#and suddenly had like 4 new blade attacks and was like ??????

[asleepinawell]

the funniest moment I ever had in a trust was in the hydaelyn fight when I got a stack marker and all the scions came running over to me and then. then. at the very last second every single one of them ran out from under the stack to group in the middle (AI anticipating the next attack I presume) and the stack went off .0001 seconds after they ABANDONED me before I could catch up and the wol's mom resundered the shit out of my poor lizard boy. the sheer and utter betrayal of that moment. exquisite. hydaelyn was like yeah you guys should probably just get on the moon ship and gtfo

[thebluester2020]

[GI] Kinktober Day 4: "Triple Penetration"

Summary: Since your victory against Tartaglia inside of the Golden House, now that you've healed up properly from your wounds, it seems that your brain can't help but see the harbinger's three forms and their potential in a new light...

Warning(s): Foursome (All 3 of Childe's forms + you), Monsterfuckery(?), Rough Sex, Public sex (In a way, reader and the forms fuck in the Golden House), Fear play, Blood (Reader is bitten but there's not an intense focus on it), Manipulation.

Side Note(s): Finally, an excuse to rant/write about how much I've always wanted to be plowed like a field by Childe's three forms. 🧍

Writing this fic made me realize I need more practice with fivesomes though. 😔

Imagine your shock when you found out that Tartaglia possessed three different forms. Each one stronger and more deadlier than the last.

When you were in the middle of your battle against the harbinger, your heart thrumming against your chest as each attack of his came way too close to either slitting your throat or puncturing a vital organ, you feared him more than anything you had ever feared in your life up until that point. Despite the playful tone he carried throughout the battle, his actions and the way he wielded his weapons spoke a different tune. If he wasn't aiming to kill you, he was at least heavily intent on maiming you. Anything that stopped you from interfering with the Fatui's plans.

To this moment, as you lay in your bed as the steady fall of rain beat against your window outside, you still had no clue how you survived with only a couple of cuts, some bruises, and a few broken ribs! Each thought of him and how you received your injuries made you wince.

And...made you extremely horny.

Perhaps the harbinger had somehow managed to break your brain during the fight.

What was supposed to be fear and perhaps even hatred, you had somehow developed a sick crush on the harbinger as you imagined each of his forms surrounding you whilst you were on the cold marble floor of the Golden House.

"Surrendering? Good..." His base form spoke before he crouched down as a wicked smirk found its way to his lips. "I promise I'll be gentle."

Your thighs clenched at the dirty image that was beginning to form in your head, your hand already traveling south as you delved deeper into your imagination...

. . .

You yelped when the blunt end of Tartaglia's spear slammed into the palm of your hand, all the while a boot pinned down your other one. Your eyes were narrowed as you stared up at the harbinger's three forms, their eyes (or...eye, in terms of Foul Legacy) stared you down before the masked form got on one knee to stare you deep in the face. "C'mon comrade, it was like you weren't putting in any effort at all!" He mocked before he took out a blade that was tucked away inside of his boot.

"It's like you actually wanted us to beat you." He added lowly. Your breath hitched in your throat as he trailed it up your side, over the tops of your breasts all before he slowly...teasingly trailed it down until it hovered just above your clothed pussy.

The three chuckled amongst themselves, Foul Legacy, especially as a long purple tongue flicked out of its mouth to lick over its teeth. "Seems you were focused on something else entirely." It spoke before the masked form flipped up your skirt just enough to be able to cut away your underwear, tossing them aside to be forgotten somewhere before he groaned.

A whine left your lips when a gloved finger pressed against your clit. "Dirty comrade, you were fighting all three of us with such a needy cunt this entire time? I don't know whether to praise or pity you! No wonder you lost." He laughed.

Suddenly, Foul Legacy and Tartaglia's base form knelt down as well, the three large bodies crowding around you before the base form smirked. "Because you still chose to fight us despite having such a big disadvantage...the least we can do is help you, right?" He smirked, your eyes going wide as you watched how he began to fiddle with the belt looped around his pants.

. . .

"S-Shit!" You cried out as the Foul Legacy form currently had you in a mean mating press, the sound of skin slapping against skin echoing as you keened at the feeling of his fat cock slamming in and out of your walls. The monstrous form somehow managed to smirk at your noises, his tongue coming out to lick the side of your cheek as a clawed hand came to flick at your nipple. "Feelin' good?" It rumbled out before its head dipped to begin pressing its teeth against your face and neck in its own version of a "kiss".

Until it suddenly clamped down on your shoulder.

The delusion unleashed form laughed mockingly at the yelp you let out as he stroked his cock just above your face, your panting mouth tasting the salty pre-cum that dripped from his cock. "Such a lewd expression comrade..." He said with a smirk as he aimed his cock to your lips. "If you had graced us with such an expression—" He interrupted himself with a groan as he slipped into your mouth, taking advantage of your fucked-out expression and how brainless you were quickly becoming thanks to the Foul Legacy fucking you mercilessly. "—S-Shit...we would've had a much more fun ending to our battle."

"I don't know...that look of pain on your face was addicting as well," The base form purred against your breasts as he sucked and lightly nipped at one whilst he tended to the other with his hand.

Suddenly, he pinched at your nipple. The delusion unleashed form cursing under his breath at the way your throat suddenly tightened around his cock. Despite the rough treatment although...you relished in the feeling of being used so thoroughly, your quickly approaching orgasm nearly giving you whiplash as you struggled to ground yourself via grabbing onto anything that you could manage to grab. Something that the Foul Legacy sensed as his teeth unclamped from around your shoulder, licking your blood from off his teeth with a satisfied growl. "You gonna cum pretty~?" It said.

You flinched at the feeling of its claws moving against your cunt, the sharp yet delicate feel of it making you clench even tighter around the monster, eliciting in a hiss from it. "Fuckin' tight—" Then, it suddenly curled its knuckles before it pressed them against your clit immediately starting a rapid pace as he moved them against your clit. You screamed around the delusion unleashed's cock at the mind-numbing pleasure, the man above you nearly keeling over as a deep-bellied groan left his lips.

"Don't you even think of cumming without us girlie..." He hissed out. "There'll be a punishment you definitely won't like if you do."

Your eyes fluttered at the threat, your hand shakily rising to stroke at the section of the delusion unleashed's cock that wouldn't fit into your willing mouth. Suddenly though, the Foul Legacy and base form groaned in unison, a faint fapping noise reaching your ears as you managed to piece together that the base form was touching himself as he played and sucked your nipples. "Ah..." He moaned. "I-I'm close—" He clenched his teeth, his words being the final nail in the coffin as you felt the knot in your stomach grow impossibly tight before...the Foul Legacy felt a gushing against his abdomen.

The delusion unleashed released a drawn-out moan as he came down your throat at the dirty sight, your glistening arousal splattering against the Foul Legacy's cock as your hands flew to dig your nails into its shoulders. The base form suddenly stilled as he came on your sides, his eyes slamming shut as he moaned and sucked even more harshly on your nipple.

As the two baser forms came down from their eyes, one slipping his cock from your mouth while the other parted his mouth from your breast. They both smirked at the sight of your cock-drunk form still being fucked silly on the Foul Legacy's cock.

With you clenching so impossibly tight around the monstrous form's dick, however...it wasn't too much longer until it came with a near bone-shattering snarl, its claws unintentionally sinking into your thighs as they drew blood whilst its long tongue slipped out from its mouth to lick at your arousal that coated his abdomen. There was a steady buzzing in your ears as you came down from your high, your entire body aching in such a delicious mixture of pain and pleasure.

Perhaps...in reality, you'd have to find Tartaglia again in order to see if you could make your daydream become reality...

[call-me-cheese]

Yooooo always good to see new writers on here

Could you do some hurt/comfort with Charlie and Vaggie (specifically poly chaggie x reader, but if you don't do that, separate is fine), where the reader is in the fight at the hotel and saves Charlie from Adam (in place of Lucifer), but is seriously injured in the process and sort of lost in the chaos. Then, once the angels retreat and things are calmer, Charlie and Vaggie find reader beaten and bloody, practically on death's door, but hanging on as the two try their best to stabilize the reader

But the reader survives at the end because there needs to be a happy ending to it :(

Charlie x reader x Vaggie

A/n: I had rewatched the final episode for 4 times and I will go and cry about it. But I hope you will like it, here is 916 words(if you are interested in it).

Your spear struck Adam's face with a slashing motion, throwing it away from Charlie. You may not have been perfect with polearms, but the time you spent with the Vaggie definitely made sense, usually without incredible strength, you could easily throw an almost 2-meter man away from your girlfriend. The adrenaline in your blood does its job, completely numbing the pain of the wounds sustained in the battle with the exorcists and allowing you to focus your attention on Charlie's defense. Adam was thrown to the side of the impact, and you turned to Charlie, checking how she was.

"How are you, Charlie? I definitely should have hurried." You turned to her, giving her a hand so she could get up.

"Thank you!" said Charlie as she walked up to you, hugging you tightly, and you gave her a gentle pat on the back to make her loosen her grip.

Somewhere in the background, Adam rises and begins to curse both you and Charlie, and you turn to him, walking slowly towards him, leaving one of your girls behind.

"How dare you, wretched accomplice of heaven, touch our ray of sunshine Charlie?!" -- your spear changes its position with lightning speed, the thin shiny blade of angel steel is very close to his body, yes you are not in the best shape, yes you see that Vaggie also needs help, but compared to Charlie, at least she is an experienced fighter and knows about the tactics of angels, so you're probably better off staying close to Charlie.

"Who are you? How many of you are gathered here? Moreover, why do you care so much about her? Okay, devils, you're going to be a piece of cake, haha!" -- Adam stood up, shaking off his clothes and spreading his wings, ready to take off, while you, seeing this, decide that you need to attack before the moment of takeoff, because there he will have an incredible advantage.

You attacked quickly, but despite this, Adama deflected almost all the blows, your imperfect technique, although easy to guess, a few cuts appeared on his mask and clothes. Suddenly, you heard Charlie trying to shout something at you, and you let Adam take off. Charlie called you in case of Lute that tried to attack you from behind to distract you from Adam, but Charlie and Vaggie teamed up and protected you.

"Thank you, darlings," you quickly thanked them and turned your attention back to Adam.

At least you tried, as Adam had already unleashed his magic on you, literally cutting the entire hotel building in half. And if Charlie has Vaggie to catch and hold her, there was no one for you in particular. That is why it was you who fell into the crack between the buildings.

You were lucky, the beams fell above you, which very successfully saved you from other debris, the adrenaline in your blood stopped working, the pain from the injuries came flooding over you and seemed several times stronger than it really was, there was no strength left to move or at least some signal, so all you could do was lie down and hope. Charlie and Vaggie will definitely find you, it can't be otherwise. Occupied with such thoughts, your brain gradually shuts down.

The next thing you feel is a cool, slightly rough hand, you instantly recognize it as a Vaggie's hand that was touching your neck in search of a pulse. Your eyes open a little and are dazzlingly bright compared to the dark silence your brain was in during the faint, contrasting so strongly that it hurts your eyes. You squint, turning away, trying to shield yourself from the light and the sounds around you.

"Honey, she's awake," says Vaggie beside you, and Charlie's shadow instantly blocks out the light, bringing relaxation to your buzzing head. So you try to open your eyes and look around without still fully regaining consciousness. Charlie hugs you, touching several open wounds, which makes you groan in pain. You want to ask about the situation, about the situation with the angels, but as soon as your lips open, all your senses come back to you, you begin to feel dust and dryness in your mouth, the surface of the ground beneath you, destroyed and not at all pleasant, dried up your blood, mixed with angelic blood and other things that fell on you during the fight and, To be honest, you start to want to feel nothing again.

"Shut up," Charlie and the Vaggie tell you at the same time. They also lift you up and transport you to a more comfortable surface at the same time. It is quite pleasant and the lack of constant tension in your body allows you to faint once again.

The next time you wake up, your body is tightly wrapped in bandages and the sensation of pervasive dust that caused incredible sensory disgust is gone. You're in the shade, lying on something soft. There is no sensation of pain either, it looks like you have been fainting for a relatively long time.

"Veggie, Veggie, come here!" -- Charlie is nowhere to be seen, but you can recognize her voice everywhere. You can also hear Vaggie's voice, but you can't make out what she said, she probably answered Charlie.

They hug you, you're sure Charlie is crying because something wet has touched your cheek. You, too, are glad that at least these two dearest people are alive.

So as I already said I hope that you enjoyed it)

[southtopaz]

PSYCHO KILLER - SCREAM

Summary: in which Iris Morris has to navigate her personal relationships while surviving a psycho.

Warnings: Fem!reader, angst, mention of blood, violence, swearing, death, Amber freeman x Fem reader, Tara Carpenter x Fem reader, multiple parts

Word count: +5k

A/n: the story will follow the events of Scream 5 and 6. English is not my first language, so I apologize for any grammatical mistake. Also I use Alycia Debnam Carey as Iris face claim but you all can use whoever you might like.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

"Welcome to act three"

Iris watched as her girlfriend shot Liv in the head while smirking. She pointed the gun at Sam and just as her finger pulled the trigger, Iris didn't think twice before slamming her body against hers pushing her into the wall. The bullet ended up hitting the ceiling as she shouted for Sam and Tara to run.

Amber tried to point her gun once again at Tara but Iris was clinging into her arm making her unable to use it.

"Don't make me hurt you" Amber grunted in rage as they struggled with each other. Iris tried to get the gun from her but Amber suddenly squeezes the wound on her thigh, making Iris scream in pain and let go of her.

Suddenly she felt something dig into her stomach. She hitched a breath as she looked down and saw Amber's hand holding the handle of a knife. She could feel the blade twisting in her insides as they locked eyes.

"You just fucking stabbed me". She choked out, her eyes fired in betrayal. The girl who had been nothing but sweet to her, the girl who always made sure they didn't leave each other without saying I love you, the girl who cooked her favorite meals. That girl was also the same one who was stabbing her right now.

"You left me no choice baby. I don't want to hurt you but I can't let you ruin everything". She pressed one of her hands on her cheek as she listened to Iris's sobs. "Don't cry baby, everything is going to be okay. Just don't get involved".

"It was you". She breathed out in pain. "At the hospital, you attacked us, you are the one who hurt me".

"You weren't supposed to be there". Amber gaze sombered. "But of course you had to be there with Tara. I had to slowed you down somehow". She took out the knife out of her body and Iris let out a scream of pain as she tried to support herself with the wall.

"She's your best friend".

"She needs to die".

"You're insane". Iris whispered hatefully at her now clearly ex girlfriend. "I won't let you touch her".

Amber had a new wave of rage engulfed her and she growled as she stepped forward and stabbed her once again.

"Stop pissing me off, don't talk about her". Amber pulled the knife out of her stomach once again and then rested it on Iris's cheek as she gently whispered. "Can't you realize I'm doing all of this for us? So that we can be together forever".

Iris didn't answer as she doubled up in pain and she slowly fell to the ground.

"You're mine". Amber looked at her. "No one is going to take you away from me, not her nor anyone".

"I hate you".

Amber looked at her sadly. "You'll learn to forgive me". She left her there and Iris couldn't do anything but pass out while looking at Mindy's and Liv's bodies.

A few moments later, she woke up dizzy from the blood loss and she tried to straighten up using the wall for support. She got on her knees and saw Sam's jacket lying in the ground. She crawled to it and once she took it, she wrapped it tightly around her stomach to stop the blood from spilling. She heard shouting coming from the hall and she thought she recognized Sidney and Sam's voice. She hurried up in the best way she could but before going there she grabbed an umbrella she saw resting beside the chimney. It will have to work for now.

"Shoot him". She heard Sidney's voice.

She approached the door just in time to see Richie getting close to Sam. "Thank god you're okay, cause I really... really wanted to be the one to kill you". And then stabbed her in the side while Richie held her up with his other hand. Sam stared up at him in horror just like she had stared at Amber moments prior. He twisted the knife inside Sam as she screamed in pain, Sidney tried to move towards him but he pointed a gun she didn't see him holding at her. "Sit the fuck down".

Before he could hurt any of them once again, Iris came out of hiding using the umbrella to hit Richie in the head repeteadly. He let go of Sam as he fell to the floor but it wasn't enough to seriously hurt him as he threw a kick at her that hit directly at her stomach and she fell backwards with him pointing his gun at her.

"You know Iris, you keep annoying me".

"I fucking knew it was you, you bitch". He stood up and kick her once again just to smile once he saw her doubled up on pain.

"You were right and yet you still failed". He was going to kick her again when Amber swiftly took her mask off and locked eyes with her.

Just as Richie put the gun threathreadly into her forehead, Amber spoke up. "That's enough Richie, we have other things to worry about".

"You see the only reason I haven't already stab you to death is because Amber put you off limits". He looked her up and down. "Seeing the state you are though, seems like she did the damage herself".

She spat at him and he fell backwards in disgust. "Fuck you".

He wiped her spit and gave the gun to Amber as she raised it at Sidney. Iris watched with tear-filled eyes as Richie pulled Tara's inhaler from his pocket, displaying it for Sam with a look of satisfaction. "I can't believe this worked," he said, tossing it behind him as he smirked smugly. "I know. It's a bummer it had to be me"

Richie then pulled out a voice changer from his other pocket, laughing manically. "But it was really the best choice for the movie."

"This isn't a fucking movie!" Sam retorted, wincing with pain from the stab wound and the betrayal.

"No, but it will be". Richie replied coldly, as he turned to Amber. "That's the point, right Amber?".

"Right Richie. Third Act bloodbath, check! Killers revealed, check! Time for the big finale!" Amber chuckled with delight as she strengthened her grip on Sidney's hair.

Iris couldn't believe this side of Amber was the real Amber she never got to meet. This psychopath killing machine. "You won't get away with this".

"I told you to not get involved baby".

"Don't fucking call me baby you psycho".

Amber chisted her teeth as she motioned to Richie to get a hold on Sam. "Now that's not the way to talk to your girlfriend". She tilted her head. "Let's get them to the kitchen".

"Stand up and walk". Amber turned to Iris as she spoke while she kept her gun pointed at Sidney, motioning for her to walk slowly while keeping a tight grip in her hair.

"Or what? You won't kill me Amber".

"No but I'll kill everyone else in front of you".

Iris slowly started walking towards the kitchen while she felt Amber shouting at Sidney to move. She needed to think of a plan and she needed it now.

"Someone has to save the franchise," Richie began, as he and Sam entered the kitchen, following Iris, Sidney and Amber. The ghostface girl had thrown the older woman to the floor near the end of the cupboard, with Sam on the other side. "The truth is, no one has made a great Stab movie since the first one."

Amber roughly grabbed Iris's shoulder and pushed her beside Sidney to keep her in check. She bounced up and down with excitement, her eyes locked into Iris, not liking the way the girl was looking at her.

"Cmon baby don't look at me like that, I'm also doing it for you, I told you". She tried to get closer while holding her knife.

"How the fuck would this be for me? You became the exact person who took my sister away from me".

"This people, they are not good for you, they don't get you like I do". She softly spoke to her as if trying to convince her. "We can become the final girls of this movie, we will be famous and rich, just you and me. No one to hold you back to this fucking city, especially not your stupid mother”.

"Then you should just kill me cause I would never be your final girl". Iris growled under her breath. “Don’t you ever insult my mother again bitch”

Amber slammed her knife into the table with such force that made Iris jumped. "You don't know what you're saying dear". She was shaking with barely contained rage.

"Hey, Amber, you want to go get the very ex-Mrs. Riley?" Richie asked her in order to distract her from her conversation with Iris just as he pointed his knife at Sam.

"Yeah I do" Amber said smiling as she hands him the gun, she was previously pointing at Sidney.

Once Amber left, Iris felt more blood spilling out from her as it seemed the jacket torniquete didn't work anymore. She gripped tightly into the kitchen table and tried to steady herself. Sidney beside her made a move to check on her while trying to take a knife before Richie started shouting.

""Hey! Whoa..whoa." Richie yelled making her step back as he approached her. "Sidney Prescott. You know...I’m a really big fan." Richie said with a grin.

"Go fuck yourself" Sidney scoffed at him.

"You see the last stab movie?" He questioned as if any of them gave a shit about those movies.

"Not really a fan of scary movies." Sidney replied.

"That checks out. Anyway, it sucked balls. Because nobody takes the true fans seriously. Not really. They just laugh at us, and why? Because we love something? We’re e just a fucking joke to them. How can fandom be toxic? It's about love! They don't fucking understand that these movies are important to people." He yelled into Sidney's face as he took the opportunity to raise his gun at Iris. He truly hated her ass.

"Cool motive, still murder you fucker".

"Richie..." Sam pleaded from her spot holding into her stomach.

"We're gonna help them! Hollywood's totally fucking out of ideas, so we decided we'd give them some new source material to follow. You know, bring it back to basics. Because that's how you make a great stab movie, Sam." Richie now turned his gun to Sam while looking at her with a dark crazy gaze. "Based on actual events".

"I don't know who needs to hear this but no one gives a shit about your stupid movies Richie". Iris shouted in his face.

Amber reappeared with an injured Gale, now forcefully placing her into a seat by the other counter.

"Gale!" Sidney called out to her. Amber now stood in front of the woman mimicking some stabbing motion.

"You did all this just to make me the hero of your fucked-up movie?" Sam's nostrils flared outwards as she snapped at Richie.

"Sweetie, you're not the hero." He said while prolonging eye contact with his girlfriend as he rested his gun underneath Sam's chin. "You're the villain. The daughter of Billy Loomis who sees fucked-up visions of her dead dad? Sidney Prescott killed your father. You did all this just to get her back to Woodsboro".

"You know the biggest problem with stab movies is? There's no Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. No bad guys coming back. But the illegitimate daughter of the original mastermind? Now that's a fucking villain" Amber intervined smiling excitedly at Sidney as she explained their plan.

"How did you know?" Sam questioned.

"About your father?" Amber laughed loudly. "I mean, it's a small town and your mom's a drunk! I met Richie on the Stab subreddit. I've been obsessed ever since my parents bought this house. We realized pretty quickly we had similar ideas."

"Wasn't that hard for me to find you in Modesto" Richie got close to Sam. "It wasn't that hard for me to fuck you, either. But I guess being a sexually available woman is supposed to be empowering these days."

"Fuck you!" The woman snapped back.

"Well, now you're just quoting the original," Richie chuckled.

"But it wouldn't work with just you, Sam," Amber smiled mischievously, turning to look at Sidney. "See, we had to bring the legacy characters back to make it matter. Can't have a bona fide Halloween without Jamie Lee".

While Amber and Richie did their monologue, they seemed to forget about her as they were too excited with their schemes. She had the time to take notice of a knife laying in the table under some red cup.

"Dewey had to die to make it real. To show that this wasn't just some bullshit, cash-in, run-of-the-mill sequel. Because our movie has fucking stakes! 'Cause anyone can die in a requel". Amber continued talking and Iris silently motioned Sidney to grab the knife as she nodded in acknowledgment. The woman lunged for the knife that was lying on the table, but Amber was too fast and she sunk her knife into Sidney's stomach in a quick motion.

Iris let out a scream and she tried to move forward but Amber grabbed a hold of her hair and pushed her to the floor. Gale fell off her chair as she watched Sidney getting stabbed and Richie was now pointing his gun at Sam once again when he saw her making a move towards the other three women.

"Sit the fuck down!"

"I'm so sorry, Sid". Richie teased as he crouched down to her. "We can't let you live, either. I mean, surviving this many times... that would just be ridiculous. This time the fans are gonna be the ones who win. That about cover it?"

"Nailed it, Richie."

"Get Tara out of the closet. We got to start staging the bodies!"

"If they move kill them, don't wait for me". Amber informed his accomplice before she left the room. "Except for Iris don't touch her".

"If she doesn't cooperate?".

Amber turned her gaze at her. "We'll make her". She winked at the girl and left the room in an excited stride.

The moment Amber left the room, Sam moved to Iris in order to press harder into her wound. She saw the girl looking paler every second they keep wasting and losing her balance. She wasn't going to let her pass out.

"You need to hold on, okay?". Sam whispered, they could both hear Gale words of encouragement towards Sidney.

"We're gonna die, Sam. I'm sorry".

"Don't apologize, you have nothing to do with this".

"Look at Amber, she's insane. I should've known fuck I'm so sorry". Iris silently cried out in fear. "I'm the reason she hurt Tara".

"You really should've listened to Dewey," Richie laughed to himself. "He nailed it in one! Dude, look at the love interests! Are you fucking stupid?" He turned his head at Sam. "I even had you convinced it could be your sister."

"Even you Iris, always thinking you're smarter than everyone else. You didn't even realize you were sleeping with the enemy". He got close to them as he raised his gun at her.

"Amber said you can't kill me".

"No, but I can still hurt you". He kicked her in her side, making her twist in agony. Sam tried to lunge forward at him but he was faster and threatened her with his gun, forcing her to go back to her place.

"Um... She's not here!" Amber's voice called distantly from somewhere in the house. Iris's heart flutter at the thought of Tara being safe.

"The fuck you mean, she's not here?" Richie nervously flickered his gaze.

"I untied her," Sam admitted, enjoying the look on Richie's face. "Guess you're not as persuasive as you thought." Iris started laughing, coughing from the pain in her abdomen, which only made her laugh harder. Maybe she was going insane.

Richie aimed the gun at her but jumped when the telephone next to him rang, its high-pitched tone echoing through the house.

"That's for you". Sam told him.

"Yeah, like your gimpy little sister's gonna make a difference. She's our fucking pincushion at this point." He grew more agitated the more his plan seemed to waver. "Amber! Fan out. She couldn't have gotten far."

"I can't find he..." Amber's voice was abruptly silenced by the sound of her scream. Sam and Iris looked at each other preparing themselves to attack. Maybe it was the adrenaline, the hope that maybe they could survive this or maybe she was just insane but suddenly she didn't feel any pain.

"Amber?" Richie called out to her losing his concentration. Both Sam and Iris took advantage of the distraction, lunging at Richie as he headed toward Amber's cries. Sam pushed his arm upward, firing a bullet into the ceiling as they fought over the gun in his hands.

The three of them fell as Sam slammed Richie's hand into the floor to try to get him to let go of the gun as another bullet was fired. Iris took advantage of the momentum and straddled Richie's hips to punch him over and over again in the face. Richie used his knee to kick her in the stomach to push her off him. Just as he was standing up, Sam bit him in his injured arm, making him scream in agony.

"Go look for Tara, I got him".

Iris rushed as fast as she could to the other room and found Tara hitting Amber with one of her crutches. Amber hit her in her broken leg making Tara fall from the pain and she quickly moved towards her and slammed her head to the wall.

Iris moved and tackled Amber making both of them fall into the floor.

In the dimly lit room, the two of them clashed with fierce intensity. Iris tried to gain the upper hand, her muscles straining as she tried to pin Amber down. The room echoed with the sounds of grunts and thuds as they fought, their breaths coming in ragged gasps. Amber put her thumb in her stab wound making Iris weakened her grip on Amber's body. The girl spun them around and now Amber was on top.

"Stop fighting me you bitch".

"Amber you need to stop, you'll die" Iris tried to make her reason.

"Too late to back down now baby, join us please I don't want to hurt you". Amber put her hands around her throat choking her slightly as she tried to overpower Iris.

"So you can go and kill them all? So you can go and kill Tara?".

"God you are choosing her? After everything?". Amber threw a punch to her face, leaving Iris's head spinning in pain. She could taste the metalllic taste of blood in her tongue, she's pretty sure her nose is broken. "I thought taking that stupid letter and writing that text would've been enough to separate you two but it seems I have to kill her for you to stop caring".

"You fucking bitch". Tara was back on her feet, and swinged her crutch at Amber's head again.

Amber yelled out in pain, but she was quick to turn around and grabbed Tara's shoulder throwing her over the couch. Tara's head hit the one of the tables and she felt unconscious.

"Sam! Where you going!?" Richie's voice echoed through the house "Your big scene's coming up!"

Amber took a last look at her and walked back into the kitchen, before being dragged down to the floor by Sidney.

Iris crawled her way back to Tara and once she saw her still breathing, she stood up with the last of her efforts and moved towards the kitchen.

Amber screamed as she slipped, the gun in her hands clattering to the floor as she scurried to her feet and grabbed the knife on the counter aiming at Sidney's head taking the woman by surprise.

Iris in her panicked state did the only thing she could think of. Distraction.

"NO Amber no I love you, don't do it". Iris tried to distract her. Amber lowered her knife and turned to look at her with a hopeful smile mixing with her maniac face.

"You do?".

"NOW". Iris shouted as Sidney lunged forward and made Amber lose her grip in the knife as they sent her towards the kitchen counter.

Sidney grabbed a glass bottle of hand sanitizer from the kitchen countertop, drew her arm back, and smashed it against Amber's face.

"Fucking hand sanitizer?". Amber shrieked, blinded as she frantically clawed at the liquid stinging her eyes. Gale and Sidney seized her, forcefully hurling her over the counter.

"No, no, no, it's not my fault!" Amber yelled, her voice and facial expressions now changing to the Amber she had know for years. It almost hurt her seeing her like this. Almost . "It's not my fault!"

"Let me guess, the movies made you do it?" Sidney rolled her eyes tiredly, this is definitely not the first time she heard this.

"No, it was the message boards! I was radicalised!"

"By movie fans?"

"Yes, they're so mad! Please, it's not my fault, I'm just a dumb kid!" Amber begged, she raised her arms in a pleading manner as she looked at them. "I wanted to be a part of something!"

"You have to believe me Iris, you know me" She continued pleading.

"A part of something?!" Gale shouted, her anger escalating as Amber struggled to pull herself together. "You killed my best friend!"

"Yeah". Amber replied, her psychotic grin making a come back. "And he died like a pussy!"

Gale struck her in the face with a blow, and Amber grabbed her shoulders to threw them both across the room in a fit of rage. She shoved her fist into Gale's gunshot wound, making the older woman cry in pain.

Iris moved to attack, slamming into Amber and clawing at the woman to release her from Gale. She tried to wrap her arms around her neck to try and stop from attacking anyone else.

Amber shrugged Iris off by punching into her thigh and making her stumble into the floor.

Iris let out a muffled cry of pain as she knelt over the ground, the blood pooling out of her again and pressing a hand against the wound on her stomach as Amber turned around to look at Gale on the ground.

"I was the last thing Dewey saw before he died too. I can't believe I get to do you both!" Amber chuckled with delight. "No last-minute saves this time. Your story's over! Time to pass the torch!"

Gale took one look at Iris surprised she was still trying to fight before turning back to Amber and reaching up to press on her shoulders. "It's all yours, bitch!"

She head butted Amber so strongly that it sent her tumbling backwards towards Iris. The girl stuck out her foot in purpose, making the girl trip over it, sending her tumbling into the stove and accidentally switching the gas on in the process, erupting the kitchen stove in flames.

Sidney and Gale both rushed to help the girl stand up and they all walked over to Amber's defeated figure.

"You want to do the honors?" Gale asked Sidney.

Sidney shook her head. "This one's yours."

"No no don't shoot me please". Amber shouted while trying to placate the fire in her body. "Iris baby, aren't you forgetting something?".

A rage washed over the younger girl, remembering the game they used to play to say I love you to each other but now it just didn't hit the same. A cruel smile was plastered on Iris's face as Amber locked eyes with her for the last time. "No, I'm not forgetting anything".

She turned to Gale, who was waiting for her permission. "Kill the bitch".

Gale shot her three times in the chest making her fall backwards and since the girl's body remained covered with hand sanitizer, once she fell face first into the stove, she set herself on fire. With a final thud, Amber collapsed to the floor, leaving the other three people in the room stunned.

"Enjoy that torch". Sidney muttered.

Iris stumbled forward and had to lean on Gale as Sidney rushed to her side once more.

"You need to sit Iris". She tried helping the girl but Iris refused the help.

"I'll sit when Tara and Sam are okay". The other two women looked at each other before they each wrapped an arm around her to help her walk towards the living room. Once she saw Tara slowly waking up, she distangled herself from the women and crouched down to her.

"Thank god you're okay". Iris whispered as she rested her hand on Tara's right cheek.

"How am I still alive?". Tara muttered in confusion.

"God if I knew, I think you might be the fucking terminator". They shared a painful laugh. "Amber's dead".

"I'm sorry".

"I'm not, I hope she rots in hell". Iris saw Amber's gun lying beside Tara and grabbed it without ever thinking. She then helped the girl stand up and the four women made their way towards the sounds of fighting. It seemed like Sam was finishing Richie off.

They found the girl cleaning a knife off with Richie's dead body at her feet.

"Careful, they always come back," Sidney muttered once she saw Sam coated in his blood.

She grabbed the gun from Sidney as she turned to face them, then shot Richie three times in the body, including once in the head just to make sure.

"Well damn".

A moment of stillness fell upon them all, and then the women spun around in response to a high-pitched scream coming from behind them. Amber was running towards them with her face completely burnt with her skin melting off. She charged towards Tara when Iris pulled out the gun she kept hidden and shot her straight in the head, finally silencing the girl forever.

"You were a shitty girlfriend anyway". After she pulled the trigger, she fell unconscious.

The paramedics carefully maneuvered Iris into a stretcher through the narrow corridor.

Iris, who was pale but now conscious, was gently secured and her wounds were now attended.

As she was being rushed into the ambulance, she saw Chad and Mindy in the same situation as her. Chad had a mask of oxygen over his face as he gave her a thumbs up while being loaded up into his ambulance. Mindy's stretcher was placed right beside her and the girl had a huge bandage over his shoulder and some stitches in her forehead. They just stared at each other for a moment before Mindy raised her hand to high-five her. Iris softly laughed while holding her stomach in pain.

"Love you Minds, thank god you're both alive".

"Love you too, Ris" She smiled gently at her. "Though we really need to talk about your terrible taste in women".

Iris gave her the middle finger and said goodbye when she saw her disappear into the ambulance. A few seconds later, she saw Sam and Tara making their towards her. Sam had her stomach wrapped in a bloody bandage while Tara was walking with the help of her crutches. Overall they all looked like shit.

They both were wearing worried expression as they noticed the state she was in. Bandages with blood already pouring, stitches in the forehead, a black eye and a bandaid in the nose.

"Careful guys you both looked like someone died in here". Sam merely gave her an unamused glance as Tara snorted. "In my defense they just gave me five different types of drugs".

"You're an idiot"

"But a hilarious one" Iris winked at Tara while the girl just smiled at her stupidity.

"You're traumatized".

"Is there a difference truly?

Sam went into serious mode and laid a hand on Iris's shoulder out of gratitude. "Thank you Ris for what you did out there, you had our back".

"And you guys had mine, we are a team now".

"I called your mom, she's definitely on her way". Sam added, as Iris widened her eyes in fear.

"Oh god she's going to be so mad".

"Well she did tell you to not get involved".

"You know what's the worst thing though?". Iris sighed in disappointment. "It's not the betrayal, the blood nor the killing".

"It's the fact that my mom will literally never shut up about this like I'll have to hear countless of hours of her telling me "I told you so" because she never liked Amber".

"Admitting you were wrong? Yeah that definitely sounds worse than dying".

"God I know"

Some minutes later, Sam left claiming she needed to talk to the police so she stayed with Tara, who was holding herself with her crutches.

"You know those crutches are an amazing weapon, wouldn't want to cross you".

"I was worried for you". Tara took a deep breath as she ordered her thoughts. "You could've died in there Iris, you shouldn't have jumped at Amber like that".

"She was going to kill you". Iris steeled her expression. "I told you I was going to end whoever tried to hurt you".

"Not if it costs your life". No one was out there to hurt them anymore but Tara's heart ponded with fear at the thought of losing Iris forever.

"Duly noted. I guess next time I'll just let you die."

"You're an idiot". This was the second time someone called her that in less than fifteen minutes. Tara leaned forward slightly towards Iris. "But I don't know what I would do without you".

Iris clasped their hands together. "Then it's a good thing we don't have to find out". She brought Tara's hand to her lips and pressed a soft kiss to it. A deep blush raced up Tara's cheeks, she had to turned her head in embarrassment.

They kept their eyes locked together, refusing to take their eyes off each other and after a moment of silence the shorter girl spoke up.

"Your mom is coming... she's fuming". They both turned around to see the woman marching their way wearing an angry expression. "Not even almost dying will save you"

"Jesus". Iris was dead, rip.

"What phrase you want in your grave? I was thinking beloved friend but I kinda would be lying"

"Fuck you carpenter".

[knockoffheart]

newest member of the seven (4/6)

summary: you kick ass and get your ass kicked. copying hughie’s temp v powers = oops we’re naked!

warnings: it’s a “The Boys” fanfic… blood, gore, swearing, nudity, etc. Intended for 18+ ONLY, this chapter contains mild smut. ALSO i write for myself and am low key new to writing so lower all expectations. <3

before you read: this story is written in second person, she/her pronouns are used, reader has female genitalia and identifies as female. the character is never referred to by name , but is a supe called “Replicate”, she has power-copying abilities.

You work you way down to the groups and stare up at them, almost in awe of your work. Excalibur is stabbing at the field, but making no progress. The group is kicking, shooting, and stabbing the field trying to get out.

“Calm down! I just wa-“ You feel a nude body grab you and slam you to the ground, bashing your head. You groan, looking up you see you’ve released both force fields, they all began to stand, ready to attack. “Shit…”, you put your arms over your head and form a small dome around yourself. There is a relentless assault on it from outside. You wipe blood from your head and take in a deep breath. Focus. You slowly begin to stand, increasing the force field’s size as you do. It pushes back the onslaught, allowing you to scan your surroundings. You see your previous attacker, the tall guy from before. He’s putting his shirt on over his head and hurriedly trying to button his pants. So he can teleport himself, but not his clothes..? You shake away the curiosity and prepare to force everyone off so you can capture them again. With a quick motion upwards you expand the force field rapidly, throwing everyone into the walls. You push your arms out, pinning everyone else to the wall as you make your way towards the teleporter.

Before you can reach them a strong burst of light slams into your chest, sending you flying back into a dumpster. You land on your side and look up. Starlight lands and hurries to the teleporter. Is she… comforting him? You blink, hard. THAT FUCKING BITCH. As you begin go rise, Maeve appears, looking around frantically.

“What happened here?” She asks Butcher.

“Oh fuck no, is this a fuckin’ sting operation? You’re not getting me fucking arrested!” Excalibur begins to form his arms into two giant blades.

Maeve, Starlight, and a short, black-haired girl all take a fighting stance. He unleashes a flurry of attacks, Maeve blocks every hit and you notice Starlight starting to glow. You also notice that you are fucking sore. Still, you make your way towards the group, preparing your force fields into small circular disks. Just as you’re about to throw your first disc — you’re slammed to the ground. The black-haired girl grabs a fist full of your hair and raises you up. You push a hand against her face and copy her power. With the element of surprise on your side, you manage to launch her towards her group.

“KIMIKO!” you hear the frenchman cry out. He begins firing his gun at you, the bullets hitting you barely sting. You start your way towards him before you’re pinned to a wall, you go to shove your attacker off you — it’s Maeve.

Your eyes widen, “Maeve…” you say in disbelief. Her metal bracer pressed firm against your neck, slowly cutting off air. “Maeve, it’s me!” You grab onto her arm, you know you could force her off, but your body feels like jelly. She stares through you, you reach for her hand and squeeze. Suddenly she release her grip and you collapse on the ground. You stare up at her, unintentionally recreating the moment you had the other night. You notice a blade start to come down above her, you shove her out of the way. The blade pierces through your midsection, pinning you to the wall. Maeve staggers, staring down at your limp body. Starlight blasts Excalibur back and you awake. You snap his bladed arm off from his body and throw it to the ground. He screams in agony, pulling back what’s left of his arm. You use the wall to help you up, still clutching your torso — which thankfully has started to heal itself. You try to move towards Excalibur but stumble to the ground, writhing on your hands and knees you attempt to stand again. Maeve moves toward you.

“Oi’ Maeve! Leave the bird to die, we’ve got bigger problems.” Butcher chides, his eyes glowing red. He laser beams Excalibur’s other arm off, leaving him with two bleeding stumps where the gigantic blades used to be. The teleporter, who you’ve now discerned is ‘Hughie’, runs past you towards Starlight and Excalibur. You grab his arm as he does, fully pulling yourself up and copying his powers all in one move. I am getting the fuck out of here.

You cough up a lot of blood, but the gaping wound in your center was closed. Thank you rapid healing. You steady yourself and focus on your room, trying to teleport back. You glare at Maeve, wary of her next action. She stands there, eyes wide as she stares back, you notice her hands are shaking.

“MAEVE! LOOK OUT!” Starlight yells. Out of the corner of your eye you notice Excalibur has formed blades out of his tongue, and all 10 toes. Gross. They are flying towards Maeve, you close your eyes and lunge towards her. Thinking you’re attacking, she lunges back. When you open your eyes, you’re lying in your bed. You want to let out a sigh of relief but can’t. Maeve is on top of you, knees on either side of your stomach, her hand is wrapped around your throat.

She releases you instantly, you gasp for air, still clinging onto her arm. It has taken you this long to realize you are both fully naked. Your face is on fire, you can feel how red you are. You let out a small whimper. Holy shit.

In the warm bedroom light, you finally see how bruised and beaten you both are. Your teleportation saved you both from the brunt of Excalibur’s attack, but you still suffered wounds. She has a slash on her cheek, which dripped onto your bare collarbone. You’re too focused on her to feel any pain from your numerous wounds. Your vision darts down, she’s straddling your torso, strong legs on either side, and her — your eyes dart up to her chest, then back to her face. She finally notices the lack of clothing, or atleast finally decides to acknowledge it.

“Fuck..” She breathes, staring down at your breasts, her vision lingers there for a while before darting back up to you.

Fuck it.

You lift yourself up and pull her into a desperate kiss. You squeeze your eyes shut and let out a breathy whimper as she kisses you back. Her lips are soft, softer than you expected. She kisses you hungerly, grabbing your face, pulling you closer to her until you’re both on your knees in front of each other. Every moan you hear from her makes you melt, she works her hands down your body and reaches the newly made scar across your stomach. She pulls away from the kiss and presses her forehead against yours.

“You’re so stupid…” she keeps her hand on your scar and moves the other hand up to the back of your head, gently caressing it.

You roll your eyes, “Well, my stupid ass saved yours. Twice.” You press your lips back against hers.

Eventually, you both end up laying against each other, legs entangled. You stroke her cheek and she traces circles on your thigh.

“I thought you died.” Maeve pulls you closer to her, your face rests near her neck. She brings her hand back to the scar, dried blood covers your stomach down. “You looked dead.” You hear the shakiness in her voice.

You nuzzle into her, “Nah, I’ll never die.” You rest your hand on her cheek, “Sorry I wasn’t faster.” She lets out a small laugh, more-so blows air out of her nose.

“What’re you gonna do?” she asks warily, “Now that you know.” You reach down and grab her hand, pulling it to your lips.

“I’m going to trust you.” You kiss her hand, “I don’t know what your plans are, but I’ll make sure Homelander is none the wiser.” You sigh, “Call Starlight, I’ll grab you some clothes.” As you stand she grabs your wrist and stares up at you.

“Thank you.” she says and gives you a soft smile.

You dig through your closet for some oversized t-shirts. Maeve comes up behind you and wraps her arms around your waist, her breasts are pressed against your back. Your face blasts red again, Maeve notices this in the closet mirror, she presses a few kisses against your neck, “Don’t you think you should shower first? No offense, but you’re filthy.” she suggests, picking a piece of gravel out of your hair.

You bite your bottom lip to fight your embarrassment, “I uh.. kind of broke that thing.” You turn and look up at her, she lets out a soft chuckle.

“God, you’re hopeless — good thing you’re pretty.” She jokes and tucks a strand of hair behind your ears, “We can use mine, cmon.”

You squeal internally, handing her a shirt as you pull your own over your head. You sneak out into the hall and head to her floor.

>back

>next

[flowerandblood]

The Man in the Black Gloves

[ Amor • Aemond x Psyche • female ]

[ warnings: public sex, fingering, smut, angst, threats, sexual tension, domination, violence, mention of the murder ]

[ description: After she is attacked in a fair by a strange man and narrowly avoids death, her father the king decides that from now on she will be watched over by one of his ‘ghosts’, a assassin acting on his orders, wearing a black mask. The man follows her like a shadow, accompanied by their past, which keeps her awake at night. Gothic horror love story, angst, sexual tension, very dark Aemond. ]

This story is several requests combined into one: sworn protector x female; Amor x Psyche; Phantom of the Opera! Aemond x female. I took the liberty of creating a completely new story from this, having only elements of each of these requests.

Series & Characters Moodboard Lady Walford Moodboard Gothic & Horror Sensual Moodboard

Part 1 - The Man with the Black Mask | Part 2 - The Man with the Empty Heart | Part 3 - The Man with the Lost Soul | Part 4 - The Man with the Cold Mouth | Part 5 - The Man with the Deep Scar | Part 6 - The Man with the One Eye | Part 7 - The Man with the Golden Gift | Part 8 - The Man in the Black Crown | Part 9 - The Man with the Bloody Sword | Part 11 - The Man in the Death Cloak | Part 12 - The Man with the Pearly Hair | Part 13 - The Man with the Fiery Gaze

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

Next chapters: Masterlist

_____

Although the thought of marriage and motherhood had terrified her before her father's death, now, being married at last and hoping to become the mother of her husband-king's children, she understood that it was all just a matter of the person she was to spend her life with.

Her husband, though terrifying and cruel, understood his duty as a husband and as a lover and fulfilled them to the best of his ability. She did not expect sweet words or confessions from him, knowing that they were not in his nature, however, he showed his affection to her in a different way.

Through his actions.

When that insolent woman dared to suggest that she become her husband's mistress in the future, that she would bear his child, she felt disbelief and a sense of betrayal spill over her insides.

She clenched her lips, trying with all her might to hold back the tears of humiliation that appeared under her eyelids.

How dare she?

"Hold her." She heard her husband's cold voice and saw him stand from his throne with a sudden, impatient movement.

"− give me your sword −" He said to Ser Criston in an unobjectionable voice − his guards grabbed the woman under her arms and forced her to kneel before them. She noticed with satisfaction that there was no longer a trace of the certainty of a moment ago on her face.

Her husband was unpredictable, burning like a fire that could not be tamed.

Anyone who tried was doomed to burn.

She listened to her desperate explanations with her lips clenched, pale, begging in her mind that her husband would not change his mind, that he would not let her go after what she had said, allowing her to leave a scar in her heart forever.

The thought that one day they would meet again without her knowledge and her prediction would come true.

A great uproar spread around them, people shouting at each other, until suddenly a blade swished swiftly in front of her − the woman who had just stood before them was deprived of her head, which rolled down the stairs to the stone floor with a thud.

"Her every breath would be an insult to my Queen. Let this be a lesson to anyone who tries to plot against her. Guards, lock Lord Ronwell in the dungeons until she decides what to do with him." He said lowly, with some kind of regret towards himself for allowing such a situation to happen.

He looked at her with a calmness in his eye, a conviction that he had done the right thing, that whatever this woman had predicted would never come true.

Once again, he made her feel an overwhelming sense of relief, like when she saw her mother and learned that she was alive.

She thought, looking at him with parted lips, feeling sweet throbbing between her thighs, that she would give him everything, would drown with him in her blood, would not let him carry the burden of this sin alone.

He did it for her.

Never before had she come as hard as she had that evening, feeling the tart taste of blood in her mouth as he slammed into her with quick, brutal thrusts of his hips, stretching her weeping cunt with his fat, swollen cock, aroused as much as she was.

She couldn't even remember when she reached her peak, feeling that she almost screamed with pleasure along with him.

She sighed quietly as she felt his hot seed finally spill inside her, feeling only fulfilment, only peace.

"− good gods − are you all right? −" He asked uncertainly, horrified surely as she was at how brutal and sacrilegious this closeness was.

She felt ashamed at the thought that she hadn't been this relaxed in a long time.

She heard him sigh out loud as she nodded her head, his large, rough hand stroking lightly her soft buttock.

"Let's take a bath." He suggested and she nodded again, completely without strength.

They undressed slowly when they were left alone with the steaming tub filled with pleasantly warm water. She dipped her feet into it first and then sat between his legs, resting her wet back against his chest, laying her head on his shoulder. She heard him hum quietly, feeling his fingers combing through her hair in a tender gesture.

They lay like this in silence, calming down at last, fingertips of his free hand trailing thoughtfully over her bare body making her feel goosebumps.

"Are you afraid of me?" He asked her suddenly, startling her completely − his voice quiet and uncertain, on the verge of a whisper.

She lifted her face higher, twisting with a quiet splash of water, wanting to look at him, raising her fingers to his cheek and running them over his skin.

"No." She replied softly, warmly, his hand combing through her hair with a light, musing gesture.

"I tried to kill you." He said lowly, as if merely stating a fact that he felt should concern her.

"Then why am I still alive?" She asked tracing her fingers along his chin, cupping her nose against his cheek. She heard him snort under his breath.

She didn't have to look at him to know that an amused grin was painted on his face.

She felt his hand trace a circle over her lower abdomen, massaging her warm skin under the water, knowing that all he was thinking now was the fact that she was filled with his spend.

Neither of them said anything more.

They conveyed most of the things to each other without words. She felt that he was able to express more with his hands than with his mouth, his fingers combing through her hair, stroking her naked body at night showing her what he felt, what he desired.

They both knew how empty and worthless words could be.

After what had happened to Alys Rivers, no woman dared to even attempt to come close to her husband anymore. She decided to show mercy to the lord who had brought her before them and was plotting against her, knowing that if her husband killed him, his whole family would turn against him.

She knew that the whole court had witnessed what would befall those who would try to come between them.

She found with amusement that they did not understand where their attachment and affection came from, thinking that it had a purely physical undertone that could always pass when someone more beautiful or more tempting appeared on the horizon.

Their marriage, however, was primarily based on how deeply they were bonded by their pasts, how they experienced things similarly, sunk in darkness, coming out at night to haunt the castle's inhabitants like ghosts.

She had the impression that there was a disturbing aura around them, that people feared them not only because of their power, but also because of that hint of madness they saw in their eyes.

After a time of war and unrest, her husband's lords advised him to take advantage of the fact that the new year was approaching, to use the date as a break from the past and to allow celebrations in the fortress as well as throughout the kingdom.

"Do you think it's appropriate? To hold a carnival and balls for chattels and drunkard lords?" He asked, sitting stretched out in his chair, obviously unconvinced by the idea, yet realising that his cool nature may have overlooked some of his subjects' needs, which did not mean that they were not important.

"The people have at last regained their King, peace has prevailed. Even though you won't do it, they want to move on and forget what happened eight years ago, begin again. Let them enjoy themselves, give them a day full of wine, bread and dances, let them decorate their town and enjoy themselves as they wish." She said softly, looking at him with a gentle gaze. He sighed heavily, massaging his forehead with his hand.

"Am I supposed to sit for hours behind a table and watch them make fools of themselves?" He asked impatiently, and she pressed her lips together, approaching him slowly with the quiet rustling of her gown.

"Arrange for it to be a masked ball. Let's blend in with the crowd. Don't we also have reason to celebrate, my husband?"

To her surprise, after much thought, he agreed to her proposal. His lords accepted his decision with relief, themselves apparently looking for an opportunity at long last to get out of the stress and sacrifice they had put in to help him regain his throne.

None of them told each other what they would wear or when they would appear in the throne room, recognising that it would spoil everything. She ordered that a matte, soft black gown be prepared for her, with a cut neckline with exposed shoulders and back, bold and unworthy of a queen or true lady.

She wore a black mask over her face, sheathed in a material identical to that of her gown, her dark hair loose. She did not put on any jewellery − she liked the simplicity and at the same time shamelessness of this attire.

She thought that this night she was not a Queen, she was not a lady but a shadow, a phantom, a mist, something intangible, something she had always wanted to be.

As she left her chamber she was immediately struck by the sounds of violin and flute music, loud conversations and laughter. She turned into the corridor and noticed hundreds of people discussing with each other, each of them disguised, masks over their faces.

She noted with satisfaction that no one bowed to her, that no one paid any attention to her, that she was like air.

She felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, a sense of empowerment and impunity at the same time.

She stepped into the main hall, which was the throne room, looking at the couples dancing in the centre of it − lovers for just one night pressed their bodies close to the walls, enjoying the time they were given as best they could, knowing that tomorrow they would have to return to their husbands and wives.

They all had goblets filled to the brim with wine − she could smell the roasts, soups and breads from the tables around her.

It seemed to her that she had joined some temple of promiscuity and splendour, her heart pounding like mad.

She walked unhurriedly among the crowds of people, gazing intently at their fanciful costumes, eavesdropping on their conversations, listening with amusement as the apparent anonymity gave the court's inhabitants the courage to speak their minds about her and her husband.

"I once passed by our King's chambers at night. There were such noises coming from it that I thought they were both dying in agony." Said a woman with light hair pinned up in a bun, her mask and gown blue, adorned with gold threads.

"She is a witch. As a traitor's daughter, she certainly has her ways of deceiving the King's mind." The other woman, younger, replied − she seemed to recognise in her the daughter of one of the lords who had strenuously tried for weeks to stumble upon her husband in the crown's library, wishing to seduce him.

"They are both mad." She hummed to them with amusement, and saw that they looked at her, trying in the semi-darkness to recognise who she might have been, but she did not let them stare at her and moved on, looking thoughtfully at the dancing pairs.

She was surprised to hear someone moaning behind her, and spotted a couple who were clearly just having a rapture with each other − both of them pressed up against the wall, hidden in the shadows, apparently hoping that no one would interrupt their obviously wonderful delight.

She smiled under her breath, turning her face away − she felt a throbbing between her thighs at the thought that her husband might take her in the same way this evening, in front of everyone.

She almost laughed at the thought that perhaps these prudish ladies would recognise them and their moans.

"My Lady." She shuddered when heard someone whisper behind her, masculine and low, pleasantly throaty. She did not turn towards him, looking ahead.

"You caught my attention right away. That beautiful back." The man muttered, running his fingers over her exposed skin − she felt a pleasant shiver, but did not bestow a single glance on him.

"I have to dance with you, my Lady, because I swear I'm going to lose my mind."

She lifted her chin higher and hummed, considering his words.

"We have enough madness in this stronghold so I am afraid I must prevent your downfall and agree, my Lord." She said, extending her hand to him − he took it respectfully and led her towards the spinning pairs.

She hadn't done it for months and never in this way and this man, whoever he was, was an excellent dancer.

He dared to shamelessly place his hand on her bare back and only then did she lift her warning gaze to him; his hair was dark and curly, reaching his shoulders, he was well built and tall.

She saw that he parted his lips when he saw a small part of her face, her eyes, lips and chin emerging from under her black mask, looking at her as if his breath had been taken away.

"Tell me you don't have a husband." He choked out between one turn and the next, their hands meeting in another movement.

"I have a husband, my Lord, and I am a faithful wife." She said softly − the man licked his lower lip, leaning over her, only to take a few steps away from her, their hands touching again.

"Is that so?" He murmured defiantly, and she smiled, amused, feeling herself throbbing at the thought that her king, her husband might have just watched her from afar, might have recognised her, might have been furious with jealousy.

That he might have wanted to kill this brazen man.

"Mmm. I would be careful if I were you, my Lord. My husband is dangerous. He is a breathing death." She whispered, feeling the rapid pounding of her heart at that thought, feeling with excitement that she was wet, her fleshy walls pulsing around nothing.

"I don't fear death. What I fear for is that I will never see you again." He said when the music ended, applause echoed around them, even though he should have done so, he didn't let go of her hand.

"You can be sure of that." She hummed with amusement, taking her hand and turning away from him, disappearing into the crowd.

She heard his desperate calls behind her and laughed, feeling like a mermaid who was leading an innocent young man to be devoured by a monster.

She was hot and walked over to the table to pour herself some wine, however the steel gilded jug was heavy and she had trouble lifting it. She shuddered and gasped when someone stopped right behind her, a large hand dressed in a black leather glove took it from her and filled her goblet halfway.

"Are you enjoying yourself, my Lady?" She heard a cold, deep, familiar voice behind her, a powerful shiver of desire passed through her − she involuntarily parted her lips feeling the unbearable pulsing of her walls and lifted her cup to her lips, taking a deep sip from it.

"Yes, my Lord." She replied innocently, feeling his hot breath on her neck, his dark, dangerous, sinister aura.

"Dance with me."

She felt her heart stop for a moment and swallowed loudly, turning over her shoulder.

A tear-stained mask on his face, a hood on his head.

He looked like one of her father's ghosts.

Vhagar.

He held out his hand to her and she placed hers on it, allowing him to guide her between the couples spinning to the rhythm of the music.

She felt stunned by his scent and his presence − if a moment ago she had been a cruel siren longing to devour, now she longed to be devoured, wanted to burn in the fire of his wrath, to die in the embrace of his arms if that was his wish.

As they made a turn their hands clasped tightly over their bodies; they were far too close to each other to consider their dance decent, however this night no one paid any attention to such things, his gaze from under the transparent black material cold and distant.

"Do you enjoy balancing on the edge of life and death, my Lady?" He asked low, his voice like ice, like a sharp blade − her pink lips swollen with desire parted slightly, droplets of sweat on her bare arms as they spun around each other, their hands touching.

"Yes." She whispered and heard him hum, as if he accepted her answer.

She felt overwhelmed, at the same time knowing who was behind the mask, yet being able to pretend that it was a complete stranger, a phantom who wanted to kill her, rip her entrails apart.

They didn't take their eyes off each other for the entire dance − there was something sensual in their movements, his gloved hand barely touching her bare back, she felt like she was about to die of lust.

She wanted him to do this to her, and he knew it, he could see it in her eyes.

When the music silenced they bowed to each other. She immediately headed towards the crowd, glancing at him meaningfully over her shoulder, watching to see if he would follow her. She stopped only at the wall, with nowhere else to go, her face illuminated only by the flame of a torch hanging nearby.

He walked towards her with a calm, lazy, firm step, like an executioner, like a judge, like a sentence to be imposed on her. She moaned as he turned her violently towards the wall, immediately pushing against her, she felt his hardness pressed against her buttocks.

"Whore." He hissed, she parted her lips and mewled, feeling her moist core throb around nothing, her cheek pressed against the wall, her fingers clenched helplessly on the cold stone.

She heard him pull off his gloves and throw them on the floor − one of his hands grabbed her neck and forced her to arch back and buck up, the other with an impatient, rough movement lifted the material of her gown at the front, slipping immediately between her thighs, they both groaned low with pleasure when he felt how wet she was.

"− what happened here? − hm? − fuck − all sticky −" He breathed out between her helpless, sweet moans, his fingertips spreading her moisture all over her womanhood, digging deeply into her skin around her pearl, teasing her with circular, sure strokes, involuntarily her hips began to rub against his hard cock hidden in his breeches behind her.

"− oh − oh gods, yes −" She mumbled dulled by how pleasurable it was − she heard him chuckle lowly behind her, his other hand clasped tighter around her neck. She squirmed as his finger tentatively slid inside her, only teasing her slit.

"− look at him − look at him when you fuck yourself with my fingers −" He growled and she obeyed his command, looking at the man who only a moment ago was ready to ask her to marry him − he stood in the distance looking at them in disbelief, his lips slightly parted.

She moaned, responding with her hips to his strokes when she realised that he must have imagined he was in the place of that black hooded figure standing behind her.

"− does your husband fuck you too rarely? − doesn't he stretch you well with his cock? − hm? −" He snarled, sliding his finger in and out deeper and deeper, pressing and rubbing again and again the wonderful spot hidden between her fleshy walls.

"− I − mghmm −" She mumbled out feeling that she was about to come, panting loudly along with him, his hips rubbing aggressively against her buttocks.

"− let's show him what duty a husband has to his wife −" He exhaled, sliding his finger out of her, his hand wet with her juices lifted her gown up.

She felt a chill wash over her exposed buttocks − there was music and loud conversations all around them, everyone could see what they were doing and although they weren't the only ones, the thought that it was happening right now and this way, made her legs tremble.

She heard him quickly undo the clasp of his coat, covering her with his body, not allowing anyone but him to see her womanhood, all swollen and wet with her moisture. She squirmed when she felt his freed, hard erection hit her bare skin, his fingers spreading her folds before him as the fat head of his cock pressed against her slit from below.

He opened her wide with one simple, sharp thrust, slamming into her like mad, his hand clamped around her neck forcing her to lean back more − she could feel his hot breath against her ear despite his mask.

"− look at him − he's fucking himself with his hand while looking at my wife − at my − fucking − wife −" He growled sinisterly, infuriated, rooting into her quickly and brutally, with each thrust of his hips forcing her sore, fleshy muscles to barely fit him in, his thick, swollen cock rubbing her so wonderfully that a cry broke from her lips − even if she wanted to she couldn't see anyone anymore, her gaze and mind clouded from pleasure.

"− you know he's already dead, don't you? − ah − would you want him to touch you before he died? − for him to root his cock deep inside you just for once? −" He hissed out between aggressive, deep thrusts, pounding into her with a loud slapping of flesh against flesh, both of them panting desperately, her body responding to his every move with rocking her hips.

"− n-no − your seed − I want it inside me −" She babbled with difficulty between her whimpers and his thrusts from which her whole body trembled − she heard his low groan of surprise and delight, his cock throbbing hard inside her, feeling her walls clench around him greedily.

"− beg − fucking beg −" He growled pounding it into her so hard that her pleasure was on the verge of pain − she cried out loudly sensing that a few more of his movements and she would come, feeling that wonderful tickle in her lower abdomen every time the tip of his cock rubbed against her upper wall again.

"− please − please, husband, have mercy − fill your faithful wife −" She mewled pleadingly, despairingly, pathetically, thinking only of the fact that she wanted him to come inside her, that she wanted to feel his spend trickling down her thighs when she looked again at this insolent man.

"− faithful? − you let him touch you − your bare skin that belongs to me − fuck − you don't deserve this grace −" He mocked licking his lips loudly, his thighs slapping against her buttocks with a loud click of her wetness with each ruthless thrust of his hips.

"− p-please − oh − oh gods, m close −" She mumbled out in delight and parted her lips in shock as a powerful wave of pleasure surged through her body again, again and again.

She clenched her eyes shut moaning shamelessly − she heard him gasp lowly, pounding into her faster, panting heavily, his cock twitching all over inside her.

"− fucking take it − take it-take it-take it −" He growled rooting it into her so hard that her throbbing walls forced him to let go and at last he filled her with himself with a sigh of relief, rocking his hips inside her for a while longer, several couples standing near them looked at them in disbelief.

She squirmed with despair when she felt him slide out of her − he tied his breeches quickly and lowered her gown with an impatient flick of his hand, covering her buttocks and thighs where his seed was trickling down. She saw out of the corner of her eye that he had moved forward, between the crowd.

She sank to the floor, panting heavily, her face hot from the exertion huddled against the cold wall, her heart pounding like mad.

She saw that those around her were looking at her and she wondered if they recognised her.

After a moment, she rose as if nothing had happened and moved towards her husband's chamber, stepping inside without a word, slipping her black gown off her shoulders, lying on his bed with only her black mask over her face, her thighs sticky from their mingled moisture.

She lay in the dim candlelight as he stepped into his chamber − her attention immediately drawn to the fact that he had no mask, his hood slipped from his head, his hands all covered in blood.

With a calm, nonchalant movement, he approached the table and undid the buckles of his cloak, dropping it to the ground, sinking his hands into a bowl of water, washing them thoroughly of the sticky red.

"Has my wife enjoyed her evening?"

"Yes, my King." She whispered softly, lying on her back, one of her legs bent at the knee swinging slightly from side to side, her hands placed on either side of her head.

"Mmm."

"I warned him that I have a husband and that I am an obedient, faithful wife. That this was the last day of his life. But he didn't listen." She whispered, looking at him with her lips slightly parted, knowing that they were both mad, that she shouldn't feel such heat at the thought that he was so sickly jealous of her.

And yet.

"Mmm, no need to fret about it anymore, my love. He will never bother you again."

_____

Aemond Taglist:

(bold means I couldn't tag you)

@its-actually-minicika @notnormalthings-blog @nikstrange @zenka69 @bellaisasleep @k-y-r-a-1 @g-cf2020 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @iiamthehybrid @tinykryptonitewerewolf @namoreno @malfoytargaryen @qyburnsghost @aemondsdelight @persephonerinyes @fan-goddess @sweethoneyblossom1 @watercolorskyy @randomdragonfires @apollonshootafar @padfooteyes

[nomsfaultau]

(Potentially) daily ask №9

Random scenarios edition!

Everyone in the fault crew suddenly turns fully human. No special abilities, no nothing. So Wilbur doesn't have the void thing anymore and has a fixed height. Tommy doesn't have the red anymore. Philza turns completely human with no ability to turn back to a dragon or a god anymore, also mortal now. Blade gets the pink hair anime girl-like fanon C!Techno design, with blood god getting a new vessel (some sword. Which is now sentient and posessed by him.) and the voices just getting wrecked along with the blood god. Tubbo gets turned human (system still stays though), and if they don't have any prosthetics then their legs get magically restored as well just cause it'd be cruel not to cause their only option would be to yk crawl. What would happen after?

Ace attorney aka the court game. Tommy's the one getting sued and the rest of the crew serve as the lawyers, and they're standing against all the prosecutors in the game at the same time for funsies. Alternatively if you don't know the characters of ace attorney, you can put Tubbo and Phil as the lawyers, Tommy as the suspect and Wilbur and Techno as the persecutors. Who would win assuming that murder and mind control isn't allowed in court?

They have to make a high school group project/presentation for whatever reason. The project is on sharks. Just different kinds of sharks. Tommy seems like the guy who'd like sharks. How well does it go?

1.Wilbur is having a CRISIS. This is everything it always longed for and refused to admit it wanted. This whole tangle of jealousy, envy, discrimination, self loathing, and now it's just exploded. Wilbur's brain probably breaks for awhile, doesn't know how to handle being very suddenly confronted with his self deception. Wildly running hope and hatred in nearly equal measures. I don't think it would ever get over the oppression at the hands of humans even once it had privileged.

Techno is also having a crisis for funnier reasons, since bruhh he's a bishōnen now?? Where's the muscle? Where's the FAT?? He's utterly baffled with how weak and tiny he is. Really likes how small his metabolism is now tho, since he has to put in wayyy less effort given he needs like 2% of the calorie intake he used to have (rough estimate I've done a lot of math over how much this man needs to eat but can't recall atm). And he has fingers. Like proper fingers!! He can TOUCH AND FEEL THINGS. And COMPLETE BODILY AUTONOMY! Take THAT! Meanwhile The Blood God is desperately trying to get the sword destroyed so that it can escape and get a better vessel because it did NOT agree to this! ...but also wouldn't kill you, because The Blood God's relationship to The Blade was not what it'd hoped it'd be.

I'm going to say Tubbo has prosthetics now since instant magic healing without consent has a history of uh connotations. Plus now they can actually go to a hospital and get proper prosthetics, although probably not without a lot of medical hassle. I don't think Tubbo would actually know how to move their body like at all? Since their previous method of movement was so alien from muscles. The human Hive members would help in that sense, and probably front a lot for awhile while Tubbo tries to figure that out since they don't know how to speak or eat or

Philza is having a panic attack on the floor because he's not immortal anymore and that is a LOT to deal with for a man who is ~4 billion years old. He's probably going to handle this the worst of everyone. Also shaken deeply by the fact he'll die before his children do, unable to protect them. That he has to pay mind to pain now, not just push past for the sake of his Collected. Philza is...probably not going to ever recover tbh. He's familiar with grieving for others, but never for himself.

Tommy is psyched as hell and hugging everyone. Pretty similar to the bracelet ask. Plus now the Foundation has no reason to study him, right? ...right? (the Foundation will be going insane about this new development, and will probably have a very easy time capturing them now. Everyone would be released afterwards....but probably amnesticized to hell and back.)

2. I have ~some familiarity with Ace Attorney, given Mandatory Family Reunion turns into a surprise crossover with it for like two chapters. Turns out Edgeworth and Quackity are PEAK comedy duo. ...And technically Tommy does go on trial in Fault, though it's halfway between that and a confessional with Rhodes acting as judge jury and...not executioner, since that was Tommy's job in the Foundation 😬. I think Tommy would be terrible on stand, and at some point just start cussing Edgeworth out. I imagine 'muffin' censorship would pop up like hold it and objection bubbles. Tubbo is tearing their hair out because the ace attorney system is NOTHING like an actual court room and Rhodes is really enraged at the injustice of it. I think Wilbur could have fun on the investigation side of things, and Philza could be the teen anime girl sidekick of the week whose random anecdotes about old immortal stuff helps solve the case. The Blade only believes in the second amendment so he's probably just eating popcorn and plans to break out Tommy when he inevitably loses. Because well the guys and flies would certainly try but the ace attorney courts are hellish. Franziska's whip probably got ate by Wilbur, which is good before it triggered The Blood God. Tubbos' near omnipresence could probably really prove how corrupt Debeste is. Manfred Von Karma....'s body turns up in a dirty alley oh noooo welp can't be helped it happened outside the court 🤷

3. Tommy declares himself the group leader and tries to boss everyone around to some success, since he does have a talent for ringleading, but there's definitely a lot of bickering and teasing that are not the mark of an effective leader. Wilbur doesn't know what a school project is but will provide eldritch sharks and can probably speak Evil Shark which would involve turning his mouth into that of a sharks, which they use for demonstrations during the presentation. The Blade adores procrastinating. But also he's beaten up a shark before probably, Cali boy and all that, so bonus points for personal experience. Philza is fairly goal orientated and wants them to do well and kinda carries the group tbh. But also he mixes in historically believed myths about sharks oops. Tubbo is insanely good at multi-tasking but the dyslexia makes research more painful. Tubbo pushes for a (much needed) extension on the project deadline on the basis of disabillity accommodations and thus is the sole reason it's completed before the due date. It's not informative but it is a very entertaining project. B-

[baldursfate]

Durge x Gortash: All Comes Crashing

Introducing my Durgetash fic, inspired by Larian's original concept of Ketheric being redeemed and joining your camp to help take down the other chosen. In this fanfic, not only is Ketheric redeemed under moonrise, but so is Gortash. Your favorite baddies team up with Durge and Co. to take down Orin (who has made off with both her's and Ketheric's netherstones) and the Dead 3.

So without further ado, I present Chapter 1.

Chapter 2

The party had been split while traversing under moonrise, the cartilage and flesh twisting into a maze. Tav had become isolated from her companions, and roamed the colony in search of the motley crew. Each sphincter opened into new, unrecognizable chambers, all as hideously barren of company as the last. Intellect devourers scrambled around her, but other than the zombies she had faced no adversaries. She had tried to be discreet in her exploration given the lack of back-up.

She continued on, pulling at the clasps of a cartiligenous chest, falling backwards as it opened with a wet suction. She rifled through, hoping there was at least a spare potion or two that might come in handy. She suddenly heard voices from around the corner. She counted the foot steps, elven ears fine tuned on the breathing, the conversations, the heart beats. There were at least 4 individuals behind the veil of flesh, and although she was outnumbered, Tav prepared to attack. It wasn't until she heard, uttered in a mocking tone, the phrase "Forgive me father, for I cannot help but admire the chosen..."

Tav reached into her pocket, grasping the note. She was sure that was her handwriting, and perhaps these cultists had something to do with the post script scribbled below.

"How dreadfully romantic, and such a tragic end. I could make good coin if I sold the tale to a bard. The ladies at the brothels would faint from such angst." A woman, middle aged from the inflections of her voice, Tav noted. "Such a shame Balthazaar had to snitch to the general, no good necromancer. I was just beginning, my pet would have survived countless more vivisections. I hadn't even the chance to touch her reproductive system. I was awfully curious as to how Baahlspawn churned out such vile litters at an advanced rate. No matter, perhaps I shall get to examine Lady Orin when she meets her end. They say my pet has returned, you know." Another voice, deeper, male, resounded out from the neighboring chamber. "If your pet couldn't do her in before, what makes you think that husk would succeed this time? I'd be careful talking about the chosen like that. There are many here that vye for your position, 'mistress of souls'" "Vye, cry, die, it matters not what they do. Once I secure my pet, I shall be rewarded by the Absolute. No more conducting in this squalor. As much as I appreciate the general's assets, I do very much like to leave the viscera on the table."

At the mention of a table, a memory assaulted Tav's wrecked brain. A man with ebony hair and an easy smile. A knife piercing her abdomen as the face melted into pale skin and a maniacal grin. The sound of ribs popping as they were torn from her body. The headache, the stone table strung with carnage. Her innards without.

With a gasp, Tav was back in her mind. A pale sweat broke out across her forehead, and she knew she needed to find her friends. As she stood from the floor, her foot caught on a stray ligament, and she tumbled out into open view of the cultists. They immediately drew their weapons, and before Tav could act, she was knocked unconscious by the hilt of a blade.

[mermmarie]

The Red String of Fate

Authors Notes: So, I had been thinking about this idea for a while, and admittingly I started this ahead of OC x Canon week, but the idea fits perfectly for the Day 3 prompt: Soulmate. So please enjoy chapter 1 of my Red String of Fate fanfic featuring Donnie!

Pair: Donatello x Reader

Word Count: 2k

Rating: T?? (Although, characters depicted are adults)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Mention of blood.

||Chapter 1|| ||Chapter 2|| ||Chapter 3|| ||Chapter 4||

-----------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1: Cosmically Bound

The Red String of Fate was a fairy tale you didn’t believe in anymore. A long time ago, yes, but after so many rejections, heartbreaks and betrayals how could you now? It was silly to even consider it a possibility in the first place. Just the idea that two people could be romantically bound by some magical, crimson colored thread was ridiculous. Especially when there was a zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero three percent chance of it happening to anyone, let alone you.

While it was a fantasy you daydreamt about from time to time, you understood that it was just that; A fantasy. So, when you noticed a string of red laced around your ring finger, your first initial thought was that your head was in the clouds once more, dreaming of the impossible. However, the usual trick of closing your eyes and shaking your head of the thoughts only made the fantasies disappear, but the little red string remained. 

You straightened in your recliner, head cocking curiously as you focused your gaze on the thread. You flexed and curled your fingers, thinking that the illusion might disappear if you were to physically affect reality, but just as before, it stayed. A small gasp escaped your mouth when you lifted your hand into the air and the string extended. Following the red thread, your eyes grew wide with disbelief when it pointed out the window that was lined up next to your chair and suddenly all the dull sounds of New York were drowned out by the pounding of your heart in your ears. 

Somewhere out there in the bustling city was your soulmate. 

-----------------------------------------------------

SCANNING.

UNKNOWN PERSON NO.1

SEX: MALE

HEIGHT: 6 FT 0”

WEIGHT: 190 LBS

OBJECTS ON PERSON: SWITCH BLADE 

SCANNING.

UNKNOWN PERSON NO.2

SEX: MALE

HEIGHT: 6 FT 2”

WEIGHT: 211 LBS

OBJECTS ON PERSON: CROWBAR

SCANNING.

UNKNOWN PERSON NO.3

SEX: MALE

HEIGHT: 5 FT 9”

WEIGHT: 173 LBS

OBJECTS ON PERSON: BOX CUTTER 

Fittingly, Unknown Person No.1 had struck first, then Unknown Person No.2, but Unknown Person No.3 had decided to stay behind. Possibly a strategic tactic to fall back and assess the situation first, but it was more likely that he was just a coward. Although, his Sensei had taught him that a wise man was able to recognize when he was beaten. Unfortunately, none of them were wise. Just foolish thugs thinking they had the upper hand in the situation because it was three versus one. 

The realization came quickly to Unknown Person No.3 however when Donatello easily disarmed and knocked out his fellow associates. The whites of his eyes became more evident as the lean turtle approached him. His shoulders inching upwards and nearly touching his ears while he attempted to put on a menacing scowl, but by the way his teeth clattered against each other the front was obvious. Still, like a cornered rat, fear driven adrenaline compelled him to make a move, despite having already witnessed how that turned out for his comrades. 

Donatello effortlessly maneuvered out of the way of his first attack, and prepared himself to counter in the midst of his recuperation but faltered after having noticed something peculiar… 

As his metal staff spun between his large green digits, he saw a contrast of red on the smallest finger of his left hand. For a split second he assumed it was blood, thinking he somehow had been wounded in his scrap with the other two crooks, but there was no open gash or cut present on his hand. His eyes narrowed behind his goggles to focus his vision on the stark color and he brought his appendage closer to his view, nearly forgetting that he was in the middle of a fight until a familiar voice called out to him.

“Donnie!!” They warned and he flinched. Fear striking him when his gaze snapped to the short blade of the box cutter that was being thrust towards his face. Luckily, years of reflex training had him move just in time to avoid a critical injury, but he didn’t go unharmed. Unknown Person No.3 managed to nick him on the top of his cheek just below his left eye. Ignoring the sudden appearance of red momentarily, he turned his attention back to the thug and spun his bo into his diaphragm.

Another one of his Sensei’s lessons about ‘ never underestimating his enemies ’ and ‘ to remain focused during battle ’ echoed in the purple-coded mutants’ head and spite burned between his brows. Just as the man recovered from the air being knocked out of his lungs and he lifted his head, Donatello smacked him across the face with the tip of his staff. The man finally falling to the ground and unconscious. 

Bastard.  

Before he had time to inspect his injury, his cold-colored brother was at his side with his hands on his shoulders.

“Donnie, are you okay?” He asked, but didn’t wait for his answer. Instead, he moved his hands to his face, maneuvering it into a position where he could get a better look on the cut of his cheek. His normally, cool-blue eyes we’re blown up with a look of fear that Donatello didn’t witness often, and it had him reconsidering the severity of the attack. However, the anticipation that built in his chest subsided when Leonardo’s gaze softened. 

“Bad news; it’s gonna scar. Good news; you’ll finally match the rest of us.” He smirked. 

Donatello huffed and pulled his face out of his brothers’ hands. Pushing his goggles to the top of his head and sheathing his bo staff to his shell. 

“What happened back there, Donnie? I kind of expect Mikey to lose his head in the clouds but not you.” He pressed. 

Donatello grumbled and dropped his gaze. He could feel that his eyes wanted to wander back to his left hand, but he was almost too afraid to look. As he swung his final blow on the assailant, he caught the crimson color in his view again and recognized it for what it really was. He had heard of the ‘Red String of Fate’ as a myth. A legend, a rumor, an old wives tale. There had been some speculation of it happening to people throughout history, but no scientific proof. And Donatello wasn’t the kind of guy to believe in something without seeing it first hand for himself. 

So, if he didn’t look at it, that would mean it didn’t actually exist… Right?  

Uncertainty pulled at the corners of his lips as he extended his hand in front of his brother and splayed out his fingers. A bright red string wrapped snuggly around his smallest digit. Leonardo’s eyes widened again as he stared at the thread, but this time he looked with confusion. He brought his gaze back to him expectantly and naturally, he opened his mouth to explain.

“It’s–” He started but paused when he realized how silly it would be to speak of it out loud, let alone embarrassing… “Um–”

“The Red String of Fate.” Leonardo finished for him. 

Donatello’s brows arched with surprise. “Y–You know about the myth?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a myth now.”

“Oh. Right…” Donatello lowered his hand and his gaze fell with it. His eyes locked on the red string in deep thought. He curled and flexed his fingers, speculating that the construct might simply vanish if he were to tamper with its existence. But as he turned over his hand, the tail end of the string extended and pointed into a specific direction away from the both of them. The two cool-colored mutants straightened in attention, but stayed silent as they looked off in the distance. 

Eventually, Leonardo broke the silence with a question that had Donatello snapping his head back to him in disbelief. 

“So… We gonna go find them?” 

“ W-What?!” The lean mutant exclaimed and cringed at how his voice cracked. His cheeks immediately turning a darker shade of green. 

Leonardo couldn’t help but to smile, albeit a bit sheepishly. “Okay, the way I worded it was a little– weird. ”

“ Ya think? ”

“What I meant was, don’t you wanna– investigate a little? See who your cosmic soulmate is?” The blue clad turtle shrugged. 

“No!” He covered the red string on his hand with his other, as if that would snuff out his brother’s questionable curiosity. 

“What do you mean?--”

Donatello groaned tiredly. “I don’t even know if I believe in this!” 

“How could you not? The proof is right there!” Leonardo pointed at his hand.

Cautiously, Donatello lifted his right hand just enough for him to peak underneath it. Checking to see if the little red thread was still intertwined around his finger. It was of course and he groaned again.

“Okay… I suppose I can’t deny its legitimacy but–” He chewed on the inside of his bottom lip. 

Out of the twenty-million residents who lived in New York, fate had decided that he, a mutant ninja turtle, was to be romantically bound to another. Who they were or what they looked like, he had no clue, but statistically thinking… His ‘other’ was most likely a human being. And from his experience, most human beings didn’t react positively to the fact that he was a nearly seven-foot tall, bioengineered reptile when they first saw him. He doubted that it would be any different in this case.

Even with the literal string attached.

“I’m not ready.” He paused again before adding on quickly, “To see them yet that is.” He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and averted his gaze from his brothers’. 

Leonardo stared at him in silence, and it felt as if he was trying to burn a hole into his head. As if to get inside his mind and find out what he was really thinking. Just as it was beginning to feel like too much, he finally spoke.

“Alright.” His arms flopped against his side and he turned away from him, looking in another direction. “Let’s tie them up and head home then.” He gestured to the thugs with a cock of his head and started to walk off, but Donatello reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him from going any further. 

“Leo,” he started, but licked his bottom lip in hesitation. “Thanks… And please don’t tell Raph or Mikey. Especially Mikey.” 

An amused puff of air escaped Leonardo’s nostrils. “I won’t say anything to them, but you know Mikey’s gonna be upset when he eventually finds out. Probably cry about how it didn’t happen to him instead.” 

Donatello hummed in agreement and for a split second, he kind of wished it had happened to his orange-clad brother instead. At least then he’d be able to observe the phenomenon from the outside and record his findings on the matter if he were to experience it for himself. Normally, he didn’t mind going into things ‘ blind ’, metaphorically speaking. It was part of being a scientist, figuring things out through trial and error. But with this kind of subject? He’d prefer to have some knowledge on how to go about it. Unfortunately, he was on his own. 

Turning to follow his brother, Donatello took one last look in the direction the red string pointed off to and wondered if you were having the same troubling thoughts? Then, the idea of you looking for him crossed his mind and it pushed his focus back to the round up. The last thing he wanted was for you to find him in the middle of the night, amongst bodies of thugs, and with a bloodied face. 

[write-and-wander]

Touch: Chapter 6

Pairing:  Kylo Ren x Fem!Reader

Warnings:  Swearing, angst, and a new version of the sequels

Word count:  4.6K

Author’s note: It's time to see the truth behind Kylo's desires, and to meet the others! P.S. Enjoy a little indulgence in a moment with Poe Dameron, just to spice it up a bit here :)

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)

Chapter 6: Fate's Blade

The following few months had come and gone in a bit of a blur.  Like clockwork, you would go through your daily routine, and on every fifth day you would stop by Coruscant to drop off the ship’s tracker before heading to Ahch-To for training with Luke.  After a long day of rigorous training, getting the most out of your time together, you would stop by Coruscant again before getting back to wherever the Finalizer had traveled and heading straight to bed.  In between your training, some days were hell in med bay with the odd failed battle or various attacks from the Resistance, while other days were oddly quiet; and in the midst of all of them, Kylo would make more consistent appearances.  You would find yourselves beginning to gravitate towards each other more often, giving in to the will of the force that would stop at nothing to draw the two of you ever closer. 

Despite the routine you had settled into and being satisfied with the progress you had been making through it, every once in a while you would have a day that strayed from the usual path.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••  

You woke up slowly in the morning, your body aching from the long day before. You had been sent out for on-site care, as the Finalizer was close to the battlegrounds and it was easier to go to them than to try to bring up some of the injured. You let out a yawn as you stretched, and suddenly noticed you could feel another body weighing down the opposite side of your bed. Turning, you saw Kylo asleep beside you.  You sat up immediately, panic setting in.  For a moment, you wondered if something had happened that you didn’t remember. However, having just returned to the Finalizer the night before, you knew that wasn’t the case. 

“Kylo?”  You asked quietly, nervous to wake up the Commander.  You were met with no response.  He was sound asleep, his slow breathing still even.  Having adjusted to whatever this phenomenon was, you knew it would fade eventually, and instead got yourself ready for the day.  At one point, you thought you heard your name, but when you returned to your bed to look, Kylo was gone.  With a sigh of relief, you finished getting ready to go and took off to Coruscant.

The focus of your training that day was listening to the force- and not just in a meditative state or in combat, but in every moment.  The force- being the very essence of life and the animated energy of the universe- could guide you at any time, and if you could hear and listen to the force in the simple and quiet moments, then it would be a much stronger guide in more high-stakes moments.  Thankfully, that meant it wouldn’t be as exhausting or as long of a training day as you had grown accustomed to- though, it was just as tedious.  Despite the fact that Luke was patient and gentle in his training, he was also precise, and would not be finished with a session until he was satisfied with your proficiency. 

Upon reaching the conclusion of your training session, you decided to take an extra trip with your spare time and stop by Tatooine to visit the house of your recently discovered grandfather, Obi-Wan Kenobi.  You had been there before, when Kylo had a tantrum looking for something there, but you wanted to revisit now that you knew your connection to the place.  Before leaving Ahch-To, as you made it back up to your ship, your eyes drifted to the pile of weathered pieces of glass and stone left behind after Luke destroyed the pyramid you had.  With a soft smile to yourself, you thought about Luke’s advice to, “seek opportunities to invite the force in,” and closed your eyes, thinking about the object.  The moment you reached out to the force, it was dark- uncomfortably dark.  The black abyss whispered to you with voices you didn’t recognize, only having heard them once before; not the comforting hum of the light, but the sharp hiss of darkness.  You decided to push forward regardless, focusing on what you remember the object to look like, and reached into the thick shadows before you.  Feeling around, your hands grazed cold stone.  Reaching further down, you managed to grasp what feels like the pyramid, whole again.  The darkness began to crawl up your arms, the whispers growing in volume and dissonance as you grasped the object.  You took a deep breath in an attempt to quell the fear growing in the pit of your stomach and managed to pull it out, needing more strength than you thought you should, watching as the shadows retracted away from you.  In your hand was the pyramid, whole again.  You opened your eyes to see that the reality matched your vision as you held the repaired object.  Looking at it now, a small red light glowed in the center.  This one was different, somehow.  You had a feeling this is how the pyramid originally was, before Luke and Doron made changes to it.  You looked over to the cliffside to see the grass clean of all shrapnel.  Yes! You thought, celebrating the pay-off of the risk.

As you stuck the pyramid in your bag, you saw flashes of a dark planet.  Thunder roared overhead as winds kicked up the dust of the dead, flat earth.  There was a dark presence, stronger than you had ever sensed before.  The images faded just as fast as they came on, thankfully.  You let go of the pyramid in a bit of a panic, feeling the weight drop in the bottom of your bag, and took off to Tatooine.

Landing in front of the old abandoned home, you felt lighter than you had expected.  You were at peace here- like this place was always meant for rest and security.  You wandered the halls and allowed your hand to drag against the wall, the white dust gathering on your fingertips and swirling in the almost-still air before settling on the ground below.  You saw visions of the past again- an ability gifted to you by the force that you’ve finally started to grow used to- seeing Obi-Wan in his younger and older years, watching Luke and Doron play, and seeing a young, bright-eyed Luke learn of his past for the first time.  This home was filled with your family, and you were glad to be present in that for a while. 

After some time there, the sun began to approach the horizon, and you decided to grab some food from a nearby market before heading home, just to see what kind of things your grandfather and mentor had grown up with.  You walked through the market, struggling to find something that looked appetizing amidst the podracer parts and other goods of questionable origin.  At the same time, you pointedly kept an eye out for any bounty hunters or other sinister characters to ensure you’d make it back to your ship in one piece, as you knew these cities weren't the safest places to be.  Finding something to eat, you packed it up in your bag and quickly began to make your way out before someone appeared out of a nearby alleyway and grabbed your arm.

“Hey, Kenobi.”

You stopped, pulling over to the side, not wanting to draw attention to yourself or cause a scene.  However, your hands clenched into fists, prepared to put up a fight and make a quick escape if need be.  More importantly, you thought of the newly-reconstructed device in your bag, and hoped that he wasn’t after it.  “How do you know who I am?”

“I’m just here to tell you that you have friends who can help you,” he said as he glanced down at the crystal you had worn around your neck for as long as you could remember.  It seemed like he might’ve recognized it.

You looked at the man’s face, skeptical of whatever it was he was trying to sell- or, worse, take.  Admittedly, he was charming.  His dark features made for a handsome face, complete with dark eyes that sparkled with a sense of excitement.  He scratched his stubbled chin as you spoke again.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Yeah, that was intentional,” he quipped, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper with coordinates written on it.  “Take this.”

You obliged, grabbing the piece of paper and palming it swiftly as you also reached for his dusty green cloak, pulling it back so you could look for anything that could possibly identify him.  Beneath the cloak was a unique leather jacket, well-worn-

“Hey, hey, hey,” he interjected, pulling his cloak closed, “let’s save that for another night, yeah?”  He flirted with a wink.  You stared back at him, struggling to keep up with whatever this interaction was.

“What do you want?” You hissed, grabbing his cloak to pull him close.

“Nothing!” He said immediately, putting a hand up in defense.  “Well, no- I mean, we want you, but only come when you’re willing.”

You loosened your grip as the last word- “willing-” fell from his lips; an all too familiar phrase.  Maybe he knew Luke, or someone close to him-

“Patrol’s coming, kiss me,” he whispered in haste.

“What-” You whispered back, not quite registering what he meant.

“Just- okay-” he cut you off, pulling you into him and pressing his lips against yours.

You stood still, stunned.  But before you could even think to move, he pulled away.  You heard a lower voice scoff- a grossed-out passerby, clearly antsy to move on with his day followed by a few sets of footsteps walking past.

“Sorry, I just- Ow!” He cried out as you dug the heel of your heavy walking boots into his toes. 

“I’ll think about it,” you said as you lifted your foot, “but that kiss doesn’t help your case, you know.”  You turned on your heel to walk away.

“No, I was just-“ he tried, but realized you weren’t turning back around for him as you continued walking.  “Oh, never mind,” he mumbled, taking off in the other direction.

Stopping in Coruscant, you decided to hide the pyramid back in the false panel in your home, nervous to take it out with you again after the interaction you just had.  With a moment to collect yourself and to hide the newly acquired coordinates amongst your things, you returned to the Finalizer.

On your way back, you thought about that kiss for longer than you would have liked to admit.  It wasn’t your worst kiss, but definitely wasn’t the best either; it wasn’t really anything notable, in all honesty.  But you wished it would have been someone else-

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••  

“Hey,” Luke calls out.  Hearing your mentor say your name is what finally pulls you out of your thoughts. 

“Sorry,” you mumble, refocusing your mind on the task at hand.

“We don’t have to train today if-”

“No, no, I need to.  There’s just a lot on my mind.”  You’re being generous, sure, but you definitely don’t want to talk about the things you’re thinking about.

“Leave it behind,” he reminds you.  You nod, thankful that he doesn’t push any further. 

“Okay,” you say with a deep breath, “I’m ready.”

“Here,” he says, holding out two lightsabers in his hands.  One, you recognize- it was the saber you had brought to him when you first met.  The other was unfamiliar. 

You look up at him, silently questioning if you should take them.  He nods.  You take both.

“Interesting choice,” he says, one eyebrow raised.  You realize he expected you to choose one; but both seemed to call to you.

“I should seek perfect balance, right?”  You ask, feeling the weight of both sabers in your hands.  At the same time, you can almost feel the force dancing between the two weapons- a dance between light and dark, like a passionate duel.  Luke nods, a small smile growing on his face.  “These blades balance each other out.”

“The force tell you that, too?” He asks, poking fun at your recent affinity for attributing most of your knowledge to the force.

“No.  It shows me.”  As you focus on the blades, the force brings visions to mind.  Training in a beautifully constructed temple.  Watching a beloved master die at the hands of a powerful warrior.  Fighting in battle after battle.  Sparring- as master and padawan.  Another padawan clashing with the blade- she, too, wielding two sabers.  Confidence.  Conflict.  Resolution.  Rebellion.  The blades clash together as a searing heat grows in the palms of your hands.  Betrayal.  Tragedy.  The vision snaps to black, and your tear-filled eyes look up to see Luke again, his hand resting on your shoulder.

“This blade belonged to my father, Anakin,” he says, looking to the saber in your left hand- the one you had recognized. “and this belonged to his mentor, Obi-Wan,” he adds as he looks to the saber in your right.  “You would make for quite the warrior, should you wield both well.”

You nod.

“One more thing,” Luke takes Obi-Wan’s saber from your hand and opens the hilt, revealing an empty canister.  “You’ll need that,” he continues, pointing to the crystal you had worn around your neck all your life.  Taking off the necklace, you unwrap the leather cord from around the crystal and place it into the saber.  Luke closes the blade and replaces it in your hand.  “Okay,” he finishes with a breath, “are you ready?”

You draw the blades from your sabers, your jaw hanging slightly in a moment of awe- I finally have my own lightsabers.

“An elegant weapon, isn’t it?” Obi-Wan’s voice echoes in your mind.

You smile to yourself and look back to Luke.

“Ready.”

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••  

You’re standing in med bay, organizing the latest shipment of bandages in one of the utility closets when Kylo enters the room, the sound of the doors opening making you jump.  Your hand moves to your chest as you catch your breath, calming yourself.  He greets you by name, his voice warped by his helmet.

“Commander,” you answer, intentional in your use of formalities in more public spaces.  You almost ask him what he’s visiting for, but you stop yourself, remembering that he would usually bring a prisoner to you around this time of the week.  It made for your least favorite days as one of the Order’s medics, but you prefer to have the chance to comfort the poor souls they took in rather than handing them off to a droid.  There’s clearly something about putting people in the hands of another living, breathing person that lifts their spirits, if even for a moment.  It also would also give you a chance to really take your time and keep them for as long as you could, allowing them a break from whatever hell Kylo and the other leaders on the ship would put them through.

Come to think of it, actually, you had yet to see Doron in med bay.  You’ve been hoping to see him ever since you found out the truth about him being your father, but you’ve heard nothing since they brought him in.

Kylo must have noticed your train of thought running away from you, as eventually he speaks up again, bringing your attention back to him.  “I notice you’ve been taking advantage of the ship.”

“I have.  Thank you.”

“What do you do on Coruscant?”

You feel your body tense at the realization that he had, in fact, been checking the ship’s tracker all this time.  You’re thankful that you’ve been careful about it.  “I enjoy being home as often as I can.”

“Was Chandrila not your home too?” he presses, clearly for a reason.  He was looking for something.

“Sure, but it’s not the same as a childhood home,” you respond, hoping that he wouldn’t continue to push.

He hums.

“Do you have anyone for me to tend to today?”

“No.  The few we had have been executed,” he answers, his tone more relaxed than you would like considering what he was saying.

Your eyes widen.  Doron.

“Is something wrong?” Kylo asks, clearly having taken notice of your reaction.

“What about-”

“The man?  Doron?”

You turn to Kylo.  That bastard knows, doesn’t he?

“Snoke ordered for his execution yesterday.”

“While I was gone?”

“Would you have preferred to watch?” He asks, almost pouring salt on the wound. You pause for a moment, horrified by his words.

“You knew,” you spat, rage boiling in the pit of your stomach.

If you could have seen under his helmet, you would see the internal conflict clear on his face.  On the one hand, he’s had yet to see you angry, and it’s beautiful to him.  It’s promising.  On the other, your attachment to Doron could mean you are, in fact, tied to the resistance.  His own anger begins to fester.  He decides to push.

“I don’t, actually,” he challenges. 

“I never saw him once!”  You threw down a bundle of wraps that you had been clutching, “What did you do to him?!”

“He-”

“No, what did you do to my father?!”  The question slipped out of your mouth before you could stop it.  His demeanor shifts.  Shit.

“You are with the resistance?” he asks, almost growling in a tone lower than you’ve ever heard.

“Kylo!” You scream, pushing him hard.  His back slams into the wall behind him.  The doors begin to open- likely troopers trying to come in and subdue you- but Kylo lifts his hand to hold them shut.

“I granted him a swift death- much more than any of those animals deserve.”

“Animal?!  He was-”

“Trying to ruin everything!” Kylo bellows, his figure now looming over you.  “People like them always ruin everything!  I killed him for our own good!”

Looking up at him, you realize you’ve been backed into a corner.  You try to push him away from you, but he catches your hands in his. 

He hisses your name.  “Can’t you see?”

You shake your head, feeling panic and confusion begin to set in and pierce through your own rage.

He takes his helmet off with his free hand and throws it against the wall just above your head, making you jump.  You feel his hot breath hit your face as he speaks.  “You asked why the force brought us together- this is it.  Don’t you feel that?  The power your pain gives you?”

You think on his words, helpless to do much else.  I do feel powerful.  The low hiss of dark whispers flood your mind again, cooing: ‘Good.  Let your anger drive you.  Give in to your pain.’  You pull away from the darkness, recognizing the feeling of the shadows clawing towards you, desperate to latch on.

“This is bringing you to your greater purpose,” Kylo adds, standing back so that he’s no longer leaning over you.  “We could rule the galaxy together.  Do what our grandfathers failed to do.  You and me.”  He extends his hand to you.  “Join me,” he pleads in a whisper as soft as a prayer, “please.”

As much as you desperately want to see the man you still believe was within him, at this moment, you can only see the monster who took your father from you and enjoyed it.  You shake your head, running to the doorway.  As the doors finally draw open, the troopers outside immediately draw their blasters on you.

“Let her go,” Kylo bellows from inside.  They obey, and you rush back to your quarters with tears streaming down your cheeks.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

After a few hours, you had cleaned yourself up and packed the absolute necessities.  You head to the hangar, making a point to avoid Kylo, Hux, and any other person of note that shouldn’t see you leaving right now.  Thankfully, you get to your ship without issue.  Dropping your bag off inside, you take the tracker you had grown accustomed to constantly removing and replacing, and you set it down in the stall your ship was parked in.  With it there, and with the luxury of having a ship that looks like most of the other ships in the hanger, you should be able to buy some time before anyone notices you’re really gone.  With a deep breath, you take off, staring at the coordinates written on the crumpled piece of paper in your hand.  It’s time to find these “friends.”

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Arriving at the resistance base, you're anxious.  You were riding in on a ship that clearly belonged to the First Order, following the coordinates and instructions of a man you were completely unfamiliar with, hoping that you did, in fact, have friends here willing to help.  It’s a gamble.  But, considering your other options, it’s a gamble you’re willing to take.

As you approach the base, a radio transmission comes through asking you to identify yourself.

“I was told to come here to find friends who want to help me.  I don’t know the name of the man who-”

“You don’t need to, Kenobi,” a familiar voice cuts in, “I was hoping you’d come.”

Your shoulders finally dropped as you relaxed.  Thank the force, he remembers.

When you land, your ship is immediately ushered to a different area to be repainted so as to avoid drawing any attention to the First Order’s ship residing among the resistance’s ships.  The first person to greet you as you arrive is the same man who found you on Tatooine and gave you the coordinates for this place.  You learn is name is Poe Dameron, also known as ‘the best pilot they’ve got,’ according to him. 

He takes you by the hand and walks you through the base, showing you where everything is and introducing you to just about everyone you run into on your mini tour.  You struggle to keep up with all the places and names, and he takes notice after a while, deciding to slow his pace and only point out the essentials.  At one point, as he talks, your mind begins to wander back to your first interaction with him, on Tatooine.  Does he ever think about it still?  Is it something he’s used to?  Is he going to acknowledge that it happened, or does he just want to move on from it?  Eventually, your thoughts wander back to the conversation at hand as Poe rambles on about the exciting new developments that have come along with some of the droids on base. 

At the end, Poe introduces you to his other friends, Finn and Rey, and of course, the leader of the whole operation, Leia Organa.  Though you’re quiet at first, worried about taking too much of their time- or really, not being worth the time and effort it would take to have you join the effort- you eventually warm up to your new friends.  Leia is headstrong, brilliant, and kind- like the kind of person you hope to be someday.  Finn is intuitive, selfless, and clearly very brave, based on some of the stories the others told you about him.  Rey is optimistic, tough, and confident; and her connection to the force seems to only amplify those things.  Poe fits right in, being loyal, persistent, and selfless, even if he is a little snarky sometimes.  You also eventually learn that Leia is Luke’s twin sister- after she tells you, of course, you can’t unsee it- and that Rey has been training under Luke as well, honing in on her abilities with the force.

After some time spent on the base, you grow more comfortable with the environment and with the people in it.  Rey finally asks you about your story, wondering how you ended up here.  Though hesitant, you eventually tell your friends everything.  You tell them about your relationship with Kylo, giving a summarized overview from your first interaction with him up to your last.  You tell them about your training with Luke, and your father’s ties with the Skywalkers.  You tell them about your lost memories, and your goal to get them back.

“I may be able to help with that,” Rey says, having been deep in thought for the past few minutes.  “So long as our General is willing to assist,” she adds, looking back to General Organa. 

Leia nods, “Of course.”

With a long bout of meditation, a few adjustments after multiple interruptions, and a group effort to reach out to the force for restoration, Leia and Rey help restore your memory in full.

In a moment, years of memories come flooding back into your mind.  You remember your parents, your mother falling ill and your father learning how to parent you alone.  You recall your favorite toys and the friends you had made on Coruscant.  You remember learning about the force and your strong relationship with it, starting to train at an early age.  You remember your father nervously trying to teach you how to listen to the force in all things, and how you were most interested in the force as a guide to help you care for others.  You remember the day your father left, finally connecting it to waking up the next morning, alone and confused.  While you still struggle to grapple with the pain and grief that comes with the decisions your father made, at the same time, there is a deep sense of joy and gratitude for the time you did have with your parents.  While you didn’t get to see him one last time as an adult, you could rest now that you know who your father was.

You’re given a moment on your own to process through all of your memories and gather your thoughts.  In doing so, you decide to stay with the resistance and help wherever you can.  They are the closest you have to family for the time being, they actively care more for each other than they do for accomplishing their mission, and together you can end Kylo’s reign of terror.  This is where you want to be- this is the side of history you want to be on.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

A few weeks later, you’re walking through the resistance base to find Rey and ask if she wants to train with you.  You pause in one of the hallways, hearing voices in conversation.  You step up to the door, listening in to hear them talking about a map of some sort that will guide them for the final battle.

“What was it called again?”

“A wayfinder.  It’s meant to guide Sith.”

“Like a map?”

“Yeah, sort of.  It's a pyramid, like a kind of three-dimensional guide, instead of a carving or a hologram.”

“How does a pyramid guide someone like a map?”

“Not sure…”

Their voices begin to fade as your mind immediately thinks of the stone green pyramid you’ve been holding onto all this time.  The one that first brought you to Luke, but now will clearly guide you to somewhere else.  The one that you were prepared to protect the first time you saw Poe. The one that Kylo Ren has been looking for all along.  He was right.  I am the key to finding it- because I have one of them.

You trace back through your memory and realize that it’s still sitting in the false wall in your home in Coruscant.  You can give it to the resistance, and they can finally put an end to all of this.

But first, you need to find a pilot who is both willing and able get you to Coruscant and protect you along the way.  Someone who is willing to do whatever it takes- no matter how risky- to succeed.  Someone who will know exactly where to take the wayfinder, and what to say to General Organa when it shows up on the rebel base.

You need to find Poe Dameron.

(Part 7)

[uldahstreetrat]

vague bits of writing I've started drafting for the beginning of Q'ihnn's journal if anyone is interested \o/

---

3 Sun, 4 Umbral Moon

Momodi had me helping some fresh adventurer today, a thaumaturge. Apparently she made a rather fiery entrance to the city and the Flames didn’t want her looking for work unsupervised. Most of the work was rather insignificant - handing out pretzels to guards, delivering a pumpkin, killing some coblyns, keeping some poor bastard from getting himself killed at the hands of the Blades. But parts of it were… odd. Papashan asked my help finding Lady Lilira after she had wandered off again and while it was easy enough to know she would be at the Sultantree, we were attacked by voidsent while we were there. Worse yet, this adventurer collapsed after the fight. She wasn’t hurt, it was that same stupid curse that I have. The odd visions. I saw it too, and once it would have made me collapse as well. She’s new to these. I hope they treat her kinder.

Equally troublesome was the appearance of the man named Thancred. I’ve seen him around on occasion and though supposedly he’s a scholar, he certainly doesn’t act the part. Frankly he seems like someone Ophianne would associate with, which is reason enough for me to be suspicious of him.

He appeared twice today, both at the Sultantree and after we were ambushed by the Blades and some strange golem. Both times the adventurer and I were struck with visions. I certainly hope he stops appearing so suddenly.

The adventurer and I are both lodged at the Quicksand for the night - while I would usually go home, Momodi insisted. I’ve never been able to tell her no. I fear I’m stuck with this thaumaturge for a while yet, and while I would prefer to keep her at arms length, as simply someone I’m handholding for the time being, it must mean more that she too is plagued by what plagues me. Perhaps I should start using her name. Allienea Shepard. A strange woman.

[moondal514]

Some fic reading numbers to wrap up 2023

(Yeah yeah I know I’ve posted a whole bunch of fic rec lists this week but this is the last one, I promise)

In 2023, I’d say my fandom habits could be summarized into this: 1) the AFTG brainrot finally eased back a bit so I could truly return to my default state of being a multi-fandom whore, 2) I went back on my bullshit of reading fics for fandoms I’m not in/haven’t thought about for many years, and 3) I’ve finally entered the danmei realm, years after everyone else around here lol (and if you listen carefully in the distance, you can hear the frustrated scream of my former roommate that I’ve pissed off by only just this year checking out and loving the stuff she rec’d for me to read/watch years ago lol).

In 2023, I bookmarked on ao3 1207 new fics read for 46 fandoms (though only about 850 are in my public bookmarks). The fandom I read the most for was MDZS, managing to unseat AFTG as my most read-for fandom this year, accounting for about 345 of those new bookmarks.

Below is a multi-fandom list of 10 of my favorites of all the fics I read in 2023. I limited myself to only choosing fics that are complete standalones cuz otherwise I prob wouldn’t be able to limit it to only 10.

In no particular order:

Fandom: Attack On Titan

The Means by calacreda

'He hears him say “Do not tell a soul, Levi” and wants to laugh. Tell anyone? To what end? So that others have the images that Levi now has running through his head; of grabbing hands and harness marks, hard words and soft lips, of lies upon lies upon lies in a desperate attempt to get to the truth?'

Levi begins to notice Erwin leaving HQ alone and not returning until the dead of night.

Slow-burn, pre-show Eruri.

This fic is here to commemorate the 4 days of absolute insanity in March I spent binge-reading hundreds of thousands of words by this writer despite me knowing barely anything about these characters

Fandom: Simon Snow

Where the Sand Meets the Sea by waterwings/ @amywaterwings

This is a world where magic has moved on.

Where stars fall from the sky.

Where time is less a linear progression and more a slow dance.

And where Simon and Baz start to switch places, which will—inevitably—change everything.

5th ever fic to make me cry (and 1st fic not in the AFTG fandom to make me cry, whoop), the kind of fic that really lingers with sticky fingers on the brain

Fandom: Word of Honor

Strange Pilgrims by inkmyname/ @inkmyname

“Can I have all the wine in the world?” “Yes.” “Can I have all the treasures in the ocean?” “Yes.” “Can I have all the stars in the sky?” And because it wasn’t in Zhou Zishu’s nature to deny Wen Kexing anything, he said yes. From the western mountains to the eastern seas. Some seventy years on, Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing wander together.

This fic had me chewing on drywall cuz it’s so good

Fandom: The Vinland Saga

neither sword nor crown by arahir/ @arahir

Canute does whatever he can to keep Thorfinn, though it might cost him everything.

“You want to kill me now.” The words steal his breath with their truth. Thorfinn looks at him, from under his filthy bangs, eyes piercing and bruised. Something in Canute’s chest flips over at that look, at how wounded he is. He’s broken. He’s been broken from the first moment they met, but now he’s lost even Askeladd to hold his pieces together. “But if you fight me like this, it’s not fair. You have to wait until I get stronger. Be my guard until then, and I’ll duel you, warrior to warrior.” Thorfinn’s gaze is unflinching. Canute reaches behind him and pulls the dagger from the folds of his fur-lined cloak. The blade is a part of Thorfinn, like the crown is a part of Canute, now. He hands it over, hilt first. “Or, you can kill me today. Right now, right here.”

Wouldn’t be me unless there was at least one amazing historical fiction-esque fic, from a fandom I’m technically not in, on this list

Fandom: All For the Game

If Suddenly You Forget Me by sambutwithbooks

There’s a ring in the bag they give him, along with his soiled uniform.

The blood doesn’t bother him, even if his stomach clenches as he remembers that it’s his-it's the ring on a chain that snags his attention and holds it.

A wedding ring.

----------

Fifteen years post-canon, an accident on the court wipes Neil and their life together from Andrew's memory. It takes a while for him to find his way back to it.

Made every criticism I’ve ever had of the amnesia trope die a slow and miserable death (also 4th ever fic to make me cry)

Dream clouds, ghost ground (I’ve been looking at the sky to show me where I went wrong) by Ateiluj/ @awildtei

Cass Spear deals with her son’s death, the truths that it reveals, and how it all reshapes her past with Andrew.

One of the most incredible character studies I’ve ever read across any fandom, period

nocturnal animals by animediac/ @jaywalkers

“He was an addict,” Taylor says roughly, turning away to unplug the blender. “He wouldn’t accept help and he didn’t care who he hurt with it by the end.” “He was our brother,” Abby says, sadly. “I know,” Taylor tells her. “That was the worst part." — Memory takes the graveyard shift. Abby Winfield works nights.

Absolutely devastating Abby Winfield backstory that had me curling up into a ball on the floor

Fandom: Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Tarnished Gold by Prim_the_Amazing/ @primtheamazing

Becoming emperor of the cultivation world will start with a first step as small and basic as becoming Head Disciple of Huan Hua Palace. For that, he must steal the position away from the current Head Disciple. Luo Binghe will sabotage, upstage, and completely and utterly best him.

The road to destroying everything and everyone who has ever wronged him, to becoming the highest ruler so that no one will ever have the right to control him ever again - it will start as simply as ruining Gongyi Xiao’s life.

Compared to everything else he’s already done, this should be easy.

-

Luo Binghe brings all his skills of cunning and brutality to bear on Gongyi Xiao, Head Disciple of Huan Hua Palace Sect. It… doesn’t go too well for him.

This fic had me saying “just one more chapter” long into the night until I was literally staring down the epilogue at some ungodly morning hour

Fandom: BBC Merlin

Whereat the Two Swore On the Field of Death a Deathless Love by horsecrazy/ @cbk1000

In a land of myth and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy. But not quite in the way you think. 'The Once and Future King'/Merlin mashup; now with 50% more gay.

One of the most incredible things I’ve ever read in my life, this writer is single-handedly responsible for reviving my Merthur obsession 3 years after it’s mostly died down

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi

我拿青春赌明天 / I’ll wager my youth against tomorrow by tombenough_and_continent/ @hunxi-after-hours

The dust of this mortal world cannot fall upon him—he is a strand-dancer, a weaver of time’s tapestry, dispatched by Gusu Lan’s Symphony to climb upwards into the knots and gnarls of alternate timelines and coax them towards the future in which Gusu reigns, benevolent and peaceful and supreme—the future in which Lan Wangji himself is sung into existence. He is here to change the past and deliver the future into being. It would not be wrong to call him fate. (or, This is How You Lose the Time War, but make it wangxian)

Still screaming crying throwing up over this fic cuz nothing gets me quite like a beautifully written mash-up of 2 of my fave pieces of media

-

Thank you to all you fic writers out there for getting me through another year. Cheers to a new year of more wonderful writing!

[mightybeck]

Mighty Warriors Chapter 4

Sibling Rivalry

It's been several days since Beck became a Mighty Warrior and he still couldn't stop surprising himself with his new copying abilities while his sister Keyla helped him train him with his transformations. It was time for the fight for Beck, it was going to be a quick fight. Although he didn't know who his rival would be, suddenly everything turned dark on the battlefield with a dark fog. "This is not normal," Beck said with concern and suddenly a blade came out quickly towards him but he deflected it with his Sword Arm. "Not bad for a rookie" said someone who was approaching from the fog and came out of the fog revealing his appearance, he was the same as Beck only red with his feline ears a little longer he also had a scarf only it had three points that looked like the tail of a fox but what stood out was its right technological eye "maybe we are not completely similar but we have more between us" said the rival while showing his claws similar to metal blades and suddenly threw his claws towards Beck starting the fight Beck dodged the first two blades but the last one made a cut on his cheek and the rival grabbed him tightly and slammed him hard on the ground until he broke it "wow I thought you were going to be faster than me I see that if you are a cheap copy of me" said the rival while looking at him with hatred, Beck was too injured and no one could help him since the battlefield barrier was activated but he did not give up and was able to get up although very sore "maybe I'm a rookie but I'm still trying" said Beck challenging him and the rival took out his claws again to make a lethal attack but Beck grabbed the rival's claw tightly since he had the Armstrong transformation that made him have great strength and resistance with a yellowish metallic armor and giving the rival a great strong blow. and using the Stronger Gatling Arm Gun that fires several projectiles quickly and although the rival dodged and deflected he was able to hit some, even breaking some of his claws "YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR SKILLS!!" The rival said with great anger and rushed towards Beck, scratching him fiercely with what was left of his claws but Beck gave a strong blow to his technological right eye, breaking it. The pain was extremely painful for the rival, both got up to continue fighting but the Pain and fatigue made them fall silent and the dark fog returned but it went towards the rival "this is not over brother. ." The rival said before leaving and leaving some scratches with his claws, Beck was so exhausted and stressed by what just happened especially what he said "R-ray. .?" said Beck as he saw that the scratches were actually his name and he fainted, Keyla and others went to help him and after a time of recovery Beck was fine again or so he thought since he had questions about everything from yesterday and he didn't know what to do but he knows that he must look for the answers.

To Be Continue. .

[mywittingislobotomy]

Genshin sagau impostor au

Rewritten Chapter 2. If you wish to read the original, it is lower in this post.

Beware, the original has grammer mistakes and some things are different plot wise and pasing wise.

Rosalia sighed, rubbing her templates.

Her daughter had overslept in the day of her finals.

Mia was so irresponsible...she relied on her mother to wake her up for school.

Rosalia sighed and walked towards her daughter's room to wake her.

"Mia." Rosalia called out after a second of standing in front of her door. She knocked on the door and pulled the door hinge down, opening the door.

"Mi-" The mother's breath hitched as she saw her daughter was gone....

Her laptop was on her bed with its screen glitching...

Breathing suddenly felt so heavy...

Mia could hear her heartbeat in her ears...mixing the noise of a heart beating with the noice of an ocean.

The sand between her fingers felt like razor blades, every sound sent a wave of nausea over her.

Mia just layed on the sand, trying to calm her breathing. Where was she? Was she kidnapped? No...

Mia didn't know how long she layed there but everything felt sore.

Sara was patrolling the area, carefully examining everything.

She noticed a girl laying on the sand...Perhaps a civilian was resting or maybe the woman was injured...

When she took a closer look, she noticed the girl had The Life's features...

Her black hair was covered in sand but Sara knew that was what The Life's features were.

...Was this woman impersonating The Life?

How dare her...

Sara pointed her bow at Mia, aiming but...she didn't charge her attack...and the wind blew the arrow conveniently out of trajectory and made it miss...

"Weird..."

Mia saw the arrow

....

original post after the line

__________________________________________

[1] [2](you are here) [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] ...there will be more in the future

One day Mia was playing Genshin like always but everything seemed odd. The characters seemed to hear her and somewhat react to what she was saying.

June 6th 20??

A woman was walking toward her daughter's apartment with a big present for her. She was her mother, she wanted to give her a gift for her new apartment since she had just moved out at 19 years old. As she rung her doorbell the woman couldn't help but felt proud of her daughter. She was snapped out of her thoughts when she relisted that the door was unlocked. So, she came in. No one was there. Her apartment was like abandoned.

July 8th 20??

Mia's entire family was devastated she was gone. No one investigated her disappearance even with her family's begging to do so. The authorities said that because she's over 18 she could have just left. They said. Oh, how wrong they were when overnight her entire apartment was covered with blood. Her blood.

September 10th 20??

Mia was officerly pronounced dead. Her family and friends were devastated. If they knew what had happened, they would be horrified.

(flashback)

Mia was lying in bed, playing a game called Genshin impact when she felt like she was falling whenever she closed her eyes. And so, she closed her eyes and she saw that she was falling in a tunnel but whenever she opened her eyes, she would teleport to the top of it. Curiosity got the best of her, and she kept her eyes closed so she would fall in the mysterious white light at the end of the tunnel. Her eyes got forced to open once she did but they felt heavy and so she fell. She fell on a bridge that looked like the one at the title screen of Genshin impact. She got up and she was panicking. Desperate for a way to go back she looked around and relisted that there were many, many doors. After an hour of panicking, she started to calm down. Hesitantly she started to walk towards the Genshin impact door. She touched the door, and her vision was ingulfed with a white light. Sometime later she woke up on a beach in what seemed to be Inazuma.

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 9 - Tellings of the Wheel

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Dragon fang icon)(1) In which I have complicated feelings about this extremely badass moment.

Rand dreams he's being chased across a terrible desert by Trollocs, to the point of utter exhaustion. He sees a mountain, a bleak stone spire, and calls it the source of his desolation. He feels like he knows it, though he can't place how.(2) Part of him feels drawn to the mountain, and his limbs move to bring him closer to it, until he realizes it's not his own urge, and gets angry.

A voice calls upon Rand to "serve me", and Rand swears he'd recognize the voice if it kept talking. He yells a cuss, and a face looms before him that he can't bear to look at.

A hand reaches for him, and he throws himself over the cliff, but lands on his feet in a winter-brown field of grass. He can see a mountain that inspires no negative feelings, and a city between two rivers,(3) a city from a story, white and silver and fair radiating safety. He makes his way toward it until a cold, clammy feeling comes over him, and that face reappears. He can sense the cold hand reaching for him again, touching his collar, and he knows that if those fingers touch him, he'll go mad or worse.

Suddenly he trips, and lands next to one of the bridges to the island-city refuge.

He sees a great white tower and knows that's where safety and knowledge lay, but surely it can't hurt to stay in the city a moment. He turns a corner, and sees the tower at the end of the new street. Everywhere he looks, is the tower.(4) The people around him look of despair and he knows somehow he's the one who broke their hope. As soon as he starts walking toward the tower, they all become happy again and cheer him on, dancing and making music and pushing him toward the tower.

Eventually, he finally makes it to the tower, and the Myrddraal hisses that they've been waiting for him.

Rand wakes from the nightmare to note that the fire's been tended, and wonders if naming the Dark One in a dream, as he did, will bring the same attention as naming him aloud. He blames the nightmare on his hunger and the stress of the previous day.

Tam awakens as Rand gets up to check on him, and realizes that it wasn't a dream when he sees his sword at Rand's waist. Rand catches him up on everything that's happened. Tam is skeptical of Moiraine's words, noting that Aes Sedai don't lie right out, but they can manipulate words to mislead.(5) He does agree that if Rand has to leave, it has to be done soon, but says maybe he'll catch them up on the road.

Lan comes to tell Rand to hurry, there's trouble afoot. Tam tells Rand to keep the sword, he'll likely have more use of it than Tam will. Rand rushes out after Lan, to find Moiraine being yelled at by a crowd of villagers, mainly the ones who are well known for being unhappy with anything and everything. Mayor al'Vere and Master Luhhan try to calm the crowd with reason, to little avail.

Moiraine cuts in and reminds them that they are the descendants of a great kingdom, Manetheren. She tells a tale of the bravery of its rulers, King Aemon al Caar al Thorin and his wife, Queen Eldrene ay Ellan ay Carlan, and their and their citizens. During the Trolloc Wars, Manetheren was the Dark's fiercest opponent, and their main force had just won a great distant victory when they learned that their home was under attack. They marched day and night, not stopping even to clean their blades. They made it home just before the trolloc horde bore down on their mountain kingdom home.

“The host that faced the men of Manetheren was enough to daunt the bravest heart. Ravens blackened the sky; Trollocs blackened the land. Trollocs and their human allies. Trollocs and Darkfriends in tens of tens of thousands, and Dreadlords to command. At night their cook-fires outnumbered the stars, and dawn revealed the banner of Ba’alzamon at their head. Ba’alzamon, Heart of the Dark.(6) An ancient name for the Father of Lies. The Dark One could not have been free of his prison at Shayol Ghul, for if he had been, not all the forces of humankind together could have stood against him, but there was power there. Dreadlords, and some evil that made that light-destroying banner seem no more than right and sent a chill into the souls of the men who faced it."

In the end, they were promised aid, but none came. Eventually the host fell, and Eldrene knew the moment Aemon died. In response, she channeled more than anyone can, and burned herself out to take out a significant portion of the trolloc army.(7) Moiraine tells all this, reminding the people before her that they should weep for the loss of that people to the cowards they are today.(8)

As the crowd disperses, Rand thinks to himself that this is the real beginning, leaving with Moiraine and Lan, and he has no choice except to leave, but he vows to return to Emond's Field someday.(9)

=====

(1) Who or what do you think this stands for, in this chapter? (2) Hey, we know a mountain! This doesn't sound quite like that one though. What kind of desolated place might Rand half-remember in a dream? What have we been told by reasonable authorities that the Dragon did near the end of his life? The hopelessness of this place could track with the sort of place the Dark One would be more involved in, the kind of place where one Lews Therin Telamon might take a hundred men to try to burn the DO back out of the world. (3) In the prologue, it said the creation of the mountain diverted a river, which split in two, forming an island between its two channels. I wonder if this is related. (4) Well, dream logic could mean a lot of things. But, how interesting that this tower is where safety and knowledge are, and Rand wants to go there, but as soon as it can't be escaped it becomes rather more ominous. (5) Frankly, don't trust anyone 100% at their word, but the Aes Sedai have no small bit of the Fae, or perhaps the Sidhe (note the closeness of the words), in them. There are lots of ways to leave a piece out or make something seem more important than it is, without lying, to influence the interpretation. Why, I'm doing both of those all the time in these summaries. >:D (6) Ba'alzamon sounds an awful lot like Beelzebub, doesn't it? Lord of the flies, father of lies. A fun wordplay to use. (7) Huh, that sounds a little like what happened to LTT in the prologue.

(8) Now here's where I get a bit tetchy. First, if you're not reading or rereading with me, I gotta tell you to go read (or listen to) this speech for yourself, it's worth it. See, this is an unbelievably powerful speech. Don't get me wrong, it's utterly iconic. The audiobook is narrated, in this chapter, by Michael Kramer because it's from Rand's point of view, but there exists out there a narration of this speech by Kate Reading, who does the women's POVs when they come in. (It's barely a spoiler to tell you the audiobook casting, right?) Anyway, she read the Manetheren speech once, and it's one of the most moving readings of the series IMO, and I know all that's coming. But, I have a "but". I think it's a bit rich that this stranger knows their history, while the only remnants they have are a few place names that have themselves morphed over the years, and a cultural stubbornness. It's part of the point being made, but I wonder at how differently it could've been handled to not seem like this white lady walking into a rural brown town (for have you noticed how much redhead Rand stands out with his grey eyes? though skin colour hasn't been mentioned, it's not a far stretch) and wagging her finger at them for not knowing their own history, as if everyone outside does or something. (9) Oh, Rand, you really don't know the hero's journey, do you? You can never really go home again. You can visit the place, but you and it will both have changed in your absence, so much sometimes that the place is uncannily unrecognizable from what your memory held. The journey has already begun, and I love this little knife to the heart.

[hasquetzorkukudoneanythingwrong]

Pesadilla Navidad (part 5)

(Part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

Rex, Nota, and Quetz found themselves in the singularity that had popped up. "This is kinda nightmarish!" Nota stated upon their arrival.

Suddenly Da Vinci got into contact with the three. "Hey you three! I see the rayshift went well! But it seems we have to rayshift one more thing to the cousins!"

Rex and Nota were a bit confused at that. "What are you going to rayshift to us?" Rex asked.

Suddenly out of nowhere in a flash of light, a whole Sleigh with what looked to be Raptors attached came in in front of them! "It's your Santa Sleigh!" Coyolxauhqui said out of nowhere on the communicator.

"You got a Santa Sleigh pulled by Tzitzimitl???" Quetz asked in shock.

"Now's not the time!" Nota exclaimed back. "We've got Santas to Save" as she entered the Sleigh.

The trio were no airborne with a decent view of the landscape around them. "Da Vinci! Can you tell where the other Santas are?!" Quetz asked on the communicator.

"I can see Artoria Alter's saint graph over by what looks to be a river?" Da Vinci answered.

"Any river in a place like this can't be good!" Nota said as she directed the Sleigh towards the location.

By the aforementioned river, Artoria Alter, who seems to be missing Excalibur Morgan, is seen avoiding the attacks of a mysterious faceless being with what seems to be a very large Staff. The staff wielding would sometimes stab their weapon into a small portal, and a corresponding giant blade would come out of a larger portal near Artoria Alter.

The crew land on the other side of the river. "Alter! We're here!" Nota shouts towards the currently in peril Rider.

"Finally!" The annoyed Rider yelled out. "I've been avoiding this daft cunt's stupid attacks for too bloody long!"

The being turns towards the group and starts to attack them too. Launching powerful Magical attacks in an attempt to kill the group.

"Okay, time to test our new Santa powers!" Nota yelled out.

"Wait what?!" Alter questioned.

"Don't worry about it!" Rex said. Suddenly in his hands, he managed to summon a Jade green staff in the shape of a tuning fork. "Oh shit!"

"Isn't that Chalchiuhtlicue's?!" Quetz questioned.

"Maybe!" Rex says, he waves the staff towards the enemy, and a torrent of water rises from below them.

"Okay my turn!" Nota yells out. Leaping into the air, she pulls out a huge Macuahuitl, imbued with lightning. "Oh holy shit!" Immediately she slams it against the enemy and combined with the water already there, zaps them to hell!

"That was Tlaloc's weapon!" Quetz pointed out.

Nota's zap seemed to do the job thankfully. The enemy is destroyed, only to reveal Alter's weapon: Excalibur Morgan.

"Finally!" She takes her sword back. "Been annoying not being able to use this. Not that I'm dependent on it, but she was so overwhelming it was hard to do much more then avoid her attacks."

Da Vinci contacted the group again. "Oh good! You got Alter! We've got Santa Lily's location! If you could hurry it over, and save her too!"

"Not a moment's rest, huh?" Nota comments.

"To the sleigh!" Rex exclaims. The group, now one member bigger, run to the cousins' sleigh.

"Are those bloody dinosaurs attached to the sleigh?!" Alter asks when she sees the Tzitzimitl.

"Don't worry too much about it." Nota tell the original Santa servant.

The Sleigh rises into the air, flying towards the next location. "Santa Lily seems to be stuck in a deep crevice past the large mountains east of your location!" Da Vinci tells the group.

"She's likely also under unarmed and under attack." Alter tell the group.

"Do you know who's the cause of this singularity?" Quetz asked Alter.

"Oh I've seen them! And they seem to be a big fan of yours!" She tells Quetz.

"Wait wha-" Quetz was starting to say before being interrupted.

"There she is!" Nota yells out, seeing Santa Lily in the crevice.

The group lands in the crevice, seeing Santa Lily trying to avoid attacks from another faceless being. This one in a large cloak, creating seemingly eldritch minions to attack the smaller Santa.

"Ok this is pretty familiar" Nota commented on the appearance of the enemies.

The small enemies immediately also converge on the group as they entered. Alter and Quetz start to fight off the enemies. "Amor! Nota! We'll hold them off! You fight their boss!" Quetz yelled to the cousins.

"We'll do our best, corazon!" Rex yells back.

The two run towards the faceless enemy. All of a sudden, Nota's hands grow huge obsidian blade claws. Meanwhile, Rex's mouth started to leak a dark black void like energy. Both were confused, but tried to adapt to these interesting abilities.

Rex blasts the enemy with the void energy, like a dragon blasting flames. Nota meanwhile, slashes at them with her newfound claws. She manages to pierce right through their chest, killing them. The enemy falls apart, to reveal Santa Lily's spear.

Meanwhile, with the others the enemies they were fighting off also fall apart. "Yay! Reindeer saved us!" Santa Lily cheered.

"Not reindeer anymore." Alter told her. "Their true Santas now."

She gasps at this revelation. "Wow! Masters are Santas too!"

Da Vinci comes on the communicator once again. "Sorry to interrupt, but there's still two more Santas to save!" She explains, urgently. "Altera is in the forest towards the south end of the singularity!" She tells them.

The group runs back to the Sleigh, Lily also surprised by the dinosaurs attached to it. "Are those the new reindeer?! I think I proffered when you two were the reindeer." She tells the cousins.

"Sorry about that! But these guys work really well!" Rex tells her.

They get onto the sleigh and head towards Altera's location. Quetz then took the time to bring back the subject about who's responsible for the singularity. "So you were saying, Alter? Something about whoever is doing this being a fan of mine?!" She asks.

"For some reason, they claim that you alone are the true Santa servant!" Alter explains.

"Yeah!" Lily adds in. "Even when any of us tried to explain it changes every year, she still claimed it's only ever been you!"

"Why would they say that?" Quetz questions. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"I see Altera!" Nota exclaims, pointing down from where they were.

Down in a forest, they see Altera being assaulted by a warrior looking being, wielding what is definitely Altera's own sword against her.

Altera is mostly managing to avoid it's attacks, before getting unlucky and tripping. "Ow!" Falling defenseless.

As the warrior being raises the sword to attack, before it gets blocked by Excalibur Morgan. "You're not getting to her, ya daft bastard!" Alter yells out.

Alter is able to hold back the warrior with her sword. "Lily! Now!" Alter yells out.

Suddenly Lily leaps out from behind the warrior, stabbing the warrior with her spear! "Take that!"

The warrior tries to attack Lily, but she turns and runs and calls out "Miss Sun! Your turn!"

Suddenly a huge fireball hits the warrior from behind once again. "Over here, Pendejo!" Quetz yells out.

Then underneath the warrior, the ground shakes and suddenly a huge stone pillar bursts out and launches the warrior into the air. "Ha!" Nota yells out. "Your turn primo!"

Then Rex leaps into the air, with a Caiman tail, slapping the warrior down into the ground with it.

With the warrior on the ground, Altera runs and takes back her weapon. Before stabbing it into the warrior's heart.

"Finally! I didn't think I could keep up anymore." Altera says. "Thank you all for coming to my aid!"

"No problem, Altera!" Rex tells her.

Altera then notices the cousins' outfits. "Oh? Are you two Santa this year?" She asks.

The two were a bit taken aback by how casual she is about it. "Oh! Uh yeah!" Nota said. "We are this Year's Santa."

"Oh that's fun! I wish you the best in completing the job this year!" She tells the pair.

"Thank you, Altera!" Rex says. "That means a lot."

The communicator comes on once again. "We're at the home stretch everyone! I've got Nightingale's location! She's in a desert at the most northern part of the singularity!" Da Vinci explains to the group.

"To the sleigh!" Nota yells out.

The group runs back towards the sleigh. Getting inside and flying towards the sky to get to Nightingale. "Oh what fun Reindeer you two have!" Altera exclaims. "I was wondering who would be your reindeer, since you're normally the reindeer."

As they flew towards the final rescue, Quetz has more questions for the Santas. "Altera! What have you seen of the one responsible for this?! What Alter and Lily have told me so far is confusing!" She questions.

"Oh yes! For some reason she'll only recognize you as Santa!" She mentions.

"But why?! I don't understand!" Quetz responds.

"Hmmm" Altera starts to ponder, staring at Quetz's eyes.

"Uh… Altera?" She questions.

Altera then looked at Rex, lifting his hat off his head for a little bit. "Altera? What are you doing?" He questions.

"She had hair kind of like master Rex's and eyes like yours." Altera tells Quetz.

"Oh really?" Rex asks.

"I see the desert!" Nota calls out.

The group looks down, and witnesses Nightingale in the desert, down on all fours, Clearly weak. "Nightingale!!!" The group yells out.

They land in the desert, and see a haunting figure riding atop a steed of their own. Towering over Nightingale, but not outright attacking her. She's seen coughing, and wheezing. Probably the weakest the group has ever seen a servant.

"She's filled with curses!" Quetz notices.

"But she's still alive! All those curses, I would've figured she'd expire by now." Altera states.

"It might be keeping her alive to curse, but we'll handle it!" Nota says.

As they run towards the haunting rider, the phantom rides towards them aswell, holding a deadly looking spear. Suddenly, most of the team starts coughing and wheezing too. Quetz is mostly resisting, and the cousins seem decent aswell.

"What's going on?!" Nota asks.

"The rider's very presence must be afflicting us with curses!" Quetz says. "I've got good resistance, and you two must have it too!"

"So how do we stop it?!" Rex questions.

"I've noticed you two have the abilities of some other gods, maybe you have healing powers too?!" Quetz asks.

The two have a realization.

"Tlazolteotl!" Rex says.

"Mayahuel!" Nota remarks.

The two are able to heal the group with healing mists coming from their hands. It not only reinvigorates the group, but now has the Rider feeling weak. "It has the opposite effect on them!" Nota exclaims.

"Good!" Alter yells. "Now I can kill it!"

She then prepares her weapon. "EXCALIBUR, MORGAN!!!!!"

The wave of energy destroys the rider, and reveals Nightingale's umbrella gun. She picks it back up, as she starts to feel much better. "Thank you, you all. You have my gratitude." She says to the group. But then she looks at the cousins with a not so happy look. "You two! You are the ones who took the Santa Grail! I told you it'd be too dangerous for humans to be Santa!"

The two were definitely guilty and didn't deny it. "We know! And we're sorry! But we really wanted to be Santa, and were tired of being just the reindeer!" Nota tries to explain.

"It's still not right how we went about it, and what some of our 'helpers' did definitely wasn't what we had in mind but that doesn't excuse what's happened and we're sorry." Rex also adds.

Nightingale sighs before telling them. "Well you two are apologetic enough. And seem to be handling things well, so for now it's fine. Besides, we still have to deal with the singularity.

Suddenly the very earth shakes and a loud yell echoes out throughout the entirety of the singularity.

The communicator comes in one more time. "Everyone! The big boss is here! She seems to be at the very center of this singularity mess!" Da Vinci tells everyone.

"Well that should be easy enough!" Quetz states.

The group gets on the sleigh, heading towards the center. "What an interesting sleigh" Nightingale adds.

"Nightingale! Can you tell me anything you may know about the one causing this?!" Quetz questions.

"I think I actually know why she's doing this." Nightingale tells her. "But I think it's best you see for yourself."

As they reach the center, a shadowy arena is seen. "I think that's our destination!" Rex says.

They land the sleigh right inside the arena, all getting out. Ready to face whoever comes.

Suddenly, as the earth shakes a mountainous figure rises, mostly covered in shadows but with some parts revealed. Blood red skeletal arms, a half-skull face, obsidian black hair that matched Rex's. Jade green eyes like Quetz's, a huge hammer in her hands, and behind her rose out two ginormous wings! She stood more then 10 stories tall, seeming ready to attack the group.

As everyone prepares to attack, and the figure raises her hammer in the air, she seems to take a second look at everyone and seems shocked! "W-wait! Why are you two here?!" She says in a surprisingly normal sounding voice.

Everyone seems surprised to hear her say that. "W-wait! Who do you mean?" Rex asks.

Suddenly the figures shrinks down into a much smaller form. Now looking like a normal human girl in a hoodie, glasses and her same hair and green eyes. "M-mama! Papa!" She says out loud!

Almost everyone is surprised to hear her say that! But Rex and Quetz specifically kinda piece it together. "D-do you mean us?" Quetz asks, while motioning towards both her and Rex.

The girl nods, while walking closer towards them. Tho seeming nervous the whole time. "I was mad at the people trying to steal your role as Santa, mama."

Quetz walks up to the young girl. "Tell me your name, Mija." She says.

"M-Maria" She answers.

"Maria, why do you think I'm the only Santa?" Quetz asks her apparent daughter.

"Well, growing up, it was always you giving us our presents! Every year on Christmas me and Ed would get the nicest presents from you as Santa!" She tells her mother.

"Ed? Is that your brother?" Rex asks.

"Ah! Yes! Eduardo." Mari tells her father.

"Makes sense that's his name." Rex says.

"Oh, well Mija. That maybe the case in the future, but here in Chaldea I only did it one time. Others have come before and after me! They're not stealing the role at all! Even this year, your father and aunt have the role! Would you attack them for doing that?" Quetz explains to her daughter.

Maria was surprised to hear that. "You're Santa too, Papa?" She asks.

"Si! But like your mother says, just this year. Then someone else will be Santa." He explains. "No one's stealing it from anyone."

Maria felt shame, and lowered her head when she heard that. "S-sorry I did this." She told them. "I hadn't known…"

The two parents went and hugged their daughter. "Aw, it's okay dear!" Quetz says.

"This is a big misunderstanding, but everyone males mistakes!" Rex tells her. "This was…. Quite a big one, but so long as you know better now."

"But you should probably at least apologize to the ones you attacked." Quetz tells her.

She walks towards the other Santas. "I don't expect you guys to forgive me. What I did was way too far. But I felt, betrayed, somewhat. In my time some of you are like family, so when I assumed you guys took the role of Santa… it felt like a great betrayal." She tells the group.

"I didn't know it was a role passed to others. And what I did was far more cruel then I should've been doing." She continues. "I'm sorry for what you all went through. I shouldn't have done any of that"

"Well, I understand that feeling of betrayal." Alter tells her. "To think close family would do such a thing, must've hurt."

"And I don't think you were thinking right either." Altera adds. "You seemed far more angry then you are now."

"It's ok, sun daughter!" Lily says. "My sister does a lot of scary things too! It's not that bad for us servants!"

"And I think you can help make up for it, if you did something for us." Nightingale tells her.

"What would that be?!" Maria asks.

The group of Santas motion towards the cousins behind her. She then looks back towards her aunt, and father.

"Can you help me and your father deliver presents for the holiday?" Nota asks.

Maria's eyes lit up! "I'd love to!!!" She yells out!

"Well let's get on the Sleigh together!" Rex tells her.

Maria excitedly runs into the sleigh, with her parents and the rest of the group joining in too.

"Ready?!" Rex asks his daughter, as he gives her his Santa hat.

"READY!!!" She answers back.

"Here we go!!!" Nota says, as she gets the sleigh going!

As they fly through the night, the singularity falls apart, as they fly to deliver presents to everybody on this Christmas night!

A/N: and we're done!!! Hope you all liked the Christmas story! Hopefully the end was satisfying!!!

Tags!

@madillhethen @hikikomuridesuuu @hasbbdoneanythingwrong @hasarjunadoneanythingwrong @hasspartacusdoneanythingwrong @haskamadoneanythingwrong @littleminxthings @syracusemoon