#The Wiles of Men and Women

[washeduphazbin]

Hi, I would like to ask for a smut from Adam x fem Reader, his dear wife is going to pay him a visit at his work and in the end they almost get paid for lute

New Eve (Adam x Fem! Wife! Reader)

-SMUT AHEAD MINORS DNI-

Other warnings: Adam Being Adam

I hope I wrote this ask and understood it correctly! Adam is my guilty pleasure. I love men who are dumb as rocks and who are going to be absolutely leashed by even stronger women.

REQUESTS OPEN

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There's a saying that all good things come in threes, Lilith, Eve, and you. Adam's final wife, who physically couldn't be swayed by Lucifer because Adam had met you in Heaven. When you passed through the pearly gates, you were greeted by none other than the first human himself. You were in awe for about two seconds until you quickly gathered the first man was a complete and utter dickhead. He seemed to falter when you walked past him to greet an angel named Lute, Adam's second in command. She tensed a little as you introduced yourself, ignoring Adam's protests that dubbed you a Queen Mega Bitch.

All this to say, it took about three months before Lute caught Adam sticking his tongue down your throat with you latched onto him like a koala. You made a distressed sound at being caught while listening to Adam laugh above you. You distinctly heard him call your mouth as good as a vagina while pressing a kiss to your hairline. "Adam!" You hissed, pulling on the horns of his mask as he let out a defiant sound, "Inappropriate."

"Ugh yeah, that's kind of my thing, sugar tits."

"You need to not make it your thing, or this thing doesn't happen." You drew your line in the metaphorical sand before marching out of the room, faintly hearing Lute argue about Adam's behavior behind you.

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Two years later, you were Adam's new 'Eve' in heaven with two golden rings to prove the love that formed between the two of you...somehow. Did the both of you fight constantly? Yes. Did you want to wring his neck every time he opened the gaping hole he called a mouth? Also Yes. But did you love him...unfortunately. Even though he had a laundry list of bad habits, a vulgar mouth, and gross hobbies, he had his moments. He was protective, fiercely so, and despite his fuck boy personality, he only had his sights set on you. Lute often asked you what you saw in Adam, and you'd reluctantly sigh and give a tired grin, "He makes me laugh. Plus, with proper motivation, he's putty in my hand." Lute made a sound of understanding, nodding her head,

"Ah, yes. Use your feminine wiles to control those weaker than you, even if they may be physically stronger. We must use what we are given as women. Well, you must. I'm very strong without using that to my advantage."

"Yes, exactly," You snickered as Lute stopped outside Adam's office. "Which is exactly why Sera put me in charge of convincing Adam to meet with The Morningstar's daughter." You groaned, rubbing the bridge of your nose, "I'll see you back here later, then?"

"Yes, ma'am." Lute bowed, "I wish you luck...you'll need it. He's in one of his moods." before taking off into the sky and down the hall. You reached up with a stretch of your arms, fluffing up your wings to look extra pretty before knocking on Adam's door,

"Adam." You hummed, knocking on the grand marble door once before opening it. You leaned against the entranceway, wings brushing against the floor, as his head shot up.

"Sugartits!"

"Not my name!" You dodged Adam's hug with a flurry of your wings; he grinned, shoving the door closed with his hip. "Adam," you said in warning as he used his angelic magic to fly towards you and trap you within his arms.

"and what would you prefer I call you? My Bitch? Wifey?" He mused, peppering sloppy kisses against your cheek and down your neck. "We could go with Queen or Goddess, preferably." You shot back, dragging Adam down to sit in his chair; you hummed gently, removing his mask from his face. He leaned back, kicking his legs up on the desk as you slid down into his chest, straddling his hips. You hummed, running your fingers through his brown hair, and he melted into your touch, "My name works, too."

"I guess we can settle on Queen. Does that make me your King?" Adam preened as you scratched under his chin,

"Without a doubt...but we must talk about the Young Morningstar."

"Who?" He made a faux confused face which you raised an eyebrow back at in response, "Ugh, Lucifer's cunt daughter. What about her?"

"She's been begging for a meeting. I suggest you meet with her." Your lips began to trail down his neck, nipping at his skin as his body flushed.

"But that's so much work, sugar." He groaned, running his clawed hands through your hair, "Can't I just say fuck off back to hell we're gonna exterminate all of you regardless."

"Sera wants you to at least meet with her one time; she's giving you a lot of trust to handle this on your own."

"And if I do what you ask, what'll you give me?" He mused, eyes sparkling. You huffed, hitting him with the back of your wing, and he laughed, "Come on, you gotta sweeten the deal for me, mama."

"You're such a bastard." You huffed, moving to pull your hair out of your face. He moved his legs to the ground, and you could slide between his knees. "Robe off unless you want dirty," you commanded as Adam fumbled out of it quickly.

"I love you~" He leaned back with a sly grin, hand reaching up to move your head closer to his lip. Your fingers spread across his thighs, and you huffed softly, looking up at him.

"I love you more. If I do this for you, you promise to meet with young Lady Morningstar?"

"You can't just fuck me because you love me?"

"Bite me." You sneered, but there wasn't any malice in your voice as he stood up, picking you up off the ground and pressing your back against his desk.

"Oh, it would be my pleasure. I can't say your robes will survive, though I might need to get you some new ones." Adam popped the buttons on your robe, allowing your body to be laid bare for his eyes. He watched your breathing hitch as his long claw trailed down your neck to your chest. "Fuck I love these puppies, you know that?" Adam grinned, grabbing fistfuls of your breasts, squeezing and kneading to his heart's content. Your husband was like an oversized golden retriever. When he sees something he likes, he obsesses over it like a man deranged. His favorite playthings of yours were your tits and ass. "Any meetings?"

"None. I'm yours for the rest of the day. You can mark me how you'd like; I'm yours, my husband. Well, until you meet with the Princess."

"Fuckkkkk yeah, baby, come 'ere." Adam dove between your breasts, and he felt you suck in air through your teeth. He began to bite and suck on the supple flesh of your chest; you keened, arching into his mouth, hands tangling in his brown hair. You could tell from the way his teeth would graze against your nipples and your flesh he was doing everything in his power to leave marks on the skin.

"Adam...ngh." You panted, feeling his hand move down from your breast to slide down your stomach and between your legs. "Shit," You squeaked, feeling him tease your clit with his thumb and forefinger with a dopey grin on his face.

"There's my favorite girl," He flicked your nub skillfully; for being a massive asshole, this prick sure knew where to find your clit. One finger slid between your folds, and you tossed your head against the cold marble desk. "Damn, only one finger has you acting up? I must not be treating you good enough," He purred as another finger entered you, stretching you out to be big enough for, 'the first ever man god created.' Adam watched with delight as your wings spread out and trembled, glowing with a soft golden glow. "That's it, you're being such a good girl for me. Are you ready?"

"Yes." You panted, "Adam, please."

"God, you beg so nicely, you little slut," His hand reached up to grip your throat, causing you to let out a desperate whine, hips bucking into his fingers. "Beg Harder," He demanded, moving your hand to palm him through his trousers, stiff and aching. "Look at how hard you make me. How desperate. I need you to worship your god."

"Yes, sir." You purred, "You're my God, Adam. I need you, I'd worship for your love, your touch, your dick." You dragged your hand up your chest, playing with the swell of your own breast, "Don't you want to make me happy, baby?"

"More than anything." Adam's eyes lit up in elation, "Stay with me. Don't go to Lucifer. You're mine." He snarled, hands around your throat, "Say it."

"I'm with you. Only you. Forever Adam." His entire body seemed to relax when you said that, pressing gentle kisses to your cheek and lips. "I love you, you annoying Dickweed."

"Love you more, Sugartits." He grinned cheekily before lowering himself to you with a hiss-like laugh. "Tight as ever, and that's why I love you,"

"If you keep talking nonsense while you're literally inside me, I'll cut off your dick,"

"Sounds kinky."

"Adam."

"Fine, Fine, you're so vanilla." He mused, albeit his tone was much softer, fonder than his earlier teasing. His hands grabbed under your knees and pressed you close with a snap of his hips. You both let out a moan, yours higher pitched and needier, bucking your hips, searching for more friction than he was currently providing. You always savored the way he was able to fill you up, he wasn't the longest but god was he thick filling you in all the right ways. Every time his hips snapped into you, you could feel just how deep he kissed your cervix. "Yeah, you like that?" He panted, "Like how deep I'm getting? From the way you're dripping, you're practically soaking through my table. Your vag is like a vice, babe, so tight for this big cock."

"Hm. Your words always know how to turn me o-ng-ff." You moaned out this end at a particularly sharp thrust of his hips. "Fuck you," You panted as he grinned down at you,

"Good news, wifey, that's exactly what we're doing-"

"Sir!" You let out a scream as Lute slammed the door of his office open, you climbed against Adam's body like an embarrassed Nun. He groaned, still inside you but having the decency to cover you with his wings.

"What do you need, Lute? I'm a little busy getting it on with my sexy ass wife." Adam complained, motioning to the top of your head, to which you made an embarrassed sound of mortification. "Can this be rescheduled or-"

"The Princess of Hell is here, Sir. She just showed up-"

"Are you for real telling me that the bitch Princess of Hell is seriously cucking me right now?!"

"...Yes."

"(Y/n) If I killed her for interrupting us, would you be pissed?"

"Beyond Adam."

"Fuck."

[aliciavance4228]

Was Athena a Feminist or a Female Misogynist?

Athena is perhaps the one most famous goddesses from Greek Mythology, and was for a very long time considered a good role model for women and a feminist due to the fact that she's a smart woman who can fight in battles. However, there are also a lot of people who claim that she is in fact a female misogynist and consider her to be the original "pick-me girl" or "I'm not like the other girls" girl. And the fact that she's seen besides male heroes most of the time or the myths of Medusa and Arachne doesn’t make this situation any better.

And the very first problem in this equation is that people are using a lot of modern terms (and a modern mentality in general) in order to label a figure that was firstly mentioned thousands of years ago. So there's a LOT to unpack here.

The first mentions of Athena come from mycenaean mythology. Back then the place that later became Athens surpringly had a matriarchal view on society, which would explain why Athena as a female figures isn't depicted in a traditionally feminine way. But years have passed, and things have changed a lot both socially and culturally. Athens, despite of being one of the most developed cities from Ancient Greece, had a very patriarchal view on society, to the point where even the other cities considered it to over exaggerate. In order to understand just how misogynistic athenians were, they believed not only that the woman is a disfigured version of the man, but that men could find a way to reproduce themselves without the help of women and that the female is nothing but a vessel when it comes to reproduction.

The thing is that, while a lot of things changed in the Athens in time, the goddess that was the patron of that city remained the same. So the question that naturally comes is: If women are inferior to men, then why is our patron deity a goddess? And so, the only play which specifically depicts Athena as a female misogynist appeared: Eumenides. This play was obviously written by a male Athenian, and its pure intention is to answer to that question. In the Eumenides, Athena says this thing:

It is my duty to give the final judgment and I shall cast my vote for Orestes. [735] For there was no mother who gave me birth; and in all things, except for marriage, whole-heartedly I am for the male and entirely on the father’s side. Therefore, I will not award greater honor to the death of a woman who killed her husband, the master of the house. [740] Orestes wins, even if the vote comes out equal.

As you can observe from this quote, the dialogue is ment to confirm the ancient athenian perspective about reproduction, as well as their views on women in general. Despite the fact that Metis was supposed to be Athena's mother since she was pregnant with her when Zeus ate her, in this play she is completely erased and Athena has one single parent figure: Zeus.

In other words, Athena was clearly a product of the society that worpshipped her; a society that believed that traits such as high intellect or strenght cannot be attributed to women. It is up to you guys to decide wheter the Eumenides is canon to the rest of Greek Mythology or not.

However, aside from this particular play, Athena shows no ill-will towards women purely for their gender. She had a very close relationship with Pallas to the point where she even takes her name after she killed her by accident (Thank you, Zeus!), and acted as the big sis towards Artemis and Persephone, as it is suggested in Homeric Hymns to Demeter.

Furthermore, if you ever read the Iliad then you would observe that her interactions with mortal women are very different compared to those with Medusa or Arachne from Roman Mythology.

In the Iliad, Athena gifts Penelope in handicrafts, wiles, and storytelling, making Penelope an anti-Arachne due to the fact that she isn't punished by the goddess for her talents, but rather blessed for them.

Athena has endowed her above other women with knowledge of fair handiwork and an understanding heart, and wiles, such as we have never yet heard that any even of the women of old knew, of those who long ago were fair-tressed Achaean women— [120] Tyro and Alcmene and Mycene of the fair crown—of whom not one was like Penelope in shrewd device…

At the same time, we have the story of Cassandra and how Athena avenged her. Cassandra was brutally raped by Ajax the Lesser in her temple. She asked Athena for revenge, telling her what happened to her. Athena was absolutely livid, sent a storm to wreck the Achaeans' boats when they failed to kill Ajax, then destroyed his ship near the Whirling Rocks and left him to die, or lifted him in the sky during a storm and impaled him with her father's thunderbolt. At this point, Cassandra is an anti-Medusa, because she was avenged instead of being punished for being raped. Furthermore, in the original greek myths Athena herself was about to be raped by Hephaestus at some point. She was very aware of the fact that there's a difference between a woman who had sex on her own will and one that didn’t consent to it, so it makes no sense why she wouldn't help a rape victim.

Medusa and Arachne were later additions by Ovid, and their stories were anti-Authority Propaganda.

So instead of quickly coming to any sort of conclusion and deciding wheter or not Athena was a Feminist or a Misogynist, perhaps people should understand the fact that the situation was way more complicated as she was nothing more than a character that was depicted both according to the societal and personal views ancient greeks had on women (which were more or less different depending on the century and the poet), and that the answer is way more complicated than we think.

[succulentsiren]

The Siren Archetype

Learn to Embody the Siren Archetype

In seduction, the Siren Archetype is a woman with a great magnetic charm and a glamorous appearance that enchants men to their doom.

Her emotional sensations allow her to hold a string of influence over others and once they become emotionally attached, they fall into a deep obsession.

The Siren Archetype has remained in the mainstream media and women with this Archetype continue to fascinate the world.

Their supreme magnetism and mystique will never wear off.

Examples in Media: Angelina Jolie, Alexa Demie, Marilyn Monroe.

The Siren Archetype is represented by the tarot cards, the Queen of Cups and the Star.

If this is your archetype, you're in unity with your sexuality and can captivate people like a spell.

Due to your healthy and expressive sexuality, you are the most powerful archetype. You are fully aware of this and can use your feminine wiles to attract your desires easily. You can be very strategic and think logically while also maintaining a sexy and alluring aura. This makes you dangerous in the eyes of men and you attract them effortlessly with your magnetic sex appeal, mystery and promise of pleasure. You easily garner envy, admiration, lust and the desire of others but you choose to remain unfazed by it all. You deeply honor your body and self-image and of course, you expect others to do the same.

Take the Quiz Here

The Dark Feminine Archetypes

[wumiings]

“the state preceptor had only ever taught [Xie Lian] how to defend against the wiles of women, not men” and “she’d failed to say: ‘Shen Qingqiu, your fated partner is a fucking man!’” have the same energy adhskdk they’re both just like. well someone should have warned me!!

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

So, I LOVE Epic: This Musical and I'm excited for some of the songs in the Circe Saga, but one of TWO songs that I absolutely DESPISE in this musical is coming out and I'm so stressed out about it.

"There Are Other Ways" and "I'm Not Sorry For Loving You" make me so frustrated because it looks like they fall into downplaying the coercion and abuse Odysseus went through because the abusers are women. AND I HATE THAT.

"There Are Other Ways" is a song between a person who has power to force a person into doing what they want (Circe) and their victim (Odysseus), who can only comply. And from what I've read it has the line "There's no puppet here."

It's really clever writing because if you know the story, you know Odysseus is in a precarious situation and he was told by Hermes that when she asked to sleep with him, he needed to do it. Here's three different translations of the moment Hermes tells him "Don't you tell her no" with the warning from Hermes bolded:

"'And I will tell thee all the baneful wiles of Circe. She will mix thee a potion, and cast drugs into the food; but even so she shall not be able to bewitch thee, for the potent herb that I shall give thee will not suffer it. And I will tell thee all. When Circe shall smite thee with her long wand, then do thou draw thy sharp sword from beside thy thigh, and rush upon Circe, as though thou wouldst slay her. And she will be seized with fear, and will bid thee lie with her. Then do not thou thereafter refuse the couch of the goddess, that she may set free thy comrades, and give entertainment to thee. But bid her swear a great oath by the blessed gods, that she will not plot against thee any fresh mischief to thy hurt, lest when she has thee stripped she may render thee a weakling and unmanned.’

“ ‘And I will tell you of all the wicked witchcraft that Circe will try to practice upon you. She will mix a potion for you to drink, and she will drug the meal with which she makes it, but she will not be able to charm you, for the virtue of the herb that I shall give you will prevent her spells from working. I will tell you all about it. When Circe strikes you with her wand, draw your sword and spring upon her as though you were going to kill her. She will then be frightened, and will desire you to go to bed with her; on this you must not directly refuse her, for you want her to set your companions free, and to take good care also of yourself, but you must make her swear solemnly by all the blessed gods that she will plot no further mischief against you, or else when she has got you naked she will unman you and make you fit for nothing.’

"I will tell you all Circe’s fatal wiles. She will mix a drink for you, blending drugs with the food, but even so she will fail to enchant you: the powerful herb I will give you will prevent it. Let me tell you the rest. When Circe strikes you with her length of wand, draw your sharp sword and rush at her, as if you intend to kill her. She will be seized with fear. Then she’ll invite you to her bed, and don’t refuse the goddess’ favours, if you want her to free your men, and care for you too. But make her swear a solemn oath by the blessed gods that she won’t try to harm you with her mischief, lest when you are naked she robs you of courage and manhood.”’

He had no choice in the matter. It was a "you will have to sacrifice yourself OR you will never get your men back and you won't be safe if you don't do it" moment. While Circe's not telling this directly to Odysseus, it's still COERCION because he knows if he says "No, I want to be faithful to my wife" Circe will harm him. But a lot of people don't know that and are going to continue to perpetuate the idea that Odysseus cheated on his wife. 😒 And they're going to use that line of "There's no puppets here" as "proof" that Odysseus cheated.

If you can sympathize with Ovid's later adaptation of Medusa as a victim of Poseidon, but refuse to acknowledge Odysseus was as much a victim of Circe AND Calypso and claim he's cheating... Please, ask yourself: why is that?

[akaridream]

please my prince (vegeta x reader)

tags: vegeta x time patroller! reader, vegeta x saiyan! reader, mentor-mentee dynamic, afab reader

warnings: explicit content, MDNI; he’s kinda mean but not too bad, good girl, princess, bitch... but no spoilers for the fun stuff

Vegeta had loved the female Saiyan battle suits since the day he hit puberty. The briefs left little to the imagination, showing off many warriors’ favorite assets. Though the story was that they allowed the most freedom of movement, attracting the eye of a potential mate was never too far from a Saiyan’s mind. As you stood in front of Vegeta stretching during a lull in your training session together, he admired your cheeky attire. You had the firm glutes and quads of a powerful warrior, after all. Your efforts shouldn’t go unappreciated. And they certainly didn’t.

Though your training sessions were productive, they were always plagued with an air of tension. As noble a warrior as he was, Vegeta was not immune to the wiles of a female, especially one of his own Saiyan heritage. Something inside him stirred at the sight of your tail swishing, hypnotizing him and making him wish he still had a tail of his own to flirt back at you with. His mind-numbing attraction to you made training sessions an exercise in self-control. When was the last time he had even seen a female Saiyan, let alone one of your impressive power? What would happen if he overstepped the line and made a move on you?

Little did he know, you also struggled to maintain your composure around him. With his widow’s peak and chiseled body, he was a living picture of Saiyan perfection. His narrow waist and hips were well balanced by wide shoulders and a tower of wild hair. His silhouette made you claw half-moons into your palms at the sight. How could any man be so fucking hot?

It was quite the privilege to train with him, too. Only a handful of Time Patrollers had adequate power levels to satisfy the prince. You had the honor of becoming his first Saiyan trainee, garnering special treatment, but not with extra leeway or praise. Vegeta’s regimen bordered on cruel, only because he knew you could handle it. He saw the fire, the passion for battle that blazed in your rich black eyes. He felt the immense power behind your blows. He heard the rage of the oozaru in your battle cry.

“Saiyan men crave strong women,” he recalled telling Kakarot once, and there was no denying it. You were strong. And he craved you.

Many shameful nights, he had gone to the locker room showers at the Patroller Academy with a raging erection thanks to you. Too proud to relent, however, he opted for a cold shower rather than gratify himself. Tonight was shaping up to have the same outcome. The sun had set and the gymnasium at the academy had long since cleared out, leaving only you and your mentor to train on the wrestling mats. The air conditioner had kicked off after dark, leaving you to pine over a shirtless Vegeta with drops of sweat racing down his pecs. You breathed deeply into your stretch, closing your eyes and folding forward to touch your toes. Vegeta closed his eyes too, if only to keep them off your ass. He still had plenty of combinations left to drill into you, he couldn’t deal with a hard-on now. There would be no hiding it in his compression shorts.

“Come on, you’ve slacked off long enough,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m sick of you wasting my damn time. Run the last combo again.”

You continued to stretch, unperturbed. “I’m feeling tight and trying to avoid pulling a muscle,” you snarled. “Plus, I know you’re enjoying the view.”

Vegeta’s face caught on fire, making him turn his back to you. “Shut the hell up, woman! The only thing I’m enjoying is knocking some sense into that smart mouth of yours.”

The tip of your tail twitched and your heart began to race. If there was one thing a Saiyan loved as much as a physical fight, it was a good verbal spar.

“Yeah yeah, I might take you more seriously if you had landed a solid blow on me today. Pretty sure I’ve blocked just about everything you’ve thrown at me,” you said.

Vegeta scoffed and turned back to you. Annoyed, he kneed you in the butt, knocking you off balance. You squealed and rolled forward into a somersault.

“The fuck was that for?” you asked, peering up from the ground at a smug mentor.

“Didn’t block that one, did you?” Vegeta said, raising an eyebrow.

You rolled your eyes. “I could have swept you if I wanted. But I don’t want to continue to show up my own teacher. He’s got an ego the size of this planet, don’t want to bruise it.”

“Just get off your lazy ass and run the combo!” he roared as he stood over you. “Why the hell I tolerate you, I don’t even know.”

You smirked and got to your feet, wrapping your tail around your waist. “Like I said, you enjoy the view, Prince.”

Unamused, he came at you with a flurry of powerful blows before you were ready. You managed to dodge and block them, then came in with the combination you had been practicing. He blocked then countered with a swift palm strike, sending you flying. You landed on your feet, then launched back at your mentor, throwing in a wicked elbow straight for his head. With almost no effort, Vegeta slipped past you and kicked with a grunt. You barely leaned back in time, watching his muscled calf fly straight past your nose. Before you could recover, he grabbed a fistful of your black hair and smashed your face into the mat, knee on your spine for good measure. You groaned and tried to get up to no avail.

“Pathetic,” Vegeta growled. “Bragging about your blocking ability but you didn’t see that coming.”

“Because that was a dirty move, Jeet.”

He scoffed and pressed his knee harder into your back. “Do you think Frieza fights clean? Or how about Janemba? Or maybe you think Broly will fight honorably?”

You continued to struggle between his weight and the floor but he kept you pinned. You looked up at him over your shoulder as he leaned down to your ear.

“You’re weak. Just admit you can’t handle my training and give up.”

“Fuck you,” you grumbled.

“Huh? Couldn’t quite hear that, sweetheart. You want me to go easy on you because you’re no stronger than an infant earthling?”

Your nostrils flared and you clawed into the mat. Rage bloomed from deep within you and your hair began to glow blonde.

“I said fuck you Vegeta!” you roared as you threw him off and across the mat. A glint of pride flickered across Vegeta’s face as he stood and barreled towards you with another attack.

You traded blow after blow, matching his power and speed. You gritted your teeth as you sparred and he continued to block your every move.

“That’s it! Push it harder! This is your life you’re fighting for! I’ll send you through the roof if you hold back on me!” Vegeta yelled in your face. He watched as your eyes glowed with intensity in Super Saiyan form, hitting your stride as you fought.

You grunted with each strike, crying out in annoyance as he easily deflected you, then gave you a shove just to show how much of a gap there still was between your power levels. Teeming with frustration, you balled your fists and breathed deep, building your energy.

“I’m not holding back!” you barked with a fully charged punch. You caught your mentor on the cheek, but just barely, causing him to stumble for a moment. You lunged in with a swift knee to his solar plexus, driving him straight back and onto the ground. One knee on his chest and the other by his hip, you pinned him to the mat, crossing a forearm over his neck and holding one of his thick biceps down. His eyes narrowed as you panted over him like a raging bull, a smirk tugging at the corner of your mouth.

“That punch was not part of the combo,” he snarled.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Princess. Did you think I was gonna fight clean?”

“Tch, you damn brat!”

Vegeta’s eyes flashed blue, his hair flaring to a brilliant gold as he quickly reversed your positions, rolling you onto your back. He grabbed your wrists and pinned them next to your head while he straddled one of your legs. His face was dangerously close to yours before you knew what happened.

Your breaths mingled in the thin air between you. Hearts beating wildly, you watched the inky black return to his irises as yours did the same. You unwrapped your tail from your waist and allowed it to brush against Vegeta’s leg. The golden glow faded from you both and you realized just what you were feeling against your thigh.

“V… Vegeta, are you…” you panted.

The look in his eye grew dark as his gaze darted to your lips. Bristling with a different energy, you extended your neck to meet him with a searing hot kiss.

His grip on your wrists grew tight as he mashed his lips back against yours. He allowed his weight to press into you as you kissed, his tongue beginning to explore.

“The hell was that for?” he breathed against your mouth. Your tongue met his and teased him, drawing him into you.

“You were practically begging for it.” He let go of your wrists to tangle one hand in your hair, giving him leverage to attack your mouth just how he wanted. His tongue was hot yet soft, enticing you to chase and play along. Your hands couldn’t stay off his body. You traced down his sides, feeling the dips between his sculpted muscles. You made your way to his hips, then his taut buttocks, gripping and urging him to drag his hardened cock against your leg. Vegeta chuckled.

“A prince begs for nothing, you damn minx,” he growled.

You moaned as his tongue swirled against yours. “Tell me you’ll fuck me, Vegeta.”

He kissed his way to your neck, sucking and nibbling your tender flesh. “Hmph, now who’s begging?”

You whined as his free hand started to explore over your breastplate. “I… I’m not begging.”

“Really?” He chuckled darkly. “Then what do you call those noises, hm?”

You started to move your hips, searching for friction against your throbbing clit. “I’m not some submissive little girl,” you said.

Vegeta stilled your hip and sucked a mark onto your collar bone. “No, you’re just a Saiyan bitch in heat who wants the prince to satisfy her.”

You roughly grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked him back to your mouth. “I’m not that desperate, especially not for you.”

He denied your kiss and held your gaze. “Your actions speak louder than your words, woman,” he said, ghosting a finger over your slit. Your throat tightened as he pressed against your throbbing clit, trying not to let him know just how needy you really were. But as he locked his eyes with yours, you couldn’t ignore the intense, pulsing desire you felt for him, allowing a moan to fall from your lips.

“Fuck, so what if I am?” you whined. “What if I do want you that bad?”

He smirked. “You gave in to me so easily. Why the hell should I reward you?”

“Because you want me, too.”

He snickered and graced you with a rough kiss.

“You think you’re that special, huh?” he said.

You gave his lower lip a gentle bite, eliciting a low groan and hard drag of his cock against your leg.

“Not really. But I think I know a horny man when I see one.”

Vegeta smirked and repositioned himself between your legs, humping against your clothed core agonizingly slowly. A hot breath escaped you and your nails dug into his hips.

“Mm, Vegeta,” you moaned.

“You’re going to take me like a good girl, you got it?” he asked, creating a blissful rhythm against you. You nodded. “And you’re going to let your prince use you just how he wants, right?”

You nodded again. “Yes. You can have me Prince Vegeta.” Pleasure was building quickly as he dry humped you. Your whines echoed through the empty gym, reminding you that anyone could walk in at any moment.

Another desperate kiss betrayed the prince’s feelings: he needed you, too. He stripped off your armor, leaving you in a strappy sports bra and your briefs. He rolled you onto your stomach and ran his hands up the backs of your thighs.

“If it wasn’t for this perfect ass of yours, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” he said, thumbs brushing against the bottom of your buttocks. He gave a light smack, making you bite your lip and wiggle your hips.

“I knew you loved it,” you teased. He gave a harder smack as your tail began to flit excitedly.

He removed your briefs slowly, revealed your muscular ass in all its glory. “The fact that it belongs to the hottest Saiyan woman I’ve ever seen doesn’t hurt either.”

You grinned as he tossed your briefs aside, his eyes devouring your drooling slit. Your tail swished with an enticing rhythm. Vegeta couldn’t keep his hands off you and he ran his calloused palms over the developing spank mark before gliding a fingertip over your most sensitive parts.

“Need it, my prince,” you sighed.

His cock ached. “You’ll get it when I decide you’re ready.”

He plunged a finger deep into your velvetty walls, but it only served to make you want more. You craved the deep stretch his cock would provide. Vegeta twisted his wrist as he withdrew his finger, then penetrated back into you with force. The slick, shiny arousal coated his finger and began to drip down his knuckle as it rammed against you. Your tail wrapped tightly around his wrist, urging him to continue.

He positioned you with one leg bent up and your ass arched high into the air, a gorgeous angle to see your aching pussy. Impatient and painfully hard, Vegeta added a second finger, scissoring the pair apart as he pulled out from you. The pressure against your insides caused you to cry out and press your forehead hard into the mat. You balled your fists and moaned his name as he gradually stretched you further.

“Please, need your cock,” you breathed between moans. Vegeta gave a dark chuckle and began removing his shorts. You watched him over your shoulder, his cock heavy and thick as it sprang free. You salivated at the sight.

“Can I have you in my mouth?” you asked, starting to sit up.

He grabbed the back of your neck and returned your face to the mat. “No. I want you like this. Now get your ass up nice and high for me.”

You obeyed, arching your back to display your cunt for the prince. He kept his hand on your neck as he caressed your backside, then allowed his cock to rest against you.

“Good girl. Now take me. Take me like the bitch you are.”

He teased your entrance with his cockhead, dragging it to brush against your clit then back to your awaiting slit. On his knees over you, he firmly started pressing the head into you, watching it disappear, then reappear with your arousal covering it. He moaned your name in praise as he pushed himself in further.

“That’s it, take my cock,” he panted. Your back muscles clenched as he sheathed himself.

“Fuuuuck, you feel so good!” you cried. “Fuck me Prince, please.”

Vegeta’s hips rocked into yours as he bottomed out, giving you the delicious stretch you craved. Your tail instinctively wrapped around one of his thighs as he withdrew. Your eyes squeezed shut in pleasure as the prince worked up to a rough rhythm, pounding you into the mat.

“Ahh! Fuck yes, fuck yes Vegeta,” you moaned as your hands clawed the mat for purchase. You dug your elbows in and threw your hips back against him as he fucked you, flesh smacking flesh in a sinful sound that echoed off the concrete walls.

“Your cunt is perfect,” he grunted. “Fucking perfect.” He watched each thrust ripple through your ass, driving his quickly approaching orgasm. Laying over you, he kissed, sucked and bit at your shoulders as he fucked you. His cock drove deep and hard making you whine in delight.

“Keep making those sounds for me, princess,” he commanded in your ear. “Knew you’d be a good girl, knew you’d beg for your prince.”

“Mm, anything for you Vegeta. Wanted you to fill me up for so long!”

His speed and power increased as he neared his climax. His breaths were short, exasperated gasps of pleasure accentuated by groans and moans from deep in his throat.

“You want me to cum in your tight little cunt? That what you want?” he asked, biting at your ear. You couldn’t even form words and only nodded and moaned.

He grunted with a fiery passion as he pounded you with bruising force. He held your hip firmly in place, fucking you like he’d never get another chance. His sounds became more broken, more honeyed until he finally snapped his pelvis against your plush ass with a guttural moan.

“Gahh, ahh ah ahh!” Vegeta cried out, nearly knocking the breath out of you as he came with powerful final thrusts. You whimpered beneath him, squeezing his pulsing cock with your walls. He panted desperately as he came down from his high, collapsing fully onto you while staying sheathed in your heat. As your tail loosened its grip on his thigh, he reached down to twirl it between his fingers. The intimate gesture filled your stomach with warmth as he laid his weight into you. Once the prince caught his breath, he brushed your wild hair away and nuzzled into the back of your neck. 

“Fucking perfect, perfect little cunt. But now that I’ve gotten my way,” his voice rasped. “It’s your turn, my princess.” Your heart jolted at his suggestion.

“Not tapping out?” you chuckled as he played with your tail.

He scoffed. “Just because I come first doesn’t mean you don’t come at all. Need to feel you shaking in my arms.”

Vegeta finally pulled out from your pussy, causing his cum to spill out and onto the mat, leaving you empty, but not yet spent. You rolled onto your back and sat up, finally stripping off your bra. The prince’s eyes grew hungry at the sight of your breasts. Vegeta returned his lips to yours in a slow, sensual kiss, surprising you after how forcefully he had fucked you. His hands roamed all over your neck, into your hair, over your nipples as he lapped at your tongue. You wrapped your arms around his muscled shoulders, pressing chest to chest as you made out, steamy breaths in between kisses.

Vegeta sat back on the mat with his legs wide and invited you to sit between them, back against his firm pectorals and abs. He brushed your hair away and bit your ear before breathing sweet nothings into it.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “So incredibly sexy, it’s been driving me mad.” You sighed as his hands caressed your skin, kneading your thigh and breast as he kissed your neck. “Took you damn long enough to make your move, you know,” he said.

You laughed and melted into his touch like a wilting flower. “Oh, you know Saiyan women. We like to tease. But I just couldn’t keep my hands off you any longer.”

Vegeta licked and sucked your skin, his head dizzy at the soft mewls you let out. His fingers began to tease your sensitive entrance, still slick with his cum. He traced around the perimeter, then upward over your clit. You shuddered and moaned.

“That’s it, princess. Let me make you tremble,” he growled.

He pinched and pulled at your nipple with one hand and worked your pussy with the other, dipping his fingers deep inside and using the heel of his palm to rub your clit. You writhed against his chest and clawed into his thigh while he twirled your tail around his hand. He gave it a light squeeze, sending a pulse of pleasure up through your spine.

“Mnnh, Vegeta, you’re so fucking good,” you breathed as he finger-fucked you. You matched his rhythm with your hips as the intensity began building. You turned your head to the side and kissed him feverishly, moaning into his mouth. The taste of his tongue was addicting. 

His fingers slid into you with the most perfect friction, hitting your sweet spot thrust after thrust. Vegeta wrapped an arm around your waist, as if any space between your bodies was too much. He pressed his head against yours as you chased and humped his hand. You clutched his bulging forearm, guiding him to touch you just right.

Feeling the steady approach of white-hot bliss, you squealed. “Mm! Gonna cum!” 

“Do it. Cum for me. Cum for your prince.”

You called his name, clinging to him tightly as the rush came. “Haaahhh, fuck Vegeta!” you cried out. Your back arched like a cracking whip and shock waves of sweet euphoria crashed over you. Your body quaked just like he wanted, making him chuckle in pride.

“That’s it,” he cooed in your ear as he stroked your tail and nuzzled against you. You clenched his fingers within you as he pressed his palm into your clit, coaxing out more shuddering pleasure. “That’s my princess.”

“Goddamn, that was so good,” you praised, collapsing into him completely as the aftershocks pulsed through you.

He kissed your shoulder, licking the salt of your sweat. “You’re too fucking loud, you brat. You want the whole city to know what we’re up to?”

You laughed and shoved Vegeta to the ground so you could lay on top of him. “I don’t give a shit. They deserve to know who made me cum so hard.”

He smirked and held you against his sweaty chest. “Damn right.”

“And you weren’t exactly quiet either, Prince of all Saiyans,” you teased, feeling his cock had hardened again. You reached down to stroke it, but he caught your wrist and brought it to his lips.

“I have self-control when I need to.” He closed his eyes and kissed your wrist and fingers. “We should hit the showers for the night.”

You hummed and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you made quite a mess of me. Thought you might be interested in another round, but if you don’t have the stamina-”

His eyes shot open and he squeezed your hand. “I didn’t say we should hit the showers separately, did I?”

dbz masterlist

[katerinaaqu]

Ruthless Justice

This fic is dedicated to my dear friend @artsofmetamoor as a gift! She had also expressed an interest to the events of the murder of the suitors but I decided to take it into a more tragic level; the excecution of the 12 maids and I added some random emotional scene afterwards! You are warned this fic includes dark themes!

The cries that filled the room were deafening. The young ears of Telemachus could not bear them. The slave women were forced to clean up the room from the corpses of the blasted suitors that nearly killed him and took the kingdom of his father. It was the first time Telemachus had killed. He still couldn’t believe it how easy it had been! It was almost easier than hunting wild goats and deer in the mountains of Ithaca! Some part of him had felt a wild pleasure, almost hedonic gladness, when he had stabbed that first body and continued. This hedonism increased by the happiness he felt that he was helping his father, that he was useful. He felt pleasure for this justice that was finally prevailing in the halls of his house; finally the constant harassment and insults his mother and himself had gone through was punished and he had finally found his father. He had witnessed his brain and his ferocity, his dexterity and cunning first hand! So far he had only heard of it from others that had met him and yet now he had actually seen it before him; his father who was no longer at the prime of youth he had managed to clean the hall of 108 men 10 or even 20 years younger than what he was. Some part of Telemachus wondered; how was his father in his prime? How much more ferocity in battle he possessed? How much more wits and wiles could he loom in short amounts of time?

However now that the first thrill of battle had gone, now they had finished cleaning the chairs of the hall with sponges and water, Telemachus was shocked at their own strength and results. He looked around at the hall that was basically full of wrapped bodies; the bodies that used to belong to vigorous, young nobles and his father now stood at the hall, hard as the stones that built that very palace. Odysseus was not a tall man (that much was a surprise to Telemachus, for from the conversations he had heard about his father’s strength and name he had expected him to be as tall as he was, perhaps taller), he barely stood at average height, maybe a little less, but his physique showed the power that his hardships built upon him. His raven hair, which had already started turning silver from time and hardships, was curly like his own and long till his shoulders; those strong shoulders burnt by sea and sun. A thick bushy beard was hiding a strong jaw line and mouth shut tightly closed. However Telemachus particularly noticed his stone look as the onyx eyes of his seemed soulless like glass even if they burnt with hatred and anger. Right now he could see before him a man who lived up to his name; “The Anger Bringer”. Odysseus was indeed enraged; that much Telemachus could tell. The almost full day of slaughter seemed to have created a curst thick like salt upon his face, just as thick was the blood that had splattered it, the blood he didn’t have much time to clean. And yet, despite all that, he seemed to stand naturally within that chaos; like only a war veteran would stand naturally amongst corpses and cries. He remained there as the lamenting women were literally dragged and pushed at his feet as he stood at the podium of the throne. He seemed like a judge; a ruthless judge ready to pass judgment. Telemachus had seen him angry, hopeful, crying, tender and then ruthless in his killing but now he was truly disturbed at the shadow that had passed over his face. He saw then the one that had come from war; the Sacker of Cities… Odysseus looked down at the maidens crying and struggling, as if they were insects.

“I took you to my home…” he said, his voice cold as ice and sharp as a knife, “I gave you a bed, fed you, dressed you…made sure you would want of nothing while you were under my roof… I respected your wishes…never mistreated you and this is how you repay me? By mingling with my enemies…the very men that wished to violently claim my wife and kill my son?”

Every word was a hammer upon a nail. Telemachus felt a shiver down his spine. He wouldn’t want to be to the other end of that look that was for sure! The women seemed pale like bed sheets; like the sheets that were covering the bodies they had gathered with their own very hands. He saw the other two helpers of theirs; the two herders Eumaeus and Philoetius, standing over the crying maidens, watching at their master with pride. Telemachus had never seen so much wild triumph to the old face of Eumaeus’s before. Never.

“Eumaeus….” Odysseus addressed him, “What is the punishment for treason?”

“Death, my lord” his voice didn’t even hesitate

“Quite so…” Odysseus nodded.

He glared at the slave girls like a hawk.

“Normally I should drag you all out and stone you to death!”

Odysseus didn’t have to yell. All he needed was to speak in that low voice that boiled with anger, like the bubbling water in a cauldron. And yet that was more than enough to emphasize his anger.

“However we have caused enough ruin already! And I shall not even spare one single sacred stone of this palace for you!”

One could wonder whether he was about to say he would sell them away or something of similar manner, which would already be cruel enough. However the king of Ithaca said;

“Philoetius! Bring me a long piece of rope! Eumaeus, help me bring these treacherous women out! They shall be hanged!”

The word sounded as terrible as I was clear and the women broke to a woe Telemachus had never heard before (and, by gods, had he heard enough woe in his house ever since he was a baby!). The screeches and the cries they released along with their already blood-painted hands trying to claw themselves out of the swine herder’s strong grip, nearly made him throw up.

“Father!” he protested, “you can’t be serious! They are just helpless women!”

His father’s onyx eyes stuck within his own and Telemachus felt that same shiver down his spine. There was fire in those obsidian eyes! The same fire of earth that had forged the volcanic glass that gave his eyes their color seemed to be now burning deep inside those black orbs; it was though a cold fire that burnt like the ice burns the skin!

“Is the betrayal of a woman less serious than the betrayal of a man?” his voice was sharp as a broken sword; sharpness you wouldn’t know where it would cut you the worst; the actual blade or the broken tip

“N-No…” Telemachus stammered, “B-But…”

His voice was being drowned by the shrieks of the women. He couldn’t stand it.

“Does the dagger being wielded by a woman draw less blood when it stabs you in the back than the one wielded by a man?”

“Father please!”

“Stay back, Telemachus!” his father commanded, pushing him out of his way, “You are not to see this!”

Telemachus felt his heart clench but he held his ground.

“No, father, I shall help you” he said determined, “If I am to become king of this land, I must help justice prevail!”

His father eyed him once more but Telemachus stood his ground. He was Odysseades Telemachus. He had to live up to his father’s legacy. Odysseus eyed him in wonder for one second but he did not protest his request any further. Part of Telemachus had wished he had. However he knew he had to be strong and stand by his father’s side. The cries of the female voices still haunted his ears as they went out to the trees of the garden. Odysseus pointed towards the direction of one of the trees. Telemachus gulped. He knew that tree. He had played so many times around it when he was a kid! He had named it “Troy” at some point, running around with his horse (in other words a stick he fantasized to be his horse when he was five) and he would yell at the people of Troy to open their gates for him, like he had imagined his father would be doing, on occasions scaring the birds that sat on the branches. As he grew older he would climb and sit on them, joining those birds, and looking over to the horizon as if waiting for a ship to appear, as if waiting to see the sails of the 12 ships of Ithaca arriving.

How weird indeed that Odysseus chose that particular tree for the execution hall to be built behind it! Telemachus never made that connection so strongly before!

As the men dragged the women out to their final spot; behind that said tree lay the dome of court where a small, confided space, where the women tied up with one single piece of rope from the throats like cattle being led for slaughter were crying and moaning. Telemachus felt his stomach turn. Oh, Athena, he prayed silently, please give me strength to do what I must! He felt then a gentle touch upon his shoulder; like the sun warming him with his rays. His racing heart slowed a bit in beat and he breathed in deeply. Yes, he could feel Athena’s reminder of his own strength. Yes, he had to do it. He was his father’s son. No one dared to speak at that moment. Apart from the endless woe of the women that were about to be executed, it almost felt like a macabre ritual that was about to happen. The women were forced to their final resting place; the narrow hall that was closed up by the neatherd and the swineherd. Telemachus held onto the end with both hands and sighed again, feeling weirdly calm. It was as if all his essence had gone numb. He was self-conscious that his father was looking at him. He almost felt him regretful as if he tried to release him from his task but Telemachus made a mechanical move with his head to stop him. I am Odysseiades Telemachus, he thought, this is my duty! Instinctually he looked towards the sky.

“May this be no clean death…” he heard himself whispering, breaking the silence and the cries of the women, “…that I take the lives of these women…for they were wishing for my head…both mine and my mother’s…when they betrayed us and lay with the suitors…”

His father made half a step forward. Telemachus had made his resolve

He threw the rope over the dome and pulled with all his might.

The cries stopped to give their place to chocking sounds.

Telemachus didn’t cry. He only sighed and closed his eyes.

Soon the haunting sounds stopped.

There was only the creaking of the swinging rope…

~ ~ ~

Telemachus chocked and coughed as he threw up the little contents of his stomach behind a bush. How strange, he thought, he didn’t feel the need to do that when he killed all those men he hated by his father’s side and yet he reacted upon an execution he performed with his own hands. It was, maybe, because he always learnt to respect women and protect them. Quite frankly he never raised a hand against a woman before in his life. And now he had, with one fateful move he had removed the lives of 12 women he considered helpless. And yet that moment of clarity it was as if Athena was speaking through him; these women are not innocent, he thought she said to him, they betrayed you and your father, they betrayed your mother’s secrets and led to more torment to her. They conspired to kill you.

“Then why…?” Telemachus thought, “Why was this so difficult?”

He felt two warm, calloused hands on his shoulders and looked up. He faced the tired look of his father’s; his face full of the blood of the victims they had killed. In one moment Telemachus felt self-conscious and realized he could possibly look similar to this. He turned his look away in shame. What would his father think? What would he say for his weakness? Instead, though, he heard him whisper:

“I am so proud of you, my son…” the voice echoed somewhere in his soul, “I understand that was not an easy decision to make…”

“F-Forgive me…f-father…” Telemachus stammered trying to stop the sobs that were chocking him, “I…I wasn’t strong enough…”

“You’re wrong, Telemachus” his voice was whispery and yet adamant, “You are strong, much stronger than any man I have seen so far. I understand the task that I placed upon you was not a pretty one or a pleasant one. And yet you fulfilled it with the bravery that many men didn’t show in thousands of wars. I am proud of you…”

Telemachus realized what had bothered him so much; his father indeed didn’t seem to separate women from men before the ruthless justice he threw upon them. Telemachus was taught to protect and respect women. However when Odysseus arrived at the hall and ordered the demise of 12 women with hardly even blinking disturbed him. How much had he changed? This was not the father that his mother was describing…nay, he wasn’t the father he had met in the hut of the swine herder that embraced him and kissed him like he were his own soul. He saw some of that father he met right now, to the father trying to console him but before? A few minutes prior he saw an executioner; not the father he knew and loved.

“But how much do I know him, really…?” Telemachus realized, “I first saw his face a few days ago… What kind of man is he? Really?”

Odysseus patted his son on his shoulders and helped him straighten himself. They walked past the tree where the women still hanged like doves from a hunter’s stick. Telemachus couldn’t look up at the blackened and bloated faces of death. Not Odysseus. Odysseus looked up steadily and steadfast. There hardly was a reaction on his face apart from a wrinkle playing between his eyes. He seemed tired, sure, he wasn’t feeling pleasure he wasn’t smiling and yet Telemachus wondered; does this man have nerves of steel or a heart of stone to look up so calmly? How much horror had he seen so that this gruesome sight wouldn’t make him avert his eyes?

“How…?” he whispered, “How can you take this…?”

His father was silent for one second until he finally decided to talk.

“One can get awfully accustomed to the face of death…when they have seen so plenty of it…”

His voice was almost dead; as if he was just stating a simple fact such as that the sun rises from the east rather than talking about the lives of people. That rubbed Telemachus in the wrong places even if he didn’t want to admit it.

“Sometimes…” Odysseus continued, “I feel like my heart has turned into stone… Sometimes I feel like it has no more space apart from you Telemachus…”

It took him a few seconds to realize what his father had just said. Perhaps not even Odysseus himself had realized it!

“What about mother, father? What about her?”

There was silence for one second. However that silence seemed to Telemachus more cruel than any other eternity in Hades’s kingdom!

“Father!” he urged

“Of course, your mother too…” Odysseus finally whispered, “I love her more than life itself! I did everything I could so I can come back to her…to you…”

“You doubted her!” Telemachus whispered in cruel realization, “Oh, gods! I don’t believe it! You doubted her! Even after everything she went through for you!”

“No!” Odysseus immediately retorted, “No, I didn’t doubt her! Not really…it is just…”

“Just what? I don’t believe you! After all these years she waited!”

“I know this” Odysseus retorted almost calmly, “Or rather I absolutely know now. However I needed to make sure…beyond any shade of doubt. This is why Athena encouraged me to hide who I was from your mother, even if it tore me apart inside…”

“But…why…?” Telemachus was almost in tears and he was struggling really hard to keep them under control. “Why would you even doubt her so?”

They had spent years on their own and for as long as he could remember his mother was always waiting, crying and expecting a miracle. He didn’t remember one day to see his mother genuinely happy. She was smiling or complimenting his accomplishments but he had never seen her truly happy; all their life was darkened by the shadow of his father’s absence; of the lack of information whether he lived or not and now his father said that he had doubt, no matter how small it was?! Odysseus sighed deeply and looked at his son. His eyes were almost pleading even if his voice was steady.

“Son…” he said gravely, “I spent years out there…years of ordeals and pain and…many of them changed me… I cannot say much…not now…however there was someone…a woman…”

He gulped. He almost seemed ready to cry himself.

“She…she did unspeakable things to me…for years I endured hoping to come back to you and your mother… She…she kept on planting doubts in my head for years… I didn’t believe her…I didn’t want to believe her! And yet…yet all those years… Telemachus I couldn’t do otherwise! My brain was rejecting what my heart knew… And so I had to make these two come together… I had to…! Please! Perhaps one day I will be able to explain to you…and then you will understand…”

His father began walking away but Telemachus, in the heat of adrenaline and battle didn’t seem ready to let go. Not yet.

“Does this have to do with some goddess Calypso?”

His father froze and then he saw him turn around and saw another emotion he never saw before; fear. There was pure terror on his face. All color had left it; his eyes as wide as plates.

“Where did you hear that name!?” his father croaked out, “Telemachus! Where?!”

“Father…” Telemachus was more concerned and surprised than pitiful at that moment, “Look at you! You’re pale! You didn’t turn pallid when you ordered the execution of these women and yet you lost all color at the name of that woman!”

“Telemachus!” Odysseus called out desperately

“Tell me what happened father! What does this woman have to do with this?”

“I can’t!”

“Please tell me! What did that woman do to you to make you doubt your own wife?!”

“I can’t! I CAN’T!” Odysseus’s voice rose in a constant crescendo, he held his head with both hands as if suddenly his head was splitting in two

“Father, please!” Telemachus urged, “Who is that woman? Who is Calypso?”

“Telemachus!” Odysseus grabbed the shoulders of his son

Telemachus nearly whelped feeling the unbelievable strength of those hands, squeezing him in almost bruising grasp but he didn’t make a sound. He stood his ground. He was his father’s son.

“Where did you hear that name?!”

“Y-Your friend told me about it…” Telemachus finally replied, “I traveled, father. I myself tried to find the answers that I was seeking…and in my travels I visited Pylos…and Sparta…there I met your old friend… He said he had a dream in which you were trapped at the island with some goddess Calypso, but he didn’t know more… You remember him, don’t you? Menelaus the king of Sparta…”

“M-Menelaus…”

He took some breaths and he seemed to find his composure. He slowly released his son. Telemachus noticed that indeed some color had returned to his face. How much had that woman done to him to make his father react that way?! How many horrors had this man experienced to the hands of that goddess so that he would turn pale in terror even if he was completely unhinged by more than 100 vigorous men?

“Yes…of course I remember… Menelaus…he was one of my closest friends…in Troy.” That little recollection somehow calmed him down, “I…I haven’t heard of him for years… Th-Thank gods that he is fine…”

“He is in good health from what I could see…” Telemachus couldn’t lie, he didn’t know much on Menelaus but he knew that ‘fine’ was not exactly the word that described him, “He misses you a lot, you know… He didn’t speak with so warm words for anybody else…”

A sad smile spread to Odysseus’s lips.

“I remember… Menelaus was a really dear friend to me…”

He passed his hand over his face to mop some of his sweat.

“Forgive me, Telemachus…I really didn’t want this feeling to be inside me in the first place but…please understand me…that’s all I ask. That and some time… I will explain everything when I can…”

Telemachus breathed in, defeated.

“I will not pressure you, father…” he finally said, “I understand it is hard. Forgive me for insisting… It is just…”

His father’s arms wrapped around him. That moment he stopped being the heartless judge. He was the caring father again..he was the one Telemachus first met; the caring, protective father…

“Please don’t apologize…” he murmured to his son’s ear, “You have every right to be angry…you have so many questions… I promise you, my son, I will do my best to answer them all…just not yet…I can’t…not yet…”

He pulled back and looked at his son’s eyes.

“Okay?”

Telemachus smiled sadly. Suddenly his own accumulated frustration from the events of the day was evaporated. He needed this breakdown and somehow he knew his father needed it too.

“Okay” he nodded in agreement.

Odysseus patted his shoulders.

“Good.” He said, “Let’s go in now and we must order to get ourselves cleaned now. We must, sooner or later, cleanse ourselves from this murder for we both look like we went mad!”

Telemachus scoffed a bit. He began following his father; never daring to look back towards that grim execution place.

“She didn’t ask, you know…” he suddenly said

Odysseus stopped and turned around.

“What?”

“Mother. When I told her about king Menelaus’s vision, she didn’t ask. She didn’t make any inquiries. She didn’t doubt your integrity not even for one second…”

He saw his father’s chest palpitating almost suddenly. His face almost twisted with another unspoken sob. He turned around, showing Telemachus his back.

“Thank you…” he murmured

Telemachus managed to see one tear running down his father’s bloodstained cheek. There was so much behind that silent cry! Telemachus knew his father was keeping many things inside; perhaps he even blamed himself for everything. He didn’t know. He only hoped that with that last comment, he managed to give him some peace of mind. Apparently either he was right or Odysseus was a very good actor indeed, for he was back to his previous steadfast and calm self. He was once more the king.

The King of Ithaca

The Anger Bringer.

***

Not much to say here. Homer said most of it before me.

I found it disturbing and interesting how it was Telemachus the one to pull the rope of the execution so I thought to add a bit ore angst to this and show this aftermath whirlpool of emotions that could be going on inside hm.

And of course Odysseus and the years of torment, especially Ogygia.

Also in the Odyssey Rhapsody 17 Telemachus does mention to his mother how Menelaus saw Odysseus imprisoned by Calypso but Penelope didn't react to it much. She either believed not much of it in her sorrow or at the same time she felt no need to react at the name of another woman because she trusted her husband.

Hope you like it.

[uhzuku]

╰─▸ ❝ 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢’𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫. ❞ ──── 𝐟𝐭. 𝐰. 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐠.

𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted and more, everything I ever searched the stars for…” he whispers in your ear through a pleased sigh, “I love you.”

𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦: honkai star rail | 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: welt yang/reader, past nanook/reader | 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: nsfw ; minors dni | 𝐰/𝐜: 3.12k.

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: age gap, creampies, previously established relationship, reader and welt have been together five years pre-caelus and have known each other at least fifteen, oral sex ( fem receiving ), riding, choking ( male receiving ), marriage proposals, reader catching feelings.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐃 !! — @sangokokomis.

𝐚 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐜𝐚𝐬: kinktober 2 <3 also sorry but i suffer from can’t-do-pwp-bc-i-love-plot disease

— 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐦𝐞 !!

Out of thousands upon thousands of years, so few men and women had met the Aeons in comparison to those that did not. Even fewer were selected by the deities to live closely with them — and many, many years ago, you yourself been chosen for such an opportunity. 

As a priestess of destruction, you’d had many long days to accustom yourself to the personality of your deity, far used to the occasional outbursts and fits of rage that could turn to silent ponderings within moments. You’d seen hundreds come and go, less than a dozen stay, and had long acquainted yourself with his many lesser followers. That being said, it had also been several long years that you’d been sent away from your official post by him, destined to infiltrate those which sought to destroy his plans, and those several years had been filled with nothing but annoyance. You missed your home, missed your Aeon, and you missed your former work. Life as Nanook’s high priestess was a good one, and life in his bed even better — but now you were on the Astral Express, feigning a life as a crewmember that a lesser associate of yours had long killed all while wearing her face thanks to the magics of Phantylia. One of the Express’s leaders had been attracted to the silly girl, and because of that he’d now fallen victim to your own charms and wiles, which was why he was serving you even now. 

Your head falls onto the back of the couch behind you, your glass of wine held in one slightly shaky hand as Welt Yang buried his face between your spread legs to taste the slit between them. Your eyes remain closed and your breathing deep and easy as you bask in the attention he was lavishing you in, and with a soft sigh you lift your glass to your lips and take a sip. 

When you’d arrived here, the girl whose face you’d stolen was still in the early innocent stages of a romance with the man, and you’d more than taken up the mantle she’d desired and had captured his heart and his cock with nothing more than a few wicked games veiled with false sincerities, so overall the fact that they’d not fucked yet was benefactory to your cause; Aeons knew what would have become of you if Yang had felt suspicious over his ‘lover’ because you clenched your cunt differently while he was inside it than the woman he was actually in love with — that being said, playing the part of a virgin when you’d not been one for centuries had been hell. 

Still, you’d played your part beautifully. 

The ways in which Welt Yang touched you were far different to the touches of Lord Nanook; where your Aeon could be vicious and cruel, a man at his core who sought blood and bruises, Yang was gentle and soft, preferring a romantic setting over one of chaos. You hated it at first, feeling lazy at how simple it all was, but eventually after a few years you came to enjoy it; the next many years spent hiding in plain sight as your Aeon commanded would only consist of suffering if you yourself felt that Yang’s lovemaking was such, so why not enjoy it while you could? Kafka had also advised that you find a bright spot in wherever you were located; she’d been in a handful of  ‘missions’ similar to these — and despite how well you knew her to be able to lie, you trusted her. So far she’d given you no reason to think otherwise. 

“Eager tonight, Mr. Yang?” you ask softly through a smile, finally breaking the silence that had only been punctuated by the wet noises of his talented mouth on your cunt while spreading your legs further apart ever so slightly. You feel him grin against you before tossing one of your legs over his shoulder, managing to worm his way closer to you as you knew he liked. 

“I’m always eager for a taste of what only you can give me,” he replies, murmuring the dead woman’s name like she was his god. You ignore it, humming softly and trying to calm your racing heart as his tongue rolled expertly over the thousands of nerves between your legs. The urge to buck up into his face was growing stronger than ever, and your grip on your glass tightens almost enough for it to shatter. 

Welt moans against your cunt, drunk off of the taste of you, and you let out a soft noise that has him doing exactly what he’d done to coax it out of you the first time. One of your hands rushes down to bury itself in his hair, fisting around a handful, and he moans into you again as you submit to your own urges and start rolling your hips up into his face. Your wine sloshes in your glass as you squeeze your eyes shut so tightly that tears start to spring up, and you whisper out curses and pleads as a spot in your belly starts growing tighter and tighter, and he changes nothing — an experienced lover, Welt knew just what he was meant to do. 

With a sharp wail, the leg over his shoulder curls around his head and holds his mouth to your cunt, your body spasming as you squeeze him. His eyelashes flutter slightly as he relishes the feeling of your thighs pressing in tightly around him all while continuing to taste you, and one of his hands comes up to rub small circles on your skin as you cum for him. 

After a moment, the feeling slowly fades and the afterglow kicks in. Standing up, Welt takes your wine glass from you carefully, helping you finish drinking what wine you had left as he also assists in removing your robe and baring yourself to him. As the last dregs roll into your mouth, he captures your lips in a kiss, and you can taste yourself on his lips before your juices blend with the wine. A few stray droplets escape your mouths and begin running down your chin and throat before rolling across your bare breasts, and Welt is quick to swallow what’s in his mouth to chase them with it, his tongue flicking out to capture each droplet before finally closing on one nipple. You whimper softly, weak cries falling from your kiss-swollen lips as his tongue curls around the sensitive bud. 

“Bed,” you whisper quietly, and he grunts against you in agreement. The two of you make your way over to the bed you shared, Welt kicking off his shoes hastily as you abandon your robe on the couch completely. 

He nudges you gently and you fall back onto the thick blankets, pretending to be offended as you prop yourself up on your elbows, and he laughs as he unbuckles his belt and lets his pants fall to puddle on the floor. Your gaze falls upon his cock, hard and weeping, and your lip darts out to wet your lips before you spread your legs invitingly. His brown eyes darken a few shades and he tugs his shirt up and over his head before taking his rightful place between your thighs, his thick length slapping against your cunt as you’d both desired as he begins kissing you again. 

A soft pressure makes itself known as he slips a hand between the two of you and begins pressing his cock inside of you; you just close your eyes and relax into the mattress as the ever so familiar feeling of him filling you washes over your body. The two of you wait a moment, basking in the feeling and allowing your body to adjust before wrecking each other as always. 

“I love you,” he whispers through a smile, and you laugh a little to yourself. 

“I know,” you reply, and it’s enough for him as he begins to gently move, rolling his hips against you in a soft rhythm he knows you enjoy. Soft sighs and moans fall from your lips as he drives himself deep inside over and over again, an ever familiar fire building in your belly as he slams against your sweet spot over and over; the bastard had memorized its placement a long time ago, much to your shock. 

“Yes, yes — fuck, please!” he moans above you, his eyes squeezed shut from the feeling of being inside. You lock your legs around his waist instinctively as he slowly picks up the pace, letting out sharp cries of pleasure. You don’t notice him open his eyes, nor do you notice him gazing down at you in adoration as he brings you closer and closer to the edge or the excited glint in his eyes as he grips your waist and rolls the two of you over so you sit on top of him — but you don’t have to have noticed any of these things to know what he’s wanting as he bucks his hips up into you. 

Lofting yourself up, you keep pulling up until the tip of his cock pops out and only brushes against your hole before dropping back down all at once, gasping as you’re filled and then shivering at the loud, shouted moan Welt lets loose; Aeons, you hoped no one heard. Last time he’d cried out like that while the two of you were fucking, Himeko had burst in in a panic with her weapon in hand, thinking he was under attack, only to find you with your wrists and ankles tied to the top bedposts so you’d be completely spread openand Welt balls deep inside you. 

Breakfast the next morning had been interesting. March and Dan Heng hadn’t understood why things were so awkward, but thankfully hadn’t commented on it. 

“Fuck, that’s good,” you whimper, lifting your hips and slamming them down on him over and over again. You can feel the tight grip Welt has on you, one hand on your waist and the other squeezing your hip, and you catch your bottom lip between your teeth and bite down a little as the tightness in your  belly grows. “Fuck, ‘m close — W-Welt!”

“Y-Yeah, I know — c’mon, sweetheart, just a little more!” he moans, his eyes rolling back a little as he fucks up into your dripping hole. His nails dig into your skin as you slow the manic bouncing to a deep grind that smashes his fat tip against your cervix, causing you both to let out equally deep cries of pleasure. He curses again, and you grab his shoulder with one hand while wrapping the other around his throat, choking him. His hips stutter up into you instinctively and he lets out a strained groan, but other than that he has no reaction to it. 

“You shouldn’t trust me so blindly, Mr. Yang,” you purr softly, gently tightening the grip you have around his neck. He lets out a gasped moan and tightens his grip on your hips, a blissed out grin on his face and a flush on his cheeks, and laughs a little even while his air is restricted.

“And why not? You’d never hurt me, Mrs. Yang,” he gasps, and your eyes widen as your grip loosens in shock. Breathing heavily, he looks down at you hopefully through sex-mussed hair with a bright smile.

You ask shakily, “D-Do you mean-?!” and he nods. 

“Yes. It’s been five years of bliss with you at my side, so marry me,” he begs softly, his eyes warm and genuine. “Marry me, take my name, let everyone know that I’m yours and you’re mine.”

“Everyone — Everyone already knows you’re mine, Welt,” you whisper truthfully, heart racing. You’ve both stopped the carnal movements you’d shared before, still connected in the most intimate ways, but still as your mind raced as fast as your heart. A proposal? Was he absolutely insane? 

Were you?

Marrying him would be an unbreakable cover. You’d never be questioned, no one’s thoughts of your loyalty to the Express would ever falter. Should there ever be a suspicion of a traitor in the midst of the crew, you’d never be considered — the wife of Welt Yang, a traitor? Impossible!

So… why were you hesitating? Your Aeon wouldn’t give a damn and demand you take this opportunity, Phantylia would mock you for your hesitance, Blade would call you a fool for not jumping for it, and Kafka —

Well. Maybe of all your secret allies, Kafka would actually understand. Despite the exterior mask she shrouded herself in, the woman felt strongly. It was not a ‘maybe’ — she would understand. 

You may have been a priestess of the Destruction, but you were still a priestess. Marriage was a vow more sacred than any other save a life debt, even to followers of Nanook. You’d blessed more marriages in your many long years than you could possibly remember, as well as the children that followed — whether these marriages be of love, stratagem, convenience, arrangement, or any other means. The bond between spouses was something you dared not tamper with. 

But would he suspect you if you said no?

You’d managed to ease more of your own personality into that of the girl you’d hidden as over the last many years you’d been on the Astral Express and during the three in which you’d been in a relationship with Yang. You’d ushered her ended life into a new era as a woman, helped her personality grow beyond the grave, and you couldn’t thank your past self enough for the insight to do so. If Yang had proposed when you’d first arrived amongst the Astral Express Crew, the girl would have cried and said yes immediately, full of excitement that overflowed into every action she made, a reaction very unlike the one you were having right now. Now you’d made certain the come across more subdued and less explosive, and better yet you’d had a trailblazing expedition that Himeko and Welt both considered traumatizing ( a few people died, who the hell cares? ) to the girl who used to be. 

You’d jumped on that opportunity as quickly as a viper strikes its prey with a killing bite. Why were you not greedily snatching this one up as well? What was happening to you to make you falter in such a way?

“You — You don’t have to say anything now, I know the proposal is sudden,” Welt mumbles softly, averting his eyes. 

You’d been quiet too long. 

“Don’t bother,” you reply, watching him wince. Smiling, you say, “Yes. I’ll marry you,” and watch him light up. 

“You will?” he asks, smiling serenely, and you nod through a soft smile of your own. 

“I will. I’ll marry you, I’ll take your name — and should we consider it, I’ll bear you a son,” you promise quietly, as is the oath of marriages amongst the Destruction ( though changed ever so slightly; you’d learned over the years that Welt Yang was no man desiring strictly obedient partners — a child would have to be a decision you both made in his mind ).

For some reason, the thought of using any child you share with him doesn’t present itself in your mind as another means of cover or of digging your claws deeper into the Express. 

Welt just laughs. “Son, daughter, both or none — I don’t need any children, only you.” Your eyes start to water a little at that, surprising you; when you’d attempted to make such a promise to the Aeon you served, his reaction had been vastly different. 

You were glad the room was dark enough for him not to notice — hopefully. If he does, he doesn’t say anything, and you appreciate it. 

He sits up and presses his lips against yours in a slow kiss, blatantly conveying his love for you in every movement. More tears well up. You ignore them. 

“Welt,” you whisper against his mouth, and he pulls back a hair’s width. “Make love to me.”

His eyes, soft and gooey in the meagre light like melted chocolate, gaze up at you with an unhidden adoration that makes some part of you inside ache. What was this feeling? You’d been feeling it more and more lately, and you didn’t know why. 

Hmm. Perhaps matters of the philosopher.

The two of you resume your previously abandoned movements, this time slower and more rhythmic, imbued with the romance that Welt so openly craved. He moans soft utterances of your name and declarations of love that make your heart suddenly sting. You cannot return them, you aren’t meant to, but Aeons above… you want to. 

You can feel yourself teetering over the edge, Welt able to make you cum like even Nanook had never managed, and you fight off a sudden rush of tears as he whispers his love for you yet again as he fills you up, his thick cum a hot weight inside that has you following suit quickly. He holds you through your orgasm, fucking you through it as well even as it sends him into overstimulation, and as you finally come down he pulls out, watching the way his thick spend dribbles out of your messy hole before laying down beside you, content. The two of you could bathe tomorrow morning, for now you were both too tired. 

“You’re everything I’ve ever wanted and more, everything I ever searched the stars for…” he whispers in your ear through a pleased sigh, wrapping his arms around you, “I love you.” His hands, rough from use over his many years, toy with your own, and you close your eyes and bask in the feeling of him lacing your fingers together. 

“And I you,” you murmur softly, eyes slightly wet as he nuzzles his face into your neck and begins to ease into a deep sleep, and as you glance over to where your phone rests on the bedside table. A harsh light fills the room as the screen lights up with a message, likely from Kafka, requesting an update before she made a move on Herta’s Space Station; Welt, ever-trusting, only hides his face in your neck as you slowly reach over with a trembling hand and turn the phone face-down. 

You sigh, staring up at the ceiling as your fingers toy with the hair at his nape without you even realizing it. His breathing has evened out, and he’s clearly asleep — content and happy in your arms while also with you in his. You look down at him, then sigh again. You’d been doing that a lot lately, Aeons knew why. 

“Sorry, Mr. Yang, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 © { 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 } 𝐛𝐲 𝟒𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐒. 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐲, 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭.

[blues824]

Imagen a female sanami in the Remarried Empress(she is a female emporor ) .

💨She was a commener in the corrupt nothern empire where she lead a successful revolt angains the rulers and won the love of the people who made her empress where she took inspiration from navier as a empress and became a loved emporor (she doesn't like the title empress a lot so took the title of emporor ).

💀Navier and her are friends it started with the sanami mc sending letters to navier asking for help how to be a emperor and navier finding the cold war hero empror not so scary after the letters becoming friends with the emporor.

💨Navier of course invited her to the eastern empire new year Ball and when she arrives she gets intedused as the emporor of the northern empire dressed in a suit walking menacingly to navier and bowing to her shocking everyone .

(she never bowed to anyone so it's shocking because of her hated for the previous leaders in her country but she holds the same respect for navier like ubuyashiki she doesn't like it she doesn't even like that she is the emporor but does it for the people. )

💀Imagen rattrash hearing the emporor of the Northern empire is coming and hearing how good the emporor is stopping poverty and bringing a golden age in a few years tinking she will flirt with the emporor (she doesn't know yet that the emporor is a woman ).

💨Sovieshit feels threatened by her from a commener to the most loved emporor in the northern empire she had achieved a lot in a few years what not even he could do so when she is invited by navier he gets nervous his poor fragile masculinity is hurt because of her .

💀Heinley likes her for her power and how from commer to emporor she went saving a empire from coroptune seeing her as inspiration for when her becomes king and fan girs seeing her next to navier and becoming friends with her especially when she helped them escape.

💨Kosiar first did not trust her sending letters with navier after all she wants killed the previous empress with her own hands in a public execution and became emporor but fel in love with the warrior emporor after seeing her take care of the northern empire and he finds te scars beautiful and show what she did to free her empire .

💀Ergi was sent by heinley to spy on her(fun fact I keep forgetting about heinley his older brother ) seeing if she would atack the western kingdom but seeing her only care for her new empire making it grow and falling in love with her she doesn't care about things most females do and seeing her scared and being proud of them makes him fall in love with her more.

(so seeing rattrash compared to her is day and night one went from commoner to respectable emporor and the other from slave to the worst empress in the eastern empire )

💨Kaufman was send to bring peace towards the new emporor being woried about the visit only to be met with a good emporor and her agreeing on peace and trade fro the people of her empire he catches feeling for the emporor especially when she asked him to send books of his country for the people of the northern empire so they can learn their language.

💀Imagen during the diner party the sanami mc makes a remark to sovieshit when she hears rattrash using the you hate me because I'm a commener exuse that she band slavery and helps the people in need and saying to rattrash that she was a commoner so she has no excuse using that saying that instead of playing the victim show she is a strong woman.

💨Imagen later on rattrash crying that the sanami mc baned slavery played the victims of slavery a good amount of money from the slave owners and if they could not pay she gave the now free people the nobles their titels are and thought them how to read write and how to live a normal life wile sovieshit doesn't even pay or her depth.

💀How would everyone react to seeing the sanami mc being covered in scares and being very muscley compared to other women she brought the northern empire to equality women and men are worth the same .

💨Her helping heinley and navier start up there new empire and making a contract with them for peace and trade and that she would be welcome in her empire and will aid them in wars .

Trigger Warning: Mention of pedophilia in Rashta’s scenario.

Sovieshu Vict

It was no secret that you were powerful, and he has met you a few times. You had been invited to multiple different gatherings when discussion was required for the wellbeing of the entire continent of Wol. You were definitely very intimidating, and your scars just added to your very scary aura. When he learned that his wife had invited you to the New Year’s Party after he added a mistress into the household, he was genuinely terrified. 

Your story was well known among all, commoner or not. You actually used to be a commoner before you gathered each village on the outskirts and stormed the emperor’s palace and killed each person inside unless they swore their undying loyalty to you. Once the imperial family was dead (they had no heir yet), you were voted to be the empress. However, you instead took the title of Emperor because of the Northern Empire’s tendency to favor the emperor more. You did not like the position, but you needed to teach someone to inherit your empire and rule it justly, as you were not married and thus could not produce an heir.

When you arrived, everyone was shocked by your appearance. Not only did you have scars, but you wore a suit instead of a gown. Not just that, but you went up to Navier and bowed to her without acknowledging the actual Emperor. For the entirety of the night, you stuck close to Her Imperial Majesty. You remained quiet, opting to give head nods as a greeting. Sovieshu once caught your glare, and you looked unamused, to say the least.

Of course, there is the dinner party that you were invited to. Rashta was crying right before, clinging to Sovieshu and saying that she should be invited and that it was just because she was a commoner that she wasn’t allowed to be there. You walked up and, with your usual pissed-off face, explained that you went from commoner to ruler of a country and the reason she wasn’t invited was because she held no political power or influence over anything.

During the meeting with Duke Kaufman, Navier, Sovieshu, and a few other officials, everyone else noticed that you and the Empress were the only ones who spoke his native language. That’s when you explained the dynamics of your empire: slavery is banned, corrupt nobles had their titles revoked and those titles went to former slaves who helped during the rebellion, women and men had equal opportunity, mages were treated normally and received sponsorships from you to go to the Academy of Magic, and in all schools it was required to study another language. Sovieshu was surprised at how many things you changed about the Northern Empire, because he remembers how horrible the outskirt villages were. He felt inferior, and he did not like that.

Rashta

She heard of your future arrival, and she knew a few things about the Northern Empire post-rebellion. However, she did not know the extent of your actions and how they affected not only the commoners of your empire, but also the commoners in other kingdoms and empires on the continent. You were referred to as the Emperor of the Northern Empire, and typically a man takes on the role of ‘Emperor’. You will have to excuse her for thinking that you were a man.

Because of her status as a slave before getting tangled up in the trap, she was not informed of many political happenings. Most of what she heard came from word-of-mouth, which, as we know, isn’t reliable and is often very opinionated. The Northern Empire was said to be rather barbaric, especially the outskirts. The people there were rumored to resort to cannibalism because they were so poor. But, you changed that by leading a rebellion and killing the imperial family and claiming the throne. Because of you, she was at least given a designated place to sleep under Viscount Lotteshu’s ownership for fear that the slaves and commoners would rise up against and overpower the empire’s forces.

You were, of course, invited to the New Year’s Party, and you definitely stood out. Rashta was shocked and scared of your appearance, not just because of your scars but the fact that you were a woman instead of a man. You see, because of her unique charm and the fact that she looks [and acts] like a child, a lot of men fall for her [it’s giving pedo, but whatever]. Anyways, you were wearing a suit and you had a lot of scars. Your eyes were wide open and you walked over to Navier, further terrifying the mistress… who let out a gasp of pure shock when you bowed to the empress. You stuck close to Her Imperial Majesty, not even sparing Rashta a glance. Her plan was ruined: she was going to try and gain your trust and sympathy, as it would be very beneficial to her if she had the Emperor of the Northern Empire on her side.

A few days (?) later, there was the banquet amongst state and imperial officials. Rashta was begging Sovieshu to let her go, but Navier had refused as she held no political power or any sort of influence. Plus, her guest list was also full because she invited you. Outside of the door, the mistress was crying and clinging to the Emperor, saying that it was because she used to be a commoner that she wasn’t allowed to be in attendance. That’s when you walked up in yet another suit, this time with your katana, and went to open the door, you told her in an annoyed tone that it was because she wasn’t important to anyone besides gossipers who loved to talk shit about the imperial family. You then walked in, feeling yourself tense up in anger when you heard the childish wails.

After the dinner, you heard about everything that happened with Viscount Lotteshu and Rashta. You were surprised to hear that she, too, came from nothing. However, you didn’t think it was right to use it as an excuse for everything. Sure, you hated the concept of slavery, but you used that hate as well as sympathy to take over and create laws and regulations as well as build up your reputation. You did not shed a single tear through it all, not even when your brother turned against you. But, here Rashta was, crying over anything and everything while being nothing but a mistress.

Navier Trovi

When you became the Emperor of the Northern Empire, she was the first one you wrote to. After all, you had no experience with being the ruler of anything, let alone an entire empire. She actually had really good strategies when it came to winning over the hearts of her people, although she is still viewed as an icy-cold empress. Because of this friendship (not an alliance… yet), she invited you to the New Year’s Ball. After all, the Grand Duke Kaufman would also be attending and it could be a good chance to talk about trade across the Continent Wol.

Up to this point, she has met you a few times and has seen what you look like. You both get along fairly well, with the occasional disagreement as two people in power over different empires have. Once you arrived at the party, however, she saw that you had gained even more muscle as well as more scars, and you were wearing a suit. Navier knew you were different from her husband as a ruler, as you trained your military yourself. Anyways, you walked over to her and kneeled in front of her: a sign of respect in the Northern Empire. Your empire has come so far because of your hard work, and while you might not like being in the position, you are doing your best.

You stuck close to her for the majority of the night until she and Heinrey had their little conversation where he asked her to dance. When that happened, you were kind of on your own and you decided to make friends with a few of the nobles from the Eastern Empire. You kept an eye on the Emperor’s mistress, however, as she seemed to be the type who would backstab you when she had the chance. In your endeavor to save the Northern Kingdom and turn it into a peaceful empire, you had met many Rashta’s, but not very many Navier’s, so you tended to stick to the Navier’s as you knew that they could help you and your land.

Now, the Empress knew that one easy way to make an alliance with your empire was to have a noble of high standing marry you and become your consort. She first thought of her brother, as when you both met a few years ago you both got along very well. But, when Grand Duke Kaufman asked you to dance, she couldn’t help but notice the chemistry between the two of you. You let your guard down, and he actually made you smile! It was the first time she had ever been able to see it, but little did she know that Kosair also had managed to make you smile many moons ago. Duke Ergi would manage to make you smile very soon in the days to come, but Navier wouldn’t find out about it until you made your choice between the three men.

At the dinner, you were sat next to the Grand Duke, and to say that you were happy to have another ally was an understatement. However, before you even entered the dining room, you saw that Rashta was crying out about how she wasn’t invited just because she was a commoner. Navier was about to see what the commotion was when you stepped in and said that you were once a slave and then a commoner. You shed no tears in all the work that you did and you even had your brother betray you but you still didn’t cry. You were an emperor, while she was a mere concubine without influence. You basically told her that she had no right to cry until she was in charge of something, and you then turned to bow towards Her Imperial Majesty before entering the room.

Heinrey Lazlo

His brother had sent him to acquire the possibility of an alliance between the Western Kingdom and the Northern Empire, as your military would prove to be as beneficial for them as their wealth would be to you. At the New Year’s Ball, you had the chance to meet Prince Heinrey, as you stuck close to Navier for the entire night. This man was squealing about how his newfound crush (Navier) was hanging around and gained the respect of his newfound hero (yourself). Of course, he didn’t secure the alliance, as you didn’t know if you could trust somebody who 1) was known to be a womanizer and 2) associated himself with the womanizer known as Duke Ergi. He did, however, manage to plant the seed in your mind; the possibility of you marrying Ergi might be slim as of right now, but it could turn into something beneficial for both lands.

Now, he had never had the pleasure of meeting you face-to-face, so he was definitely shocked by your appearance. You had scars covering your face and hands, you had a suit on which was unheard of for a woman, you had a very muscular build as well. From the tales he had heard, you train your military yourself and lead the infantry sanction as you like to fight hand-to-hand and sword-to-sword. When you took over, you stripped the nobles of their titles and gave them to some loyal followers who were slaves before the revolt. You didn’t even want to be the emperor, but you stayed in the position because you didn’t trust anyone else to take over as you thought it would destroy the vision you had in mind. No, you would pass it on once you had a child, and because of that you were an eligible bachelorette.

Your formal introduction was one of surprise, as you bowed to him. You both could sense that the other was special in a unique way. Your blood was unique, and you could tell that he was a bird with your experience with Kasugai Crows. You were a target because of your marechi blood, as it could go for a lot on the black market. Any descendents you may have will also have this trait, which adds to the flocking of men to your palace to try and win your hand in marriage. It isn’t everyday that you could say you were wed to or had children with someone of marechi blood who was also an emperor.

A friendship blossomed between the two of you, as you were able to understand him while he was in Queen form and he could sense who you were based on your blood alone. When birds sent to Navier were shot down, they would instead be delivered to you and your guest chambers where you would hide him in your haori and walk to Her Imperial Majesty’s chambers for a ‘cup of tea’. In order to give them some privacy, you would bow before taking your leave. You were just glad that you were able to make your friends happy, but there was still one thing you had left to do.

When the divorce happened, and Sovieshu ordered that Navier be kept inside, you gathered your best guards that you had brought with you and disguised yourselves as the guards standing outside of the ex-Empress’s tower. Once your cover was blown, you fought with all of your might, none of the other guards standing a chance against your bloodthirsty hands. You did not hold back, and your sword was soaked with the blood of many who will never see their families again until they, too, inevitably, die. That’s why you were feared by all, as you did not hesitate to kill someone who has wronged you… as long as there was justifiable cause.

Kosair Trovi

You didn’t always get along with him, as your anger issues often clashed with each other. Screaming matches would always erupt between the two of you whenever he visited your empire, but you then started training your military and your schedule was too full to pay him any mind. He remembers the time where you once invited him to join the ranks for the day, and he then understood the discipline that was instilled within you and your soldiers. You sparred against one of your greatest generals, and you got a new slash across your arm, starting from the bottom of your hand to the crease in your elbow. Kosair was genuinely worried and rushed to patch you up, and you both were flustered by the close proximity. 

This ‘friendship’ went very far, actually. It was through him that you got into contact with Navier, as you needed assistance with running the Northern Empire. Now, we all know how he gets about his younger sister, so you gave him your solemn vow to respect and honor her as she deserved. When he left the Northern Empire, you both continued to exchange letters… some of them starting to get into flirtatious territory. It had been a while since you both saw each other, so you couldn’t help but feel like a hopelessly in-love protagonist being held back from her lover. Just kidding. Your duties as the emperor were keeping you from traveling too much. That was, until you got the invitation to the New Year’s Party at the Eastern Empire. This is where Kosair hailed from, so you felt yourself get a bit excited about possibly seeing him.

Unfortunately, he was not present at the party, but he did show up later to visit his sister. Since it had been a while since the last time you saw each other, he was surprised by the sheer amount of scars you had on your arms now. He bowed down to you, gently taking your hand in his and placing a kiss on the back of it. The sheer contrast in the textures of your skin was shocking to the both of you. His skin was soft and gentle, while yours had marks that told stories that not even words could portray. You remember that moment from How to Train Your Dragon 2 where Hiccup’s dad says, “you’re as beautiful as the day I lost you”? That’s kind of what he does, as you haven’t seen each other in a while.

Now, unbeknownst to the two of you (moreso him than you), two men saw this happen and they got very jealous. Kosair was not the only man trying to seek out your heart. The Grand Duke Kaufman as well as Duke Ergi witnessed the kiss upon the back of your hand, and they saw how familiar you were with each other, so they realized that they would need to step up their game if they wanted to get your attention. This caused a rivalry between the three men that wouldn’t stop until you made your decision. After all, you needed to choose because you needed an emperor consort and an heir. Any extravagances that you can think of, the men tried on you. 

Because this is Kosair’s scenario, we are going to assume that you chose him. You know him, you trust him, and you eventually married him. This man is a trophy husband and he knows and lives for it. When you got married, he moved to the Northern Empire. It was a day of celebration for not only the empire, but also for Heinrey and Navier. You invited Duke Ergi and Duke Kaufman out of respect, and the latter did attend. The former, however, did not, as he was busy tricking Rashta. If you know, you know. You both did attend Heinrey and Navier’s official wedding in the Western Kingdom, and you were finally able to pay the new Queen back by giving them both advice on how to create the Western Empire.

Grand Duke Kaufman

You both first met at the New Year’s Party… technically. You both have technically met before, when Luiptian officials came to the Northern Empire to discuss trade with you. However, you did not have a formal introduction to him. So, when he asked you to dance with him, you were very hesitant. Dancing with a stranger left you vulnerable, so you had your guard up. You both spoke with one another as the black suit you were wearing blended with his clothing, and you both found your hearts beating faster and in-sync. He was surprised that you knew so much of his native language, and you explained that it was an academic requirement in your empire to know at least one foreign language fluently.

During your stay in the Eastern Empire, you got closer to the Grand Duke. Each time you both passed by each other, he would stop to bow, take your hand in his, and place a kiss on the back of it. He’s even seen you training with the guards that went with you, and you are as harsh as you are diligent. He sprinted over when he saw that one of your guards had slashed your arm. Luckily, there wasn’t even a scar to do his skills in magic. But, he was able to see all of your other scars with the close proximity. He’s surprised to hear that you didn’t want them gone, as they told stories of bravery and conquest and hard work, but he finds it admirable.

When he gave an explanation for the love potion to Empress Navier, you were present in the room. You volunteered to try it to test its potency when Kaufman said it would be better if he tested it out. After all, it would be disastrous if the Emperor of the Northern Empire fell in love with either the Empress or himself (👀). The only problem was that the potion was very potent and very effective… to the point where the antidote did not work. He looked at you first once he drank the liquid, so he was entranced. It was embarrassing to have said that Sovieshu was handsome to get him off of your guys’ back, but in reality he didn’t like that the Emperor stood so close to you. That’s when he realized what the love potion had done to him.

For the next few days, Kaufman found himself wanting to remain close to you. It took everything inside of him just to part with you for a few minutes. You did not mind his company, however, as he offered good advice for your empire. Unfortunately, because of his longing to be next to you at all times, he witnessed Lord Kosair placing a kiss upon the back of your hand. The Grand Duke almost landed a punch to the Master of the Trovi House’s face, shouting that he had no permission to touch you. However, you caught his fist so that no damage was dealt. You took him by the hand and led him to a room where you asked him what the fuck happened. Long story short, the potion took over in this passionate moment and he kissed you. Needless to say, considering this is Kaufman’s scenario, you reciprocated.

Anyway, your relationship progressed quickly. When he had to go back to the Kingdom of Luipt, he asked you to go with him. However, your own ship was docked next to his, and you had to depart to your own empire. You declined his request, as you had no heir and thus could not run away with him. That’s when he came to a very fast revelation. He asked you to marry him. To say you were surprised would be an understatement. After all, you had only really gotten to know each other for just a few weeks. But, as we know Sanemi to be, you were crazy too so you accepted his proposal. Two weeks after getting to the Northern Empire, you received a ring and a note in a bottle via pigeon. The note proved to you that you chose the right man to be your husband, and you immediately started making preparations.

Ergi Claude

You met because you both ran into each other in the palace corridors. The womanizer in him caught you and tried to rizz you up. You weren’t having any of it and grabbed a dagger from your sleeve. You held it to his neck as you demanded him to let you go. It infuriated you how he just gave you a smirk before making sure you were upright… and how fast your heart was beating from the encounter. You were headed to the training grounds, though, so you couldn’t dwell on it too much. Now, what you didn’t know was that Prince Heinrey of the Western Kingdom had ordered him to spy on you to see if you would attack them. So, this chance encounter was just him evaluating how hard it would be to get close to you.

Unfortunately for him, Rashta kept him from observing you or even meeting you again for quite a while. She would get jealous whenever she saw the Duke try to seek you out, so she would get his attention and drag him to her chambers to speak with him. She would make up an encounter she definitely didn’t have with Viscount Lotteshu just to bring Ergi’s attention back to her. However, fortune pulled an Uno Reverse Card on the young mistress and she was caught up with speaking to Sovieshu to be able to see that Ergi had gone in search of you. He did manage to find you… right when Kosair planted a kiss on the back of your hand and Kaufman punched the man. You were, understandably, overwhelmed by the situation and so Ergi stepped in and led you away. That is where you had a formal introduction to each other, no blades drawn. Though, he did see the katana that you kept sheathed at your hip.

Now, he was not invited to the dinner with all the nobility, as he held no power within this Empire nor any significant power in the Western Kingdom. He guessed (correctly) that you would be attending that, so he just went to the other party. However, his mind couldn’t get off of your first *actual* conversation. It was rather civil, but you didn’t respond to his slightly flirtatious words. You were better equipped that time. He learned your name and your story, and it was as clear as day that you were Rashta’s opposite. Rising up as a slave to overturn the entire system, killing the king and queen of the Northern Kingdom, taking the throne, turning the kingdom into an empire, stripping the nobles of their titles and giving them to your most trusted subjects, abolishing slavery, teaching everyone to read and write, training your military yourself, etc., all while thinking without emotion. Yeah… you were definitely different from Sovieshu’s concubine.

After the ruined dinner, you went to the garden to sort your mind out. You had a lot to think about, considering you were here to negotiate trade and alliances and such. Ergi found you there, and you looked radiant underneath the moon’s glow. With confidence, he sat next to you on the bench. He tried not to scare you, but because of your intense training you were able to sense that he was there anyway. You both started a conversation that eventually led to him asking if he had any chance of winning over your heart. You gave it some thought over the next few days, but before you could give your answer you had to depart for your own empire. The Duke accompanied you to the dock, and asked if you had an answer. You said that he would know once you did, and so he kissed the back of your hand before your departure.

Once you returned to your own kingdom, you immediately met with your advisors to ask if this marriage could bring any sense of prosperity to the empire, or if it would be of your own choice anyway. Your empire was doing exceptionally well, but since it would be a noble of another kingdom that you would be marrying, it could possibly mean that there would be an alliance between the Western Kingdom and the Northern Empire. After all, the Western Kingdom is known for the multitude of gems and wealth. The Northern Empire is known for its military strength. So, you immediately wrote to Ergi. The only word you put on the page, however, was yes.

[gilverrwrites]

Sorry no brain function tonight just a little mermaid-esque AU, only instead of a Prince, it’s Pirate Captain Slade Wilson.

His men catch you in their nets whilst fishing one day. They're none too pleased to find you, It’s bad luck to have women on board, even fish women, could be a siren those are really bad news but Slade is instantly intrigued. He’ll be damned if he’s gonna throw back a treasure like you, and if his men have a problem with that, they know where the plank is.

So perhaps he keeps you captive, or maybe you too are fascinated by this strange large human like none you’ve seen before with his silver hair, and a single eye bluer than the Indian Ocean. Whatever the reason, you stay.

Adjusting to human legs is hard upon a ship, the spray of the sea often tripping your transformation. Other times because Slade grows impatient with your tripping and balancing and so he throws you over his shoulder when he’s in a hurry, big ol’ hands wandering a little too close to your cavern, but never as close as you’d like.

The fact that you can’t talk isn’t a huge issue, because Slade talks a lot. Pompous nonsense if you were to ask his quartermaster Deadman Todd, but talk nonetheless. And his voice is so smooth, so authoritative, it’s like the shore on a stormy day and you could listen to it endlessly.

He tells you about his mute son back on shore though, and teaches you hand signs to help you communicate with him. At dock he ‘obtains’ books he thinks may be to your liking, using them to teach you how to read and write. But books aren’t the only things he brings you, he likes to dress you up in shiny jewels and fine skirts that show off your cleavage and your legs when you’re skipping around the deck, winding up his men with your unapologetically feminine wiles. Your free-spiritedness, while often endearing does grate their nerves often. This is an adventure for you, a strange fish-fetishist fantasy for their boss, but it’s their lives.

To placate his men and return the favour of Slade’s gifts, you chart maps for them, directing him and his crew to the locations of long-lost treasures and suggesting routes that will keep them away from the dangerous creatures that lurk beneath.

Until one night a bad storm hits, all but capsizing the ship, knocking many men overboard.

Despite your silent arguments, Slade instructs you to wait it out below deck, and reluctantly you agree until you hear that he too has been buried by your salty mistress. Without hesitation you dive in after him, collecting his scattered men and bringing them to the surface until you find your human.

As the tempest begins to calm, Todd helps you to hoist every man with a pulse back aboard. It takes 3 men to haul their deadweight captain, and you spend far too long attempting to breathe air back into his lungs but just when things look like they might never be the same again, he pulls through.

By sun up everyone is hammered, singing shanties and making the most of their 2nd, 3rd, 10th chance at life.

Everyone but you and Slade, who had hurled you over his shoulder the first chance he’d got. Who’s taken you back to his quarters, thrown you on his bed, stripped you off your finery and laid siege to your body the way he’d been craving since he’d first seen you in that net.

Oh ho ho and don’t get me started on Deadman Todd and his fancy for the rebellious daughter of rival Captain; Roman Sionis ;)

[flowersdiceandlove]

In the tgcf fandom, I often see people saying that it's because Mei Nianqing only taught Xie Lian how to defend against women and not men and that that is why Xie Lian thinks he gets so freaked out by Hua Cheng. I see this sprinkled into a lot of fics and stuff, and I thought this was a fanon explination. I thought it was funny. I was just skimming through volume three and... It's canon. It is completely canon.

He supposed it had to be because the state preceptor had only ever taught him how to defend against the wiles of women, not men. Because of his lack of experience, he'd been swept off his feet.

volume 3, pages 311-312

[shadowqueenjude]

you know what, i think im getting to a point where I'm more tolerant of aramantha than rhysand. At least she knows she's bad and doesn't hide behind a screen. Also I'm thinking back on a lot of what rhysand did in acotar and a lot of it seems to be not necessarily things she ordered? like if she wanted to threaten spring court w the head on the spike, she would have had that sigil be her sigil not the night court (also I've fallen into the trap of evil women hot, i support womens rights and womens wrongs, send help it's a dark pit) ALSO! I think Nesta would've slayed in Hewn City, I think she would have caused a revolution so that the people there could go up to the surface. She has the court tact and poise that none of the IC have and i can easily see her taking complete control of the situation... wish sjm would've put her there :(

We love and appreciate manipulative evil women here. I'm so tired of manipulative men being glorified and manipulative women being shit on. Make a manipulative women compelling for FUCK'S sake. It's naturally more compelling than a man being compelling because we're underestimated by others and we're born with a natural disadvantage over men so we use our cunning and wiles.

A lot of what Rhysand did, we only have HIS WORD for it that it was ordered. For instance, the head. Why would he put his own sigil on it and ask if Tamlin got "his present" if it was Amarantha who ordered it? I'm sure Amarantha has her own sigil. The winter court children? Maybe he was ordered, but why is he passing blame to someone else, claiming some other nonexistent daemati did it? Clare Beddor??? I would've respected Rhysand more as a villain if he just ADMITTED he was a coward and submit to Amarantha to avoid punishment. Rhysand could've been a compelling villain, or at least a hot one.

Honestly would’ve loved to see Nesta thrown down into the Hewn City only to be crowned the leader of the revolution because she so would. Made all seven high lords listen and restored the valkyries all while still in a depressed state. I meaaaaaaan… Nesta the woman that you are.

[theologiedansleboudoir]

All women are wantons at heart, given to using their wiles and their beauty to work their wills on men.

—The High Sparrow in George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons

[jessread-s]

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

✩🗡️🥀Review:

A dark, tragic, and haunting reimagining of Shakespeare’s most famous villainess.

“Lady Macbeth” follows Roscille after she is wed to a Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed. To survive his hostility and dangerous court, she relies on her wiles and hidden witchcraft. 

I am quite the Shakespeare fanatic and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is one of my favorite plays precisely because of how cunning and ruthless Lady Macbeth’s character is. I gravitated toward this novel because I was curious about Reid’s take on the character and though this is not the play retold from her point-of-view, I enjoyed it for what it is! Reid’s reimagining gives Lady Macbeth her own name, a past, and occult power that cleverly expands on Shakespeare’s original work. In Reid’s rendition, she captures a woman living in a patriarchal society who has her voice violently taken away by the men around her. Roscille’s fear surrounding abuse at the hand of men is what fuels her scheming and manipulation—what ultimately turns her into Lady Macbeth. She doesn’t want a crown, she wants to survive. She uses her beauty as a weapon in retaliation against those holding her womanhood against her. She finds power in her rage, which she acts on only after it has festered. I think that is the key difference between Roscille and Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth—in a world that does not favor women, she is less ambitious and more reactive in a sense. This new portrayal took some getting used to, but once I did, I appreciated how it widened my perspective. 

I was entranced by Reid’s atmospheric and lyrical writing. The intention and power behind each and every word adds depth to Roscille’s character, showing the extent of her wiles and smarts. The bits of proverbial wisdom Reid sprinkles throughout allow her to emulate the bard himself in her own way. What I love most is how Reid uses various names for each character to reflect the different languages being spoken at the time.

➾ NOTE: After careful reflection and reading reviews written by my peers, it has been pointed out that this book can be interpreted as xenophobic. Intentional or not, most, if not all, of the Scottish characters—an ethnic group that Roscille does not belong to—are underdeveloped and described as brutish, violent, and evil. This characterization is unfair and in no way pays homage to the source material. 

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[haggishlyhagging]

The next witness was a woman from Utah who wanted to be among the witnesses because she had heard me speak both in Provo and Salt Lake. But she wished her identity to remain secret because she feared losing her job. Knowing just exactly the correctly humble and deferential tone to take with Mormon males, she was the perfect witness. I watched her in stunned amazement get those egos in the palm of her self-deprecatory little hand, and was grateful that she was willing to do what I could no longer do for any reason: play the male-female, master-servant game which so many Mormon men so much need for their egos, and without which they do not know how to relate to women at all.

The content of her statement was also unerring. She told them she taught young Mormon women in a special program for the intellectually gifted at a church-owned institution. Many of these young women, she said sadly, feel as if there is no place in the church for them, as if the church wants only women who are willing to sacrifice their talents and intellectual capabilities to full-time wife- and mother-hood, which they were not wiling to do, and that this made them unacceptable as "real women" in the church. "These young women are not dispensable," she cautioned.

"But," she continued, coming to the point, "for the past year and a half, I have been able to say to these troubled young women, 'If there's a place in the church for Sonia Johnson, there's a place for you.'" Here she paused for effect and got it. "Bishop Willis," she asked, "what am I going to say to them if you excommunicate Sonia?"

If she had stopped then, she would have left the prosecutor-judge very unsettled and impressed against his will. But sensing her advantage, she pressed it too far by pleading, "Please don't turn this into a witch-hunt!"

The conciliatory mood she had established in the room disappeared on the instant. Although I could sense that something had gone amiss, Rick had to explain to me later what it was. "She shouldn't have reminded those men of witches," he told me, and went on to explain. "Men are basically very much afraid of the spiritual powers of women; that's why they try to keep them from discovering them, from using and developing them—cut them off from the priesthood, set themselves up as women's spiritual leaders. When she said 'witch-hunt,' out of the slime of womanfear in their unconscious slithered the specter of women in power over men, and they instantly united against their age-old enemy, woman; woman as mysterious, woman as witch, woman as powerful, woman as god. I know," he concluded softly, "because I felt it in myself when she said that word, and I looked up quickly and saw what I was feeling pass simultaneously over the faces of the four men seated before us."

Even without the "witch-hunt" she could not have saved me, of course, but she might have left those who had set themselves up as my judges longer in nagging uncertainty about the wisdom of their verdict. Still, she was wonderful, and her act—for I hope it was an act—a grim reminder of all that lies ahead of women in establishing ourselves as adult human beings who do not need to fawn and grovel and coax and coo in order to be allowed to function in the world.

-Sonia Johnson, From Housewife to Heretic

[stupidvampires]

The October 6 episode is so well-acted. The intonations and pauses on certain lines made my breath catch & brought tears to my eyes. Mina is so firm & determined in her argument; she will not be swayed but the pain & emotion that creeps out when she says "I know that if he tells me to come in secret, I must come by wile; by any device to hoodwink—even Jonathan."

Van Helsing's line "we shall open the box, and—and all will be well." The hesitation, the grave tone with a bit of uncertainty or fear even...so many thoughts about how Alan Burgon says that line.

Quincey's declaration that he'll kill Dracula at any risk is so intense. No hesitation at all & spoken with such fervor & conviction. He has the tendency, I think, to make vows the most out of the men. His declarations of friendship with the women & his vows concerning Dracula, all very solemn & heartfelt. I love this character & he almost made me cry with how much he cares.

And Jonathan writing "Mina if she survive is my sole heir. If it should not be so, then the others who have been so good to us shall have remainder." about his will was heartbreaking enough to read but the way Ben Galpin said these lines was absolutely devastating. The strained uneasy way he says "If it should be so", the music behind him, the kind of choked pause before he continues more steadily trying to regain his composure. The whole ending is so good; really helps with the suspense of Mina calling him & being left not knowing what will happen. It feels similar to entries where the characterls are saying goodbye in their diaries.