his teeth across your neck and giving your taught buds another squeeze.

You keened into the distracting touch as Kakuzu's fingers dug into your thighs. "Hnnn… yes," you breathed. Sounds of zippers and shuffling clothes hummed in your ears. Two pairs of hands gripped your hips. The hot, broad head of a cock swiped through your soaked folds as Kakuzu's voice buzzed in your head beneath the echo of your own shuddering cries as the fat, dribbling tip of his cock pressed impatiently at your entrance. You tensed with a soft whine, dropping your head back and nearly piercing your lip with your teeth as they impaled you on Kakuzu's cock at an excruciatingly slow pace. Panting and wiggling your hips in protest at the intensity of the stretch, you clawed at the ropes that immobilized your hands in a vain effort to pull yourself back up a bit.

"I fucking love it when you struggle," Hidan growled hungrily into your ear, digging his fingers into your flesh and pressing you down harder onto Kakuzu's immense girth.

"Fuck," Kakuzu groaned lowly as your walls fluttered and clenched around him. Hidan shifted you forward, pressing your face against his cohort's shoulder to give you a brief few moments to adjust while he stepped away for a moment to dig through the drawer of goodies that was off to his right.

You were gasping and breathing heavily once Kakuzu's fat cock was finally fully seated in your core, stammering unintelligibly into the warm, muscular flesh against which your face was buried. Your trembling body was slicked with sweat from the marathon of orgasms you had been chased through. It was already bordering on too much, and your heart thumped wildly in your chest, knowing there was still more to come.

Hidan's intense, magenta eyes gleamed with sadistic glee at the wrecked sight of you as your uneven breaths vibrated through your body and were muffled by his partner's shoulder. He slathered a generous amount of lube over his throbbing arousal before stepping back up to the tangle of ropes suspending you. The heat of his chest melted through your back. A soft, wicked chuckle rumbled in his throat when you moaned at the sting of his body contacting your bruised and broken skin. "I need you to relax for me, babe," he murmured in your ear with a twisted smirk, relishing the sound of your muffled whimpering as he pressed the engorged head of his cock against your puckered hole.

The absolute fullness you began feeling as Hidan slowly eased himself into you was so intense and overwhelming that you nearly forgot to breathe. Taking both of them seemed insurmountable. Every bit of pressure he applied pushed Kakuzu's cock impossibly deeper into your pulsing core. "T-too much -- fuck, I--," you choked out in a broken cry.

Your shaky gasping and tensing body were met with Kakuzu's warm hand on the back of your head and his gravelly voice humming through your entire being. "Breathe."

Hidan groaned, now finally fully buried in your tight ass. "Fuck, she feels so fucking good."

The sensations of them stretching and filling you so completely were so overpowering that your head spun. Every inch of your body was consumed by a delicious ache. A shiver rattled up your spine, and you mewled pathetically as Hidan's hand snaked around the curve of your thigh between your body and Kakuzu's to rub slow circles around your throbbing clit. Your legs trembled and jaw clenched as heat pooled and knotted in your core. Stuttered curses fell from your lips until a wild arch rolled up your back and you wailed skyward, clenching around their shafts in tight, pulsing waves.

Kakuzu grunted, releasing the back of your head and grasping your throat tightly while digging the thick fingers of his other hand into your hip. "Number," he growled.

"S-six," you croaked through the constriction as tears soaked into your blindfold.

A chorus of growls and groans echoed around you as the pair slowly found their rhythm. You found yourself panting and trapped in what almost resembled a tug of war as they possessively gripped your body and ground into your tight little holes, drawing wails and moans from you with every rock and thrust. Teeth sank into your shoulder as you clenched involuntarily again. A hand clamped over your nose and mouth to stifle the deafening banshee's cry that inevitably erupted from your lips when the friction from their motion pushed you over the edge again.

"Seven," Kakuzu counted for you over your muted screaming, driving into you roughly while his partner laughed maniacally next to your cheek.

Unable to breathe around Hidan's grip on your face, you twisted your head in an effort to taste fresh air. Your lungs burned and chest heaved as you yanked on the ropes holding your arms until he finally released you long enough to take a deep inhale. As his hand clamped down again, your eyes rolled back into your head, stars erupting across your vision as Kakuzu gripped your hips and they railed you with a renewed fury. Your legs shook violently and you gushed all over Kakuzu again, screaming hoarsely into Hidan's palm as your head flew back against his shoulder.

"Eight," Hidan grinned, pulling the blindfold down when he allowed you another gulp of air.

You caught a glimpse of Hidan's wild gaze briefly before falling back into your orgasm-drunk abyss. Panting and stuttering when you were allowed air, your head was empty. All that existed was the overpowering sensory input ravaging your nerves. Tears leaked from the corners of your eyes, and a near painful knot of heat twisted in your core as the pace of their dance with you increased. You howled unintelligible obscenities, pulling on your ropes so hard that your body rose up for a moment until the hands gripping your hips pounded you back down again. The resulting crushing tsunami of rippling pulses that raged through every muscle in your body strangled their lengths as you sobbed into the sky.

"Nine," Kakuzu's hand slipped behind your head tilting you forward onto his shoulder to muffle the volume of your fatigued cries. The grips on your body tightened as their motions grew more frantic. The pair seemed to groan in unison as your abused holes clenched and fluttered around them. Neither would last much longer. Their lengths dragged through your shuddering walls, filling you with more pleasure and input than you were able to process.

Your body shook, soaked in sweat and spent as you sucked in fatigued breaths with your forehead on Kakuzu's shoulder. You fumbled over their names, losing syllables as you tried to make sense of the sounds falling from your tongue. "F-fuuck, ple--hease -- so much -- can't--"

"You can do one more for us, right babe?" Hidan cooed.

"D-don't kn-now -- so full," you babbled through tears, feeling that crushing coil building again. "M'on f-fire--" The heat of their bodies pressing against you consumed you. Their arms tightened around you like vices with Kakuzu holding your head firmly down against his shoulder while Hidan took control of your hips, rubbing rough circles on your puffy, engorged, extremely sensitive clit as the ferocious pounding continued.

"Number," Kakuzu's voice rumbled to you, his own breath catching in his throat as he chased his release with your impossibly tight pussy strangling his girth with a crushing grip.

You choked on your own saliva as you sobbed into his chest, your entire body convulsing with the sheer intensity of it all. Words were far out of your reach. You just shook your head as the inhuman sounds flew from your mouth instead of the number he wanted to hear.

That last wave of pulses was more than either of them could take. Their symphony of low growls and litany of curses filled your head as they dug roughly into your body, using you to chase their own release until they painted your insides white, fucking you through those final, fluttering waves. Hidan finally gave your aching clit a break, sliding his hand up your belly before snaking his arm around your waist and groaning into your neck, keeping you firmly pinned between his body and Kakuzu's for a moment as all three of you collectively caught your breath. He slowly slid his shaft from your spent hole, murmuring little praises in response to the whimpers his movement elicited. "That's our good girl. I knew you could handle one more. It's like you were made for us." With a slight smirk playing at his lips, he reached over your head and carefully began untying the knots that held your arms up. Since those ropes weren't actually supporting your weight, freeing them now seemed wise.

With a content groan, Kakuzu eased himself out of you and spilled dribbles of cum down your leg in the process despite your stammered protests over the motion. Completely fucked out of your mind, you thought for a moment that they were just repositioning you. He kept a heavy arm locked around your shaking body, pressing your face against his shoulder with a raspy chuckle and the same reassurance he always had to utter to you after they fucked your soul out of your body. "Relax. You're done."

"Damnit, Kakuzu. Did you have to make these knots so tight?" Hidan grumbled while fidgeting with a lump of rope before finally managing to untie it.

Kakuzu just snorted in response. You hissed when Hidan lowered your arms back down. Your head was still so full of fog that you struggled to process what he was doing. The ache from straining with them above your head for so long was intense. He settled them around Kakuzu's neck since you seemed to have little control over them at the moment.

"Hook--"

Their banter hummed into the background as they worked through the dance of taking you down from the ceiling so that the harnesses could be untied and removed. Dizzy and drunk on the immense high of more orgasms than you had ever had to endure in one go, you just melted against whichever body currently supported you as they shifted you around. Your limbs buzzed and hummed with adrenaline and endorphins, leaving you feeling as though your whole body was vibrating. Even your breaths felt shaky.

The artist behind the mural of knotwork encasing your body took notice of your trembling and uneven breathing once you were settled on his towel-draped lap. He stopped fiddling with the length of rope in his hand to grasp your chin to get your attention and study your expression. "Do I need to cut you out of this again?" His voice still carried that gruff tone, but it lacked its usual bite this time.

You shook your head, leaning into his chest and closing your eyes. "M'okay." You were beat, in every sense of the word. Your back stung and ached with the shifting of the ropes as they were untied. Your arms were still largely useless.

"Was bringing up the lab too much?" He continued that line of questioning while still assessing you, but you just shook your head in response. Kakuzu eyed you intensely for a moment before going back to work, albeit moving a bit more quickly now. The sounds of slipping rope and running water hummed over the steady beat of his hearts as you drifted in your daze, only moving when he shifted you to free lengths of rope from your body. Once you were finally completely untied, he traced his fingertips over the dimples and intents left behind on your skin -- the ghost of the intricate pattern of knots he had painted you with. A satisfied curl pulled at the corner of his masked mouth. It was perfect.

"Alright, water's ready. Let me have the sticky fuck piñata," Hidan called from the open bathroom.

Kakuzu's eyes narrowed in slight annoyance at his partner before slipping his arms around your torso to help you to your feet, snorting with a small laugh when you wobbled like a baby giraffe. "You're going to fall on your face if I let go of you," he goaded.

"Mmnn," you mumbled, leaning heavily against his chest. Finding words required far too much brain power. Arms shuffled you around, and you groaned in protest when Hidan peeled your sticky body away from Kakuzu and hauled you into the bathroom with him. Head still cloudy and unable to focus, all you could really do was lean on him and follow his direction. There was no struggling or contesting the need for a bubble bath this time. The only sound coming from your lips was a soft, pained crackle when the warm water licked your broken skin.

"Yeah, the water always sucks afterward," Hidan mused, settling in behind you and admiring the absolute wreck they had made of you. Calloused palms smoothed over your bruised, broken skin, eliciting whimpers that made him swell with sadistic delight. "Like the new flogger?" He hummed in your ear while running his hands over your thighs.

"Mmhmm," you buzzed back, a soft smile playing at your lips as you let yourself sink into the warmth of the water with Hidan's arms tangled around you. "Good choice."

Hidan couldn't get much else out of you word-wise, as two syllables seemed to be the limit of your brainpower at the moment. Instead, he just enjoyed the quiet, pained sounds you made every time he ran his hands over your bruises, wanting to savor them before they really began to fade. Despite it being a bit painful, that motion almost seemed to be lulling you to sleep. Exhaustion was singing her siren's song for you, and it was so difficult to ignore. You must have dozed off because the next thing you knew, you were being helped out of the water and wrapped tightly in a large towel.

"Sit," Hidan directed while parking you on the closed toilet.

"Clothes?" you mumbled tiredly, leaning into the hands on your shoulders that were keeping you upright as you felt a very real sense of deja vu.

"Already got 'em," Hidan smirked, letting you fold forward over your legs while he dried and dressed himself first. He sat you back up and peeled your towel away to help you into yours when he was finished. Every muscle in your body ached, and your arms were especially difficult to maneuver after how you had been hanging.

"Fuck," you groaned while sticking you legs into shorts.

"Mmm, I love when you make that face," Hidan cooed, grasping your chin and thumbing your cheek with a crooked smile, admiring your adorably pained expression for a moment before getting an arm around your back and guiding you to your feet.

"I can just sleep on the floor," you grumbled, leaning most of your weight into the strong, firm body that was currently keeping you vertical.

Hidan snorted. "No. You know the old grouch has rules about that."

You glanced around, looking for aforementioned grouch. "Where'd he go?"

"Probably to get cleaned up after how much of a mess you made on him," Hidan teased.

You giggled tiredly in agreement. Upon reaching the bed, you flopped forward, sighing happily and laying face down with your legs still hanging off the edge.

"You know, you're just begging me to smack your ass when you lay like that," Hidan teased, groping a bruised cheek to make a point.

"Ow," you grumbled, crawling forward to get the rest of yourself onto the mattress.

"I could go another round if you keep wagging that at me," he hummed deviously.

"Nuh uh," you grunted into the pillow you pulled under your face. "The fuck piñata is broken."

Hidan snickered, sitting down on the edge of the bed and dragging your torso onto his lap. "Broken, eh?" He mused while running his palm up your bruised back with a bit more pressure than necessary.

"Unless you're gonna fuck my face, yeah," you groaned into his leg.

"That an offer?"

You bit his thigh in response.

"Fine, fine," he laughed, lacing his fingers into your hair and giving your scalp a satisfying scratch. You shifted into his hand, curling yourself around his legs and tucking your arms tightly to your chest. "You good?"

"Yeah, just get a little fidgety when'm tired," you mumbled into his leg.

"You're not fidgeting. You're shaking," he commented casually while slowly running his other palm up and down the length of your spine. A pained hiss rushed through your teeth as he rubbed a particularly tender spot, but you found your eyes too heavy to keep open much longer despite the lingering ache.

When the door creaked open to mark Kakuzu's return, you didn't even have it in you to lift your head from its resting place on Hidan's lap. You only cracked an eye open when the bed shifted and thick arms snaked around your body, dragging you from your spot toward the warm, familiar place you usually settled into after intense sessions. "Can Hidan stay too?" You inquired quietly as your face nestled against Kakuzu's arm that you were now wrapped around like it was your pillow.

While letting Hidan of all people spend the night in his bed was one of the last things Kakuzu would normally entertain, a deep rumble of contemplation buzzed in his chest before he finally grunted an answer. "Fine."

"Did you hear that babe? Papazu said we can have a sleepover," Hidan grinned wickedly at his partner while tousling your hair.

You felt the rolling growl build in Kakuzu's chest before he snapped and clocked Hidan with a pillow. "Don't start with me, or I'll hang your disembodied head from the hook in the ceiling for the night."

Hidan cackled, rebuffing the pillow assault with arms shielding his face. "Come on, buddy -- you're gonna hit our little bed warmer with friendly fire."

Snarling, Kakuzu lurched over you to grab Hidan by the throat and threw him down onto the bedding next to you. "If you're going to stay, then shut the hell up and let her sleep."

Still far too amused by this, Hidan laughed and held his hands up in surrender before Kakuzu could go through with any bright ideas about decapitating him. "Okay, okay."

With a crackling hum, you tiredly flopped an arm out and grabbed hold of one of Hidan's before tugging it back toward the tangle you made of your own limbs and Kakuzu's. Silently claiming the appendage for your own, you snuggled yourself down between the two of them with a soft sigh. They shifted slightly around you, quietly rearranging the blanket of strong arms encasing your body while you slowly drifted off to sleep, lulled into a pleasant dreamworld by the quiet thumps of six beating hearts.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, December 14th and Thursday, December 15th

The doorbell rings. Buffy and her mom exchange an inquiring look, wondering whom it could be. Buffy goes to the door and opens it. FAITH: (uncertainly) Hey. BUFFY: Hi! FAITH: Uh, looked like that whole party thing was gonna be kind of a drag. (drops her eyes for an instant) I didn't really have anything... You know. BUFFY: (sincerely) I'm glad you came. FAITH: (smiles) Uh... Here. (hands Buffy gifts)

~~Amends~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Moving Forward by badly_knitted (Willow, Tara, PG)

In Memoriam by apachefirecat (Buffy/Spike, G)

One Reason, Scented for the Holiday, His Reason [3 More Spuffy drabbles] by apachefirecat (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Don't Go by apachefirecat (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Again by MillennialCryBaby (Buffy/Spike, G)

Winter Wonderland by calenlily (Buffy/Angel, G)

It Never Rains in Southern California by NAOA (Wesley, T)

Sir Xander by Baldur (Xander, Cordelia, T)

That Was the Spell by EllieRose101 (Buffy/Spike, T)

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes by cawthraven (Buffy/Spike, E)

Take Me to the Church by SarielLunar (Xander, Supernatural xover, T)

Best Laid Plans: Christmas in the Cascades by Gabriel_Is_My_Guardian_Angel89 (Angel/Spike (Will/Liam), E)

That Was the Spell by EllieRose101 (Buffy/Spike, PG)

House Call by SarielLunar (Xander, Hannibal xover, FR18)

Take Me to the Church by SarielLunar (Xander, Supernatural xover, FR13)

Of Malls and Mistletoe by bookishy (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

You Weren't There by myrabeth (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) complete

The Uses of Mistletoe by Slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Nights Like This - Ch. 6 by ashcrashed (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) complete

[Chaptered Fiction]

the young king sings a song for the lover, the leaver, the lonely alike... - Ch. 1 by pumpkin_berry (Buffy/Faith, T)

Xandertale - Ch. 1 by Xander_dreemurr (Xander, Willow, Buffy, T)

She came back wrong - Ch. 4 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Vacation with a vampire (Sequel to The Sphere) - Part 2 - Ch. 16 by Coraline (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

A Road So Rough - Ch. 5 by cawthraven (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Learning To Be Love's Bitch - Ch. 21 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, R)

Unfavorable Odds - Ch. 11 by bookishy (Buffy/Spike, R)

Off My Rocker - Ch. 8 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, R)

A New Forever - Ch. 1 by Buffyworldbuilder (Buffy, The Originals xover, FR13)

Accidental Dark Lords and Ladies of Sunnydale - Ch. 4 by AnimeRonin (Willow, Xander, multi-xover, FR21)

Xandertale by Frisk (Xander, Undertale xover, FR18)

Dark Days (Mini-Fics) - Ch. 3 by BlueZeroZeroOne (Buffy, Giles, FR18)

Whispers In Pegasus - Ch. 6 by calikocat (Xander, Stargate xover, FR15)

The Nymph's Kiss - Ch. 6 by KyliaQuilor (Non-crossover, Amy Madison/Various women (multi), FR21)

What do you mean I'm Magical Nobility? - Ch. 16 by KnightofTempest (Xander, Harry Potter xover, FR18)

Unfavorable Odds - Ch. 11 by bookishy (Buffy/Spike, R)

The Thing About Being on the Road - Ch. 15 by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Baby Love - Ch. 27 by Niamh (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Paper Incursion 4: Unsent by myrabeth (Buffy/Spike, T)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: say hello to spike & dru by vhallasgf (Dru/Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: [Santa hat] by httpsitsraine (Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: Faith in commission by Dani Strips posted by buffythecomicslayer (Faith, worksafe)

Artwork: guess who's been watching buffy by str4berry-goblin (Spike, mildly NSFW)

Gifset: [just trying to keep you safe, I expect] by spaceslayer (Dawn, Spike, worksafe)

Gifset: Bangel + Text by andremichaux (Buffy/Angel, worksafe)

Memes: Blorbo memes pt 5 by shewhosleepsalotincemetaries (Faith, worksafe)

Video: Lego Buffy - You Made A Bear! by tmcarlee (Spike, others, worksafe)

Artwork: Costume Party by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

BTVS Season 2 Retrospective by The Cheshire Kiwi

Publication: BTVS Season 3: Choosing Your Future by Andrew Heard

PODCAST: Cloche But No Cigar - Angel S03E18 by Pop Culture Role Call

PODCAST: 5.05 Life of the Party by Angel on Top

[Recs & In Search Of]

In search of video edit: Who can I pay to make a "Light of the Seven" Buffy/Angelverse edit and when can you take my money?? requested by BuffyBoltonVampFlayr

[Community Announcements]

Buffy rp community [RPG on IG] by Willowsbooks

[Fandom Discussions]

Reasons why Faith Lehane would make a good cowboy. by 5bi5

ask answered: Giles/Anya ship by we-pay-for-everything

[discussion of Buffy's lack of planning for the future because she thinks she will die young] by corvidyus and three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat

You know how money was such a big issue in S6 that... by thegirlfromthedwarf

[Dawn being "allowed" to fight in S7] by petpluto

[First time watcher thoughts, plus Xander] by juegodedioses and majingojira

Willow uses her witch powers as the Halloween ghost sheet of protection... by spaceshiplewis and girl4music

buffy summers really is the most character ever... by fallingtowers

omg every day i wonder how buffy got into northwestern... by faith-thee-slayer

i think that if faith had to end up with a guy from the buffyverse, i could see her with riley... by faith-thee-slayer

okay alternate universe... [Buffy working as a construction worker] by voices-not-echoes

[btvs time travel fics and drusilla] by sspoike

[selfless love and having a soul and spike and what is real love] by messedupdoilies

why did the Mayor die so easily? [answers] by i-sell-nightmares

[Angel thoughts - him on BTVS vs ATS] by hero-adjacent

Honestly don't get people who don't like Dawn... by disco-tea

The Gentlemen [hush episode] by destinystarlight33

[S4] I really wish... Buffy - Adam - Riley triptych as a theme... by corvidyus

something about young buffy flashbacks... looking so different...[and cordelia] by clockwards

Do you know [who] definitely exists beyond the gender binary? Glory. by beatriceeverytuesday

Why didn't any of the Scoobies warn Cordelia that Harmony was a vampire? by Joshua and others

Take Out The Trio, Insert **** [discussion of the Trio] by Tome and others

[discussion of Spuffy or Bangel? with 3x05 Fredless ATS clip about Bangel] by Tome

[discussion of Oz's return to college Willow] by various

Oz and Riley [what if they were around longer / more?] by Tome and others

Out of buffys boyfriends, Riley is the most hated, but does he actually deserve the hate by various

Jenny Calendar deserved better? by ProphecyGay

If Spike had been killed off would you have kept watching ? by various

How you fix the Cordelia possession? by various

Anya the anti-feminist by Tome

SMG Talks Toxic Buffy Set by BAF

Over the Rainbow [2x20 ATS discussion] by various

Which villains do you think deserve the most sympathy? by george123890yang

Any one have a favorite potential? by vetworker24

Buffy is one of the best characters ever, but what are her worst or most frustrating moments to you? by Blasberry80

My unexpected affinity with Buffy the Vampire Slayer by hakshamalah

What Are Your Overall Thoughts On Tara Maclay? by Antwuan89

The new Angel comic is really good [posted on Buffy] by Ilovemusclegirls3

Question about Once More With Feeling by cutestcatlady

Dawn [how early did writers plan her?] by bellabissatt

Sarah Michelle Gellar calls Buffy an ' Extremely toxic male set' by madmaximus17

season 7 [discussion of Caleb and Kennedy as characters] by NoelleSan191

Why Was Mercedes McNab Called Back? by Moon_Logic

One of my favorite lines from Buffy...in different languages! by DannyHufflepuff1998x

Favorite Amy Madison moment? by YogurtclosetOk3886

Bangel by Khalesssi_Slayer1

Most Badass Buffy Moment / Episode? by Responsible-Let-4643

The Knights of Byzantium is one of the weirdest, most useless plot devices in the show. by PocketGachnar

Amends Rewatch by echopsocky

Xander gatekeeping Buffy's love life by CellSation

[POLL] Which emotional performance is your favorite in 'The Body'? by Opening_Knowledge868

did we always know Joyce's fate in season 5 or was the ending of "I Was Made To Love You" a surprise? by jdpm1991

[ATS] I’m watching for the first time and I’m on “Provider”. It just feels like Angel’s whole characterization has gone out the window since Darla showed up pregnant?? by full_onrainstorm

Just Watching S5 E5 and I Was Wondering... [ATS] by autistic_ghostgirl

Did Peace Out (4x21) change your opinion of Connor at all? by Defvac2

The new Angel comic is actually really good [posted on ATS] by Ilovemusclegirls3

Season 4 [ATS is over hated] by BreakTacticF0

I know you all talk about how awful Cordelia’s hair gets, but nobody warned me about Lilah’s! by full_onrainstorm

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PUBLICATION: Sarah Michelle Gellar Breaks Silence on Joss Whedon’s BTVS Set: ‘Extremely Toxic’ by The Wrap

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Join the editor team :)

[a-master-procrastinator]

Post with tags, links to ocs profiles and all that

About me and OC profile pages are in blog's description, but they don't exactly work on mobile, so here's a link to a post with about me info.

Links to posts with basic info on OCs (yes, multiple posts bc it's too much to fit in one post). Some of info isn't full bc I'm still figuring it out, will update once I do.

Lette legacy (Jett as the Outlander)

Seinna legacy (Airistan as the Outlander)

Crustulum legacy (Vintu as the Outlander)

Sinnomin legacy (Imely as the Outlander)

(UPD: now should work on mobile, tumblr pls do the thing properly)

Tags

Regarding older posts that are not tagged, I’ll try to tag them whenever I find time and energy for it, but can’t really promise, sorry.

Class stories spoiler tags:

#jedi knight spoilers

#jedi consular spoilers

#smuggler spoilers

#trooper spoilers

#sith warrior spoilers

#sith inquisitor spoilers

#bounty hunter spoilers

#imperial agent spoilers

Expansions spoilers:

#ilum spoilers

#makeb spoilers or #rise of the hutt cartel spoilers or #rothc spoilers (preferably the last one)

#oricon spoilers or (related) #dread masters storyline spoilers (don’t post often but just in case)

#shadows of revan spoilers or #sor spoilers

#kotfe spoilers

#kotet spoilers

#iokath spoilers (particularly for this planet) and #traitor arc spoilers for the rest of the storyline

#jedi under siege spoilers or #jus spoilers (preferably the last one)

#onslaught spoilers or #swtor 6.0 spoilers

For the new story updates I prefer to go with #swtor (number of expansions) spoilers, but may add names as well. So #swtor 7.0 spoilers and #swtor legacy of the sith spoilers for the upcoming expansion (usually the first one).

Not sure if I should tag any planetary story arcs, but if I feel like I should (maybe there a big plot twist), it’ll be #(planet’s name) arc spoilers (#belsavis arc spoilers for example).

Other tags:

character tags are #oc:(character's name), though it's not set in stone which names are full and which are shortened;

#art with my ocs - as it says

#space barbie is the real endgame - posting about space barbie (we all do that)

#decorations hunting - what it says, me trying to get decos that are either from crafting or reputation or flashpoints

#swtor gone wrong - bugs and other funny stuff (there is a blog with this name, check them out)

#swtor headcanons - as it says

#swtor unpopular opinion (might change to #my unpopular opinions) - as it says

#ask game - posts with ask games and replies

#tagged - if I was tagged for something

#(class name) playthrough - what it says, without spoilers

#swtor pts - if I decide to go through pain of installing PTS yet again (i installed and deleted like like 3 or 4 times)

Event tags (yeah, they all are different):

#double xp event is our lord and savior;

#pirate incursion event;

#rakghoul event;

#gree event;

#swoop rally event;

#swtor life day or #life day shenanigans;

#feast of prosperity;

#bounty week event;

#nightlife shenanigans.

#swtor text posts - screenshots of characters with text posts i them (character memes, in other words)

#swtor meme - as it says

#swtor refs - useful lore and stuff for SWTOR era (though I have like 1 post with this tag)

#other people's good stuff (gonna change to #mutuals' lovely stuff) - reblogs of amazing works of amazing people (though my circle of mutuals is kinda limited), be that writing, art or other stuff.

#xD - a reblog i found funny

[robininthelabyrinth]

Three Gates - on ao3 (for content warnings check Ao3) - on tumblr: pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4, pt 5, pt 6

- Chapter 7 -

Meng Yao ended up not writing back to Lan Xichen at all, which turned out to be for the best – Madame Lan died of her illness a little later in the year, destroying Lan Xichen’s tentative proposals for a visit that they would have had to find a way to tactfully refuse anyway, and Meng Yao was able to write that letter with a great deal more sincerity and shared pain than he might have otherwise.

Lao Nie did not last the full year that Nie Mingjue had predicted they’d need – the initial qi deviation only led to more deviations down the road, as his unchecked rage twisted his mind further and further away from reality and he tried to cultivate with a saber that no longer existed; within four months he was no longer recognizable as the man he had once been, and within six he was dead.

It was not a good death.

Meng Yao had started hoping for Lao Nie to die by midway the second month, when it was clear that his condition was getting worse, not better, and that his madness was just a hair short of what it needed to be to remove him as unsuited for his position – he could stand, walk, talk, and make decisions (bad ones), and Meng Yao sometimes cursed whichever ancestor had schemed unsuccessfully to steal the sect leader’s seat through trickery because they’d made it so much harder for everyone else – but he hadn’t wanted it to happen the way it had.

For all that he was glad that Lao Nie was finally gone, six months after he’d actually died alongside his beloved Jiwei, Meng Yao would never have wanted Nie Mingjue to have to…no, better to say that he wouldn’t have wanted for Lao Nie to use his son as an instrument of his own destruction.

Nie Mingjue had been bearing up as well as could be imagined – better, even, through sheer will and the grit and stubbornness that the Nie clan had in spades – but that had been a step too far; he withdrew somewhere deep inside of himself, his eyes vacant and dead, and slept for three days straight. For a little while, Meng Yao had thought that he had also succumbed to a qi deviation, panic roiling under his skin as he had to try to keep it quiet, with Nie Huaisang helping as much as a small child like him could, but in the end Nie Mingjue woke up in time for the investiture ceremony making him sect leader.

They probably should have found some time to talk about it – talk about everything, to lance the boil of their suffering so that it didn’t fester in their hearts – except before Meng Yao could figure out what needed to be said, they were both pulled away by sudden spate of the skirmishes on the border because of course Wen Ruohan would use the opportunity of the sect leader’s death to try to steal away some of their territory.

They didn’t let him.

Nie Mingjue’s rage was something worth seeing, and Meng Yao’s own was very nearly as great, even if he expressed it through coldness rather than heat – even if he was considered too young to be sent out to the front lines, since unlike Nie Mingjue he was not pretending to be three years older than he really was, even if he could only help govern the sect at home in Nie Mingjue’s absence.

It was that coldness that let him cut through the politics that always followed the initiation of a new sect leader, especially a new one that foolish people from the outside might think would be susceptible to influence, might be naïve enough to allow himself to be used as a method for climbing into power.

It was that coldness that his mother saw, when she came to him with her own suggestions – the would-be influencers soon found that Nie Mingjue was born to be a righteous general, unyielding and stubborn, and that Meng Yao was coldblooded as a serpent, unmoved by their appeals, and so had come to Meng Shi with flattery and the promise of all sorts of things if only she would pass along a simple harmless message for them – and which made her words freeze in her throat long enough for Sisi to catch up with her and take her away, scolding her all the while for being too easily swayed.

It was that coldness that allowed him to continue to exchange secret letters with Wen Ruohan, stupid ones that claimed that his elder brother had gone mad to accuse another sect leader the way he had – treasonous letters, of the sort that Wen Ruohan would be able to use as blackmail if only Meng Yao wasn’t quite so sure that Nie Mingjue would listen when he explained why he was doing what he did.

If he explained. It didn’t seem necessary to burden Nie Mingjue with the knowledge of what Meng Yao was doing, not yet – not when he was already bearing so many other burdens.

Nie Huaisang had previously been uninterested in all things military, thinking of it as nothing more than more of the saber work that he hated, but Meng Yao knew that couldn’t be permitted to last, now that he was the proper heir, and so he took him in hand.

He took him to the meeting room, with all the maps and plans, and told it to him the way it needed to be told: “This stone represents twenty Wen retainers, and they’re all dead now,” he said, pointing to one of the silver pieces. “And that one’s ten Wen disciples, and they’re dead too – your brother killed them all by himself, taking them by surprise. They were all cut up into pieces, and he didn’t get a mark on him.”

“Why are you talking about the dead?” Nie Mingjue – who had in fact gotten several nasty cuts as a result of that fight, but facts weren’t relevant when weaving legends were for small children to learn viciousness from – asked, back from the frontline to gather supplies and set to go out again the next morning, rolling his eyes at them both. “It’s the living that matter.”

“I agree,” Meng Yao said placidly. “It’s the living we have to deal with. Mark da-ge’s words well, Huaisang. You always have to deal with the living, they’re far more troublesome.”

But oh, how nice it was to see your enemies dead!

(Nie Mingjue didn’t understand – but Nie Huaisang did.)

It took three solid months to finally chase out the last would-be incursion, and right around that time Lan Xichen finally got his way about coming for a visit the way he’d been insisted he be allowed to do for the entire time since Lao Nie’s death and Nie Mingjue’s confirmation as sect leader was announced.

“I don’t have time for guests,” Nie Mingjue said shortly when he found out that Meng Yao had approved Lan Xichen’s request behind his back. “Meng Yao, you deal with him; he’s here to see you, anyway.”

“Da-ge says that he needs to be kidnapped away from work,” Nie Huaisang solemnly told Lan Xichen, his beloved pretty gege, later that day, walking hand-in-hand with him through the gardens. “Or else he’ll never get a break.”

“Oh, your da-ge said that, did he,” Lan Xichen said, his eyes dancing. “Not your er-ge?”

“Well…”

“Huaisang, we’ve discussed this,” Meng Yao told him. “A good liar doesn’t back down at the first challenge. Don’t admit anything until you’re really cornered – or have a good excuse for why you lied.”

Lan Xichen laughed, but Nie Huaisang nodded seriously.

Meng Yao was pleased to see Lan Xichen, of course, but he had had ulterior motives: he had thought of a handful of schemes to use Lan Xichen to lure Nie Mingjue out of the sect leader’s office. It wasn’t a good place for him to be after everything that happened there – there were still bloodstains on the floor, ones that Meng Yao had caught Nie Mingjue staring dully at more often than he’d really like – and even though Meng Yao had already set up an alternative to use while they finished cleaning and redecorating, Nie Mingjue continuously claimed to be too busy to relocate even temporarily.

In the end, all his schemes turned out to be unnecessary because by the time they got back Nie Mingjue was out in the training yard for the first time in weeks, showing a solemn Lan Wangji how to jump over a saber sweep to the legs in what was mostly just an elaborate game of bunny-hops.

Lan Xichen abruptly sat down.

Right in the middle of the walkway, with dust getting all over his otherwise pristine robes, no less. Meng Yao sent Nie Huaisang back inside before squatting down next to him. “First time in a while?”

“Wangji wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t eat; he’s barely moved since our mother died,” Lan Xichen said, staring at the training field. His eyes were wet. “He’d obey if we told him to do something, but he kept sneaking out of the house to go wait by our mother’s door, no matter how many times we told him…I only brought him with me because I thought it might do him good to be somewhere new, rather than somewhere where he couldn’t help but think of her.”

Meng Yao thought about the sect leader’s office, which if Nie Huaisang was doing his job was at that very moment being moved to its new temporary home and the old one locked to all who might try to come and insist on being let in. Even if they were the new sect leader.

“I know what you mean,” he said, and smiled wryly. “But da-ge has a way about him, doesn’t he?”

By this Meng Yao meant that Nie Mingjue had charisma in spades – he was a natural leader, causing men to instinctively listen to him despite his age, though anyway that ridiculous height of his meant that he was already as tall as a grown man and was often perceived as one even by those who knew better. No matter how soft he was inside, how torn or broken, Nie Mingjue could inspire devotion, even fascination, from others in a way few others could.

Even Meng Yao with his silver tongue couldn’t compare: he knew how to cater to people, to calm and misdirect them, to lull them into a false sense of security so that he could sneak his objectives out of them, but Nie Mingjue could ask a man to fly to the moon and they’d seriously consider giving it a try.

He was something very precious.

“Yes,” Lan Xichen said, and he sounded almost as if he were realizing that fact for the first time. “He really does.”

A month later, Nie Mingjue had to attend his first Discussion Conference as sect leader.

At least it was situated at the nice neutral Jiang sect, Meng Yao thought, but he worried the entire time Nie Mingjue was gone. It wasn’t that he wasn’t allowed to go, if he wanted, but Meng Yao knew that having him back home – safe, keeping an eye on the Unclean Realm and Nie Huaisang both – would be infinitely more helpful in keeping Nie Mingjue from stabbing someone than his advice would be.

It still killed him to do it.

To think of Nie Mingjue alone, just him and his father’s murderer and three men that didn’t care to trouble themselves enough to help him get vengeance, for hours and hours and hours –

But Meng Yao knew what he had to do.

So he waited and paced and worked himself hard enough that Nie Huaisang started using some of their well-established tricks to lure Nie Mingjue from his office on him, which was really a sign of doing too much, and in the end the Nie sect delegation came home safe and unharmed and even successful: Nie Mingjue hadn’t stabbed anyone (the low, low bar they’d set for a success), hadn’t started any fights either physical or verbal (an even higher bar), and had even managed to get the reasonable concessions they’d been hoping to push through in the negotiations regarding sect matters after all the speeches and festivities were done (a stunning achievement).

Nie Mingjue didn’t seem as happy about it as Meng Yao would have expected.

“Meng Yao,” Nie Mingjue said when Nie Huaisang was safely tucked away into bed; he must have been waiting. “A word.”

“Of course,” Meng Yao said, but still led him back to his bedroom to prepare to sleep. They could talk business as well there as they could in Nie Mingjue’s office, and this way he wouldn’t be tempted to do just a little bit more, A-Yao, just the urgent things as if there weren’t enough urgent things to drown a man in. “What happened, da-ge?”

“I received an unusual offer,” Nie Mingjue said, and the way he said it meant that Meng Yao wasn’t going to like it. “From Wen Ruohan.”

Meng Yao already didn’t like it.

“He – expressed sympathy,” oh, no, Meng Yao hated it, “and suggested that he might be willing to withdraw his claim from the western river so that we could rely on its tolls in our time of need –”

“He’s willing to withdraw his soldiers?” Meng Yao asked, honestly surprised. “His made-up claim to the river is the only thing allowing him to claim that he’s entitled to put Wen sect retainers in the sects there; if he withdraws them, they’ll all come rushing back to us to swear allegiance, and our western border would be much more secure, even if he reneges on his word later and tries to come back.”

And that, of course, meant –

“For him to put that on the trading table, he must have had an extremely offensive request,” Meng Yao said. “What was it? Half our men put down their sabers and Nie Huaisang’s head on a pike for having defeated Wen Chao in the junior calligraphy competition last year?”

That should have gotten a laugh out of Nie Mingjue, but instead he just sat down on the bed, his shoulders hunched up by his ears. “No,” he said. “He didn’t want anything from – from the sect.”

Meng Yao wasn’t stupid, and for a moment there his vision tinted red, Chiwen whispering sweet words of death in his ear: death to evil, death to those that threatened his loved ones, death to those that stood in his way.

Death to Wen Ruohan in specific.

“Da-ge,” he said, and for a moment his teeth gritted together before instinct took over and his face smoothed into a neutral expression, a faint gentle smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You must be joking.”

Nie Mingjue’s shoulders somehow, impossibly, hunched even further up, as if he was the one who should be embarrassed by Wen Ruohan’s suggestion. “He propositioned me,” he confirmed, entirely unnecessarily.

“He tried to buy you, you mean,” Meng Yao said, and Nie Mingjue shrugged. Meng Yao’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not considering it, are you?”

“You said yourself it was a good deal,” Nie Mingjue said with a hint of stubbornness. “A shichen of discomfort and we could protect the western border for a generation, and if we can do that, we’ll have time to bulk up the rest of our defenses –”

“You cannot be serious. He killed your father!”

Nie Mingjue flinched.

“I know,” he said quietly. “But that’s my personal pain, not the sect’s, and I’m sect leader now, aren’t I? I need to do what’s good for the sect.”

“Okay,” Meng Yao said. “Fine. Then I’ll assassinate Jiang Fengmian’s son at the next Discussion Conference.”

“What?”

“I’ll use a sword,” Meng Yao said. “You know how good I am at memorizing techniques; I’ve already gotten some moves from the Wen and Jin sects down pat, and no one will suspect a Nie if I’m not using a saber. In the chaos as they try to figure out who did it and what to do about it, we’ll be able to steal all sorts of benefits from the three of them. It’d be very good for the sect.”

“Meng Yao, don’t even joke about that.”

“Who said I’m joking?” Meng Yao said with a shrug. “You said it yourself – you’re a sect leader now. Why should your personal principles stand in the way of the sect’s advantage?”

“Without principles, there is no sect,” Nie Mingjue snapped. “Without principles, we may as well not be men; we would be beasts on two legs, a desecration of flesh, a waste of spirit…”

Meng Yao crossed his arms and waited.

“…and selling anybody, even myself, in order to take advantage Wen Ruohan’s offer would be a violation of my principles, too,” Nie Mingjue concluded. “I take your point.”

“Good.”

They sat in silence for a long moment.

“Still,” Nie Mingjue said thoughtfully, and Meng Yao turned to stare at him incredulously, “it’s kind of nice to know that I’d be really well paid for it, right? Your mother would be proud of me.”

“I’m going to strangle you,” Meng Yao said, but he was already starting to smile. Only Nie Mingjue would dare to be that tactless just to amuse – only Nie Mingjue would dream of making a joke about himself like that, with the same black humor Meng Yao and Meng Shi enjoyed most. “And you’re going to deserve it.”

“Probably,” Nie Mingjue agreed, and he was smiling back, and for a moment it felt like they weren’t sect leader and advisor any longer – just brothers, just friends.

“Yeah? I’m also going to tickle you.”

“Don’t you dare, I have a reputation to maintain –”

[bookwyrmth1rt33n]

Kurtis Wiebe Discusses World-Building Details on Gears of War - the Rise oF RAAM Comic

So, I found an interview where Kurtis Wiebe essentially talks with 2 Coalition employees (I think their names are TC Octus & Liam, but don’t quote me on that) for about 60-90+ minutes about his world-building for tRoR comic, & it is GLORIOUS to behold (actual title: AMA for Kurtis Wiebe for developer stream 1/16/2020 @3pm PT, & the link in the “StoryandLore” tab on GearsofWar.com is: https://forums.gearsofwar.com/t/ama-for-kurtis-wiebe-for-developer-stream-1-16-2020-3pm-pt/39974). Some my favorite highlights in said interview are as follows (& quotation marks are utilized below to indicate quotes from Wiebe &/or Liam & TC Octus): - Wiebe based the Locust speech-patterns on the Spartacus TV series—he said that the characters in the TV show used “weird vernacular”, & Wiebe was fascinated by that - the only time Kurtis was censored/edited was when he asked the Coalition if he could put a “Cronenbergian sex scene with Myrrah” (between RAAM & Myrrah) in the tRoR comic, & the Coalition told him “no”...according to him, he was “kinda trolling at that point” - Wiebe had to come up with new naming conventions for the Locust military ranks

- Kurtis put in a lot of effort on expanding on the Locust religion—a.k.a. the Trinity of Worms - he tried to make tRoR comic “super-accesible” for people not familiar with the GOW franchise or video games in general - Wiebe set up a “Science vs. Religion” division among the members of Locust society - Uzil Sraak is not actually much bigger than RAAM, he just happens to be wearing a suit of armor that Ukkon worked on & personally designed for him—so, it’s essentially power armor (a la Iron Man)

- the design/illustration of Ukkon existed prior to tRoR comic—he was a part of the concept being developed for the Gears Tactics game

- according to Kurtis Wiebe, the Locust in tRoR comic are speaking in their own language, not [“English”] “Tyran”—Wiebe just forgot to explicitly mention that there was a ‘translation convention’ being used (i.e. “this is interpreted/translated from the Locust language”)

- Wiebe clarified that RAAM & Skorge were “brothers” in the camaraderie-sense, not the biological sibling-sense, though he did mention that the idea of them having “the same Berserker mom” was “interesting”

- for tRoR comic, Kurtis wanted to explore the Locusts’ motivation for invading the surface—the Locust did have disagreements about whether or not to invade Sera’s surface, but with regards to the Lambent incursion/infection, they had their “backs against the wall”, & were growing desperate

- Skorge is like a “drug-addict”, & inhaling imulsion allows him (& ostensibly the other Kantus) to experience visions & communicate with the Trinity of Worms

- Wiebe tried to introduce the concept of a social-divide/classist belief-system among the Locust, wherein they have a “‘true lineage’ of the Locust in their lore”—though he isn’t sure exactly how it ties into Gears 5, & one of the Coalition employees (Liam or TC Octus) compared it to Harry Potter’s “mudbloods” & “purebloods” social-division/prejudice, to which Wiebe responded “yeah, exactly”

- according to Kurtis, Myrrah was aware of RAAM’s ‘unsanctioned’ visits to the surface—not through invasive telepathic-spying, but because she stayed connected/aware of current events taking place (on both the surface & in the Hollows), & “she has others that work for her”

...there was more covered in the interview, but these excerpts were the parts that interested me the most.

[spockvarietyhour]

The Starship Destiny in Subversion and Incursion Pt. 1 & 2

[cheapandnastytimetravel]

Bannerman Where? SJA+TW Pt. 1

*Sarah-Jane has been missing for the past week and alien sightings have increased significantly in London. With Luke and K9 still at University the others must protect London from any incursions.*

“Mr Smith, I need you” said the familiar voice of Rani Chandra. Lights flashed wildly as the brick wall in the front of the attic flashes. “There has been no recent sighting of Sarah-Jane since I last saw you.” Said the computer bluntly

“I know, I was going to ask you about something.” She said mysteriously, almost as if to be indirect.

“Go ahead.” He replied.

“Torchwood, can we get in touch with them? I know it’s not what Sarah-Jane would’ve wanted but we have no choice, we’re being overrun.” She said in a worried tone. Silently, Mr Smith showed a loading screen, before transitioning to a picture of a woman’s face.

“What the hell?” The woman asked in an angered tone. She had a distinct welsh accent.

“I’m Rani Chandra. And I’m hoping you’re Torchwood.” Rani said in a welcoming tone.

“How are you doing that?” The woman asked looking more closely at the screen.

Rani rolled her eyes in boredom “Is Jack there? Sarah-Jane said Jack was experienced in our specific issue.”

The woman looked scared now, almost as if she had seen her worst fear. “Jack’s been missing for 6 months.”

[worldofwritingthings]

Wings of Valor: Worldbuilding Pt. 1

The Regions of Jorramânt

Tag List: @romanthewriter @ninjamidnight @sixstepsaway @faireladypenumbra @somewhat-honest-abe

Alright, folks! In this section we will be discussing the lands that form up the world of WoV and where the characters and races live and interact with each other. As well as kill each other, no doubt. Okay, let's get to it!

The North

An unforgiving landscape of snowy mountains and forests, this region witnessed the devastating massacre of civilians in the Galian Empire during the Serie Great War, aided it's neighbors when the Jern Great War spreaded throughout the world, and collided with the other regions in the formation of the Lux Federation in the New Age.

The Valkyries reside in the Corben Peaks and Şoim Mountains.

The Ciori headquarters is located within the remote Umbră City in the Corben Peaks.

It is the only region that has resisted against the South and fragmented the Galian Empire at the end of the Jern Great War.

The trade of meat and pelt defines the economy of the region.

The South

Claimed by numerous tribes in the Ancient Age, subjected to the formation and dissolution of the Galian Empire, and torn up by piracy plunder, this vast region of desert lands has seen its share of conflict during both the Serie and Jern Great Wars. As of the first century of the New Age, ruins of kingdoms predominate the shores and landscape.

The Mirtis and Žiedas Factions established their headquarters in the Likimas Falls.

Despite the lack of civilizations and settlements in the region, it is the home to the Undead and Cursed races that roam in the lands.

The few remaining settlements rely heavily upon guerrilla and pirate tactics to acquisition supplies for survival.

The East

Much like the West, the settlements in the East suffered under the rule of the Galian Empire during the Jern Great War in the second century of the Ancient Age. The mining industry collapsed at the end of the war, being renewed with the beginning of the New Age.

The Dwarven race formerly lived in the tropical Klar Plains until the fourth century of the Ancient Age, when a pestilence ravaged the region and killed a vast portion of the population. They relocated underground in the Lang Mountain Range sometime in the third century.

The Lure På Bazaar houses more than a hundred merchants, making it the largest shopping district all over the world.

The Dwarven economy relies heavily on the mining industry of minerals and jewels, as well as the craftsmanship of tools and weapons.

The West

In comparison to the East, the dense forests of the West give covert and security to the Elven kingdoms that have withstood the devastating conquest of the Galian Empire during the Jern Great War in the third century of the Ancient Age. Much of the landscape had grown back by the time the war concluded with the arrival of the New Age.

The Elven race live along the Mørk and Grønn Forests and the Evig Valleys.

A boundary surrounds the region since the waning days of the Serie Great War, protecting the Elves against enemy incursions.

The region's economy relies heavily on the trade of agricultural and fishery products to the world.

The Central Abyss

Separated from the rest of the world, the Central Abyss is a cluster of floating islands that are intertwined by extensive tree roots and vines. Since the fall of the Galian Empire, the island-settlements banded together to form the Lux Federation and expanded peace to the other regions as well.

Although the populace is composed of many races, Mages form up one-half of the Lux Federation while the remainder make up one-fourth each.

The Spero Palace is the embodiment structure of the Federal Council in Lux City.

With the exception of the Valkyrie and the Undead/Cursed races, travelers from the other regions use portal gateways to ensure safe passage into the islands.

The Galian Sphere is the main source of magic essence in the world and is located underneath Lux City, protected by the Alban Royal Guard and the Roşu Militia.

The main source of income is based in the brewery industry.

This is the information I can give you for now as more details will come up to bring you a more complete setting of the world.

Please comment/reblog if you enjoyed it. Or have suggestions as well. Okay, see ya!

[hellodelightfulstudentpaperstuff]

PTS – Planar Incursions Phase 1 available for testing!

PTS – Planar Incursions Phase 1 available for testing!

Hey everyone, Early testing for Planar Incursions Phase 1 will be available on the PTS shard for Rift, starting January 29 at 16:30 CET! To access PTS, change your region in the Glyph launcher (top right corner window dropdown menu) from North America or Europe to PTS. Please report any bugs and share your feedback regarding this event in >>this thread<<. Let us know what you think! Enjoy! Here…

[night-gay]

Into the Anthill pt 45 - Wasp and the Ant-Man

His biggest ideas usually involve cold, unfeeling machines, so it’s no wonder Hank isn’t the best when it comes to working with other people. He took the Avengers Academy kids to see Wicked, but then his scared straight field trip to The Raft was an obvious misstep (and a heavy-handed one at that). He built a fake heaven for Bill Foster but didn’t consider that being completely alone in paradise is its own kind of hell. Opening the battered womens’ shelters in Jan’s name feels like a universally good gesture, but seeing Eric O’Grady volunteer there and “accidentally” leave his phone number in a woman’s room left a bad taste in my mouth.

Hank never claimed to be perfect though, it’s just nice to see him trying. 

Not Eric though. Fuck that guy.

🐜🐜🐜

Avengers Academy vol 1 #3-6

On a “scared straight” field trip to the Raft, Hank sought Moonstone’s professional opinion on his new students. She offered nothing useful aside from the fact that Speedball was still harnessing pain as his power source. While the teens were meant to be interviewing some of the Thunderbolts, Hazmat used an EMP burst to knock out the lights so she, Veil, and Mettle could sneak away to interrogate Norman Osborn. They hoped to find a way to turn themselves back to normal or kill Norman, but neither plan worked like they’d hoped

After a guest lesson from Steve Rogers, Hank took his students to NYC to see Wicked on Broadway. On the walk home Whirlwind attacked, as obsessed with Jan as ever and furious that Hank was still calling himself The Wasp. The press saw everything and by the time they’d returned to the Infinite Mansion the new team was all over the news already. Hank had planned to keep them out of the limelight but Striker convinced him that at this point it would be better to take control of the narrative and have a press conference. After this, Hawkeye arranged a “Media Day” to get them used to interviews and Hank sent Reptil to visit Jessica Jones for a bit of therapy.   

Ant-Man and Wasp vol 1 #1-3

As another way to honor Jan’s memory and give back to the community, Hank opened the Van Dyne Centers For Women to support women and children who have suffered domestic abuse. He then moved on to helping Reed Richards prevent an Incursion from Earth-9939 while the new Ant-Man tried to bug him about a potential A.I.M. attack. Without realizing it Eric had been a pawn in A.I.M.’s plans, creating the opening Anesthesia needed to emerge from his mind and steal the Heaven Halo, a sort of artificial heaven hank created for Bill Foster. Despite his reservations, Hank agreed to team up with Eric. 

As the two of them entered the Mindscape (a pocket dimension that borders the thoughts of all sentients) to follow Anesthesia and find the Halo. Monica Rappacini, calling herself the Supreme Scientist, intended to auction Hank’s artificial heaven off to the highest bidder. As Hank and Eric infiltrated the base Eric made several attempts to impress Hank but nothing worked. When Hank told him he could do the job alone without any showboating Eric retaliated by talking shit about Scott Lang. This earned him a swift punch to the gut. Monica then arrived to stop them, injecting Eric with a toxin that inhibits the body’s ability to process Pym Particles. Hank grabbed Eric and the Halo and ran, finding himself a safe spot to work.

Hank sent Eric’s consciousness into the Halo so that he could work on removing the toxin without hurting him. Monica took this opportunity to trap Hank in a micromesh bubble and offer him a leadership position with A.I.M. She had only taken the Halo to get his attention and believed that the two of them were too alike to stand as enemies. He broke free from the bubble only to be caught in a new device, the 2nd of 157 traps Monica had constructed to keep him busy while she gave him her pitch. He freed himself from all of them while also figuring out where her base was located and how to call in backup. She attacked him with one more invention - an electric ham knife she’d created for her first science fair - after he’d cleared all of her traps. Naturally she couldn’t win with that either. After escaping the base, Hank sent it and everyone inside it to an alternate timeline where A.I.M. had destroyed the world and technological advancement had ground to a halt.

Minor/Cameo appearances from this period:

Captain America: Man Out Of Time vol 1 #1, 3-5

Thunderstrike vol 2 #1