#and a person she can get some frustration out on

[florencebirdsong]

Can I request jealous Agatha x fem reader? Reader and reader’s friend aren’t doing nothing even remotely romantic, Agatha is just over analyzing everything they do together and driving themselves crazy over it

Thank you so much for this request!!! I really hope you enjoy the way I wrote it <3

Staying In

Agatha Harkness x Reader

summary: when you insist on going out with a friend who is clearly into you, Agatha takes matters into her own hands

tags: red flags with hints of mutual obsession, Mistress Agatha, sub Reader, jealous Agatha, magic bondage, light impact play, overstimulation, fingering

authors note: suspend your disbelief for not having a crush on Darcy. I’ve had to as well 😔

she/her pronouns used to refer to r

ao3 | masterlist

You’ve decided that Agatha is being silly. Mainly because her being insecure feels impossible. You aren’t into Darcy. You have never been into Darcy. It’s never even crossed your mind. Something Agatha is well aware of and yet she insists that something is there. At least on Darcy’s end. Which you highly doubt since she would have said something during the decade you’ve known her.

“It doesn’t matter,” you finally snap at her. “Despite what you may believe Agatha, I am my own person. I’m going to go to a nice restaurant with my nice friend and have a nice, platonic night with her.”

Agatha’s face goes blank in a way that makes you nervous. It turning into a slow smirk has you shifting on your feet. Agatha is rarely wrong. It’s a fact that you usually enjoy. Right now it’s too hard to think of your best friend seeing things differently to accept it. Plus, the fact that you have zero interest in Darcy and Agatha has made her claim very clear should defuse things. And yet.

“It’s not what you think, Agatha,” you insist.

“Of course, dear,” she says with that same deadly look and you swallow harshly.

You have to look away otherwise that traitorous warmth inside you is going to take over your rational brain. It’s not fair that she still has such a strong effect on you when you’re frustrated with her.

“I think I’ll retire to my lab for the night,” she says, already turning. You enjoy your nice night.”

You fight the urge to follow her and instead watch her go quietly. That had been a little too easy, especially with your earlier claim. You’re both well aware of how deeply Agatha owns you.

You only debate with yourself for a moment before moving to get ready. Your and Darcy’s schedules haven’t lined up enough for a proper meal for weeks. You’re both busy enough it’s likely to take even longer for them to line up again. You can survive one night of Agatha’s wrath.

—————-

Every other item you try to use disappears. It starts out subtle. Some things not being where you thought you left them, others being in odd but not impossible spots. It escalates until your perfume disappears right out of your hand.

“Agatha!” you finally shout in frustration.

Of course, you don’t get an answer. She’s three floors away. Not that it stops her from watching you but she so does love plausible deniability.

You’re about to rummage through her own drawers (more to make a mess than anything) when her personal perfume bottle appears in a little puff of purple smoke right in front of you. You huff a laugh. Of course.

You don’t try and refuse it. Or deny how much you want it. Every bit of Agatha entices you. Her scent is no different. Even if the perfume doesn’t quite contain every hint of her, it’s enough of a reward for her to use it against you often.

It’s hard to concentrate with her scent surrounding you but it’s something you have to contend with every time you’re around her. You have enough practice to still complete your goal, just not without thinking about her every time you take a breath.

Since Agatha has yet to bind you to the bed, you believe you’re consequence free, at least until you return home. Then you reach the door. The handle turns but the door doesn’t open. You try to flick the lock but it doesn’t move. Frowning, you try to tug it free but it’s too small to get a good grip. It jiggles a little but remains stuck. It’s weird and annoying but nothing Agatha can’t fix. Later. It’s not the best idea to go down to her lair while you still want to leave.

A thought crosses your mind but you don’t genuinely believe it until the back door does the same thing. She really has locked you in. You prefer it when she throws you into bed and traps you there. Huffing, you wonder if it would be too crazy to go out the window. It feels too crazy, and a bit silly. You aren’t a teenager anymore and this is technically also your house.

Instead of creeping out of a window, you creep down the stairs to her basement. While the house may equally be yours, Agatha’s lair is entirely her own. It’s a dangerous place for anyone that isn’t Agatha.

She’s standing at one of her benches, going between a book and some vaguely-witchy item in her hand. You risk a few steps inside.

“You locked the door.”

“Did I?” Agatha asks neutrally, not bothering to look up from what she is working on.

“I could be wrong,” you shrug casually. “If I am then you’ll have no problem forcing it open.”

“I’m very busy, dear.”

“It’s very convenient for both doors to be stuck on the night you don’t want me to go out.”

Agatha finally turns around. “Careful,” she says in a low voice.

You swallow hard. It’s not a smart idea to push her but you’re annoyed enough to do it anyway.

“I guess I’ll just go out the window,” you jut your chin out.

Her eyes darken but she doesn’t move. You know she’s waiting to see if you actually try or if you’re bluffing. It pisses you off enough to turn around. You get two steps before your arms are jerked behind your back and purple lifts you off the ground.

“Agatha!” you yell more in surprise than anything else.

“I did say to be careful.” She tilts her wrist and you fly towards her. “Look at you, all dressed up for her.”

“I’m not,” you snap.

What you’re wearing is nicer than usual but it’s hardly your dressiest outfit. You’re going to a higher end restaurant than the usual casual lunches you do with Darcy.

Agatha flicks her wrist and you whimper at the pain that lashes across your thigh. Sharp enough it’s like you aren’t wearing clothes at all.

“Agatha,” you half-whine, not wanting to admit just how turned on you are.

She flicks her wrist again and you squirm in the air.

“Tell me to stop,” she says as she slowly circles you. “Tell me to stop, and mean it, and I’ll send you on your pretty little way.”

You hate when she does this. You can never refuse her attention. It’s all you think about.

Pain lances again when you don’t answer quickly enough. You debate purposely staying quiet longer to feel it again but you doubt this will be the last of your punishment for tonight.

“Stop,” your voice wavers.

Agatha strikes you again and you can feel yourself begin to drip down your thigh.

“Try again.”

“I want you to stop,” your voice comes out a little firmer this time and Agatha raises an eyebrow.

“I almost believe you,” she says, which you highly doubt. “Unfortunately, you’ve always been a terrible liar.”

“I- I want to go to dinner,” you try instead because you both know you don’t truly want Agatha to stop.

“Maybe. But you want me to fuck you more.”

You swallow harshly. There’s no denying that. “You won’t though,” you say quietly.

“Aw, is that what has my pet all upset? She thinks I won’t fuck her silly since she’s been so naughty?”

“Think?” you ask hopefully and Agatha smirks.

“Why, of course. I want my girl to stay, don’t I? Denying her isn’t going to that.”

It sounds like a trap. It feels like a trap. Agatha’s face is telling you that it is a trap and yet, that heat within you rises. With the way your games usually go, she’s probably going to fuck you. There’ll be some sort of catch, especially after you’ve denied her so much. But just the idea of her touching you when you were so certain she wouldn’t has you giving in.

“I -” you lick your dry lips. “I do want you to fuck me more.”

���Well, now you’re just stating facts,” Agatha flicks her wrist and your clothes disappear. “I suppose it’s better than lying.”

Anticipation surges through you as her eyes run over you. They snag on the red welts caused by her earlier lashes before they stray to the wetness soaking your thighs.

“Oh, you poor thing,” she coos and steps closer. “No wonder you’ve been acting out You’re too desperate to think properly.”

You don’t even contemplate protesting with her hands on you. When she looks up at you for a response you nod eagerly. Her amusement doesn’t settle the voice saying there’s a catch somewhere but her touch soothes any growing anxieties.

“I can certainly help with that,” she says and trails her fingers over the red marks as she makes her way towards your soaked core.

Her fingers lightly run through your soaked lips and you shiver. Agatha has been so annoyed about Darcy that she hasn’t touched you like this in days. You hadn’t realised how much the lack was affecting you.

“There we go,” she murmurs as she runs her fingers over your clit, making you gasp. She circles there for a moment before moving down and smoothly entering you with two fingers. “Empty that pretty little head of yours.”

Nodding, you try to spread your legs further apart but Agatha’s magic keeps you still. You wish she would let you down. Let you touch her. But it’s a miracle she’s touching you at all so you don’t risk asking.

Agatha’s pace remains slow until you’re whining with need. She’s so mean, only giving your clit a quick swipe every now and then until you’re begging incoherently.

“Are you going to behave for me now?” she finally asks with a raised eyebrow. Long past words, you nod desperately. Anything, you’d do anything for her. “Good girl,” she says gutturally and you fly over the edge.

She speeds up for the first time and you writhe in pleasure as the orgasm flows over you, the slow build to it having heightened the intensity. She doesn’t slow, even as you come back down.

“Mistress?” you gasp in confusion when she doesn’t stop.

“Don’t worry. I’m just making sure no silly thoughts linger in my pet’s head.”

You don’t protest or plead. You don’t want her hands to leave yet. It’s been too long without them. A second orgasm won’t hurt. Especially when she pays so much more attention to your clit.

As she makes firm circles around your clit, you wish once again that you could touch her. You want to feel her warmth against you and use your teeth to encourage her to fuck you faster and pull her hair when she doesn’t. Instead, you’re stuck whining in the air as she has her way with you.

Her fingers curl and hit that special spot inside of you. Your head drops forward as you moan. She does it again as she makes firmer circles around your clit and you’re coming before you even realise how close you are.

Finally, finally she lets you touch her. Her magic lowers you down and wraps your arms around her. You cling tight and whimper when her fingers curl again.

“One more,” she murmurs soothingly.

You meant to speak but what comes out is a low whine that’s quickly taken over by a moan.

This one is slow and soft. You’re sensitive enough that Agatha’s slow pace builds you up easily. You whine into her shoulder as the overwhelming feeling of coming a third time floods you.

You tend and shudder in her grasp before going entirely limp.

“There we go. You know where you belong, don’t you?” she asks.

She cradles you like you’re something precious. You nod weakly, holding onto her. There was never a question of who you belong to but you don’t mind reminding Agatha. Or, well, Agatha reminding herself.

“You mistress,” you manage to say.

“Good girl,” she says and kisses the side of your head.

You shiver again.

“So mean,” you mutter light heartedly.

Agatha gives you an amused look.

“Three was getting off lightly and you know it.”

You snort at the pun.

“Can we go lay down?” you ask after a moment. “I’ve missed you.”

The dizzying sensation of teleporting envelopes you a second later.

[witherby]

Ok ok hear me out.. fluttermouse but she’s angry…? Like yk how dick was an anger tween/teen. Yeah that’s how fluttermouse is, lol

Idk why but every time I read something about a young happy reader, I just imagine them as an angry teenager, that likes to party.

- from urs truly🌊

I'm tryna think about what reasons Flittermouse would have to be genuinely angry, aside from puberty shenanigans. I'm thinking there'd be some conflict amongst the family for their bad habits.

Dick: Gaslighting

He's a really busy guy. You get it! You know this! That's not the part that upsets you! What does upset you is when you finally lock him down to make plans to hang out with your oldest brother and he forgets about it, and when you call him out on that, pretends that there were never any plans to begin with.

Dick doesn't forget things! His mind is a steel trap! If he was supposed to take you to the movies or do some bonding with at a trampoline park, he would've remembered that! Don't get mad at him for things you never confirmed with him, Flitty! You're being irrational, there's always next time!

Tim: Overanalyzation

He's the smartest of your brothers, which you admire! He's also the worst person to talk to about anything you're stressing about!

Can't seem to understand the material you're learning in a class? Tim's gonna tell you that it was never your strong suit anyway. You're better off bribing the teacher for an A and focusing your efforts elsewhere. It's not like you need that skill, either; you're a Wayne, and money will get you the skills you don't have.

Crushing on a boy or girl that doesn't seem to know you exist? Tim's gonna tell you that your current emotional state reflects in poor taste and you'll get over this crush in a couple of months, so there's no sense dwelling on that person anyway.

He's not mean about your struggles, but he doesn't seem to understand that you can't just logic your way into moving on the way that he can.

Bruce + Hal: Time

Sometimes your dad just isn't around. He's Batman, of course his attention is divided between being a hero and being a father, but sometimes you just really fucking wish you could go knock on his door and ask for a hug, instead of crawling into his empty bed to snuggle a pillow instead. It's even worse with Hal, when a mission in space has him gone for months at a time and you miss him so terribly. They've missed a surprising amount of your achievements, moments you can't replicate or get back. At least they have the good graces to be just as upset about it as you are.

Damian: Interest

You love him a lot. You do! You love your whole family and you support their interests and jobs! They just don't necessarily support you back, including Damian.

If something doesn't interest him, he simply won't pay it any mind. When you take up roller skating, he tells you "that's nice" and then focuses instead on what he was currently doing. When you express a desire to try pottery, he puts in enough effort to tell you the best places to get supplies, then stops paying attention. When you deliberately get invested in a hobby he partakes in, he's 1000% down to talk your ear off about it, happy to partake in your shared love for that thing. It's very disheartening.

The only people you don't have significant issues with are Jason and Alfred. Alfred is always around, finding the time to be with you or give you a hug or listen to you vent your educational frustrations or take you somewhere if you ask him to. You try not to bother him too much, knowing his attention is similarly as divided as everyone else's, but he insists that you deserve to take up the same amount of time and space your family does, and will often seek you out himself if he knows you're trying to isolate.

And Jason doesn't let things fester, not like he used to before you came around, so if he senses you may be upset or discontent with him in any way, he's gonna make you talk it out with him and then do what he can to correct it. Some things can't be fixed, you both know that, but others can be improved upon. You don't like how lackadaisical he is with his injuries, so he puts a little extra padding in his armor and wears his helmet more than his half-mask. In turn, he doesn't like you going to Socialite events without any security, so you relent to keeping two guards around when one of your family members can't attend with you despite having the ability to protect yourself just fine.

All in all, your "angsty teen" years are pretty stressful, and do lead to a pretty big blow up at one point. It all works out eventually, though, because your family loves you just as much as you love them.

[borkthemork]

I know that the fandom jokes a lot about how much Togami and Kirigiri order Naegi around to explain the clues in the trials, but I absolutely love the way they utilized this during the 4th Trial.

Specifically, in how Kirigiri is able to pack so much humiliation towards Togami without even breaking a sweat.

Togami throughout the game, especially in the Fourth Chapter, has been continuously downplaying the capabilities, lives, and agency of his fellow classmates. He is elitist, he was born into a family where if you don't bite and claw to survive, then you won't win, and believes he got to where he is through sheer cunning, willpower, and cold rationality. The idea of cooperating with the other students was beneath him. The idea of seeing people such as Asahina and Naegi as equals disgusted him due to his perceived differences in their class, capabilities, status, and levels of intellect.

In Trial 2, specifically, we see him attempt to one-up the others regarding being able to showcase how powerful and assured he is as an influential player within the Killing Game. He even used Naegi as a pawn to get him on the trail of his fabricated crime scene, just to see how people respond and to make the game less "predictable" while keeping control on the situation. However...

In that same trial, we see that the moment Naegi was able to uncover something Togami himself couldn't catch, his resolve wavers. He is humiliated, angry at the idea of some commoner, who couldn't even read 11037 as an upside down 'LEON' at the first trial, was able to outsmart him and put them on a new, unexpected path of inquiry all together. We can see that this gets to him after the trial is complete, showcasing how even if externally he looks calm and assured, being put off guard cuts him deep within his pride.

Being outsmarted, taken by surprise, or not given power over a situation frustrates him, and the seeds of that get planted during Chapter Four through multiple characters such as Kirigiri, Asahina, and Naegi.

Keep in mind that during this chapter a few key points happen that set the stage for what's to come. I am talking about Kirigiri's critical comments towards him before the Class Trial, and that Asahina was able to slap and threaten him.

These series of events do four things:

One, Asahina's actions hardened his viewpoint on Asahina as emotionally reckless and stupid, someone who he will underestimate in the later parts of the chapter.

Two, this outburst makes him double down on the idea of emotion as inferior and childish.

Three, Kirigiri's warnings make him believe he can elude betrayal, that he only has to worry about the ones who are already suspicious to him.

Four, due to being humiliated still by Asahina's surprise slap on him, he wants to regain his composure and status again amidst the cast as someone unflappable.

To me, the last point is why Togami himself went to great lengths of drinking most of the poison bottle in front of everyone. It's a way to show how untouchable and smart he is as a player, that he can surprise the others once more and remain unscathed at the very end from thinking many steps ahead of them.

However, this is where Kirigiri's words and actions click into place with humiliating the crap out of him.

When Asahina is interrogated to be lying, Togami starts to lose his resolve. He fell for Asahina's downplaying of her own intelligence and how she made obvious tracks because he believed she didn't have the capabilities to make a cleaner crime scene, and never thought deeply on why personally she would commit murder on her best friend.

He has honed in so much on the idea of killed or be killed, that the obvious contradictions went right under his nose. It didn't help that Naegi had to point this out to him afterwards.

Enter Kirigiri.

Now that Togami has lost his footing with Asahina's reveal, she then tells him that there is new evidence, surprising him once again by adding another unpredictable factor to the trial.

Stacking on to that, she rubs in that he was the one who gave it to her, and that he was too busy acting like a smartass with the bottle that he didn't inspect the evidence closer in the first place.

Since Togami does have some respect for Kirigiri in being capable of deduction and yet sees himself still as one of the best within the group, Kirigiri hones in on this. She adds how she's "amazed" that someone like him would overlook this, adding in a feeling of his intellect and capabilities being looked down upon in disappointment by a semi-peer.

Togami notes this indirectly in his dialogue, but during this scene, Kirigiri is intentionally omitting the answer to the clue also.

Compared to how she omits info from Naegi in past trials due to wanting to observe his capabilities, Kirigiri wants Togami to get desperate in this moment. He is already feeling out of the loop with multiple factors outside of his control, and not being able to think of a proper conclusion on his own due to being put off guard.

Contrasted with his past lectures—about how you can't trust people, and that you have to do things on your own—she now has Togami begging other people for an answer on the situation. To the point where his anger and frustration makes his requests sound childish, as if he's the impatient one compared to everyone else in the room.

To add even more insult to injury, Kirigiri then diverts the answer to Naegi. The person who Togami has mocked multiple times for being a commoner, someone who will never be equal to him, and who he sees as dense as a rock despite acknowledging his past deduction skills.

By doing this Kirigiri puts Togami into a corner where if he truly wants the answer to his question then he has to beg someone who is the complete opposite of everything he defines as a successful person, and you can see Togami processing this for a few seconds before relenting angrily.

In previous sessions, Togami was able to have a say in the trials and even be a massive influence in how the line of inquiries followed through; the moment Kirigiri put Naegi on the spot and gave him the reins, the tide has changed and is now in their hands.

Trial 4 has Naegi and Kirigiri carrying the deduction phase in solving Asahina's betrayal and Oogami's suicide, and doing an amazing job tying up a lot of loose ends in rapid succession much to Togami's bewilderment.

He is completely falling behind, and this makes him even more humiliated and angry as he loses his cool during the second half of the trial.

He yells about Kirigiri giving him loaded questions, about how unfair it is that she knows more than him, basically watching this man go into a tantrum right in front of everyone he's previously mocked for being emotional. It is just an avalanche of continuous pathos triggering the same humiliated feelings with each second he reacts to them.

He has to listen in shock as Asahina is found out to have been the one who betrayed them, and that suicide was the only viable way for the crime scene to occur. Asahina and Oogami took him by surprise, and if it weren't for Naegi and Kirigiri to disprove the former's claims, they all would've been executed. Togami fell for all of it, and gets hit once more with the feeling of being wrong, of losing to people he never expected to best him while Kirigiri continues to refute him without hesitation.

He's then placed in a position where Kirigiri and Naegi have beaten down his arguments well enough for him to dejectedly apologize after yelling, which is huge for someone like him.

The best part about this is that the moment he does this, Togami takes a full backseat to the entire debate as Naegi and Kirigiri interrogate Asahina and reveal the truth over Sakura's death.

He interjects a few times, and he only jumps back into the conversation completely at the finale—all to ask Makoto how he was able to beat him.

And in the end, Kirigiri responds (in frustration, which is hilarious) by telling him the exact reasons why he never was able to solve this case. She didn't even have to go on a huge tangent, all she needed to do is hit him right where it hurts: his pride, his black and white viewpoints, his inability to win, and that he is just as vulnerable and volatile as the rest of the people he looks down upon.

These lines themselves wouldn't have gotten to him before. We have seen how resistant Togami was when the group tried to argue with him over his behaviors, but now, each sentence hits him like a stack of bricks due to being dragged through the mud multiple times all to prove Kirigiri's point that she was right, and that he was wrong.

There is so much humiliation just packed into every single back-and-forth of the trial, you can't help but wince (and cheer) at how effective it was in getting Togami to back down completely.

[rizzoreads88]

✨People need to realllyyyy learn the difference between the words THOUGHT and PLANNED. ✨

🦇In Azriel bonus chapters he never says he hasn’t THOUGHT further then his fantasies about Elain he says he hasn’t PLANNED further. Since some people like to act like these words are the same let’s look at the actual definition.

(Real life example of what this looks like : before I started dating my husband I liked him so much I thought about him all the time. But I never once planned to actually make a move or planned to be with him because I was way too shy lol and I thought he was out of my league at the time.Did that take away from how much I liked him? Nope. Did that take away from how much I thought about him? Nope. And here we are years later having just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in September)

🌸why would Azriel even be making plans for Elain yet? They are still friends at the moment that happen to be romantically interested in each other yet she is seemingly off limits. She has a mate. Rhysand reinforces this idea that she is off limits to Azriel. So why would he be making any sort of plans just to hurt himself even more feeling she is truly off limits?

🦇Now let’s look at the context of when this is said. When Azriel is talking to Rhysand he’s extremely frustrated. He’s been thinking about Elain for however long and they both made a move on each other and Rhysand stops it right before hand. Rhysand knows Azriel and Elain are interested in each other. He’s also been w Feyre as she’s talked about them a few times and he asks her not to get involved. He was there when Elain told Graysen she didn’t care about the mate bond. Everyone knows Elain is uncomfortable around Lucien. Rhysand knows Elain was about to kiss Azriel too. Not to mention Azriel has moved on from Mor a while ago and has found someone he likes that likes him back and yet again he cannot do anything about it. He sees Cassian and Rhysand with the woman they want but Azriel cannot even kiss the woman HE WANTS that wants him back…. I think we can all understand why he’s frustrated. A lot of what he’s saying is coming from frustration. Remember when Cassian was frustrated and said he didn’t ask to be shackled to Nesta? Do you think he actually meant he didn’t want to be shackled to her or was he just frustrated? Remember when Rowan told Aelin she would be better off dead and punched her in the face? Do you think he truly meant that? Or was he just speaking out of frustration? We know Azriel feels deeper for Elain. We are shown this in his bonus chapter as well…

🌸In Azriels bonus chapter we learn he thinks about Elain daily, he actually loses sleep over her. He saved her Soltice gift and looks at it every night, his razor sharp thoughts go quiet around her, he can read her without his shadows, he has a physical reaction to Eluciens mating bond and seeing her around Lucien, he questions his religion over Elain.. then days later when he’s in training around everyone he’s still upset over Elain… in acosf when cassian mentions elain and nesta fought Azriel has a reaction to it when elain is mentioned, in acosf when Nesta insults Elains personality azriel has another reaction, his shadows get ready to physically attack nesta for insulting elains personality…

🦇You do not feel all these things, do all these things, Be willing to die to get to them, then carry them while your bleeding out if you don’t care for someone. If it’s “just lust” Azriel would have tried to make a move on her long ago and left it at that. “Well it’s just crush” and what’s a crush? It’s when you like someone you are attracted too.

🦇🌸“Well he doesn’t mention having any sort of feelings for elain to rhysand in the bonus chapter” My brethren… it’s a bonus chapter. We are not going to get love or deep feelings confessions in a bonus chapter. Bonus chapters are hints at what’s in the books and hints at what’s to come. Just like in Nessians bonus chapter Cassian wasn’t professing his love to Nesta, he wasn’t thinking about how deeply he cares for her either. It was a interaction between them to show the attraction, connection and tension they had. We didn’t get their true feelings about each other until multiple books later. So obviously SJM is saving all of this for Elriels book too if they get one.

And I’m just going to end it with this. Cassian had thoughts of being jealous of rhysand and feyre and what they had too before anything happened with him and nesta… he was frustrated with how things were w nesta too before acosf and yet no one was like “oh Cassian only wants nesta because she a Archeron sister he just feels entitled to her and doesn’t really care about her”… but when azriel is jealous suddenly it’s bc he’s a desperate incel who feels entitled to women and only wants to sleep w them? Funny how that works.

[flutterclouds]

This was such an amazing chapter, Tesh! I really loved the rush of emotions Nia experiences throughout the chapter. She’s scared and alone, but she’s also angry at both Tobias and herself. She hates that he was rash enough to go down to the mines in the dead of night with basically no backup, and she went along with it. Then, during her frustrated and isolated wander through the tunnel system, she sees the being that’s being following her for weeks: Giratina. I loved the imagery of a fragmented Giratina staring at Nia from the mirrorstone cave wall. I also loved the transition of Nia’s state of horror into one of incredulous disbelief as the god in the fragmented stone wishes for her to follow him. I thought it was really funny when Giratina’s furrowed brow and body language betrayed he was frustrated that Nia would not follow him. It really gave some fun insight into Giratina’s less eldritch and stoic side.

I also really loved reading about how Nia and Giratina’s relationship got fleshed out in this chapter. Given their history, she clearly doesn’t trust him at the start. This clearly starts to change a bit after the Steelix dodge scene. Giratina wants her alive for the moment, but I do have to wonder for what reasons. I also have to wonder if Giratina has tried to get into connect with other transformed humans over the years, or just with Nia. I recall in one of your animatics that Will has some connection to Giratina, but at this point I’m not sure whether they’re working together or have some other dynamic.

I really loved getting to see how Nia has gotten closer to Samir during their time in Asra. As previously established, Samir has been lonely for quite a while after their former partner left them. I can only imagine how much it means for Samir to open up to another person again. I think that really goes to show at her core, Nia is a person capable of forming connections with others most Pokemon would have given up on. Tobias and Samir are good examples of this. I only just realized that particular parallel between Toby and Samir, and I love it so much.

Finally, I want to say how much I adored the fight scene with Eddy and the Steelix. The fight against Eddy was so fun, with Team Scarlet and Samir being able to take him down after all he’s done to Asra. The fight against the Steelix is another beast entirely. Steelixs as a species are known for their vast size and ability to drill through solid sheets of ground. In addition, Steelixs are some of the largest non-legendary Pokemon. Steelix is an entirely new foe compared to the likes of Panpour, the Sevipers, or even Eddy. The stakes of this fight are terrifying in a very new way at this point in the story. Toby and Samir have type advantages, but that isn’t enough to win the fight. Steelix uses the cave environment against the team, burying Toby and Rubble and smacking down Samir with his tail. At this point, Nia is on her own and Giratina can only watch from his fractured vantage point on the cave wall. I loved seeing how even in the midst of such a bleak fight, Nia’s love for her friends gives her the determination to fight on against seemingly impossible odds. It’s such a great moment, and it’s honestly such a good embodiment of the themes of PMD as a series. I think Seekers of Soul works so well because you take the themes and charm of PMD and expand on it in the written format, where you aren’t limited by code, character models or sprites. It’s been such a joy reading this story, and I look forward to reading a chapter every month. Recently I’ve been drawn to stories about confronting loss, such as Final Fantasy 7, Persona 3 Portable, and Night in the Woods. I think Seekers of Soul is one of those stories, one about experiencing loss but still finding the will to live on, whether it be related to the loss of a loved one, finding oneself in some strange new environment, or simply dealing with the world changing. Like the aforementioned games, Seekers of Soul really captures the feeling of somehow finding the strength to go on despite dealing with hardship, and I think that’s a theme the world really needs right now.

Overall, I just want to say thank you for writing such an amazing story. I always appreciate reading your work, and it’s always fun gushing about what I enjoyed in any given chapter. As always, I’m looking forward to seeing what Team Scarlet get up to next time.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 45]

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Nia, Tobias and Samir are trapped in the tunnels beneath Asra with two dangerous outlaws. Can they defeat them and escape?

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The earth is crumbling beneath Nia’s feet, and she struggles to stay upright despite the solid press of Samir against her side. She sees the floor open up beneath Tobias, and he falls into the blackness without a sound.

Her stomach drops with him. “Tobias!”

She pushes away from Samir—to what? To dive after her partner? But the ground finally cracks apart beneath Nia’s feet as well.

She falls with a breathless shriek. For a beat, weightlessness. Then the ground slams into her all at once, rocky and uneven, knocking the breath out of her. She keeps her eyes squeezed shut as she rolls deeper and deeper, the satchel alternating between cushioning her movements and slapping her in the face.

It’s not until she finally slows to a stop, skin blossoming with painful new bruises, that everything starts to register. That Pokemon—a steelix?—attacked them. Tobias fell. She fell too.

She pushes herself up with a groan, looking around. She’s in a long tunnel similar to the caverns above. The glowing crystals down here seem less gentle, more a blaring red than a cozy rose tone. Mirrorstone still lines the walls in patches, and Nia can tell by her reflection that she looks as roughed up as she feels from that fall.

She’s also entirely alone.

Nia inhales, sharp, and staggers to her feet, looking one way and then the other. “Tobias? Samir?”

No luck, and no sign of either of them. Is it possible the steelix manipulated where they would fall to separate them? Nia glances up, but the earth above her has closed up once again, a few faint cracks and uneven slabs of rock the only sign of its shifting.

A distant, faint vibration makes Nia jump. Fear rolls through her gut, and she stumbles in a random direction. She doesn’t know where she’s going but she feels like a sitting duck here, dropped in the middle of a maze of tunnels that their enemy dug himself. Running feels like a hopeless effort, but what else is there to do? Her best bet right now is to move, to try and find Tobias and Samir and get out of here to find some help.

She knew they shouldn’t have come down here on their own. But she didn’t want to disappoint Tobias because she’s a stupid, stupid people-pleaser and now they’re all in danger. She hasn’t been this angry at her partner in a long while. Probably not since Afon’s Cap.

She swipes tears from her eyes as she jogs down tunnel after tunnel. Her reflection follows her in bits and pieces out of the corner of her eye.

She hits a fork in the road, and glances frantically between the two paths. Which one will lead her back up to the surface? Will either one lead her to her companions? They look exactly the same, identical tunnels of packed dirt walls and cracked patches of crystal.

“C’mon, c’mon!” She whines, bouncing in place. “Make a decision!”

The rumbling in the earth had drifted away a minute ago, but that doesn’t mean the steelix won’t be back soon. Or that he isn’t currently chasing down Tobias or Samir.

Nia goes right on impulse. For a moment she thinks she sees movement out of the corner of her eye that doesn’t match her own, and hopes that it’s Tobias or Samir. But when she looks, it’s nothing. Just her own reflection and the low light playing tricks on her frazzled mind.

Nia slows to a stop at another fork in the road, her fear sharpening to frustration. She feels like a rat in a maze, running around until her eventual demise. Is there even an exit? What if there isn’t?

Nia thinks of the way they usually escape mystery dungeons—which this underground labyrinth probably isn’t, even if she’s bad at telling—and suddenly recalls their rescue badges. She digs through their satchel, pulling out her own badge as well as Tobias’ and clutching them in her hands like lifelines.

But slowly, her mind catches up to her relief.

Even if she did send out a signal to the psychics at the guild to teleport her to safety, Tobias’ badge is with her (stupid, stupid, stupid—why don’t they wear them?!), and she doesn’t have a guarantee that Samir would think to use theirs. She can’t risk just leaving the two of them down here alone.

Besides, the psychics could only teleport her and Tobias so far away from the Lexym guild for their journey. They probably have a limited radius that they can pick them up from, too, and Nia is sure they’re outside of that range. Even the nearest guild, where Samir came from, is likely too far away to pick up their signal out here in the desert. Asra is a small, secluded town, with little authority to help protect it.

A perfect target, really.

With a frustrated little growl, Nia throws her badge down. It bounces with a metallic ping before stopping, wobbling in the dirt as it settles. Very unsatisfying, really.

Nia wipes at her eyes, then bends to pick the badge up. She brushes it off almost apologetically before tucking it away into her satchel again.

She looks up, intent on continuing forward, only to come face-to-face with Giratina.

Nia yelps, falling onto her tail and scrambling back. Giratina stares down at her from bits and pieces of reflected stone, the titan a fractured mosaic of red and black and gold.

Nia holds her breath, heart slamming in her chest as she stares back. She expects Giratina to react in some way. Maybe try to reach through the stone, or beckon her closer. Heck, she half-expects him try bashing through the barrier between their worlds, probably bringing the caves down on all of them in the process.

But no. Giratina just…waits, body and wings swaying behind him against the backdrop of whatever strange void he lives in. His glowing red eyes are as cold as distant satellites, giving no hint as to what he’s thinking.

She imagines this is what it feels like to be a cornered mouse, staring into the eyes of a hungry cat. Except he still hasn't done anything. Is he just playing with her? Or can he physically not do anything? She supposes that might confirm what they’d thought—that Giratina can’t actually touch her unless she makes contact with the reflection too.

Slowly, Nia gathers her shaking legs beneath herself, body still poised to run. Or fight. She doesn’t look away from Giratina.

Giratina nods, once. Approving. Then jerks his head to the right tunnel and slithers through the reflections like a snake through water, down the wall of the tunnel and away from her.

Stunned, Nia blinks after him.

After a moment, the titan slides back into view in front of her, head crest lowered in distinct irritation. Nia's a bit distracted by the fact that his head is larger than her whole body. Giratina jerks his chin to the right again. Insistent.

It suddenly dawns on Nia what Giratina is doing. She barks a hysterical laugh. Maybe there’s a gas leak down here.

“Are you telling me to follow you?”

Giratina gives her a nod, like this is a completely normal thing to be happening.

“And why in the world would I do that?!” Nia asks, throwing her arms up. “Will warned me about you! Plus, all you’ve done is stalk me and try to yank me into your world when I was taking a bath!”

Giratina gives her a flat, unamused look. Well, good—she’s not exactly in a good mood herself.

Nia shakes her head. “Nope, nuh-uh. If anything you’re probably leading me right into a death trap. Not happening.”

Before she can say anything else, the earth around her shakes, a bit harder than before. Nia has to crouch to keep her footing, glancing over her shoulder. She's dreading the thought of seeing that steelix’s terrible face rushing up behind her.

When she looks forward again, Giratina is still glaring down at her, clearly frustrated despite how inflexible his face plates are. His centipede-like legs are moving in an impatient wave down his body. It’s as mesmerizing as it is unsettling. Nia grimaces and takes a step back.

She has to make a decision, here and now. Does she take the advice of an eldritch horror monster who literally every scary story in this world has warned her about, or—

Okay, yeah, this one’s obvious.

Nia marches down the left tunnel. Giratina flickers into being in the reflections at her side, body taking up the whole length of the tunnel. He glares at her silently.

Nia sticks her tongue out at him. He feels a lot less scary when she knows he can’t touch her.

The tunnels rumble distantly with more movement, and Nia picks up her pace a bit. Unfortunately, she still doesn’t know where she’s going. She doesn’t come across another fork in the road over the next few minutes, but the rumbling grows slightly closer and more powerful before dying away again.

Nia wonders how many tunnels there are down here beneath the town, heavy with stale air and danger. If they've made the foundations of the land unstable. If the steelix uses too many ground moves he could probably level the whole town, not to mention bury all of them alive.

She really hopes her friends are all right.

The path has been curving for a little while, but Nia's having trouble figuring out if it’s going up or down. Logic says she wants to go up to get closer to the surface, but…

The distant rumbling of the steelix grows more prominent.

Nia speeds up, glancing over her shoulder. She can't do much else, other than hope that the steelix will change direction and the shaking will die down again.

Instead, the rumbling grows stronger second by second, shaking the ground under her feet and making her stagger. She hears a low, distant roar.

He’s coming this way.

Nia takes off, sprinting and hoping for a fork in the path or—she doesn’t know. A miracle.

She didn’t really see the steelix in motion before, but knowing how large he is, seeing the tunnels he’s dug, knowing how effortlessly he’s been destroying the town above…

She knows she’s done for if she’s caught by him down here. He’s in his element.

Nia feels numb with panic, panting as she runs and runs down the neverending cave. Giratina speeds through the reflections at her side, but for the first time since appearing he isn’t staring her down. He’s looking intently ahead as he spirals through reflections with ease.

The shaking grows stronger, and Nia's steps start to stumble as she tries to run and finds that she can’t keep her footing. She falls into the wall with a gasp. She squints against the almost painful shaking as the steelix grows ever closer.

Giratina catches her eye. He’s flaring his spidery wings out in the mirrorstone a few yards ahead of her. Once he sees her looking, he gestures his head down with urgency, towards a large chunk of glowing red stone.

Nia doesn’t know what he’s suggesting, but right now the banished legendary seems a lot less threatening than the steelix literally about to flatten her into the dirt. She scrambles for the spot Giratina pointed out, crawling through the increasingly powerful jerking of the earth.

When she reaches the crystal, gripping its warm, smooth surface, she’s surprised to see a sizable dip in the cave wall behind it. It's small, just a natural crevice in the dirt. But still…

It looks just big enough for Nia to squeeze into. She hurries to do so, yanking her satchel in with her after it gets caught on the gemstones. Her knees are jammed into her chest and her head is ducked at an uncomfortable angle, breaths puffing hot and humid into her chest.

The shaking gets louder and stronger, and she feels her brain rattle around in her head. She wonders with a pang of terror if Giratina lured her back here to get smashed like a bug under a rock.

Then, with all the force and sound of a subway train, the steelix rushes past her hiding spot. He’s a blur of silver segments, just visible through a gap in the gemstones. One second, two, and then his long body is burrowing down the tunnel and away. The shaking slowly recedes.

Nia gives it a minute. At least until the shaking is nearly gone. Then the space feels too tight, too cramped, like she’ll be crushed if she doesn’t get out. She thrashes and finally manages to squeeze an arm out of the cubby. The rest of her body follows, and she collapses onto the tunnel floor on her back. The dirt under her is smooth and packed, almost hot with the speed in which the steelix moved through.

She would’ve been dead if she’d been caught up in that.

The thought sends a fresh bolt of panic through her. She looks up, still trying to catch her breath, only to see Giratina staring back down at her from the mirrorstone in the ceiling.

“You saved me,” she rasps, somewhere between a statement and a question.

Giratina nods. Then he gestures towards the direction they came from.

For the first time, Nia considers the possibility that Giratina might genuinely be trying to help. But why? Will was very clear that the banished legendary was not to be trusted. And it’s not like he has a stellar reputation even outside of Will’s words. He tried to yank her into the distortion world, for God’s sake!

…But he did just save her life. So he at least wants her alive, for whatever reason. Maybe a nefarious plan where he later steals her soul to destroy the world or something. Chances are he isn’t working with these goons who are only in it for the money, so that means he might actually be leading her to safety.

“This is such a bad idea,” she murmurs, still shaky as she sits up. Giratina flickers out of view only to reappear in the wall, closer to eye level.

Nia raises her voice just loud enough to be heard. “O-Okay. Okay. You’ve got my attention. Um…thank you.”

Giratina makes an insistent gesture with his tail for her to turn around and go back the way they came.

Nia gets to her feet, brushing dirt off her fur, and takes a deep breath. “All right. Lead the way.”

Giratina wastes no time, silently slipping away in a blur of muted color. Nia breaks into a run to follow him back the way they came, the satchel bouncing along with each stride.

Giratina leads her through tunnel after tunnel, clearly reluctant to pause and let her catch her breath or stretch out the painful stitch in her side. When he does finally slow to a stop, Nia takes the break gratefully, gasping for air as she rests her hands on her knees.

“W-What is it?”

Giratina doesn’t answer her, looking off into the distance and narrowing his eyes, as if hearing something. Then he flickers out of sight entirely.

Nia yelps. “Giratina?”

Nothing. She’s alone again.

She looks around uneasily, suddenly back on-guard. Was he leading her into a trap? She knows she shouldn’t trust him but she doesn’t exactly have a lot of options right now. Should she go back the way she came? Keep moving forward?

Nia bites her lip. Then, almost hearing Tobias scolding her for trusting too easily, she tentatively continues forward in the direction Giratina had been leading her. She jogs lightly, trying to keep her ears open and her body ready.

To her relief, while she occasionally feels and hears the steelix roaming around, he doesn't comes barreling her way again.

Still, she slows to a stop when she hears something new and out of place. A faint tap-tap, tap-tap. Like a gallop. The steps sound too sharp to be Eddy or Tobias’ softer feet, more like…hooves?

Samir!

Nia runs forward again. She bounds around the next corner and sure enough, nearly slams right into the skiddo.

“Samir!” She cries, thrilled to see at least one of her friends unharmed.

The grass type is clearly relieved to see her too, posture relaxing even as they pant hard to catch their breath. Giratina flickers back into sight beside both of them. Samir jumps, but otherwise looks a little too familiar with the presence for this to be the first time they’ve ran into one another.

Nia blinks, looking between the two. “Was he…guiding you too?” That would explain why he disappeared on her.

Samir nods, looking warily at the legendary. Giratina stares down at the both of them, impassive.

Huh. Another point for Giratina not being a total jerk, then. Good to know.

Another rumble sounds off in the distance, and everyone tenses, looking down the tunnels. When the vibrations settle, Giratina catches their attention with a jerk of his head, gesturing back the way Samir had come from.

“Can you lead us to Tobias?” Nia asks.

Giratina nods, then zips away. Nia and Samir exchange a look and follow as fast as their legs can carry them, since they don’t really have the time to mistrust Giratina right now.

Nia can’t tell the tunnels apart at all, so all she can do is follow and hope Giratina is leading them in the right direction. They all look the same to her: rosy red light like a warning sign and flashes of reflections set into rocky walls and soil. She thinks there might be a slight incline to the path now, making the burn in her legs more pronounced, but she can’t be sure. All she knows is the constant rhythm of her panting breaths, the pain in her lungs, the tingling exhaustion in her legs, and the sound of her and Samir’s footfalls.

Finally, she hears a distant sound. She can’t pinpoint what it is right away, but it isn’t the rumble of the steelix. It almost sounds like…battling. The faint noise of attacks being used.

Nia’s heart jumps hopefully. She follows the sound to the tunnel’s end, where it opens up to the same large cavern where they first saw Eddy with the steelix. Inside, a familiar flash of fire catches her eye immediately.

Tobias is fighting Eddy, barely dodging the otter's weapon: a shell acting like a hilt for a short blade of bright blue water. Tobias is breathing hard, clearly scuffed up. Blood runs down his leg where the wound he’d gotten on the way to Asra has been reopened, but he’s still keeping Eddy on his toes. Considering the charmander is fighting an older, more experienced water type all on his own, he’s doing considerably well.

Still, Tobias' fierce expression and tense shoulders drop when he glances their way, clearly relieved to see them too.

Eddy looks much less pleased. He spits blood into the dirt, lip curling to bare sharp teeth. “You’re kidding me. He didn’t get either of you? That useless lump of steel—“

Tobias cuts him off by smacking him in the face with his tail. He follows up with a one-two swipe of metallic claws.

Samir bounds into action, beelining for Eddy. They swing their head forward as they run, launching razor-sharp leaves at the water type. Eddy flinches and hisses as they hit their mark.

Nia follows right behind. As physically tired as she is, she’s glad she hasn’t used much aura today. She draws on that energy, forming an aura staff between her paws. She slips behind Eddy and sweeps her weapon low to catch his feet. He stumbles but doesn’t go down, sending a spare water attack behind him that nips Nia’s side and sends her skittering back.

Tobias takes the distraction, lunging forward to slash at Eddy again with his claws. The otter grunts with pain, but kicks Tobias away.

Samir shoots forward to take the charmander’s place, lowering their head to tackle the water type directly in the gut. Nia hears the wind whoosh from Eddy’s lungs. The otter doubles over, the bright blue water around his shell falling to the dirt with a splash.

Nia takes the opening. She hauls her staff back like a baseball bat before slamming the otter in the back. Eddy staggers forward from the blow.

Tobias jumps in next, knocking the otter’s shell from his grasp and slamming him with his tail on the backstep.

Samir finishes it, locking their legs and launching a volley of razor leaves at Eddy. The water type covers his face, trying to stand his ground as they rip at his skin. But as soon as the bright green glow of the attack fades, Eddy falls onto his front and lies still.

For a moment, the three of them stare down at their opponent, attack stances still in place.

When Eddy still doesn’t move, Tobias finally inches forward. He uses a foot to roll the otter over. Eddy groans, still alive but clearly down for the count.

Nia relaxes, and shares a triumphant grin with Tobias and Samir.

It’s Giratina, flickering into view on the far wall and flaring his wings to catch her attention, that makes Nia take notice of the slight vibrations under her feet.

Right. They’re not done here yet.

The now-familiar shaking of the earth picks up as the steelix approaches, making all of them crouch to stay on their feet. Tobias in particular looks pained by the motion. They don't have the time to make a run for it, Nia knows. Not if the steelix is this close.

Nia takes a deep breath and tries to reign in her fear. They’re together again, and they already defeated Eddy. The steelix is a terrifying foe, but together they should be able to figure something out.

She looks to the tunnel her and Samir arrived from, hoping that the steelix won’t appear from underground or something. Luckily, she catches a distant glimpse of silver as the steelix rounds the far bend, metal flashing in the warm glow of the crystals.

Unluckily, the steelix barreling towards them looks furious, segments churning as he charges forward with the speed of a semi. He ducks his head as he enters the cavern, and Nia suddenly realizes that he’s not slowing down. They won’t be fast enough to dodge that. Tobias especially. They're going to be smashed like bugs on a windshield.

She feels like she’s back in Ghatha, watching that wreckage come hurtling down to bury her and Junie. She has the distant feeling she's looking death in the face, and something in her desperately wants to cower in terror.

But her aura saved them last time, right?

Nia shoves herself in front of Tobias and Samir. She braces her feet and grits her teeth and hopes that her self-preservation instincts will be enough to trigger—

Blue filters across her vision. Just quick enough for the steelix to crash headfirst into her shield like a train against a mountain.

Nia’s shield breaks. She cries out as a horrible pain lances through her head, vision spotting and quickly going black. Her legs buckle beneath her, and she barely registers a pair of warm arms catching her.

It feels like an instant later that Nia starts to regain consciousness. She catches flashes of sensation as she comes back to herself, trying to work through the cotton-like pain stuffed inside her skull. Tobias’ muffled voice is saying something near her, tone sharp and worried. The leafy scent of Samir has drifted away. The earth jolts in short, harsh movements, like a giant is wrestling nearby.

Nia tries to pry her eyes open, squinting against the rosy light. The ringing pain in her skull has died down, and clearer sound starts to filter back in. Tobias, yelling something. The angry snarls of the steelix. The crumbling and cracking of stone and earth. Samir’s quick hoofsteps.

Nia finally looks up. She’s been shuffled back to sit against the cave wall. Tobias is running defense from a few paces in front of her while he and Samir battle against the steelix.

Samir is using nimble leaps to weave over and under the steelix’s flailing weapon of a tail. Occasionally they even leap off the side of the cave or the steelix itself, sure-footed and nimble as they shoot off razor leaf attacks between strides.

Tobias has stayed closer by, probably in case the steelix tried to take her out while she was incapacitated. He yells distracting insults at the steelix, occasionally shooting bursts of flame that make the giant flinch.

Both types of attacks seem to be dealing heavy damage to the steelix. Tobias’ fire even makes the serpent’s metallic hide glow like molten metal when he lands a direct hit. The outlaw is definitely a steel type Pokemon, but what else could he be? Rock? Ground, maybe?

Either way, fighting type moves would be super-effective if Nia could just use them.

Nia grits her teeth and rises to wobbly feet. She has to help. Even if she can’t use many moves, she still can’t let them handle this guy alone. He’s twenty times their size and willing to kill. If he gets in one good hit they’re done for.

While she steadies her spotty vision, Nia scans the walls for a sign of Giratina. Surely he wouldn’t abandon them now, right? Even if he can’t do anything, surely he’d stick around to see their fates?

She realizes then that most of the mirrorstone in this cavern—the largest chunks at least—have been cracked by the steelix’s rampage. Nia thinks she sees fragmented glimpses of black and gold and gray flitting between stones, but it’s hard to tell what Giratina is doing or thinking.

Nia’s attention jumps back to the fight as the steelix lunges for Tobias, snapping blocky jaws down with enough force to crush a car. Tobias barely steps back in time. He lashes out with his claws in retaliation and scratches the steelix right below the eye.

Nia doesn’t expect the weak move to do much, but the steelix roars, clearly pained, as he rears back. Tobias falters, clearly as confused as she feels. It’s not until the steelix’s face tilts down again, his left eye squeezed shut and furrowed with pain, that Nia thinks she understands.

The steelix’s scar. The long, deep furrow cutting through his face like a canyon must be more vulnerable than the rest of his steely hide.

“His scar!” Nia calls, still trying to gather herself enough to push away from the wall and help. “I think it’s a weak point!”

Tobias and Samir look back at her, clearly surprised that she’s up. But then Samir nods, shooting off another razor leaf attack to get the steelix’s attention. Tobias follows them now that Nia is conscious, attacking the opposite side with his fire to keep the beast busy.

Nia takes a deep breath and stumbles away from the wall. She needs to get in there and help somehow. She can feel her aura settling again, even if it’s nearly depleted after using protect. The ache in her skull has died down, at least.

Nia staggers forward, pulling her hands apart to form her aura into a staff. She manages to get it nearly full-sized, solid and thrumming with quiet energy. Good.

While the steelix is distracted, Nia runs forward and hauls her staff back in a batter’s swing, then slams her aura into the steelix’s side with all her strength.

Her aura splinters out of existence beneath her palms. The steelix doesn’t even seem to notice her, too busy chasing down Samir and Tobias.

Nia steps back, heart dropping. That did nothing. She should’ve guessed as much—a normal type move like that, without any fighting type energy behind it? No way that would even leave a scratch on a metallic tank like this.

She’s useless in this fight.

Nia steps back and looks around, desperate to help.

She’s watching at just the right time to see Samir slip. The skiddo is bouncing off the wall to give themself some height, when a chunk of stone gives way under their hoof. Nia sees their eyes widen. Sees the sudden loss of grace as they scramble to catch themselves.

She also sees the steelix notice, a nasty grin spreading across his face. He turns, heavy tail swinging around like a wrecking ball, and slams it into Samir. The hit sends the little goat flying across the cavern.

Samir hits the far wall hard enough to send cracks webbing outward, then drops lifelessly to the dirt. They don’t get back up again, and Nia can’t tell if they’re still breathing from this far away. She stares at them, willing them to get back up. To be okay. She feels numb, suddenly, caught between terror and nausea and—

"Nia!" Tobias yells.

She snaps to attention, just in time to drop and flatten herself to the ground. The steelix’s tail swings by right overhead, a wind buffeting her from the momentum.

Shaking, Nia sits up. She looks to Tobias, only to see the charmander trying to inch his way around the cavern to Samir. He’s still dodging and attacking, but he keeps glancing towards the downed skiddo.

The steelix roars and slams his tail into the earth, but Nia can tell that this motion is different than before. She senses something—move energy, maybe. The dirt fissures in a line, shooting under Tobias’ feet like lightning. It continues past him and up the wall of the cavern.

A sickening crack is the only warning before the wall behind Tobias shifts and buckles. A wave of rock and dirt slides down quick as an avalanche. Nia sees Tobias go pale. Then the wave swallows him whole, burying him alive in a mountain of earth.

“Tobias!” Nia shrieks.

Before she can even think—can even doubt or hope or grieve or try to help either of her friends—the steelix turns to her. He’s not smiling, but there’s something satisfied in his expression that feels even worse. Like he’s an exterminator wiping out pesky vermin.

And Nia, with nothing but normal type energy to her name, is left alone to fight him.

Terror and grief makes her stumble back. Her attack earlier did nothing, and she’s sure that a quick attack would be equally unhelpful. She can feel her chest squeeze with panic.

Her teary gaze flicks to the nearest wall, to Giratina scattered and broken in abstract bits, but the legendary seems equally frazzled, moving in erratic movements. He almost looks like he’s trying to ram his way through the reflections, to no avail.

Somehow, that only makes her feel worse.

The steelix lunges for her, and Nia dives under his head to dodge. Panicked, she finds her aura and pumps it into her paw, lashing up with a desperate, sloppy punch mimicking Val’s power-packed moves.

(Wait—mimic?)

But her move bounces harmlessly off the steelix’s hard coat, and her fist blooms with a painful bruise from the hit. Nia bites back a cry and scrabbles out from under the steelix before she’s smushed.

Mimic. Right!  She’s been trying to learn mimic. If she could just use one of Tobias’ fire type moves, or Samir’s razor leaf, she might have a chance.

The steelix swings his tail at her, gouging a furrow into the dirt. She nearly trips running out of the way. Then, panting, Nia scrambles over to Samir. The goat is still unnervingly still, but when Nia gets closer she can see the faint rise and fall of their side.

Oh, thank God.

Nia couldn’t figure out how to use mimic on a good day, let alone in the heat of a life-threatening battle. She hasn't even really asked Val how to do it yet, but it’s the only thing she can think of. She’s desperate.

Nia puts her hand on Samir’s leafy mane, where his razor leaf attack seemed to come from. Then, with no better idea of how she could even go about “borrowing” a move, she shoots her aura down her arm until it brushes against Samir’s.

Samir’s aura is…silver. She doesn’t try to look, really, but it flashes into her mind before she thinks to look away. Their soul is silver like steel, ironically. Solid and unyielding. Silver like a mirror, reflective and quiet. Silver like a sword and shield, sharp but protective, hard and seemingly cold. But steel makes tools, steel means safety and strength and durability and—

Focus, Nia! You’re not here to read Samir’s soul. You’re here to grab the last move they used, their razor leaf attack.

…Except Nia has no idea how to do that. Does it even have anything to do with the skiddo’s aura? Surely it does since aura is the basis for move energy, but how can she mold her own aura to match it? How can she even single out an attack from who Samir is, from the lifeblood running through them?

Nia realizes with a pang that she can’t. She simply doesn’t know how. And her instincts as a riolu are apparently not enough to learn on the spot.

Nia’s eyes snap open, breath catching as she sees the steelix’s tail bearing down on them again. Nia loops her arms around Samir’s body and lunges as far as possible.

The steelix’s tail slams down not a foot away from both of them, making their bodies jump off the ground. The attack leaves an indent like a trench in the dirt, and Nia’s heart jumps into her throat.

She needs to move this fight away from here. Samir and Tobias are unconscious, and the steelix is after her now. Her partners are in the line of fire as long as the fight continues in this cavern.

Nia shoves away from Samir and bolts for the nearest opening, the one leading down into the tunnel system. She hears the steelix let out a booming laugh far behind her. She’s confused until she realizes he must think she’s trying to run.

For the first time since this fight started, she feels angry rather than afraid. He thinks this is funny? Thinks it’s hilarious to bury her partner alive and slam Samir into the wall like a doll? Thinks it's funny to hurt them, terrorize them, endanger the whole town?

It feels easier to think, suddenly, with her terror sharpening to fury. She understands why Tobias chooses anger now, instead of losing himself to despair. It feels more like she's in control. Like she can use this fire under her skin.

The rumble of the steelix following her into the tunnels makes her stumble. She picks herself up and runs harder, gasping for breath. Giratina flickers into view at her side, whole again.

When Nia reaches the first fork in the path, she hesitates. She just—she needs a second to breathe. To think. She needs a plan. Her lungs are on fire and she tastes metal in her mouth. Her emotions are a frayed knot of fear and grief and anger. But that doesn’t mean anything to the creature trying to kill her.

The shaking of the earth grows stronger, almost shaking her off her feet. On a whim, Nia staggers down the right path and around the bend until she can hunker down against the wall.

All she’s working with at this point is luck. Hoping that by pure chance, the steelix won’t pick this path. That’s what their lives are depending on.

Luckily, some kind of deity must decide that her fortune has been bad enough today, because she feels and hears the steelix rumble down the left path, his movements slowly fading away.

Nia breathes out a shuddery breath, sliding down the wall to the ground. That stroke of luck bought her a minute, maybe, before he turns around. She has to think.

She has to get them all out of here, but even if she turns around now, grabs Samir, and manages to haul the two of them up the ladder and to safety before the steelix can stop her (which is unlikely), she’s not just going to leave Tobias down here, buried under a mountain of rubble.

Giratina flickers into view across the tunnel. Nia looks up at him as she slows her breathing, knowing her emotions are clear as day on her face.

Giratina looks irritated.

And Nia feels angry in return.

“What?!” She hisses, careful to keep her voice down. “You have some great idea?! It’s a little hard to feel optimistic when I have no way to fight that thing!”

Giratina’s eyes narrow, moving around as if trying to think of something. Finally, they settle on the satchel still looped over her shoulder.

Nia, teetering violently between despair and fury, rips it off and throws it down. She yanks it open and turns it over so their meager collection of items spill out.

“There’s nothing here!" She says, voice breaking. She swallows hard and gestures at the mess. “What? What’s going to miraculously beat him for us? Berries? Half a flask of water? Badges that won’t even work? Blast seeds?“

Nia pauses, panting, and stares at the unassuming little yellow seeds sitting on the ground. The ones they’d gotten as a reward from their last client.

“Blast seeds,” she breathes.

With something like hope blossoming in her chest, Nia stuffs the rest of their items back into the satchel and pulls it back over her shoulder. Then, delicately, as if handling precious jewels, she scoops the little seeds into her hands. There are only three of them, small and unassuming. But she recalls Tobias’ words about them.

If she ate one, it would give her a short burst of flames to attack with, even without any move energy. And that would hurt even the steelix, right?

But there are only three. And even if they’re strong, what if they’re still not strong enough? Tobias’ flames clearly hurt the steelix earlier, left his hard hide soft as molten metal. But she needs a surefire way to take him down for good.  A weak point, maybe—

A weak point exactly like that scar of his.

Nia laughs a wet, weak laugh, and wipes at her eyes. A plan is unfolding in her mind, and she can only desperately hope she can pull it off.

The steelix’s rumbling had faded away, but it’s starting to strengthen again as he returns. Nia gives Giratina a nod of thanks before hurrying back to the main cavern where Tobias, Samir, and Eddy are lying unconscious.

When she arrives, none of them have moved. That’s worrying on its own, but Nia doesn’t have time to fret over them, not until the steelix is dealt with.

Nia puts two of the blast seeds back in the satchel. The third she clutches in her paw, before moving to stand off to the side of the cave entrance.

Then, she waits.

The steelix rumbles back to the fork in the path, his cursing audible even from where she is. She hears him check out the other cave, but he doesn’t go far before turning around. He moves closer and closer to where she is, the ground shaking under her feet while she clings to the wall for stability.

Nia holds the blast seed up to her mouth. As soon as that giant silver face emerges from the cavern, she takes a note from Tobias' book and shouts, “Hey, ugly!”

The steelix’s head swings around to look at her.

Nia cracks the blast seed between her teeth, swallowing.

And immediately she feels an unfamiliar flare of energy erupt in her stomach, hot and powerful. It pushes up into her throat and out through her mouth and—

The explosive blast of fire nearly blinds her. But the pained roar of the steelix tells her she hit her target head-on.

A great thrashing follows. She feels more than sees the steelix’s tail swing dangerously close to her head as he roars with pain. Coughing up smoke and an unfamiliar sense of heat in her airways, Nia stumbles away from the blast zone. She blinks hard, squinting, until she can see the steelix writhing on the ground, churning up the dirt. The left side of his face is glowing white-hot with lingering heat.

Nia feels a thrill of victory, but hurriedly pulls out the second blast seed. Without giving the steelix time to recover, she runs straight at his face and cracks the second blast seed between her teeth.

He must hear her coming, because he pulls away just in time, dodging the majority of the seed’s explosion as he twists upright. Wavering, but once again stories above her head.

Nia curses, biting back a stab of panic. Only one seed left. She can’t afford to mess up with this one, and since he’s upright again, she’s going to need some leverage to use it.

Nia picks up a nearby rock loosened by the hubbub and launches it at his side. It pings uselessly against his armored body, but catches his attention. He squints down at her, clearly still blinking the explosions out of his vision and battling the pain.

Nia sticks her tongue out at him, then turns tail and sprints for the first cave, where the rope ladder leading outside hangs.

The steelix follows, slamming into walls in his dazed state and making it even harder for her to stay on her feet. She stumbles, but manages to stay ahead of him until she hits the cave. The bottom of the rope ladder is just visible in the little alcove off to the side. Nia ducks inside and jumps onto the rope ladder just in time.

The steelix slams into the wall separating the little space from the main cavern. The vertical tunnel around her shakes, and dirt powders her fur like snow.

Nia climbs higher, up and up as the steelix batters the wall with mindless fury. He must think she’s trying to escape. The rope ladder swings slightly under the onslaught. The wall behind her cracks ominously under the steelix’s weight.

Finally, Nia thinks she’s high enough. She turns around, facing the wall and the steelix behind it. She rummages in her satchel until she finds the last blast seed, then places it between her teeth.

The steelix is still roaring, slamming into the wall of the alcove over and over again. Nia clings to the rope ladder, locking her arms and praying this will work.

Finally, the layer of rock between the two of them begins to crack and crumble. It falls away in noisy chunks that plummet to the ground far below. The steelix’s face becomes visible, right at her level. He tears away the last chunk of rock between them, looking like a frenzied animal after its prey. Once she’s in sight, mere feet away from his giant maw, he goes for her.

And Nia swallows the blast seed.

Like the two times before, the seed immediately erupts. Flames explode in a cloud of biting heat. The steelix’s agonized roar only barely registers over the ringing in her ears. She remembers to close her eyes this time.

When she opens them, her heart skips a beat. The steelix is still upright. Rearing back with his face a molten hue, clearly hurting, but not unconscious.

One more final push. That’s all she needs. The heat should’ve softened the metal a bit, so—

Nia snaps her arm out and summons a staff of aura, feeling her reserves run low. Then, she pushes off the back wall of the alcove and leaps. For an instant, she feels like she’s flying. It’d be enjoyable if she weren’t flinging herself directly at the mouth of a monster.

Then she swings her aura staff up, and brings it down with all the strength left in her body.

The makeshift weapon hits true. It meets the softened split of the steelix’s scar with a crack like a gunshot. Nia isn’t sure if the sound is from the force of the blow, from the steelix’s shell splitting open further, or from her aura snapping to pieces in her hands.

Whatever it is, it seems to be enough.

The steelix doesn’t roar, or cry out, or rear back. Instead, he drops. Nia, who had landed on his head, struggles to hang on to the metal surface as the huge Pokemon topples. When he hits the ground, the earth itself shakes, throwing up a plume of dirt and dust that has Nia hacking.

An unnerving quiet falls over the cavern. The only sounds are her panting breaths, the quiet settling of dirt and earth, and the heavy puffs of the steelix passed out like a derailed train below her.  

Giratina flickers into view off to the side, looking solemn as ever. He meets her eyes, then flicks his head back the way they came, to the other cavern.

She feels a cocktail of emotions building in her chest, but tries to stuff them away. At least for now. Relief and exhaustion make her limbs feel like jelly, but she’s not done yet. She has to get to her friends.

Nia slides down the hulking mass of the steelix. She staggers through the cavern, still coughing up smoke. She feels like her throat has first degree burns.

Finally, she finally makes it back to the cavern where Tobias, Samir, and Eddy lie knocked out.

She’s relieved to see Samir is waking up, dragging themself into a sitting position. They’re grimacing, one eye squeezed shut with pain, but they look coordinated enough.

“Samir!” She gasps, hurrying to their side.

The skiddo jumps, looking first at her, then around the cavern. Their anxious expression melts into confusion.

“The steelix is down,” Nia says, kneeling at the skiddo’s side and peering into their eyes to see if they have a concussion or anything. She doesn’t even know what she’s supposed to be looking for. “How do you feel?”

Samir blinks at her, clearly bewildered by the easy dismissal. Their gaze flicks over Nia’s shoulder, as if not quite believing her.

“I’ll tell you later,” she says, too tired to deal with this right now. “Seriously, are you okay? You got thrown into a wall and I thought…”

Samir must hear the way her throat closes up, because they finally soften and focus on Nia’s questions. Hesitantly, they nod. Their eyes flick down Nia’s form as they tilt their head with a furrowed brow.

“I-I think I’m okay?” Nia answers. She stumbles back to her feet, helping Samir up after. “But we need to find Tobias.”

Samir’s eyes widen. The skiddo went down first so they’re probably wanting to know what exactly happened, but Nia doesn’t have time to explain. Now that her adrenaline is fading, the fear is returning tenfold.

She really, really hopes Tobias is okay.

“This way,” she says, hurrying as fast as she can to the mountain of earth and rock that buried the charmander. The closer she gets, the more her distant panic surfaces.

This is…a huge mountain of dirt and rock. And while she saw Tobias get buried, she’d been too focused on his face to notice where exactly he would end up by the end of it. But she needs to get him out of there. What if he’s seriously hurt? What if he’s—

Fear spiking, Nia kneels in the dirt at a random spot and starts digging with her hands. She was hoping it would be easy to move, but the rocks and chunks of earth make it painful and clunky to handle, and the clay-like soil sticks everything together.

Nia feels her eyes sting with tears. She digs harder. Faster. Samir tugs on her satchel, but she doesn’t stop to look at them.

She doesn’t know where Tobias is. What if he dies because she can’t find him? What if he’s suffocating?

Her eyes blur with tears as she chokes. Desperately, Nia looks up at the nearest cave wall to find Giratina. The titan is still there, fragmented and a bit hard to see in the broken chunks of mirrorstone. He shakes his head. Nia isn’t sure if that means that he didn’t see where Tobias ended up either, or—

Samir is tugging at Nia’s satchel with their teeth again, hard enough to disrupt her work.

She finally turns to them, snapping, “What?!”

Samir looks concerned, but their gaze darts nervously to where Eddy is lying on the ground across the cave. They jerk their head towards the tunnel leading out of here.

Nia shoves the goat away, panic making her movements and words sharper than usual. “I’m not leaving him down here! W-What if he’s suffocating?!”

The thought only makes everything worse, and Nia’s breath hitches with a sob as she gets up, skittering around the cave-in, pawing small handfuls of rubble free before moving again to a new spot. Where is he? Where is he?!

Samir doesn’t argue again. Just staggers over to her side and starts trying to dig with their own hooves. After only a few seconds they stop, looking over at her with clear conflicted feelings.

She knows. She knows. It’s going to be impossible to find the charmander in this mess since neither of them know exactly where Tobias is. But she can’t just leave him down here! What if he dies because they take too long to get help digging him out? What if Eddy or the steelix wake up and find him first? What if the whole tunnel system caves in?

Nia is crying openly now. She ignores the pain of rocks and dirt straining and scraping at her desperate hands. She can hardly see in front of her through her tears, and swipes a frustrated, dirty arm across her face.

She can’t let Tobias die here. He’s her partner! Her friend! She can’t just let him go!

A small flash from her chest startles her and Samir alike. Nia sniffles, looking down at herself. She’s not surprised to find her body outlined with blue, the tired remnants of her aura manifesting with her rising emotions. Another spark flashes off her body.

Frustrated, she takes a moment to ball her fists against her temples and shriek into her inner arms. She supposedly has this great power, this ability to use her energy like no other species of Pokemon, and still she’s useless when people really need her.

Would one of her moves help if she could actually use them? She feels as powerless as she did in that fire in Ghatha. Or in the fight against the seviper. Or when she was grabbed by Giratina. When she was first transported to this world, scared out of her wits. When her and Tobias were trying to find that tropius calf, trying to see an enemy ambushing them from beneath the earth and Nia had tried and failed to—

Nia’s breath catches, tears and snot and grief making her cough. But wait, wait. That time in the cave dungeon, she’d tried something with her aura. Tried to find that burrowing enemy by sending out a pulse of her aura, like radar.

She didn’t even get close to succeeding then. And she hasn’t tried anything like it since. Her attempt at using mimic earlier was a total failure. But…

What other option does she have?

Nia’s aura flares, making her flinch as it pulses through her like a rush of energy. Nearby pebbles rattle and roll away. Distantly, she registers Samir stepping back out of the corner of her eye.

This is dangerous. She can’t control this yet. She could make the rock slide worse, could unsettle the precarious stability of the earth. They could all be buried alive.

But if she does nothing, Tobias could die. And it’s worth the risk if it might save him.

“Samir, step back,” Nia whispers, widening the arms she has braced against the dirt and rock. She hears the skiddo follow her order without complaint, scrabbling away.

Then, Nia takes a deep, shuddering breath. Tries to imagine her aura coursing through her body. Tries to remember what Val told her, long ago, about casting her aura out not as a solid stream, but as a veil. A wave.

Her first attempt erupts from her hands with an earth-rumbling burst. Nia flinches, gritting her teeth. Too strong. Too much, all at once.

She tries to slow the flow of her aura, less like a faucet full-blast, and more like barely nudging it on. Lets her aura trickle out at a much smaller, much steadier pace.

Like this, it’s easier to control how the aura disperses. She can hold the contents of that gentle flow, then scatter it like water drops from cupped hands. Like a fine mist, rather than a stream.

She tries it. The energy disperses, and for a moment Nia fears nothing has happened. Did she still not get it right? Val said she should be able to sense any aura hers bumps into.

Could Tobias already be..?

Nia whimpers and tries the technique again, struggling to keep her emotions from getting out of control. She can’t let them get out of control. She has to do this. She has to help Tobias!

She just…she just wants him to be safe.

The second try is better than the first one. Less a net with gaping holes in it and more a…pulse. A wave, gently passing through the earth beneath her.

For an instant, there’s nothing.

Then, a new color flashes in her mind, there and gone in an instant. Red. Not the bright blood red of Xander or their scarves, but a deep, maroon red.

Nia’s breath catches.

“Tobias..?” She murmurs. Desperately, she sends out another pulse. The second time her aura brushes against another’s makes her choke out a sob.

There’s life there. And despite the fact that Nia has never seen Tobias’ aura before, despite the fact that she’s trying not to look too deeply into it, she knows it’s him. She can feel it’s him, almost as clearly as she knows her own soul.

And he’s still alive.

Nia sends another pulse of aura into the earth, hands shaking. Then another. Tries to pinpoint with her aura exactly where he is in this mess of rubble. It’s hard, when she isn’t familiar navigating this disconnected part of herself. But after a few more times, it starts to make sense. It’s like…sonar. Like a radar. Like a beacon.

“I found him,” she says, breathless. Her heart pounds in her ears. Her eyes snap open, blue still outlining the edges of her vision, and she slides clumsily down from the top of the rubble.

Samir trots to her side, wide-eyed but looking to her for direction. Nia hurries to the edge of the debris, biting her lip and sending another pulse of aura into the pile. She swallows down a cry when she “sees” that same flash of red, only a few feet forward.

“Here,” she says, getting to work. “Just ahead!”

Samir nods, then immediately joins her in digging. After a minute or two, Nia’s bloodied hands have made a sizeable dent in the earth. Samir has adjusted their strategy to start moving the discarded dirt further away, and they stabilize the gap Nia is creating. Nia wants to use her aura and blast the rubble away, or ask Samir to use one of their own attacks, but she knows they risk hurting Tobias if they do.

Still, it seems like it takes forever to dig deeper and deeper into the loose rock and earth. Nia sends the occasional pulse of aura out to make sure they’re still on the right track.

Finally, Nia pulls away a small slab of rock to reveal a dusty orange arm.

“Tobias!” She gasps, fresh tears flooding her eyes. She frantically digs more, using her aura to help fling away the larger chunks.

Once they uncover half of Tobias’ body, Samir helps to drag him free completely, trying to be mindful of any injuries.

The charmander's face is bruised and slack, eyes closed, but his tail flame is like a breath of fresh air. Small, but bright.

Nia gathers him into her lap, hugging his warm body close. She knew he was her friend, she knew she cared about him, but she didn’t realize how much the thought of losing him hurt until she nearly did.

“Gh…Nia?”

The throaty whisper makes Nia pull back, looking down at Tobias through a blurry watercolor of tears.

He squints up at her, wincing and lifting a hand to his head. “What happened? Feels like I got hit by a mountain.”

“More or less,” Nia says, voice aiming for joking but coming out strangled.

Tobias blinks up at her, frowning, probably about to ask more questions, but Nia can’t resist. She leans down and wraps him up in another tight hug, crying into his dusty scarf.

“N-Nia! Hey!”

“Are you okay?” She asks.

“I think so? What—“

That’s all Nia needed to hear. She ignores Tobias weak protests and flailing limbs, hugging him tighter. After a few moments, he seems to give in, grumbling something and letting his arms fall heavily around her back.

Samir is the one to interrupt the emotional reunion. They tug at Nia’s scarf, tied around her bicep. When she looks up, wiping at her eyes, the goat gives her an apologetic but nervous look, glancing once again at Eddy. The otter Pokemon is still knocked out for now, but Nia heard him groan earlier. He could wake up at any moment, and none of them are in any condition to fight.

“R-Right. We need to get out of here and grab Calder.”

Samir nods, helping Nia to her feet. Then they lean into Tobias’ other side to force the charmander to use them as a crutch.

“‘M up, I’m up,” Tobias grumbles half-heartedly. Nia can tell he’s exhausted by how little he protests their help.

“Let’s go,” she says, looping his free arm over her shoulder.

Slowly, the three of them hobble past Eddy, back through the tunnel and into the first cave with the rope ladder. Both Tobias and Samir stop sharply when they see the downed steelix surrounded by rubble.

“How..?” Tobias chokes. She feels him turn his head to look at her. “Did you—“

“Later,” Nia insists, too on-edge to feel flustered.

When they finally make it to the ladder, Nia has to spend a full minute convincing Samir to go first. She knows they’re the slowest climber, that’s why she wants them to go first! She doesn’t want to have to worry about accidentally leaving them behind.

The skiddo looks bitter at that, but finally acquiesces when Nia gives them a pleading look and reminds them that it’s really not a good time to be arguing.

Nia sends Tobias up between them, to give the charmander someone to follow but to allow her to try to catch him if he slips. She can tell that almost starts another argument, but Samir, thank God, starts climbing and Nia puts on her I’m Serious About This face so Tobias finally starts climbing himself. Slower than Nia would like, but it’ll have to do. Nia shoots nervous glances over her shoulder at the steelix and towards the tunnel where Eddy lies unconscious.

When Tobias’ tail flame is high up in the tunnel, he calls down, “Nia!”

“Coming!” She whisper-yells back, finally scrambling after the two of them. Her tense muscles are sore and heavy with exhaustion, but she doesn’t think she’s ever climbed so fast in her life, leftover terror giving her energy.

She catches up to Tobias just as Samir is hauling him over the edge and into the surface cave of the old mine. When she’s out too, Nia takes a moment to catch her breath. Tobias looks seconds away from passing out, and Nia is tempted to let him, but…

Samir tap-taps in the dirt. They jerk their head towards the mouth of the tunnel, in the direction of Asra. Their brown eyes are tired and sympathetic, but unyielding.

“I know, I know,” Nia groans, pushing herself to her feet. Tobias hisses a weak protest when she drags him up too, slinging his arm over her shoulders again.

Slowly, the three of them trudge back to the opening of the cave. Nia sees the dim gray light of early morning, dawn just starting to touch the horizon, and tears flood her eyes again. The cold desert breeze brushing against her face is the sweetest air she’s ever tasted.

When they step outside, Nia can see the vague mass of Fort Asra in the distance, and she wants to cry for another reason entirely. It’s so, so far. She’s not sure they can actually make it.

A quiet sound behind Nia makes her instincts jolt. She sees Samir tense at the same time, ears swiveling back.

Nia spins, Tobias stumbling without her support. But she’s just in time to put up a weak screen of aura, a poor imitation of her earlier protect.

Bright blue slices of water hammer against her shield, cracking it. Nia grunts and stumbles back from the blow. Tobias catches her, nearly falling himself. Samir steps in front of both of them.

Eddy is at the mouth of the cave, leaning heavily against the wall. He sneers at them with bared, bloody teeth and wild eyes. If they were at full strength, Nia is sure they would be able to handle him as easily as they did earlier. But after that Steelix..?

Nia can barely get her legs under her again. She and Tobias are holding each other up like a wobbly tower of cards. Samir’s legs are visibly trembling with fatigue.

Eddy snarls, lunging forward with his shells drawn. Nia tenses, and she sees Samir do the same.

A familiar jet of water shoots past her shoulder, slamming into Eddy and sniping him out of the air.

Nia blinks, then whips her head around to see none other than Calder rushing up to them. Behind the inteleon, Nia is even more surprised to see Takeo and Granite hauling themselves up the rocks.

“Calder?” She asks, bewildered. She must be hallucinating.

But the inteleon runs past them without a word, tackling Eddy to the dirt and pinning him easily. The dewott snarls but can barely put up a fight.

A light touch to Nia’s back makes her jump, but when she looks it’s just Granite, reaching out with his trunk to get her attention. The donphan scans her and then Tobias with serious eyes.

“You three all right?”

Tobias snorts weakly into her neck, clearly thinking a sarcastic retort but too fatigued to verbalize it.

“Tired,” Nia manages.

Granite nods. “I’m guessing ol’ Ed here was up to no good to have you three looking like that?”

“Caused the quakes,” Tobias says, words half-slurred as he struggles to stay conscious.

Takeo, who had crouched in front of Samir to check them over, matches Granite’s surprised expression. The two of them openly stare at the charmander.

“Eddy can’t use ground moves,” Granite finally says, dumbfounded.

“He's working with an, um…a steelix,” Nia says, struggling to recall the species. “He’s knocked out, but he’s still down there.”

Calder, with Eddy’s unconscious body tucked under his arm like an unruly toddler, steps back over to them. He frowns. “There’s someone else involved?”

Nia waits a beat, before realizing that Tobias is legitimately passing out as they speak and Samir is almost there as well, swaying on their hooves. Not to mention mute.

She rubs at her eyes. “There’s a tunnel leading under the mines. Beneath the mine cart. Leads to a tunnel system. A steelix was causing the quakes. Eddy was making it rain so much to increase the damage.”

Nia can see all the adults taking that in with furrowed brows. Calder’s grip on Eddy grows tighter. Takeo narrows his eyes and glances at the otter with a dark expression. Granite curses under his breath, steadying Tobias when he starts to to tilt.

Finally, Calder nods, handing Eddy off to Takeo. The spidops wordlessly gets to work bundling the smaller Pokemon up with…silk? He skillfully twines it around and around the otter with his long arms weaving like a loom. Nia watches the motion as if in a trance, blinking sluggishly.

“Should we call for backup as soon as we get back?” Granite gruffs.

Calder nods again. “Yes. Send Lara and Cody for sure. We need a sleep powder and a heavy hitter to make sure we can keep the steelix controlled until authorities arrive. Send Jay to the guild. He’ll need to grab some psychics to take these two in.”

Nia barely registers the words of the three Asra ‘mon as she fights to stay standing. Tobias is leaning more and more heavily into her as he slowly slides to the ground. She eventually gives up and goes with him, sitting down in the dirt.

She must start to doze, because she’s woken up by Tobias’ weight being shifted off her shoulder. She looks up, bleary-eyed, to find Takeo securing the unconscious charmander to Granite’s broad back with some of that same silk. A string shot attack, maybe? Samir is already tied down as well, their head up as they fight to stay awake. Their eyes are lidded with exhaustion.

“Wh’re we going?” Nia mumbles.

Takeo effortlessly scoops Nia up to hold her in his arms. She doesn’t have it in her to feel embarrassed about being carried like a child. At least she’s not swaddled up in a cocoon and strapped to the bug type’s back like Eddy is.

“Taking you kids back to town,” Takeo grunts, starting to carefully pick his way down the rocks. Granite follows with a clumsy slide that sends pebbles raining down after him.

Nia blinks up at the slowly-brightening sky framing Takeo’s chin. The air is still cool with night air, but the dawn is turning from gray to blue, clear and lovely.

Her eyes slide to the side, until she catches a glimpse of orange and green atop Granite’s gray back.

“Are they gonna be okay?” She asks.

Takeo hums. “They should be fine. You kids are tough, and smarter than we gave you credit for. Dumber, too.”

Nia huffs something like a laugh as she closes her eyes. She can’t really argue with that.

[crazybiscuit]

Uptown Girl

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Reader Summary: You, an out of touch rich pureblood, recently moved to England for yet another engagement prospect. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan as you somehow find yourself constantly running into a werewolf, who has developed a valid reason to dislike you. Warnings: This is going to be a long fic and the reader will be a bit of a bitch at first. The story will definitely contain violence, excessive use of alcohol, smut and mentions of death. This chapter doesn't have any graphic content though. On side note, this is set in 1983 and sadly, Lily (my wife... 😔) and James are dead. So Sirius is in Azkaban and Peter is "dead". Word Count:  2287 Credits: @saradika-graphics thank you for the divider! A/N: Let's pretend I didn't mean to post this yesterday... London was an actual nightmare to map out in my brain and I'm fully aware the title doesn't make total sense considering uptown and downtown is a mostly American concept but I figured it fit the context of the story. So for our sake, Remus will live in East London, closer to the Thames, and you, my dear Readers will live in West London, more North of the city. On a side note, fuck JKR and her disgusting beliefs. Also, to anyone struggling, whether it be personal life or political climate, I hope you're doing alright. Writing is my current escapism and I hope I can help someone else in the process. On another note, chapter 2 should be posted on the 28th!

 

“When is that damned exterminator going to get here?” your father’s gruff voice was muffled by his handkerchief he held to his nose as he walked into the parlour.

“We should’ve just called the ministry,” the woman sat next to you snapped, her head sticking out of the window taking advantage of the fresh air, “No one would’ve ever cared about our little problem. But no, you had the brilliant idea to hire some random man you found in a pub.”

You brushed your damp hair, trying your best to ignore the foul stench emitting from beneath the floor, “There’s nothing small about our problem, so I’d much rather keep this discreet myself.”

You should’ve known better than to oppose your poor, dear mother, as she grasped her chest as if he couldn’t breathe, “Discreet! I don’t care how discreet we are dealing with this! This man will fail to help us, screw up and we will have to call the ministry anyways. Hell! He’s probably a fraud and planning to rob us. Do you have any idea how much worse that will be! People will think we are fouls who can’t maintain our estate.”

You didn’t bother hiding the way you rolled your eyes as you glanced back out to the cloudy sky, which caused mother to rant about disrespect to the old man, now sitting in his recliner.

The fall wind was a welcome guest as you began to carefully style your hair, turning your attention to your faint reflection in the window. The bundimun infestation might have stalled the redecorating efforts of this old dirty hole of townhouse, but it was certainly not going to stop you from looking your best.

“It’s lucky Josephine is still in France. I'm beginning to doubt any amount of magic can revive this place.”

“Enough complaining,” your father cut in, as he cast another scouring charm in an attempt to lessen the smell, “We all know this isn't ideal, but you should be grateful we even found this estate for you.”

You felt slightly annoyed as you finished your hair, frowning at him through the glass reflection. Your hand dropped dejectedly as you glanced back with a sigh. He was right, despite every one of your arrangements falling through due to the war, your parents had still managed to find you a respectable match, “I know, I know… I'm sorry. This is all just frustrating.”

Your parents shared a look but remained silent. However, this didn’t last long as your mother suddenly stood up, “I feel like I might faint.” 

Your father let out an exasperated sigh at her theatrics.

“I am sorry, dear, but I cannot do this anymore. You'll have to deal with the exterminator yourself, I'm going out for lunch with Y/N–”

Before your father could protest in annoyance, you interrupted, “Actually, I still need to finish my makeup, so you can go with Papa.”

They put very little effort into arguing and quickly vanished from the house. The silence would've been appreciated if it weren’t for the disturbing smell surrounding you and you found yourself tilting your head back as you leaned against the window sill. Even upside down, the townhouses that lined the street bored you, and you decided to stare at the sea of grey clouds slowly drifting across the sky instead.

You figured, much to your annoyance, that it would likely rain again today. Your attention snapped to the street when you heard the crunching of the colourful leaves beneath someone’s shoes. You flipped over to get a proper look of the man coming up the street and your interest peaked. He stood out against the pristine houses, his dark clothes seemingly worn from years of wear on his tall, though lanky figure, and he seemed handsome enough even from the second floor.

You quickly grabbed your wand and summoned your silk robe, slipping it over your nightgown. He must’ve been the man your father hired, and with that thought, you grabbed your perfume bottle to apply some.

By the time the doorbell rang, you had grabbed your lipstick and you carefully applied it as you looked at yourself in the mirror against the wall. The bell rang a second time and you sighed, quickly wiping off the colour that was out of place. You smoothen out your silk robe before heading to the front door, opening it and finding yourself faced with a man’s hand frozen midair, ready to knock.

“Oh, sorry,” your eyes snapped up to the face that spoke and you met the man’s slightly startled hazel eyes. He was taller than you expected when you saw him outside and his light brown hair was messy but still made him look rather charming. He seemed a few years older, likely in his mid or late 20s. But what truly caught your eyes were the scars scattered across his face, neck, hands. Any bit of skin you could see was littered with scars, “Hi, you hired pest control..?”

His deep voice snapped you out of your daze and you noted the faint Welsh accent as you stepped aside, opening the door wider for him, “Right… come in.”

The man took notice of your outfit and nonchalant demeanor, but remained professional as he followed you in. His expression remained steady despite the familiar pungent smell filling the house. He awkwardly adjusted his bag on his shoulder. Your father hadn’t told him the exact issue, only promising to pay him nicely, and Remus hadn’t exactly allowed himself the privilege of worrying about the oddity of the situation. However, you did notice his stance relaxed as he recognized the infestation he was handling, “Bundimuns?”

“Unfortunately, that is correct,” you sighed, looking back as you opened the door to the area where the test was the most prominent. You noted his slight hesitancy to walk in as he observed the half-decorated house, “Our house warming party is in a few days and we need this issue to be solved quickly so we can finish the renovations.”

“Right…,” Remus tried his best to hide his expression of confusion and disbelief as he stared at the loud decor scattered around the room, “This seems like it would’ve been easier to report to the ministry.”

“Probably,” you agreed, making your way to the open balcony, “We’ll take our chances though. I’d rather only have one person know about this than deal with official records of the infestation.”

That confused the poor man, who had set his old messenger bag down on one of the uncovered powder blue sofas, but he wasn’t about to push for more answers. Rich, purebloods were always preoccupied with reputation, he knew that very well.

You leaned against the cold, metal railing as you watched him digging through his bag for his notebook, “How long will this take you?”

His gaze met yours for a split second before going back to flipping through the yellowed pages, “It’ll take two or three hours. This is a pretty serious infestation and this building is a lot bigger than it seemed outside…” 

It was clear he had questions but it didn’t seem like he was going to ask. You figured you’d explain the situation to prevent any rumours to spread (though you doubted his words would actually reach any important ears), “This house was built before the ban on extension charms for houses. We have ministry approval to keep it that way.”

Remus smiled a little apologetically, finding the page he was looking for, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound accusatory. It really isn’t any of my business, so I wasn’t going to ask.”

His passiveness was mildly surprising but you brushed it off. It was nice not having to worry about him talking and clearly he needed the money, so you figured he'd stay quiet. You finally moved and sat at the table on the balcony as he began to read the most effective spells to get rid of the secretions and creatures.

It was fairly cold outside but you figured you should keep an eye on him. To entertain yourself for the next few hours, you figured you should write to your sister and friends back in France. You flicked your hawthorne wand, summoning your quill, paper and other supplies wordlessly.

The two of you worked on your separate tasks quietly, barely interacting for over an hour. You had lost interest in watching him as he cleaned the house out of the green menaces, using spells you had never heard off, and only headed back inside due to the charming British weather. Rain was always such a nuisance.

You carried your stack of letters with you as you walked back into the house. The smell, though still lingering, had mostly vanished from the house, which was a relief, “I'm going to be upstairs. I trust you won’t steal anything. Though I doubt he’d even be able to identify the actual valuable objects.”

The last part was mumbled under your breath but with the context, it was easy for the brunette to infer it was likely an insult. Remus watched you disappear to the third floor, “What?”

“Feel free to ask the house elves for help. They’re in the basement. They’ve been trying their best to deal with the acid,” with that, you shut your bedroom door, completely missing the man’s expression of disbelief and mild offense.

Another hour passed and Remus had done everything in his power to avoid you as he finished up the rest of the house. This would’ve worked wonders if he didn’t have to worry about getting rid of the last few bundimuns in the house, which conveniently were hidden behind the double doors leading to your room.

He sighed. He was never skilled in divination but something in his gut was telling that you were trouble, but he needed the money and he wasn’t about to half-ass his job because of some spoiled brat. So he knocked.

You opened the door and he immediately took note of your outfit change. You were no longer in your silk robe and pajamas, instead dressed in a simple but classy turtleneck and skirt, “I need to charm this room then I’m done…”

You hummed, letting him in as you walked back to your four poster bed, tying the stack of at least 15 letters together so that your owl could carry it. This gave Remus at least a few minutes of peace as he finished up, but it seemed you sensed he was about done as you spoke up, “You know, I know a potion maker in Saint-Brieuc, who is very skilled at Scar-Diminishing Serums.” 

“I beg your pardon?” his Welsh accent seemed deeper now that you’d upset him. The unprompted comment caught the man off guard and he scoffed, unable to believe anyone could be this insensitive.

“I’ve used them a few times and they work wonders. Great way to boost confidence and better your appearance,” you paused, sensing he was upset, much to your confusion, “Don’t get me wrong, you’re fairly handsome, but I think it would definitely hel–”

He suddenly got up after casting one last spell, “I’m done.”

His voice, though composed, made it obvious he was pissed. You hesitated slightly, trying to figure out what you did as you followed him down to the first floor, “No need to be so upset, I was just trying to give you advice.”

He interrupts, surprisingly calm for someone getting insulted every other line, “Well, I kindly reject it, thank you.”

He stopped in front of the front door, almost considering leaving without payment, not wanting anything from you. Before you could protest, he opened the door and your mother let out a yelp, not expecting to see the stranger.

“Oh! Remy, was it?” your father smiled, glad to see the exterminator.

“Remus.”

It finally occurred to you that you had never even introduced yourself or asked for his name.

“Right, right! You must’ve finished! Y/N, did you pay him yet? I left the galleons on the table in the office,” he kept rambling, walking past Remus and you to get the money. Your mother smiled nervously, looking at the man, who she had already predetermined as creepy and untrustworthy, and tried her best to maintain a polite demeanor.

Unfortunately for her, she did a terrible job and her expression visibly relaxed when your father came back to save her from the conversation, “Here’s the 10 Galleons we originally agreed upon, and I figured you could get an extra 5 for–”

“Actually the 10 will suffice,” Remus forced a smile. He wasn’t stupid. It was clear you and your family were hoping to buy his favor to avoid any bad mouthing, and he wasn’t going to do that. Hell, he didn’t even want to talk about you to anyone (not that he really had anyone left), but it was a matter of principle.

You parents were stumped. They had rarely, if ever, met someone so quick to deny their money, “Sir, we insist–”

Remus had stepped out, taking the 10 Galleons, cutting off your mother with a thigh smile, “Honestly, I’m good.”

Your father, in a desperate attempt to get some sort of upperhand spoke words that made your  jaw drop, “Well then, please consider joining us for our solstice party on the 21st.”

Your mother’s expression mirrored yours and you knew they would argue about this later. Remus’s eyes met yours and something awoke in him, a slight sense of amusement he hadn’t felt since Hogwarts. He looked back at your father, adjusting his old bag on his shoulder, and smiled slightly, “I’ll think about it.”

[calebslittleapple]

feels like home: red lace

After finding a lacy surprise in his washing machine, Caleb checks the security footage from his apartment in Skyhaven, only to see that he’s missed out on much more than he realized. Rushing from his home to hers, Caleb quickly realizes that his Pip-squeak is more cunning than he thought, and as the night goes on and their desires are heightened, they’ll finally stop holding back. AKA: turbo virgins CalebMc finally get to doin’ it after some LIGHT panty-sniffy and frustration-inspired exhibitionism/voyeurism HAHA.

Pairing: LaDS Caleb x MC (she/her)

Genre: Smut (with feelings)

CW: Codependency; Pip-squeak as an endearment; Panty Sniffing; masturbation; light exhibitionism; Light Voyeurism; Cunnilingus; Penis In Vagina Sex; Loss of Virginity; inappropriate use of Caleb's Evol; MC is named Emme Sea; Caleb and MC POV

Also on AO3

Where are you? I thought you were supposed to be home by now

Caleb glances at his phone while half-listening to the meeting he’s sitting in on—his third of the day. He is supposed to be spending the evening with his girl, but one thing leads to another, and now she’s sitting in his apartment in Skyhaven all alone.

Meeting running late. Sorry, Pip-squeak. I’ll grab takeout on the way home? ☹️ Do you count as takeout? Come home, Caleb. I’m lonely, and I miss you

His heart twists at that, while other parts of his anatomy tighten… Caleb shakes his head and takes a deep, audible breath. All eyes turn to him.

“Colonel?”

Caleb clears his throat. “We need to wrap this up in the next ten minutes.”

Backs straighten as gazes lock onto the clearly unimpressed colonel. “Right, well. I was going to do an open question period, but that can be handled via e-mail…”

It takes him an hour to get home from work. He’s picked up ramen from a nearby restaurant, but when he steps into his home, all the lights in the living room are off.

She must have gone to bed.

Emme had one hell of a week at work and was fortunate to have a day off. Naturally, she wanted to spend it with him. Of course, Caleb’s time isn’t as free at the moment, but he’d walk on nails if it meant he could free up space in his schedule for her.

After sticking the ramen in the fridge, he pads through the hallways of his apartment, searching for the one person in the world he always wants to see. He checks her room—his old space—but she’s not there.

A soft light spills from within his bedroom, and he spies Emme laying there, half covered by the blankets, and wrapped up around the soft sleeping shirt he’d been wearing last night. Torn between his desire to let her sleep, and his need to see, hear, feel, taste her, Caleb stands there and stares down at her. His Pip-squeak. His first and only love.

Things have been changing between them, though he can’t quite abandon the role that he’d long since been cast in—caretaker, comforter, her Caleb. But sometimes, the walls come down, and she’ll end up in his lap, his arms wrapped tight around her as they tease and flirt and reminisce, sharing heat and space as the borders of their relationship expand.

Sometimes, it’s just like the old days, where they watch a movie, drive each other nuts, and end up falling asleep on his big sofa.

And sometimes… he’ll find himself on his knees in the shower, his Evol holding her tight against the wall, as he sucks and finger fucks her to completion as the sound of water smothers some of her cries while washing away the day, reservations, and everything else.

Being kept from her by work put him in a foul mood. She’d probably tease him for it if she was awake. Stepping close to his bed, Caleb ducks and reaches down, skimming his fingers through her hair as she softly snores on his pillow.

The love he has for her is so potent that it’s hard to think around. Tonight, his desire to keep her safe and comfortable wins out over his desire to hear her moan his name. After showering, Caleb dresses in some pajamas and crawls into bed beside her. His long arms curl around her and tug her close. She softly breathes out his name, presses back into his chest, and goes right back to quietly snoring.

Caleb leans in, breathes in deep, and lets her sweet, apple-tinged scent wash over him. Every moment spent with her is one he cherishes, and with her curled up in his arms, Caleb actually manages to sleep soundly and without nightmares. She’s his good luck charm and chases away the dark with only her presence.

The next morning, they get up together and he makes breakfast for her, while she makes the coffee. Same as always. And when she’s just about ready to head back to Linkon City, she gets up onto her tip toes and kisses him so thoroughly that he has a really hard time letting her go.

“Come visit me in a few days,” she says between breathless kisses.

“Mmm,” he replies, knowing that he has a shitton of work to do, but also knowing that he’ll blow off food, sleep, and anything else he needs to make time for her. A few days pass, and Caleb is spending the evening doing some laundry—his and hers because she always manages to leave something behind.

Which he doesn’t mind. He loves it when she invades his space. Hell, he wishes she’d move in with him, but half hates the idea because he doesn’t want her pulled into the mess of living in Skyhaven. But still… if he could have her all the time, Caleb knows he’d be able to keep her safe.

Keep her for him, and him alone.

It’s these dark, possessive thoughts that consume him when she’s been away from him for more than a few days. Having her clothes nearby is a nice reminder that he’ll see her soon and helps to keep him sane.

Taking a breath, he tries to calm down, and it almost works, at least, until he notices something strange in his washer. Something red is hanging on the inside. Caleb scoops out the fabric, thinking that maybe he forgot to switch a sock over into the dryer, but immediately freezes when he pulls it closer.

It’s not a sock.

They’re red lace panties.

Caleb swallows. When the hell had she worn this? His mind immediately flashes back to her text—he’d almost felt her pouting through the messages. Was this why? Had she dressed up for him?

Fuck.

Closing his eyes, he’s about to throw the panties back into the washer, but maybe they’re clean? He should probably check. And really, shouldn’t something this fragile be washed by hand, anyway? Caleb talks himself into circles before finally gritting his teeth and pulling the flimsy scrap of clothing close to his nose and… and…

Fuuuuck.

They’re uhh… not clean. And they smell… so fucking good, like a sweet blend of her apple-scented soap and her body’s natural fragrance. His cock is immediately and viciously hard in his pants. Like Pavlov’s fucking bell, but for perverts.

But if he’s the pervert for smelling her clothes, what does that make her, considering it seems they were left for him to find? He feels nearly fuckin’ feral with his need for her, and before he can talk himself out of it, he’s popping the button on his jeans, dragging the zipper down, and curling his length out from inside his boxers.

With her panties still wrapped around his warm hand, he grips himself, tugging once, twice, thrice before coming on his hand. It’s quick, too quick, and not nearly enough. He looks down at his hand, still gently wrapped around his dick, and stares at the cum staining her panties.

He’s gonna have to wash them now. So, he takes them into the shower and uses the panties to lather himself up with his body wash. When he’s done, they’re gonna smell like him. And when he gives them back, he’s gonna make damn sure that she smells like him, too.

But he comes down from his high quickly enough, and rational thoughts start to creep in. What if it was a mistake, and his dick was tricking him? What if she didn’t mean for him to find the panties? He towel dries the panties, dresses in his pajamas and all but throws himself onto his sofa, wrestling with his desires and insecurities until he’s a wreck.

He flicks the red scrap of clothing around his finger for a moment before he opens the HUD on his phone and remembers that he can check his security footage. He scans the footage from the last few days and finally stops when he sees her standing in his place. She makes a call—to him, likely—and tosses her phone onto the sofa in a fit of pique before dumping herself onto the plush fabric.

A few moments more, and she’s grabbing her phone, scanning through it before she grows bored and tosses it again. He skips a little, and when it comes back up, he’s utterly unprepared for what he’s about to see.

All the air leaves his lungs in a rush as he sees his girl, sitting in the exact spot as he’s sitting, topless, legs spread as her hand slips beneath the band of her lacy panties.

Caleb swallows and turns up the volume, only to be greeted with the sweet sound of her panting his fucking name.

Rubbing a hand over his mouth, he quickly rolls back to the start and finds her staring up at the camera, only to deftly tug the shirt—his oversized shirt, actually—over and off her body. No bra. A few moments more, and she’s standing, bending, shimmying for the camera as she pulls down her shorts and reveals the tiny red panties he’d found.

She slips back to the sofa. Taking her fingers into her mouth, she sucks for long moments, eyes still glued on the security camera as if she’s imagining he’s watching. Her free hand comes up and cups her breast, fingers teasing her nipples as she plucks and whimpers.

Then, she pulls her hand from her mouth, wet fingers trailing across her abdomen before descending lower… lower…

She’s slow with herself, even though she can tell she’s impatient. No, it’s not that. She’s needy. For him. And here, he’d been in a fuckin’ work meeting about expenses, when she’d been here… with half-naked and wanting.

Goddamnit.

He watches her touch herself, and at a few more points, she looks up at the camera, and it feels like she’s looking right at him. The frustration and need in her expression are painfully evident.

Where are you?

Why aren’t you here with me?

I need you, Caleb.

She does whimper his name more than a few times, sweet supplication spilling from her lips as her fingers dip and slide. And when she comes, again his name tumbles forth, sounding so needy for him that he wants to punch himself for being late that night.

But now, he’s free. Caleb checks Emme’s socials and itinerary, and she’s at home too.

Good.

He’s out the door, panties still in hand, and halfway to her place before he realizes what he’s doing. Thank God the train is running on time tonight. When he finally gets to her door, he stands there for a moment, hand in his pocket, and tightly clenched around her underwear as he fights to control his rapidly beating heart.

He doesn’t want to scare her, but his need for her is so overwhelming it’s making him feel insanely reckless. He takes a breath, and then, another. Long moments pass. Finally, he presses the doorbell to her apartment and waits.

When the door opens, and her beautiful face comes into view, his name falls from her lips. “Caleb?”

And before he can stop himself, he’s got her wrapped up in his arms, quickly urging her legs around his middle as he lifts her. His power closes the door to her apartment, after which he presses her up against it tight.

She kisses him back, confused but gamely keeping up. She’s fearless, his girl. His hand comes up and threads into the length of her hair, and only then does she realize what’s prompted this encounter—her panties are dangling from his fingers.

“Oh,” she breathes against his mouth. “Did I forget something at your place?”

His eyes roll back, forehead resting against hers as he breathes, “You’re lucky I didn’t check the security feed while at work.”

She catches his gaze and holds it, dead serious as she admits, “I wanted you to. It would have gotten you home faster.”

“God, Pip-squeak.”

Her hands slowly caress his chest, as if soothing the beast inside of him, but her words make him ache. “Caleb…”

“Mmm?”

“I want more,” she says, shimmying against his middle. It’s only then that he realizes that she’s wrapped up in a bathrobe… and nothing else.

“What do you need, baby?”

She catches her lip between her teeth before softly admitting, “You. Me. In bed.”

“And then?”

His body feels as tightly coiled as a spring, and what she says next nearly has him launching off the wall.

“You. In. Me.”

And here, he’d thought he was the feral one. As her soft mound presses into his stomach, nails scraping along the line of his shirt only to dip beneath and tease his sternum, Caleb realizes that maybe he was the one who’d fallen into her trap.

His answering grin is fierce and supremely satisfied. “Happy to oblige.”

____

Emme is not entirely surprised when Caleb shows up at her apartment. She’s been waiting for this moment. Waiting and hoping.

Maybe he’s here to check in on me… she thinks, but the moment she opens the door, she knows he’s found her ‘gift’ for him. It doesn’t take him long before he’s trudging them both through her small home, furiously kicking off his shoes as he tries to make his way deeper into her living space.

A few times along the way, he pauses to press her into the wall and kiss her senseless.

Ahh… maybe I’ve pushed him too far this time…

Still, she can’t help but tease. “Did you like the video?”

“I loved it,” he drawls between hungry kisses. “I wish I’d checked it sooner.”

“I thought you always checked in on me while at work?”

“I do, and I did. But I checked earlier that day. Before you called.”

She pouts. “Too bad. Could have turned that meeting into something really interesting.”

His demeanor shifts a bit, and the expression on his face is anything but amused. “Would’a been real inconvenient for me.”

“Oh?”

“Hidin’ all those bodies after they saw you like that…”

“Caleb!”

He chuckles softly, but she gets it because she feels the same. Hell, she’s found herself wanting to claw the eyes out of any onlooker as they covetously stare at her Caleb. Now, there’ll be no going back. They’ll possess each other so completely that neither will even consider the thought that they aren’t meant to be together.

Forever.

And Emme thinks her plan is going swimmingly, at least, until Caleb softly curses and lets her slip from his waist.

“Shit.”

“What?”

He shakes his head and frowns. “Thought I had this all planned out, but I forgot something.”

“What?”

“Condoms.”

Emme lets out a short laugh. “Missing the forest for the trees, eh, flyboy?”

Caleb rubs a hand over his face and is halfway through apologizing for… everything and this, but Emme interrupts him.

“You might not be prepared,” she murmurs while sliding his hand over her forearm. “But I am.”

With his fingers beneath hers, she presses so he can feel the subdermal implant.

“Wha..?”

Rolling her eyes, she explains, “Look, I know things can be kind of weird between us because of… well. You know. Everything. But I thought it would be better to be prepared.”

“You’ve been planning on having sex with me?” he says, sounding shocked even though he’d come over to her place with the intention of having sex with her if she wanted to.

“God, Caleb. Are you telling me you just watched me finger myself on your security camera and then were wondering whether I’ve been thinking about having sex with you? Seriously? How is that even a question right now?”

Her cheeks are burning, but her annoyance blocks out any embarrassment. Of course, she’d been thinking about Caleb and sex. He’s eaten her out literally every single time they’ve been together, never mind all the other things he does—and he expects so little in return.

And she… well, she’s been wanting more. Wanting to experience what the thick length of him inside of her would feel like. She’s greedy and needy, wanting to see the way his eyes linger on her body, the flush in his cheeks, and the way his ears get red when he’s embarrassed… and aroused.

She’s wanted him for a long time, if she’s being honest, but wanting and acting are two separate things. Then, she’d gone to visit him in Skyhaven, and been extra amorous given the time of her cycle it happened to be, and now… he is here, desperate and horny. So, it might not have been the best plan in the world, but it did work.

Still, she’s incredulous as he says, “I kind of thought that maybe you were just pitying me.”

“Good God, Caleb. We’ve done nearly everything except have sex, willingly and quite enthusiastically on both our parts, and you thought… Look, you think I’m naïve and don’t understand the depth of your feelings for me, but it goes both ways. I’m not… I’m not good at expressing my emotions.” He snorts, and she glares. “Anger and annoyance don’t count. And that’s not… those aren’t the kind of feelings I’m talking about.”

“Tell me, Pip-squeak.”

Emme nibbles her lips and huffs softly. “Look, Caleb. You know I love you. I’ve always loved you, but when I lost you, I… It hurt me so bad that I wasn’t sure if I could go on… you know, living. It was a lot. And now… You’re my Caleb, and I want you in every way that I can have you.”

“Do you know what you’re saying?”

“You came all the way here to have sex with me, and now you’re questioning my resolve?”

“Emme,” he growls softly. “This isn’t a game.”

“I know that, Caleb! So stop being a dummy and listen to me because I’m telling you that I love you, and I want to spend the rest of… whatever with you. A hundred years, a thousand—forever and a day, if we can manage it.”

Caleb takes a breath, nose flaring a little. His jaw clenches, hands curling into fists at his sides, and for a moment, Emme thinks he looks confused.

I thought he’d be happy about this…

But then, his power reaches out, and in one breathless moment to the next, she’s being lifted, legs wrapping of their own accord around his middle. Dipping his head, Caleb presses his face into the length of her hair and breathes deep. She holds him back, just as tight, fingers gently soothing as he takes a moment to really come to understand what she’s saying, and what she needs.

“Pip-squeak,” he says, voice breaking some as his lips skim against her skin. “I’ve wanted you for so long, I just…”

“Mmm, I’ve always been yours,” she murmurs. “Yours, and only yours. So, give me what we both need.”

Caleb lets out a shaky breath before carrying her over to the bed. He uses his Evol to pull the sheets back, and he’s so careful with her as he sets her on the mattress. But she doesn’t want careful. She wants him. Badly.

“Caleb,” she softly calls his name while sliding back into the pillows as his eyes roam. “You don’t have to hold back anymore…”

“Ahh,” he groans, “that’s such a dangerous thing to say to a man like me.”

Her eyelids flutter, legs parting to give him better access as she murmurs, “I know you’d never hurt me. So… let’s go further.”

“How far?”

He wants her to be clear, so she indulges him. “I want all of you inside of me. Don’t stop… until we both feel it.”

He looks down, and for a moment, he almost looks sheepish. “What if I suck at this?”

“Oh, Caleb,” she says while reaching out to him. “You’re good at anything you put your mind to. You can be good for me, right?”

He pulls a shaky breath between parted, rough lips, Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows hard. She wants to follow that motion with her tongue, to thread her fingers into his thick hair and hold tight as he grinds his length against her, dig her nails into the muscles of his back to mark him as her own.

Caleb is so wrapped up in his own self-loathing that he has a hard time seeing the truth—that she is just as crazy in love with him as he is with her.

“Tell me… if you need me to stop.”

“What I need is for you to come here. Be with me. C’mon. We’ll do this together.”

Caleb edges closer to the bed, and though she’s already comfy in the pillows, Emme pushes herself up and out, and slides over to the edge so that she can peel the sweatpants from his hips.

“Did you wear these for me?” she teases.

Caleb shakes his head. “I was only half-sentient when I slipped my clothes on.”

“Because of the panties?”

“The panties, the surveillance footage. You.”

And maybe it’s a bit twisted, but it makes her heart beat faster in her chest, and her body tingle when he admits that he’s watched her. Of course, they always keep tabs on each other, so it wasn’t like she didn’t know he’d find out.

She’d wanted him to see her like that. Wanted to push him just a little further than they’d already gone, in hopes that she’d be able to get him to come to her. All she ever had to do was call and ask, and he’d answer—on the second ring—and be ready to do whatever she wanted.

But this was different from before. She wanted him to want her. Not because he felt obliged to do what she wanted, but because he wanted it, too.

He’s hard beneath the soft fabric of his pants. Her eyes trail over the bulge. She knows what he looks like, knows the feel of him against her palm and her body—but taking him inside of her? That’ll be new. Emme rolls her eyes up, eyelashes fluttering as she hooks her thumbs in the waistband of his pants and works them over his hips.

His dick bobs as it slips free. She bites her lips. There are so many things she wants to do right now, but at the top of the list is ‘Sex with Caleb,’ so that comes first. Still, she can’t stop herself from reaching out and gently cupping his sac before trailing her fingers over his length. Caleb stutter-steps out of his pants, cheeks and ears flushing as she catches him off guard.

Leaning back, she lets the housecoat fall open and slide away. It was a good thing he caught her after a shower; she’s ready for him. His shirt comes off next, and even though it’s certainly not the first time she’s seen him like this, she can’t help but think how good he looks.

Hell, sometimes when he’s doing laundry, he’ll walk around in nothing but a towel, the necklace she gave him, and a smile. But the look of him nude combined with the sultry look on her face is making her body achy with need. Emme bites her lip and stares, eyes traveling from the top of his dark head to his neck, his chest, his abdomen… and lower…

Every part of him looks good enough to eat, and he stands there and lets her look her fill. Finally, she slides back on her arms and smiles up at him.

“Come here.”

He does, that big body of his inching up onto her bed and covering hers completely. For a moment, they just hold each other and just enjoy the soft comfort of being together. But then, her fingers start to twitch, and his lips start to trail, and soon enough, his dark head is between her thighs.

He’s gotten ohh sooo good at this. Between the sweet sucking of his lips and the luscious licks from his tongue, coupled with the gentle thrusting of his fingers, he’s got her rolling before she even knows what’s what. But she finds it’s easy to lose herself when she’s with him. Even his mere scent drives her crazy, and when that combines with touch and soft words and ohhh the sweet tingle of his power as he holds her exactly where he wants her, how can she resist?

Finally, when he’s got her to the point that she nearly has to push him off because she’s so sensitized, his head pops up and he looks at her, lips gleaming as he obviously waits to be told what to do next. As if she knows!

“We’re gonna have to figure this out together,” she murmurs.

Caleb rubs his cheek on the inside of her thigh, lips turning into the soft flesh there as he gently kisses the hickey he left behind.

“Do you think you’re ready?”

“Are you?”

Caleb chokes. “God. I dunno. I think I’m gonna go insane.”

Good, she thinks. Then he is ready. Because she wants him so badly, she can hardly think straight. But still, this is new and a little scary, but it’s Caleb, so she knows it’ll be okay.

“Go slow?”

“Whatever you need,” he says while shifting his body between hers.

His dick juts up between them, and she understands why he’s feeling a bit crazy. He’s hard as hell, and the tip is leaking… Reaching down, she softly thumbs the top, which earns her a groan.

“Let’s… do this.” It’s kind of a ridiculous thing to say, but Caleb only chuckles and reaches up to cup her cheek.

“As fast or as slow as you need, got it?”

“Got it.”

And then, he’s lining himself up at her entrance, and the thick press of his crown against her opening is strange and Mmmm… good. He slides a little more in, and inch by inch, her warmth welcomes him in. He’s not… Ohhh… He’s not small, but he’s patient, and gentle, even though she can tell the effort to keep himself from thrusting is killing him.

Ahh… Ahh…

But somehow, she knows he even likes that part. For her, there’s no pain. He’s spent so much time building up to this moment that she’s ready for him. The memories of moments shared between them heighten her desires as well, never mind having Caleb—gloriously nude, straining, lip caught tight between teeth as he inches, inches, inches inside of her.

The moment almost doesn’t feel real. She’s imagined what it would be like to be with him like this for so long that she almost feels out of her mind now that it’s actually happening. And Caleb… God, Caleb… It’s almost like he’s stuck somewhere between heaven and hell.

She reaches up and holds his cheeks in her hands, forces him to stare into her eyes, and he looks so lost—helpless, out of control, needful—that it makes her clench. Caleb groans, body twisting and cheeks pressing into her palms.

“Baby…” he moans.

Maybe it’s because she’s a bit reckless, or maybe it’s because she’s a bit demanding, it’s definitely because she’s a bit of a brat, but Emme slowly resonates with Caleb to maintain a measure of control, powers mingling as their bodies rock together. Those combined feelings have them reeling. Her legs clamp down around his middle, his arms tuck in beneath her, around her, holding tight as he grinds and grinds and grinds.

When he finally bottoms out inside of her, his eyes roll back, his lip caught so tight between his teeth that she’s worried it might bleed. And still, she can’t help but laugh some as she stares at him, in this moment.

He’s her Caleb, and this is… sex. And it’s weird, and good, and scary, and hot, and just so much that it’s a little hard to believe it’s real. Caleb must notice her freaking out because he manages to reach up and gently cup her cheek.

“You okay, Em?” She nods, but he’s insistent. “Tell me.”

“I’m good, I’m just… it’s a little overwhelming. You ‘n me. This. All of it.”

“Does it feel bad?”

“Oh, no.”

His lip curls, eyebrow raising as he asks. “Does it feel… good?”

“Caleb!” she whines. “Don’t tease me.”

“Pip-squeak,” he sweetly croons. “You clenched so nicely when I asked that. If you’re not gonna be honest, your body is. So, tell me. Tell me everything. Or… I can find all the sensitive spots on your body and get your secrets anyway. Your choice.”

She pouts, but when he gives her a teasing thrust, she knows he’s not joking. Finally, she admits, “It just feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this.”

“And now that forever is now?”

“It’s so good, Caleb. You are so good, I just…”

“What?”

“I want more, and I’m afraid of getting it.”

“Why?”

“What if I ruin everything?”

“Not possible.”

“How?”

Caleb softly presses his nose into the line of her throat before dipping his head, lips tracing over skin, before he softly sucks a pert nipple into his mouth. That has Emme squirming, fingers digging into his hair as his hips restlessly stir below.

“I’ve made it my life’s work to give you everything that you want. So, this will be no different. You can’t ruin anything because you’re already perfect—we’re already perfect. We were made for this moment. It just… took us a while to get here. And now…”

“And now…?” she softly gasps as he thrusts, this time a little harder.

“Now, we get to see what we’ve been missing out on. And God, baby, there’s so much I wanna do with you… and to you.”

Just like that, Caleb’s got her out of her head and into the moment. It’s Caleb. Her Caleb. Always has been, always will be. She takes a breath, relaxes, and luxuriates in the strangely sweet feel of him inside of her, before curling her legs around his while angling her hips.

“More?”

“Please.”

He’s never been able to resist any one of her requests before, and it’s no different now. Except now, she gets to enjoy the hot-hard feel of him inside and atop her. He’s so responsive to her, moves so patiently, so purposefully, that soon enough, her head is lolling against the sheets as he increases the pace.

Caleb’s so broad and beautiful atop her, body so giving, lips against hers, tongue seeking, swirling, sucking, as he kisses her until she’s breathlessly moaning into his mouth. But he’s not done with her, not even close.

Slowly, his power crawls along the line of her back, curving her just so. Caleb’s always made her feel like she can fly, and right now is no exception. He’s slow and patient as he fucks her, eyes darting over her face, the curve of her neck, the sweet swell of her breasts, watching, watching, watching as if he’s afraid that at any moment she’ll disappear from this bed.

She’s just as possessive of him as he is of her, and at this moment, she wants all of him—the hurt, the pain, the pleasure, the release, the insanity of everything that they mean to each other—all of it and all of him.

Her hand threads into his shaggy hair, fingers pulling just a touch as she softly whines, “Caleb… Harder.”

He chokes, body stuttering. His lips part, and he breathes out with a sound that’s more like a whimper than a moan.The look on his face makes her worry she’s broken him.

His face rubs against her wrist, words halting as he says, “Is that an order…?”

“Do I have the authority to command you?”

“Mmm… absolutely.”

“Then yes, it’s an order.”

Caleb lets out a soft laugh. That is all the warning she gets before his power swells, and Emme quickly finds herself on top with Caleb spread out beneath her. He looks like an offering to a heathen god, arms stretched high above his head, skin flushed, muscles flexed, and chest heaving.

Now, it’s her turn to whimper, not only from the sight before her but because of the thick, tight feel of him inside of her. She can go as fast or as slow, as hard or as soft as she wants. And Caleb… he can take it. For her, he’d do it. He’d do anything.

“Take what you need…” he purrs. “And I’ll match you from below.”

After taking a breath for courage, she shifts her hips and quickly finds that not only is this insanely pleasurable, but being in control heightens her desire. Her fingers curl against the tight muscles of his abdomen, body canting as she rocks.

Eventually, Caleb’s hands guide her hips upward, so she’s well and truly bouncing on him now. And as she falls… Ohhhh… his hips thrust, and he rises to meet her, pressing so deep, tight, and perfect that it feels like she’s gonna come apart just like this.

But when his warm fingers slide over her hip and down the inside of her thigh, quickly teasing between her soaked folds to find that sensitive bud within, then she well and truly loses herself. As Caleb watches, as his fingers roll between her legs, as he thrusts—fast and hard—from below, she nears her peak, and it’s… Oh, God! It’s…

“Caleb,” his name falls from her lips, begging, pleading for him to help her, to give her what she needs. And he does. He always gives her exactly what she needs.

Finally, her orgasm hits, completely inelegant and overwhelming. Waves of pleasure radiate from her core outwards, seductive tendrils flowing through her body, making her clench, grind, and moan. Caleb grunts softly, brow furrowing some as if he’s holding himself back.

He wants to watch her as she comes with him inside her. She knows he doesn’t want to miss a second, but she needs the same from him, and even before her body’s completely finished its release, she’s moving, grinding slow and hard, as she pushes him higher.

Caleb groans, hands slipping to her hips as he rucks up into her, chest heaving as he pants. He looks frantic, eyes darting everywhere—her eyes, the flushed tips of her breasts, between her legs where they’re joined so intimately.

She runs her nails over his chest, faint lines marking his pale chest as he whimpers. She thinks he must be close. He looks… almost lost, but his body is fire-hot, and he’s so hard and thick inside of her that he’s almost too much to take.

Caleb lets out a shaky breath, cool fingers trailing over her skin before pressing low on her stomach. She pouts prettily as he teases her, body shimmying as he finally asks, “Can I… inside you?”

Her eyelids flutter, her body twisting in response to his sweet erotic entreat, and she can’t help but tease him. “Can you what, inside me?”

Caleb groans, fingers digging into her hips as he pants. “Come. I need to come.”

“Inside me?” she whimpers, breathless with her anticipation.

“God, yes. Please.”

Her head rolls back. It shouldn’t turn her on so much to hear him beg, but it does… God, does it ever. To tease them both, Emme shimmies atop Caleb, pressing him so tight and deep that they groan in unison.

He gasps her name, throat tight as his head rolls back. She loves that.

“Caleb… use me.”

“Wh-at? How?” he asks, breathless, needy, and edging closer and closer to his release. And she’ll give it to him, but only if he gives her what she wants first.

“Use your Evol.”

“My Evol?” he sputters.

She gives him a look. “Don’t pretend like you’ve never thought about what it would be like. I’ve thought about what it would be like.”

Caleb swallows thickly. “I won’t last.”

“I don’t want you to. All I want is for you to give me what I want and take what you need.”

His eyes are dark, heavy-lidded, and almost haunted as he stares up at her, as thunderstruck as if he’s beholding a goddess. And then… his power softly swirls against her skin, as light as a feather before it wraps around her tight.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

He guides her, looking so beside himself that she almost feels bad, at least, until his wrist flicks and he drags her up until only the thick tip of him is pressing against her opening. One breath, one impossibly long pause, one needful moment stretches between them, until he lets her drop.

She groans as his length is quickly sheathed inside of her, her body canting forward before she can completely catch herself.

“Caleb,” she gasps his name.

He’s got her close again. So close that she can feel the pleasure tingling at the small of her back, in the tips of her nipples, in the sweet space between her thighs that he’s pressing up against—so hot, so hard, so tight.

With his cool hand possessively gripping the back of her neck, and her fingers curled into the tight muscles of his abdomen, Emme throws her head back, rolls her hips, and bounces hard on his length. In and out. In and out. In and out. She loses herself in a rhythm that’s just for the two of them.

It’s exactly what they want, and as she presses down hard, he rolls his hips to meet her, and it’s so much more than enough.

“Ahh… Caleb!”

“Baby…!”

Caleb moans and his hands clutch desperately at her as he pulls, holding her tight as he rolls his hips, grinding into her and enhancing the moment for them both. And with their bodies connected, and their powers blended, everything narrows to a point… before breathlessly expanding. Nothing remains but the wet-hot feel of their pleasure.

Finally, soft moans escape them in unison as the pleasure slowly subsides. Emme dips close, forehead pressing against his as they pant hard. His eyes are closed, brow furrowed. A tear escapes from behind his lashes, dripping along his cheek as she watches, half-dazed and entirely entranced.

“God.” His voice sounds choked, and Emme’s heart clenches, fingers softly brushing away his tears, even though he’s still half-hard inside of her.

“Are… you okay?” Maybe she hurt him? She did kind of lose herself at the end there…

Caleb chokes out a laugh. “I just… am having a hard time believing this is real, Pip-squeak.”

“Oh.”

Decades of knowing each other better than anyone else. Years and years of heartache, of wanting, of almosts and not quites. Now, they’re as close as two people can be and she feels… she feels… so weightless. So free. So right.

So, she tells him that. Tells him that she never wants to lose this—to lose him. Tells him everything she’s ever been too afraid to say, and then tells him how much she loves him, how painfully.

“It hurts, you know. To love someone this much. I think… I’ve always been afraid that I could lose you. And then, I did lose you.”

“Mmm,” he softly breathes. “I’m here now.”

“Forever?”

“No matter what happens, I’ll always find my way back to you.”

“Good,” she comments softly while resting her head on his chest. The sound of his still-frantic heartbeat fills her heart, soothing her as she continues, “You’re mine. You can only leave me if you have my say so, and you never will.”

She can feel Caleb’s shaky breath against her cheek. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

Caleb urges her head up and back so she’s staring him straight in the eye. “Are you mine?”

“Caleb,” she replies, voice chiding. “You’re still inside me.”

“And?”

“And, what? If this isn’t a big deal to you, maybe I should wonder about how many times you’ve done this with other girls. I guess, you didn’t always call me to play the girlfriend, after all?”

He frowns, and quick as a flash, he’s got her on her back. He presses in, body hardening in response to the movement or maybe the way he’s got her splayed, arms above her head, hair spilled across the sheets, hips subtly shifting beneath him.

“There’s no one else in the world that I’ve ever wanted. No one I’d ever want to do this with other than you.”

“Then you need to hear me say it?” she asks while arcing her back, body shimmying back into his soft thrust.

“So badly.”

So needy… she thinks, but she doesn’t mind. She’s just the same, but part of her heart will always want to tease him, just a little. He’s her Caleb. She doesn’t want things to change completely, she just wants more and more and more. Her greedy heart asking for everything and still expecting more.

His eyes flutter, body rocking as his length hardens anew. It would be so easy to get distracted, but she’s not gonna chicken out now.

“I’ve loved you since the first moment we met when were kids. You’ve always been mine, and I’ve always been yours. For me, it’s always been you. Always and forever.”

His eyes close and he grins. Emme thinks she’s never seen him look quite so happy before, nor so free.

“Good. I think… I couldn’t handle it if it were any other way.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry because we belong to each other now and… ahh…”Her words trail off as Caleb’s body shifts, distracting her as he stirs within.

“I missed my evening workout,” he drawls.

Emme twists her hips, back arching as she purrs, “Well, get to it, then. Can’t have you slacking off now.”

“That a challenge, Pip-squeak?”

“Of course.”

His lip curls into a smug smile. “Well, let’s see who laughin’ by the end of this.”

And Emme, well, she’s not laughing. Screaming, crying out his name, begging for more? Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly it. By the time they’re finished with each other, limbs entangled, bodies hot, slick with sweat and desire, she’s well and truly tired.

“Feels like every single muscle in my body is sore.”

“You askin’ for a massage?”

“Mmm, a shower. Then sleep.”

“And then…?”

“You’re not slacking off, are you, Caleb?”

A soft laugh rolls up from his chest. “You’re so greedy,” he murmurs, hand tracing a path down her neck, over the soft curve of her breast before pressing low on her abdomen. “Especially here.”

She whimpers softly, and it’s almost as if she can still feel him inside of her, the phantom press of his thick length as he possesses her completely.

“Stop complaining.”

He shakes his head, damp tendrils sticking against his brow as he murmurs, “We both know, I’ll always give you everything that you want. So, shower first, Pip-squeak.”

“And then?”

“Once I’ve got you cleaned up,” he says, fingers skimming along the slick line of her sex. “I’ll get you messy all over again.”

If she wasn’t so damn tired, she’d have hoped right back on him and gotten him just as messy, but he’d loved her so completely, that Emme wasn’t certain she’d be able to walk, let alone ride him. But later… later… she’d have him. And he’d have her.

And he’d fill the needy spaces of her heart, just as she’d fill his, and together, they’d become whole—again and again, as many times as needed, for a hundred years, a thousand… forever and a day.

Author’s Notes:

HAHAHA I want to be clear that I got the idea before this BEFORE I saw Caleb’s new card, but now I’m smug about it because it’s actually IC for him to have security footage of her lmao. ANYWAY. This is loosely based son some great fan art I saw that has caleb mcfuckin loosing it at the laundry mat when he finds some sexy red panties. God bless fan artists, fr fr. Also, I am very certain I’m not the first nor I hope the last to write ‘Caleb is a panty sniffer’ fic but LMAO. I couldn’t stop myself. I MEAN THAT LITERALLY fingers just go go go of their own accord.

This is paraphrased from some in-game dialogue:

His face rubs against her wrist, words halting as he says, “Is that an order…?”

“Do I have the authority to command you?”

“Mmm… absolutely.”

“Then yes, it’s an order.”

This kind of skips around, not that I’m writing rationally here (literally just writing what I feel like I need to write to keep myself from going insane haha), but I still have some more planned for these two. Things are probably gonna get a lot busier, but I’ll see what I can fit in. Thanks so much for all of your support and for being so kind. Any mistakes are there because I need to keep humble lol.

Banner courtesy of cafekitsune!

[violasghost]

The Exes and Oh’s of Chenford-The Rookie 7x06 Review

So, they went there! I wasn’t sure if they would. With past history, was kind of thinking it would be a tease and maybe there would be a kiss and then one of them would get cold feet and poof, we’d have to be tortured for a while longer. But guess now that they did cross that bridge, I’m kind of experiencing mixed emotions as a result.

On the one hand, Chenford is sizzling! I mean c’mon, everyone can see it. Hell, even my mom who is a casual viewer walked in the room when the gala scene was on and happened to notice Chenford and questioned off handedly when she saw them acting awkwardly around one another, ‘I thought they were a couple?’ in reference to Lucy and Tim.

And honestly, that said, Exes aside, they really do act like a couple, do they not? If a casual bystander were to observe them leaning in speaking to one another or intimately gazing across the room, they would likely assume they were an item or at the very minimum, very close. So, packing that little observation aside—we still have our purple elephant in the room. The thing they dare never to speak of the big reason for the breakup. Don’t know why its so taboo. I’m hoping this will be explored down the line, and the writers have not decided to gloss over everything and just treat them like two horny exes, since we still don’t have any answers as to really—why? (Other than, perhaps it may have brought it more ratings because it creates more drama and added bonus-drives the Chenford fans nuts.)

I think what frustrates me (and it’s not just this episode, this has been building slowly over time) and don't get me wrong, I did appreciate the many lovely intimate moments between Lucy and Tim and Melissa and Eric did not disappoint in the slightest (they did phenomenal with the material they were given), but the part that is missing, that has always been missing, is communication. They had a few opportunities to open up and maybe even dive a bit into the postmortem of their relationship. Like at the ‘Turn in your Ex’ booth. The writers could have easily cut out one of the many ‘grumpy Tim’ clips in lieu of one heartfelt admission from either Lucy or Tim about something they were feeling they felt short on when they were a couple, even if it was something funny/annoying about what they thought about the other. Then they get to the surveillance van, another close intimate moment—and another opportunity missed for some kind of personal admission of true feelings; and when Lucy is sipping the glass of wine at the Gala and they have a moment to kind of reflect and pause and still, nada about their personal feelings, and then lastly it’s the morning after and they both walk away awkwardly—yeah I get it was weird and they are both afraid to go there, but someone’s gotta crack (my money’s on Tim doing it first btw).

There were heaps and tons of longing looks, angst, all that. So much I almost wonder where was this Tim and Lucy in S6 when they were quarrelling all the time? S7E6 version of Tim and Lucy was flirty, sexy, and had chemistry off the charts (chemistry has never been their problem), but as far as talking about their feelings go, I’m sorry but Chenford gets a big fat ‘F’ from moia. There has been no improvement since their breakup and really no resolution or growth shown to prove they are ready for Chenford 2.0. (SPOLER CHAT: Wasn’t there an interview awhile ago from Eric saying Tim was doing the work and going to therapy or something?) Maybe that’s still coming up, but this really needs to be shown, and I think this needs to 100% be his focus if he ever wants to have a chance of getting back with Lucy. And honestly, I think our girl Lucy needs to own up to her feelings too and stop hiding behind what’s comfortable and safe and confront it head on. I still have hope for our star-crossed duo, but I think they have to get their sh*t together first. They can both pretend that they are focusing on their careers or whatever, but they both have some growing up to do emotionally and mentally if they ever want to be in a real adult partnership and relationship.

Taking a step back, I truthfully go back and forth on the better scenario, because although I do like the other characters, I’m sorry but Nolan and Bailey got married what less than a year ago and their romantic scenes are pretty much non-existent at this point, so perhaps allowing Lucy and Tim to play in the kiddie pool is a good thing, for now? I mean some of what they are doing appears pretty immature for where they were couple-wise, but they are getting a lot more action and screen time this way. I guess we as the Chenford-nation can’t always get everything we want. But we are getting lots of sexy time and angst. And when we want more, we just turn to fan fiction, right? 😉

For the other characters, my heart went out to Miles. He really did try his best to be honorable and be there for his girl. I hope he finds someone soon. Actually, I kind of saw a small spark between Miles and Celina, not sure if anyone else saw that but they might be kind of cute together, no?

I did like Nolan and Bailey having a rare fight. It was refreshing to see the perfect couple with flaws. Kinda feel for Nolan on that one though, but also Bailey since she was the one who had to deal with her psychopathic ex. I think Nolan was smothering her though, making her stay at Lucy’s place and all. It was her way of having her own power, so it was understandable. And yey-Jason’s dead, end of that storyline, so even better. Thanks Malvado!

I love Wesley and Angela but Wesley dude, needed to relax a bit about the detective, man Wesley was really obsessed with that guy. Yeah, he admitted he had sexual fantasies about Wesley’s wife but it was in the confidence of his therapist and Wesley has to trust Angela to know she wouldn’t act on it and Angela is totally capable of defending herself. Anyhow, stupid macho behavior IMO.

Looking forward to next week. Also really hope when Tim tells Nolan “Don’t screw up like I did with Lucy,” that maybe not right away but at some point, Nolan tells Tim back that, “It’s never too late.”

And just cause I couldn’t resist, leaving the below gif here too because Viva la Chenford! <3

[astarioffsimpmain]

Oooh I definitely want an accidental love confession from Astarion 🤣

❤️❤️

Yessss Ana!!! <3 Thank you for the ask! This prompt just fits Astarion in a way that it is truly impossible to describe, doesn't it? But I'll do my best!!

~

Warning: Some description of canon-conducive violence

Astarion x f!Reader/Tav

Feel free to request a prompt of your own!

Consciousness pulled at the edges of your mind, tugging you back towards life once more. You heard voices; some muffled, but others more clear. They nagged like gnats at what had been such a peaceful rest. You wanted to swat them away, but you couldn't move.

"Well?"

One voice sliced through the rest and your attention focused in on it.

"Is she going to live? She had better live, druid!"

That was funny, for some reason. You laughed, although nothing around you moved. Were you even laughing out loud? You couldn't tell. The voice spoke again. The rest of the voices had quieted.

"Gods. How could you be so foolish?"

You wanted to balk at that, although you couldn't remember why. But the voice was getting closer somehow.

"I can only do so much to keep you alive, you know."

"I-" your lips moved as the sensations in your body slowly began to return. "I was keeping you alive," you croaked softly, your throat dry.

"Ugh, here," the voice replied, distain and concern laced in the same remark. Suddenly, cold hands were on you, tugging your body upwards. You groaned, but allowed it; the feeling was, for lack of a better word, familiar, and strangely comforting. A chilly digit poked your lips and you opened them as if on command. Water was poured into your mouth and it breathed new life into you. You gulped it down greedily, pressing forward for more after each drink.

"Hells below, you just came back to life, don't drown." The water was taken away and you groaned in protest, prying your eyes open one after the other to chase it down. But you were met instead with two piercing red eyes, glaring at you with a mix of frustration and concern. Suddenly, your memories came flooding back.

"Astarion," you mumbled quietly.

"Ah, she does still know Common," he quipped, laying you back down and turning away from you.

Visions of the fight washed over you and you watched the fiery arrow zinging through the air, directly towards the vampire's back; you saw yourself lurch forward; felt the flames engulf you and the arrow pierce your heart. You heard his screams as you went down. Then all was black. "A-Are you okay?" you stuttered, not knowing what else to say.

He rounded on you, anger flaming in his eyes. "Am I okay? Am I okay? The only person I have ever given a damn about died before my very eyes in such a display of stupidity that goblins would have balked! And you ask me if I'm okay? Gods!" He slapped a hand over his eyes, seemingly not realizing what he had admitted, but your jaw dropped and you froze.

"I-I'm sorry," you said quietly, resolving not to bring it up for now. You knew it would only make him run away, and you're not certain you could spend the remainder of this night alone.

He sighed, his shoulders slumping. "You are... momentarily forgiven," he relented. "But if you ever do something that ridiculous again, I am not saving you. Understood?"

"I understand," you smiled softly, and he returned it, scooting closer to you.

"Good. Now, shall I tell you about the camp drama that ensued whilst you were corpse-like?" He grinned and you laughed, cringing as the wound in your chest flared. He laid down next to you and situated you close, resting against his arm.

"Please do," you said, settling in beside him.

"Very well. You see, Shadowheart..."

~

fin

Tagging, Darlings: @knightofmight01 @micropoe10 @just-a-refrigerator @fanon-and-canon

[starrysan]

trivia 承: love

masterlist

pairing: boyfriend! seungkwan x girlfriend! reader

prerequisites/warnings: seungkwan crashing out, crazy pre valentines day, jeonghan, dokyeom, minghao cameo, jeonghan to the rescue!!, not proofread

a/n: my valentines day fic :) lowkey switched the title/idol/concept at least 3 times but.. shh its okay enjoy!!! <33

[1.3k words]

third person pov:

seungkwan sat in his apartment in peace. one day till valentines day and he had everything set. restaurant reservation secured, gifts bought, roses to be delivered the morning of, chocolates in the fridge, it was all perfect... till he heard the phone ring. it was the restaurant he made reservations for. "hello?" he says as he picks it up.

"hi" the hostess says in the sing song customer service voice she had when he first called to make the reservation. "I just wanted to call to apologize.. we overbooked and double booked our reservations and yours was one of them. we can have you guys at 9pm? or on another day" she says apologetically.

seungkwan started to panic but tried to keep his composure. "well we were hoping to have dinner at 7 so we could do other things after" he replies. "I'm so sorry on behalf of the restaurant we didn't realize how busy we'd get" she says. "I mean.. 9 is pretty late. put us down for now but we most likely won't be going to you guys at 9. ill call to cancel later if I need" he says before getting a confirmation from the hostess and hanging up.

"shit" he mutters scrolling through his google maps to find another restaurant. "what's wrong?" his roommate jeonghan asks, walking into the living room, snacking on some chocolate. "the restaurant called and pushed back our reservation" he sighs, he keeps scrolling before looking up slowly and realizing what jeonghan was eating. "jeonghan.. what're you eating?" he asks nervously.

"chocolate" he says not realizing what he was doing even offering seungkwan one. "jeonghan.. did it never occur to you that they were in a heart shaped box with y/n's name on it?" he says to which jeonghan's eyebrows shoot up. "shit seungkwan i'm so sorry I was so hungry I didn't even realize"

seungkwan holds his face in his hands trying not to freak out. "can you please go out and get more chocolate?" he sighs as jeonghan nods, grabbing his jacket and heading out. seungkwan calls maybe 8 restaurants trying to get a reservation. of course no place had spots this late in the day and so close to valentines day.

he sighs taking a break not wanting to give up but being absolutely exhausted. he gets a call from the flower company telling him that they ran out of roses. "how?!" he asks genuinely utterly confused. they apologize and he sighs before hanging up.

jeonghan texts him saying he wasn't able to find chocolate and seungkwan texts to keep looking. he starts to panic already running out of restaurants to call. he sighs and is about to call the restaurant telling them to give them the 9pm reservation when jeonghan comes back home empty handed to seungkwan's dismay. seungkwan fills him in on what else had happened.

jeonghan saw how frustrated seungkwan was and got an idea, leaving the house quickly phone in his hand. unknowingly to seungkwan, jeonghan was out calling in favors. seungkwan always had jeonghan's back no matter what the situation was. forgot his lunch? seungkwan venmoed him money, car broke down? seungkwan raced there. it was time for jeonghan to pay back the favor. thank god he knew so many people.

he first went to dokyeom who was luckily a chocolatier. dokyeom worked fast and had already finished his valentines day order when jeonghan had come running in. "hi jeonghan" dokyeom says with a smile. "hi dokyeom I need a box of chocolates, asap. as fast as humanely possible. its for a friend"

dokyeom looks around before agreeing. one thing you should know about dokyeom? he works fast, especially under pressure. "if its for a friend then sure. come back in an hour." he says. "perfect. thank you dokyeom you're a life saver" jeonghan says before running out. he runs to his friend minghao who owned a flower shop.

"minghao?" jeonghan says, completely out of breath from running to his store. "hey jeonghan what's up?" minghao asks, flowers surrounding him as he watered his tulips and succulents. "can I get a bouquet of roses delivered to xxxx street tomorrow morning?" he asks. "yeah I got you" minghao says. "red?" he asks to which jeonghan nods.

while in his panic, seungkwan realized jeonghan had left again but he paid no mind knowing jeonghan wandered. he thinks for a bit and goes to his absolute last resort. he knew y/n didn't love eating out all that much anyway and decides to try to make you dinner at home. he finds a place to do delivery tomorrow night and things start to look up a little.

jeonghan swings dokyeom's place, picking up the chocolates. they looked even better than the ones from the stores. "you're a godsend." jeonghan says before thanking him and running back to his apartment. jeonghan finally gets back to the house, absolutely out of breath but with a box of chocolates in hand. "seung..kwan- I got you your chocolates" seungkwan looks in confusion. "what happened?" he asks.

"don't worry about it. did you figure out dinner?" jeonghan asks, putting the chocolates in the fridge. "I just decided to do dinner at home. y/n dosent love eating out anyway. im deciding between cooking or ordering out. I'll probably order out for her sake." he says to which jeonghan chuckles. "perfect I'll go to seungcheol's place then and you can have the apartment to yourself" jeonghan nods.

"oh you dont have to-" seungkwan starts but jeonghan stops him. "don't worry about it. the apartments all yours." he smiles. "thanks jeonghan you're the best." seungkwan replies. "I just wish the roses would deliver" to which jeonghan giggles a bit. "what?" seungkwan asks his head tilted. "oh dont worry about it just wait till tomorrow" jeonghan says before leaving the room to go to bed leaving seungkwan even more confused, but he nevertheless goes to bed.

the next morning seungkwan wakes up to a call from y/n. "kwannie!! thank you for the roses they're so pretty" she says, her smile being heard through the phone. "oh im so glad" he says looking at jeonghan in confusion. jeonghan just smiles, walking to the living room. "I'll see you tonight right?" seungkwan asks to which y/n hums.

jeonghan reminds seungkwan of the chocolates in the fridge, seungkwan nods taking them out. "holy shit? jeonghan these are gorgeous where'd you get them?" he asks in surprise. "dont worry about it. have fun on your date!" jeonghan ruffles seungkwan's hair before retreating to seungcheols apartment. seungkwan was left in silence for no more than 5 minutes before he hears the doorbell.

he opens it to see y/n standing there in the prettiest pink dress he had every seen. "hi" he says. "hi" she giggles. "you look so pretty" he says, making y/n blush. he quickly pulls out the chocolates. "wow! they're shaped like flowers!" y/n exclaims, seungkwan nods. "I hope you like them" he says. "like them? I love them!" she says hugging seungkwan and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

seungkwan pulls out the last thing, a little box. "sorry its not much but.." y/n opens it pulling out the prettiest pink heart necklace. "its perfect" she smiles as seungkwan helps her put it on. they come to the table as if on cue, the takeout arrives. as they eat y/n just had to ask. "seungkwan this is perfect thank you so much" she smiles. seungkwan smiles back before sighing.

"to be honest.." he starts. "this day was supposed to be so different I- booked a restaurant you liked but they cancelled our reservations and- the chocolates were in a better box but- jeonghan ate them by accident and the roses shouldve been better-" he rambles, y/n quickly stops him. "seungkwan it was all perfect" she giggles. "dont worry about a thing it was all absolutely perfect" she continues. "thank god" seungkwan sighs in relief. y/n brings him in for a kiss. "thank you kwannie" she says with a smile.

"happy valentines day" she says.

"happy valentines day" he replies.

tysm for reading! if you have any requests pls send them my way!!

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permanent written fics taglist: @coffeewwithdrawlheadaches @xh01bri @cosmicrecs @kwonhs96 @phenomenalgirl9

[aeneia-art]

I have an uncomfortable and very personal connection to Lucanis, Illario & Caterina's (and Taash & Shathan relationship tbh, they're honestly a flip side of the same trauma) family dynamic, and it's sadly "neurospicey with high expectation caretaker (that is tbh, also Neurospicey)" that I want to shed a bunch of headcanons that I don't see brought up but OH BOY, I KNOW SOME THINGS.

It's unfortunately the "woman who lost all her children and now there is just one survivor" because my mother had six kids before me, they all died in infancy or early childhood, and there are things that I just feel about their upbringing. Bonus, my mother is Italian-Australian, if you want that extra cultural relevance I guess. But it made me very much appreciate their writing of her - because I recognised that hollowed out woman so well that watching her felt like a gut punch of familiarity.

SLAPPING A BIG OLD WARNING ON THIS AND UNDER A CUT because yeah, a lot of discussions of child death, intergenerational trauma, child abuse and family trauma. Seriously please mind those warnings!!

( and if you read these and go... OP are you okay,,,,?? its okay, I am told its called "intergenerational trauma"! and the therapist gave me pills about it! I kid, but also - yes i do therapy about it, don't sweat it, I also find these things kind of therapeutic because instead of just having these life experience rolling around I can use them to help others write good or understand character beats that might not be apparent straight away and honestly this kind of trauma is not written often or well, which is far more frustrating and upsetting, because often there is a lot of shame around failed motherhood, but also no one ever wants to talk about what its like to have dead children. Even if high infant mortality rates and loss of even up to age 15 children has dominated much of human history, but outside of horror movies, it's seldom actually discussed what that does to a family or the women involved over the long term. Weirdly outside of horror I can find it more readily about men than I can about women. )

Illario and Lucanis are often called the wrong name as children, when they are children especially, but even sometimes into adulthood. The exhausted moments when Caterina turns to Lucanis and goes "Giovanni, go get your brother." Then she stops, he stops, and then just get on with it.

The correction at them in training: "Maria- how many times have I told you not to-" then she swallows, their child eyes stare up, Illario wants to ask, Lucanis jerks his head to stop. Caterina swallows and taps a foot back into position.

They do things sometimes, training, talking, and especially gesturing, that Caterina's eyes just close and a pain falls over her face and there is no asking what it's about, but its clear, for a moment, just one or two, they were the same: they moved the same, acted the same, and the times and places blur.

Lucanis and Illario grow up without a sense of ever being completely alone in any room, especially when Caterina is present. The are ghosts in House Dellamorte, they do not know them particularly, but they know they wear their faces often.

There are anniversaries that they do not understand the importance of, moments that for some reason they will never be privy too, they must be present. They will seem sometimes so innocuous and unimportant, no one ELSE around them will ever understand it, but they know they can never miss it.

My immigrant kids will know this one well, but over protective parenting? It's turned up to 11. Imagine every stereotype about Asian / Eastern European / African / Latino / Mediterranean parents, but on HIGH BLAST. It's more akin to stories I have heard about parents who had to live through a war-zone and what their kids grow up with. You can't go anywhere, do anything, say anything, no one outside of your family is to be trusted. Friends? Keep them at arm's length, if they're allowed at all. Activities are limited to what can be supervised. And what's worse? There is no arguing that it's just them being paranoid. The proof is there. It happened. There is no saying that it's anxiety, it's over the top, because the worst has happened and they know it. You can't say it's "just paranoia talking" because it happened over, and over, and over again.

They wake up with Caterina walking in to check their breathing. I am 30+. My mother still does this, and every time I hear her take a relieved breathe. Life will never be taken for granted. Survival will never be taken for granted. She checks on them constantly, and it probably felt strange and spooky to feel her hovering as a child, but some point around 16, it probably started to make sense.

As children, they want to ask, they need to understand, they want to know why they have to live this way when others don't. It's frustrating too because others seem to know all the details when they don't and they're fed it in pieces. Then by adulthood, they understand and the pain is theirs too, now, whether they wanted it or not.

Teia must have been a breathe of fresh air to the entire household when she visited, the soul person that can banish the ghosts. Because Teia is an elf, there can be no confusing her for any of the other children, some confused creeping despair. She's Teia and she's only Teia, and it's probably in part why Caterina enjoys her company, because she's clearly no afraid of the old woman, but that there can be no mistaking there here and now of it.

Speaking of creeping despair: probably thank the Maker there are no mages in the family, if demons are born out of human emotion twisted??? What in the fuck must the Fade look like just the other side of House Dellamorte? IT'S A GOOD THING NO ONE IN THE FAMILY CAN GET POSSESSED RIGHT [stares directly into the camera like the Office]

The long nights of despair are palpable when alone in House Dellamorte after the servants are gone to bed and Illario and Lucanis sit doing study nearby. They watch her at times stare into the hollow depths, and at times when conversations veer about survival, choices, making assessments, she speaks candidly of crawling out of that place with her own two hands, not for pity, but on how one learns to live and go on. She says it's that or death, Illario asks if that means because the enemies of House Dellamorte will kill them? She says no and leaves it at that. They only realise in adulthood how often their grandmother sits and contemplates death, and not from another assassin's blade. It is only that it is completely unacceptable for her to ever give up that made her drag herself out. It's not grand declaration, it is a simple contemplation, she'd never want your pity. Even if therapists did exist in Thedas, what would they even say? Or do? There aren't enough therapists and drugs in the world. Everyone understands that no parent should bury their child, but to do it over and over and over? After awhile, there is only the quiet shuffling and exhaustion.

Of course Lucanis attracted a Spirit of Determination that became a Spirit of Spite, that is exactly what he has had shaped to him. Welcome to the other side of despair. Welcome to how you live through the worst days of your life. The first funerals of the Dellamorte House were probably the typical big wailing Mediterranean-type funerals. You scream, you cry, your rip your hair, you throw yourself at the coffin and wail. She thinks there is nothing worse in the world, and then - she finds out - there is worse. The last Dellamorte funerals are silent. There is no more grief to tear out. What is left is only determination, only resilience, only spite that drives the will to go on.

Likewise, it doesn't surprise me that he could calm himself even in the depths of torture, to make a deal with Spite. The Ossuary was hell, shut off and shut down as he says. But he and his family are a long won lesson on survival even when survival cannot feel worth it, anymore, a test of endurance that not even Zara would be able to scratch the surface of. When submission to pain would be so much easier. That is a resilience that didn't come from Caterina's torture, it comes from growing up in a graveyard that ebbs around you, that everyone sees when they look at you, and yet finding a way through, for good and bad. Perhaps not even well, but they have, they did, they continue to do so.

Caterina is past grief and it makes the woman before and the woman afterward, like two seperate lives. Which makes it so odd for Lucanis and Illario when... you know that moment when you find out that your parents were whole people that did wild shit before you ever existed that have just been sitting in the back? It's like that but worse. They hear stories and learn deeds, and it's hearing about a completely different person. Caterina that other people remember likely used to smile, and laugh, danced, did hijinks. They find old letters, portraits, commemorations, to this woman that seems to be as much as a ghost as all the other dead aunts and uncles. They have been robbed, not just of their family, and yes a peaceful childhood, but of that woman who could have been Nonnina, and now is just La Signora Dellamorte.

The apple never falls far from the tree, and I imagine that Caterina-before-the-deaths was some split of Lucanis and Illario. Which comes to something that I am sure might be contentious because I imagine it's hard to hear and see for someone who became so outright abusive as Caterina was to her grandchildren when we all love the boys dearly, but in a game about how good intentions and the best wishes and parts of us can be twisted I feel this isn't a far leap. You think you end up with five kids for someone as savvy as she was because she was an unpassionate, unloving woman? She was likely as fierce and devoted and passionate as the boys are now. (Which if you think all of this is to excuse her abuse, no, being broken by the world does give excuses to visit upon the next generation, that is the big difference between my mother and Caterina, my mother took her grief and shoved it fiercely into reminding me every day that I am loved). I understand it's easy to say abusers just woke up mean one day to hate the world, but the reality is probably way muddier than that, as often is in Dragon Age especially, this is a world where everyone has reasons they became what they are, and often did not start that way - and I think the unfortunate truth is that Caterina was once like Lucanis and Illario: passionate, driven, full of life and interest, hope and ambition to be the best she could be, and never dreamed of what it would all become.

So, yes, if you want to know what Illario and Lucanis look like after they have been actually, truly, soul-crushingly broken in a way that can never be repaired, look no further than Caterina. You can already see the shades of it in the Hardened Lucanis run, he turns himself away from remorse, redemption, love. The way Illario is trying to goad Lucanis into killing him. There but for the grace of the Maker, go her grandsons.

In that vein, I suspect she saw the traits that failed her most in Illario, and the ones that helped her survive in Lucanis, which in part lead to the divide in her treatment of the two of them.

There is probably some moment when someone is an edgelord at her, as dramatic mediterraneans are wont to do, spouted off about torture and pain and suffering. Caterina probably laughed in their face about it. It has big "you cannot hurt me in any way that matters" and "you can't hate me more than I hate myself" energy. She has stared into the abyss, she knows the darkest parts of herself, and some rat thinks they can frighten her back?

The only threat that hangs is someone hurting Illario and Lucanis. Nothing is too far, nothing is too much, when it comes to protecting what she has left. Caterina is both impassive to them, unknowable at times, frustrating at others, but then she throws down in broad daylight even as she enters true old age. I shudder to think about the torture she now inflicts in the name of her family.

[itscoucouharry]

Can you write a fic about Louis and reader getting into an argument because they have to go out in public and she maybe feels she doesn’t look the best and Louis is just trying to be encouraging but she kinda snaps at him? Maybe she feels bad about it knowing he was just trying to help and it’s angsty to fluffy?

More Than Enough- Anon request

Thanks anon for the inspo:,)))

My masterlist is here :,)

You had been standing in front of the mirror for what felt like hours, tugging at the fabric of your dress, adjusting it in every way you could think of, trying to make it fit perfectly. But no matter how many times you pulled, smoothed, or shifted, you still couldn’t get it to look the way you imagined it would when you bought it.

It wasn’t the dress—the dress was fine. You just couldn’t shake the feeling that no matter how good it looked, it didn’t change how you felt about yourself. You didn’t feel like you belonged in it. You didn’t feel like you belonged anywhere outside of your own room, where no one could judge you.

Tonight was supposed to be simple. Just a dinner with Louis and some of his closest friends and family—Zayn, Niall, Lottie and Lewis, and of course, Mia. You should’ve been excited. Dinner, a chance to get out, show off the look he’d picked out for you. But the idea of being in public, around people who seemed to constantly be watching him, made your stomach churn.

Louis made it look so easy. He was used to the attention, used to the paparazzi, used to being in the public eye. But you? You hated it. Every moment felt like you were being scrutinized, judged for being in the same space as him. You weren’t the kind of person who would get noticed in a crowd unless it was for all the wrong reasons. And Mia… well, you knew how she felt about you.

You let out a frustrated sigh and stepped away from the mirror, turning to face Louis. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching you intently. He’d been patient as you fussed over the dress for what felt like an eternity, offering compliments, reassuring you every time you mentioned feeling insecure. But you couldn’t stop yourself from feeling the weight of every single flaw you saw.

“You look fuckin’ beautiful, love,” he said, his voice calm and gentle as he stood up and walked toward you.

You shook your head. “You have to say that. It’s your job to make me feel better.”

Louis let out a small laugh, a light smile dancing on his lips. “Nah, love. I say it ‘cause it’s true.” He came up behind you and placed his hands gently on your waist, his touch warm and comforting. “I wouldn’t tell you that if I didn’t mean it.”

You shifted slightly, trying to look at yourself again in the mirror. You didn’t feel beautiful. You didn’t feel anything close to that. You hated the way the dress hugged your body, the way you felt too big for it.

“Louis, can you just stop?” you snapped, pulling away from him, frustration bubbling to the surface.

His brows furrowed slightly. “What’s wrong?” His voice was gentle, but you could hear the confusion there, the concern.

“You don’t get it,” you muttered, turning away. “You don’t know what it’s like to feel like… this. To feel like nothing fits, like everyone’s going to be staring and judging me. Like I’m just not good enough for any of this.”

His expression softened, and he took a step toward you, but you held your hand up. “Please, just… don’t. I can’t do this tonight. I don’t want to go.”

Louis stood still for a moment, the quiet tension between you growing, before he sighed and shook his head. “Love, I—”

But you couldn’t hold it in anymore. All the insecurities you’d been hiding boiled over, and you snapped, your voice sharper than you intended.

“Louis, you don’t understand. No one like me gets to be with someone like you,” you said, your voice trembling as you spoke. “No one looks at me the way they look at you, and I’m just so sick of it. Mia doesn’t get it either. She thinks I don’t belong with you.”

Louis’s eyes widened slightly, confusion flashing across his face. “What are you talking about? Mia?”

“Yeah,” you said bitterly, turning to face him, your arms crossed tightly over your chest. “Mia. She thinks I’m some… joke. She talks about me like I’m nothing, like I’m not good enough for you.”

Louis’s face darkened slightly, the confusion replaced by something else—something close to anger. But you weren’t finished.

“I heard her, Louis,” you continued, your voice quieter now. “I heard her talking to one of her friends a few weeks ago at that bar. She was going on about how you could ‘do better,’ how I’m ‘not your type.’”

Louis stood frozen, clearly taken aback, his mouth opening and closing as if he didn’t know how to respond.

“I’ve heard her say it before,” you added, your eyes filling with unshed tears. “She’s made me feel like I don’t belong. Like I’m just some… thing you settled for. And you didn’t even say anything.”

Louis’s jaw tightened, his eyes still locked on yours, but his lips pressed into a thin line. “You know I don’t see her like that. I don’t care about what she says.”

“But you didn’t even defend me,” you said, your voice breaking now. “I don’t know if you even care that she treats me like that.”

“I do care,” he said sharply, taking a step toward you. “I just didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to think she was talking about you like that. She’s supposed to be my mate, and I… I didn’t think she’d be that cruel.”

You shook your head, the ache in your chest growing with every word. “You didn’t think she’d be cruel? Louis, she was cruel. And you’re just letting her get away with it.”

His face softened, the frustration melting into guilt. “I’m sorry, love,” he said quietly, his voice low and sincere. “I should’ve seen it sooner.”

You looked away, biting your lip to hold back a sob. “I just don’t know if I can do this tonight,” you whispered. “I don’t think I can be around her, around all of them, and just pretend everything’s fine. I feel like everyone’s staring at me, waiting for me to mess up.”

Louis’s expression turned serious, but before he could respond, you both heard a voice from the living room, cutting through the air, sharp and unmistakable.

“Are ya fuckin’ kiddin’ me?”

You froze.

Louis’s jaw tightened immediately. You could see the shift in his body language—the anger flaring up in an instant. He turned his head toward the door, his eyes narrowing.

“Mia,” he muttered, almost under his breath, his voice low and dangerous. “I swear to God, if she’s talking shit again—”

He didn’t finish the sentence before storming out of the room, and without a second thought, you followed him, your heart pounding in your chest. You reached the doorway just in time to see Louis standing in front of Mia, his fists clenched at his sides.

“Shut the fuck up, Mia,” Louis snarled, his voice cold and dangerous. “I’ve heard enough of your mouth.”

Mia blinked, her expression momentarily caught off guard. She was standing with her back to you, laughing at something one of the girls had said, but when Louis spoke, she stiffened, her face dropping into an unreadable expression.

“What’s your problem, Louis?” Mia scoffed, putting on an act like she wasn’t fazed.

“No, no. You’ve been talkin’ behind my back for too long, and I’m done lettin’ you get away with it,” Louis snapped, his voice rising, eyes burning with fury. “You think you can make my girl feel like shit, talk down to her, and I’m just supposed to let it slide?”

Mia’s face faltered, and she opened her mouth, but Louis didn’t give her a chance to speak. “You’re not welcome here anymore, Mia. I don’t care if you’re my mate. You can keep your nasty opinions to yourself or get the fuck out of my life. Your choice.”

The room fell silent. Mia’s face went pale as she looked between Louis and you, realizing for the first time that he wasn’t backing down.

Louis stepped closer to her, his voice low but unmistakable. “I’m not gonna let anyone treat her like that. Not you, not anyone. You’ve got no right to make her feel less than. You’re done. I’m done with you.”

Mia didn’t speak, didn’t try to argue. She just stood there for a moment, stunned, before slowly turning on her heel and walking out without another word. The door slammed behind her, and all you could hear was the sound of your own breathing, heavy and erratic.

Louis didn’t say anything at first. He stood there for a moment, his back to you, fists still clenched, his shoulders rising and falling with the remnants of his anger.

But then he turned around, his gaze softer, but still full of determination. “You good?” he asked quietly, his eyes searching yours.

You nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah, I… I’m good.”

Louis stepped forward, his arms pulling you into him gently. “I’m sorry, love,” he whispered. “I should’ve done something sooner. Should’ve made it clear that no one gets to talk about you like that.”

You closed your eyes, letting the warmth of his embrace settle the panic in your chest. “I just… I didn’t think you’d ever stand up for me.”

Louis pulled back slightly, holding your face in his hands. “Don’t ever think that,” he murmured, his thumb brushing across your cheek. “I’ve always had your back. Always will.”

You breathed a little easier then, the weight lifting from your shoulders, feeling the quiet comfort of his words and presence. Maybe Mia had been cruel, but Louis had just shown you exactly how much he cared. And that was all you needed.

[starlit-rook]

I am physically incapable of choosing a sole partner for Rook because *picks up all the Companions and shakes them* I mean, just look at them! I'm supposed to only want one! This is still very WIP levels, since this is the first time I've actually sat down and described their relationships together, so some of them are very sparse atm.

So, yeah, they're all a web of romantic/platonic/whatever they want -to call it, group.

Lucanis and Emmrich are Lance's main squeezes. (I've been contemplating a Blighted Treviso with Lucanis and Lance getting together officially later after the game but haven't made a decision yet). Primarily he lives with either one or the other.

Emmrich is the main one Lance pursued, since he was the eldest of the group, it felt good to have that sort of stability with someone whose been through things and knew what he wanted. He becomes a lich because of Lance's encouragement, though with the way I'm spinning my story, Manfred is still around (the way that whole thing spun out in-game still frustrates me.) They do dates when they can, proper fine dining and touring places dates, as well as funeral planning dates. Being Dalish and growing up in the Crows, Lance has a much more open mind about topics such as death. When Lance finds unconscious Nevarran habits creeping into his mannerisms, Emmrich about proposes to him on the spot. Lucanis: it took a long, long time for anything more than fleeting romantic feelings to bloom between them. They were able to develop a close friendship after the Blighting of Treviso, a small miracle with how Lucanis buried himself deep away from others. There's a key moment, in the Lighthouse, when Lucanis comes across Lance trying to keep himself together after so much has happened, that it starts to crack Lucanis's walls. They both have this sort of 'will be the leader but also needs someone to follow' personality that lets them swap the roles between them, a relief to know that if they need it, all they have to do is lay their head down on the other's lap and all their leadership responsibilities and titles and all that junk is flung out the door for a short respite. There's a big piece of Lance that will forever be guilty of what happened with Treviso, even though logically he knows it's not his fault. Spite, of all people, is able to soothe him the most of this (Lucanis also logically knows this, but it's difficult putting that kernel of hurt away.)

Taash and Davrin are big, big friends with benefits types. Taash and Lance share a strong bond through queerness; Lance transitioned when he was fairly young, been through all this shit for years at this point, so being able to guide Taash through that minefield has them thick as thieves. They do a lot of the more outlandish/frisky things together that Taash usually wouldn't do with Lace. Davrin: found they make better friends than full-time lovers, though their heartstrings do tug on them more often than they'd like. Lance is neither an animal person nor a parent type, so while his support in Davrin figuring out how to deal with Assan, it wasn't the best. (Assan though does now have a firm favorite spot in Lance's heart). Like with Bellara, they bonded over their shared Dalish history, both of them having left the Clan at a young age for various reasons.

Harding, as sweet of a woman as she is, she also reminds Lance of one of his prior relationships a little too much, so he keeps this relationship in the friendzone. (It was Bobber, a fellow Dalish elf who was the sweetest boy around, able to get past Lance's walls and bring out the softness in him.) OTOH, because of his prior relationship, Lance is much more equipped to deal with Lace's problems with dealing with the Titan's anger and her own lack of self.

Neve: Friends/Business partners with benefits. Lance adores hunting down clues and studying people with her! Once getting past each others walls, they make sure to check in on the other, that they're taking care of themselves and generally not running themselves into the ground. Lance encourages a sense of freedom and security in Neve that is hard to find elsewhere. Meanwhile Neve will help keep Lance's feet on the ground.

Bellara: girlfriend, shares her primarily with Neve (look girlfriends can still have sisterhood together, okay?) She has the ability to work with ancient tech and such that boggles Lance; he can pull people apart like nothing but give him an artifact and he'll be blowing up the continent. He delights in sitting nearby after a long day, asking a question or two about what she's doing, and sitting back and basking in her knowledge. Does he understand half of what's going on? No. Does he greatly enjoy these sessions? Yess. Bellara very much appreciates him being her wall to bounce ideas off of. Their time together is often spent staying weeks out in the wilderness, exploring whatever they can find to bring back to the Lighthouse, the other Veil Jumpers, etc.

They all still work in the Lighthouse, it's become a sort of stronghold for their group, expanding and shrinking as need be. Every few months they try to all get together and have a big reunion, share stories, experiences, knowledge and indulge in others they haven't seen in a while.

And then, there's Solas. A whole different and very unique kettle of fish that requires its own post. Though for a small detail of them; Solas was tricked into the Fade and can still talk to Rook, their blood bond unbroken.

Rook Introduction Hour 2/14/25

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone celebrating is having a wonderful time! 💞💖❣️🧑🏾‍❤️‍💋‍🧑🏿👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏽👨🏾‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏼💌🩵🫶🏼🥰💝💘❣️

How it works: I ask you a question about your Rook(s) and you answer it with as much brevity or verbosity as you desire. You can do this whenever you want, and I’ll reblog it + add some comments! There’s no time limit— if you want to do the older ones, they are collected here! (The post is updated on Fridays!)

🎶 L is for the way you look at me /O is for the only one I see /V is very, very extraordinary /E is even more than anyone that you adore! 🎶

Today's Question(s): NOW it's all about 💕Romantic love💕! Who is/are your Rook's LI(s)? Do they go on dates together frequently? Where do they like to go together? What's the most romantic thing that Rook's ever done for them? That they've ever done for Rook? If they had unlimited time and money, and no obligations, what would they do for each other? Is there anything Rook or their LI(s) want to say to each other that they haven't yet, for some reason? If they were to settle down together, would they want to start a family? Do you have any headcanons about anything they did together during the game that wasn't shown? And lastly, do you have any pictures of Rook and their LI(s) that you want to share?

Hopefully there are enough questions for everyone to find something they're excited about! Have fun, and thanks for sharing!

(Also, if you are looking for more DA themed Valentine's day content, taamlok made a new romance themed ask game, and corvus-frugilegus is sending silly valentines! And those of you playing on PC can also download the Veilguard of Love mod that metamancer-io made, and turn your Veilguard romantic! Hope you have fun!)

[confinesofmy]

me and my cousin were talking about how my cousin that's always pissing me off has been getting progressively more cruel in her interactions with me and she asked "am i ever like that" and while she was asking for herself that is kind of a pivotal question for me as well. because no. in no world is that the case. and as i was thinking about that it occurred to me that actually no one is being quite as foul in their interactions with me as that one cousin is and i haven't really been treated like this in many years. it's kind of crazy actually. i've been thinking i was crazy. but no. this is a crazy situation and it's time to exit it.

[celtrist]

I really want to see a more fucked up version of Charlie in canon. Like, okay, I am a die-hard for sweet bubbly girls in media. But I always see how some people make Charlie actually, oh I dunno... demonic? And it's so refreshing for her type of character. I could honestly see her having low empathy (and we kinda see this with how she handled Angel's situation or even Vaggie's nervousness about taking control on an activity). An exploration of that trait (if it was intended) would be interesting to see for a protagonist, especially when her main goal is about helping others. I would love to see her actually have a level of difficulty in understanding others' feelings from the other residents, sinners, and even her father.

But give her a fucked up side. Not a "she gets more power when she's angey uwu", but a "oh, she's a little fucked in the head". It would give so much to her character that she just doesn't have.

@/murmurmurena (don't wanna bother them so slash there we go) has some fun ideas with Charlie. I highly encourage people to check their stuff out! So many fun dark ideas with her character while also still keeping to her canon personality pretty well! Personally, I think Charlie being a bit more naive to her own messed up traits would work best but her also being aware of these traits can make for some interesting character for her.

THIS FIC, "A Game Between You and I". RIGHT HERE WITH THE FIRST CHAPTER. A bit of spoil for the fic here: but I love how they handled Charlie’s absolute ignorance as to why the idea of Russian roulette is horrifying to Angel Dust. It doesn't feel like her being intentionally malicious or aware that she's the odd man out here. This is also a pretty old fic going by only the pilot, but the point still stands that it was such a fun take for her character!

Charlie is one of my favorite characters in the show in part of the POTENTIAL she could have as being the most bubbly sweetheart character while also being the most messed up character in the show. I can't say I have strong confidence with the show's writing and fully expect them to stick with Charlie being the "nice girl but oh no, don't get her angry or she gets scarwy". Which isn't bad for a character mind you, there's just so much more potential to Charlie outside of that trope, especially when you get into the theories of her either being a doll, Roo's biological daughter, or what have you. And for the MAIN CHARACTER of the show, it would be not only interesting but also bring the spotlight back to her.

There's really no question that the side characters steal the show, particularly all the male characters. If I'm honest, Charlie does not feel like she gets a lot of love from the show itself when she's supposed to be the main character. She feels far more flat compared to the rest of the characters (again, the male cast in this "female-lead" show has more depth than most of the female cast currently. I wouldn't be pointing this tidbit concerning the genders of characters if it weren't for the fact Viv defended Helluva's lack of development with their female cast by saying "Hazbin is a female-lead show and Helluva is a male-lead" and Hazbin ended up with it not feeling female lead (to me) and the male cast just completely stealing the show. I don't normally care about gender stuff, especially since I do personally lean interest towards male characters. But using one show as a defense for poor development of the female characters, and then that show not really holding up with no very interesting well-developed feeling female characters irritates me. It's just very clear that these shows don't seem to care much about the female cast :/)

If you like how Charlie is written that's totally fine. PERSONALLY, I just think they're missing so much opportunity with her character by just making her the standard female character type. I honestly don't have a lot of faith they'll actually do something with Charlie's character though. She's a pretty static character in S1 being the same from start to end. Not changing or learning anything to create any development. What does the end of season Charlie do that start of season Charlie wouldn't do? Fight back? Because we see with the pilot (which is the “first episode”) that Charlie does fight people if pushed like with Katie Killjoy and even Valentino. Static characters can work in media depending on the show or their role. But Charlie is the MC of a show about “bettering one's self”. So to have her as a static with not a lot of strong dilemmas for herself (like we see with Angel Husk Al and even Vox) seems silly. Plus, considering Hazbin is telling a whole story and it's not a fun episodic thing, characters are expected to grow on some level. Or else, what was the point of their hero's journey?

[sskk-manifesto]

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple and how “ability users” (opposite to “normal people”) learning to accept themselves through the acceptance of their own abilities is a queer metaphor of acceptance of own's sexual orientation and gender: an essay by me