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staytinyville · 6 months ago

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Burn It (Pt. 1)

↣ Summary: You were only a decoy for all those who wanted your family off the throne. The real leader was your horrible sister who ruled with fear in their subjects. You only did what was told of you and if others came to assassinate you then so be it.

↣ Characters/Pairing: Eventual!Min Yoongi x Reader, Slight Namjoon x Reader,

↣ Genre: Historical, Mature

↣ AU/Trope info: Historical!au, Queen!Reader, Rebel!Yoongi,

↣ Word Count: 6.1k

↣ Warnings: Abuse, Toxic household,

↣ A/N: Honestly I always get inspired by all the historical stories on here and I just really wanted to sit my ass down to write. Part two might just have smut y’all so tell me if you want lmao. Also can you please tell me what you guys think of my writing? I don’t know I want to publish sometime soon but like if I suck at writing why bother.

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You usually slept on your back, worried about the day someone came into your room to do something. It was all you ever thought about the moment you were told why your parents truly made you the queen.

You weren’t a light sleeper by any means, so you knew the moment someone stepped into your room something was going to happen. It wasn’t one of your guards who would announce their presence or even your family who you knew the staff would call out to you the moment they slammed the door open.

You didn’t dare to move. Not when you could hear their steps in the room that were clearly trying to be quiet. Anyone who wasn’t trained to listen in to their surroundings were bound to be caught off guard by whoever it was. However after spending the last few years in fear of being killed in your sleep you taught yourself to pick up on the smallest of things.

You felt them reach the side of your bed, but still you didn’t move. You took in a deep breath, waiting for them to strike. When you made to move your body just the tiniest of bits, your eyes flew wide open at the person who suddenly had you pinned to your bed–a sharp blade placed against your throat.

You swallowed softly, looking up into the face of your assassin. The light from outside the room was barely enough, but you could make out the scar that ran along the right side of his face. His cheeks that look round. The band that was tied against his forehead. The blonde hair that was neatly wrapped in a bun.

You didn’t make a sound though, only allowing your eyes to follow along his face. You could tell that after a moment, he began to grow confused, his eyebrows pulling together and head tilting to the side.

You made no show of trying to fight him off. You didn’t even breathe harshly. Instead he watched as your eyes scanned over his face, eyes glittering in the moonlight that showed through the curtains. It left him baffled as you kept an even expression to it all.

“Why aren't you terrified?” He asked, clenching the blade’s handle.

“There are things more terrifying than death.” You whispered, catching his attention.

There was a sad expression behind your eyes. He could see it hidden behind your facade. He almost faltered when he came to the realization that you were waiting for him to move the knife. But his resolve came back, quickly shaking his head to clear it.

“Then you should be thankful.” He sneered.

He pressed the knife deep just barely breaking the skin. But he stopped completely when all you did was fall limply and close your eyes. His breath got caught in his throat, feeling conflicted over the way you were acting.

He was told about how much of a tyrant the queen was. How she would strike at anyone who dared to even breathe in her direction. She was cruel and followed in her parents footsteps of ruling the kingdom with fear. Those who worked in the castle that were part of the rebellion had all said she was an emotionless person who didn’t even bother to look at when someone was being punished, not bothering to spare them her time.

She was a menace, someone who didn’t deserve to be on the throne. But yet, here she was under his grip awaiting death to come to her without so much as a fight. She was hiding things behind her eyes that would be released come death. But Yoongi didn’t feel it in his heart to kill someone like that. Someone who was willing to give up their life for something haunting them.

He couldn’t stand to see others that way. Not when he had been there before.

You felt the blade lose its pressure, opening your eyes to look at him once again. “What are you doing?” You asked.

“Are you questioning me when I have a knife to your neck?” He sneered, pressing the knife back to you.

“I thought you were going to—”

“Quiet.” He growled, slamming a fist into the pillow next to you.

“Why aren't you calling for help?” He asked, moving to hover above you, his knife next to your head.

“Who will be there to help me?” You whispered once more in that sad voice.

“Your grace!” Someone called from outside of your bedroom.

The man’s head snapped to the direction of the door, hearing the handles begin to twist to signal someone was going to come in. The assassin was quick to jump off the bed and out into the night without so much as a second in between. You rushed out of your bedspread, not caring about being in your nightgown. All you cared about was getting to stop the man.

“Wait—”

You froze at the bottom of the steps that lead outside, catching as he turned around to face you under a lamp post. You could finally see his face in its entirety. The scar ran along his eye and down to his cheek. You were still as his face seemed to burn itself into your memory. You wanted to call out for him, ask him what he was doing.

But there was something stopping you. The way he looked at you like he was torn. It was gone in a flash just as he was following the calling of your name from your bedroom.

“(Y/N)?” You turned to find your personal guard looking around the room for you. “What are you doing outside?” He asked, walking up to you.

“Couldn't sleep.” You spoke softly.

“What brings you by?” You asked the man, turning to face him.

“I heard a man's voice. It was hostile.” He looked around the room just to make sure, moving things around that created dark spots.

“You have sharp hearing, Namjoon.” You smiled softly.

“Nothing to worry about. Everything is fine.” You walked closer to him, causing him to look at you.

You watched as his eyes went wide, hand reaching out to touch your neck.

“You’re bleeding.” He wiped his thumb along the miniscule cut the man’s knife had left.

You moved to wipe at it yourself, coming with bloody fingers. You furrowed your eyebrows, sighing to yourself.

“I probably just scratched myself in my sleep.” You told him.

Namjoon was perceptive, but he wasn’t going to question it because he knew you. No matter how much he wanted to care for you when you got hurt, you were someone who kept to themselves. You weren’t going to allow others to know your pain.

“I’ll clean it for you.” He said.

You allowed the man to do as he pleased. You suddenly felt much too tired to allow yourself the time to clean up the wound. Besides, you always enjoyed your moments with Namjoon. He had been there since you became the so-called queen. He watched them put the crown on your head. Watched with a harsh breath and flare nostrils as he knew the truth behind it all.

The only one who did.

As you felt is large hands press softly into the skin of your neck you almost wanted to flinch at how easy it was for him to actually kill you. There will always be people out there much more skilled than you ever could be. Much more powerful.

Tears welled in your eyes as you thought about it. You felt useless–like you life was miniscule. And it was in the eyes of your family. You didn’t realize a tear fell down your cheek until Namjoon moved to wipe at it.

“Are you truly okay, my queen?”

Namjoon’s acknowledgment of your title had you squaring your shoulders, looking at the man with a small smile on your face.

He was right. You were the queen–the one everyone called her majesty or bowed their heads to when you walked. It wasn’t your parents–your sister who walked with a smaller crown. It was you. Even if your family was the one who told you what to do in the end–you were the one who the kingdom saw as its queen. And you knew it was time to step into that role.

The time that passed was a long one. New bruises and wounds turned up on your body–hidden behind the hanbok you would wear. They would never dare to strike you across the face, not when the entire kingdom could see. They had images to keep up and people to boss around. It was their kingdom but you were the one they hated.

You still walked with your head held high, nose turned up as you tried to remain emotionless. You had learned to perfect the look with all the eyes that followed you everywhere. You didn’t dare to showcase any kind of emotion. You knew if you did they would see it. And they didn’t want their subjects to know the queen was being ruled by fear.

“Choosing a warrior for the princess is a perfect way of having her protected.” Your father’s general walked alongside the both of you.

“Here are the fine gentlemen who decided to take up the mantle. It gives the common people a chance as well to be part of the royal court.” He explained looking over the men he had watched train to be the best warriors they could be.

There were a total of 50 young and older men all standing in rows with hands behind their backs and legs spread to shoulder length. You didn’t bother to look at them because you knew that your family had already chosen you.

“Thank you, general.” Your father smiled brightly. “We would only want the best for our daughter.”

He turned to you, the grin on his lips making your stomach turn as you tried not to sneer. Your eyes immediately dropped from his face, turning around as you finally began to scan the warriors who suddenly raised their heads at your discretion.

“Your grace, please be sure to choose wisely. Munhee is your twin sister–she deserves to be protected just as much as you.” He offered in a sickenly sweet tone.

“Of course, father.” You spoke monotonously.

You begin to walk through the men, only picking you head up to give them a glance but continuing forward. You could see some of them gulp in worry while others let out breaths from your monotonous look. You were only courteous, meeting some of their eyes in order to make them think you were actually picking on your own.

You continued on through the rows, trying your best to act like your parents had told you to. But there was a second–just one second–where your facade dropped and you came to stand still. He stood in another row, a bit shorter than those next to him. But he still kept a stoic face–facing forward in the position the general had them all stand.

He was to the right of you, giving you the opportunity to see the long scar that ran down his face. There was a flutter in your heart that was created by anxiety. But it was fear, it was an anticipation that would lead you to win.

No one noticed the way you stopped to stare or the way you started to breath harshly. Namjoon had been the only one, eyes moving to scan the crowd as he tried to find what made you stop. Your father continued forward with the general speaking to himself as he thought you were walking alongside him.

“I hear that Sooyoung is quite the—”

“Him.” You interrupted your father.

“What?” He stopped, turning around to quickly find who you were looking at. “Who?”

You moved with calculated steps towards him, but he didn’t move from his position.

“The one with the scar?” Your father spoke bewildered, glancing between you and the man. “But your grace, you can't possibly want—”

“I'm positive he is more than capable of taking care of Munhee.” You didn’t dare to move your eyes from the man. “He looks like he's been through tough battles.”

“Oh well, I don't remember seeing him during training much.” The general frowned as he squinted his eyes at the scar on the man’s cheek.

“He does seem to have a memorable enough face.” The general tsked but moved to turn away and back to the front of the rows of men. “Step forward boy!”

With one last look at him, you turned to Namjoon who was following closely behind you. You watched him take in a breath, eyes scanning the man over as his eyebrows pulled together. Your face remained emotionless, turning around while lifting your nose up. You could see your father sneering as he began to follow behind you.

“State your name.” The general asked once all of you made it to the front.

“Agust.” He spoke deeply.

“What an odd name.” Your father waved off.

“Sounds western.” The general nodded to himself.

“Are you positive this is the one you will choose your grace?” Your father spoke up.

You could see the fury behind his eyes, the one that was clearly telling you to back out of the problem you had placed them all in. But you looked at him the same way you always would, not daring to move your head from his stare. You felt Namjoon grow closer to your back, his warmth seeping into your clothes. You moved your hand from under your sleeve–a silent request to tell him everything was okay.

“Yes.” You didn’t hesitate.

“Very well. The ceremony shall take place later this afternoon.” The general spoke up, humming to himself as he began to gather the other men.

Yoongi watched as you didn’t give your father another look, walking away quickly with both your father and guard on your heels. Your robe billowed behind you as you fast walked, but he was quick to notice the way your father rushed up to you and caught our arm before the doors to the palace shut behind you all.

“(Y/N), what is the meaning of this?” Your father sneered, gripping onto your arm tightly. “We decided already who would be the royal guard.”

“I'm sorry—” You flinched, unnoticed by the way you spoke with no emotions.

Your lips turned downwards, a sneer waiting to overtake your face at the way your father was clutching tightly onto your wrist–enough to know it would be bruised in a little bit. Your hands clenched up, nails wanting to scratch at his arm for hurting you. But it wasn’t the right time.

“We will talk later.” With one last tight squeeze your father threw your arm from his grasp.

It made you jerk backwards, teeth clenched as you were quick to soothe the ache.

“Are you alright?” Namjoon walked closer to you, fingers lightly falling down your arm to take a look.

“Yes, I'm fine Namjoon.” You spoke, your emotionless voice causing him to straighten up.

As your gaze landed back on the closed doors the only thing that crossed your mind was the scar along that man’s cheek. There was no mistaking that mark–it was one that seemed to alter your way of thinking all together. You were brought back to the night that he held the knife to your neck. Made you bleed and a small barely noticeable scar being left behind.

Your hand went up to your neck, feeling the uneven skin under your fingertips.

“Namjoon, would you protect me if someone was to come and assassinate me?” You suddenly spoke up, looking towards the doors that lead to the courtyard.

“What kind of question is that?” The man gasped, looking at your incredulously. “Of course I would—with my life.”

“Why?” You said absent mindlessly.

“Because I am your royal guard—”

“Did you know there are people trying to kill the queen?” You stopped him, turning to face him completely.

He gulped, watching as you grew closer to him. “Isn't there always? But that won't stop me from protecting you.”

“It's a rebellion, isn't it? People wanting to kill me.” You quietly spoke, watching as his eyes scanned over your face before falling to your neck where he could see the scar.

His breathing began to grow rapidly, as he tried to come up with an answer. “They don't want to kill you—”

“So you know about it?”

“(Y/N), I swear I know nothing about it—” He began to sputter.

“Namjoon, you are the only person I can trust in this palace. The only one who knows the truth. And now I want you to be honest with me. As your queen, I demand you tell me the truth.” You demanded.

He suddenly stood up straight, taking in a deep breath. “Yes, your grace. There is a rebellion that is out to kill the queen. But it's not you they are after, it's Munhee. At least the one they're really after is Munhee.”

There was something that seemed to lift off your shoulder hearing those words. It didn’t make you feel any better however it did make you understand that there were plans that needed to be put into motion. Plans that you were going to accomplish with certain people on your side.

“(Y/N), did something happen?” He asked.

“That man.” You spoke up. “The one I placed as Munhee’s guard. You know him. I saw it in your face when I chose him.”

He watched as your nose twitched and your eyes went glassy. “Namjoon, are you part of the rebellion?”

“Never!” Namjoon shouted, taking a step closer to you. “I could never do you harm or wish for something as cruel as that to come to you. You mean everything to me. I will stop at nothing to protect you from those who wish you harm.”

Your breath got caught in your throat for a moment at his confession. His eyes expressed just how much he meant every word. Namjoon was the one person who had been with you since you were a girl hiding in corners from the abuse you would suffer at the hands of your family. He has seen you at your worst. Which means you had to be better for him.

“Then how do you know him?” You asked.

“I don’t personally know him. I’ve only ever seen him around the kingdom a couple of times.” Namjoon licked his lips, answering truthfully.

He paused for a moment, pressing his lips together. “However, there could be someone who might.”

The ceremony wasn’t anything spectacular. Only the army was present and those of the palace staff. After the general proclaimed his speech to those around, he handed you a sword which you took in a tight grip walking forward towards Agust who kneeled at the stop of the stairs.

“It is an honor to serve the royal family. As royal guard to the princess you shall take up the mantle as her protector.” You prattled off.

“You shall put your life before hers to guarantee her safety. Do you accept this position?” You spoke loudly, keeping your eyes downcasted on the man who was kneeling in front of you.

“Yes.” He spoke up, keeping his face down to the ground.

“I hereby name you a royal guard to princess Munhee. May your sword always be sharp and your will always stay strong.” You ended, making him rise to grip onto the sword you were handing over to him.

As he reached out for the sword that laid on your palms, your sleeve had moved down your arm, giving him full view of the darkening bruises in the shape of fingers on your wrist. He watched your hand suddenly clench onto the blade of the sword catching his attention and making him look up into your eyes.

Your face still remained emotionless, but you made a small movement to get him to take the sword. He was quick to take it, bowing his head once more as he began to sheath the blade. Your hands fell to your side, causing the sleeve to fall over your wrist once more.

There wasn’t much left of the ceremony other than you giving an emotionless speech about how you were grateful to the army for what they did. Once everything ended on a normal tone, the royal family turned around to enter the palace with the new royal guard in tow behind the entire entourage.

“I can't believe this is the man you appointed!” Munhee screeched. “How stupid can you be!? Haven't you already done enough!?”

She had been stomping her feet in front of you but quickly turned around to strike you across the face. Your face whipped to the side, not expecting the hit but you didn’t dare to make a sound or move a hand up to cradle your wound.

Yoongi watched with an emotionless face as you seemed to keep up the facade. Your guard was quick to step up to you, getting between you and the so-called princess. Yoongi glared at all of you, eyebrows pulling together at the debacle.

“You insolent girl. You deserve everything that is coming your way.” She sneered at you.

“Munhee!” The old king sneered. “Do not strike her face!? How many times have we told you!?”

His eyebrows only seemed to pull together deeper, trying to figure out what the whole dynamic was between everyone. It seemed you only remained emotionless as your large guard took your arm softly.

He didn’t understand what your place was in all of this. You were the queen who was above all of these people. And yet they seemed to take pleasure in screaming at you. You didn’t give any reaction to their words or actions–allowing them to do as they pleased. You were no queen after the whole thing.

“Namjoon, take her to the healers quickly before she bruises.” Your father turned to your royal guard. “They have to fix it before she goes out in public.”

“Of course.” Namjoon spoke through a clenched jaw, softly pulling you along.

You didn’t give Yoongi another look, keeping your head up as pieces of your hair fell out of your headpiece and into your face. He watched you leave before turning around as he heard the princess stomp closer to him.

“Ugly, good for nothing.” The princess sneered, quickly turning from him. “Don't look at me. Your face belongs in a cell.”

The way she had her lips pulled up and nose scrunched up made her look ugly. It seemed she had done that face so much it stuck to her skin. It was clear she was your twin somehow but for some reason Yoongi found himself claiming your face was much easier to look at.

“Forgive me.” Yoongi spoke monotonously.

“What do we do with him?” Munhee didn’t pay him any mind, turning to her parents.

“We'll have Namjoon teach him for now.” The old queen spoke carelessly. “Until we have a reason to get rid of him we can't do much. That would mean forsaking the general and his warriors.”

“Stupid traditions.” Munhee rolled her eyes. “Fine, keep him out of my sight. And give him a mask for when he is. I cannot stand to look at him.” She gave him one last sneer of her lips, stomping away with her parents in tow.

“Of course.” Some guard for your parents announced.

He began to walk away, so Yoongi assumed he was to follow after his superior. He was taken out of the back gardens and into another part of the palace. There were curtains that were billowing out of the room that gave it enough breeze. The guard takes Yoongi around the building towards the doors.

“You may stay here for the time being.” The guard explained, opening the doors to a wide spacious room.

“I will be sure to inform Namjoon of your whereabouts.” He bowed his head before turning to leave.

Yoongi had assumed he was left alone, watching with a raised brow as the guard seemed to walk away quickly. However when he suddenly felt a presence behind him, he was quick to turn. He watched as a stunning man seemed to tilt his head in confusion at the man.

He was dressed in a translucent robe that draped down his body. He wore expensive looking jewelry and was cleaned much better than even the royal family themselves. Yoongi could smell the perfumes the man wore from where he stood a good three feet away.

“New concubine? But no one said anything about it.” He spoke with a deep voice, but his eyes held childish wonder.

“Concubine?” Yoongi questioned.

“Are you not one?” The man asked, stepping closer to the scarred one. “Isn't that why they brought you here?”

“I was appointed as royal guard to the princess.” Yoongi immediately answered, keeping his stare on the handsome man.

“Makes more sense.” The concubine nodded to himself, lips forming a perfect pout. “Princess Munhee would never choose you.”

Yoongi suddenly frowned, giving the man an offended look.

“Taehyung, don't be rude.” Someone behind Yoongi spoke up.

He quickly turned around finding another man dressed the same as the one in front of him. However, this one seemed to have puffier cheeks and shorter in structure. He also carried himself more sensually–confident in what he looked like.

“I still think you're very handsome.” He smiled softly at Yoongi. “My name is Jimin. This is Taehyung. We are concubines for Princess Munhee.”

Once more the assassin was left confused. Why weren’t they concubines for the queen herself? It wasn’t really known that the princess had some of her own.

“The princess? Not the queen?” He spoke out loud.

“She doesn't have any.” Taehyung answered.

“Well except for Jungkook but he's just for show. He says he's never been with her let alone her bedroom. He's still a lucky bastard though. I wish I was (Y/N)'s concubine.” He pouted, crossing his arms in a childish manner.

“You like the queen?” Yoongi asked baffled.

“Like?” Taehyung tilted his head to the side. “I love her! She's so kind and patient. She always treats our wounds after we've been with Munhee. She gives us extra sweets when she comes to see us. Anyone would fall in love with her.” He sighed dreamily.

Yoongi couldn’t stand to hear all that was falling from the poor man’s mouth. He only saw someone who had been brainwashed into thinking the queen was someone kind and nurturing. It did leave him a bit baffled to remember that it was the queen who had been striked across the face by the princess but that didn’t mean her emotionless heart wasn’t real. It was clear by the way she didn't react to the way she was treated.

“She is a tyrant. How can you stand to live here as concubines? You don't get to see your family and as you said, you get wounds from the princess—”

“Exactly. From the princess.” Jimin interrupted, coming to stand in front of Yoongi.

Jimin looked at him with squinted eyes that made him look seductive. But his words made it seem like Jimin was waiting for Yoongi to figure everything out. “There are things within the palace that are not correct. You'll find that out soon enough.” He told the man vaguely.

The door suddenly open and all three men turned to look at who had entered. Taehyung beamed at Namjoon who gave the two concubines a bow of his head. Jimin only gave the man a small smile twirling around to go back to whatever it was he was doing before Yoongi had entered.

“Agust, please follow me.” Namjoon called for him.

Yoongi gave the two concubines one last look before following after the larger man. He began to lead him back to the main building, Yoongi trying to memorize the journey.

“My name is Kim Namjoon—you can call me Namjoon. I am the royal guard to queen (Y/N). We will be working together closely.” He explained.

Yoongi paused for a moment, clenching his jaw as he thought about the woman. “The queen—what did they do?”

“They gave her a cold patch.”

He lead Yoongi to another section of the palace that seemed to be full of different kinds of staff. It was close to the rooms of the royal families so Yoongi only assumed it was the building he would be staying in.

“This is where we stay. We share a room along with the other royal guards.” It was a quick thing before Namjoon took off once more from the guard quarters.

As Yoongi was looking around, trying to find escape routes or hiding places he didn’t notice Namjoon had come to a stop causing him to bump into the man.

“What are you doing here? Do you know the risks of getting caught? You should leave before something happens to both you and the queen.” Namjoon quickly spoke, causing Yoongi to look at him oddly.

Namjoon had a stern expression on his face but he didn’t care to reach out to kill the smaller man. It was clear that Namjoon knew who Yoongi was the moment he came into the palace. Namjoon was someone often spoken about within the group. One of the people who worked within the palace had explained that Namjoon would do anything to protect the queen from harm.

However he also said that Namjoon would be more than willing to be on their side. It left him at a confused headspace over the bigger man.

“I know that more than anything what will happen. I have a mission to complete. I can’t go back without results.” Yoongi spoke harshly.

“For what? A murder that is unjustified?” Namjoon glared.

“You know as well as everyone else just how justified it really is.” Yoongi retorted.

“I know you’re out to kill the wrong person. If you think you were the only one thinking about infiltrating the palace, you would be wrong.” Namjoon has his arms crossed, trying to make himself look bigger to intimidate the scarred man.

“Namjoon?” A soft voice spoke up behind them.

“I’m here, your grace.” Namjoon turned around to face you, watching as you walked closer to them with smaller robes that were easier to walk in.

“Hello. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” You spoke up calmly, staring Yoongi down.

“Cut the small talk. Why did you choose me?” Yoongi sneered, knowing the three of you were alone from others to keep from saying what he wanted.

Namjoon glared, about to take a step towards him but you subtly moved your hand out to keep him from getting closer.

“Did you not want to be chosen? Isn’t that why you infiltrated the army and applied to be the personal guard for Princess Munhee?” You questioned him.

“Why did you select me?” Yoongi pressed again.

You took a moment, irking him as you looked down at him.

“I don’t know.” You merely shrugged.

“I can kill you right now.” He placed a hand on the sword you had given him, causing Namjoon to reach for his own.

You stopped them though when you walked closer to Yoongi. “You can but it won’t solve your problems.”

“It will solve many.” He sneered.

“That’s what you think.” You told him.

He felt something in his chest watching you. He knew it was you, knew by the little scar that was under your head from the knick his blade had left months ago. Knew by the way you softly stared at him waiting for his next moves.

However you were different now. Different in the way you spoke—the way you held yourself. It was nighttime then though, he has never seen you before. But speaking with you now it wasn’t the same as the woman who was awaiting death with open arms.

“Where is she?” Yoongi asked.

“Who?”

“The girl who waited for me to move my blade. The one who was hoping I would.” He spoke quietly, keeping you stare.

“I found a better chance.” You told him, speaking in that voice that told him how there were worse things to fear other than death.

“One that lets me live the way I want. My personal guard will make sure to tell you of your duties. Do not mess it up.” You added sternly.

You turned around, Namjoon giving Yoongi one last harsh stare before turning to follow after you.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Namjoon asks you.

“I have suffered my whole life just for others to come and kill me in place of my sister.” You spoke softly looking down at the paper you had been writing on. “I’m done being the decoy they know they need. The plaything they would have their fun with when they were angry.”

You looked up when knocking comes from the door. “I was made the queen. And as far as the kingdom knows I am the Empress who rules. So that is what I will be.”

The double doors open wide as Yoongi struts his way in. Namjoon stands behind you with his hands clasped in front of him. He glanced your way, taking note of how you don’t bother to look up at him. From what the other concubines have claimed of you, Yoongi has yet to see it.

“Sit.” You tell him, going back to writing a letter.

He listens to your demand, sitting cross legged in front of your table as he waits for you to say something. It takes another 10 minutes before you do. By then Yoongi had a frown on his face from having wasted time sitting in front you, waiting.

“I have something to ask of you.” You told him.

When all you got was a raised brow, you continued. “I need you to take this to your leader.” You rolled up your letter and pushed it forward towards Yoongi.

“Leader?” He questioned.

“Don’t take me for a fool.” You clenched your jaw. “Someone sent you to kill me. And now I want to send them a letter.”

“Are you mad?” Yoongi scoffed.

“Not always.” You shrugged. “But you get tired after so much.”

There it was again—the jab at your past. The jab in Yoongi’s chest that made him rethink about killing you. It was the suffering he heard in your voice. The one that didn’t care about what happened to them because they had already been through so much.

“I don’t get it.” Yoongi told you.

“Don’t get what?” You questioned.

“This!?” He says pointing to the letter you wanted him to send to his leader “Everything around the place. I came here knowing one thing but come to learn it’s not right.”

“Information can get lost in translation.” You waved him off.

There was so much he didn’t understand. He hadn’t gotten the chance to speak with those in the group about the whole thing because he had been training with the army for the past couple of months. All he knew was that the queen was a tyrant who treated the people of her kingdom unfairly.

But now he wanted to know if he was looking at the right person.

“Tell me something.” Yoongi demanded.

“What is that?” You asked him.

“That a queen would allow someone beneath her to strike her.” He told you.

“What makes you think I’m not?” You asked him.

“Not what?”

“Beneath them?” You take a deep breath thinking over something. “At least in their eyes.”

This made him stop for moment. After witnessing the actions of her family Yoongi came to realize there were things wrong with the royal family. And after hearing the words of those who worked closely with them it was clear that the choice he made of sparing you was one that left his conscious free of guilt.

“Are you trusting me?” He questioned you, realizing that you were about to tell him the truth.

“You’re going to find out sooner or later. In case you haven’t—I’m not the real queen. I’m only the one who takes the harsh blows of the tyranny my family causes. I’m just their scapegoat.” You explained.

“If you do your job right there should be no consequences. You have my word.” You told him.

“Which job?” He questioned.

“You should know which one, Min Yoongi.”

Pt. 2 Y’all? Be sure to apply to my permenant taglist so you can be added to Pt. 2 if I come out with it lol.

Permanent Taglist: @hecateslittlewitchling , @ldysmfrst , @cryingpages , @rln-byg , @vampcharxter , @kenzie203 , @loveless-lie , @puppyminnnie , @marvel-potter-1d-korea , @emtrades22 , @wolfgurl2600-blog ,

#kpop fanfic #bts fanfic #min yoongi x you #min yoongi #min yoongi x reader #bts min yoongi #min suga #suga smut #suga x reader #suga bts #yoongi #bangtan sonyeondan #agust d #bts fic #bangtan #bts suga

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skzooweemama · 1 year ago

Note

Because this tiktok trend is really old now how would skz reaction to you wiping off thier kisses? Like because it's an old trend they probably wouldn't be thinking that's what you're doing.

gotta keep them on their toes right? i gotchu!!

oh my gosh it’s been nearly a month since i’ve posted anything i- 😭😭 midterms are over now, so i’m hoping i’ll have more time! still working on the rest of the requests i’ve received not to worry 🫡🫡

i hope y’all like this one! i’m gonna be honest, i didn’t have a lot of ideas going into it, so i changed it up a lil from how the prompt was. i think it turned out okay though!

enjoy!

~~~

Bang Chan:

"Baby?" Your boyfriend called down the hall, wandering from the in- home studio to find you in the kitchen making a snack.

You smiled as Chan rounded the corner, with bleary eyes and messy hair. "Hi love, did you just finish?" He hummed and drew you into a hug once he was close enough, burying his head into the crook of your neck. You giggled at his cute behavior and rubbed his back gently.

"Finished and fell asleep..." Chan mumbled into your neck, the sensation making you giggle.

You brought a hand up to scratch at the nape of his neck. "Sounds like you needed it, hm?" Another hum escaped your sleepy boy. "Do you want some of my snack?" Chan nodded, raising his head to see what you were making.

You pulled away briefly to grab the snack (cheese and crackers, a classic) and fed him some. Chan giggled when he realized you wanted to feed him and let you, blushing a bit from the gesture. Afterwards, he pressed a crumby kiss to your cheek.

"Gah! Chris!" You cried out, dramatically wiping at your cheek. Honestly, you didn't really mind, but you wanted to see how he'd react.

Chan just giggled, a shy smile spreading on his face as he pulled you close once again, covering you in more (yet significantly less crumby) kisses.

You squealed out and pushed at his chest, Chan’s laughter mixing with your own as he continued with his attack. “Baby!” You whined, playfully squirming in his hold.

Chan’s arms slipped around your waist and held you fast, his lips trailing down to yours. His warm breath fanned across your face, leaving you completely defenseless. Then he pressed a searing kiss right to your lips, leaving you breathless when he pulled away. You stared up at him, a dazed look in your eyes.

“You’re not gonna wipe that one away now, are you?”

Lee Know:

"Honey? Is that you?" Minho's voice was soft, but it still broke through your post-work haze as you toed off your shoes by the door.

"Yeah Min, I'm home." You called back, shrugging off your jacket and hanging it up. Your scalp was screaming from being up in a bun all day, so you worked on wrestling out the bobby pins while you made your way to the living room.

You freed your hair from its confines just as you came around the corner, finding Minho’s gentle gaze peering back at you. He offered you a warm smile and patted the couch, beckoning you over.

“Hi love…” You said softly, plopping down beside Minho and letting him pull you into his side. You buried your head into the fabric of his hoodie and took a deep breath. “Missed you…”

Minho made a small cooing noise in the back of his throat and pet your hair gently. “Long day?”

“Only the longest… I just keep telling myself that this is my dream job…” You sighed, turning to rest your cheek against his chest.

“That bad, hm? You wanna talk about it?” Minho’s words sent tingles through your body from being pressed so close to him. You huffed out a laugh and shook your head.

“It’s okay, I’m just tired."

"Okay." Minho responded, shifting so he could press a smooch to your forehead.

The kiss was loud and dramatic, and it made you giggle. Without thinking, you wiped at the excess spit his left on your forehead. "Minho! You slobbered me!" You exclaimed, looking up at your boyfriend with a goofy grin on your face.

Minho was staring back at you. If looks could kill, you would be at death's door. It was as if his eyes were screaming at you, beyond offended at you wiping away his love. You couldn’t help but laugh and sat up, pressing your own kisses onto his skin in an apology.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Give me another kiss, I won't wipe it off again!"

Changbin:

Changbin, your love, your light, your life, had been annoying you to no end. This morning it had been his excessive screaming, this afternoon it had been his covers of random songs, and now he would not stop trying to teach you his rap parts in one of their new songs. And he was a really bad teacher.

"No, baby! The flow isn't right, you miss this syllable," He gestured to the lyrics written out in front of you, "and it really kills the rhythm. Let's try again!"

"Bin! I don't get it! I'm not a rapper!" You exclaimed, feeling more and more frustrated by his criticisms. Plus his hand writing was so bad that you could hardly read the lyrics in the first place.

Changbin pouted, grabbing your hand gently. “Can we try again? Please?” You groaned and slumped forward in your seat, laying your head on the table for a moment.

“Fineeee…” You said after a moment. Changbin smiled at the success of his pouting and started the track again.

This time, the word flowed from your lips like water in a stream. You didn't have near as much swagger as your boyfriend did while rapping, but you didn't sound bad by any means. When you chanced a glance over to Changbin, he was sitting there with stars in his eyes. You smiled despite yourself as the verse came to an end.

"So? Was that better?" You asked, leaning back in your chair.

"Was it better? That was great! My baby is a natural!" Changbin exclaimed, leaning over the table to press kisses to your cheeks.

You giggled and batted at him playfully. "I'm not a natural! You had to help me, silly!" Changbin stopped his attack and sat back, and you took the chance to wipe at all the kisses he left on your face. "That's for instilling me with false confidence." You snickered, smiling at him mischievously.

Changbin gasped and let out a dramatic whine. "Babyyyyy!! How could you?! Do you not love your Binnie??" You just started laughing, heart melting immediately at Changbin's cute pout.

"Noooo! Wait I'm sorry!" You laughed, getting up from your chair to hug your pouty boy. "I'll give you all the kisses you want, no more wiping them off!"

Hyunjin:

"Yah! Stay still!" Hyunjin barked at you from his seat in front of the canvas, throwing you a playful glare. You sighed and sat up straighter, trying your hardest to stay posed how he wanted you.

"Hyunnnn... my back is hurting!" You whined (because he didn't say anything about staying quiet). "Are you almost done?"

Hyunjin glanced at you again, his gaze softened. You knew he was starting to feel guilty for keeping you sat there for so long. He looked back to the canvas and started to work more diligently.

"Just a bit longer, okay? You look so beautiful, my love. I don't wanna rush..." Your boyfriend responded, his voice much less harsh now.

You nodded and settled in, keeping perfectly still and trying to ignore the burning that was slowly creeping up your spine. You distracted yourself by watching Hyunjin work. His long black hair was pulled up and away from his eyes, which were focused and calculating as he worked. He was just too pretty. It was unfair, honestly, but selfishly checking him out was your compensation so you couldn't complain too much.

Except for the fact that the pain in your back was getting harder to ignore.

You let out a loud, frustrated sigh before finally, finally, Hyunjin put down that godforsaken brush.

"Okay, okay, I'm done for now." He said, getting up and stretching. You did the same, trying to quell the fire in your muscles. "Come here, baby." You looked to see Hyunjin with his arms out, offering you a hug.

"I don't feel like I should hug you after that torture." You said, crossing your arms. Hyunjin smiled and shook his head, walking forward to wrap you up in his embrace anyway.

"Too bad, I missed you~" He hummed, burying his head in the crook of your neck. You couldn't help but smile and melt into him. Hyunjin chuckled and stepped back, brushing your hair away from your face and giving you a loving look. You pulled a playful scowl back onto your face, which made him laugh once again. "You're cute..." He hummed, placing a delicate kiss on your forehead...

...which you promptly wiped right off, jumping up from your seat and making your way to the door.

Hyunjin caught you around the waist just before you could escape. "Yah! That's not nice! Don't wipe away my love!" He exclaimed, a playful lilt in his tone. You began to giggle gleefully, which made him growl in your ear. "Oh, you wanna laugh?"

You squealed as his fingers dug into your tickle spots, and through your laughter you cried out, "I'm sorry! I won't wipe them away again!"

Han:

When you heard the front door close, it was nearing 1am. This was much later than the time that Jisung promised to be home. You'd practically been worried sick, especially since he wasn't answering your calls or texts. But no, clearly he was fine- just ignoring his worried partner.

So there you sat, arms crossed, silently fuming as your lovely boyfriend came around the corner.

Immediately, you felt bad when you saw him. He looked so tired. His big eyes were bloodshot and framed with dark circles when they were usually bright and full of life, and he was a bit slouched as he walked. But still, he perked right up when he saw you, lips pulling into his big, gummy smile.

"Hi baby!" He said cheerfully. His voice would be a sharp contrast to his appearance, if it wasn't for the hoarseness from recording all day. You glanced at the clock once again and felt yet another pang of frustration.

"Hi Ji," You greeted, offering him a tight lipped smile. "Little late, isn't it? Why didn't you answer my texts? I was worried." Jisung visibly deflated at your words as he sat beside you and that made your heart wrench in your chest.

"Ah- it is late, huh? I'm sorry, baby. I got caught up editing tracks with Chan and my phone died. The studio doesn't have Apple chargers anymore, so I couldn't fix it and there's no clock so-," You cut off his rambling with a hand on his arm.

"Ji- calm down. It's okay, I was just worried, that's all. I'm glad you're home." You told him, offering him a smile to assure him that you were being genuine. Jisung relaxed, and you opened your arms to pull him into a hug. "You okay?"

He nodded against your shoulder, holding you close. The two of you sat in silence for a moment before he pulled away and pressed a kiss to your cheek. You gave him a teasing look and dramatically wiped at the kiss, attempting to get a rise out of him.

That did not go over well, and instead of playing along, tears gathered in Jisung's eyes and his lips immediately pulled into a deep frown.

You laughed in disbelief and pulled him into another hug, holding the back of his head protectively.

"Oh baby, I'm sorry! I was just joking, please don't cry! I won't wipe any more off!"

Felix:

"Babe, are you gonna finish up soon? I'm bored..." You whined, laying face down on your boyfriend's bed, phone abandoned beside you. He'd been working on his PC for hours and you just wanted his attention.

"Impatient, hm?" Was all Felix said in response, and you could practically hear the smile in his voice.

You groaned loudly and kicked your legs. "Lix, it's been hours. I'm wasting away over here!" Felix just laughed, his deep chuckle sounding way too teasing.

You lifted your head and scowled at his back, wishing he'd set down those stupid tools and come pay attention to your before you literally went insane. As you glared at him, an idea crossed your mind. There was an old Tiktok couples prank that you had been wanting to try since you started dating... What better way to get back at him for ignoring you?

Felix was hunched over his keyboard at you approached him from behind, focused on screwing something into something else. When you reached him, you leaned forward, pressing your chest against his back, and wrapped him up in a back hug.

"Lix... pay attention to me..." You whispered in his ear, you voice overly sensual. Felix tensed up beneath you, and you heard his breathing pick up in the quiet of the room. "Oh? Was that all it took?" You teased, nipping at his earlobe before returning to your place on the bed.

It took about .5 seconds until Felix was on you, pushing you down onto the bed and kissing your feverishly. You giggled into the kiss, allowing him to cage you in just for a moment before you pushed at his chest. Felix pulled away and looked at you wildly, his cheeks and ears still bright red from when you flustered him.

You held eye contact with him as you wiped your lips with the back of your hand, giving him a wink as you did so. Felix's face was shocked for a moment, but then he smiled. Fuck, you forgot about how much he was on Tiktok too.

"Did you try to prank me? Why don't I make you regret ever wiping my kisses off, then?"

Seungmin:

Today was one of those rare days that you had off from work. It was a small blessing after a hectic week of project reports and visits from your higher ups, and you were thankful to have some time to recooperate. Unfortunately, Seungmin was still working and you wouldn't see him until the evening.

Luckily he forgot to pack lunch today, so you had the perfect excuse to cook him something he liked and visit him at work.

When you knocked on the door to the practice room all he and his members were in, they had all just finished a dance practice. Seungmin couldn't help the goofy smile that took over his face when he saw you, which made you laugh. The boys teased him for a moment as they gathered their things, greeting you kindly when they filed out the door.

"How was practice?" You asked once everyone had left. Seungmin groaned dramatically and flopped onto the small couch near the door. You laughed and maneuvered him so you had some room to sit too. "That bad?"

"'S fine, just hardddd... my body hurts..." He whined, throwing an arm over his eyes. You hummed and patted his tummy, which made him groan again.

"I'm sorry you're hurting, love. Do you want some food?" Your question had him interested, so he removed his arm from over his eyes and looked at you.

"You brought me food?" He asked. You were almost offended at how surprised he looked.

"Duh, you forgot to pack anything this morning. I wasn't gonna let my baby starve!" Your words were teasing, but genuine, and you watched joyfully as Seungmin's cheeks got all rosy. He sat up and scooted towards you, wrapping you up in a hug and pressing a soft kiss to your lips.

It would've been a nice gesture if he wasn't so sweaty.

"Ah! You're getting me all gross with your sweat!" You cried, cringing at the hug and shying away from the kiss. Once he let you go, you immediately began wiping at your lips and trying to rid yourself of any residual boyfriend sweat.

"Oh yeah? You're gonna be like that? Wiping off my kisses?" Seungmin asked, giving you a challenging look. Without a second thought, you attempted to jump up and run away, only to be caught around the waist.

"Wait! I won't wipe them off again! Seungmin!"

I.N:

You considered messing with Jeongin to be a sort of art form, to say the least. He was clever, but he could also be gullible. That made pranks a 50/50 shot with him, either he figured you out immediately or he would fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

Today, you had devised a fool-proof plan to make sure that he would let you have your fun.

Couple pranks were something you had been wanting to try for a while. You didn't want to film them or post them or anything, you just purely liked a good, light-hearted prank and your boyfriend was a decent victim. There was one that had caught your attention back before you had started dating Jeongin, and it seemed like one he was unlikely to catch onto. Until you told him about it, at least.

It all started when you came back from grabbing groceries at the store. Errands were no fun to do alone, but since it was hard to go out in public together with Jeongin, you usually had no choice. It was all better when you got back home, though.

Jeongin had the weekend free from schedules, which was pretty uncommon. It also meant he was there to greet you when you came home instead of you waiting for him. He was sitting in the kitchen doing work on his computer when you came through the door.

A smile immediately broke out across his face when he saw you, his dimples greeting you just as eagerly. "Hi, babe. Need some help?" It wasn't really even a question he needed to ask, because he was already getting up to grab the bag from you before you could answer.

You smiled at him lovingly and set down the second bag. Jeongin set down the one he took beside it, and when you turned towards him, he captured your lips in a gentle kiss. You sighed into the kiss and cupped his cheek, drawing him in closer.

“Hi…” You whispered when you pulled away, still feeling those classic butterflies when you looked into his bright eyes. Jeongin giggled and leaned to kiss you again, just a peck this time, before he turned to start putting the groceries away.

“Was the store okay? I heard-,” Whatever he was gonna say next died on his tongue as he turned and looked to see you wipe your mouth on the back of your hand. “Did… did you just wipe my kiss away?”

You couldn’t help but break out into laughter at his words and the look of pure confusion on his face. He didn’t look remotely offended, just confused.

“I’m sorry baby, it was just a prank!”

“Too bad, I’m never kissing you again.”

“Nooo!! I promise to never wipe off another one!”

#skz x reader #stray kids fluff #fluff #stray kids x reader #stray kids fanfic #bang chan x reader #lee know x reader #lee minho x reader #changbin x reader #hyunjin x reader #han jisung x reader #kim seungmin x reader #i.n x reader #jeongin x reader #skzooweemama.asks #skzooweemama.writes

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rems-writing · 5 months ago

Text

Her savior

Pairing: dilf!Mingi x widow afab!reader

Summary: I lowkey want to make these two oneshots connected to each other so there will be slight mention of dilf!Yunho and his s/o. This will pick up after Mingi and Wooyoung left his cousin in front of Yunho's doorstep to babysit his three daughters.

Warning(s): Hurt with comfort, mentions of bullying (i.e. harsh words, etc.), Mingi is lowkey scary sexy when angry, non-Ateez character mentioned, yelling and swearing, mentions of death and murder, slight size kink, face riding, pussy slapping, pussydrunk!Mingi, boob play, backshots, bigdick!Mingi, unprotected sex (don't do this!), squirting

Genre: Cracked beginning, angst (for the main part), a bit of fluff, smut

Nets: @mirohs-aurora-society

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Thank you to @yourfatherlucifer and @holybibly for helping me figure out what kind of dad Mingi is lol

As Mingi and Wooyoung ran down the street cackling their asses off at Mingi's poor cousin being left on Yunho's doorstep, they slowed down to catch their breath.

"He's going to kill you, Min! And maybe me as well."

"Maybe? You smacked his ass while he was hoisted over my shoulder and laughed at his misery as he tried to escape my grasp!"

Wooyoung was going to retort when the two of them heard bickering from across the street they were running in. Normally, if they saw two women bickering, it was most likely just loud gossip. That's how the neighborhood was. However, that wasn't the case. Mingi looked closely and listened intently to what those two women were talking about. The more he listened, the more his anger grew.

Those two women weren't bickering.

It was only one woman bullying another woman who was trying so hard to ward off the first woman.

Mingi hated gossip, but he hated bullying even more. Having been bullied back in high school, he would not stand idly by and let this fester any further. He marched over to the two women and broke up the fight between them.

"What is going on over here?"

The woman that was starting the fight gasped dramatically and tried to fall into Mingi's arms but he pushed her back upright and kept the scowl on his face.

"Oh, Mr. Song! You have to help me! This hag over here bumped into me and made me drop all my groceries! I think she should compensate me by buying all my groceries for an entire week! That's only fair. Right?"

Her shrill voice annoyed him and the taller man turned to the other woman.

His scowl softened a bit when he saw who the victim was.

It was the widow.

He's heard about her but to see her in person...

Yeah he was subconsciously right to not believe the rumors.

The woman was wearing all black with a thin black shawl covering her face so he wouldn't see her tears. He placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around.

Imagine the shock on his face when he saw how young this widow looked.

He wasn't able to memorize the beauty on the widow's face since the tears were coming down like a waterfall. Mingi pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed her face with it lightly. She sniffled and gave a silent 'thank you' to him, to which he nodded.

"I'm not accusing you of anything. I just want to know the facts. Did you bump into woman and made her drop her groceries?"

The widow instantly shook her head.

"I was minding my own business when I accidentally bumped into her. She was the one that dropped them and pinned the blame on me when I was simply trying to navigate my way through the neighborhood after coming home from a walk. She then started screaming her head off and started nagging me about how I'm horrible. All that I could forgive. But then..."

She breathed in deeply.

"She had the nerve to mention how my husband is dead because of me."

Mingi's blood boiled and Wooyoung saw this. He gently guided the widow back towards his direction. The widow was confused at first. Then she saw Mingi's anger and decided to hide in Wooyoung's shoulder. She never liked confrontation but this time, she had enough of people accusing her of her husband's death so she let the tall man chew that woman out.

"Here."

He threw a wad of bills at the first woman's face, to which she was either shocked or offended by this action. She tried to speak but Mingi held a finger up and she shut her mouth.

"Unless it truly was on purpose, I suggest you apologize to her. She was minding her own business and she was even prepared to apologize for bumping into you when you just had to make a big deal out of it! I mean come on! It's 2024 for fucks sake! Why are we putting down women still?!"

"But Mingi -"

"You will address me by Mr. Song! And you will not interrupt me!"

The woman nodded and her face became red out of embarrassment. He continued to speak.

"You know... I've seen you around. You do nothing but gossip around and show off your miserable trophy husband. I think you're on husband number three. Am I correct?"

Wooyoung had to stifle a snicker while the woman tried to protest, only for Mingi to shut her up again.

"Yeah... one of my employees mentioned that you divorced him because he 'wasn't making enough money' persay."

"But he truly wasn't-"

"I SAID DON'T INTERRUPT ME!"

The woman clamped her mouth shut, fear evident on her face as Mingi kept talking growling angrily.

"Just because baby daddy number three is making more dough than your last husband doesn't mean that you can flaunt your shit and then belittle other women. How would you like it if you were in her position?!"

"Mr. Song, here's the thing! There's a reason why the entire neighborhood doesn't like her!"

"Oh I can't wait to hear this!" Mingi barked out a sarcastic laugh while Wooyoung remained stoic, occasionally comforting the widow in his arms.

"Well she... she killed her husband! She's crazy and -"

"Stop talking."

"But Mr. Song-"

"I SAID STOP TALKING!"

"But Mr. Song! You have to understand-"

"DO YOU WANT ME TO FIRE YOUR THIRD HUSBAND FROM MY COMPANY?! BECAUSE I WILL FUCKING DO IT!"

The woman shut up and looked down in shame. Mingi forced her head up so she could look at the anger in his eyes.

"You do not know the full story. And even if you do, just the mere fact that you continue to degrade her regardless of the truth makes me sick. You make me sick."

He clenched his fist and sighed deeply.

"And people think I'm the monster. Nah. I just hate bullies. In fact, I'm staring at the monster right here."

The woman's face paled and she had the audacity to beg for forgiveness and for him not to fire her husband, to which he laughed at.

"Why are you asking me for forgiveness? You should ask her."

The woman looked at the widow wearily and Mingi sighed.

"Forget it. You're so adamant on making her miserable. Fine. I'm firing your husband and I'm telling the landlord to raise rent on that little condo you have nicely decorated."

"Wait! Mr. Song, have mercy-"

"Girl, just go! You keep yakking and yakking! Don't make things worse for yourself." Wooyoung spoke up this time and the woman hung her head in shame before taking the bill wad and entering her car so she can rebuy the groceries she dropped. Mingi huffed out a sigh of relief and walked over to the widow in Wooyoung's arms.

"Hey. It's ok. I'm sorry if my anger got the best of me. I just can't stand it when people are bullied for no reason whatsoever. I hope you can forgive me."

The stark contrast between the softness of the taller man's voice and the sheer anger of his aura earlier shocked you to say the least. Even though you were still shaken up, you were happy that someone stood up for you. You looked up from Wooyoung's shoulder with big glossy eyes. Mingi fought the urge to grab your face and hold you close to him. In the end, he resisted. Although, his heart swelled with adoration and care when he heard your sniffles and your shy voice.

"Thank you, Mr. Song. No one has stood up for me like that before. I usually have to fend for myself but today was a really bad day for me so I couldn't. I'm sorry to have disturbed your peace with Mr. Jung."

Mingi shushed you and smiled kindly. You found it endearing how his smile reached all the way to his eyes so his eyes formed crescents.

"No need to apologize, love. And definitely no need to thank me. I'm just doing what a good Samaritan would do. Oh and you can call me Mingi."

"And you can call me Wooyoung."

You looked back and forth between the two men and nodded shyly. Mingi then slung an arm around you and held you close to him. The sheer size difference between your bodies was overwhelming. Through your shawl, your breath was taken away by how large this man was.

Broad shoulders, tiny waist, huge muscles with an even bigger chest, long legs, chiseled jaw, and huge hands with long fingers adorned by many rings. His black hair was swept back and his body was covered from head to toe by a suit that clung to his figure deliciously. You stopped your ogling and looked away shyly.

"My goodness! You must have work today! I'm so sorry for keeping you here."

Mingi looked down at his outfit and chuckled sheepishly.

"You're right. I should get going. However, I technically have the right to be late since I'm the CEO of my company. You heard me mention something about firing someone so hopefully, that gave it away."

You giggled and nodded shyly. Mingi wanted to hear you giggle again so he cracked bad jokes until the three of you approached your home.

"Um... sorry if it looks like death. I do keep the inside pretty though! It's usually my husband that tends to the outside. Although, I tried to do it myself... it's not as good."

"It looks good either way. If you want, Wooyoung can help with the outside."

"I can?"

Mingi gave Wooyoung a look and the younger of the two got the message before smiling kindly.

"I totally can! Just tell me what I need to do."

The smile under your shawl was bright and Mingi almost folded.

If only he was courageous enough to remove that shawl from your face so he can bask in your beauty. Alas, you two only met so he held back out of respect for you.

"Thanks, guys. It honestly means a lot to me knowing that there are still kind people out there who are willing to help a lonely widow such as I."

Mingi nodded and stuck out his hand for you to shake. You took it and shook it, ignoring the fact that your hand was swallowed by his. As he pulled away, you grew sad at the loss of warmth but chose to hide it.

"Well, I'll leave you guys to it. I have to get to work. I'll see you guys around!"

"Wait! Mingi! Before you go..."

Mingi looked at you curiously.

"My name is Doh Y/N. It's nice to meet you."

Mingi smiled and nodded in acknowledgement as an indication that he will indeed remember your name. As he left your home, his thoughts were nothing except you. When he entered his office, he couldn't concentrate on his work.

All he could do was think about you.

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

It had been a few months since your first encounters with each other. You two slowly became friends as you got to know each other a bit more. Mingi learned that Kyungsoo, your dead husband, was murdered by someone else as he was coming home from work one night.

The man that killed Kyungsoo also killed Mingi's own wife.

In the end, the two were nothing more than victims of the Namhae Strongman.

The neighborhood knew of the death of Mingi's wife and the death of Kyungsoo, yet for some odd reason, people gave the two of you different treatments. Mingi received sympathy while you received accusations.

Oh how life can be so bitter.

However, you fought through it and you leaned on Mingi and Wooyoung for support. Mainly Mingi.

It was the weekend and Wooyoung was playing with Song Minhee, the only daughter of Mingi. While the two were running around, the two of you were sitting on the couch in a comfortable silence. Your head was on his shoulder while his arm was secured around your waist. You were mindlessly playing with the rings on his fingers when you looked up at him.

"Any updates from your little brother?"

Mingi's brother was the cop in charge of helping the detectives investigate the string of deaths that the Namhae Strongman left behind, including Mingi's wife and Kyungsoo. Mingi shook his head.

"Sadly, no. The killer is apparently good at covering his tracks, which is ironic since he's depicted as a huge man with easily recognizable arms."

You hummed in acknowledgement to his response. You were disappointed yet not surprised.

"I hope they catch him soon."

"I hope so too."

Another silence filled the air once again but it was only temporary before Mingi spoke up this time.

"Can I tell you something, Y/N?"

You lifted your head and nodded. Mingi sighed quietly before speaking.

"It's been a few months since I met you. And it's definitely been a few months since I stood up for you that one time. I've never felt closer to anyone other than my wife. However, the more I'm around you, the more I realize that you and I have a bond that no one can compare to or break. Sure, our union exists due to our spouses being dead, but I feel like it's beyond that. I feel like I've known you my entire life and... well... is it wrong of me to say that I fell in love with you?"

You shook your head.

"I don't know... maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. I don't want you to think that I'm using you to fill the void my wife left when she died. However, knowing her, she'd want me to move on. And believe me. I've tried. I gave up at some point but then you came along. I feel like, in a way, she sent you to me. You're like a guardian angel to me."

"And you're definitely my savior."

Mingi's eyes widened upon hearing your revelation.

"Ever since Kyungsoo's death, I've felt lost. And alone. No one stood by my side and everyone tried to blame me for his death. How stupid are they to think that?! I know I'm not a good wife but still... it hurts so much knowing people still blame me for his death! I... I just-"

Mingi shushed you by bringing you into a much-needed hug and reassuring you that you aren't a terrible wife and that it wasn't your fault that Kyungsoo died. The Namhae Strongman simply just made everyone's lives miserable due to his murderous actions. As he held you close, he couldn't help but to kiss the top of your head and tighten his hold on you.

"Listen. The authorities will make sure that this killer is behind bars so we will finally get justice and closure. My brother is good at his job. The killer will be brought to justice. I can guarantee that."

His firm words of reassurance brought you comfort in this hard time and you held onto him like he was your lifeline. If you let go, he would disappear from your grasp.

After a few minutes have passed, the two of you pulled away but not entirely. You stared into each other's eyes, and before you could speak, Mingi removed the shawl covering your face and slowly leaned in. You found yourself leaning in as well but before your lips met, Mingi whispered something.

"Tell if you want to stop and I will. But just to let you know, I've been dreaming about you and I've been itching to remove that shawl from your face so I could bask in your beauty. However, if you think this is too fast, I will back up and we can remain friends."

"No no. It's ok, Mingi. Like you, I feel the same way. I'm not trying to use you to fill the void that Kyungsoo left behind but knowing him, he'd want me to move on. As I said. You're my savior."

"Well then... now that it's established, may I kiss you?"

"Yes. You may."

Mingi captured your lips in a desperate yet passionate kiss. He held your waist and pulled you close to him while you removed the glasses he was wearing from his face and had your hands all over him. One hand was in his messy black hair and tugging on the strands while the other hand fisted the white silk button up he was wearing.

Before it could go any further, Mingi pulled away. You both were breathing heavily, and both of your lips were swollen. Mingi caressed your cheek and you blushed from the contact, still feeling flustered about this entire situation.

"Y/N. I know we just confessed to each other and all that, but if we are to start something, let's take it slow. We're both still hurting and I don't want us to use each other as a rebound."

You nodded in agreement and kissed his cheek.

"Ok. I can do that."

Mingi smiled and put on his glasses before intertwining your hand with his.

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

It had been a while since the two of you had confessed to each other and shared a loving kiss yet the two of you were going strong. Mingi was taking it slow and respecting your boundaries, to which you loved.

However, he would also take things to the next level, to which you didn't mind.

From wild makeout sessions in almost every corner of the house that you two share (he asked you to move in with him since Minhee took a liking to you) to public displays from affection that ranged from holding hands to him smacking your ass and grabbing it so people know that you two were serious.

All of that left you riled up and wanting more. You just didn't know if he would feel the same way.

On top of that, you made some new friends along the way. You met Mingi's best friend Yunho, Wooyoung's other best friend named Yeosang, who worked as a barista, and Mingi's cousin, who was Yunho's boyfriend.

You also met Yunho's three daughters. Yumi, Yunju, and Chanmi. Apparently, they were sent to Mingi's place to spend the night one time since Yunho wanted to be alone with his boytoy. You didn't mind it since you loved seeing little Minhee interact with the Jeong sisters.

Seeing that interaction alone made you realize that you wanted something more with Mingi.

Perhaps you were ready to take your relationship to that next level.

Hence, the sit-down talk with Mingi about how you felt. To your surprise, Mingi felt the same way. He just wasn't sure if you'd be up for it. Seeing as how you two are on the same page, you took a page out of Yunho's book and asked Yunho if he could let Minhee spend the night at his place.

With a teasing and knowing look, Yunho happily allowed Minhee to spend the night at his place so she could play more with the Jeong girls.

It was now nighttime and the two of you were holed up in Mingi's room, making out fiercely and desperately. The riled up sexual tension spilled over and it definitely showed. With the way you were grinding desperately against him and the deep groans he would let out, it's safe to say that the both of you needed each other.

Craved each other's touch.

As you shoved each other's clothes off of your bodies, Mingi carried you in his arms and readjusted your positions so you were sitting on top of his bare chest.

"Tell me something, babe. Have you ever ridden someone's face before?"

His deep voice caused shivers to go down your spine and you shook your head. He chuckled deeply before tapping your hip, indicating that you should move towards his face so you could sit on it. As you lowered yourself onto his face, you stopped momentarily and Mingi sighed deeply before grabbing your hips and lowering yourself even more.

"When I say sit on face, I mean fucking sit on it. Like a fucking chair."

His deep voice rumbled throughout the room before it was muffled by your wet pussy. You didn't get a chance to speak as a loud moan escaped your mouth due to feeling Mingi's tongue licking a stripe up your clit before licking your folds and shoving his tongue straight into your wet hole.

Your head was thrown back and you grabbed onto his hair for support as you felt your hips move back and forth. His hands were on your ass, keeping you in place and occasionally smacking it.

"W-Wait! Mingi! Let me pleasure you as well-"

A loud squeak was heard from you when you felt one of his hands slap your pussy. His fingers directly hit your clit and it sent new waves of pleasure throughout your body.

"No. Just keep riding my face, baby. God your pussy is a fever dream. I want more."

As he dove back in, your moans increased and your hips moved back and forth faster than before. Mingi slapped your pussy a few more times before his hands reached up to cup your boobs. He massaged them with his huge hands, rolling your nipples in between two fingers and pulling on them.

"Fuck, Mingi! I'm gonna cu-"

He interrupted you by lifting you off his face and flipping you onto your stomach so your ass was in the air. He smacked both cheeks a few times before grabbing his huge cock and pumping it a few times. The tip touched your folds lightly and you let out a mewl due to the touch.

"Please, Mingi... please!"

"Baby girl, I got you."

He entered you slowly and groaned at the way your tight walls were stretching around his cock.

"Fuck, baby. You're so fucking tight. Fuck!"

As he bottomed out, he reached down and grabbed you by the hair before yanking you by it so he can see you.

He almost came just from looking at your fucked out face.

He placed a messy kiss on your lips before shoving you back down into the mattress and mapping out the expanse of your back with his palm.

"I'm going to move now."

You expected him to start slow so you could get adjusted to his size.

Imagine the look on your face when you felt his thrusts go at a medium pace.

He truly didn't want to waste time.

As he held your hips and hit it from the back, both of you groaned in unison. Your walls hugged his cock deliciously and he kept up the pace. When you asked to go harder, he didn't deny it. His thrusts became harder and harder with each passing minute. Your moans were so loud that you were sure you would get a noise complaint.

Good thing the walls are thick.

Mingi hit a particular spot that made you arch your back and he decided to make it better by reaching his hand down so his fingers could rub your clit at a rapid pace. The contact made you squeal and he chuckled darkly before leaning down to whisper dirty words in your ear.

"You like that? You like the way I'm touching you? Yeah I know you do, pretty baby. Fuck you're squeezing me so much. I love it. God I love you so fucking much!"

"I LOVE YOU TOO, MINGI! FUCK! I'M CUMMING! I'M CUMMING!"

"Cum all over this cock. Squirt all over it. I want to feel you come undone like this. Where do you want me? Hmm?"

"INSIDE! CUM INSIDE!"

"You want me inside? You want me to fill you up with my cum? Hmm?"

"PLEASE! FILL ME! FILL ME!"

"Fuck! With the way you beg, I might just do it. Fuck! Here it comes. Take my load."

With one final thrust, he emptied all of his seed into you while you squirted all over his cock. The sensation got him moaning like a pornstar as he still inside you. Once he felt that everything was drained from his balls, he pulled out slowly and groaned at the way his semen was dripping out from your quivering hole. He plunged two fingers inside you and you moaned weakly.

"Mingi, too much... I can't-"

"I know, baby. I just want my cum to stay inside you."

After shoving his cum back into you, he pulled his fingers out and laid down next to you. He pulled you close to him as you two got under the covers. The two of you started into each other's eyes.

Eyes filled with love.

"My guardian angel."

"My savior."

Eventually, the two of you fell asleep in each other's arms, knowing that you would keep each other warm and safe.

You found your peace within him.

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez fanfic #ateez x reader #ateez smut #mirohsaurorasociety

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sugar-plum-writer · 10 months ago

Text

The Serene Peony Of Winter

Paring: Sukuna!King of Curses x Fem!Geisha Reader, A chapter by chapter series.

Tags: Slight! mention of violence; Fem!reader; Sukuna!imagines; will be 18+ as more chapters come; slow!burn, an ancient Japan romance through time with darling reader~

[If you all like it, please heart and reblog to know you want to read more~ and follow for chapter updates! I will do my best to roll out UPDATES ASAP!]

CHAPTER― 1

A chilling gust of wind howled past, like the cry of a ghost, freezing in the winter night, it was quiet, too quiet. Utterly pin-drop-silent― the moon peaked through your windows as you sat on your tatami mat facing your desk, a single candle on your table illuminated the room, though a small section at least you could see nonetheless.

In front of you sat the Oka-san of the Okiya House you had lived your life in and will even die in, who has raised you, and is the person who currently owns your life. She made you the Geisha you are today, sure life was hard but well at least better than rotting in a ditch.

"Y/n, do you know why I personally came to your room late at night?", staring at your face, she blew her pipe

"I came because"― a sigh escaped, as she tapped her fingers, "You will be entertaining a guest, a guest who you would not even be able to get a peak off" She paused carefully wording her next sentence and leaned in speaking words only for you and her to hear

"The King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna", the calm demeanor changed as she put her pipe away, her eyes shaking, cold sweat dripping down her brows as she dug her nails into the tatami mat

Air froze, the moon hid, silence filled the room, you stared at her― lips parted― shook to your core.

"Ryomen Sukuna!?", your eyes widen in horror wondering if this is even real, you frantically grab your teapot and directly drink the tea from it― it burned your throat, something you would never do as a Geisha, but it did not matter.

"Hush!", she hissed and she covered your mouth with her palm, "Yes him"

"Have you finally lost your Mind Oka-san!? You are crazy!? You know it's forbidden, we take bribes from the sorcerers to keep an eye out for curses! and entertain sorcerers exclusively", removing her palm from your mouth, you look her in the eyes, angry, panicked, a mixture of emotions

"Oh, shut up, you are overreacting", biting her lip, she puffs her pipe

"You think I would not think twice without planning?", she snorted

"You saw the two bodies today that were taken out of the Okiya?", she took a sharp breath, slamming her hands on the table― eyes staring into yours

"He did it, he killed them, you think I can say no to him? I might be old, but the old lady still values her neck. I am no fool", puffing her pipe she caressed her neck

"You―", biting your lip, as you tried to refute her words, "What about me? What if I die?", clenching your jaw, you slammed your hand on the table

"He is, Ryomen Sukuna― The King of Curses, Worshipped as a God, you think I will even live past 2 seconds?"

"We are just a small Okiya in this isolated prefecture, getting by Y/n, for him to even find us is one in a million chance― think about it", her eyes gleamed with excitement

"If you do manage to garner his attention, in the couple hours you spend with him, our lives will change― the local sorcerers do give us money but can it compare to a drop of what, he will give", her eyes looked neurotic, as a chuckle escaped from her mouth

Your head hung low, as the words sunk in, after all, she was correct. It was true, the glamorous outlook of the Okiya is just hollow, the amount of money needed to raise future ladies, supply servants, and every drop of gold that glistens, all have a price.

"Y/n, price― one needs to pay, even laughter has a price you know? After all, you yourself have seen, the value of gold, if your skills manage to amuse him, he stays for even 5 min, It will be an achievement"

The faint scent of herbs lingered in the air, as silence drowned in the room, candlelight flickering, a choice must be made, what path will you choose dear y/n?

"I-", you pause as you raise your head

"I will meet him, I will, make him stay, so what if he is the King of Curses? I will use all I have got", looking her in the eyes, clenching your fist― trying to steel yourself as you look her in the eyes.

"You really are, a true Geisha"

"But- what if someone finds out?", your throat felt dry as you look at her

"You will meet him only at night, mornings will be rare, don't worry", taking another puff she looks at you calmly

"I will take care of it if needed, I will stitch the lips of the servants with a needle if needed to keep their mouths shut", she smiled, how can she say such words and smile so beautifully is beyond you

"Now prepare yourself, here, based on what I felt from him, I made a note of him, read it", digging deep into her bosom, she took out a small scroll, slid it on the table towards you, and walked out

"A man of dominance, a man of cruelty, a man beyond human that is what he is, give him an experience beyond humanity"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The moon stood in the sky, somehow all visible, as if waiting in expectation, agape, to witness this. It gossiped with the wind, the stars, and your eyes.

You sat, dressed up, wearing your black Kuromontsuki, only worn for special occasions. Adorned with silken embroidery white and gold colored threads, blending, mixing into a crane as clouds surround and flow with the flowers. Your hair is in a Geiko Shimada, adorned with flowers, rouge on your cheeks, and lips blood red.

With your eyes gazing at the tatami mat, quietly, contemplating if this will be the last time you ever see yourself breathing

Tut, tut, tut

The doors open, to the lavish private room, silks, and wine kept. Scrolls of paintings adorned the room.

"I, Y/n greet, Ryomen Sukuna-sama"

gaze not daring to look up you keep it low

"I hope your journey was not too tiring, if I may be allowed so, shall I pour you a cup of tea?"

Rasing your head up, you look at him

"So this, is The Serene Peony of Winter? Y/n?"

A deep chuckle escaped, eyes chilling you to the bone, looked deep into yours, without even undressing you felt stripped naked, exposed so vulnerable, you wanted to run to hide and pretend its a bad dream but―

The scent of winter, and the silky fabric around you, felt too real to think of as a dream.

Footnote: Check out masterlist for all chapters!

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ranhaitanisgf · 10 months ago

Note

AAA CONGRATS ON GETTING 2K FOLLOWERS!! 😭🥰 and thank you for the event! it looks fun :0 can i request rindou haitani + enemies/rivals to lovers + stuck together or 7 mins in heaven please? i cant choose between the moments so i’ll leave that one up to you if that’s okay :0 headcanons please! i don’t have anything specific that i wanna add for this request, so i hope this gives you more wiggle room to write how you want it to go ☺️ thank you and congrats again!! ❤️

—rindou haitani // enemies to lovers // stuck together

☆ ˎˊ˗ little rindou moment . i do not have much to add on to this, so enjoy !! xoxo

☆ ˎˊ˗ wc ; 1.0k+

☆ ˎˊ˗ gn!reader

masterlist || 2k masterlist

“just so you know, this is entirely your fault.”

“my fault?! how the hell is an elevator shutting down, my fault?! do you think i spoke to god for a second and said, ‘hey, can you make this elevator stop working right now?’” you argued, sarcasm thick in your voice as you spoke. rindou shrugged nonchalantly, a look of boredom in his eyes.

“who knows? maybe you’re one of those kinds of people.”

“i am not, for your information! if anything, this is your fault! if you can recall with your idiotically small brain, you’ll remember that you’re the one who asked for a favor! from me! on a weekend! i should be financially compensated for this!” you exclaimed, pointing a finger in accusation at the boy sitting next to you. “i should still be sleeping right now!! it’s 5 in the damn morning! what was this favor you needed, anyways?!”

“jeez, you’re so loud.” was all rindou responded with, making you even more frustrated with him. you decided not to respond though, just letting out an angry sigh as the two of you waited for the maintenance people to get you out of the elevator.

the silence hanging over the two of you in the elevator wasn’t tense, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either. honestly though, you didn’t really care about whatever rindou wanted, you were just pissed that he was somehow trying to pin this situation on you.

what have you ever done to him?! literally nothing. you even had the decency to come all the way over to roppongi at 5am to see what he needed help with, even though he always acts like you’re just an annoying thorn in his side. you get that he’s emotionally stunted, but seriously, what was up with him?

a knock from outside the elevator door brought you out of your thoughts, instead bringing hope that you would finally be out of this elevator soon.

“hello! we are the maintenance crew for this building, and we will get you out shortly! sorry for the inconvenience!”

“don’t worry about it; thank you!” you called back, relieved. you stood up from your spot on the floor, stretching a bit since you had been sitting for a while. “ugh, thank god! i’m so hungry, i could eat a three-course meal right or somethin’...” rindou continued sitting on the floor, the same stoic expression on his face as the two of you waited for the elevator to open up. he was a bit more quiet than usual, but you wrote it off as him also being tired, (who wouldn’t be tired at this early time?).

“oh yeah, but seriously, what’s the favor you need? if it’s gonna take long, i wanna get breakfast first.” you asked, a bit more curious as to what favor he was going to be asking of you.

“you’ll see when we get there.”

“man, stingy…you can’t even tell me how long it’s gonna take?”

“no.” you frowned at his answer but decided to let it go for now.

after a few minutes, you sat back down, wondering how long it was going to take to open the elevator. you wanted to ask the people outside, but you didn’t want them to feel like you were rushing them, so you just sat and waited, feeling a bit awkward with rindou.

looking at him from the side, you couldn’t deny that he was beautiful. he would probably kill you if he ever heard you say that about him, but in your mind, it was true. it was the first word that came to mind whenever you saw him, no matter how much of an ass he was being in the moment. his tanned skin suited him well, providing a contrast from his blonde and baby blue hair, which always seemed to frame his face damn near perfectly. how was that even possible? there hadn’t ever been a time when you’d seen him look bad, which sometimes made you wonder if he was from another world.

“you done?” rindou asked, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“hm? what?”

“you’re staring at me; it’s creepy.” you scoffed at his words, immediately remembering his personality.

“yeah, my mistake. you would be prettier if you weren’t such an ass, y’know.” you cringed a moment after you spoke, realizing that your words probably just gave him a major ego boost.

however, when your gaze cautiously found him again, all you could see was his flushed cheeks and that he was looking away.

huh? no way…

you reached your hand out, poking his cheek.

“hey, what’s wrong? look over here.” he continued ignoring you, which made you just want to mess with him even more. “hey. hey. yoohoo.” with each word, you poked his cheek, finding amusement in the growing annoyance in rindou’s face.

when you went to poke him again, his arm suddenly shot up, hand grabbing your wrist right before your finger was going to poke his cheek.

“stop.”

“hmm…?” you could hear the threatening tone of his voice, but all you could see were his red ears. “if i didn’t know any better, i would almost say that you’re maybe…oh, i don’t know, embarrassed? flustered?” at your words, he let go of your wrist instantly.

“whatever…” rindou muttered, turning his head even farther away from you.

you paused for a moment, wondering if you’d gone too far with the teasing. there was no way, right? ran definitely poked and prodded at his younger brother more than you did, so why was he acting like this?

well, you suppose that you can make it your problem.

you leaned your head to the side, resting it on his shoulder as you let out a sigh. you held back a smile as you felt rindou suddenly tense up, his head finally turning back towards your direction, (you found it impressive that he had managed to sulk for as long as he did).

“you’re so emotionally stunted.”

“shut the hell up.”

(the ‘favor’ was having breakfast on the rooftop, but you didn’t end up getting out of the elevator until noon).

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dreamescapeswriting · 1 year ago

Text

Smutober Day 17 ~ Demon ~ Min Yoongi [M]

WORD COUNT: 0.9k

PAIRING: Yoongi x Fem !Reader

GENRE: established relationships, minors DNI, demon sex, TRIGGER WARNING spanking, aftercare, crying, Yoongi caring for reader

⤜Copyright: © DreamEscapesWriting - Smutober 2023

⤜MASTERLIST

"You're doing it wrong," Yoongi told you as he watched you adding more flour than needed into the bowl you were using. He shook his head a little, all of this would be going much simpler if you let him take over but you were adamant that you could do it.

"I don't see you helping." You grumbled at him, rolling your eyes at your boyfriend who chose to be a backseat driver...Or rather a backseat baker in this case.

This whole thing had been his idea anyway, baking cookies so that the two of you could eat warm cookies and watch some Halloween movie he'd been dying to see for weeks.

"Because the last time I helped, you said, and this is a direct quote-" Yoongi cleared his throat before smirking to himself thinking that he was pretty clever for what he was about to do,

"You can't use that demon shit in this house," Your voice came from his throat and you stared at him and shook your head. You didn't hate when he used his powers, just when he did it to cheat his way out of things. Like doing the housework or killing off your really annoying neighbour - who really did deserve what happened to him.

"We agreed you'd try and do things human like this week," You reminded him, stirring in some more milk into the mixture before the spoon was lifted from your hands and put into the sink by Yoongi's invisible powers.

"You're such a dick," You grumbled before giving up on the mixture completely. If he wasn't going to take this seriously then you saw no point in sticking around him, you shook your head and headed for the kitchen door. Yoongi wasn't against using his demonic powers against you, the whole point of him having them was so that he could use them.

But the second you were in the living room about to walk past the sofa he used them to bend you over the back of the sofa and pulled down your pants all without touching you.

"What are you doing!?" You cried out watching as he walked into the room with a devilish smirk plastered across his face, you hated that look.

"I'm punishing you." He chuckled a little watching as your legs moved around as you tried to fight back against the invisible pull he had on you.

"Why?!"

"Because you called me a mean name," You resisted the urge to roll your eyes knowing that it would only prolong this punishment that he was going to give to you.

It was bad enough that Yoongi showed no mercy when he was punishing you, if you misbehaved in any way he would have you bent over his knee or any surface that he saw fit.

"You're such a naughty little bitch," He seethed as he stood behind you, looking down at your ass as he felt his cock grow harder at the sight of you all ready for him.

"Yoongi," You whined trying to wriggle off the sofa but his powers held you in place,

"What's wrong? I thought you liked it when I pinned you down with my powers." He chuckles deeply as your whole body flammed,

"You're going to count for me," He instructed you before rolling the sleeves of his shirt up,

"Why? You don't know how?" You asked sarcastically before you could stop yourself,

"That's four now, do I need to make it more?" He snarled at you, staring at you with a hard glare. Your teeth sunk into your bottom lip and your eyes watered a little but you shook your head.

"Every time you miss one, I'll start over." He warned you as he came closer to you, his hand appearing larger than usual, thanks to his abilities he could change any part of his body he wanted which usually you enjoyed thoroughly but not now.

Yoongi inhaled sharply before he flicked his wrist, landing a hard slap against your ass cheek as you hissed a little,

"O-One." You sniffled a little, your lip shaking a little as you squeezed your eyes tightly shut. The two of you had safe words in place and you knew you could handle this but for some reason, the pain was a little too much tonight,

"Colour?"Yoongi questioned noticing that you were crying,

"Green." You mumbled before another sharp slap was placed on your other cheek, your hips bucked against the sofa and you cried out.

"TWO!" You screamed out, gripping onto the sofa as you whimpered his name a little,

Smack!

This time it stung more and you sniffled more, tears were built up in your eyes now.

"Three!" Tears rolled down your cheek as you waited for the last one to come but it never arrived. Instead, your body went limp and you slid down the back of the sofa, almost sitting on the floor but hissing out as your ass came into contact with the floor. Yoongi was quick to help you up and take you onto the sofa though, laying you flat on your stomach before a cooling cream was placed on your ass,

"I thought you knew your safe word,"

"I could handle it." You grumbled as he massaged some of the cream into your skin, trying not to push too hard on your ass.

"Not if it's making you cry like that," He whipped, kissing your shoulder blade.

"I'll get food and snacks, we can just lay down now." He told you before you sniffled, nodding and watching as he rushed toward the kitchen.

Tagline: @chiisaiblog@sw33tnight @kaitieskidmore97 @stayconnecteed @saymyspringrain @laylasbunbunny @tinyoonsblog @whitefoxgirl @katnisspeetaprim @acciocriativity @just-aelia @minhosify @choisoorin @straykids5star @heyjiminnie@beccaskz @scarletemeterio @btsiguess-kpop @halesandy

#bts #bts x reader #bts imagine #bts imagines #bts smut #min yoongi #yoongi #yoongi x reader #yoongi imagine #yoongi imagines #yoongi smut #min yoongi x reader #min yoongi imagine #min yoongi imagines #min yoongi smut

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jeonginsdiary · 7 months ago

Note

Hey so for tktober can I please request prompts 3, 19, 27 with Lee Seungmin with a ler of your choice? I'm kinda in a ler mood rn and really wanna see him get super wrecked.🥺🥺😚😚 It's totally fine if that's too many prompts or you don't wanna write it. Love your work so so much!! Have a great day!!💖💖💖

- tickletober day 17

- interrogation

- lee! seungmin | ler! minho

- (please watch this video before reading to get an idea of how seungmin was pinned!)

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“aww, does this tickle?” minho cooed like it was some kind of interrogation, seungmin thrashing violently in his grip. he currently had the younger under him, arms pinned with one hand while the other clawed at his vulnerable tummy. the vocalist tried kicking out but found it nearly impossible considering lee know’s legs which wrapped around his own.

“YEHEHEHEHEHEHEHES!!” the boy managed to cackle out in response, trying to bring his arms down but finding his attempts fruitless.

he managed to lower his pinned wrists just a bit, but the dancer pulled them right back up. “so tell me, do you think it’s funny to nearly kill me!?”

to set things clear, all seungmin had done was made a tiny sacrifice. chan was in one of his moods. one where he would tickle any member in sight to pieces. now, seungmin knew he was the next victim and he couldn’t help but call an unsuspecting minho to take his place. well, it’s obvious what the outcome was…

but nonetheless, seungmin arched his back weakly and dug his feet into the sofa “NOHOHOHOHOHO I’M SAHAHAHAHAHARRY!” he cried, desperate to get away from the older’s tickling fingers which were now wiggling into his exposed armpits.

lee know grinned. “don’t you think this deserves a little punishment?” he asked the vocalist in a sweet tone, cocking a brow after receiving a giggly “no!” in return. he moved his hand back down, and clawed at the boy’s belly again, knowing how desperate it made the younger. “there’s no escape min, why don’t you tell me your worst spot~” he cooed in a singsong voice, halting his attack as he waited for an answer.

“nooo! you already know it, don’t play dumb hyu—AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAH STAHAHAHAHAP!!” he was thrown into another round of hysterics when lee know vibrated his fingers back into his stomach “OH MY GAHAHAHAHAHAD! STAP DOING THAHAHAT!” seungmin threw his head back with a giggly scream.

“then why don’t you tell me your spot, huh?” the dancer stretched the boy’s hands up higher and dug back into his pits.

the vocalist shrieked. “STAHAHAHAHAHAP TOUCHING MY AHAHAHAHARMPITS!!” seungmin whined, trying to twist around but finding himself stuck in lee know’s grip.

“oh?” the older hummed. “would you rather i tickled your feet?” he questioned, loving seungmin’s panicked eyes and high pitched laughter.

the younger blushed at the thought. “NOHOHOHO PLEASE DOHOHOHOHON’T—AAAGHHHAHAHAHAHAHHH!!” he let out the most deafening shriek he could muster when minho poked into his navel, using his index finger to wiggle around mercilessly. “IM SAHAHAHARRY!!” seungmin managed to choke out before he shook with silent laughter, trying his best to pull his arms down but being way too weak to do so.

the older noticed this and giggled at his efforts. “keep your arms up! you know you won’t be able to get them down anyways~”

all seungmin could do was arch his back, dig his socked feet into the cushions, and throw his head back crazily, mouth wide open but no sound coming out.

“you’re cute.” the older couldn’t help but tease, letting the boy go and pushing a hand through seungmin’s messy hair.

“i hate you…” the vocalist groaned, leaning into minho’s side and dozing off. he was getting a serious wrecking for that later…

—————

should i make another fic when chan gets minho??

#kpop tickle #stray kids #stray kids tickle #tickletober

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whatifyoulivelikethat · 2 years ago

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monster - haegeum, m | myg, jjk

pairing(s): yoongi x reader x jungkook

summary: Mafia boss Min Yoongi. Bodyguard Jeon Jungkook. And the weapon. The monster. The violent creation of the shadow king. You.

please, read the following.

As you can see, this is not the story. This is your warning. Only this post should be tagged / reblogged and not the actual post. This is intentional.

Some of you have read the 'monster' AU. The 'monster' AU is based off the world within the Daechwita MV. It was also written back then, in 2020. What many of you don't know is that the three parts on this blog (part i | part ii | part iii) are only some of the sex scenes of a much larger story. Mhm. I have never posted 'monster' in full anywhere. It would be misconstrued and misunderstood too easily. It is not for unprepared souls.

The gist of the story is that black-haired mafia boss Min Yoongi wants to kill the blond-haired Mad King, and he does.

I often get requests to revisit this AU.

My original intent was to not write anything more. I thought about taking the posts down at one point, as they are technically parts to an incomplete story I will never publish on here. Eventually, I decided to just let it be. People enjoy guilty pleasures. As long as you have your head straight and know this isn't real.

If there was any time to revisit these three, well, it would be after the release of Haegeum, wouldn't it?

Again, this is your warning. The following is not for the faint of heart. I am not holding back. If you click forward, that means you have read the following warnings below and you still wish to proceed. You know what you are getting yourself into. This is violence. This is insanity. This is 'monster' and there is no redeeming them.

Remember, everything is fiction. Read the disclaimer in my masterpost.

warnings: rated M (18+) for language; premeditated killing and mass death with all three contributing; graphic descriptions of murder; blood; gun + knife violence; arson > explosion; thievery (money); mentions of reader placed in solitary confinement as punishment; physical abuse; sociopathic and manipulative behaviors; intense smut (fem reader, threesome, unprotected penetrative sex [reader is medically sterile], restrained [arms pinned down], choking with leather collar and with hand, heavy bite / scratching / bruising, stimulation to climax with the handle of a switchblade and said closed switchblade inserted into reader's vagina; reader being spit on and licked degradingly; cum-covered switchblade and later fingers in JK's mouth by Yoongi; standing sex, standing doggy, multiple orgasms, creampie, overstimulation, m-masturbation onto reader's face); non-idol!AU - mafiaaboss!AgustD!Yoongi (long black-haired Daechwita/Haegeum AU), longhaired!tattooed!bodyguard!Jungkook; mercenary!reader; m/m tension between them; JK has a praise kink; you have a pain kink

This is after the death of the Mad King.

Now, Min Yoongi has all of South Korea within his clutches, puppeteering the dirty money that goes in and out of this country. The underground ruler of the inhumane ruthlessly takes out anyone that is stupid enough to step forward and challenge his rule. Oh, they will always come, their greed tempted by the prosperous forbidden fruit flourishing in the darkness. Foolishly thinking, ah, but who could stop me? After all, no one knows who the shadow king really is – not until they are already locked within the fangs of death.

by proceeding, you are verifying that you have read all warnings.

masterpost

#yoongi x reader #jungkook x reader #bts smut #yoonkook x reader #bts mafia au #yoonkook smut #yoongi smut #jungkook smut #yoonkook x you #jungkook x you #min yoongi x reader #jeon jungkook x you

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thevexinator · 1 month ago

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My Thoughts On DrDT.

spoilers below.

I've seen very differing opinions on this topic. I will give my opinion on what chapter 2 did good/bad after watching episode 16. As of the time I'm writing this, it's 9:36pm CET.

For Danganronpa: Despair Time as a whole, I absolutely love how it's written. Compared to many other fangans I've seen, DT feels more realistic in a sense. The characters feel very real. Compared to the other fangans I've seen, the characters of DT feel a lot more human. Their talents feel very tame yet are interesting enough to make every character stand out individually. The very flaws of the characters make them feel very human. They aren't downplayed or overexaggerated, falling on the perfect middle ground. Although I feel wrong for saying this, Despair Time honestly feels like the most reality-based fangan out of all of the ones I have personally seen.

First of, Teruko. I have seen so many people wrag on this girl when she has every right to be distrustful of everyone else, especially considering what has happened thus far. I have to give a compliment to her voice actor. In the media I regularly consume, I have rarely heard rage so raw and pure like I have coming from Teruko, especially in chapter 2. Her character means a lot to me, as someone who has vaguely similar views to her.

I have no comments about the prologue. I have very little to say, as it's an introduction to the cast, their personalities on a surface level, and the standard Danganronpa prologue stuff. Chapter 1 is by far among my favorite chapters from any fangan to date.

This chapter really puts into perspective that murder can have any motivation. The motivation here is the most realistic. Min acted out of fear. She was under the impression that Xander was going to kill her. She saw Teruko (presumably) dead on the ground and acted with the intention of defending herself. It was despicable that she tried to pin her crime on Teruko, and I will not defend her on that note, but her actions against Xander could have some justification: she felt that her life was in danger.

Her breakdown and execution shattered my heart. From the very breakdown to her death, she had been humiliated with failure. As someone who relates to her (an unhealthy amount), this execution broke me. We have seen other characters fit the archetype of the golden child, but in my opinion, two have done it best: Min Jeung and Mafuyu Asahina.

Chapter 1 really sold me on the realistic part of everything. Very few have sympathy for Min for what she's done. They call Teruko irrational because they simply can not understand why she's suddenly pissed (and rightfully so) and everyone when it was Xander and Min who broke her trust. They sympathized with Xander when he was the aggressor in the situation.

Chapter 2 so far has been pretty tense. I've seen people (admittedly, myself included) saying that everyone went off the hinge too quickly. Thinking back now, how could they not? Their lives are literally at stake. Of course, they're going to distrust one another. I think Ace's motivation for killing is the most logical one I've ever seen: he wanted to kill before someone else could kill him. Everyone wants to go back to their lives. Some people don't vare how many have to die in order to reach freedom. After all, everyone else is a stranger. Their family is waiting for them on the other side. They have to escape... but so do the other participants.

That's my thoughts for now. I will add more tomorrow when I finish episode 16.

As of writing, it is 8:46am. I watched the episode an hour ago, but I needed time to digest everything that happened.

I've seen a lot of people hate on chapter 2. I understand why. I will emphasize that I am not hating on the developer. This chapter took so long, and I am ashamed to say that I find myself in the middle of the opinions for this chapter. I don't outright hate it, but I don't like it either. The chapter feels rushed, like things have happened too quickly. I mainly find issue with the pacing of the chapter.

The writing is still phenomenal. I think it mainly centers on my opinion that Despair Time is realistic. The voice acting is amazing, the characters are beautifully written, and the execution is unexpected but not unwelcome. Most people have expected an Ace execution involving horses, as did I, but I think the one he ended up with was much better. Unlike Min, whose underlying motive was her intelligence, Ace's underlying motive was fear. The fact that he died from cardiac arrest induced by fear is fitting. The entire time he lived, he was afraid.

Teruko... oh my God, Teruko. I stand by what I said that she's the peak of danganronpa main characters. Her emotions are so raw and genuine. Her internal debate is phenomenal. I find it very sad that her behavior parallels chapter 1. There, she was the first to leave... now, she's the last to stay.

Levi is by far my favorite character in terms of writing, second only to Teruko. He's apathetic. He knows and acknowledges that he can't feel for other people. But man... he's tried saving other people twice so far. On one hand, there's hope that he could learn to sympathize with everyone else. On the other hand, his behavior could simply be automated. Like MonoTV, Levi has coded himself to act like he cares for others without feeling anything for them. Like a robot, he does his duty without really thinking about it.

That's it for now. I'll probably post another analysis like this another time.

#danganronpa despair time #drdt #vexs usual yapping

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googledetective · 1 year ago

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the theories that have been presented on this cast + one of my own :)

I do want to mention that I strongly believe this is a prequel due to a conversation I had with a bunch of people on discord earlier. (Everyone was 16+, dw.)

I haven’t seen anything about the first two at all so far, so I’ll be skipping over them and onto the third guy (oh my fucking lord).

(Also this post from @nesisamess helped a lot)

Staring onto the third dude,

(both posts are made by @zitherwaifuus :)

It seems that here this guy has some sort of relationship to XF-Future Tech, which if you’ve seen Min’s side story, you’d know is the company that came into her life and groomed her to be the Ultimate Student. She received special tutoring for them and worked her ass off for that title her entire life because of that. Next, this guy shares the same tie pin she does, and it’s also very notable that she dresses up with the same button down and tie in her MV. Not only do I think she is linked to the company now, but she might be working there before she was in the game. Who knows, though.

Next, I have not seen anything on the fourth girl besides a bunch of people on discord theorizing what the dandelion in her hair could mean. Unfortunately dandelions have different meanings from different cultures all over the world, so until it’s specified about where she’s from, I don’t think there’s many assumptions we can make yet.

Number Five, the purple guy.

Everyone seems to think so far that this is Elliot Cuevas, Charles Cuevas’s deceased brother. Now let me tell you that although I can’t see it based off design, the way he looks (playful and kinda weird but happy) and the way he was described by the creator in the latest qna (a popular joyous dude), can definitely make me see this being real. The only thing that is super far fetched about this is that we know he died a long time ago, and so if this is a prequel, it would have to be at least 15 years before drdt even starts.

Here’s also some more evidence from @sunlit-haru supporting the ‘that’s Elliot’ theory.

Now we’re up to the protagonist, who mind you is definitely my favorite so far. I will eliminate the rest of you protag dickriders so I will be the only simp left.

ANYWAYS, in the about page for this, it’s stated that this is a fangan for someone who wants to be the perfect teacher. Now with the hidden quote on the drdt tumblr page about this teacher…

( @demodraws0606 ‘s post)

Uh oh. I think we’ve figured out who this mysterious teacher might be. As for who is talking to them, I’ve personally got a few ideas, but they are not backed with any evidence.

1. The mastermind from this first killing game

2. Mai Akasaki or David Chiem still

3. The mastermind of the drdt killing game

Whoever it is, I think that these games are surely related and that each current kg participant does have a relation with one of these cast members. And that previous killing game’s end is why this one is happening.

Then, based off the post up top and a few others, people seem to think this is Teruko’s brother. I’m going to give a wild theory (no evidence) that Mai Akasaki knows him, only bc of the red in his hair. Then I think Mai would’ve found Teruko, and she would’ve been trying to reconnect them. Just a theory, though. There’s no evidence based around that this guy might be Teruko’s brother though, sadly.

Last but not least, @1moreff-creator pieced together some of the text on his badge:

I’m just gonna say that I’m seriously impressed with your efforts cause I have no fucking clue that could even be readable lmao.

*UPDATE ON TEXT: holy mother of god, @xmicrophonyx is a fucking god, and deciphered it. Here you go, and we all have got to give a serious thank you to them.

Sadly I cannot link the image of what the phone number gets to, but it gets linked to a yellow pill. I don’t have any ideas on how it would relate to the game, but I think it does. It’s used for high blood pressure and heart failure. If he’s really related to Teruko, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had high blood pressure lmao.

Also, the area code for 555 is just North America.

Here’s what I found on Wikipedia:

“The telephone number prefix 555 is a central office code in the North American Numbering Plan, used as the leading part of a group of 10,000 telephone numbers, 555-XXXX, in each numbering plan area (NPA) (area code). It has traditionally been used only for the provision of directory assistance, when dialing NPA-555-1212.

The central office code is also used for fictitious telephone numbers in North American television shows, films, video games, and other media in order to prevent practical jokers and curious callers from bothering telephone subscribers and organizations by calling telephone numbers they see in works of fiction.”

I don’t understand the first part, but it seems that this is a fictional number. If someone could explain to me wtf that first part even memes, I might be able to give more info.

Anyways, it seems that this guy ended up being a teacher at HPA, before or after the killing game. But I think this was very worth mentioning.

Unfortunately I’ve seen nothing about the next two, but I want to say that the girl in all pink (#8) I think is Felicity Giles, if that’s even possible. I just feel that’s Arturo’s sister. I know, I’m a weirdo. Even if #7 looks more like Arturo, I just cannot see it.

Moving on, nine and ten! If you look at them closely they’ve got the same eye pattern, suggesting they’re siblings, or likely twins, since they’ve got the fire/ice scheme going on.

Lastly, eleven which oh my god, Arturo’s dream girl! But she’s been theorized to be Whit’s mom. Here’s the post that argues a pretty convincing reason of why.

Oh boy. That woman is pretty cool and is very elegant, and has the same shade of blond hair that Whit dyed his too. I don’t think she’s any coincidence.

But joining along on that last little paragraph of this person’s post, it’s starting to seem a lot of characters do have connections to this cast and are seemingly mentioned quite a few times.

UPDATE: oh my lord, @accirax literally went on a deep dive for us and gave us a pretty good explanation and educated guess on everyone’s talents. I’m not going to link it because they covered pretty much every logical point as to why they have their guesses. Here’s the post if you haven’t already seen it https://www.tumblr.com/accirax/728687594893885440/drdt-new-character-talent-analysis

Anyways this is just the sum-up of everyone’s theorizing + a bit of my add on to it, and huge kudos to everyone who’s been making theories so far. I’ll be updating & crediting if there’s anymore notable things that come out.

Thanks for reading!

#drdt #drdt creator’s other fangan #drdt theory #danganronpadespairtime #drdtalt

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butterflydm · 1 year ago

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wot reread: a memory of light (chapter 37)

spoilers for the last book, a memory of light

I am going to do this enormous chapter a little differently than the previous chapters (basically so that I can refer to this post later and understand all the various threads and not get them mixed up with each other). Instead of going in chronological order by each event presented to me, I'm going to have different PoV sections and then have my thoughts under each of those.

Egwene & Gawyn (& Galad)

Gawyn is exhausted, despite the week that they all just took to prepare for this last push of the battle. That's not a good sign. Pretty sure that's the Bloodknife ring sapping his strength. Yeah, when he puts the ring on again "his strength returned". (From TGS: "One never committed Bloodknives unless one was very serious, for they did not return from their missions." "The incredible abilities came at a cost, however, for the rings leeched life from their hosts, killing them in a matter of days. Removing the ring would slow that process slightly but once activated - done by touching a drop of one's own blood to the stone ring while wearing it - the process was irreversible.") He's already dead. He's just still walking around. Oh, hon.

"[Egwene] hesitated for a moment, looking through the gateway to Mat's command post. Egwene met the eyes of the Seanchan woman across the table, where she sat imperiously on her throne. I have not finished with you, Egwene thought." A very mean thing for Sanderson to write here, considering.

From her sense in the bond, she believes that Gawyn has gone off "to join the Andoran army" and sends Bryne to fetch him. Then she assigns Siuan to go "join Mat and the Seanchan Empress and listen with ears accustomed to hearing what is not spoken". Siuan calls Egwene a legacy that will shape "what is to come".

"I'll help watch this Seanchan woman for you, maybe help poor Min crawl out of the fang-fish net she's found herself in." Good luck, Siuan!

Egwene realizes, too late, that she's sent Bryne off to the wrong place, as once she travels to her own new location, that Gawyn is actually "on the Heights themselves, where the Shadow held the strongest."

Honestly, using the Special Assassin Rings to try to commit a Special Assassination on the leader of the Shadowspawn forces sounds like... a good idea? Gawyn knows that the original Bloodknives were doing a very good job specifically murdering Aes Sedai, because that was the crime that he was investigating when he found them in the first place. I also wonder if a lot of people forgot or missed that this attempt to go kill Demandred is not when Gawyn first activated the ring and signed his own death warrant (I bet that I missed it during my first read too). That he first activated the ring back when he and Egwene were pinned down by the Sharans and death seemed right around the corner for both of them. Gawyn's death has been irreversible since chapter 23.

"Once, perhaps, he would have done this for the pride of the battle and the chance to pit himself against Demandred. That was not his heart now. His heart was the need. Someone had to fight this creature, someone had to kill him or they would lose this battle. They could all see it. Risking Egwene or Logain would be too great a gamble. Gawyn could be risked. No one would send him to do this -- no one would dare -- but it was necessary."

He isn't able to get the assassin's blow off on Demandred and it looks like a key element is because Demandred detected the 'weave' that the ter'angreal is using on him. He calls it Night's Shade and confirms that it "leaks your life away".

I wonder why Demandred's face seems "eerily familiar" to Gawyn? I can't think of why that might be. lol, why does Demandred call everyone "little"? "Little man." "Little queen". "Little swordsman". What is your obsessions with everyone's heights? (wait, is he the one that was SLIGHTLY shorter than LTT and pissed off about it? as opposed to Sammael, who was considerably shorter than LTT and pissed off about it?)

haha, Demandred is CONVINCED that Lews Therin is the one directing the battle on the other side, either using Mat's face as a Mask of Mirrors or by sending messages through Mat. He has a spy in Mat's camp, probably, but is convinced that Rand is there somewhere, hiding. I mean, I kinda wish he were, just so that Rand and Mat COULD HAVE A REAL SCENE TOGETHER, but Demandred and I will both have to be disappointed. But it's kinda funny that it feels like Gawyn was rejecting the idea that he is "following" Rand in, like, a philosophical way, but Demandred meant "Lews Therin is literally your battle commander".

Gawyn loses the duel. And I like Gawyn this time around, so I'm much more emotionally affected by it. That's so rude. 😭

Egwene fights to reach Gawyn, feeling how close to death he is. 😭😭

Galad is on the Heights, fighting against Sharan channelers on Mat's orders, wearing a copy of the foxhead medallion. Galad also keeps getting confronted with things about 'his' Children of Light that are making him go 'yikes'. He's killing the Sharan channelers because it makes sense for the battle and he was ordered to do it... but the Children are happy to have an excuse to kill channelers and have some... real strange beliefs that kinda make channelers akin to vampires (...burying the head separately or they will rise again?).

One of the Children finds Gawyn, near death, and brings Galad to him. As he dies, Gawyn is talking over his regrets, starting with regretting staying at the White Tower back in book 4. He tells Galad to tell Egwene that he loves her, and Galad reassures him that Egwene already knows. Galad gets very cold inside when he realizes that his brother is dying. "He had seen men die, he had lost friends. This hurt more. Light, but it did."

When he tries to tell Gawyn that he needs to leave, so that he doesn't leave Galad without a brother, Gawyn tells him about Rand. And he tells Galad not to hate Rand. "I always hated him but I stopped." And Gawyn dies. 😭😭😭

Egwene feels it when it happens. After sending out a burst of flames at the nearby enemies as the pain consumes her, she collapses for the moment (there is a group of Whitecloaks nearby so she was very very close to reaching Gawyn before he died. That is heartbreaking).

Egwene wakes up after having been removed from the battlefield. She feels empty and heartbroken but, especially after she overhears how badly the battle is going, she knows that she does not have the time for grief or mourning, not now. "Egwene al'Vere lost a man she loved, and she felt him die through a bond. The Amrylin has sympathy for Egwene al'Vere, as she would have sympathy for any Aes Sedai dealing with such loss. And then, in the face of the Last Battle, the Amrylin would expect that woman to pick herself up and return to the fight." It's interesting how (as Rand's foil), Egwene is both the same kind of hero that Rand is, but she's also the kind of hero that Rand expected himself to be but actually ends up not being. Rand's Last Battle is philosophical; Egwene's Last Battle is physical (which is to say, the show gets another point right in how they decided to distribute episode eight out to its protagonists -- with Rand's fight ultimately being in his head while Egwene's is out on the battlefield; that's what Rafe & co meant when they said they were doing a whole-series adaptation and not just adapting book-by-book. they looked at the actual endgame needs of the characters and put in the work up-front to make sure that those would vibe with the set-up).

18. In order to keep herself balanced on the battlefield, Egwene decides that she needs to bond a Warder, though she is far from emotionally ready, and she asked "Leilwin Shipless" if she will accept the duty, getting immediate agreement. And Egwene goes back out to fight again.

19. "Egwene led an assault the likes of which had not been seen in millennia." There's some intense fighting and then Egwene comes face-to-face with Taim, who calls himself M'Hael now. There is an intense battle scene. The battle involves a lot of balefire being tossed around by Taim and, in the back of her mind, Egwene ponders the notion of whether or not the weave really is impossible to counter. Egwene didn't need the help of anyone else's ancient memories in order to rediscover Traveling, after all. That was all her, figuring it out from basic principles.

20. Egwene and her Aes Sedai have been fighting on the Heights for hours. Taim reappears, pouring balefire into her line of Aes Sedai and killing dozens. Egwene thinks again about what Perrin said in TAR about balefire -- "it's only a weave" -- and considers how balefire is considered a one-of-a-kind sort of thing. But what if it isn't? What if it works like any other weave? With the One Power, there are always two halves. Logically, balefire should have an equal and opposite counterpart, just as saidar has saidin. "If a weave exists, so must its opposite". And when Taim strikes again with balefire, she counters with this idea of this weave that she has created, one that is the opposite of balefire. Something that will reinforce the Pattern instead of unraveling it.

She decides that it is called the Flame of Tar Valon, and she uses it to kill Taim.

21. Egwene realizes that she's reached the point of no return -- if she releases her grip on saidar, then she will burn out. There is too much inside her right now. More than she can hold. So she can let go and burn out and survive... or she can take that power and use it.

She tells Leilwin née Egeanin one last command -- find the seals and keep them until she sees 'the moment the light shines'. Then she wraps her up in Air and shoves her through a gateway, releasing their bond.

She closed her eyes and drew in the power. More than a woman should be able to, more than was right. Far beyond safety, far beyond wisdom. This sa'angreal had no buffer to prevent this.

Her body was spent. She offered it up and became a column of light, releasing the Flame of Tar Valon into the ground beneath her and high into the sky. The Power left her in a quiet, beautiful explosion, washing across the Sharans and sealing the cracks created by her fight with M'Hael.

Egwene's soul separated from her collapsing body and rested upon that wave, riding it into the Light.

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Before I move on to the next set of plot-threads, I want to ponder a question: why on earth does Gawyn get blamed for Egwene deciding to go out in a blaze of glory? He died hours ago. She bonded a new Warder. She doesn't die out of rage over her Warder's death here. To quote Gawyn: [Her] heart was the need. Egwene looked at what the battle needed from her at that moment, and she made a choice.

Once upon a time, Lews Therin stood on a mountain after losing the love of his life, and his despair created destruction around him. Once upon a time, Egwene stood on a battlefield after losing the love of her life, and her sacrifice healed the destruction around her.

Last time around, Lews Therin was fighting the wrong battle -- and the wrong person was the one fighting in the battle.

re: Egwene dying at all. I actually do think that having one of the Emond's Field Five die was a good choice. Would I have picked Egwene as the one? Probably not. otoh, it kinda seems like the other four were all mentioned as still being alive in Jordan's epilogue, so Egwene was the only one who could die (since the epilogue was considered basically sacred). idk I'm a big softie who has a hard time killing off characters so I'm not really the person to talk to about that subject, lol.

Rand (& Nynaeve)

TDO's attack against Rand starts out as an attempt to break him down and shatter him, but Rand resists. "It was as if the Dark One was shredding him while at the same time trying to crush him entirely, coming at Rand from infinite directions, all at once, in a wave."

When that fails, TDO then 'weaves' a reality for Rand to see. A world 'remade' in TDO's image, where the taint overlays everything, the Blight is everywhere, and Rand has been forgotten in his failure. TDO makes him watch his father die, and then Dannil leads him back to Emond's Field, where a Turned Nynaeve is waiting with channelers and Fades to Turn Rand too. It's an attempt to make Rand feel despair and give up, but when Nynaeve & co begin the process of trying to Turn Rand to the Shadow, he pushes back, rejecting this reimagining of the world that TDO has created. Hmm, Rand finds threads here that are more varied than the five threads of the One Power, calls them "the fabric of creation" and uses them to channel a different reality.

We now get introduced to the world that Rand reimagines. "He passed from nothingness into majesty."

Gorgeous buildings. Wide roads but nothing driving on it, only people walking around, in vibrant clothing. Now, instead of the memory of Turned Chosen enslaving and tormenting the Two Rivers, Rand has willed into being memories of Ogier coming "to the Two Rivers to repay Rand for his sacrifice, intending to build a monument here, [but] the town's leaders had wisely requested help improving their city instead".

Rand doesn't quite imagine paradise entirely -- though he's integrated the Seanchan into his vision of peace here, he doesn't know enough about the Sharans to do the same, so there are still "campaigns" there. And there is a monument dedicated to the fallen of the Last Battle with "familiar" faces that Rand isn't quite willing to look at. Like TDO had done earlier, "He'd built this reality out of the threads of what could be, of mirrors of the world as it now played out".

The knowledge that other people are out there dying and sacrificing for a potential future shakes Rand -- he wanted so much for his sacrifice to be the only sacrifice, which was always going to be impossible. But when he lets that thought enter his mind, this vision of reality starts to get eaten up by TDO and Rand has to force it back into place.

It is the anniversary of the hundred years of peace that Rand had wanted in the Dragon's Peace that he had the nations sign before (and during, in the case of the Seanchan) the Last Battle. Lady Adora, Perrin's granddaughter, is the mayor of Emond's Field. Rand slips past her and into the school. A school for anyone to come and learn, no matter what their background. TDO taunts him again for believing that he can eliminate suffering entirely. So we're kinda doing a "the perfect is the enemy of the good" argument here. Is "better" enough when it isn't "perfect"? And is "perfect" only ever a lie? TDO attacks Rand again, and this world fades back into a faint mirror of possibility. The heart of the Last Battle is a philosophical argument about the nature of reality, and of human nature.

As he stands with the great shadow of TDO, Rand can see the armies outside fighting. TDO is mostly outside of time, except wherever it touches the Pattern. There it is bound to the linear nature of time. TDO tells Rand to watch as the people fighting in his name die, and spins another vision for him.

The new world-possibility that TDO spins for Rand looks very much like the regular world, with some minor differences like steam-drawn carriages driving around. He's in Caemlyn this time, and he can still see the hole in the wall from when Talmanes blew the hole to escape from the Shadowspawn, but there's a bustle and a life around.

He goes to a fruit seller, and she mentions her fresh peaches for sale. "Peaches," Rand said, aghast. Everyone knew those were poisonous. She tells him that they are safe now; the toxin has been removed. Hey, isn't it peach blossoms that Rand made bloom back in Ebou Dar? So that was actually meant as something of a subtle threat, though Tuon took as an Important Omen. As they're talking, a street urchin steals one of the fruits and starts to run off, and the fruit-seller pulls out a rod and does something that instantly kills him. When Rand reacts in horror, she acts puzzled, asking him if "it" belonged to him. Yikes! Yeah, definitely still a very Bad World, Rand. When she asks him what faction he belongs to, he takes that as his cue to leave, very quickly.

He searches Caemlyn to find the Queen's Blessing and, with relief, sees that Basel Gill is working inside. So this one is not a hundred years in the future like the last one. Gill says that they're in the Fourth Age and that the Last Battle was won. After Gill tells him that he'll get him a faction symbol, Rand notices a nothingness that signifies TDO's presence and questions it. This is a world where TDO has tricked people into believing that they won the Last Battle.

When Gill returns, it's with guards to rob Rand for his fancy coat. Rand realizes that TDO has taken everyone's consciences/compassion. This is a world without any spark of 'light' inside people's hearts, only Shadow. Rand tells TDO that seeing this only makes him want to fight harder and now he will show TDO a world "without Shadow".

In the cavern, Nynaeve works to save Alanna's life. All her Power is still wrapped up in the link with Rand, so she has to sew and use her herbs and all her know-how from being the Wisdom of Emond's Field.

As Rand tries to weave together the possibility of a world without the Shadow, he finds that the threads resist him and he wonders if that is because of how unlikely such a world is. iirc, Rand's upcoming dreamworld is a moment that the show has already given us great set-up for with the fantasy that Rand gets from Ishamael in episode 8 and is another illustration of how far ahead Rafe & co were thinking with all their choices in the first season.

He chooses to create Caemlyn, to wash the taste out of his mouth of having seen the horrible vision that TDO showed him last time. Trees are in full bloom, there isn't a cloud in the sky, and children don't recognize what a sword is. He asks to visit the queen and is directed towards the gardens, though he first travels through a hallway of magic mirrors, letting him see this paradise reflected in other lands: a peaceful meadow in the Mountains of Mists, the Stone a museum instead of a fortress, the rebuilt towers of Malkier, the Chora Fields of the Age of Legends surrounding the city of Rhuidean as he hears Aiel voices lifted in song. No locks on the doors. No more need for money -- "a nearly forgotten eccentricity". Channelers create food for everyone and Aes Sedai heal anyone who suffers injury.

His own grave in the Blasted Lands, where his body had been burned after the Last Battle, overgrown with leaves, grass, and flowers. Rand pauses at this window for a long moment before he moves onward into the gardens.

Elayne sits alone in the gardens, not too far from the garden wall where he once fallen in and met her for the first time. "Elayne was as beautiful as she'd been when they'd last parted. She was no longer pregnant, of course. A hundred years had passed since the Last Battle. She appeared not to have aged a day." When Elayne sees him, she greets him in surprise.

18. She wonders if her daughter is using the Mask of Mirrors to play a prank on her, but Rand sinks down to one knee before her and tells her that he's real. And, as he looks into her eyes and listens to her voice, he realizes that "something was wrong".

19. "That simpering tone, that vapid reaction... Elayne had never been like that." He gets more disturbed as she continues, talking about Aviendha spending her week off from singing to do "nursery duty". "Aviendha. Tending children and singing to chora trees. There was nothing wrong with that, really. Why shouldn't she enjoy such activities? But it was wrong, too. He thought Aviendha would be a wonderful mother, but to imagine her seeking to spend all day playing with other people's children..."

20. When he looks into Elayne's eyes, he sees the same kind of blankness that he's seen in those forcibly Turned to the Shadow. He accuses TDO of having done something to her. But TDO asks him, "Did you think that removing me from their lives would leave them unaltered?"

21. "She was not herself... because Rand had taken away her ability to be herself." Again! This resonates so well with what was set up in episode eight! Rafe is playing the long game!

22. I do have to... interject a side note: this scene really couldn't be done with Min because... this horror that Rand accidentally did to Elayne, stripping her of her autonomy in an attempt to create a world without Shadow... is basically what Min did to herself in LoC.

He’ll have to take me as I am, [Min] thought, twitching the reins irritably. I’m not changing for any man. Only, her clothes would have been as plain as any farmer’s not that long ago, her hair had not been in ringlets almost to her shoulders, and a small voice whispered, You’ll be whatever you think he wants you to be.

Honestly, that's a big part of why I dislike how prophecy is used in a couple of the romances (Min->Rand and Mat->Tuon) because it feels like it's been used to strip away their autonomy and yet this loss of their self doesn't get treated like a horror even though their 'choice' to chase Rand/marry Tuon was done because they believed they had no choice.

23. Rand weeps in despair at all the loss of life that is going on in the Last Battle outside of Shayol Ghul. "He should have been able to protect them. Why couldn't he? Against his will, the names began to replay in his mind. The names of those who had died for him, starting with only women, but now expanded to each and every person he should have been able to save - but hadn't." But he refuses to give in to TDO's offer to 'stop fighting and rest'. And TDO spins another possibility for him...

24. The next offer that TDO makes is 'nothing'. Aka oblivion for all of existence. He claims that it is the same as the 'peace of the void' that Rand seeks so often. Rand gives the offer due consideration, and then rejects it.

25. Rand feels Egwene's death and it shakes him hard. Egwene's name is added to the list in his mind, and despair claws at him as TDO gloats that the dead belong to him.

26. Rand is watching the whole battle play out -- he sees Elayne (captive and alone), he see Rhuarc (his mind forfeit), Mat (desperate, facing down horrible odds), and Lan (riding to his death).

Demandred's words dug at him. The Dark One's pressure continue to tear at him.

Rand had failed.

But in the back of his mind, a voice. Frail, almost forgotten.

Let go.

Elayne & Mat (& Fortuona & Min & Galad)

Elayne is heading into the main Seanchan camp to talk to Mat about why he appears to be changing the battle plans without letting her know. Along the way, they deal with some Draghkar and Elayne deliberately deafens her side so that they will be able to ignore their song. After this, she's approached by a sul'dam and damane pair and, reluctantly, allows the damane to heal her ears. Elayne is, btw, wearing sturdy boots.

Elayne has also been paying attention to how the Seanchan behave, and so she does not talk to any of the sul'dam herself, because she's noticed that they care a LOT about who talks to who. This sul'dam in particular is highborn, Elayne suspects from the shaven sides of her head, so she'll definitely feel insulted by Elayne not being willing to speak to her. <3

Elayne also notes here that the Seanchan highborn seem to dislike the idea of being healed with the Power ("Why any of you would want to be Healed by an animal is beyond me," the sul'dam says). But she also points out that there's a gap between what the Seanchan claim is true and what they actually seem to do -- they say they disapprove of healing but are having their damane learn the weaves.

Mat and Elayne's relationship seems to be fairly healthy here which honestly is fascinating given... you know. Tuon and the whole Seanchan defection. Elayne insults Mat when she greets him, but he finds it amusing, just as she suspected that he would. He's made up a throne for her in Andoran red-and-gold, extra cushioned, and with a still-steaming cup of tea waiting for her! Husband behavior! Not the kind of ~husband behavior~ that Mat derided all throughout TGS but actual "I care about your comfort" behavior.

She notes that his clothing "smelled of some kind of compromise" -- Tuon agreed to let Mat wear clothing in the style that he preferred as long as it was silk? Elayne also notes that he's wearing a pink ribbon around his hat. And that is also fascinating because Mat had two very specific memories about Tylin's (pink) ribbons in his second chapter in this book (right before he saw Tuon again), and they were both extremely negative. The first time was when his scarf around his neck reminded him of "a ribbon that felt like a chain" and the second was his flashback to the pink ribbons when he saw Tylin's headboard/bed. So for Mat to put a pink ribbon around his hat is... interesting. A reminder of the chains that he's still wearing? We're not in his PoV, so we don't get his reasoning, and I don't think he ever thinks about it in his own PoV.

"All in all, Elayne was impressed by how easily the scout mixed his obeisance and his report. She was also sickened. No ruler should demand such of her subjects. A nation's strength came from the strength of its people; break them, and you were breaking your own back."

I am also really really curious by what (silent) Fortuona might be thinking of the casual & intimate way that Mat and Elayne are talking to each other here, given how jealous she's gotten in the past. Elayne noted when she entered the tent that Fortuona was present ("dressed in enough green silk to supply a shop in Caemlyn for two weeks" and with Min standing silently at her side) but has not engaged with her at all.

"You spent this whole week planning with us, and you knew the entire time you'd throw [the plans] out with the dishwater." Anyway, Mat says that he didn't know the entire time, but that he needs to keep the plans in his head if they want them to be safe from the Forsaken. Also, Elayne, in contrast to most of the people who have interacted with Mat recently, is able to figure out what he's thinking just from a couple of micro-expressions.

But it's interesting/frustrating the implied changes that have happened over the course of this week of off-screen planning -- aka Tuon compromising with Mat. Because it happens off-screen, we don't actually find out why Tuon was willing to compromise - is it because, with all his friends around, she's realized that it would be impossible to control him with the methods she would use if they were alone, because he could just... walk fifty feet away and hang out with his powerful friends instead of being stuck with her if she pushes him too far (as he did in the previous chapter when she was trying to force him to sit in judgement)? Has she actually had off-screen character development (if so, stop having important emotional moments happen off-screen!)? We just don't know.

Mat is also still calling Fortuona "Tuon". And that scene ended with Elayne never, at any point, engaging with Tuon and she also never thinks of Fortuona as "Mat's wife", only as "the Seanchan Empress". Surely she has to know by this point that they're married but she Does Not Think About It. I genuinely have so many questions -- one of the primary ones being: where has Mat been sleeping this last week? Does the fact that Mat was saying "Tuon's tent" in the previous chapter mean that he has his own tent separate from hers? Tuon positioned "having sex" as a reward-type situation back when Mat first showed up in Ebou Dar, so is that time in the gardens the only time that they've had sex? Given that Tuon seems to want Min by her side constantly, if she did decide to have sex with Mat again, would she insist on Min staying in the tent with them to keep an eye out for sex-related omens? (we already know that Selucia and at least one or two other guard-slaves would likely be present) Has Mat been avoiding having sex with her or sleeping in the same tent as her so that she doesn't get another chance to steal his medallion? So many questions, absolutely nothing in the narration that gives me any hints at answers.

Okay, our first Mat PoV in this chapter is fascinating because Mat has basically the exact same thought here about Galad that he had about Tuon in an earlier chapter. Compare "[Galad] could have been a statue, with that pretty face and unchanging expression. No, statues had more life." vs "Mat shivered. He didn’t like it when Tuon got like this. That stare of hers... it seemed like the stare of another person. A person without compassion. A statue had more life to it." The Whitecloaks = Seanchan comparison is alive and well (or the Seanchan are what the Whitecloaks would be if they had the kind of continent-wide coercive power).

Min is spending all her time in the command tent whispering to Tuon. It sure feels like she swapped super-easily from being Rand's prophecy girl to being Tuon's prophecy girl (okay, okay, I'll cut her some slack since Rand did ask her to watch Fortuona). When Elayne's voice sounds "cold" here, Mat compares her to an Aes Sedai, unlike their earlier encounters. Also... it doesn't sound like Selucia is around? Did she get demoted again? Elayne also... sorta speaks to Tuon here? But then quickly swaps back to talking to Mat only lol.

Mat realizes that there's a spy either inside or just around the command tent, because of how quickly Demandred is responding to his changes.

Mat is amused by the fact that Elayne has managed to "shift" her throne around so that it's either the same height or slightly higher than Tuon's, so he hasn't ~embraced Tuon's dignity as his own~ or however the Seanchan might put it.

15. Hmm, we also have confirmation here that Mat has been... flirting (????? sexually harassing???? who knows with New Mat but probably harassing, sadly) with other Seanchan Bloods, if not in front of Tuon, then in front of people who would report to Tuon, which is another interesting piece of data to put into the puzzle. It really does seem like Mat has managed to (off the page) force a certain level of compromise into his marriage.

16. And, here, Mat slips away with just Elayne and Birgitte so that he can reassure Elayne about his plans in private, even though Tuon questions him walking away (and he doesn't even look back at her because "those eyes could drill through solid steel"). It genuinely seems like some fascinating stuff happened in that week of planning that we didn't get to see! Mat seems a lot less scared of doing things that will upset Tuon. But again, we don't know if that's actually due to a change in Mat and Tuon's relationship or if it's Mat's physical proximity to people who would unquestioningly take his side against hers that gives him new boldness.

17. He tells Elayne that he has a plan to deal with the spy that he believes is listening in at the command tent, and he goes through his entire thought process for her here, which is an astonishingly unprecedented amount of communication from Mat. So Elayne is in on his plan -- and away from the command post so that if things go wrong, she can pick another general to lead them; and he sent a message to Talmanes about his plan as well (that Talmanes signaled that he received), so the only remaining question mark for Mat is whether or not he can "coax" Tuon into doing what needs to be done.

I am going to say that I find it very interesting that when Mat is certain that there's a spy in the command tent and that their security is compromised, he finds a reason to get Elayne away from the command tent. The reason makes tactical sense, of course, but it's interesting.

18. Birgitte tells Elayne that all her older memories are gone now. Her first memories are of waking up to Nynaeve and Elayne in this world. Elayne wants to go after Birgitte, to try to comfort her, but Galad arrives. Galad isn't entirely certain why he's been sent here but he's got time to scold Elayne for being on the battlefield "in your condition". Elayne (accurately) points out that if they lose, it's gonna be a lot worse for the kids. So Elayne and Galad can talk about the kids together but Elayne and Tam can't?

19. Elayne knows Mat so well, even as she claims to despair over understanding him. "I'm convinced that Mat only acts simple so that people will let him get away with more."

20. A letter arrives for Galad from Mat, and Sanderson makes fun of himself when he has Elayne note that Mat's spelling and handwriting is much better in this letter than the one he sent her in ToM. Anyway, he's sent the copy he had of the medallion (Elayne does verify here that it's a copy and not the original) to Galad and told him to go kill as many Sharan channelers as he's capable of killing. Because he feels like "a Whitecloak" will have the stomach to go kill a bunch of channelers. When Galad agrees with Elayne that he shouldn't have a problem with "killing women" and explains that women are just as capable of evil as men are, Elayne tells him "You actually said something that doesn't make me want to strangle you." lol, ilu Elayne. Galad thinks she's joking but, no, of course not.

Characterization note: Mat never gave the medallion copy to Tuon. That was the whole reason that he'd originally held onto it after ToM, with plans to give it to Tuon to protect her. ...and then she stole his medallion and it sounds like he had to do some fast-talking to get it back. And then he never mentions or brings up the copy until this moment when he sends it to Galad.

Did Tuon's betrayal of Mat earlier in AMoL mean that he no longer trusted her with a medallion?

Did Tuon's own paranoia and mistrust screw her out of getting that extra level of protection and trust openly given from Mat, and so Mat held onto it to find another purpose for the copy instead?

21. Min apparently is still spending all her time here quietly whispering to Tuon. She's gotta be someone's little whisper, I guess. She's gotten used to it over the last few books. Anyway, Logain is here because he wants to go fight at Shayol Ghul instead of here at the "battle for the little lives of men". Or he wants to be sent against Demandred, as the "dragon's replacement". Mat finally just gives Logain permission to go fight Demandred if he wants to do it so badly.

22. Ah, here is where Mat has another willful delusion (number five? six? not sure): "What he would give to be done with all of these high heads. Mat might be one of them now, but that could be fixed. All he had to do was convince Tuon to forsake her throne and run off with him. That would not be easy, but bloody ashes, he was fighting the Last Battle. Compared to the challenge he now faced, Tuon seemed an easy knot to untie."

Made up a girl in his head, one that Fortuona will never be. Good luck with that, and all.

This does also show that Mat continues to have no interest in being part of the Seanchan hierarchy (and this is something that is backed up by his actions, like refusing to legitimize himself as the Prince of Ravens by refusing to sit in judgement of soldiers throwing themselves on the Empress's mercy). Though Mat shows signs of protectiveness and sometimes affection towards 'Tuon', he shows no signs of wanting to be involved with 'The Seanchan Empress Fortuona'. It does feel a bit like we're continuing the thread where Sanderson actually gave Mat a reason for his bizarre turnaround in CoT/KoD by having him mentally compare the fear that Tuon/the sul'dam have over channeling with the fear that Rand/male channelers have over channeling -- this is an echo of the 'Rand-friend vs Dragon Reborn-scary' battle that Mat has been having in his brain, off-and-on, ever since he first learned that Rand could channel. I wish that Sanderson had leaned into it more, but even this subtext here is more of an explanation for Mat's change in characterization in CoT than we ever got from Jordan.

I have to admit, the way that it's done does kinda remind me of BBC's Merlin -- in S1, Arthur and Merlin go through this entire character arc of Arthur looking past his prejudices about servants as he becomes Merlin's friend. And then the show aired and large parts of the audience went, "huh, kinda seems like they're in love with each other"; and so the show did a hard reset in S2 and Arthur basically went through that exact same arc with Gwen, who was always meant to be his canon love interest, and went back to being more of a jerk towards Merlin. And in WoT, Mat's struggle between caring about a person vs being put off by/scared of that person's public mask was first grounded in his friendship with Rand, but now it's basically been transferred over to Tuon instead. Basically "oh shit, this character arc makes this character look queer; better shift it over to his canon het love interest STAT".

(but imo this thread works so much better with Rand because the READERS know the real person behind the public mask; and I feel like we never really get that with Tuon -- there are hints that a real person exists but even in her own PoVs, it feels like Tuon is still mostly just The Mask)

23. Tuon signals that it's time for her and Mat to stage their fake fight about the Seanchan pulling out of the battle, picking "I can protect myself" as the issue she wants to fight over, which Mat thinks is kinda silly but whatever. "His plan with Tuon was to take a cue from what Rand had once done with Perrin". ...how did Mat find out about that? I guess from Min? Perrin was asleep and Rand was gone, so I guess it must have been from Min. I'm... pretty sure she knew the Rand & Perrin fight was fake? Or maybe Perrin told him about it during the dinner where Perrin laughed and laughed over how droll it was that Mat had married a slaver. Because Perrin and Mat got to have a reunion dinner.

24. A Gray Man attacks. I'm sorry... are we supposed to believe that this is the same Gray Man from Ebou Dar that escaped back in Mat's second chapter? Because I thought Shadowspawn (including Gray Men?) couldn't go through Gateways? Maybe this Gray Man also has Mat's non-channeling teleportation skills. Anyway, this time the Gray Man is attacking Mat just as channelers invade the command tent (so... literally proving the point that Mat had just made about how the tent was no longer secure) so Min... throws herself at Tuon to protect her? Why is Min's first instinct "protect the head slaver"? Why is Min in the tank for the Seanchan so quickly?

Min also manages to knock over Tuon's ten-foot tall throne, so it sounds like it's actually made of pretty flimsy materials. That kinda feels like an unintentional metaphor -- looks imposing but is basically paper mache. lol.

25. Anyway, this is the first time Tuon shows any shred of an actual... like... positive emotion towards Mat? (I don't count "laughing at him because she views him as a brainless sex toy" as a positive emotion) So I guess we should celebrate that. Because when everyone gets attacked, Tuon runs over to try to help Mat with the Gray Man, "growling softly in an almost feral way". Once again, I am deeply curious about the mysterious changes that happened in their relationship during that skipped over week of planning, that resulted in Tuon compromising with Mat and now appearing to actually give a shit that he might die (... or she might just be possessive and not want to lose her new favorite toy? But I will choose to extend the benefit of the doubt).

26. And, once again, Min's entire priority list seems to be Tuon. ?????? Why are you so obsessed with her? Since we're in your PoV right now, could you explain to the readers why you're so deep in the tank for the Seanchan and Fortuona? Would love a reason. Anyway, she can't reach her new-found love, Fortuona, so she slips out of the tent to see if she can help any other way, and runs into Siuan.

27. When Min tells her that she needs to go find Bryne because that's the only way she'll survive, Siuan says that she can't leave because "Cauthon is in danger." Hey, you were willing to call him 'Mat' back in book three. But anyway, she says, "If Cauthon falls, this battle is lost! I don't care if we both die from this. We must help. Move!" So. Siuan. The tent is on fire. Would you say that you were there to help Mat "when the flames are high?" Just asking.

28. Okay, there's a whole group of Gray Men attacking Mat, so we're not supposed to think it was the one from Ebou Dar. But that's a gun that never went off, now that I think about it.

29. MIN! Yelling at the terrified damane to help when her sul'dam is dead is pointless if you don't FREE HER from the collar. She isn't capable of channeling without her sul'dam's permission. You should know this. YOU WERE IN FALME WITH EGWENE! Egwene explained all of this to you! (also, I think Min left the poor nameless damane to die in the burning tent, since she would also be incapable of running away on her own if she's still leashed? Slave-masters always get rescued before slaves, after all, and Min has yet to actually voice any objections to slavery since she has joined up with the Seanchan)

30. Anyway, Min successfully throws a knife at the remaining Gray Man and Mat hauls an unconscious Tuon up over his shoulder, and we have sadly saved the head slaver's life yet again. "Never had [Min] been so happy to see a knife fly true." ????? I mean, I guess the idea is that saving Tuon means that Mat is willing to leave the burning tent but still... didn't she once save Rand's life during some event or other? Or maybe I imagined that and this is the first time Min's knife skills have ever been useful, idk.

31. Oh, and Siuan is dead. Happened when Min wasn't looking. So we traded Siuan's life for Tuon's. Not worth it. Min gets a break from being the Distressed Damsel because Rand isn't around and so Tuon gets assigned the role. I feel like... maybe the narrative should have focused on whatever it was that Siuan was doing to help there, instead of what Min did? Also, it seems somewhat convenient that Siuan died before she got a good look at Tuon, because Siuan has a Talent for seeing ta'veren.

32. I wish... I really wish that Sanderson had given us the compromise conversation between Tuon and Mat. I wish that we'd actually gotten that conversation on the page, instead of just implying that something has changed because Elayne notices the effects. Because then maybe I would also give a shit about Tuon instead of just kinda wishing that someone would let one of these assassins take her out.

33. Okay, our first ~Fortuona~ PoV since the week of planning that appeared to have led to compromises in her marriage with Mat. Let's see how things stand with little miss slaver. She refuses to be healed by damane herself, though she seems vaguely tolerant of the idea of other people being healed by them.

34. I have to roll my eyes over Fortuona thinking about how her slave-guard's 'honor' depends on her fatally punishing them for their failures. It's like how she pretended that she was the one who most regretted having had Selucia beaten a time or two back in her initial intro PoV, rather than the actual person who got their ass whipped. It's just toxic brain-vomit that speaks of how deeply conditioned Fortuona is by her culture. If she actually cared about any of them as people (she doesn't, of course; she cares about them as property that she owns) then she would care about trying to dismantle the part of their brainwashing culture that says that their lives should be forfeit if they have failed her.

Anyway, she assigns them to go off to be suicide troops in the battle. Oh, and Selucia is here now, in the aftermath, with an injury. So I guess she in the tent that whole time, it's just that no one mentioned her. Poor Selucia. She really has gone back to being nothing but Tuon's Voice.

35. Fortuona raises "Darbinda" aka Min to the Blood for saving her and Mat's life, and Min isn't impressed enough for her liking (I'm also not ever going to be using that name for Min again). "How like [Mat] she was. Stubbornly humble, these mainlanders. They were actually proud - proud - of their low-born heritage. Baffling." Have you- have you considered having an actual conversation with one of them about why? And about the name thing too -- both Min and Mat are people who actively choose to go by shortened versions of their names. Maybe ask them why they don't consider forcible re-naming to be an honor (and Fortuona should know that Mat feels that way, since she glared at him and willed him not to argue when she re-named him).

Though, of course, given that Fortuona Must Always Have Slaves Around Her at all times, having a conversation like that with Mat or Min becomes a bit trickier, because if they give good answers to her questions about why they don't care about being part of the Blood, Fortuona's slaves will hear those answers. That's a major downside to the whole "nothing is private (when you have slaves)" lifestyle that Fortuona is rocking. She probably doesn't even really understand what having privacy would be like (once again, I have to say what a huge mistake it was for Jordan to have Selucia along on the circus journey, because it meant that Tuon was still wallowing in her toxic slave-owner culture during that entire time period, because she always had a slave on tap to make sure that she kept The Mask up at all times). Because though Tuon doesn't see her slaves as people, she does always need to be The Owner when they are around (which is always).

36. Mat looks over to her and gives her a nod, to let her know that they should have their fake break-up fight now. Alas that it isn't a real break-up fight. So they fight over how Mat should have warned them all sooner that the tent wasn't safe. Interesting note: though many of the Seanchan look at Mat with "accusing" eyes after she lays her charge, Galgan frowns and Fortuona notes that he doesn't seem to agree with her accusation. "Impressive, that [Mat] had converted Galgan so quickly." Anyway, after a super-quick fight where Mat is just like "okay, fine, storm off in a tizzy if you want, see if I care"; Fortuona turns around and does just that.

37. Interesting that their fake fight actually got Mat's genuine temper up. And he wonders if Tuon was genuinely angry as well and if she will genuinely abandon the fight rather than come back as planned. Interestingly enough, Fortuona didn't have a single spark of genuine anger in her PoV. It was all her following the plan. So it sounds like the fight involved a lot more of Mat's genuine frustrations than it did Tuon's. "I've had it with you. You and your bloody Seanchan rules just keep getting in the way," does feel like a pretty accurate representation of how Mat has been feeling in a lot of the Seanchan-related scenes that he's been forcing himself to endure, yeah. But Fortuona assumed, in her PoV, that Mat was entirely acting and that none of his reactions were genuine -- "he was good at this". Mat and Tuon are still looking at each other and seeing someone completely different than the person who is really there.

38. What Mat says to Min here is also genuinely fascinating. I don't particularly like Mat & Tuon, even now, but I am finding them much more interesting (in a 'watching a bug through a glass' sort of way) than I ever found them in the Jordan books. Because Mat tells Min to "keep an eye on" Tuon and then clarifies that he doesn't mean in a "protection" way but in a "watch her" way. "She worries me, Min."

...I do kinda have to giggle at Mat saying that Tuon doesn't need protection and is a "strong one" when Mat literally just had to haul her unconscious ass out of a burning tent because she basically failed immediately when she went to go help him with the Gray Men. But, hey, I appreciate that Mat didn't let the narrative shoehorn Tuon into the role of his Personal Distressed Damsel even when it was clearly trying its hardest to force her into that position.

39. Oh, so Mat and MIN get a hug when they say goodbye. *eternal grumbles at how the ONLY PERSON who didn't get an emotionally appropriate reunion with Mat was his fucking best friend*

40. Ugh, is this where Mat starts calling her "Fortuona"? Because he's decided to take Karede's suicide troops into battle with him and Karede refuses to go with him if Mat won't call her "Fortuona"? I guess I'll wait and see if the way that he addresses her actually changes.

Anyway, Mat tells Karede to keep Mat alive "for Tuon" because he's "almost certain that she's fond of" him.

*gazes off into the distance, thinking about how everyone else that Tuon is 'fond' of is a slave that she owns and is fully willing to beat or order to their death if they fail her*

41. Bryne dying off-screen affects me a lot less than Siuan somehow managing to die off-screen in a scene that she was actively in. Elayne figures that Bryne's fit of rage that sent him running towards Trollocs and got him killed means that Siuan is dead.

Siuan and Moiraine never got to see each other again. 😭

(fingers crossed for her getting to take Thom's place as the watcher outside the cave in the show version, if we get to the ending)

42. Yeah, from what we've seen in every other PoV and perspective, Perrin is the only person who thinks that Elayne isn't good at tactics. So we can safely discount his opinion as just him being an asshole who thinks that the only woman worth listening to is his wife.

43. "The Shadow pushed with all its might. Humankind did not have days remaining, but hours."

44. A bolt of balefire attacks their camp, and Demandred loudly taunts "Lews Therin" that he is hunting "a woman you love". Of course, Rand can't respond to any of that, no matter how loudly Demandred echoes it across the battlefield with the Power. Birgitte grabs Elayne so that they can get somewhere secret and safe to regroup from, since Elayne herself is the main target now.

45. Of course, Galad can hear the threats and knows that Demandred is actively hunting his sister, so now he has twice the reason to try to kill the man -- killing his brother and trying to kill his sister. In order to get Demandred to fight him directly, Galad loudly proclaims his relationship to Rand. "[The Dragon Reborn] is not here, but his brother is!" And now Galad and Demandred will duel.

46. Mat finds out from Bashere that no one has heard from Faile. He wonders how he can possible finish off this battle without help from the Horn of Valere. ...maybe you shouldn't have deserted from the Last Battle at the start of the book, Mat? Just a thought. Mat yells at Bashere, which makes him grin and his wife give Mat a fond look -- hey, Mat, bet they'd be willing to let you be a third, especially if you yell at Bashere some more. Still healthier than your marriage with Tuon! Give it some consideration!

47. "He needed an army. And a gateway. He needed a bloody gateway. Fool, he thought. He had sent the damane away. Could he not at least have kept one? Though they did make his skin crawl as if it were covered in spiders." God, this is the first time since Winter's Heart that the narrative has let Mat openly think about how fucking creeped-out he is by damane and what the Seanchan do with them! Mat was so incredibly disturbed by the damane kennels in WH and then in CoT & KoD, he acted like it was the sul'dam who had the raw end of the deal. So, yeah, Mat's first chapter in AMoL had brain-breaking teleportation and he forgot half of his characterization until he was finally allowed out of fucking Ebou Dar (RIP any hopes of an emotionally-resonant Cauthor reunion), but we have seen, over the course of the last few chapters, the slow return of how incredibly disturbed and creeped-out Mat was over the damane system. This was the thing that Jordan essentially made Mat forget in order to get him to be willing to suck face with Tuon at the end of KoD, so it's really nice to see it coming back to life. Finally.

Maybe Min will also remember at some point how fucking awful the damane system is.

48. Oh, Mat gets to reunite with Loial now? *insert annoyed grumbles about how Mat & Rand is pretty much the only important relationship that got completely cheated by how Sanderson decided to do the plotting of AMoL*

Since I mention Rand:

Those dice kept ratting in his head. He also felt a pull from the north, a tugging, as if some threads around his chest were yanking on him.

Now now, Rand, he thought. I'm bloody busy.

No colors formed, only blackness. Dark as a Myrddraal's heart. The tugging grew stronger.

Mat dismissed the vision. Not. Now.

I feel so cheated that this ends up giving me nothing that I wanted, thanks! Why did we bother! I am vibing with so much of Mat's PoV in this book now that we're out of Light-forsaken Altara but I'm so frustrated by how much Sanderson is teasing something that I already know I will not actually get.

49. Mat gets to reunite with Teslyn here. Not that I am not thrilled to have Mat reunite with Teslyn because I am, but it does... frustrate me all over again, how shallow and limp the Cauthor reunion ended up being, all happening in the shadow of the slaver ball-and-chain. Every time Mat gets a better reunion with someone else, I feel cheated about his reunion with Rand all over again. Anyway, Mat is so happy to see Teslyn that he could kiss her. (he does not)

Teslyn is going to take Mat, Loial, & co up to the Heights. My brain wants to find something symbolic in the fact that after Mat sends away Tuon & the damane, the first channeler that he runs into is Teslyn and she is the one who is enabling all his battleground hopping as he sends out order after order.

Something, something, wrong road vs right road.

Tylin... Tuon... Teslyn. Women that Mat met in Ebou Dar who have similarly rhythmic 'T' names. Tuon was jealous of Joline but it was Teslyn who started the ball rolling on Mat helping the Aes Sedai escape Ebou Dar.

idk. Maiden, mother, crone vibes, but the maiden & the mother are both abusive?

50. Demandred and Galad duel; Demandred tries to taunt Galad about Gawyn's death in order to break his focus. Galad realizes that the main purpose of what he's doing here is keeping Demandred's focus off of the armies and off of Elayne. It's in Galad's best interests to last as long against Demandred as he can. Some more fighting happens but then Galad's arm gets cut off, and he too, has lost his duel against Demandred.

51. I've seen objections to Mat personally leading the fight at this point but -- the situation is pretty dire and his command tent was blown up. Maintaining a mobile unit and darting in and out of the battle seems like the best of the bad options at this point?

52. For the moment, Elayne and Birgitte are out of the direct line of the fight. Elayne is not currently flying her banner, but she's sent messages to her commanders to let them know she still lives. Then a fake band of refugees arrives, hiding Mellar, who still has his copy of the medallion and who is here because he is still obsessed with Elayne. She thinks here that he's "the one many people still assumed fathered her children". So Elayne sent out the "Rand is the baby-daddy" press release but some people actively chose to continue to believe that slimy Mellar was the daddy? Gross. He has, apparently, been trying to track Elayne down this entire time.

53. He kills Birgitte and the loss of the bond -- and the loss of her friend -- tears at Elayne. They also have another corpse -- a woman dressed to look like Elayne, with her hair color -- that they plan to parade around to pretend to everyone that Elayne is dead. His next plan is to cut her babies out of Elayne -- ah, this must be why we jumped her pregnancy so far ahead, so that it wouldn't be quite so ridiculous that her babies could be kept alive after this -- and TDO gets the kids while Mellar gets to keep Elayne.

54. Mat has requested that the Seanchan make their return to the battlefield but instead of doing that, Fortuona is taking some time to listen to her captains debate over the subject of returning. While people suffer and die on the battlefield.

55. ...Min thinks here, with no commentary, that a Captain Yulan "had been the one to lead the strike on Tar Valon". Do you... have any opinions on that, Min? No? No opinions. Okay, noted. Her only worry is that she's started to think of her viewings as 'omens'. She really does lose herself in other people so easily. For literally the first time ever, Min uses her viewings to try to suss out a spy. Wow, Rand would have found this extremely useful, Min! She notices that one of the random so'jihn (those are slaves, Min, btw, in case you've forgotten about the existence of slavery) has a bunch of images over her head the way that normally only Aes Sedai, Warders or ta'veren do.

56. Part of her wants to just try to stab the woman, but instead she goes to confront Fortuona, asking her to please define what a Truthspeaker is. Fortuona... reluctantly... allows that it's her job to call Fortuona out in public if she screws up. So Min turns to the Blood and says, "[Tuon] has abandoned the armies of humankind, and she withholds her strength in a time of need. Her pride will cause the destruction of all people, everywhere."

She calls out the member of the Blood that the spy has compelled while throwing a dagger at the spy -- which is caught mid-air using the Power. After Moghedien (I'm assuming) escapes, Min says that this shows that the Shadow is trying to keep them from the battle. "With that in mind, will you still pursue this course of indecision?"

57. Tuon does claim here that following this mandate that Min has pressed upon her is "follow[ing] what my heart would choose". Is that true? Who knows? At least she's going back. Tuon also seems to regret slightly that she's now placed someone into the position of Truthspeaker who doesn't have the kind of trained-in deference that Selucia had. Grass is always greener.

Question: does Tuon's 'heart' matter if she still actively chooses evil unless her feet are held to the fire? That is the sort of... moral question that I feel like should have been at play way earlier in the Mat & Tuon relationship. Sanderson is actually using the basic foundations of Mat & Tuon to much greater emotional complexity than we saw at work in CoT & KoD but because it's happened after we already saw that stagnant Tuon in those two books... it's hard for this to feel earned by the narrative. It works a lot better if I close my eyes and try to imagine that we had a better lead-up in the earlier books, lol.

58. Mat learns that Egwene has died (Blood and bloody ashes, Mat thought. Egwene. Not Egwene too? It hit him like a punch to the face.) and half the Aes Sedai have exhausted themselves too much to keep channeling but all the Sharan channelers have been taken out of the picture. Then we also witness Mat's coping mechanism in action -- when his mind wanders back to Egwene, he abruptly cuts the thought off. "No thinking of that right now". Instead, he forces his mind back to business and asks if they've gotten any new troops from Mayene, healed up and ready to fight again. Lan says that he'll check.

59. Then Mat digs in his saddlebags, pulling out Rand's banner, "the one of the ancient Aes Sedai" and he tells them, "Somebody hoist this thing up. We're fighting in Rand's bloody name. Let's show the Shadow we're proud of it."

So many things that could be said here. Frustrating how late this happens? I guess that's my main feeling here, which is a shame. I wish that it could feel more triumphant for me, but this is essentially where Mat already was before he had his weird teleportation to Ebou Dar at the start of AMoL, so it's mostly just me being frustrated that none of this was allowed to exist when Rand was actually here for Mat to interact with him. Mat's friendship with Rand disappeared from the narrative just long enough to avoid us actually getting any kind of emotionally-resonant scene between them and that just... will probably always be something that I will find deeply regretful about the choices Sanderson made in this book.

But I don't want to hold onto my frustration forever, I guess. Mat really has gotten a lot better over the last few chapters. I will choose to be glad that Mat has gotten to a better place again with Rand, even if it's still bizarre that he suddenly backtracked on him at the start of this book.

60. Mat is hoping that his luck will come through when another messager brings news. The Queen of Andor is reported dead. (Bloody ashes! Not Elayne! Mat felt a lurch inside. Rand... I'm sorry.) Just like with Egwene, though, he doesn't let any of that emotion show through to the soldiers, only asking the messenger who is now in charge of the battlefield.

61. He wonders if he might not be able to win even if the Seanchan do return. If it might not be better to let the Seanchan/Fortuona hunker down in Ebou Dar and... die anyway in a few weeks or months? lol, that's not a mercy for them, Mat. But he did just hear that two people he cares about deeply are dead, so I'll give him a little slack for momentarily wishing that he didn't have to call Tuon back to her potential death too, even if he's still never given me anything he actually likes about her besides "hot enough to have sex with".

...oh, and he then learns here that Lan disobeyed his orders and went off to head towards Demandred on his own.

But Mat moves forward with his plan anyway, even though he's fairly sure it won't be enough.

Horn of Valere Team (Faile; Olver)

Faile & co run across a camp in the Blasted Lands that is being used as a supply station for the Shadow's army.

Aravine betrays the group and is a Darkfriend. I am... struggling to remember who she is. brb, will check the wiki. ahhh, she's one of the people that Faile met while she was a captive of the Shaido; a fellow captive. Anyway, Darkfriend, and she finds the Horn in Faile's bag at this point and says that she will deliver it to "Lord Demandred". Olver gets free and stabs the woman who is keeping Faile captive.

Faile grabs a horse (miraculously, it is Bela) and gives chase after Aravine, soon joined by Harnan and Vanin. She accuses them of trying to steal the Horn but they protest that they were only trying to steal the tabac that they thought she was carrying, because Mat owes them money, and seeing the Horn in there came as a huge shock to them (which is why they dropped it and didn't take it with them when they ran).

She throws a knife at Aravine's back and recovers the Horn. She finds Olver again, but they are being hunted by the Shadow's forces, who now know they have the Horn. She gives the Horn to Olver and tells him to get it to Mat. Then she gets back on a different horse (not Bela), making sure that the sack she carries is obvious, and heads off on distraction duty.

So Olver has the Horn. He's pretty stressed because now he's all alone again, as the Darkfriends and Trollocs chase after Faile. "How brave he had thought himself. Now, here he was, finally at the battle. He could barely keep his hands from trembling. He wanted to hide, dig deep into the earth."

A Trolloc discovers him and Olver sees Bela still there and runs for her, wishing he had a horse that looked faster. He races towards where he can see Mat's banners on the horizon, but more Trollocs keep appearing. And Bela gets shot by a Trolloc arrow and goes down. He tries racing up the mountain to reach Mat's banners but they're so far away. He finds a crevasse and wedges himself into it, trying to push deep enough that he's out of the reach of the Trollocs. Poor kid. This is all incredibly traumatizing for him.

He couldn't stop shaking. He also couldn't make himself move. He trembled, terrified, as the beasts pried at him with filthy fingers, digging closer and closer.

Other Misc PoVs

We get a Tam PoV that continues to have zero acknowledgement of the whole "Tam knows he's going to be a grandfather" thing. It's just weird at this point.

Okay, what Uno thinks about Mat ("He still didn't understand why anyone would put Cauthon in charge of anything. He remembered that boy, always snapping at people, eyes sunken in his head. Half-dead, half-spoiled.") should also have been what Min remembered about Mat. The last time they both saw him was around that same time period of Falme, when Mat was deep in the grip of the dagger-sickness. This is the Mat that Min would have met!

Perrin wakes up and is told that they were able to heal him so that he wouldn't die and will recover but that's all they can do for him. Healing needs to be saved for other people too, so "your participation in the Last Battle is over". And then he goes back to sleep, but regular sleep this time.

Graendal collects Rhuarc as one of her pets. 😭

...why am I supposed to care that Demandred has feelings for women (or, I guess, A Woman)? I really have absolutely no reason to care about Demandred's love life. Why am I being told any of this? Was someone worried that readers would think Demandred was gay for obsessing so much over Lews Therin, so a "Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?" moment was thrown in to avoid that? It does seem put in to deliberately contrast for his, uh, "burning passion that was his hatred for Lews Therin".

Another possibility is that this is a relationship meant to foil/reflect Mat and Tuon's? Shendla sounds just as willfully delusional about her future with ~her Wyld~ as Mat always sounds when he's thinking about his Fictional Tuon Girl. "Oh, just because you do evil things and control an evil army of literal horrors doesn't make you evil, darling! Just because you own slaves command Shadowspawn doesn't make you bad, sweetheart! The evil things that you do don't define you! You can do evil things and be a super-great person! I believe in you!"

We get another Tam PoV where he doesn't think at all about his impending post-Last Battle grandfatherhood.

Our third Tam PoV. No acknowledgement of Elayne's pregnancy and how Rand has been announced to be the father. We have time for Tam to run into Lan and for Lan to be all "ah, the blademaster who gave Rand his sword earned the title" but no time to think about Tam's actual upcoming grandkids. It's so weird how disconnected Elayne's pregnancy manages to be from Rand's plotline even after Rand and her entire army all know about the pregnancy and that Rand is the father! Somehow, this plotline is still only considered relevant to Elayne herself and not relevant to Rand or Tam at all????

Androl pickpockets Taim for the true seals, I think? I feel like maybe Sanderson should have leaned into the pickpocketing thing for Androl. tbh, this plotline has felt pretty pointless, lol. The Asha'man could have just been part of the army in the other plotlines and nothing of value really would have been lost.

Okay so... why are the Sharan channelers such experts in war, anyway? Because it doesn't sound like they've constantly been having civil wars, the way that the Seanchan have, so where have they been getting their experience in fighting? You can't become an expert fighter in a vacuum.

The Band has been secretly hidden in caverns deep underground so that they can work on repairing the dragons (with Aludra's expertise guiding the way, of course), waiting on Mat's order (with Asha'man and gateways to get them out again) for them to attack once more.

The Tuatha'an work as battlefield triage, going through the bodies trying to find those who are only wounded and might be saved. "The Way of the Leaf was an easy master at times, providing a life of joy and peace. But a leaf fell in calm winds and in the tempest; dedication demanded that one accept the latter as well as the former."

Raen asks Ila what they would have asked these people to do, in the face of Trollocs. Ila says that they could have run. That there was no need for them to fight here, right at the cusp of the Blight. Raen says that the Trollocs would have followed. "We have accepted many masters. The Shadow might treat us poorly, but would it really be worse than we have been treated at the hands of others?" Ila asks, but Raen disagrees. "It would have been worse. I am not going to abandon the Way, Ila. It is my path and it is right for me. Perhaps... perhaps I will not think quite so poorly of those who follow another path." Ah. They're talking about/mourning Aram. Ila says, "I shouldn't have turned my back on him. I should have tried to help him return to us, not cast him out." She had always felt as if she knew the answers in life. Today, most of those had slipped from her. Saving a person's life though... that she could cling to. She headed back among the bodies, searching for the living among the dead.

Galad ends up in the Mayane hospital. I wonder if he still has his copy of the medallion. I assume he does. Not sure when he'd have had a chance to give it back.

Ah, asked and answered. Berelain finds the medallion around Galad's neck as he whispers "back to Cauthon", so she takes the medallion and heads off at a brisk pace.

Loial and Erith take a moment to rest together before the final charge of the Last Battle. Loial has managed to take notes here and there, for a story that he'd like to pretend that he'll still get to write. "There was no harm to such a little lie."

The night grows darker as Lan charges towards Demandred and we pass our final Tam PoV of this chapter... still no mention of the fact that he knows he's going to have grandkids. (or the news going through the army that Elayne is reported dead? or anything like that?)

18. Ah, Lan was the one who received the note from Berelain with the medallion - I do not know how Galad ended up with this, but I believe he wished me to send it to Cauthon. I wish that Lan had cleared this plan with Mat tbh! But anyway, Lan does have three things here as he faces off with Demandred: one that Gawyn had (he's a Warder, with that boost in endurance) and one that Galad had (a medallion to protect him from weaves) plus he also has twenty years of experience fighting at the side of an Aes Sedai in a quest to locate the Dragon Reborn. It sounds very much like his reasoning is the same as Gawyn and Galad as well -- this is a necessary job, and I'm a person who is already here and can be risked to do that job.

19. "Lan held nothing back." He knows that he can't afford to give Demandred time to think, so he just goes for a relentless assault. Demandred does pretty quickly figure out the 'just channel things at him' trick, so Lan is dealing with dodging rocks as well. Demandred is just so certain that anyone who can hold their own against him is Lews Therin! It's honestly been kinda the comic relief of this chapter.

20. Then he uses one of the lessons that he taught Rand (that Rand used in his battle against Ishamael in Falme) -- he deliberately lets Demandred stab him so that he can get close enough to stab his own sword through Demandred's throat.

The world grew dark as Lan slipped backward off the sword. He felt Nynaeve's fear and pain as he did, and he sent his love to her.

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #wot amol spoilers #wot a memory of light spoilers #mat cauthon #egwene al'vere #elayne trakand #rand al'thor #seanchan content warning #faile bashere #olver (wheel of time)

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highladyluck · 10 months ago

Note

The Finn stole my baby AU

ok FINE you can all have the Eelfinn Stole My Baby in outline form

I've never pinned down the details on this, because I think it would be most interesting as an installment in a larger series and a lot of the details would be determined by the needs of the overall storyline, but this is the vague outline:

1) Fortuona has just found out from Min that her kid's going to be a marath'damane. Because a) SOME IDIOT (maybe Mat, maybe Berelain if they're on speaking terms, there's some other options depending on the scenario) made the mistake of telling her about Sindhol in some way that makes her actually believe in it, b) she's a slut for prophecy and always has been, and c) she wants to explore all her options, she wants to go to Sindhol to get some answers from the Aelfinn. The questions she intends to ask vary by setting but it's something along the lines of how to survive the current situation/protect her marath'damane child/solve the sul'dam problem/ensure stability of the Empire in the westlands/how best to reconquer mainland Seanchan. You know! #FortuonaProblems. Mat eventually agrees to escort her; both to get in, since the only way in right now is the Tower of Ghenji, and to get out.

2) But because they're going in outside of treaty rules and Mat's there, the Eelfinn are the ones waiting for them and they won't let Fortuona go see the Aelfinn (maybe they say that they won't see Mat, but they will see her, if she agrees to be escorted alone. Mat's almost like "oh, over my dead body" but catches himself just in time.) Whatever deal Fortuona makes with the Eelfinn involves something she can use to solve her existing political problems (not sure what this is but it could be something horrible, like a better male a'dam), and something for Mat (maybe a magic replacement eye?). The third item is either something else for her, something else for Mat, or a very thoroughly rules-lawyered escape clause, depending on how confident Mat was/she is about being able to escape with the ashandarai. In exchange, they take her about-to-be-born-child, which she either explicitly names as the price, or is counting on them taking as the price.

3) At least they're not gonna eat the kid; the Eelfinn want a human child who can channel to build them new treaty doors someday, and if the human child is raised by them and therefore on their side, so much the better. They're also thrilled to get another piece of Mat. I figure the Eelfinn would want the savor of Mat and Tuon fighting about this, so while there's a possibility that the world's least hygenic c-section happens before Mat cottons on to what Tuon just bargained away, I think it would be more likely that they don't strike until the price is explicit or Mat has figured it out.

Tuon's like "I understand that you're upset but it's better this way. I came to solve a problem. It's not solved the way I intended, but it's solved and I got you an incredible boon in the bargain. We can always have more children."

Mat's like "Yeah, well, you aren't having them with me! You're a monster for unilaterally trading our child to my eldritch enemies."

She's like "If I'm a monster, so are you. As soon as you found out she would be marath'damane you began setting plans in motion to take her from her destiny. From the empire. From me. Don't think I haven't noticed. At least in this situation, I'm getting something out of it that benefits both of us."

4) I honestly don't entirely know what happens next, but it's bad. Unstoppable force (Mat's desire to rescue women & his love of Tuon) meets immovable object (said woman/Tuon just betrayed him and his innocent child to his worst enemies). Would he just leave Tuon there? (maybe?) Would he try to trade Tuon's life for the baby's? (I like this because I like pain and I think he might be deranged enough in the moment to do it) Would he try to trade his life for the baby's? (maybe, but they wouldn't accept it.) Would he try to kill all the Eelfinn? (yes, and they'd still take the baby.) Like how the fuck do you recover from any of that? And the worst part is you can like… sort of see where Tuon is coming from, if you enjoy women's wrongs? And she really just wanted to meet the Aelfinn and it's Mat's fault that it isn't going as planned?

5) If there's a sequel, it would be the fully grown child showing up in their world with a terrifying knowledge of esoteric ter'angreal construction and thoroughly socialized as a *Finn some improbably short amount of time later. Maybe when Elayne and Mat mount a rescue mission in a few months. Time runs differently in Sindhol if the *Finn need it to.

Bonus: I'm still debating adding a variant of this to the epilogue of The Fox That Makes The Ravens Fly- for one thing, I haven't decided yet if Tuon is pregnant, and if she is, by whom. If I do it'll be Rand who tells her about the Aelfinn & Thom who tells her about the Eelfinn, she'll go in with Thom and someone else (Elayne, I think, in exchange for access to the dice-ring ter'angreal that replicates Mat's luck, also Elayne would love to go on that field trip, although I could see Min being interested for the metaphysics of it all), and the ostensible point is to rescue Moiraine. I think instead of that, she negotiates getting Mat back, at the cost of leaving her baby with them, and resetting the timeline so Mat never died and the canon events where Moiraine gets rescued happen, but she remembers the old timeline. I have no idea if the *Finn actually get to keep her baby, who may or may not be a sparker in this scenario, or for that matter if they get to keep Moiraine, but I bet they'd take the bargain regardless because they invested a lot in Mat & also now Tuon has some weird fucking emotions about the entire life she didn't lead. Also they're the fae, the only thing they like more than bargain eyeballs is bargain babies.

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #au ask game #the eelfinn stole my baby #anyboli #problematic fave tuon #an alternate dimension with incredible shopping #one thing about Tuon is she loves to shop and also create problems by her very existence

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lace-archives · 1 month ago

Text

Chapter 1, Steady Going Nowhere.

TAGS: [Dead Dove Do Not Eat]. Slow burn, cannibalism, mentions of suicide, implied SA, starvation, canon divergences, murder, Gwyn is a ginger, mentions of dementia, relatively realistic decay except i didn't get too much into it just in case. Characters are a mix from the books and the show, i added 1 year to the show age of Jon so our mains are both 18.

It was right there, after all this time, inconspicuously laying atop the snow, held tightly by the gauntlets of the knight, and stained red by the fight it had endured moments before.

Gwyn had dreamed of the swordsman again this very morning; the mismatched metals of his armour glistened in the summer sun and reflected the emerald toned tall grass that danced with the wind surrounding his unnaturally stiff form. A longsword, half as tall as he, swung around and stopped abruptly, pointing invitingly to where Gwyn watched. The same longsword shimmering with her own blood right now as its owners body grew cold and gray on the forest floor, a sanguineous flow dripping from the side of his neck where she stabbed the stick closest to her moments before.

Dying was not as instant as Gwyn once thought. It took at least an hour for the knights body to stop jerking and spasming. Every time she thought it had stopped, a new limb moved minutes later. The feeling he would rise up from the dead and finish killing her did not leave her side as long as he could move, and until it did, she did not leave his.

Being a killer and killing someone was not the same to her, even if it was to the rest of Westeros. Lords, knights and kings could kill as they saw fit, that never counted, but any man who fought them back was a killer. Would she be a killer now? His yellow cape was sullied red, and the golden lion pin on his shoulder left very clear which house he served, who would want her head first.

The way to the nearest town would be long, whatever side of the forest she may come out of, but twenty-one silver stags from selling six sheep and the mans wineskin would be perfect travel companions, as long as the gods were kind and didn't send a blizzard. Her best efforts went into treating her shallow wounds as neatly as she could, and as soon as she finished tying the last ripped piece of the knights linen shirt around her arm, she grabbed the knights longsword, cleaned her blood off it on his cape, and began walking.

By the time the walk back hit a fortnight, starvation was stabbing into Gwyns gut.

The wolfswood seemed to circle and go on forever. Even a ray of sun felt like blistering heat once you grew accustomed to the cold, and in the shade, the snow seemed to glitter with a distinctive shine that was unnoticeable to someone walking through the clearings. Tracks left by her boots were not as noticeable as they would be under open skies, and finding your way was as much a learned skill as riding or sword-fighting.

Leopoldt was a cowardly boy of thirteen, someone who couldn't so much as go out herding alone from fear of foxes, and Dietrich carried the weight of seventy namedays on his back. Perhaps that is what made him so hunched he had to walk with a cane. Neither of them could look for her. What was left of her real family, the people of a house fallen as quickly as it had risen, thought Gwyn long dead. These news would never reach them.

With so much time to think alone, it was an arduous task not to wonder if her father had felt this way the months he disappeared, so far from the life he knew, like he had walked into a different place, a different time.

Hunger ached deep inside her, slowly vanishing the last drops of wine and melted ice Gwyn had the previous morning.

In front of her laid the empty hand of the Lannister knight, frozen stiff. It stopped her leather boots in their track. Blood phased her little, the snow atop the pale-faced mans beard that resembled how her father was brought back to their estate was what perturbed her far too much. Losing one's mind, what a nightmarish thought. It would prove everyone right; blood of her blood. They never understood, not one of them.

The day Gwyn ran was not a selfish act like her father's or her brother's, it was the opposite. Making some little southern lordling marry her at her eighth nameday as her grandsire had wished was ridiculous, he would be mocked until the end of his days, it wouldn't be fair to anyone. This way everyone was happy, no low lords betrothed, no grandsire fighting for a say in what wasn't his to give, no one worrying what the mad families child would end up like. Perhaps finding wolfsbane and ending her life like her brother would be a more sensible way to go, at least it would be with a full stomach.

The wound on the side of the knights neck had stopped oozing crimson long ago, and the skin was not soft nor tender, beneath Gwyns cool fingertips, it felt far from human; it had tightened so much it reminded her of a swine.

A hurt sound made its way past parched lips as Gwyns gut twisted and turned with sharp pain that made her curl inwards and hold whatever she could of her stomach, falling down from a crouch to a kneel. There weren't many animals that could be hunted with a sword. A single rabbit had hopped by days ago, and in the desperate chase that followed all that was gained was heavy exhaustion and a loss of the barely noticeable track she had carefully been following for the past week that landed her right back where they started.

Powdery and darkened blood from the wound on the mans neck was smeared on her fingertips, and without so much as a thought, Gwyn lifted her hand to her lips and licked it off, leaving behind a lighter, spit stained red. What would happen if she couldn't get back? How long until hunger devoured her body from within and how long until some poor soul came across the white fur on her shoulders, buried beneath the snow many moons later. Dying just like her father… Just like father. Naked, insane, lost, alone.

The knights arm was surprisingly easy to pull off.

After a few semi-futile hacks of the longsword, it was quickly discarded and replaced by ungloved hands gripping the now bared wrist tightly and a boot against his breastplate. Violet skin on his shoulder gleamed as if covered by stained glass, and the flesh broke off instead of ripping, making the force Gwyn thought to apply way too much and sending her and the arm down to the forest floor. The old gods held no laws and made their believers follow no scriptures, but in the dirty ground, Gwyn looked up at the branches and wondered if anyone was judging from within them. People would, people always judged. Did nature? Did the old gods, who made hunger? No necessity overrode the law the world upheld, except its own. Survival was for those who fought to live, and nobody else.

Creaks and whispers of wind sounded deep in the wolfswood, violently interrupted by the crunching of frozen flesh and licking of bloodied bluish lips. Gwyn's entire body trembled with a profound sigh that left her breath stilled in the chill air. It was disgusting; almost tasteless and clearly raw, no ice would hide that. Yet, never in her life had she felt so full. Swallowing down any attempts of her stomach to reject the meal, she ate until she couldn't bear to swallow anymore; The flesh was far from tender, it cracked under her teeth so harshly Gwyn feared they might shatter, after so long, she could swear she had never tasted anything better.

The next week, she ate one of the thighs, roasted atop a small fire she moved along with each camp and never left the side of. When cooked, it went down so much in size she almost feared it would disappear, and gained an almost acceptable taste. Still, Gwyn could almost feel the weirwoods carved eyes glaring holes into her back every night before she laid down to sleep.

The last two days were noticeably warmer. By the time she had finished the first leg bugs had taken to living inside the other, as well as the arm on its side. They resembled festering wounds, but the white moved and ate away at the flesh from the outside. The ice the body had laid on had melted yesterday morning, and nature seemed to have no patience left for it as it hurried to take all that remained under the silver plates of armour. In a couple blows of the longsword, the leg and forearm were taken off. All that remained was a helmeted head and a chain mail covered torso with slowly melting blood pouring down.

Buried in the darkness of rows upon rows of evergreen trees Gwyn picked branches from that evening laid a small patch of snow; untouched by the sun and the heat it brought, and thus untouched by maggots.

Dragging the knight's body became much easier now that so little of him remained. It was a grotesque sight, but it was far from the first one she witnessed. Her father had always insisted all his children 'saw the world for what it was'. The blood-stained cloak served as a half-decent tent, and the fire felt warmer in that little nook; crackling of it seemed louder than usual, that was, until she noticed.

Gwyn rose abruptly. Someplace, someplace near, she heard the rhythmic hooves of a horse clashing against soil. She shoved snow over the fire and grabbed her newfound weapon before moving to swiftly place the ochre cloak over what remained of the man. Surely was a sight one was pleased to leave behind. She could bury him, take the horse and ride in one direction as long as it would take her; the wolfswood was large, but in at most four days without stopping, she was bound to come out of it. It was forgiveness for her sin, a blessing. Her rapid trail of thought stilled as she heard a voice. No.

Being found this way, with a knights blood on her hands, next to his dismembered body... it would mean being thrown in a dungeon for years to come, or worse. If she went back alone no one would know, being found was a different story.

Another voice made itself heard, too close for comfort. A question: "Who goes there?"

Gwyn heard the scrape of a sword being pulled from its sheath before she could think of where to hide, nearly dropping her own blade as she saw the first figure running towards her. Something was yelled, something indiscernible from the blood rushing in her ears when she began to run to the opposite side of the first people she had seen in a moon and the horse that could've taken her home.

Leave. You need to leave. There is no time to waste, don't you dare drop your sword.

If they catch you, after everything you had to do… you may have a chance at escape later but now-

Now? Your best chance is of dying in a chase like an animal.

No, it's not worth it.

It's not worth it.

A gloved hand gripped her curls and pulled her attempt at escape to an abrupt stop. Her desperate fighting soon grew futile as another man held her down and took the sword from her bloodstained hands before tightly tying them with rope. From the forest floor, the trees looked tall as mountains, the movement around her blurred as Gwyns head was banged against the dirt.

"Cease the fighting at once, boy!" The man gripping her copper hair was pushing Gwyns cheek into the ground as she squirmed. He looked more nervous than violent. Akin to a scared dog, barking with no intention to bite.

"Filthy worm." A second figure, all in black, emerged from the shadow of the first. He tied her hands with a speed forged by practice, spitting out the words he said as if each one disgusted him more. "The lions won't be happy about this one… They pay their good money to their vassals."

Soon followed by another pair who cautiously led two horses behind them, horrified from what they had just come across and observing her every move, they all dragged her to sit against a tree and began to quietly converse. The horses were comely. A rose grey garron mare, made for winter and most likely owned by the wandering crow, followed by a gelded rounsey with a blood bay coat, a bastard of horses. Even the most noble breeds seemed to succumb to instinct when let loose, most common peoples horses were rounseys.

'Gueren' was the name of the man in black. He looked to be no older than forty and his brown beard did not hide the constant frown he donned. Except for the furs on his shoulders, which were a vibrant amber fox pelt, everything about him was so dim Gwyn believed an abyss would surely be brighter.

The three other men wore old brown leather cloaks, and behaved nothing like prisoners. From their rare attempts at conversations, which went unanswered, she found out they were traveling to the Deepwood Motte before they had come across 'him'. They appeared young and spoke quietly, often turning back to look at her before resuming the conversation, as if she were training to become the next master of whispers and listened to every word.

The rogue crow was the first to suggest splitting paths, and after a curt wish of well-faring, he used what little strength his thin arms may have carried to toss her, facing down, on the back of his horse. Tying her ankles and putting a thin cloth bag over her head seemed to satisfy his desire to humiliate his new prisoner, and shame was something dueful her wane to beasthood.

Gwyn thought about anything except what was happening. Thought of the old man and Leo, thought of how to get the silver she still held onto to the two, thought of the hedge knights hands unlacing his breeches, of the smell of blood after she drove his own dagger through his eye, and how it felt like warm rain falling on her face from where he knelt above her, thought of the following chase by the Lannisters knight which made both of them lose their way, and the ensuing fight against him which left her with the newfound title of 'murderer' and stranded until now, here, when she was faced all she wished not to think of.

"Does she have a name?" Gwyn asked softly.

"Who?"

"Your mare."

"…" Gueren did not answer for a minute or so, and she assumed her questioning futile, until he replied. "Maiden. After the maiden" It was hard to know if he had named her then and there, or if he simply wished to share as little as possible, but it was a fitting namesake for her, whenever it may have been bestowed.

Gwyn hesitated before speaking again. "Are you southern? Most northeners don't believe in the seven."

"I used to be."

Following that, their trip to Winterfell was quiet. Neither of them wished to debate idle musings nor did they entertain any more questions for each-other. The canter of the mare kept her from sleeping, and she deeply regretted not asking the terrified boys for some water while she had the chance. Surely Gwyn could mask herself as some small squire with a voice like a bird, and somebody ought to believe her. She'd been posing as a boy for years to do what her timid and aged companions could not. It had kept her and the only two people left in her life who mattered safe for years. Until it hadn't…

Gueren did not stop at any time, paying no mind to the horses panting and jerking, and in just two days and one night, they passed the hunters gate.

Disorienting, the echoing of mutters and shouts crashed like waves into her ears, which had grown used to the stillness of the wolfswood. The clop of the mares hooves against the cobblestone ceased as they reached a stop, and after having her legs untied, Gwyn was harshly pushed off its back and onto the floor. Lord and Lady Stark were absent, and in their stead, the person to pass her judgment would be his eldest, who was but a few moons older than her.

The crow guided her tied hands by the loose end of the rope, the hood that was left on her head made walking hard, and she felt like a stumbling fool as she passed through the door into what she assumed to be the great hall.

The warmth of Winterfell caused Gwyns gelid skin to burn with the heat of molten iron. She sucked in a breath though her teeth, still tasting blood on her dry tongue as she was pushed down to her knees.

The hood over her head was not removed by the hands that placed it; the eldest Stark carefully placed it in the hands of a maester behind him, never taking his eyes from hers or his hand from the hilt of his sheathed sword. He looked almost a man, yet not quite. Young for his young age, he held no hardened features of a man except for an exhausted expression. No one made the first move for a few moments, until Gueren presented the Lannister knights longsword and cloak pin to the lord Stark before speaking.

"M'lord, i found him in the wolfswood, half way to the motte but almost a mile off the path." He said, stern and clear. "I believe the other knights body we found near the edge is also his handiwork. He must have lured them into the forest to kill them both. His hands were covered with blood when i found him and the body was cut into pieces, we only found the torso and a leg."

A shiver blew across the room like winter wind as the Stark imagined the sight. He looked away from her, lost in thought.

"Speak, or i will take the words of this man for granted and deliver a sentence myself." His voice faltered, yet his face remained the same as he returned her gaze once again.

Gwyn lowered her head and looked away, speaking in a choked voice "I did kill them, there is no use in denying it. But they attacked me first." "When?"

She rose her head to meet his gaze again. "I'm not sure, my lord. When was the feast you held last?" Both the lord Stark and the crow looked bewildered, and the second broke the silence, "You're telling me you spent over a month in there?" She only nodded, glad not to be asked more questions. "Gods be good…"

The young lord took a step back, contemplating, before taking his hand off his blade and crossing his arms. Gwyn wondered, if they knew her true crime, would they doubt for even a second? It was only a vile accusation, or a grave suspicion, but any proof of it relied on her own word.

"If you will, you may take the black and pay for your crimes serving at the wall. Were you not to do this, you will be hanged come morning." This time, his voice was unwavering. Surely speaking with words not his own, ones he had heard his father say hundreds of times.

She had not considered that option. Gwyn had assumed that sometime before her sentence someone would find out about the truth of her sex, one way or another.

"May i ask something of you, my lord?" She struggled to pull a small bag from her pocket, and held it gently in her tied hands in front of him. "Would you please give this to my family? It is mine, i earned it selling sheep here." Her voice rasped as she continued. "I will not need it at the wall, but they will find use for it."

He nodded, calling over the maester once again and handing him the bag.

"I shall see to it that the money is delivered." The young lord Stark turned and left, and by the hour, Gwyn was fed actual food, and river water instead of melted snow for the first time in a moon. Eating it almost felt wrong, undeserved, knowing the last thing she ate, but she swallowed down the doubt with her soup and went on her way with Gueren.

In eighteen days and seventeen nights, they arrived at the wall. Gwyn had seen it from afar many times, yet now, it loomed over her as imposing as the sky itself.

Her legs felt like they were about to fall off, more than half of the way was spent with her captor comfortable on horseback and her walking, being led by her tied hands like a leashed hound.

"Don't you dare run now." Gueren pulled out a small blade and sliced the ropes clean off. They had left red marks on her skin, but luckily weren't tight enough to scrape into it.

"I chose this, why would i run now?" She replied, confused.

" …That's what they all say" He tossed her the longsword inside its scabbard when they reached the gate to castle black. As Gwyn stepped in and looked into the yard where the recruits trained, her gaze met a pair of dark gray eyes staring back right into hers.

Chapter 2 : What Choice But Simple Duty

Coming soon...

Authors note: So yeah! That was it for now. I've never really posted my writing before but i really like making characters and i was inspired by the lovely writers here on tumblr to give it a try. I can 100% assure you it is cannon that Gueren told Gwyn it was fine if he had a little dick and he didn't have to pee so far away when they journeyed to the wall. I might post some art of her later, Gwyn looks a bit more masculine naturally, and that's what helped her so much when she traveled and worked so she embraced it as she became older. Anyways! I'm just really happy to finally post something, even through the perils of editing and writing i really enjoyed this and am definetly gonna continue this story, and post other for more OC's. If any of you want me to get right to the point and write freaky stuff, feel free to request. All of my fics will be slow burns because that's how i made the OC's stories but i looove writing relationships and NSFW too. Thank you for reading!!!! <3

#game of thrones #got #asoif/got #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones oc #asoiaf oc #original character #jon snow x oc #jon snow

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