#but oh my GOD with greatsword it's so fucking back

[the-punforgiven]

Y'know how people always talk about weed being a "gateway drug" that leads into doing heavier and heavier drugs as you go on?

That's what longsword was to me, I tried fighting with a greatsword yesterday and I can't go back, I need another hit already lol

[lwde-encrusted-sideblog]

Something something Pyrrha kabedon Jaune which leads to- whatever happens next, I don't know.

Jaune: ... So then you have a choice - Join the Legion, Follow Mister House, join the NCR, or be a wildcard - take The Strip for yourself!

Pyrrha: *Not understanding anything he's saying* That's a neat way to take the story! What did you ch- *Sees a spider on the Wall near Jaune*

Pyrrha: Look out! *Kills spider, kabedoning Jaune in the process*

Jaune: *Blushing* Th-Thanks Pyrrha ...

Pyrrha: ... Jaune?

Jaune: Y-Yes?

Pyrrha: What's Poking my thigh?

Jaune: ... C-Crocea Mors?

Pyrrha: *Grabbing his Bulge* Oh Jaune~ I don't like it When people lie to me~

Jaune: P-PYRRHA?

Pyrrha: But if you do have another sword, You should let me help train you!~

Jaune: ...

Pyrrha: And what a Greatsword it is~

Pyrrha: I'm going to MILK you.

~~~~~

Pyrrha: *Slamming Jaune's hips into hers, Amazon Position* FUCK! YOU HID THIS FROM ME!

Jaune: PyrrhaPyrrhaPyrrhaPyrrhaPyrrha!

Pyrrha: GODS DAMN! YOU HIT SO DEEP!

Jaune: *Aura Flaring*

Pyrrha: NO MORE HOLDING BACK JAUNE! LET IT OUT!

Jaune: PYYYRRHAA! S-SLOW DOWN!

Pyrrha: CUM JAUNE!

Jaune: WHAT IF YOU GET PREGNANT!

Pyrrha: THAT'D BE FANTASTIC!

Jaune: P-Pyrrha!

Pyrrha: *SLAM* CUM *SLAM* IN-*SLAM* SIDE! *SLAMSLAMSLAM*

Jaune: O-O-OH FFFFFUUUUUUHHHH!

Jaune Came, and Came Hard, at the same time Pyrrha did, her vice-like grip on his dick nearly breaking it, as the two collapsed into a sweaty, smelly, heaving pile.

Pyrrha: *Cups Jaune's Nuts* These are Mine. You got that? No other girls, only Me.

Jaune: Y-Yeah.

Pyrrha: Are the sore?

Jaune: Yeah ...

Pyrrha: then let me take care of them~

She began gently sucking on the wrung-out testes, almost completely drained from the near religious experience Jaune just had.

[jordansgarden]

the seas couldn't keep me from you ⋆｡♡

mommy? sorry.

AAAANYWAYS im in love, she and i are girlfriends and ning is our third shared girlfriend. and kazuha's my boyfriend.

cw: few sexual themes, stupid nicknames lmao, drunk beidou in the hcs, poly relationship w bei and ning, just some fun fluff

this woman oh my god she is so bossy but it's like a hot way ykwim like she'll order you around and you'll be like "yes mommy"

she uses stupid nicknames for everyone. shut up no one asked you.

beidou loves drinking, have you seen her??? ever??? sometimes though, she'll be drinking someone under the table and yeah her tolerance is huge just like her cock but she's still fucked up

you have to carry her home. no, no you have to. you're not weak, you're dating her. oh? you thought she was your big strong protector? no dumbass she's the one dragging you into shit and you get yourself out.

you two'll be out on some mission ning sent you on and beidou will be standing right next to a tripwire and she'll literally look right at it and be like "wouldn't it be funny if i tripped it?"

you have to either stare her down or beg to get her to not. one time she was going to waltz on into a fatui camp cause she thought it was funny and she could take them all (which she totally could but ning would crucify the both of you) and you went "i'll let you eat me out if you don't."

the way she got on her knees. this isn't even a joke i'm being fr she got on her knees and looked up with that starry look that screamed "i'm madly in love with you".

anyway, she would try to trip a wire on purpose and you'd be the one making sure she didn't try to face tank a bomb.

point is, you're strong and used to her. so you carry her back to whatever inn you're staying at and the entire time she'll be mumbling shit.

"mmmmhaha~! hi pumpkinn, how you doin'?" "ya'know what, we should get married in inazuma, 'cause eternity and shit! kazuha can be our flower girl!!"

"cherry berry sweetie pie?" goofy ahh nicknames left right and center. you knew beidou was about to ask something wildly stupid.

without looking up, you continued to rummage through the large pile of papers. who knew the fatui loved paperwork? "do not touch it."

"wha- you don't even know what i was gonna say!" "i know it'll be dumb and the obvious answer is no. don't trip any wires, don't pull alarms, nothing." "c'monn, this is so boring though! moralicious is just making us do this cause she's mad i let you finish and not her, even though SHE was the one who did without permission and-"

hearing a noise, you pulled her to the entrance, hiding on the edge and covered her mouth. "mmph-!" "shh." you whispered straight into her ear, keeping an eye on the entrance to the cave the two of you were searching. "someone's coming."

beidou pulled your hand off, sticking her tongue out at you. you stayed unfazed, keeping a hand on your dagger. she noticed, and saw a little tassel charm on the handle. the charm was the one she gave you!!

"you kept it!" "bei', shut up. you'll give us away ag-"

"HEY! WHO'S IN THERE?!"

"..shit." laughing, beidou stepped out into the entrance and drew her greatsword.

"come and get me!"

you sighed and pulled out your sword, realizing you two were not getting out of this with just one casualty. she was going to get herself injured just for the fun of it and you gotta clean up the pieces, but it's okay because you secretly enjoyed it too.

but ning was not very happy.

[thebawdybaldurian]

BG3FicFeb Day 17

SFW: Tav and crew battle the God of Death in a brief drabble.

NSFW: Tav and Astarion enjoy some post-netherbrain roleplaying, with some sexy vampire/virgin overtones.

SFW: Tav meets one of the Dead Three in the flesh

“Oh fuck!” Tav stared up at the monstrous creature that arose from where Thorm had fallen. “What the fuck is that?”

“I…think that’s Myrkul…” Jaheira frowned, her twin swords still held aloft.

“The actual God of Death…shit,” Astarion stared, mouth agape, still trying to help Tav up off the ground.

Dame Aylin’s radiant form streaked across the large room as he got Tav back to her feet, pulling her close. “At least we have her,” he added as she swooped down in front of them, the rush of her wings rustling their hair and clothing.

“Get behind me!” Aylin held her greatsword aloft, casting a protective aura around them.

The hulking skeletal god turned towards them, conjuring an enormous scythe in its bony hand. “Move!” Jaheira yelled as Myrkul slashed the scythe down between them, narrowly missing them all as they rolled away.

“How the hell do we fight a God?” Tav yelled.

“I will lead the charge!” Aylin called. “Keep moving and do not let its death touch reach you!”

They followed closely behind the Aasimar, her radiant blows staggering the avatar of Myrkul enough that they could conjure their own attacks. They were all exhausted and injured, but still supported one another as best they could. The avatar finally crumbled after one final blow from Aylin, a death rattle echoing through the entire chamber. They gathered up as group, conjuring as much healing magic as they could before Aylin opened a portal to get them out of the Mindflayer colony.

“Take the Netherstone,” the Dream Visitor’s voice echoed in Tav’s head.

Thorm lay face down, the stone affixed to his breastplate. She went to roll him over, finding that his body had begun to rapidly decay without the Death God’s blessing. “I’m going to be sick,” she turned away, already feeling ill from pure exhaustion.

“I’ll get it,” Shadowheart volunteered, prying the stone out with her dagger. “Keep it safe,” she handed it to Tav.

They returned back to the Moonrise, finding that Zevlor and the others had already gotten out and had joined the Harpers in the main hall. They would discuss their next step after everyone had rested and healed a bit. Tav, Halsin, and Astarion found their way to Ketheric’s old chambers, quickly stripping off their armor and crawling into the large bed to rest, recover, and just enjoy each other’s company, thankful to be alive.

NSFW: Creative Use of Magic/Magical Objects

Content and Warnings: Male elf x female elf. Masturbation, magical manipulation of a vagina, virginity/vampire kink, mild ageplay, roleplay, oral sex, PIV sex, anal and vaginal fingering.

Tav and Astarion arrived at the inn that sat along the road between Neverwinter and Luskan. They stowed their horses in the stable as usual and headed straight up to their room once they’d checked in. “Let’s get you in a warm bath, hm?” Tav kissed his icy lips, rubbing her fingers across his cheeks. The cold was much worse for him and even bundled up, the biting winds would get to him easily.

“Maybe we can stay in Luskan until Spring…if this cure doesn’t work out,” he shivered slightly, beginning to strip off his many layers.

“Let’s just hope that it does and go from there,” Tav removed her cloak and overcoat, going to stow it in the closet.

The door she opened was actually to a smaller room that had a single bed, likely for a child or servant. “They gave us an extra room,” she walked inside it, closing the shutters on the large window so the rising sun wouldn’t shine in. “Hmmm,” she looked around, an idea already brewing in her mind.

“Oh good, more room for my shoes,” he joked, leaning on the doorway, watching as she plopped down on the small bed. She reclined on her side with a seductive smile. “What’ve you got brewing in that little head of yours?” He could see her thinking, her hand always gently stroking her throat when she did.

“The other night…after we met my parents…we talked about a little roleplaying we might do, if this cure is real…” she grinned.

“The night you drained my balls completely?” He grinned, sauntering over to her.

“Mmmmhmm,” she purred as he climbed on top of her, hovering above.

“Spider-climbing to the innocent virgin’s window?” He leaned down, nipping her bottom lip between his teeth.

“The window is big enough for you to fit through…and this bed is small enough...”

“You mentioned something else getting smaller too…” he pressed himself against her a little more.

“Maybe I can do a little…experimenting, while you are in the tub?”

“You aren’t going to join me?”

“Eventually,” she grinned widely.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” he gave her a kiss, the porter knocking on the door of their room with hot water.

He shut the door behind him with a wide grin, leaving her some privacy while he got the bath prepared. She finished undressing and lay back down, spreading her legs a little. She would need to focus precisely on shrinking the size of her vaginal canal or else her whole body would just get smaller. She gently guided a few fingers inside herself, making the motion of the spell with them still inside her. She instantly felt the tightness around her fingers, her canal now feeling much smaller. She let out a pleased laugh at her idea working, letting her fingers gently circle around the new tightness. She felt full with just her fingers, letting her other hand slid to her clit. “Mmmmmpppphhh,” she pleasured herself slowly, playing around with the depth of her fingers as well. It might be a little snug for his thick cock, but the spell would only last a minute and then she’d return to her usual size. “Ahhh,” she let out a little moan as she felt herself enlarge again, her fingers no longer filling her. She was able to move them around more however, beckoning her fingers towards her g-spot as she rubbed her clit. She brought herself quickly to orgasm, wanting to join him in the bath. She sunk against the bed for a moment, letting her climax wash over her and then got up to join him.

“Sounds like it worked?” He grinned devilishly at her from the tub as she opened the door. The quiet little moans from the other side of the door had already caused him to stir.

“I think it did,” she smiled, climbing into the tub with him. “It won’t last long….but…do you want to try it…tonight?”

“I’ll need a little more fresh blood to be able to spider-climb…but…”

“Say no more,” she shifted around, leaning over him and pushing her hair aside. She eyed his hard cock with a smile, letting her fingers tickle it as he pulled her closer to drink from her. She squeezed her hand around his cock as he bit down on her, eliciting a happy moan from him. She stroked him slowly as he fed on her, his mouth pulling away when he’d had enough.

“Mmmm,” he sighed happily as he licked her blood off his lips, her hand taking complete control of his cock. “You know…ummm…I might miss this a little…feeding on you…it’s very…uhhhh…intimate.”

“It is,” she smiled, watching his mouth fall open as she continued to stroke him. “I’m sure we can get creative though,” she leaned down to kiss him. She could taste just the hint of her metallic blood on his tongue, sucking it gently as she stroked him faster. “Let’s get you drained and go to bed,” she gripped his balls tightly, stroking him vigorously until he erupted into the water with low moan. “All warmed up now?” She smiled, nibbling on his happy pink ears.

“Very much so,” he laughed, gripping her wet skin with his fingers.

They got out of the bath and dried off before climbing into bed together to take their four hour trances. She’d gotten used to sleeping during the day with him, but she still frequently woke up before him. She stayed nestled next to him until he awoke and then they went downstairs so she could eat. There was a small sundries shop down the road that Tav wanted to check out, so Astarion returned to their room as she went off. As much as he would miss the closeness and intimacy of feeding on her life’s blood, he’d much rather be able to walk in the sunlight with her again.

The shop had a surprising variety of goods for how small the little settlement was. She restocked a few vital supplies and spied an adorable long-sleeve chemise that would fit well with their planned roleplay. It was modest and demure, perfect for the role of a virginal nymph who’d be surprised by a seductive stranger. She normally slept naked with him, so this would add a little something extra. In addition to the chemise, she bought some nail lacquer and rouge. She hadn’t really brought anything to get dolled up with, as they’d been on horseback or confined to an inn for most of their journey.

She returned to their room in the inn, hiding her ‘costume’ in the spare room and then joined him to read on the small settee. She eventually switched to doing some writing as he finished his book. As it neared dark, they headed downstairs again so Tav could eat a rich dinner. He would need a little more blood from her in order to spider-climb, so she filled up with plenty of protein to help restore her blood supply. They slipped away to a dark corner so he could take his last drink from her and then he went out to explore a bit of the settlement now that it was dark. She went back up to their room to prepare for him.

She undressed, looking at herself in the mirror for a moment. She was still quite young for an elf, but her adventures had left little scars and imperfections on her. She thought back to the days when she was still unblemished and a virginal. She’d been a shy child, her parents content to have a quiet and studious daughter they could ignore, without caring about how isolated she was. Having few friends and no suitors as she’d grown up, she’d only known her own touch when she began attending the Bard’s College. There she’d been thrown head first into debauchery, pleasure, and excess. She slipped into it easily, finally fulfilling all the desires that she’d kept hidden under the covers, doing only to herself and written in her secret journals.

She brushed her long hair smooth, not quite the same waist-length she’d worn in her younger days, but getting closer. She put it in a loose braid that would drape over her shoulder and then painted her nails. She rouged her cheeks and lips slightly, giving them an anticipatory, youthful blush. She decided to the do the same on her nipples, making them slightly more than their rosy pink. She slipped the chemise on, already feeling a bit like that lonely girl who would’ve given anything for a handsome stranger to appear at her window. She knew it was an overused trope, so overdone in some many trashy novels, but she didn’t mind a little trash from time to time.

She pulled back the covers of the single bed and opened the shutters so he could peek in at her. They hadn’t agreed on when exactly he’d come, but she already felt a nervous excitement vibrating through her body. She lit a single candle so the room would have a little more ambience. She climbed into the small bed, taking her journal with her. She planned to fully embrace the role, beginning to write down some girlish fantasies that she might have had when she was younger.

Astarion browsed the sundries shop before it closed, buying her a small little trinket that he stowed in his pocket. Then he headed over to the small tavern to have a drink. It was fairly empty, but there were a few dedicated all-day drinkers, some folks who had just gotten off work and needed to unwind, and a couple trying to drink up the courage to make something happen. He found a secluded corner to enjoy his wine, watching all the curious creatures of the night he had formerly stalked for Cazador. A young shop girl sat at the bar facing his direction, a few interested boys chatting her up casually, but her eyes kept wandering over to him, alone in his dark corner.

He smiled a little, knowing that without Tav, this would likely be his normal life. Haunting a different tavern each night, looking for someone to pull into an alley and drain. He couldn’t have just gone to the Underdark with all the other spawn. He needed the nightlife, the humming ambience of a tavern, the attention. His life with Tav was a perfect balance of that. He could sit in a tavern or theater, watching her perform, enjoying the ego boost of lingering glances and attempted introductions as he sat alone. He’d revel in the satisfaction of the lustful and longing stares of those who watched and desired her, knowing that she only shared herself with one other man aside from him.

Another group of loud young women came in, pulling away the attention of the two boys, who went to pursue the more boisterous prospects. The shop girl glanced at him again, clearly working up the courage to approach him. He would let her down gently and then head off to find his own ‘virgin’ waiting for him. She finally climbed off her barstool, straightening her skirts a little and then tentatively walked by his table. “Pleasant evening,” she smiled shyly at him as he gave her a passing nod.

“It is,” he smiled back as she paused at his table, her hands clasped nervously in front of her. “How are you enjoying it?”

“It’s…” she looked around the quiet tavern. “Boring….What about you? You’re sitting all alone…are you…meeting someone here?”

“Meeting someone elsewhere,” he nodded as her smile faded slightly from disappointment. “As soon as I finish this,” he held up his wine glass. “May I buy you a drink before I go?”

“Ummm, sure,” she squeezed her hands together in a nervous fidget.

“Please, sit,” he motioned for her to sit at his table as he got up to get her a drink. “What would you like?”

“Whatever you were having,” Her cheeks blushed a little, glancing over at the table where the boys that had been chatting her up now sat.

He went to the bar, not ordering the heavy, austere wine he’d been drinking, knowing she would hate it. He brought back a glass of something slightly sweet and fruity, setting it next to her hand, but not sitting back down with her. “Someday, someone will come in here and recognize your beauty and sweep you off your feet, my dear, I promise,” he said sweetly to her and grabbed his overcoat off his chair.

“Thank you,” she blushed even deeper. “For the wine. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.”

“You as well,” he left her with a final polite nod.

He walked back towards the inn, stuffing his hands in his pockets to keep his hands warm, a heat already growing through the rest of his body. He slipped down the alley that the spare room window faced, glancing up at the soft light coming from it. He tested his grip on the wall, feeling he could spider-climb for a least a few hours with Tav’s fresh, rich blood inside him. He climbed up carefully, settling himself on the wall beside the window, peeking in slowly.

She lay reclined in bed, the covers pulled back while she wrote in her journal. She wore an unfamiliar chemise, that hid most of her body from him. “How virginal,” he smiled to himself as he watched her. She stroked the back of the pen along her chest when she paused her writing, her lip scrunching slightly as she was thinking. Even though he knew her body intimately, inside and out, she appeared the perfect, untouched girl right now. She was a fantastic actress who could slip into any role he desired of her. He watched her for a little while longer, as she began to look a little impatient, shifting her body a little and lingering more during her writing pauses. He tapped gently on the window, either truly startling her or letting her flex her acting muscles. She clutched a hand to her chest, covering the tented fabric around her hardened nipples. “Who’s there?” She gasped, trying to hide a smile, squinting at the window. She got up slowly, taking the candle off the bedside table and approached the window. He touched his hand to the glass, smiling at her seductively. She pressed her hand to the other side, trying her best to look demure and slightly scared. She finally unlatched the window, opening it slightly. “Who are you? How did you get up there?” She asked quietly.

“You can call me Astarion, my sweet,” he purred at her.

“How long have you been watching me, Astarion?” She blushed.

“Too long,” he whispered, creeping a little closer to the opening. “What is your name?”

“Clataedre,” she said shyly.

“A charming rose,” he smiled, using the literal meaning of her elven name. “Does your rose blush, Clataedre?” He bit his lip slightly.

“What do you mean?” She blushed even deeper, letting a finger tease along the neck of her chemise, as her arms still covered her breasts.

“Perhaps I can come in and look?”

“You want to come…in?” She let out a breathy sigh, enjoying playing the coquette.

“Only if you want me to…”

“I…think I do…want you….to come in,” she stepped away from the window, opening it fully for him, the cool air making her skin prickle and her nipples harden even more.

He climbed inside as she slowly backed up towards the bed, her fingers gripping nervously at the sides of her chemise. ‘Gods she is good,’ he smiled to himself as he shut the window behind him, keeping his gaze fixed on her. “Lay down on the bed for me, Clataedre,” he ordered.

She nodded, moving her journal out of the way, which he took from her. “What were you writing, my sweet beauty?” he glanced down at the open page, his eye immediately catching the word ‘cock’ written several times. “Hmmm,” he grinned widely, looking down at her from the foot of the bed. “He took his hand and slid it gently down my stomach, leaving me tingling in anticipation…” he read some of the smutty little story she’d been writing. “You…naughty little thing.” She shifted a little in the bed, still blushed deeply. “Has anyone ever…left you tingling in anticipation before?”

“No,” she said quietly, pressing her thumb to her lip to chew nervously on. “They are just stories…”

“Why not?” He set the journal down on the edge of the bed and leaned onto the footboard slightly. “Are you a virgin?”

“Yes,” she squirmed nervously, hiding her face a little in her hand. Her little act was making him rock hard already. “I’m…shy…so I just stay up here and write…about what I want…”

“Do you…want me, my little dove?” He grinned widely. “I can…show you what you are missing…”

She broke character for just a second, letting out an excited grunt, which she played off into a giggle. She was absolutely throbbing already. “Is that a yes?” He leaned further onto the footboard, ready to crawl onto the bed.

“Yes,” she said sharply, taking an excited breath.

“Pull your chemise above your waist,” he ordered, eyeing her hungrily.

She obeyed, pulling the fabric up slowly, revealing her slick, pink sex. There was nothing virginal about the honey covering every inch of her excitement. “Hmmm, look at you,” he popped his tongue against his palate. “Your rose does blush.”

He climbed onto the bed, moving slowly up her body until he reached the fragrant musk of her arousal. He teased his thumb along one of the excited lips, watching as her breath quivered into quiet huffs. He parted her legs slightly, letting his tongue barely tease against her.

“Ahhh,” she gasped a little. She didn’t have to pretend much, she’d been anticipating his touch and he was teasing her with precision.

“Do you like that?” He whispered, letting his tongue press a little firmer against her slick folds.

“Mmmmhmm,” she held in her breath, waiting for the next lick.

“Pull your chemise up more…let me see your breasts,” he ordered again, taking a long, slow sample of her honey on his tongue.

She shifted a little, pulling the chemise from underneath her as well, moving it past her still excited nipples. He grinned widely at their extra pink hue, seeing she had done the same to her cheeks and lips. He was throbbing to fuck her, but he kept his mouth between her legs for moment longer. She writhed quietly as he licked and sucked on her, letting his hand rub her clit. “Are you going to be this shy and quiet when I fuck you?” He looked up at her.

“If…you want me to be,” she replied quietly, unable to hide her grin.

“I want to hear you,” he asked, moving up her body and hovering over her, his clothed erection pressing against her wet mound.

“Okay,” she whispered as he teased his tongue across her lips, using it to part them as he kissed her.

He reached down to his trousers so he could unbutton himself and she subtly snuck her hand down as well, ready to conjure the spell inside her. He pulled his aching cock out, their hands colliding as she slipped her fingers inside for the spell and he swept up a bit of her honey to slick over his cock. They shared a knowing smile out of character and then resumed their roles. “Are you ready for me, Clataedre?” He asked as she furtively slid her fingers out of herself and gripped the bedsheet, the spell prepared for him.

“Ready,” she held an anticipatory breath in as he pressed his cock to her entrance.

He let out a low grunt, the tightness of her almost uncomfortable if he slid in any faster. He eased into her slowly, watching as her mouth fell open with each inch of him that squeezed inside her. She let out a low whimper as he reached the hilt of his cock, overstuffing her tightened canal.

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” He checked in on her. She was so tight that he could barely stand it, his cock already begging to erupt into her snug warmth.

“No,” she squeaked out, feeling about as full as when she took both her lovers in each of her holes. It was on the border of pleasure and pain.

He nodded, easing out of her a little and then back in, as slowly as he could stand. As soon she opened to her normal size, he knew he was going to have to fuck her hard. He enjoyed the tightness for now, grunting lowly as he fucked her gently. It was slow and brief and then he felt her enlarge to her normal, comfortable size and smiled widely, pressing more of his weight on her and kissing her hungrily. “I’m going to fucking ruin you,” he hissed, gripping her hips tighter, beginning to move his cock faster and with harder thrusts.

“Oh!” She let out a low, guttural moan, finally releasing her shy grip on the sheets and letting her fingers claw into his skin, also unable to keep up the act any longer. She wanted him so much. “Gods…fuck…oh…yes…fuck me so hard,” she moaned loudly, beginning to move her hips with his, the hard slapping of their bodies impacting together adding to the choir of their moans. The small bed creaked loudly as they fucked with hungry abandon, not used to such weight or force.

“Ummm…fuck, Tav…I’m…uhhhh…I’m gonna come already…I can’t hold…ummmphhh,” he gritted his teeth, trying to hold back his climax so she could join him, but he erupted uncontrollably in an ecstatic shiver. His loud groan was punctuated by the cracking of the bed frame as it snapped in two, sending the mattress and its occupants onto the floor.

Tav burst out laughing as Astarion collapsed on top of her in a satisfied heap, their bodies slightly disjointed from the collapse. He joined her laughs, giggling happily as his climax ebbed away.

“We’re not going to have a place to stay on the way home,” he nuzzled her neck, looking at her with a wide, happy grin.

“Worth it though,” she glowed warmly, the sweat of their vigorous love making dappling her face.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hold back for you,” his slid his soft cock out, replacing it with his fingers. “You just got me so excited.”

“It's okay, we can’t always come together…and I may have rubbed out a quickie waiting for you,” she bit her lip guiltily.

“Oh,” he made an offended gasp.

“What!? I expected you sooner and I got riled up too early writing that little story down. What took you so long?” she asked, her body beginning to move against his fingers.

“There was a shy girl that needed a little boost to her confidence,” he kissed her. “So she didn’t just have to write stories in her bed at night.”

“It turned out alright for me, didn’t it?” She sulked a little, feeling a tinge of jealousy.

“Let’s see,” He removed his hand from her cunt, making her whimper with need. He leaned down to pick up her journal, then lay back down beside her. They shifted their bodies slightly to accommodate the ruined bed under them. “Read it to me,” he handed it to her with a smirk.

She teased her tongue at him, rolling onto her stomach so she could lay the journal flat against the mattress. He gave her ass a good slap as she wiggled it at him, demanding his fingers in her again. “Go on now…” he cooed, letting two fingers slip into her cunt and another into her asshole.

“Mmmmm,” she let out a long sigh, arching her back slightly as he fingered her. “He took his hand and slid it gently down my stomach, leaving me tingling in anticipation. I’d never been fucked before, so I didn’t know what to expect. He brushed his fingers across the…mmmphhh…” she paused as he wedged his other hand under her, pressing his fingers against her throbbing clit.

“Continue,” he whispered, his hands and ears focused on her.

“He brushed his fingers across the little pearl that I polished nightly, my needs never feeling completely satisfied even after…ummmm…even after I…uhhh rubbed it raw…Gods, don’t stop please, love…uhhh. I knew I…hhhhnnn…needed to be fucked to achieve total…ahhhh…satisfactionnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn,” she writhed against his hand, her muscles contracting against him.

She continued to circle her hips against the hand he had pressed to her clit, forcing out a final clitoral orgasm with a loud moan. She collapsed completely onto the mattress, pressing her face into the soft padding, muffling her heavy breaths. “Mmmmm,” he rested his head on her back, giving it a soft kiss. “Was that the kind of thing you were writing in your journal when you were still a virgin then?” he teased.

“Oh it was much worse,” she mumbled, rolling back to her side so they could lie face to face. “It was all just drabble written around cocks and cunts and every other dirty word I learned from reading the trashy novels I stole from the library.”

“You little thief, you,” He gently prodded her. “Would you ever…consider doing any…legal roleplay with me? I’m sure I could find some fetching old robes to wear.”

“I’m not sure,” she chewed her lip. “I still have some lingering ick from my previous encounters with the law.”

“The magistrate that propositioned you?” He suddenly remembered, feeling embarrassed at bringing up the subject without thinking.

“Yeah,” she frowned slightly. She’d never forgotten the ugly red cock he’d pulled out in front of her.

“Actually…you don’t happen to remember his name, do you?” Astarion felt another memory lingering in the back of his mind. “You punched him, right?”

“Yep, square in the nose. He was a little troll of a man. Spindly blonde hair and a mustache. Why? Did you know him or something?”

“I…think I might I have brought him to Cazador,” he tried to bring forth the memory. “We were supposed to have a date…but he said a bard who’d been caught sucking cocks in the park punched him.”

“I was streaking, not sucking cocks!” she made a face. “Though that would explain why I never received a summons after I got out of jail…”

“Hmmm,” he mused. “I wonder how many times our paths crossed, but didn’t meet? That would be the second time.”

“Maybe we were just destined to meet on that beach,” she seized one of his curls and twirled it around her finger, feeling herself sinking into deep contemplation. “At the right time and place.”

“Maybe,” he grasped her chin lightly, drawing her focus to him again. “You were exactly who I needed to meet at that moment.”

“Hmm,” she bit into her lip, feeling her eyes getting teary. “You know what I really wrote about in my journals all those nights? It was about you. Exactly you. Someone who understood me completely. Who needed me and who made me feel worthy of being loved by. Someone who made my entire being vibrate with excitement. I've been waiting for you my entire life.” He wiped away the hot tear that streaked down her face, kissing the tip of her nose. “And of course, he would also fuck me into a euphoric state of emotional vulnerability on a regular basis,” she tried to laugh.

“And who has broken two beds in a single trip,” he grinned and pulled her close. “Mmmm I love you so much.”

“I love you.” She squeezed him tightly. “Let’s get off this damn thing and crawl into our own bed.”

[drenosa]

Jaune: *Mildly sexually shellshocked* Gods be damned, who knew all it took to turn you was some... stress relief?

Cinder: *Recovering, nuzzling into Jaune as she is sprawled on top of him* ~Sure... let's call it that. Honestly, I could do with some more of it.~

Jaune: Woman, you may have been trying to kill multiple times until recently, but by the Brothers you will kill me if you push me right now!

Weiss: *Appearing next to them in a flurry of white and glyphs* What if I help? Make it a 2v1?

Jaune: W-Weiss?! But-

Cinder: *Sliding her body against Jaune's* ~Oooh, we should. After all, I should... apologise to little heiress after I penatrated her with my pulsing hot rod. Only fair she'll get to experience yours which is far more pleasurable.~

Jaune: You can't be serious- *A small piece of cloth hits his face, it's revealed to be a tiny and very damp manner of underclothes* Oh... you are very serious.

Weiss: *Very naked, very wet and very aggressive* Yes. I am. First we shall exhaust the miscreant. Then... Oh then I shall partake in that hot pulsing rod of yours.

Jaune: Aura, stamina, Semblance... please don't fail me now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later again and back at where our heroes were lodging

Ruby: *Retelling everything up to where Jaune defeated Cinder* So yeah, that was when I called it quits and came back with the relic. Probably safe to say Cinder's on our side now. And I guess that about covers it.

Yang: Damn, so Vomit Boy became a real White Knight, huh?

Ren: It's certainly a resourceful way of resolving things.

Nora: Haha! I knew the Arc Greatsword would reign supreme! I told you all!

Blake: *Slight nosebleed, holding a pen and notepad* Sure, sure. But Ruby, can you repeat the part where all the penetration happened.

Ruby: No, I-

?????: *Loudly crashes through the door in an exhausted heap* Water, please...

Yang: Dayum, Jaune! You look like you got wrung out like a washcloth.

Jaune: *On his back, staring listlessly at the ceiling* Those two... should never... work together... again. Oh, my pelvis.

Cinder: *Entering after Jaune, stepping over him whilst giving the man a long view of her legs and what's between them* I have not felt this relaxed since... Well, for the first time really. Our knight really worked out those kinks I had.

Weiss: *Entering as well, doing the same as Cinder and offering Jaune a paradisiacal view* Yes, it was most rejuvenating for sure. But to be frank, we will have more matters to discuss. Actual serious matters.

Jaune: *Half delirious from recent events* Well Frank, I wasn't expecting the name change, but I'll get used to it.

RWBYRNC: ...

Yang: Wow, Jaune. Not even half-a-day and you're already pulling dad jokes?

Nora: Fearless Leader? More like, Fearless Breeder!

Jaune: *Processing, Processing, Finished Processing* Ah... Fuck.

EVERYONE: *Goes berserk for various reasons*

Cinder: *Holding the Relic of Destruction, doing her evil villain speech* ... and just like that, Vacuo will fall just like all the other kingdoms! And there'll be nothing and no-one who can stop me. No, goody two-shoed brats-

Ruby: *Sick of Cinder's shit* Rude.

Cinder: ... no destitute little princesses-

Weiss: *Sick of Cinder's shit* Just shut your trap already.

Cinder: ... and certainly no sad excuses of a knight!

Jaune: *Definitely done with Cinder's shit* You really need new material.

Cinder: Speaking of pathetic knights. I see the tinned man picked up a helmet. What's wrong, wretch? Don't want your snot-smeared face to be seen by little old me?

Ruby: Jaune. Take of your helmet.

Jaune: Uh, you sure? The Atlas refugee moms were rough and the Vacuans weren't any better. Those married ones were a menace!

Weiss: Just do it.

Jaune: Well... alright then. *Begins taking off his helmet*

Cinder: *Mockingly* What, did the useless one among you have a little accident? Did children run to their mewling mommies to warn about... the... *Sees what's under the helmet* monster?

Jaune: *Grey streaked hair in an elegant tail, his well-groomed beard perfect in every aspect, an A-grade Arc Specimen* So...

Cinder: *Tosses the Relic to Ruby, flies towards Jaune* Mine, mine, mine!

Jaune: *Runs in a futile effort* Oh crap, it's worse than the married moms! *Gets caught* Gah!

Cinder: *Already naked and on top of Jaune* MINE!

Ruby: *Catches Relic* Ha! Mission accomplished. I knew it would work!

Weiss: So you don't feel bad? Like at all, about what Jaune's being subjected to now?

Ruby: *Looks over to where Cinder's wrestling Jaune* Nah, I can go subdue her in a min- *Sees the progress of the match* an hour or so, and we'll be fine.

Weiss: *Watches on with morbid interest, realizing that she's fine with an hour* We are terrible people.

[glowingbadger]

Can I get a nsfw fic for Diluc where he and reader are vigilantes together? I feel like that would be hot af.

Oh-ho~ what a delightful concept, Friend Anon.

I feel like I've barely had time for fic-style stuff rather than headcanon stuff lately, so forgive me if this is like... idk.. less good xD I hope it's good idk agopwgj

Side note, y'all Genshin people tend to blow up my page every time I post something in this fandom but I get SO few actual requests for it, wtf is up with that

Diluc x GN Reader - vigilantes

NSFW 18+

There aren't many of your typical "dark back alleys" in Mondstadt, but they are there if you go looking for them. If you do, you're sure to make some friends and acquaintances of the sort who also go looking for such tucked away places. And tonight, you're expecting a meeting with a coworker.

You've been tracking a particular Treasure Hoarder for weeks now. He's a cut-throat sort, in that he literally cuts throats, and quite gleefully at that. He's scum, but he's a valuable asset. He's the only Treasure Hoarder idiotic and brave enough to have set foot inside of Mondstadt's walls as of late, and you're not about to lose the opportunity to track him back to his hive. And it shouldn't be too difficult to do so- as long as a certain "Darknight Hero" doesn't decide to step in.

Somehow, you have a feeling he will.

And as you crouch atop the sloping roof of a typical Mondstadt residence, observing your pet rat scurrying through alleyways he clearly doesn't know as well as he ought to by now, you glimpse a familiar flash of red. Moving as quickly as one can with a sword that matches his height while retaining some measure of stealth, Diluc clearly has your subject in his sights. You barely contain a sigh, your brow lowered in flat exasperation.

You'll have to act quickly- Diluc is rapidly closing in on your only source of intel, blade at the ready and eyes devoid of mercy. Never taking your eyes from his dark silhouette in the alley below, you gracefully maneuver from the roof to a nearby balcony banister, then down a railing. Your feet meet the stone pavement silently just as muscles flex and the greatsword hefts into the air above a fiery mane of hair. Without a sound, you draw your own blade and press it firmly to Diluc's throat. He hesitates for just a moment, his surprise causing his footing to waver for the instant you need to tug him back against the wall.

"You-" he hisses with fury in his eyes, "What are you doing?!"

"Keeping you from killing my only lead!" you shout-whisper back to him as the Treasure Hoarder slides around the corner and into the open streets. He's a lost cause now- acting out in the open would draw unacceptable attention to both you and Diluc. For now, the edge of your sword indents his skin, emphasizing the unfortunately seductive sight of his adams apple bobbing as he swallows hard.

"He's a killer." he spits out bitterly.

"Yes," you reply, "And so are all of his friends. And the only way to snuff them all out is to let him live- for now."

His weapon vanishes for the time being, but you know his strength well enough to know that this does not make him 'unarmed.'

"Go join the Knights if you enjoy wasting time so much."

"Oh, perhaps I should," you say, "It was a Knight who gave me the intel to track this target, after all," the playful lilt in your voice guides him to the exact conclusion you want him to reach. What you don't expect is for Diluc to use his considerable strength to spin you back against the wall, jostling your sword from your hand and swapping your positions, with your wrists now pinned to the plaster behind you. You're startled for a moment- but not so much so that you miss the way his eyes scan your body before him.

"It was a strutting peacock that needs its beak removed, more like," he says, his voice low as he looms over you. Your bodies are so close, the space between you seems charged with electricity.

"Is that a touch of jealousy I hear?"

"You're infuriating," he gives this utter non-answer just before his lips reach yours. His kiss is deep and intense from the start, pressing you to the wall as his tongue thrusts into your mouth.

This has always been your favorite way to vent your mutual frustration. There's something about each of you that only the other knows; a part of you both that only the two of you have access to. Those cordoned off sections of your hearts instinctively reach toward one another, binding you and the Darknight Hero together despite all of the myriad ways you find yourselves at odds. Adrenaline and emotion drives your bodies together, and your pulse pounds as his tongue wrestles yours and the warmth of his body catches yours on fire.

You do your best to keep up with Diluc's frenzied need, parted lips working rhythmically against his, yet you can feel the rush of arousal through your body and the fight leaves you almost instantly. In one final act of provocation, you urge your thigh between his, rubbing it gently against the growing heat you feel there. His cock twitches with interest, hardening against the front of his pants. Diluc groans into your kiss, his hands releasing yours to travel down the contours of your sides.

When those strong hands reach your backside, they shamelessly grab at your curves, pulling you firmly against him and encouraging your thighs around his hips. Your feet are barely touching the ground anymore, and you can feel his growing cock grinding into your heat. His impatience is as evident in his touch as it's always been in his fighting style; though, the difference is that now, you're happy to match his pace. Thoroughly trapped between his body and the wall, your hands run across his chest, happily indulging in the plains of muscle beneath conservative clothing.

Then, you nip at his bottom lip, dragging it between your teeth and revelling in the husky groan this pulls from him. His hips sway against you, rubbing the head of his now rock-hard member against you. Quite suddenly, his hands leave your body, then instead, cup both sides of your face. Diluc holds you in place as he kisses you so hard and deep that your legs tremble and you worry your knees may give. And at last, the airy moan you offer him in reply seems to break the last of his restraint.

"Towards the wall," his urgent whisper grazes your skin, and it's all you can do to keep from moaning at the intoxicating, masculine tenor of his voice. Instead, you obey him, turning to the wall, only to feel him pinning you once more from behind. His lips are at your ear, his tongue tracing its curve, until he says softly,

"Truly a shame you can't always be this cooperative."

"I- I'm very cooperative when it gets me what I want..." you half-moan as his lips press heated kisses down the side of your neck. His fevered touch is everywhere, running up your sides to caress your chest, fingers briefly circling your nipples and causing you to arch against him.

"One day I'll make you beg for it." he muses softly, less like any 'dirty talk' you've ever heard, and far more like he's scolding you. Either way, it sends a hot wave of arousal plunging to your core. With a soft whimper, you urge your ass back against him, grinding onto the stiff length of his cock. Tonight won't be the night you beg, but you do need to show him how badly you want him- and he graciously complies.

Diluc's thumbs hook into the hem of your breeches and tug them down over the curve of your ass. Despite his own wants and needs, he does pause to appreciate the sight of you offering yourself to him, lower body exposed and face flushed when you glance over your shoulder at him. A single large hand runs over your backside, cupping and grabbing at it idly, enjoying the sight of your flesh over-filling his grip. Then, with a low hum, his eyes meet yours as he opens the front of his trousers and reveals his thick, twitching manhood to you. It's dark and veined, a powerful, masculine member that practically makes your mouth water- and you can't stifle an eager whine as he positions himself behind you once more.

The warm head of his cock presses to your greedy little hole, and Diluc wastes no time pushing himself steadily into you. With each inch, he splits you open around him, and your body tenses and arches against his strong frame.

"Diluc..!" you gasp out the moment he's buried into you to the base and his tip hits your core. Sometimes you think you'll never truly be accustomed to how fully he fills you.

"Quiet," he whispers harshly, though the way the full length of his cock swells at your cry tells him he quite enjoys hearing you. Yet as his hips begin to move and the veins and contours of his cock grind against your inner walls, it becomes harder and harder to keep your voice down. He feels too incredible, reaches too deep, stretches you out so nicely around him until you fit him perfectly. Your entire body burns, and you cling to the wall in front of you to take some of the strain off of your trembling legs. Before long, you're gasping and panting for him as he bucks into you, the head of his cock dragging against some indescribably wonderful spot each time he thrusts forward.

"You're so... difficult..." he grumbles, and you hear him move, unsure of what he's doing until you feel his gloveless hand sliding fingers into your mouth. Your eyes roll back, your body clenches and squeezes around Diluc's shaft. Perhaps he'd only meant to keep you quiet, but the depravity of being fucked senseless by the most sought-after gentleman in Mondstadt in a back alley while being made to suck on his fingers is simply too erotic to withstand. Your lips and tongue worship those fingers as he pounds you against the wall, railing into your desperate body until the hot, winding knot of pleasure in your gut comes undone in a sudden, mind-numbing rush.

"Nngh- gods...!" even Diluc, with all of his strict self discipline, can't keep from groaning as your climax seizes you. He can feel your body tense and release, feel your inner walls tightening and gripping around him, clinging around his cock like you can't bear to be without it. He draws closer, his hard chest against your back, his head sinking down to the crook of your neck. His thrusts lose their timing, uneven and inelegant as he nears his own release.

You feel the sting of his teeth at your flesh. Diluc silences his own sounds of pleasure, burying his face at your neck and sucking a dark love-bite to your skin. But even this jolt of wonderful pain can't distract you from the way his cock flexes deep within you, swelling and straining out against your tight hole. Then, at last, his breath catches, and his cum begins to shoot out into you. The first impact causes you to whine around his fingers, which he punishes with a harsher bite at your shoulder muscle, even as he continues to fill you. Wild red hair brushes your face as you rally your strength to keep yourself in place for him and he fucks the remainder of his climax into your waiting body. For a moment, he holds within you. You each struggle to regain composure and steady your breathing- no easy feat when his manhood is stubbornly refusing to soften even the slightest bit. Then, with a barely restrained sigh, Diluc eases out of your spent hole.

His hand comes to rest on the wall in front of you, trapping you against his body for a moment longer. You have just enough room to move your hands to tug up your clothing and cover up, and he does the same with his free hand. But before releasing you, he places a lingering kiss to the spot just below where your jawline meets your ear. It's a surprisingly tender spot, and the soft warmth of his lips seems to spread across your skin from that point.

"Be safe getting home." he murmurs, and you find yourself wishing dearly that you could see his expression as he says it. Though, perhaps he fully intends to keep that image from you. Then, he straightens his posture, the cool night air filling the space where his body had warmed you.

"And next time," he adds, having regained his usual business-like tone, "Don't expect me to be so generous if you stand in my way."

[littlegoldfinchh]

A question: Those soul games you mentioned in your.. header? Intro? I can’t recall what it’s called, sorry, what are those about?

Enjoy your cheese!

OUgh hi there !!! Thank yoj for your ask im very drunk and im waiting for the water tp boil bc im making pasta so. I'll try to explain soulsborne games to you

So uhm dark souls one. Oh boy it's like

So back then there used to be nothing but. Fog? And dragons? But then suddenly there was fire and. And fire is good it's like life i guess? So fire is important

And there's Gwyn. He's kinda like Zeus in a way? He's the main god, the all father even. So Gwyn wanted to keep

To keep the age of fire? Because the fire is supposed to go out but he doesn't want that so he branded humanity with this dark curse that made them come back to life snd stuff

You should checj out. Vaatividya on YouTube he's like the lore master of dark souls. You will enjoy his videos i prommy

Also liek dark souls has amazing weapons. Like pretty big swords with pretty abilities

Have you seen the onyx blade??? Oe the moonlight greatsword?? They fuck

The games are relatively hard because you have to get better if you want to progress. But it's so beautiful it's like a challenge and every single fight feels like. The sweetest victory ever your heart will beat sO fast and it will be amazing i promise

You should check out. Bloodborne and dark souls 3 and elden ring y they're my favorite ones

Oh and the armors omg. They're so beautiful and hOt and jddkdhjd you can dress up your little dude!!! How cool is that!!!!

Like these games will hurt you in the best way possible and i cannot recommend them enough

[lidrens]

Soulsborne asks: 8, 9, 16, 23?

this became rambly so under read more it goes

8. Do you have any fond coop memories? Does a specific moment stand out to you?

yeah you know from high-level dungeons in bb come all kinds of things. so on my platinum character ive also farmed all kinds of gems and shit, and 99% of coop i do happens in the chalice dungeons with people just as insanely overleveled as me.

...that's until hunters of hunters roll in and you realise that whoever invaded your ass is probably just as high a level as you or more (which is around 300) and you're just. well that'll be a fun fight huh.

i have a vivid memory of a crow wannabe showing up and pulling out a tonitrus, the Most Okayest Weapon Ever. they chased me around ihyll and died to a fireball trap. fuxking lmao.

another one is from ds3 and it's about a greatbow user who fucking soloed midir, the big bad fuckoff huge dragon for me on my dark character run. i was doing like 20 damage? and then this guy rolls in and puts the fear of god back right into my heart. oh it was amazing.

9. What are your three favourite weapons and why?

im not gonna list all of the games because i can't remember all weapons right now, so:

- the blade of mercy. it's so worth learning how to effectively use. it's fast, it does a respectable amount of damage on a good skill build and it encourages very high mobility and less of R1 mashing.

- the onyx blade. everything about it is immaculate, from the caduceus aesthetic to the black flames, to its speed. i love how light it feels to wield too, as if its barely holding together from everything its original wielder been through.

- morgott's cursed curved greatsword. it's very satisfying to use and to land the skill attack in succession, also i absolutely love curved greatswords in elden ring. the design of the blade and the introduction of it, as the wood falls off it from the sheer force of morgott's grip? hhoh. i want this thing in my house not gonna lie.

- honorable mention of estoc, the weapon i use in every souls game until i find something i like for my specific build. also it fucking carried me through my first ds2 run, what a great weapon.

16. What are your favourite areas?

ds1: new londo and anor londo. all of the headcanons aside, i can't help but wonder what they were like when they were alive. and in their current states they're much like yourself, undead and long hollow, having forgotten what it is to be a home.

ds2: THE GUTTER. lighting up all the sconces is something i look forward to every run. and with the heartbeat... the place is so unsettling and beautiful in the dark, i just spend a lot of time wandering around and looking at the edges of structures peeking out from the dark. the runner up is shulva. i would love to live there before it went to shit.

ds3: i like carthus catacombs, sue me. mainly because invasions in there are very fun (for me). irithyll is okay. the ringed city is more okayer but it takes longer to get there, and the only reason i like two of those is their aesthetics. idk ds3 lore.

bloodborne: ...the hunter's nightmare. the ruined and warped city of yharnam in sickly daylight, drowned in blood and knowing nobody but those who spill it. to be fair i like most of all bloodborne locations with one petty exclusion (fuck you hemwick). i wish the castle cainhurst was bigger on the inside as well as the outside, but i guess i will have to do with the castle sol </3

elden ring: fuck all of you, caelid is beautiful and haunting, a festering and living grave of a land. i like it a moderate amount. i have not spent hours obsessively taking pictures of various plants and creatures there. i am normal about caelid. ...on another note, i think leyndell is the best area fromsoft ever made as a dungeon and aesthetics wise.

23. What is your favourite fashion souls?

oh man im kind of tired of listing every game, so I'll go with top three outfits i have on some of my characters:

- nights cavalry set and nox monk headpiece.

- tomb prospector set and yharnam hunter hat (or maria's hat).

- loyce set.

[probably-haven]

Anyways continuing the Sumeru quest

Alhaitham just showed up

"Even the archons used war to negotiate the ownership of teyvat" is such a line that I need to remember

Lmao "canned knowledge" why would they called it that it makes it sound like you have to eat it pffft

Oh wait that's actually cool af

So dendro is like raw brain power lol God this lore is tasty

Can I take all the canned knowledge shits please my life junkie brain would explode

"The Architectural Styles and Construction Methods of Teyvat in the Early Archon War Period" istg anything archon war related I wish the game worked like that damn-

"Wisdom of the gods" sounds ominous- isn't that why khaenriah was smited

Oh damn someone's angry- wtf is this

Oooo the Akasha symbol is red

We just gonna sit here and let this guy get beat up?

Omg flippy boy

That's not ominous at all

Wow he just lied to our face mf

And then he pulls the capsulebout in broad daylight? Daaamn

Imagine they're pulling the festival for lesser Lord Kusanali and she just falls out of the sky dead liyue style

Dunyarzad banner when?

DEHYA!!!

omg they're so close. Them. They're everything

"My guardian knight" JSBDKDJDBFMDK

If dunyarzad dies istg- still on guard for teppei 2.0

OMG THE NPC IN THE BACK JUST SAID "what's so good about snezhnayan toys anyway" is that a childe joke?

I love illusion. Please be a literal meaning.

Rip this guy's mustache

Omg are we gonna see Dehya in action???

Damn that works too

AWWW DEHYA SHE CARES SO MUCH OMG SHE'S SO SWEET

DUNYARZAD- OMG THEY'RE LOVELY

Rippp I called it but ouch

Double ouch

GIVE HER A VISION OML

Fuck the law let her dance

well fuck you too that's bull

Omfg these guys are dicks.

You realize there's such thing as art history and dance history

Wow these guys really set up as villains can I kill them?

What the actual fuck is wrong with these guys-

Oh she doesn't think she's gonna live that long- it at least be able to move

Traveler not a morning person confirmed?

TRIPPY TIME SHIT TRIPPY TIME SHIT DOSHSNSLDISHDNDKFI

DREAM SEQUENCE OR ILLUSION OMG I LOVE LIFE

Lmao I have a feeling we dreamed it but imagine if it was just that someone canned knowledged us in our sleep

It doesn't even look bad wtf? See!

Anyway it's funny cuz I'm not a picky eater and will eat and enjoy almost anything but I'm a preferenced eater and given the choice will eat the same five things forever

Omg this I trippy. Maybe it's Irminsul shit lol

Lol they really said choose but not choose

IS THAT THE GRIM REAPER

I hate my sense of humor

Omg this trippy shit is lovely

Awww her little clover pupils

Oooo this contemplation thing sounds fun

Awwww she felt her there!! Please I need a Dehya banner

Didn't we already know the Akasha was gnosis powered tho?

Honestly if anyone could expose this- I wouldnt doubt that it'd be Dehya

Well fuck

"I'm the moon" omg that's so clever

We did not already break free the fuck? Why would you jump to that conclusion- it's just that she had memories now of his to use the greatsword we've been doing different stuff each day so can she

All this philosophy discussion

Exactly!!! Thank you Dehya! Like the food merchant would notice if his stuff wasn't fresh I think 1 day and 40 days would look different

Damn fighting smarts

Braincersize sounds like jazzersize and that's funny to me

TRAVELS VOICE LINE

Oh no they're separated damn that's sad

poor paimon omg

Well damn that's a convenient time to cut off

Wow I thought that was an association option earlier but it wouldn't let me submit ppl not dreaming as a conclusion so I thought I was wrong rip

Is this an anti-capitalist metaphor wtf?

So my simulation guess wasn't too far off

Anyway this contemplation thing is giving me danganronpa trial flashbacks

Damn teppei 2.0 I hate that I called that bit

Wow am I about to kin this child of an archon? Omg that's unfortunate

I guess Dunyarzad banner never

Rip Vihar he ain't gonna be happy

ANGRY TRAVELER ANGRY TRAVELER

hehe paimon saw it

Anyways it's totally Nilou which is why she can't dance cuz if she does she's gonna summon flowers or some shit. Please this has to be what it is I would die happy

They're totally gonna bring Dunyarzad back right! Yeah yeah totally

This is painful

Do we get to beat these guys up now?

Oh my god yes!!! Please cutscene this-

Here we go. KDBDODJD YES

DUNYARZAD!!!

She lives! Also wtf is Katherine doing there

Anyways tea I'mma call it for this post here.

[potatotrash0]

I saw the words “swap au” and immediately became so intrigued. Even if you barely have any content please share and perhaps I’ll share some concepts from my own

Ooo okay so I only have Lumine, Aether, and Childe down so far? It’s supposed to be a random swap but uhhhhh yeah I didn’t just Happen to get these three to swap skdjksjdksndks but the rest of them will probably be random! Other than maybe a few bc I do in fact play favorites

Aether and Lumine are the 11th and 12th Fatui Harbingers respectively, but I imagine some people might refer to them both as the 11th Harbingers bc they usually come as a pair on bigger missions.

They do in fact have Visions since they’re not outlanders in this AU. They both have Cryo Visions, but different Delusions. Lumi has Anemo, Aether has Geo. How they got their Visions is a uh. Long story. Basically, they got split up while exploring as young adventurers, around 13 or 14 years old I’d say? Lumine fell into the Abyss first while Aether returned to the guild. After about a day, he got restless and went out looking for her and ended up falling into the Abyss himself. They spent the vast majority of their time apart until the last moment, where they found each other and got out together and landed back in Teyvat after years on end. And uh. They cried. Hard. Their Cryo Visions appeared at their feet shortly afterwards, and after some debating, they decided to meet with the Tsaritsa and try their hand at becoming Harbingers. Well. Maybe less “trying their hand” and more demanding to join the Tsaritsa’s ranks and threatening anyone who stopped them?

I have set personalities for them in canon, but I imagine in this AU, they’re both a little more cold and aggressive or defensive. Lumi’s pretty snarky and spiteful when she wants to be, I affectionately call her a prideful bitch <3 Aether’s still the. Nicer? Twin? Kinda. Abyss stuff made him less so but for the most part he’s better with diplomacy and people, while Lumi’s more straightforward and blunt. I think Aether’s less impulsive but I also think he’s scarier than Lumi in some ways because he doesn’t have any anger option separating “calm :)” from “Fucking Pissed.” His troops live in fear of his wrath being directed towards them instead of the wall of his office.

Oh and as final things, Lumi and Aether use different weapons! Lumi has a polearm and Aether has a greatsword :) but they can use swords too. I think they used swords before but picked up different and more individual fighting styles during their time in the Abyss. They still work terrifyingly well together either way it’s just bc I wanted to have fun with other weapon types haha

As for Childe, I um. I don’t have a damn clue what’s happening with him dkfjksjdksjdkdjd

As of now, my idea is that he’s an outlander who works for a god from his homeworld? Whether they’re good or not I’m still deciding, but rest assured he’s not focused on conquering Teyvat dkfjksdnkdj. I don’t think so at least. Subject to change……….

Anyway!! I imagine he works as a soldier who fights on the front lines, maybe as a lieutenant or general. He probably got stuck in Teyvat after losing a fight against the Unknown God? I think he’d be in less of a hurry to move onto the next region than the canon travelers since his family probably actually. Knows. Why he leaves for long periods skdjskdnskdj. He’s not playing innocence protector here he’s not doing anything super shady ;;;;;;;;

Idk if he would have an equivalent of the Abyss thing since. Yknow. Lumi and Aether have that covered. So maybe Childe gets off with a little less trauma as a treat for me always poking fun at him lmao. He may or may not get his ass kicked in Mondstadt by Lumi depending on who I roll for the rest of the Harbingers because I think it is really fucking funny to mess with him but that’s still up for debate.

Oh, I like to think he switches what kind of weapon he uses with each element! Idk entirely what ones are gonna match up but I know I kinda just wanna see him swinging around a Pyro greatsword bc that sounds super destructive and I feel like his party would freak out over him getting that much power lmao

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

I MEAN IT GAVE ME CHILLS IN A GOOD WAY. and also it would be hilarious to write imo; just these 6 dudes that all look the same and just made up A Guy.

“Thomas,” Roman announces quite suddenly, with a triumphant gesture that manages to inadvertently sweep half of the script drafts off the couch in the process.

“I still can not believe we’re doing this,” Virgil says.

“Oh, you’d better believe it, Way Down Gay-destown, ‘cause I just got the perfect name for him. Thomas. That’s his name – Thomas Sanders.” Roman pauses, and wiggles his fingers a bit. “Thoughts?”

Remus perks up. “Oh, our fictional character has thots now?”

“Crawling all over him like weevils,” Virgil nods.

“I thought we were calling ourselves ‘Sides’,” says Janus.  

“Guys, please,” Roman begs.

“Thomas sounds good to me,” is Patton’s opinion. “It’s nice and friendly, and also it has two syllables, like the rest of us! It kind of fits in like that.”

“It is a surprisingly apt name, especially when you take into consideration that Roman most likely did not know of the linguistic root when picking it,” Logan muses.

Remus waves a hand lazily from where he’s draped backwards over the couch, writing Transformers inflation porn on the notes app of his shitty phone. “Uh, noparoni, falsehood, all that jazz. I was watching. He went on babynames dot com and everything for this.”

“...What he said, yeah.”

“Ah, yes, babynames dot com, the internet’s premier and leading source for all accurate name derivations,” comes the dry response.

“Thomas means twin,” Roman says. “It means twin, and it’s funny because we all look identical! It’s like another layer of meaning! A fun little injoke, just for us.”

“Yes,” says Virgil, “you’re right. We need many, many deep layers of meaning and in-jokes woven into the shared identity we’re crafting as part of Roman and Remus’s wild, spur-of-the-moment internet scam.”

“How dare you,” Roman objects loudly, flailing so suddenly that he nearly falls off the couch. “This is polar opposite of a scam, we’re – we are merely taking advantage of our uncanny shared appearance to... share joy amongst the humble Youtube vlogging community! And perhaps show off. Just a little. But to say that it’s a scam – ”

“No, this is definitely a scam,” Janus says. “I mean, look at us. We’re inventing an entire person for internet clout.”

Patton looks like he’s having second thoughts about this whole thing. “I’m having second thoughts,” he says. “Like, on an ethical, moral sort of level, is any of this... really a good idea?”

“People invent other people for shittier reasons all the time, I think we’re fine,” Virgil says. “I mean, look at internet catfishes. Or every male fiction writer with a very obvious and creepy fetish. Or J.K. Rowling.”

“J.K. Rowling doesn’t exist?” Janus says. “Excellent. We won, boys.”

Roman grabs a pen and scribbles it into the notebook, next to a hasty little stickman doodle of an average-looking guy and a list of qualities and attributes and skills. “Well, all that aside, nobody seems to have an objection to this, so Thomas it is! Thomas Sanders. Thomas I’ve-Just-Realized-He-Needs-A-Middle-Name Sanders.”

“Thomas F Sanders,” Remus suggests.

“The F stands for ‘Fucking’, doesn’t it,” sighs Patton.

“Well, yeah.”

“Way to go for the low-hanging fruit, dude,” Virgil says. “Okay, put a pin in the middle name for now. Our collective brainchild has a name, so... that’s something. I guess.” He grabs the notebook from Roman and squints down at the short-ish list they have so far. “Any more character traits we wanna give this guy?”

“Intense love of Disney films,” Roman says.

“We’ve already got that; you suggested it about five times already.”

“Maybe he can play the ukulele!” Patton suggests.

Virgil nods, and starts to write it down before stopping abruptly. “Wait. Can any of us play the ukulele?”

Silence.

“He can only have traits that we already have,” Virgil reminds them. “That’s the whole idea. We’re derivatives of him.”

“Well, I’ll work on the ukulele thing,” Roman says decisively. “Put it down anyway. Anyone else?”

“He can’t cook to save his life,” Janus says.

“Catholic guilt,” Logan provides, with a little wince and a slight adjustment of his glasses. “It provides a good base for many of the plotlines we wish to include in this, I believe.”

“Give him a huge dick,” Remus says.

“Remus,” Roman growls.

“Just a humungous badonker of a penis. He beats his meat and the entire earth rumbles.”

“Remus,” Patton groans.

Remus grins. "He’s packing some real chunky meat down there. As in, his drill is a five star excavator. A proper manmade wonder. It's the kind of meal you get a prize for finishing. A bridge between two warring nations. And the girth! God had to resize the Earth so the radii wouldn't match. You can use his cast iron pelvic greatsword as a radiation shield in Chernobyl. His – "

“Remus, weren’t you listening? We’re only giving him traits that we already have,” Virgil says, looking Remus dead in the eyes. “I’m not going to let you misrepresent yourself like this.”

The room almost immediately erupts into a loud chorus of enthusiastic oohs. Quite a few people throw things at Virgil, who lets out a snort of amusement and ducks to avoid getting nailed in the eye by a stray television remote control. Remus just cackles.

“We’re going to have to tone back the dick jokes, probably,” says Janus with some regret, once everybody calms down a bit. “Don’t want to get demonetized within the first few weeks.”

“Well, Remus already broke the Youtube demonetization speedrun last week, so at least we know what not to do,” Patton says absently. “The real question is, though – who’s going to actually play this Thomas person?

“Don’t look at me,” says Janus. “I’m looking forward to getting the play the villain for once.”

Patton points at him, mock-glaring. “Hey, don’t think you’re missing out on a redemption arc just because you like the evil aesthetic!”

Janus lets out a little affronted hissing noise at that, but doesn’t actually object.

“Well, I’m not shaving my moustache for any of you fuckers, no matter how much internet clout we’re gonna get for it,” Remus declares.

A quick, meaningful glance is exchanged between the four remaining people in the room.  

“Leave me out of it,” Virgil decides.

“I don’t really mind, either way,” Patton says.

“In that case, I shall arm-wrestle you for the honor of portraying our glorious, talented and entirely fictional centre of being on our upcoming Grammy-award-winning sixty-part webseries,” Roman declares, flexing dramatically.

“Which may or may not be a scam,” Logan says.

“...Look, are we doing this or what?”

“Absolutely.” Logan places down his book, and shrugs off his jacket. “I should warn you, however – I am what I believe is colloquially referred to as ‘absolutely fucking ripped’.” He breaks out into a surprisingly wicked smile. “Roman, let me be clear. I am going to be the one to portray Thomas Fucking Sanders, our beloved nonexistent media superstar culmination-of-our-collective-selves. And I am about to flat-out destroy you. Let’s go.”

There’s a beat of silence as everybody stares at Logan. The stares range from impressed to terrified to obviously horny. All of these are equally valid emotions to be feeling, because Logan is ripped, and somehow none of them have ever realized this before.

“Well, before we do that, give me five minutes to make popcorn,” says Janus. “Because I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”

[goattypegirl]

Harrow the Ninth Live Read: Chapter 1-2

Poor Harrow :(

Chapter 1:

Ok back to second person! And we’re nine months pre-murder.

Is the sword actually burning or is this psychosomatic? She doesn't flinch when she pierces her hand to make the bone glove so maybe?

The muscle memory from Gideon seems to be gone. Maybe Harrow's traumatized? Understandably so tbh. And she's lowkey suicidal. Mood. Ok yeah this feels more like shock than anything supernatural. The events of Canaan House, becoming a Lyctor, being on a spaceship hospital, and unable to properly paint a skull mask... Poor Harrow.

Ok yeah being a Lyctor sounds fucking terrifying. Being aware at all times of everything around you... what a sensory nightmare.

Damn okay, Harrows being visited by the Body. Now I'm wondering if it is just a hallucination or if its something more. A part of Harrow seems to think its the latter...

"Red, and wet, and ill defined." Oh god Harrow what did you do.

Chapter 2

Knocking and waiting for permission before entering being a true sign of Divinity is sad and hilarious.

Harrow has a point. Why would necromancer demigods need swords? On the other hand, swords fuck, so.

I do wonder what life is like for the average person on Erebos. I was half thinking it was literally just the emperor and the lyctors in the First House.

Oh my god God is ghosting one of the Lyctors. "Make static noises". Slacker God is a rare character archetype but it's always so fucking funny.

And Harrow can raise eighteen thousand dead? Or is he talking about himself? Hmm...

Well thats a pretty smart way of carrying a greatsword when actually touching it makes you violently ill.

So it is trauma? I guess that explains everything being in second person; it adds a layer of depersonalization to the narration.

Wow ok being a Lyctor really sucks. Being intensely aware at all times of all the bodies on the ship...

The emperors speaking metaphorically, right? Or could we be reading a story about chronurgists now?

Yooo cryosleep! Part of me is wondering if these weren’t actually people alive 10,000 years ago who were resurrected, but frozen zygotes that have been artificially aged into people? IDK. 

Oh no. These special caskets are for the cavaliers and heirs that died in Canaan House, aren’t they? Yep, yes they are. Ok. Wait, the black casket with the rose, that has Cyntherea’s body, but it’s decorated like a Ninth house? Or has Harrow already switched to thinking of herself as First House, and black is the color for both the First and Ninth Houses? 

“You wanted to be relieved, but no longer recalled how that worked, glandularly speaking.” I really don’t think there’s something supernatural going on here, but. I once read someone’s worldbuilding notes on how liches worked in their D&D game, and it boiled down to liches are immortal, but all bodily functions have to be manually done. Swallowing, breathing, heart beating, cell division all had to be done manually. Their mind expanded to allow for that, but eventually all liches slip up and their body starts to fall apart. Anyway. That’s not what’s happening here, but I was reminded of it.

I want to see fanart of the Emperor, or at least his eyes, because I just cannot picture it. All I can picture is just oily black/rainbow eyes. I had this same problem reading the Lightbringer series. I do not know how eyeball anatomy works.

Bro what do you mean the cost is too great. Crackpot theory: there’s some kind of like thanergy pressure difference? And if the Emperor actually steps foot on one of the planets, the Resurrection is undone and everyone suddenly dies.

Of course he doesn’t know how to hug. Gods Who Are Fully Aware They Are Bastards is another rare, favorite trope of mine.

Okay this is a lot of science words but I’m following so far. Okay, so only humans have souls... Okay, I remember reading this in the guide at the end of Gideon the Ninth. It is really weird that planets in the Dominicus system have both death energy and life energy, for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But, planets have souls, apparently! Cool!

Being pissed that another major that you always thought was stupid would have covered this a lot earlier than you is kinda relatable lmao.

Okay, I can see where this is going, but there’s a wider scale story we’re only getting pieces of here. Necromancy and thanergy are like viruses that slowly kill a planet, literally. And the entire population has to be relocated, presumably to a new infected planet. Late stage necromancy capitalism.

Also, the Body moving Harrow’s arms for her is strikingly similar to her hallucination of Gideon at the end of the last book... 

OKAY COOL. PLANET SIZED GHOSTS. RESSURECTION BEASTS. UNDERSTOOD. 

GOD IS CRYING.

THEY EAT PLANETS.

LYCTORS HAVE DIED DISTRACTING THEM.

FUCK.

Okay. 3 are left. There were 9. 5 were defeated? And those were... Two, Eight, and Six. I’m with Harrow. The math does not check out.

Oh, okay, they automatically home in on the Emperor and Lyctors no matter where they are. Cool. Understood. 

(Which indelible sin lmao).

Uhhhh what the fuck? So the Body has Gideon’s eyes now. That’s not good. Okay she’s talking to it now and it’s responding. “I am half a Lyctor?” “Ortus did not die for nothing?” Excuse me?

Ooooh. Okay. I think I know what’s going on. Harrow is trying to completely erase Gideon from her mind. That’s why the Emperor’s mouth ‘looked strange’ when he said Ortus. That’s why she doesn’t have the muscle memory she should have gotten from Gideon.

Poor Harrow.

EDIT: Oh my god I'm an idiot. This totally recontextualizes the Parados chapter. It might just be Harrows perspective of that chapter in the library with Gideon, but with Gideon forcibly redacted and replaced with Ortus... that would explain why the Body said it didn't happen this way.... I've connected the two dots....

EDIT THE SECOND: thinking more about the Resurrection Beasts. The Emperor said there have been other, smaller ones besides the original 9. Perhaps created during the Cohorts campaign when they converted a planet to thanergy too fast? Second, the prologue showed Harrow and other necromancers astral projecting into the River to fight one. So, maybe over the course of the book a way to kill the Resurrection Beasts is discovered? That or they're distracting it? Third, the Emperor apparently also did the Lyctor ritual, or something close to it, to attract the Resurrection Beasts. Fourth, I was kinda right! It was a side effect of the Resurrection that prevents the Emperor from returning to the Dominicus system, and it would call all the inhabitants to die. It just wouldn't be suddenly. Hopefully.

[captainkoolguy]

You try to duck aside another blow, staggering away from the arc of a blade before Jael'yn drops it. The heavy greatsword clatters to the floor and a hand catches you full-on in the face, grasping you hard. A foot hooks your own and suddenly the world is tipped on its side before you're smashed into the reflective stone steps while the air is knocked out of you. Cait and Brint are brought down into the ground either side of you by the guards, struggling tiredly against them. "Hah! That wasn't so hard... not like me." Jael'yn insists with a grin. "I'm very hard." she releases your face and pulls you back to your feet with apparent ease, capturing your arm and locking it behind your back. Yet more guards continue to file into the throne room, a hopeless number of them... have they sent every single elf that can hold a stick after you? Your legs are barely holding you up, but relaxing your weight only serves to wrench your arm as you're brought forward to a structure built right in the middle of the throne ro— oh, of course... A stockades. With enough space for two at a time, even, and judging by the stains covering the wood, you suspect they're used for more entertaining forms of punishment these days... Ryn's carried right along beside you, groaning weakly. Although it's to your other companions that Jael'yn turns, at least before idly waving them off. "Unfortunately, we've only got space for two at a time, but don't you worry cuteness, we'll get back to you later." You put up only a customary struggle before you're locked into the stockades with a resounding click... only to find that the neck and wrist holes are lined with soft leather. "Huh?" "Heh, yeah... nobody wants a splinter when they're getting fucked after all. Dealing out a punishment gets a lot less fun when the vict— criminal is making the wrong kind of cries, obviously." The guard captain explains with a smile, once again letting a foot of demonic tongue spool out of her mouth before sensuously licking soft, painted lips. "You know, I bet if we keep this up I'll be a demon in nooo time." When her hands start to strip you out of what gear still even remains clinging to your body after the fight, she sneaks in the occasional grope until your ass is bare to the open air. "Why what a lovely asshole you have!" she sighs, spreading your cheeks between her palms and spitting right onto your ring. "You just stay there and keep my second-in-command comfortable. Poor thing must be just aching for somewhere warm to put her dick." You're still shivering at the sensation of hot spit turning chill on your asshole when the scent of a distinctly stallion musk hits you full-on in the face. The elf infront of you looks like she's barely five foot, and honestly? She appears to be rocking a cock a quarter of her height; a great big mare-cock no less, with a mottled shaft, and a broad flat head already drooling ivory. A little ring sticks out of the front, and when she loops a finger through it and slowly pulls back she reveals a long rod of beads that she draws out of her stretchy cumslit. Her breath hitches with every little orb that stretches her, until the toy is completely removed. A thick load of cum-laced pre squirts out and hits you dead-on in the face, setting your heart to hammering nearly out of its chest. The scent of a rutting slut washes over you again, sweet pheromones getting you salivating and ready. Two thick balls hang from a similarly mottled-looking sack, visibly pulsing in time with the small elf's heartbeat. "I got here late, Captain Jael'yn is going to punish me even more later..." she whispers... although that doesn't exactly sound like a complaint. "Come on, if I don't get you thirsty you won't be ready to take the Captain's dick!" She pinches your nose until you open wide, immediately mashing her cum-oozing cockhead past your slender lips and pressing your tongue flat. The immediate taste of musk and shemale hormones is enough to hit you like a shock, and your already-weak legs go limp. Breathing only serves to drown you in fuck-scent further — what breath you can get anyway — and when your eyes drift across to the neighbouring stockade you can see that Ryn's being likewise forced to wrap her lips around a bitch-breaking futa fuckstick. Drool runs down the corners of your mouths, pooling and drooling out where it grows thick with precum. You try to moan, groan, anything... but it only tantilizes your lover-by-restraint further, judging by the way she whimpers and moans. Ryn gurgles too, eyes rolling back and makeup running as she's railed in the face hard enough to rock the stockades. Jael'yn lets out a laugh, running her fingers through the elf's hair with one hand while reaching over to grab at yours with the other. "Yeah... we'll let them know we've got you... but not until me and all of my boys and girls have had their way with you." She slaps your face gently and returns her attention to Ryn. "Well? Are you going to stand there drooling? Or actually suck this dick?" While you're moaning and groaning, yet more hands find your body... and you're totally unable to look behind you and see the owner of the cock that flops down between the cheeks of your ass. Whoever it is, they've got feminine hands... but again, with most elves that still isn't exactly telling. More importantly they don't intend to take their time with you, dishing out a hard slap that sets your asscheeks to jiggling before hilting themselves in you until the second 'spank' noise is simply the clap of hip-to-ass. You can barely move within the restraints, but now that there's some dick in your ass at least your hips are being held up. Breathing is the next issue, and if you don't get this horse-cocked shemale to cum you're going to have some other problems. Fuck, there's so much movement around you that it's hard to keep track of everything. You suck and moan as hard as you can, doing your best to pleasure the elf's monstrous horse-cock. The hammering in your ass is potent distraction, but by now you're riding high on the hormonal scent of this woman hammering your face... not to mention the only tiny gasps of breath you're able to snatch away. At last you can feel it much more than hear it — the sound of men and women moaning is loud enough in your ears as it is — when she grows thicker at the base with unspent seed. It's hard to get your jaw open any wider, but when you do it's as though the flood barriers were kicked over; a tankard's-worth of musky mare semen floods your stomach until all you can taste is jizz at the back of your teeth. The guard pulls out slowly with a shiver and a moan, jerking the spit-and-spunk covered length until she can nut one last thick glob of shemale cum onto your face. You're still spluttering and gasping for breath, riding the high of getting railed the whole while, when you're struck in the face by two more ropes of cum... fuck, these guards are just jerking off on you now! Yet more streaks land on your butt before there's a feminine whimper from behind and your bowels are flooded with elf seed. Your prostate is hammered insistantly, leading you to drooling cum out to add to the steadily-growing puddle on the floor. You shake your head to get the cum from your vision, only to find the next guy or girl is lining up with your abused asshole while yet more elves position themselves in front of your face. It's only possible to catch a small look at how your companion is doing... and it's about what you'd expect from a stockades gangbang. You do catch the perfect moment though; Jael'yn pulling her dick out behind strands of sticky spit and cum and nutting right on a still-moaning Ryn's face. The massive guard captain lets out a little laugh, petting Ryn on the head before turning her attention back to you and scowling. "Well, you're looking fucked up enough, but still..." the guard behind you is displaced by a small shove from her, and yet another mythic pole slaps its way down into the cleavage of your ass. You clench unconsciously and shiver, opening wide for the next elf to have their way with your mouth while spooge leaks from your already-abused ring. "I'll just have to think of this as lube then!" Lube? Oh— oh fuck... You try to put your feelings into words, but it's hard to do much more than gurgle around a mouth filled with cum and cock as you're spread wide around the guard captain's thick dick. Your feet stamp at the floor and a muffled squeal erupts from you as she sinks the first foot of length into your already-ravaged rear. You'd blame that pressure for stealing your breath away if it weren't something you were still struggling to get reliably, although you're now rather glad one of the first guards had a round with you first... she's so big. "There it is! A painted slut, a naughty, naughty boy taking their punishment!" she cries, still pressing more cock into you. The elf hammering at your face pulls out, spraying hot musky jizz across your face while yet another replaces them. You can hear a muffled whimper from Ryn, and a few orgasmic moans that tell you she's getting... very much the same treatment. Pricks slide into your hands, forcing you to take a hold so that they can fuck your grip in an impromptu handjob while a line begins to form. It hasn't taken long for the potent musky mixture to have you rabid for more, and the captain claps resoundingly against you just as that thought locks in place. More... "Mmm, that's a lovely ass you have. Maybe they'll let me keep you after! Ride you around on my cock all day until you're as far-gone as I!" Jael'yn grins wickedly, reaching down to run her fingers through your sodden hair. "How about it? You can even call me Mommy." You groan out something illegible — gods you aren't even sure what you're trying to say — and roll your hips. "I know sweetie, I know... just let it go." she shushes you, before drawing back and letting out a hungry, predatorial growl. Her hips become a blur, and rather suddenly you're being smashed hard into the stockades with enough force to shift them. Both you and Ryn rock forward as you're pounded brutally by the dominant gothic futa-zon. "Come on, beg for Mommy!" she cries, spanking your ass with a messy, sticky 'slap'. You sure try to beg... at least until a second dick pushes in alongside its twin in your mouth before both fire off their loads, leaving you gagging with a very full stomach. When they pull out you're actually dizzy now, unable to feel, taste, or smell anything that's not just raw fuck. Ryn's being thoroughly spitroasted, with the horse-dicked second in command giving her much the same pheromone treatment as you've already gotten... fuck, that was so good. Abruptly Jael'yn goes still, and your eyes go wide as you are flooded with jizz, and spanked over and over until you're sure she's put a print on your ass in the perfect shape of your hand. The stinging becomes a red-hot tingle, and your own orgasm crashes across the shore with her in a very lurid display. Your eyelids flutter when she slowly drags herself out, and yet another dick pushes into your mouth and cums while ivory waterfalls from your brutalized backdoor. The darkness in the corners of your vision grows deeper and creeps further when you try to catch another glimpse of Ryn, only to see the captain lining up to spitroast with her horse-cocked second. A fist sinks into your asshole then, but even that extra stimulation can't keep the shadows out... and you're plummeting.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

ask Two for the angst ones this time: 13 for raini, 5 (possibly will be pertinent come the end of this minicampaign) & 29 (she literally has Any Weapon w/ her pact so it's fititng) for ayen, 7 & 10 (hehe I know there's trauma in this one) for cog, and then mix and match 4, 17, 18 between Caspian, Ryker, and Brilliance bc I don't know them as well and I would Like To

My life is just below readmores now, I guess. Will I ever learn to shut the fuck up? No! And that is a promise 

Raini

13. What does it take to make your character cry? Oh boy. Raini definitely isn’t a big crier, because she a) doesn’t really let herself get to that point and b) hard pivots into “angry” over “upset” and she isn’t an angry crier. She’s cried twice in game so far, and probably not many times before that. In both in game cases -and likely the always alluded to but never seen “before times”- the catalyst for her crying was being overwhelmed. In a good way, bad way, whatever, but that’s the trigger. Just- Looking at something, not knowing what else to do but let yourself cry about it, and not seeing any reason to stop yourself.  (shfjsdjkfh the funny answer is: during sex. But can you IMAGINE jskdfskjdf)

Ayen

5. Would they ever turn on someone they just met in order to save themselves? Oh for sure. Without question. Not without guilt, in fairness, but without question. She’s pretty well adjusted, pretty “go with the flow”, but she did grow up in a pretty cutthroat world. She was spared from having to make those kinds of brutal decisions from a super young age by Shadow Mom, but she definitely saw the fallout of those choices and learned that, while it’s all well and good to do the “right” thing, it’s much more important to do the right thing for you. If that means condemning some stranger to die so you and yours don’t have to? So be it. Better people have done worse, because that’s sometimes just how things go.  I’ll be honest! This character decision was a completely on the fly one when we were having that debate in the library about what we should do with the information we learned in the library. But I stand by it. In character, Ayen 1000% sees whatever’s going on as Not Her Business. It’s fucked up, sure! But, you know. Not her monkeys, not her circus.  29. What is their weapon of choice, and what weapon do they dislike using the most? Bro I love that Ayen doesn’t have A Specific Weapon SO much. Especially because Pact of the Blade specifically makes it so that, whatever weapon she summons, she’s proficient in while wielding it. So she sees somebody using a weapon, goes “oh! cool!” and summons it herself, and then just. Intuitively knows how to use is. How fucking funny is that conceptually??  Her go to if things are serious or she doesn’t have time to pick something obscure is a longsword. Dad uses a greatsword, and a longsword is pretty close to that! Image how cool they looked fighting off assholes, back to back, with two bigass swords? Is that the only reason it’s her favorite? No of course not!!!! That would- that would be silly. And childish. Swords are just cool is all.  She hasn’t used any in game, but I think she honestly just doesn’t like any kind of polearm. It’s like, is it technically safer to be a little further from your enemy? Sure. Does it give you a small tactical advantage? Maybe so. But they’re so uglyyyy and they look weird and you have to use both hands and the balance is weird and >:( Spears can stay because you can throw them but you’re on thin fucking ice.

Cog

7. If your character was allowed to murder one person without any consequences, who would it be and why? Thank GOD Alex I wanted this one for Cog SO bad!!! Valentine WastelandGame! If you can read this! You’re a dead motherfucker!! This is for a variety of reasons including but not limited to: - Is responsible for the deaths of at least 3 separate world leaders! Uh oh!  - Asked for my blood one time! To do Science on! Not cool! - Ace doesn’t like him. Enough said.  - Called Ace “hotheaded” and “brutish” keep his NAME out of your MOUTH - Is fucking Maelo’s ex I think? Honestly I lost that plot on that one a little bit - Keeps taking Sunny on dates! We’re protective and Jealous?? Hard to say! We don’t have time to unpack this one let’s keep moving - Is convinced aliens exist? And are coming to attack the world? OKAY  - Talks in fucking circles about philosophy and the greater meaning of “good” and “evil” in the context of the world. Like, no sir! Good is when you help people and evil is when you kill them! Except unless it’s me killing you which is going to happen because I can cast Finger of Death now and you better believe that spell has your fucking name on it. Freak boy. - Just like. Eats straight raw steak. Not Evil but really weird and probably not great for you? - Overall just a very bad slimy manipulative and stinky dude. 0/10 I’m gonna put an arcane bullet in his skull. Like. Everything Valentine does, everything she learns about him, convinces Cog more and more that the world would be a better, safer place if he wasn’t allowed to exist in it anymore. She was kinda neutral on the guy until he gave his grand speech in Cormir about how the only way to save the world is to ‘conquer and subdue it’ and tried to talk her in circles enough that she had to agree with him or seem like a hypocrite. Since then, it’s been a slow creep from “I don’t trust this man and don’t want to work with him again, even if it makes our lives harder” to “he’s dangerous and needs to be stopped” to “...if given the opportunity, I would kill him myself”. And now that she has our new friend the Shadow Demon whispering in her ear, telling her that “the world will tremble and change before her” and that she should “stride boldly, and fear not the consequences that may follow” honestly? The next time we see Valentine, he might be in trouble!  10. What were the character’s parents like? What was the affect the parents had on the character? Oh, is there trauma in this one? Is there? Alex? Is there? Maybe so!! We’re gonna talk about Cog’s dad first, because he’s a) still alive and b) I KNOW you’re fishing for more mom angst. Cog’s dad name is Conrad Grace! He’s the head of Lafaroh’s town guard, whatever that means for a town of maybe a hundred people. I feel like his day to day really consists more of making rounds to check on people than dealing with criminals, although he likely has to break up the occasional disagreement or toss somebody in the drunk tank for the night. He’s also in charge of making sure the Guardians -the gods that live deep in the swamp outside Lafaroh and protect the town in exchange for food, building supplies, the occasional corpse, and other resources- get their offerings (This is Important, because he does Stop doing that soon). He married into he Grace family (that’s RIGHT he took his wife’s last name because it’s 2021 and he’s Woke not because her family like runs the town okay moving on), initially because I genuinely believe he fell in love! They were probably pretty young, because Lafaroh is very much a Deep South Swamp Town Analogue, but I don’t think it was just a social power move. The most important Conrad fact? He told Cog that he became disillusioned with the Church when she left home, because he couldn’t imagine continuing to support something he could now see had so clearly been hurting her. And I, Rebekah, a homosexual who has had Words with my Christian parents about the way their religion has hurt me? OH buddy we were a little bit of a mess about it. DM Ryan! Don’t you know I’m projecting!! Please be more careful! (Editor’s Note: This is the moment that made me realize I was projecting. Whoopso!!) Cog’s mom name is Charlotte Grace Sr. because, I guess, we’re freaks. I hate that this makes Cog technically a junior because the thought of anyone calling her Charlotte Jr. makes me break out in hives, but it is, technically, correct. The distinction while Cog was growing up was, instead, “Charlotte” and “Charlotte Olivia” because, again, we’re southern as hell. Charlotte Sr. is, unsurprisingly, the head of Lafaroh’s church, which means she very much has more actual power than her husband does. She did love Cog, I think, but in a way that very much more felt like someone guarding an investment than raising a child, especially when Cog became a teenager. She had high, exacting expectations, and grew more distant from Cog the older she got. Whether this was an unintentional side-effect of Charlotte Sr. becoming more engrossed in the preparations necessary to allow Cog to become the “Conduit”, or whether it was a purposeful decision because she knew she would lose her daughter and wanted the sacrifice to hurt less is unclear. Cog’s dad is kinda just a dude, but we KNOW this bitch has mommy issues. I also think an important distinction to draw between the two is that while I’m willing to give Conrad the benefit of the doubt and say that he may have just wanted Cog to stay in Lafaroh when they party returned because he was worried about his daughter and wanted her home, Charlotte Sr. wanted Cog there because it was Where She Was Supposed To Be, because she had a destiny to fulfill. More than that, when Charlotte Sr. found out that Conrad had stopped sending supplies to the Guardians when Cog left and had instead been selling them to Bandits to get money to rebuild the town, she was not nearly so understanding. She accused him of heresy, and ordered for him to be, uh. Flayed alive. Which wasn’t great. It’s what got her killed ultimately; Cog had to choose between her parents, and after watching her Mama summon a shadow demon that very nearly choked the life out of Sunny? It was a choice with only one possible outcome. 

Caspian

18. Would society call your character a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are? Caspian is. Caspian is Just a person. Like she is just out here doing her best, trying not to get killed by, idk. Pirates or ghosts or w/e. This is an endeavor that, statistically, could be going a lot better.  I think the more interesting angle to look at this question from is the fact that she’s a monk from a well known monastery, and that there’s Expectations on how she conducts herself in the world as a result of that. She is Just A Person, but that’s not good enough. Not when she’s running around wearing Pelor’s holy symbol, representing his monastery, reflecting on him. For a long time, I think Caspian resented the expectation that put on her! Why can’t she just be a kid? Just a person? She didn’t ask to be raised by these monks in this kind of life. But when she left home and realized how suddenly lonely she was, there were quiet, sad moments it was easy to soften with prayer. Rekindling her relationship with her god was her way of staying connected to home, and I think it also made her want to go from being Just a Person to actually wanting to take pride in being a Good Person.  And then her campaign lasted for two fucking seconds lmao so it didn’t even matter hahah! :)

Ryker

4. Has your character ever been hurt or betrayed by someone they thought they could depend on? What happened? YEAH BOY rye-bread got his SHIT handed to him lmaoooo His whole “why are you adventuring?” deal is that he fell in love with the noblewoman he was hired to escort across the country to her betrothed’s estate, and she played him like a fucking fiddle and convinced him -after her wedding, after she was pregnant with her husband’s first child and therefore heir- that she was in love with him too. But of course, because she was married, her husband would never let them be happy together. She talked Ryker into killing her husband, and promised to meet him the night he did it with horses and supplies for both of them. Anyone reading along at home with even a shred of common sense probably just said, “uh oh!” And uh oh indeed; she fully sold his ass out. There’s something emotionally devastating about slipping out of the bedroom of the man you just killed, his blood still on your hands, to find the woman you love standing between two enormous guards, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.  Ryker figured out her plan in the following days he spent in a cell, awaiting execution. She didn’t love her husband, but by playing the role of grieving widow and anxious mother-to-be she could ingratiate herself with his family enough to be allowed to take control of the estate while her son, the true heir, grew up to run it. It was cruel, and clean, and if Ryker hadn’t managed to escape it would have gone off without a hitch.

Brilliance 

17. Is your character afraid of death? Why/why not? Brilliance isn’t afraid of death, she’s afraid for what she’d leave behind. One of the songs on her playlist really leans into this (and I’m very excited to be posting her playlist soon! Stay tuned!), because she is terrified of what her death might do to Sienna. She never planned to become an adventurer, much less travel to the Hells to try and save an entire city. She was content, more than content, to guard Sune’s church, to help the people that came seeking her goddess’ blessing and guidance. When her city faced a sudden influx of refugees from Elturel after its destruction, she was even happy to volunteer to help the Flaming Fist keep order and root out would-be troublemakers. She never meant to get caught up in a job that would take her out of her home city, much less out of her home plane entirely. Every fight she got into in Hell, every time it seemed like she may be staring down something that might kill her, Brilliance had to swallow down the overwhelming guilt of knowing that if she died here Sienna would never know what happened to her. The image of Sienna, worried and pacing, looking toward the door to their apartment every time there was so much as a whisper in the hallway, desperate for any sign that Brilliance had come home-- It wasn’t delusions of self-importance or self-preservation that had Brilliance taking Glasya’s deal to save her from the narzugon’s clutches; it was the image of Sienna collapsing onto their bed and sobbing because she finally admitted to herself that Brilliance was never coming home. Still. Sienna needs her, but her party needs her too. They’re counting on her to be there for them, to take the big hits that they can’t handle. First one in, last one out; she doesn’t leave until everyone else is safe. She wants to survive, she wants to go home and marry the woman she loves, but she couldn’t live with herself if she did it at the cost of the life of someone who was depending on her. Brilliance isn’t afraid of death; she would die for her party members, even the ones she doesn’t particularly like. She just knows exactly what the cost of her death would be. 

[onwesterlywinds]

The Legatus and the Lucavi

"More fucking stairs. Gods... fucking take... the bastards... who built this fucking place."

They were coming up on the last of the stairs - she and Bull and all the rest of the Riskbreakers. Orella Steelhand could not suppress a last bit of whinging, even as her chest heaved for breath and every ilm of ascent was its own battle against her wearied limbs. They had reached a height that Orella could not have dared to fathom: the sea had long since given way to clouds, and the air around them had grown thin for reasons that could not be explained away by exertion.

The Garlean host stood nearby. Orella could hear the workings of their machinery even through the turnings of colossal, ancient gears; she could smell the ceruleum over the rust and mold and free growth of ages past.

Bull rounded the last of the stone stairs first, and at once his face settled into a frown. By the time she followed suit from close behind, she too could fully take stock of what lay in wait for them: the legatus himself, surrounded by scores of soldiers and their warmachina.

Behind the Garleans, emerging from a verdant courtyard, strode the High Seraph. She walked in Ashelia Riot's body, yet the girl's hair was now longer and whiter than ever, and wings brimming with light now rested in full prominence upon her shoulders. She commanded the attention of all present, including the legatus; though he had turned to face the approaching Riskbreakers, he beheld the demon in the Grand Steward's skin that was striding into the ancient hall with great interest, evident even from under the helm he wore. He raised a hand wordlessly, and the soldiers raised their weapons in perfect synchronization: half toward the Riskbreakers, half toward the Lucavi.

"...Ah," said Alaq'it from behind her, not bothering to whisper. "We found the Garleans."

Apart from a sigh from one of the other Riskbreakers - Akhutai, perhaps? - not a soul stirred in the hall. Until, of course, Ultima laughed. She laughed with Ashelia Riot's laugh, and the sound reverberated until it filled their surroundings.

"Don't do that," Sylvan Rain snapped. "Not in her body."

Orella spared the barest of glances over her shoulder. The others all stood prepared for the fight that was sure to come: Ivaan readied his lance, Nivelth flicked open her grimoire, and Bull tensed as if to prepare himself to spring forward at any moment.

But it was the legatus who truly broke the stillness first. Noah van Gabranth took one step closer to Ultima, then another. His armor resounded with a distinctive click with each step he made against the ancient stone. "Then Grissom's 'prophecy' was correct." He cast a glance over Ultima, smirking in Ashelia's body, then stared out at the Riskbreakers. "I am relieved that his dissemination of the stones, if naught else, was not ill-conceived."

"Yes, yes," said Ultima. "It was all very helpful." Her voice was deeper than Ashelia's, more sultry. She also enunciated her words strangely, Orella realized, as though she were wholly unused to forming her words through a mouth, or speaking through some other physical means.

Alaq'it leaned in close to A'zaela to whisper loudly. "Did we all sound so odd?"

Linini certainly had, Orella thought, though she had not had the prescience to consider it during their battle. She did not want to think of such things now. A'zaela sighed and said, "Almost definitely." Beside them, Akhutai offered only a simple "Yes."

Ivaan stepped forward, pointing his lance between the legatus and the Lucavi. "You are in league with one another, then?"

Noah van Gabranth shifted his gaze to the bold Midlander at once. "You were at the Bardorba manse. Were you not." It was not an answer to the question.

"Yes," Ivaan replied. "But I am glad to have this... opportunity... to get to know you now. " He brandished his halberd, a movement that caused many of the assembled soldiers to stiffen.

"You'll forgive us if we refuse any more gifts you might have for us." Sylvan spoke with a raised voice, but whether she spoke to van Gabranth or to Ultima, Orella wasn't certain. "Don't think there still isn't time for us to fix all this."

The Seraph fixed her gaze on the Roegadyn. "I suppose there is always time." She cast a sneer at the Garleans, and then at the Riskbreakers. "Time enough to rethread history."

Akhutai stepped forward, gun drawn, a cold frown on his face. "I'm afraid time is no longer on your side."

"History isn't yours to shape," Nivelth added. Together, their words rang with added significance in Orella's mind: the former vessels of Belias and Zalera, respectively. The arbiters of change, cast down by their own hosts. Though the thought fled as quickly as it had come, Orella could not repress the shiver that lingered in its wake.

"I harbor no such ambitions. In fact, I would see your dear Grand Steward restored to you."

Bull spoke for the first time, tapping his chin dramatically. "Findin' that REAL hard to believe."

"And I'm sure," said Akhutai, "you're also kind and benevolent and if we just do what you say, everything will turn out glorious."

"I told you as much before, Crimson Bull: I have no desire to hold this body. I merely need a river of blood to see my true form restored, and your dear leader freed."

Before anyone could react, a Garlean soldier pulled a trigger. The projectile missed Ashelia's body by several fulms, pinging off of some of the Gougan machinery. From behind her, someone gave a high-pitched gasp; Orella turned sharply, instinct leading her eyes to seek out the injured party, but no one seemed hurt. Instead, Priscilla stood holding her gun a little closer to her own frame, her teary eyes darting between all present.

"Hold your fire!" van Gabranth snarled.

"Nice to see that they're as careful with their ceruleum as ever," Akhutai mumbled.

Orella returned her attention to their surroundings, cursing herself for not having the diligence to think of doing so before. She thought of Ingvald's disapproving glower if he could see her now, and resolved not to mention to him how slipshod she'd gotten. Pushing him from mind, her gaze fell on a familiar shape, a familiar face, near a generator that hummed with ceruleum. It was a man, tall and blond and Garlean down to the core. He wore a silver half-coat, dark leggings, and a feathered bowler hat, the very same she'd seem him wear aboard the Prima Vista. She had met his eyes when she had recited Theodoric's speech. She had seen him sour at Ingvald's poor attempts at conversation. She had shared space with this man for the past several weeks, however begrudgingly, and she could not suppress her rage at herself for not having uncovered his treachery before now.

"Oh," she growled, with such venom that several others and even the legatus turned around. "Oh, you straight-up motherfucker-"

Bull snorted. "Clearly not a friend of yours."

Orella did not take her eyes off the man. He saw her now - returned her scowl in kind from across the hall, even with a hundred Garlean guns pointed between them. "He's the one that killed Grissom."

"And," said van Gabranth, "his intelligence from aboard the Prima Vista into the effects of these auracite stones has been invaluable."

"Yeah? Good for him," Orella growled. She took a step forward, her good arm reaching behind her to take up her sword. "Does he know he's going to die today?"

It became clear almost immediately that the weight of her weapon was too much to bear and that she would have to find another way to hold it, and quickly, lest friend or foe see her weakness. Whatever her arm was now, it wasn't fit for fighting. But she had made the first move and could not back away now, so she instead grit her teeth and gripped the handle so tight her knuckles turned white.

"You think I could let him live?" The voice was the dancer's, sharp and quick and quiet. It was not a voice suited for the stage, let alone an ancient, historical chamber. "That cultist, that traitor - that filthy savage? He was useful while his faith propelled him to collect the stones, useful at following orders to undermine you."

"Savage?" Ivaan retorted. "And what are you then, butchering a man in his bed?"

Alaq'it Moks nodded and pointed at Ivaan, as though adding a plus-one to his remark.

"He was no man!" the dancer cried out to the dragoon. "You saw what he was!"

Nive leveled a glare at him. "It was you?!" she hissed. "I knew Grissom was going to die from a knife, but--"

"Nive-" Alaq'it warned.

And then Orella saw it in the Miqo'te's shifting stance: a glow from her hand to indicate charging magicks. Several Garlean soldiers moved as one, but the dancer was fastest: he raised a gun and fired. Nive fell hard to the floor, her eyes still open - and for a moment Orella's gut clenched tight. Somehow the possibility of any Riskbreaker dying had seemed a world away until this very moment. She waited for the blood, waited for any other sign of death; someone else screamed behind her. Akhutai leapt forward with a guttural hiss to drag his friend back out of range. "She's alive," he confirmed. "Stunned." All the while he kept his serpentine eyes on the Garleans, daring them to attack again, as he reached to grab the greatsword she had been carrying strapped to her back.

Bull scowled. "Clearly no one's messin' around today."

"Enough of this folly," said Ultima. "I have something for you... my lord." Ultima flashed a grin at Orella and removed from one of Ashe's pockets the Cancer stone. Even from such a distance, Orella recognized the cursed thing and braced herself for Zeromus' foul magicks to stretch toward her and take her again.

Instead, Ultima let the auracite fall from her fingers with a clatter. Noah van Gabranth merely watched, letting it roll toward his feet, and when he bent to pick it up, it was as though all present held the same collective breath. Then, with stone in hand, the legatus gestured at the squadron nearest to the Riskbreakers - more than fifty Garleans strong.

"Fire at will," he said calmly. "Capture Seraph alive."

He turned, and the Prima Vista dancer followed after him close behind.

"Get back here!" Orella shouted, before she could think better of it. "Get the fuck back here, you coward! How dare you turn tail and run!"

And she raced after him, past the crowd of Garleans now pointing their weapons directly at Ashelia.

---

"Oh hells," Alaq'it whispered as the legatus made his disappearance.

"Stay behind me," A'zaela said to her. Her heart was pounding, racing, but she refused to take her eyes off of Ashelia for more than a moment, even with the Garleans readying to attack.  "I won't watch you get shot."

"I'd rather not watch either of you get shot," Akhutai remarked. He stood, having moved Nive out of danger; again, with the hand not holding his gun, he lifted the king's sword - the sword that had put an end to their zodiac stones.

Alaq'it shook her head. "I was not going to do anything! Because I cannot do anything against that armor." The last part was more an admission, accompanied by a rude gesture at the retreating legatus.

"Alaq'it is our only healer," A'z breathed. "Much more important that she's unharmed."

But Alaq'it knocked her upside the head very, very gently, and A'zaela's ears twitched back from the contact. "And you are our only A'zaela. Do not be stupid."

The slight bump, even from a friend, triggered the familiar flow of red aether. It pulsed from A'zaela as her dragons sensed danger, as she readied herself for the fighting that would need to take place. Do not be stupid. Yet she still didn't move an ilm; her claws curled in against her fist as she struggled with what to do. Fighting would only give Ultima what she wanted: the river of blood she had mentioned earlier, and the means for her resurrection. Yet neither could she stay still and let any of her friends get shot.

Ivaan made her decision for her. There was a bang, not of gunfire, but of the air rushing to occupy the space Ivaan once inhabited. Then he was in the air, arcing toward the nearest group of soldiers. Flames erupted from the seams of his armor, until he thrust his halberd downward, hauling a tail of fire behind him like a comet as he dove at the formation of riflemen. When the flames cleared, no fewer than five Garleans lay on the stones in pain, unable to rise. Their comrades all diverted their attention to him, offering the other Riskbreakers no small opening.

"Let's see how this thing cuts..." Akhutai murmured, and dashed towards the Garleans closest to him to take advantage of Ivaan's distraction. He swung out with a wide horizontal cut as he neared them, felling nearly as many as Ivaan had and prompting even more to track him.

A'zaela crouched, bracing for her own aerial attack, but then Ashelia staggered out of the corner of her eye. An expression of agony flickered on her face; then it was gone, as the Seraph took hold once more. "Foolish brat!" Ultima hissed. "Still you defy me?! You are not the only one who has been cast from her home!"

Her heart leapt with hope. Ashelia's still in there. She's still fighting. But the fight in the hall demanded A'zaela's attention. With Ivaan and Akhutai surrounded by an entire mob of soldiers, they were taking hits from all sides.

"Well," said Alaq'it from beside her, "I may be the only healer, but they are certainly in need of HEALING!" She rushed forward, calling opposition from the stars the tower put them so close to. Constellations crystallized in the air around them, then shattered - and the entire group of Garleans in their midst was stunned.

Bull hefted his axe from his shoulders, taking off into a full sprint into the pack; with a primal roar, he swung his axe in a whirlwind. The ones who lifted their guns at him barely had a chance to fire before being cut down.

The others had the fighting well in hand. She ran full tilt towards the High Seraph, of the mind that she could put herself between the Garleans and Ashelia. She made to tackle her friend, to knock her to the relative safety of the ground; yet Ultima's wings unfurled with a blinding brilliance. Her arms were brushed aside. Pain seized her throat. Before A'zaela could blink, she was fulms from the floor, with Ultima holding her by the neck.

A'zaela's red and angry aether pulsed around them, whipping Ashelia's bleached hair back. Her hands grappled with the ones wrapped around her throat. As the aether reached her host's body Ultima dropped A'zaela - not from a height that would do damage to a Miqo'te, let alone a dragoon.

From up in the air, the Garlean soldiers fired upon her.

A bullet tore through her, then another, and Ultima screamed. A'zaela Linh screamed as well, watching her best friend and savior get shot.

---

In the middle of the fighting, with half a host of Garleans pressing down on him, Bull could almost forget about the others. Almost. He was here to keep them safe; all other concerns were secondary. Even as Alaq'it rushed to administer healing to Ivaan, even as Akhutai sliced down yet another soldier aiming at the boss's body with a bestial growl, he delivered blow after blow to fend off every enemy attack he could.

The only one who he didn't see in the charge was Sylvan Rain - and then he felt a strong, familiar hand touch his back.

"Bull," Sylvan said, "keep them here and get that damn thing out of Ashe." She pointed with a thumb back toward the staircase, toward where they had left Hinako and Eindride and Linini. "I'll keep the soldiers busy."

Bull nodded. "Don't have too much fun," he said with a smirk, giving a thumbs up and turning his attention toward where Ultima levitated in Ashe's body. She was in worse shape than ever now, bleeding freely from at least a couple of bullet wounds. He froze for only a moment, with the makings of fear gripping at his gut - until another touch from Sylvan pulled him back to the present. She clasped his shoulder, leaning in to stare at him with a deathly serious look on her face. "Get her back. I know you can do it."

He nodded. "We can do this."

Ultima raised a bloodied hand... and cast a spell that sent out beams of blinding light throughout the entire hall.

The beams of light cleared, lifting like a veil from the ancient hall. Bull blinked. Before his eyes could adjust to the blast, he heard the sounds of carnage - of tearing flesh, and screams. When he blinked some few times, the light subsided, and half the remaining Garlean soldiers were on the ground, either dead or writhing in pain.

It was one of the worst sights he'd ever seen.

---

The stone floor was awash with blood. It was everywhere, seeping over and into the stone tiles. The Seraph was exhausted - from her wounds, and from the horrible magicks she'd cast through the aether of her host. When Ashelia's feet once more touched the ground, she was limping. "It's not enough..." she moaned. "Not enough..."

"And it never will be enough, you pathetic excuse for a goddess!" A'zaela screeched. She propelled herself forward, clasping a hand around her best friend's throat in a gesture that mirrored the one Ultima had trapped her with in midair mere moments before. "You couldn't take over the heavens the first time - what makes you think you can take over us?"

From over her shoulder came Bull's roar as he charged the remaining Garlean contingent. "Find the stone! Get it away from her!" From the corner of her eye, Ivaan and Alaq'it, on the sides of the hall, began to do just that. A'zaela continued to grapple with this much more powerful being that took hold of her best friend's body. It was now or never-

But she slipped in the pool of blood at her feet, and she and Ultima both fell gracelessly. The hard impact stunned her, even as fear coursed through her faster than ever-

When she looked up, Akhutai and Alaq'it had joined her to hold down the thrashing Ultima.

"I'm sorry, Ashe," she said as she reached into one of her pockets. Of course it was the wrong pocket, and she let out a hiss, trying to go for the other one. A hand lashed out for her and she yelped, pressing it down at the elbow. "Alaq'it!"

Alaq'it murmured an apology to Ashe and took up A'zaela's place patting down her pockets. Akhutai murmured something A'zaela could not make out; then Alaq'it unzippered a pouch at her left hip and removed the rose-gold Virgo stone.

"P-Please..." came a whisper from Ashelia's lips.

The sound hurt A'zaela even more. "Get the sword!" she shrieked.

Alaq'it seconded this notion. "AKHUTAI! The sword! She just gave an order!"

Akhutai Urit pulled away from Ashe quickly, distancing himself from her as he waited for Alaq'it to toss the stone, sword ready. She placed the stone before him on the ground and then leapt back, ready to heal at a moment's notice.

"Ashelia?" A'zaela asked hopefully, hardly daring to believe.

Akhutai swung down, aiming to cut the stone in half as he had done the others. The moment the sword touched the surface of the stone, Ashe cried out in far greater agony. A harsh, white light blanketed her entire form, not unlike the spell they'd seen fell the Garleans only minutes before - except this time, Ultima was casting it on her host.

---

Orella had pushed past the Garleans easily, who seemed to have considered her less dangerous than the rest of the Riskbreakers. She didn't want to think what that must say about how she looked. Instead of wasting her energy with a swing, she hoisted her sword over her shoulder and sprinted as fast as she could from the battlefield, chasing van Gabranth's cape.

Like a shadow, Priscilla came to her side, gun at the ready.

Her lungs were burning like she had climbed Ridorana anew, but there was no time to think about particular hurts. She took the deepest breath she could manage, and screamed in the Garlean tongue: "STAY AND FIGHT, YOU BASTARD."

That made van Gabranth pause... and turn. In his hand glinted the Cancer stone. Behind him, the dancer prepared to board the ship.

Orella must have looked wild, exhausted as she was from both the climb and her still damaged arm, but she refused to back down now. She kept her back straight as she stared into his helmet, unblinking and furious, unable or unwilling to help the jeer that entered her voice. "Decided I'm worth your time, Legatus? Glad to make your acquaintance."

And she spat, never looking away from his helm.

For a moment, all was still, save for the sounds of fighting in the antechamber at her back. Then the legatus moved to face her in full.

"You would follow her, then?" His tone, though even, held a drawl that surprised her. "You know who she is - what she is. The daughter of a killer with delusions of grandeur. A new Theodoric for a new age."

"You're no better, Legatus," she snapped back. And she snorted, though whether from rage or disbelief she wasn't sure. "van Gabranth. Or do you think yourself better for your position? Begging for scraps from the Emperor's table," and she couldn't help herself, could not stem her blind fury. "What makes you greater than other men? Nothing. You're nothing but another hound snapping at heels, barking orders as you see fit." She drew the sword from her shoulder, held it out with some effort, one-handed, the point facing him. "You're no better than Theodoric," she said, as firmly as she could muster. "And I will fight to stop you until my last breath."

From halfway inside the airship, the dancer beckoned a lithe arm and called, "My lord!"

Noah van Gabranth held out a hand to forestall any further conversation. He drew his own swords, the Cancer stone still tucked within one of his palms, and he readied a slash at Orella... and another at the approaching Pris.

Orella was hit - hard - with a concussive blast of force that threw her to her feet. As Priscilla caught up her, her rifle was knocked out of her shaking hands. The energy that burst from van Gabranth's weapons hit quicker and harder than she'd expected, especially from such close range. Orella's greatsword fell to the stone with a loud clatter, and she herself fell just as hard.

She struggled to one elbow, teeth gritted. She could not be bested by a Garlean, not so quickly. With effort, she lifted her injured arm as though holding a hand out to the legatus. The pain was enough to make her voice crack when she spoke.

"Z-Zeromus. Come... Come back to me."

In van Gabranth's hand, the auracite flared, heeding her words one last time to weigh down her enemy's limbs. The moment his posture changed, Priscilla took the moment to run forward and tackle him, wresting the stone from his hand. In his armor, the legatus staggered in place but did not fall. With how the stone had sapped his energy, drained his very life force - oh, how well Orella knew that feeling - he almost seemed to let Priscilla take the stone from him.

Orella pushed herself to her knees with her last dregs of effort. "The STONE," she yelled at Pris, with a voice ragged from exertion. "KICK IT AWAY AND CUT THAT FUCKER'S THROAT."

Though startled, Priscilla nodded, and she kicked the stone back the way she had come. It skittered across the hall, past heaps of dead and dying Garleans, toward their fellow Riskbreakers.

With the last of his plans thwarted, Noah van Gabranth turned and boarded his airship, weakened as he was by a single encounter with the stone.

---

"I'm sorry..." Ashe breathed, to no one in particular.

She had no way of knowing if anyone was listening, or even if anyone could hear her at all. She knew only the agony, only the Seraph's blinding torture filling her eyes and ears. This was Ultima: this was the power that she had thought herself capable of harnessing, of manipulating for her own ends.

Now, you will beg for my indulgence.

If she was going to die, she would do so holding onto the last vestiges of herself. She would rather become another piece lost to history, another cautionary tale for the Seraph's next host than give herself body and soul.

As she screamed through the pain, she cast her thoughts back - back to her first time setting foot on Gyr Abanian soil as a woman grown.

Would that that woman - full of pride and purpose - could be who she was when she met her end.

---

Bull looked back for a moment before cutting down another Garlean soldier. The few that were left were focused entirely on him. "Keep 'em comin'..." he muttered as he rolled his shoulder and neck. "I can do this all day."

The closest soldier fired his rifle, and Bull felt nothing.

---

"BREAK THE DAMNED THING HARDER!" shouted Alaq'it. Alaq'it does her best to mitigate the strange light, but it is unlike the other stones' magic. As Akhutai attacked the stone, Alaq'it tossed up a last paling over Ashe and A'z in desperation.

I am your mother, came a voice, thundering from Ashelia's mouth. Only the words filled the entire hall, furious and oppressive. I am your maker. I. Am. Ivalice!

A'zaela could only lean over Ashelia and cover her with her body, clutching her and praying for the worst to pass them by. Akhutai gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the greatsword before driving its tip straight down towards the stone with as much strength as he could muster.

The Virgo stone let off one last burst of light, harsh and dense enough to throw A'zaela and Akhutai and Alaq'it a yalm back... and then the stone faded away, into nothingness, as though it had never existed.

Ashelia Riot lay unmoving upon the floor, her limbs sprawled out at tortured angles. The pool of blood from the Garlean soldiers' piled corpses had seeped over to the stone where she now lay, covering the back of her head. As A'zaela stood, she could no longer tell how much of that blood, if any, was her friend's.

She hastened over and leaned close to Ashelia to give her a hard shake, then moved her fingers quickly to check for a pulse. The blood-red hair of her friend was the most terrifying thing she'd seen all day. Even Orella's frantic screaming from elsewhere was not enough to break her focus - not now, not when-

Having noticed there were more people who required help, Alaq'it ran out toward the courtyard, noticing the last of the stones in the tower - Cancer - still whole. "AKHUTAI, I HOPE YOU STILL HAVE THAT SWORD!"

Akhutai nodded and followed her close behind, lifting the sword above his head. He leapt toward the stone to drive the sword down with all his strength. Under the force of that blow, the auracite broke in two and released a concentrated flood of shadow. When the cloud cleared, the Cancer stone was no more.

And then A'zaela felt a heartbeat.

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she slumped over her friend's body in relief. Ashe was alive.

---

Still on her knees, Orella watched Gabranth's back disappear behind the door of the airship. "NO," she yelled hoarsely, but found herself unable to stand or follow. Not even the stone, was enough to draw her attention away from the ship as it rose into the air.

"Hold still," came Alaq'it's gentle voice from behind her. "He is gone. Your yelling will only hurt you now." She held out a hand to Orella's shoulder, offering what healing she could.

Orella barely noticed her presence. The spell did help, though the pain returned the moment the magicks ended. She needed more healing than the girl could give, and still she sat shaking as she looked to where the airship had been. "No," she whispered again.

Perhaps taking this as some sort of rejection, Alaq'it stood from her and returned inside. The sounds of fighting had ended from behind them. She should go and join them, she knew, should help them assess the weight of their victory - or, like as not, their loss. But she could not bring herself to tear her eyes away from the penetrating blue of the cloudless sky. Then Akhutai exhaled slowly, a sound Orella recognized as one of battle fatigue - and she took that as her cue to return to the others.

---

"Azeyma bless us." It was A'zaela's voice, which Ashe recognized before she had even opened her eyes. "The next time I try to convince you to reunite with lost family, just kill me, please."

Every ilm of her body ached, but most distressing was the fact that she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. Her friend's thin but strong arms encircled her, doing their best to prop her into a sort of sitting position. That new glimpse at her surroundings triggered the barest hint of remembrance.

A lock of her own hair fell into her face - bloodied, but red. Red, as it had been before Ultima, before even the Garleans and their imprisonment.

As red as it had been when she'd returned to Gyr Abania.

"Thank you," she whispered. It was all she could think to say. Already the pain of her ordeal was starting to subside, leaving a vaguer sort of stiffness to settle in its place. "Thank you all. And I'm sorry."

A'zaela shook her head firmly. "...Save your apologies for when you're recovered and not full of grief. Right now, I do not want them."

"If she is apologizing," pointed out Alaq'it, "she is talking, which is a good sign."

A'zaela was still shaking her head, less in response to Alaq'it's words and more in what seemed to be an unconscious instinct to clear her head.

"Where is the legatus?" Ashelia asked.

Silence. A'zaela's eyes darted to her left - to where Orella knelt, well apart from the others, arms folded over her chest as she stared up at an empty sky. Ashe's heart pounded as she saw her there, alive and seemingly unharmed but clearly unwell in some fashion.

"He fled," explained a scraped and bruised Priscilla. "But he didn't take the stone."

There came a noise more like a gust of wind than a sigh, and a heavy thud as Bull laid himself down not far from where he stood. She tilted her head and saw him there, alive, staring upwards at the hall's high ceiling. After another exhale, he began to laugh. "Never gets any easier... but that's half the fun."

"...Some aspects get easier, I find." That was Akhutai's voice, his tone as dry as ever. "But overall.... Well, there's always something."

Bull sniffed as he returned to his feet. "Yeah, easy things ain't as fun, though. Another mountain to climb, another ocean to swim across."

"Do not TELL me you want to go SWIMMING after all this!" Alaq'it cried.

Even that got a smile out of Akhutai, it seemed, but that alone was not enough to appease Alaq'it. "Okay. Okay... raise your hand if you feel more dead than normal."

And Ashe found she had strength enough to raise her hand. So did Bull, but as he did so, he winced: two thick trails of blood oozed down his arm to join the rest of the gore speckled across his body.

"We're all fools here," A'zaela said to her. "Even those without stones. Fools trying to save the world. I cannot let you shoulder the blame when I was at my worst as well. But I do not think I'm angry. Perhaps I will be later." She sighed. "But today, at least, we succeeded. And we will live one day more."

One day more. A day without the Seraph's immutable histories, without her prophecies, without any sort of guidance for the battles ahead. The thought of it might have seemed impossible to bear, if only-

As she surveyed what would be their exit, the first of many descending flights of stairs, she saw Nivelth Ajuyn lying immobile.

"Zaela." The name emerged strangled by fear, racked with all her grief and guilt. "How many did we lose?" She stared around. "Don't tell me I..."

"None," her friend replied. A'zaela held out her hand to help lift her to her feet, but she could not take it. Not yet - not until she could prove her words for true.

Instead, she let a sob tear its way from her throat.

"Ivaan died," came a low, wry voice from off in one corner. "You killed him with your own hand. It was awful."

She did not need to look over for a smile to cross her face. "...Fuck you, Arkwright."

Alaq'it marched over and reached up to smack him upside the head, and Bull gave a loud guffaw. "Well now, that's not very nice, Sticks!"

Removing the helm revealed Ivaan's smile as Alaq'it shook her hand, pained from slapping the metal. "It's good to have you back," he said.

Heedless of the friendly chatter, Ashe looked around, hardly daring to believe that they had all survived. But her friends sat and joked and laughed as though to remind themselves of their success, mere fulms away from scores upon scores of Garlean corpses. "I was worried for... Eindride. And Malla," she said, unsure if she was going to be ill or not.

"Come," said A'zaela. "We need to destroy the rest of the auracite. And to make sure that missive doesn't reach Edge."

Her heart clenched at that name - at everything that her folly would have taken from him, had it in any way been brought to life. She could not even recall the missive A'zaela referred to.

Bull motioned to the exit. "Should probably round the others up and be on our way. Won't be soon enough."

She nodded. The idea of leaving was too tempting to ignore. "I agree. If nothing else, we can return for cleanup later, and reassess back when we're back aboard the Prima Vista."

Akhutai hooked a massive sword, one she didn't recognize, to his belt. Alaq'it glanced around at the bodies. "...I had thought to remain a moment," she said. "To clean this up. But I am too tired to bury a dozen bodies by myself."

Ashe made to stand on her own but found it impossible. Rather than rely on another to carry her, she harnessed the Echo for a moment of strength to bring herself to her feet, and gave a start in the split second in which she saw through her father's eyes, staring over the Ridorana Cataract...

And she smiled, knowing from his tangible relief that she was well and truly back.

---

"No giving up now," Priscilla said softly to Orella, if not to herself. The young woman held out a hand for her, though for what, Orella could not immediately tell. "There's a world full of hurt and a need for you."

Something felt like it broke inside Orella, hearing that. She couldn't even have been sure why, but she couldn't help but bow her head and let out a wretched little sob, horrified that a noise like that could make it out of her.

Without raising her head, she realized there was a weight missing at her back, or upon her side, or- "My- My sword," she said roughly. She didn't want to look up, didn't want to see the pity in Pris' eyes. "I... Take me to my sword." Then, with a little hesitation, "... Please."

Pris nodded twice, then hoisted Orella to her feet with far more strength than she'd been expecting. Her sword was over toward the entrance to the garden, closer to where the bastard had departed. Priscilla led her all the way there without a word of complaint.

It was effort she could scarce afford, with her mangled hand, but she managed it anyway. She bent, picked up the sword and slid it onto her back before nodding and gritting her teeth, knowing Pris would only have to bear more of her weight again on the way back down.

[the-gayest-dump]

A half-orc and his ax. Chapter 2: Unlikely allies and enemies.

   Ox counted the supplies he had gained from his trip to Warwick while following the road. Bandages, various medicines, and a whetstone in case his ax needed sharpening after the battle was done. He didn’t have any currency the town used so he had to barter with pelts and meats from previous hunts.  

  Soon enough he found the fort the townspeople described to him. From the outside, almost the entire fort seems to be made of stone with a wall slightly higher than the towns but only a few wooden archer towers were at the front to protect the main entrance. A large stone tower rose from the center of the fort that seemed to be the main building. The only way Ox could see to get in would be through the door as even if he could make a ladder he would be shot down from it in an instant. 

   He grabbed his ax off of his back and mentally prepared himself for the coming fight before walking to the main gate. He could hear the archers nock their bows as he approached and heard a man's voice yell “Unless you’re here to pay tribute to the next ruler of Rosela you’d best fuck off before you become more holes than person!”

   Ox analyzed his soon to be opponent. Poorly made and loose leather armor covered his vital areas and a simple wooden bow was aimed at Ox’s chest. Clearly, the leader hoarded the best weaponry. This would be a nice stress reliever for Ox but not a very challenging battle. He stared into the eyes of the archer that spoke to him and simply replied “Ox is here to kill all bastards and send skulls to nice town.” Instead of continuing their pleasant conversation the archers started letting loose their arrows. Ox was able to dodge into the archway and take advantage of a weakness he had noticed from afar. With the towers only protecting the front they had no way to shoot into the archway that held the gate and with no bandits on the ground, all they could do is wait for Ox to cut down an entrance or open the gate and meet him head-on. The brute started to make himself angry as he attacked the door. He thought of the death of the battleborn tribe, the casualties these bandits must have caused Warwick, and most of all how scared the little one must be without her mothers and surrounded by bastards. 

   After a few strikes, the bandits chose to meet him head-on. Several cowbells had been rung as a makeshift alarm. They grouped up at the gate before opening it but Ox was ready. He charged through the wall of fighters and went straight for the archers that had gone to the back to pelt him down while he fought the swordmen. The archers fired the arrows they had prepared and tried to get their daggers ready while the swordsmen got back up but they were not quick enough. Arrows pierced the berserker's sides but he could barely feel them as his rage took over. Running into the line of archers a quick spin of his ax took off two archers heads. As their corpses fell three daggers tried to get to his heart but were too low. A kick to the chest sent the one in front of him back and knocked down a swordsman who had just gotten up and two slices finished off all but the one archer who was now running towards the tower to alert their leader.

   With the archers dealt with the swordsmen surrounded Ox. This area was too open and not good for what Ox had planned. He charged forward and swung as hard as he could at a smaller bandit causing them to fall over and make an opening for him. The swordsmen probably missing their archers ran after the brute as he went up the stairway to the wall the archers had threatened him from. With the staircase acting as a funnel it was much easier to cut the ones in front down as others tried to take their place. Some were smart and tried to go to another staircase to flank him but it was on the other side of the gate and with their forces divided it was simple work to slaughter the rest of them. 

   A primal roar forced Ox’s attention to the base of the tower as his target glared daggers at him. He had a chance to get a closer look at him from here. Scales covered six feet of this humanoid that were white as fresh snow. Sharp talons covered the leader's hands and feet but only three fingers and a thumb held onto his weapon of choice which was a greatsword with a red gemstone in the hilt. Unlike his underlings, he wore steel armor across his chest and lower body but did not cover his face, hands, or feet presumably to make use of his talons and sharp jaw. 

“You’ve got talent Orc I’ll give you that. No wonder all my other camps fell to you and your damned tribe. But your killing spree ends here! I’m the descendant of a white dragon! I’m gonna make you a nice ice statue for my bedroom! You’ve got no tribe to back you up, no help coming to save you, and I’ve got no mercy!” he gave another roar as he charged up the stairs to meet Ox head-on but he was ready. An overhead slice was blocked by the long handle of Ox’s ax as he kicked him back to make space. He didn’t go as far as the archer had and instead of predictably charging again the chief instead opened his jaw as a blizzard came from it freezing the stone under him as it threatened to swallow Ox whole.

   He was not prepared to dodge and instead threw himself off the wall where he painfully fell on his side. As he tried to get up the chief jumped off with his sword held high hoping to bury the sword in his heart. A roll saved him as the landing forced some of the ground to give way to the energy of his impact. As the chief got his weapon free Ox was able to stand and slice his side. A startled cry came from the bandit leader as he got his sword free and retaliated with a swing at the berserker's arms. He thought he could safely dodge the attack but his legs felt strangely heavy and could not move them well. A quick look down showed he had not completely dodged the breath attack as the torn parts of his boots and pants showed bright red skin and his legs felt unusually cold and slower than the rest of his body 

   “You’re fucked now orc! That cold is gonna spread through you like a wildfire! Even if you kill me you won’t have enough time to get back to Warwick for a cleric! You’re dead meat! So do us both a favor and just die already!” A quick swing aimed to take Ox’s head off but he was able to crouch down and used the force of coming back up to swing his ax up into the bandits face cutting it in half through the center. As his blood sprayed across Ox’s body they both fell to the ground. He took off his boots and searched through his bag. Quickly now what could be used to stop the cold? Herbs used to stop bleeding? No, Pills to stop the pain? No. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing! He could feel the cold going up his legs and to his heart as he searched. Ox couldn’t die now. He wouldn’t die now! He got angrier and angrier thinking of the little one still trapped in the tower. Who would know to come here and save her? Who would know the bastards are dead and travel is safer now? He screamed his anger to the skies as his body quickly went through hypothermia and passed out. 

   Cold...Everything is so cold. Where is fire? Ox wants fire like at home camp.....Warm? What is warm? Is there a fire? It felt like the sun had started shining brighter, hotter. Ox opened his eyes but quickly closed them again as blinding light assaulted his eyes. He could hear faint chanting from a soft voice. 

“Marisol bless this stranger with your healing light. Let the dragons cold evil breath be filled with the warm love from your heart. Grant him life upon this day so he may keep safe those who praise your name”

   The light grew stronger as warmth returned to Ox’s body. He could feel his legs again and opened his eyes once the light had faded to see a woman with long blond hair in steel armor with a strange symbol on it standing next to him with her eyes close holding her hands together. She opened her eyes to reveal light blue eyes with a kind soul behind them. Almost as if her happiness radiated out of them. 

“Yay! You’re safe! I worried I had come too late and would have to bury you on your final battlefield. Oh. Apologies. My name is Hana. I’m a cleric or Marisol and I came to help you in your fight but it seems the fighting has already stopped. Do you need a hand?”

   She lowered her hand and Ox gently grasped it and let her help him up. “Ox is Ox. What was light? How did happy one know of Ox?” 

   “Oh. My wife is the head of the guards in town. When she said there was a newcomer to town I wanted to meet you but you had already left. I asked her what you were in a hurry for and when she told me of the bounties you took I knew no one could handle Alasar alone. It seems you almost proved me wrong if only you had not been touched by his magic breath” She said looking at the pool of blood that surrounded the leader's corpse. “As for the light that was Marisol’s healing light. As I said I’m a cleric and spread her love around the world...Or at least I used to before I settled down in Warwick. Now help heal the town of Warwick and lead prayers.”

   “Why light goddess help Ox? Gods hate Ox. Gods let Battleborns die after killing bastards.”

   “Battleborns?” She said looking along Ox’s body and seeing his clans burnt banner along his belt. She gave a shocked gasp and looked up at him “You’re with the group that was killing bandits and returning stolen property a year ago!? Everyone at Warwick has been wondering what happened to them.” Remembering the burns on the banner and Ox’s words she lost her excitement “Oh. I’m sorry to hear about your camp. Were there any survivors?”

   “Only Ox. Ox try to keep battleborn war against bastards going but is hard without tribe.”

   “Well how about we get Sylis and your trophy to town so you can be rewarded and we’ll make sure you’re properly rewarded for your work. I’ll let you do the...uh....’ honors’” she said pointing to the leader. 

   He took the hint and quickly cut off the dragonborns head as Hana looked away and he cut a hole for it to hang on his belt. They both entered the tower which was showed clear signs of being left in a hurry. The first floor was a dining hall with now cold food all around. Going up a floor was the bandits training area where recently used arrows still stuck out of training dummies made of hay. Finally, the third floor was what they were searching for. The chief's room. Trophies of humanoid heads littered the room with what must have been a luxury bed for them but was just a regular inn bed at the far wall of the room.  Near the bed, chains were bolted into the wall and a half-elf girl with dark brown hair was staring helplessly at the ground. Hana began walking forward but the brute's arm stopped her in her tracks. 

   “Shh. Ones captured by bastards afraid of loud noises. Let Ox help.” His entire personality seemed to change before Hana as he carefully stepped towards the girl. Sylis flinched as she heard his footsteps and looked up at him with fearful eyes “Are...Are you here to hurt me? I promise I won’t talk back again I just want to know if my parents are ok!” Ox gave a gentle “shhh” as he came closer. She looked away from him in fear. 

   “Be still.” He warned her. Ox held his ax high and cut the chains binding her. The little girl looked at her freed hand in shock and looked at the brute who was now sitting next to her. All she could do is hug him and cry. She cried to her what seemed like days and went on about how the bandits had abused her for fun and she just wanted to go home. She cried herself into exhaustion and fell asleep him Ox’s arms. He gently picked her up and walked out of the tower with Hana. Hana was shocked at how well this giant of a man could handle the little girl. How someone who had cut a Dragonborn's face in half and took on a bandit camp by himself could also be so gentle and caring for someone in need was beyond her. 

   With the girl safely in his arms and the leader's head not so safely dangling off his belt Ox and Hana returned to Warwick for some well-deserved rest.