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kit-williams · 5 months ago

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What do you think yandere Alpharius would be like? I think he would be one of the scariest yanderes in my opinion.

I hope you like intense stalkers because that is the kind of yandere they would be. But yes they would be some of the more horrifying/terrifying yanderes to have given how through they are with knowing their target and manipulating things around the target.

SO I was inspired by the twins and wrote a whole ass situation/fic

tw: stalking, yandere

@bispecsual @egrets-not-regrets @moodymisty @bleedingichorhearts @liar-anubiass-blog

@thevoidscreams @barn-anon @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan @squishyowl @ms--lobotomy

@nekotaetae @sleepyfan-blog

You're just a pet project the twins had... nothing was suppose to come from it just their usual figure out everything about their target; manipulate them using proxies, social engineering, or how unobservant they were... the usual for the twins to keep their skills up and then the end of getting as close to the target without them realizing it.

You look at the package in the mail as you didn't order anything and it looks official with the seal on it. Was it a summons? Did you fuck something up. You sit at your coffee table as you open it up. The letter inside is vague but disturbing as you have a sinking feeling and you open up the folder. Picts printed out and they are of you.

You cover your mouth as you slowly look through the stack of photos as they start out at a distance hand written notes written on the photos. You come to photos of you getting recaf... dates with x's marked through their faces and on the back of the photo it says their fate... no murders you're thankful. You feel so cold as a photo looks like it was taken by someone sitting in the booth right next to you... you notice two sets of notes by different hands on the photo. Clinically pointing out your features... on the back written out is your recaf order... and a note how you like hot chocolate too.

Pict after Pict the notes get less clinical and far more into stalking territory... you don't know what this was for. Your chest feels so tight as you flip through pict after pict as they start to get you in vulnerable states... a pict of you dozing off on the bus... a pict of you out drinking with your friends... notes about your friends and again no one died but you realize now what this insane man... men? Have done as you felt your circle of friends was getting smaller. A pict of your drink left unattended and a note saying We watched it for you <3. You hold your breath for a moment as you worry about them watching you now.

You flipped through picts of you through the windows... some right up against the windows... picts with notes about your family... and then the picts from inside your house start. You feel the tears form as you had always felt safe in your house and now it's been shown that hasn't been the case. But the real horror begins of pict after pict of you in your bed. You felt sick as there was pictures of you asleep and then someone's hand on your skin... these were all different nights... this had happened multiple times. The final picture is of you in your bed deep asleep as there is a large hand holding your throat and you can see another set of hands holding your hands above your head... there were two most likely men in your house... stalking you.

You let out a sob as you feel so unsafe as you wipe your eyes as your phone buzzes. You really should have checked the number as you see a photo... and its you looking over the photos, with the message attached to the photo just being... <3. Your phone whistles as it gets a new message and it's of your back door, You really should lock your door <3 the message underneath says and you panic as you run.

You're scared oh so very scared! As your phone continues to whistle at you occasionally as you see pictures of you with comments attached to the photos. You feel yourself start to hyperventilate as tears roll down your cheeks and you run into an alleyway as your phone whistles its chime at you again. You shouldn't look but you open it up... it's you in the alleyway, Don't cry sweetheart... stay there and I'll wipe away those tears <3. You swallow the scream as you run down the alleyway determined to get away.

Whistling makes you look at your phone and you come to a stop. The photo is of you heading right for the other side of the alleyway. Whistle your phone chimes again as it's of your back you spin around and no one is there... Whistle and you see another photo of your back again and you look around and you're all alone. Whistle your damn phone goes again and you press your back against the wall as pictures of you right there in the alleyway with your back against the wall flood your phone getting closer and closer but you don't see-

The air shifts and your eyes stare at it wide and unblinking as you can see something moving. Whistle. Your phone chimes again and you bring it up instead of looking down... its once more you staring right at whoever was there, Do you see me sweetheart <3?

"Yes." You say so softly... so fearfully.

"Hmm very good." A deep voice says as like ice cracking the shape is revealed and you realize you have to look up more.

You look on in horror as teal power armor manifests into existence. A Space Marine... you were horrified as you looked the other way you could see another set of teal armor manifesting in the same way. You were trapped... "Come here sweetheart." They said in unison.

You screamed, pushing everything out of your lungs as you sounded like someone dying. You put everything into that scream as they closed in on you and you tried to get away but you were caught as you just screamed so utterly desperately. Till something sharp pinched your shoulder... you felt so numb as your screamed died in a slurred whimper. Hands.... hands were touching you.

"Shhh shh that's a good girl... relax." One of them or both of them said as you tried to not drown in your own spit just feeling your whole body go slack... feeling the world spin as your eyes darted around and you were bleating like a terrified animal. "Shhh relax sweetheart... we've got you. Brother... should we tell her?"

"I think we should." You didn't know who was talking as you were fighting something or maybe it was working as intended.

"We've been watching you sweetheart. For a long time... and normally we don't get attached like this but... you're an exception. We're certain you'll come to love us just as we fell in love with you. Don't cry sweetheart... just let go."

You couldn't stay awake any longer and with a whimper you passed out. The twins were so excited to bring you home with them. As they figured it was time to collect what was theirs as they were no longer satisfied with loving you from a distance... they always did enjoy the personal touch.

#tw yandere #tw stalking #warhammer 40k #yandere primarchs #yandere alpharius omegon #alpharius #alpharius omegon #yandere 40k #warhammer 30k #holy shit this was a lot longer than I was expecting

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yandins-beleagured-historian · 7 months ago

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Entry #001.v2.final

I have had the pleasure of meeting Yandin once before, in the aftermath of the Indomitus Crusade's arrival over Taralus. The navigator records on the Macragge's Honour had listed that dusty old ball of drab rock and snow as an Armoury World, so there was a fair amount of bemusement all round when we got word of a sizeable contingent of Astartes dug in on the planet's surface. Initial communications indicated they'd been holed up for some time in an old ruin near one of the old space elevators. They identified themselves as Iron Fists, and were claiming the planet as their ancestral chapter world. By all account, Crusade Command spent no small effort to screen them for foul play, corruption or infiltration. While the Iron Fists' claim to Taralus was eventually upheld, there was a general interest from higher up in gathering more information about the chapter and verifying some of the accounts that were coming out of Taralus. Remembrancer Anjelika Biscari led the effort, and took a small team down to the planet's surface to conduct interviews, appraise structures and write reports. I was still fairly new to the role then, and my visit to the Godspire anchorage terminal was the first time I worked alone in the field. Biscari had gone down a few hours before me and had emphasised an unusual need for brevity. "Broad strokes only", I believe her words were, and I didn't understand what she meant until I stepped out of the lander and saw the planet surface for the first time. The sights of war stretched all the way out to the horizon, and the ragged landscape of the Godspire mountains were littered with the husks of drop pods, tanks and bunkers. You couldn't walk twenty meters without passing a pile of burning dead, and it was here I first encountered sergeant Cosrau Yandin, sixth squad, second company Iron Fists. The moment stuck in my head rather prominently, as I recall he was helping a couple of disposal operatives clear a maintenace passage. The two men had been struggling with the body of a metahuman, still in its power armour, and as the sergeant reached in and dragged it out, I decided on a bit of a whim to snag a pict-capture. It was only once I looked up that I realised I'd just got my first ever look at a Chaos Space Marine. Regrettably, I was only able to spend a few hours with the sergeant on Taralus. Broad strokes, Biscari had asked for, so that was all I could really capture. The Crusade did not linger long at Taralus, and before long the Iron Fists were well behind us. It's only been in recent months, as the Grand Conclave of Baal winds down, that I've had the opportunity and freedom to track the Iron Fists down and produce more of a complete history of the Chapter. It also gave me an opportunity to present Yandin, now Captain of the seventh company, with the pict-capt I took on our first meeting. (or rather, a remaster: most of my original pict-logs were scrambled quite badly during a brush with the bleak coil two years ago, so I had a colleague of mine, Artov Ilqar, recreate the pict with oil on canvas. See attached.) I've since had the opportunity to interview Captain Yandin on a number of aspects of his chapter's history, and hope to catalogue some of the more notable testimonies, treatises and accounts here. Throne willing, Hester Vinchix Calimorre, Historiographer-Moderatus, Logos Historica Verita.

#blog intro #pinned intro #warhammer 40000 #space marines #Iron Fists #Taralus #Cosrau Yandin #H. V. Calimorre #40k #warhammer 40k #lore post

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millythegoat · 2 years ago

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maybe it's my period or maybe it's just me but, my laptop and phone wallpaper are the picture of Jesse hugging his players (my office computer is the picture of Summerville scoring that triumphant goal against Bournemouth). After the news yesterday, every time I see those picts i just want to break down crying. I can't believe I was this attached to him.

But a day has passed and many tears shed, I felt so much better. I've cancelled my subscriptions and unfollowed social media stuff that related to the club and it felt freeing.

I just can't wrap my head around that I can be this broken over this thing.

TLDR; heart break is so fucking suck.

#personal ramble

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murfpersonalblog · 16 days ago

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The Witch Hour is your favorite AR book, but how do you feel about Lasher and Taltos, specially in comparison to your TVC favorites? Are they on the same level or nah? Just so I know what to expect when I finally get there. 😅

I'll try being vague so as to not spoil too much @adamnablelittledevil

Yup, The Witching Hour is my fave book Anne Rice ever wrote. I think her ghost stories, plot-wise, are far superior overall to her vampire stories (that often lack an actual plot, even when they're still well-written & fun to read). Not just the Mayfairs, but also Servant of the Bones (which has IMO her very coolest ghost). Which is part of why I love Blackwood Farm so much--it's a really good/unique ghost story.

IMO Lasher (the book) was just ok--it provides all the answers about who he is and where he came from and what he wants; and since the Witching Hour is this one big mystery, at least we get payoff. But compared to my TVC faves Lasher's closer to mid/meh; I rarely ever reread it. Lasher's the most interesting when he talks less and is deliberately mysterious & hedging around like any untrustworthy person would. Once he finally sits down and honestly tells his story here though, he looses that aura he had for me--now I just want him to hurry up and die already. His story's good, it's just not groundbreaking or anything IMO.

Lasher as a character/villain I think is excellent. This man is EVIL. EVIL! The nonsense he pulls for so many hundreds of years is incredible, especially considering what it is that he's even doing al this for, like...he's so incredibly selfish, and he's a LIARRRRRR. He gives me chills. And what he ends up doing to Rowan and the other Mayfair women is...heinous. Utterly horrible. He's the worst; I was so happy when he was finally killed.

Which is why Mayfair Witches (the tv show) is an utter waste of time IMO--they blow ALL of the book's potential, by not even presenting Lasher as an interesting & compelling enough entity who I could understand seeing so many generations of people going crazy over (literally crazy!). AMC totally diluted the reality of the threat Lasher posed not just to the witches, but also to the people attached to them. He's totally de-fanged to just be this sex pest haunting Deirdre & Rowan, rather than walking us through his looooooong history of haunting & DESTROYING every witch, and the impact of the psychological & emotional toil everyone goes through--which the show just LACKS. So underwhelming.

I really like Taltos (the book). Anne Rice loves indulging in these long worldbuilding descriptions of primeval lands & bygone eras; a la Tolkein, and I like the way she does it here better than in Realms of Atlantis--I just found the Taltos' story way more tragic than Amel's in Atlantis. I'm a HUGE sucker for mythology & cosmogony, so I love how AR gave her own spin to the Picts/faeries/giants/dwarves; and this Celtic-inspired version of the Taltos' history--why they're gone, and why the Mayfairs are linked to them, why the Talamasca are so interested in them; and why Lasher was such an anomaly. It becomes this whole suspense-thriller--only to deliver this wild plot twist where you're like WOW, all of this for nothing???? Or is it?????????? I was invested in the story, and really enjoyed my time with the Mayfairs; although they're all effed up people, lol.

Compared to my TVC faves, Taltos is right up there in my Top 3 AR books, with Witching Hour and TVA. Cuz it gave me everything I was hoping Lasher would be, as a continuation of my fave book AR ever wrote. But it didn't rewire my brain the way WH & TVA did, so it's only #3.

#mayfair witches #anne rice #headcanons #iwtv tvc metas

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gadgetrevive · 5 months ago

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Basic Phone Repair Principles hi everybody my name is Carissa Bowden and today I will be teaching you basic phone repair principles so phones are really big part of our society these days and I think it's a good skill to know how to fix them let's get started the first step when solving a problem or fixing the phone that you don't really understand is to research it Google or YouTube has some great DIY videos for phone repair but for this video services I'm going to walk you through how to take apart of phone and then be able to identify and recognize different parts or connections that might potentially need repair before taking the phone apart try fully charging it and doing a reset as this is can sometimes fix the problem once this is done let's gets taking this phone apart this applies the lead are a phone a one point five millimeter Philips screwdriver a magnet tape or tray to hold the screws and a pic have one needs that work to help separate the layers I'm using an LG phone for today's video as it is easier and needs less specialty screwdrivers and tools to take apart also my Apple phone that I repaired is currently videoing so on the back you'll be able to see a little notch and you can use this and pry it apart let's take off the backing and then you should be able to see 12 screws that need to be undone you just go and you unscrew once the screws are removed we can flip over to the front screen facing up and then take our fingers and work on pry off the top this is when the pict comes in helpful turning on soon we'll be removing the battery pull off these sides we remove the battery then you can look what the phone inside looks like so when looking for repairs we can look and see that this is where it was laying with a camera and it's corresponding chord attachment so right here this right here you can see the front this is the front side camera and it's again corresponding chord you can then also see where the battery attaches power for the speaker's speaker actually is more along here and in this part you can see here is where the screen attaches and if you wanted to do a screen of hair you'd flip this off and separate this blue and metallic layer from the screen of the lg phone and then re attach it also for looking for screen and pair for other common phone issues you can look for bumped or slightly jarred connections maybe torn or twisted cords or other things you can have gently on these to reaffirm their connection and if once you put it back together and that doesn't work then you know that part may need to be replaced so now we're completing it back together so when reattach in the back you can grab the screen and then the backing we just took off and then you should always place the bottom the one with the logo and first as again it's the most difficult part to get on and off and just press it in gently squeezing reattaching snapping it back in this side and it's reattached flip it back over and we work again putting in those screws once all the screws are in place we can just retake the backing in place and now turn it on and you can see it's turning on and it's good to go you can test it say if the speaker or camera were wrong or if they were broken and you can then make sure that they're working and know you're good I hope you'll be able to take maybe some of these principles and know that you can do it girl you can take apart a phone fix it and solve any problem before you see yeah

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tangent101 · 2 years ago

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A Strange Life: Chapter 12

Warning: This chapter includes a brief segment with a character waking up after having been raped. Reader discretion is advised.

Part 5

Polarized

Chapter 12

A Dark Place

I hurt. My eyes felt like I’d been face-down on the beach and I clenched my eyes shut, trying desperately to get tears to flow. And then they did.

Yang’s body flew back, blood spraying out.

The back of Cinder’s head blown open, her haunted eyes staring at me as she fell beside me.

“No...” I whimpered. I opened my eyes, shivering. My dress was pulled up past my breasts, my bra, my panties gone... I swallowed hard, feeling bile in my throat. Everything hurt, but between my legs... I retched and forced myself to look away.

A cart was next to me and I forced myself to sit up. “Is anybody out there?! Please, help!”

No response. I blinked the tears from my eyes and looked at the cart for anything I could use to free myself. But there was nothing. Just a photo of me looking blankly at the camera. Calm down. Okay. Let’s use the photo. See what happened. I focused on the picture, hearing tidbits of sound, a man’s voice. Adam’s voice. I had to swallow back bile again but I continued to focus... until I fell into the photo.

White light filled my vision and I forced myself to look up as Adam’s face came into focus.

“That’s just great... oh Blake...”

I was lying on the ground again, my hands tied before me. Adam knelt before me, taking picture after picture. “This angle highlights your purity, see? When a model is just starting to regain consciousness, she’s at her most open and honest. There’s no vanity. No posing. Just... pure... expression.

Adam’s hand slid up my legs and I squirmed. “No! Stop!”

“You were wasted on that dyke. I know what women really want. I’ll have you begging for more before we’re done,” he said. My mind froze for a moment and Ilia’s voice came to me.

So. If Zach ever tries anything like that again when I’m not around? There’s one thing you can do. Piss yourself. I’m serious, Blake. Men like to think of sex as this pure thing... so if they’re not expecting it? If you pee yourself, you sully yourself in their eyes.

Adam’s hand brushed against my underwear and I closed my eyes and listened to my sister.

“Oh God! You bitch! You’re just an animal, aren’t you? How disgusting...” I opened my eyes to see Adam standing up and storming away. A moment later I heard the sink in the bathroom turn on and looked around desperately. I had to distract Adam, get him focused on something else... my eyes focused on one of his cameras, attached to the tripod, and I wormed over to it, kicking out. It toppled and smashed on the ground.

Moments later Adam rushed back in. “What the fuck are you doing? You bitch! You’re going to pay for that!” He smacked me across the face and I reared back to spit at him, but he dodged it. “Okay. Time for you to take a nap. You’re far too feisty right now for me to work with.” His hand closed over my throat and I trembled as I felt the cold metal of a needle against my neck. There was a pinprick and things started to blur once again before everything went white.

I came to with my face aching. My underwear was damp and clammy... I glanced down and saw I was now duct-taped to that horrible chair. While my dress had been pushed up to bare my legs, Adam hadn’t touched me further. It took everything in me to keep from bursting into tears. “Hello?”

There was no response.

I struggled against my bonds but I couldn’t move. The cameras were out of sight, though I caught a glimpse of shards of light on the floor by where the tripod had stood. The cart that held that first photo was still there, and I noticed the pictures had changed.

Wait. Did I... did I create a Paradox? I destroyed the camera... I glanced around the room. He drugged me for his fucked-up binders, taking photos like with those other poor girls. Why didn’t I see it? I knew it was his style! I had to blame poor Cinder. But... maybe I could use these new pictures? Maybe I can get out of this? Save Yang? I have to. I am not going to die in here.

I looked at the photos and one stood out. I glared at the camera. I couldn’t help but smile. This was a Blake who was still fighting. This was the moment I had to try for.

Focusing, I let myself fall into the next picture and its moment....

#crossover au #crossover fic #trigger warning #blake belladonna #adam taurus #bumbleby big bang

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toxic-stargod-apologist · 4 years ago

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The Church of a Loving God - Eaters of the Dead

Genre: Horror

Word Count: 5,558

Synopsis: In the grim darkness of the far future, countless billions toil and suffer to keep the wheels of the imperial war machine turning. The God Emperor demands blind obedience and the only reward is a brutal death. In the dark corners of this world, among the teeming masses of humanity, Jocasta Theta will find something more; a life worth living, and a god worth believing in.

Content Notes: Cannibalism, Police Brutality

Author's Note: A massive thank you to daddyfuckinlonglegs for all their help and advice, and for motivating me to get back into writing. Jocasta's story will continue in chapter two, 'Love in a Dark Millennium'!

AO3 Link: The Church of a Loving God

The day started with bells. Jocasta opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling of the bunk house, counting the chimes. Three, four, five, then a raspy, mechanical voice crackled out from the vox caster.

“Theta shift, wake up. Theta shift, wake up. You have one hour before your work begins. Thought for the day; only in death is duty's debt repaid.”

There was a short hiss of static as the vox switched off. Jocasta lay in her bunk for a moment and tried not to think about the crushing heat. The ventilation system for her hab-block had been broken for a month; every night she prayed to the Emperor to send one of his red priests to fix it, and every morning she woke up drenched in sweat. No point dwelling on it though.

She got up and pulled her overalls out from under the bed. Her tiny section of the room was separated from the rest by a threadbare blanket hanging from a string, and as she got dressed she could hear the rustling of nineteen other people doing the same. They were all theta shift, but none of them were part of her work gang. She'd barely spoken to any of them in the three years she'd lived here.

Still, she thought as she pulled the blanket aside, there was no reason to be unfriendly. She gave a smile and a nod to each of them as she made her way to the door. Some of them smiled back. Some of them didn't. All of them looked tired.

The door was jammed, like it had been every morning since the ventilation broke, but it swung open after a few sharp kicks. Jocasta breathed deep as she stepped out into the cavernous, and relatively cool, expanse of transit tunnel forty-one. It was a vast, diagonal shaft formed of buttressed rockcrete walls lined with dozens of metal walkways, all of them bustling with people heading to, or from, their allocated workplace. The steeply sloping floor of the tunnel was covered by rails, along which cargo pallets were constantly moving, and the ceiling was festooned with pipes, cables, and dim, flickering glow-globes which cast the hubbub below in shades of orange and amber.

Jocasta was vaguely aware that there was a universe outside the tunnel – the mountainous hive-city of Gloriana Aeterna stretching up for miles above her, a planet outside, and thousands of planets beyond – but she would never see them. This tunnel, and the chambers branched off from it, had been her whole world since the day she was born. Her little corner of the imperium.

As she made her way down the walkway she scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Most days that search was fruitless, but this was a lucky day. Through the throngs of shuffling figures she spotted an unruly shock of blonde hair, and with a little pushing and shoving she got close enough to recognise the pale, lanky man it was attached to. Exactly who she'd been hoping to see. Surreptitiously she spat on her hand and dragged it through her short red hair; she'd once seen a pict-capture of noblewomen from the upper hive, all of them beautiful and all of them with their hair slicked back.

“Good morning Seth!” She fell into step beside her work mate, who looked down at her with a weary smile that made her heart beat a little quicker. “I'm so glad I caught you, did you hear what happened on sigma shift? Katra, from the market, told me all about it. Apparently the coreward grinder threw a gear just as the shift was ending, which isn't all that strange, happens all the time, but after the technomats pushed it back in they still couldn't get the whole thing spinning. So one of them says 'there must be something stuck in there, we'll just take the casing off and find it'. So then they did, and they saw what was jamming it, and guess what it was? Go on, guess! I'll give you three tries.”

Seth's brow furrowed. He looked up at the roof of the tunnel, his lips moving silently, then looked back down at Jocasta. “Okay, first guess... Was it a sump rat?”

Her mouth fell open. “You knew? That's not fair! You can't pretend to guess if you already knew!”

“I didn't know,” Seth said with a grin, “I just figured it out. There's not many things big enough to jam the grinder but small enough to come up through the pipes. Also I hear rats down there all the time.”

“Ooh, you're such a liar! You couldn't just 'figure that out'. You know I thought I could trust you, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe I'll have to find a new friend who doesn't try to cheat me.” She tried to look serious, but Seth put on such an exaggerated show of remorse that she couldn't help smiling.

“You really can't trust me any more? After everything we've been through? After everything I've done for you?”

She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. “And what exactly have you done for me?”

“Well...” He leaned down until their heads were practically touching and lowered his voice to a whisper. Jocasta could hear her heart thumping in her chest. “...how about scrounging up something to eat on our break?. One of my bunk mates managed to find some meat. Some unprocessed meat. And since he owed me a favour, I got us a slice to share.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you joking?” she whispered. “You have to tell me if you're joking, you can't just say something like that and not mean it. And what do you mean he found it, anyway? Do you know what it came from? He didn't steal it, did he? Because if he stole it-”

A deafening burst of trumpets rang out from the vox pylons above them. As one, every worker stopped in their tracks. A moment later the cargo pallets below them shuddered to a halt. Silence, heavy and oppressive, settled over the tunnel. Jocasta stole a glance at Seth; he'd already closed his eyes and crossed his hands over his heart in the shape of the holy aquila. She shuffled a little closer to him and did the same.

“Citizens of Gloriana Aeterna.” The deep, sonorous voice came from every vox, in every direction. “Hear me, and give thanks. The God Emperor protects you, his faithful servants, for as long as you dedicate your lives and deaths to him. Through the might of his armies, he protects you. Through the swift justice of his arbites, he protects you. Through the diligence of his administrators, he protects you...”

The familiar litany washed over Jocasta. She's heard it so many times she could recite it backwards. Real meat, though... That was a special kind of gift. Silently, in her heart, she gave thanks for it.

***

It took another half an hour to descend to the ration processing plant. Down here the walls of the tunnel were studded with loading bays and access ports, and the air was thick with industrial smog. The two of them made their way through the murk, moving slowly and cautiously over corroded walkways and down rickety ladders, until they reached the entrance hatch for loading bay seven. Seth started coughing. He'd been doing that a lot recently.

Inside, the noise in the low-ceiling bay was almost painfully loud. Workers from Sigma shift were rushing to and fro, shouting instruction to each other as they tried to unload the last of their shipments. Enforcers holding crackling shock mauls and suppression shields prowled between them, reflective visors covering their faces. Heavy carts trundled over the metal floor grates with their axles squealing, and over it all was the roar of the spinning grinders at the far end of the bay.

The men and women of theta shift were huddled against one wall, staying out of the way until their time came, but between them and the access hatch was an armoured security booth. Jocasta walked up to the mesh grill at the front of the booth and smiled at the grim-faced watchman behind it.

“Jocasta Theta, reporting for shift.”

The man grunted and peered down at his data-slate until he found her name, then pressed his thumb against the screen. He reached down under the desk to pull out two rectangular metal tins, each the size of Jocasta's palm, and slid them through the gap at the bottom of the grill.

“Two ration packs, corpse-starch. No eating between breaks. No hoarding. No trading. Return the tins at the end of your shift. Do you understand?”

The enforcer had said the same words to her every morning for the last three years, and she'd given the same response. “Yes sir, I understand. May the Emperor protect you.”

“And you. Move along.”

Jocasta put her rations in her pocket and went to join the rest of her shift, leaving Seth to report in behind her. She knew almost all of her co-workers by name, even if she hadn't had a chance to get to know most of them, but today there was an unfamiliar face. A man... No, a boy, probably on his first work assignment. Maybe four of five years younger than her? Not even old enough to shave. He looked every bit as scared as Jocasta had been when she started at the plant, and she decided that he needed a friend.

“Hey there kid, welcome to loading bay seven! You're new, aren't you? Please say you're new, if you've been here for a while I'll be so embarrassed. My name's Jocasta. What's yours?”

“Uh...” The boy hesitated, looking down at the floor. “My name is Lansan. It's nice to meet you.” His voice was so quiet she could barely hear him over the noise.

“Well it's very nice to meet you too, Lansan. I guess this is the first place you've worked? Well don't worry about that, we'll show you the ropes in no time. Which section are you assigned to?”

“Um, I think they said I'd be unloading the pallets?”

Jocasta kept smiling, but her heart sank. “Oh, so you'll be working with me! That's good. Did they say who you're replacing?” She already knew the answer.

“Yes, they said the last person got reallocated to a manufactorum on the upper levels. His name was Dillan?”

“Gillan. His name was Gillan.” Jocasta struggled to keep her voice level. Gillan had been nearly forty, with a limp he couldn't hide any more. No manufactorum would have taken him.

She tried to think of something to say, but before she had a chance the bell rang to signal the shift change. The exhausted workers of sigma shift put down their tools and started filing towards the exit, and theta shift moved quickly to take their place. Jocasta walked towards the wide metal shutter on the tunnel side wall, still thinking about Gillan, wishing Lansan wasn't following quite so close behind her. She wanted time to think, but the shutters were already opening to accept the first delivery of the day. She'd just have to wait until the shift was over.

“Alright Lansan, this is the start of the chain. The cargo comes in through here, we jump onto the pallet, then we throw it over so it can be loaded onto the carts. After that it goes through the grinders and onto second stage processing, but you don't need to worry about that bit. Do you have a handkerchief? That's good, tie it around your face. It'll help with the smell. Grab yourself some gloves from the rack, try and get a pair without any holes in them. Let's see... You know how to lift, right? Knees bent, back straight?”

The boy nodded, pulling his gloves on, and she did the same. With a familiar shriek of metal on metal a wide platform rolled into view down the tunnel and pivoted into the loading bay, coming to a halt a couple of feet away from the edge of the floor. Lansan went pale as the smell hit them; the platform was piled high with corpses, collected from all the middle and lower levels of the city. Jocasta saw his expression and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Try to think of it as cargo, rather than people. The city needs to eat. Just be careful when you jump across, you don't want to fall into the pipes.”

He nodded slowly, but she could see his hands trembling. There was nothing more she could do for him except lead by example, so she jumped across to the platform and started pulling a body off the top of the pile. Lansan joined her, gingerly picking up the corpse by the shoulders as Jocasta lifted its ankles. Under her direction they carried it to the edge of the pallet, gave it a couple of swings, then threw it across the gap to where a couple of carters were waiting to load it.

“So, Lansan, how far up do you live?” She was hoping to take his mind off the task at hand, if only so he'd stop being so squeamish.

“Um, about forty minutes walk? We're a couple of levels down from the market.”

“You're not that far above me then! Oh, and you said 'we', does that mean you're still living with your family?” The boy just nodded. “You're lucky. My parents got moved to tunnel thirty-six just after I started working here. Haven't seen them for years.”

“I'm sorry, that must be hard. Not knowing...” He paused for a moment to find his footing as they picked up a particularly heavy body. “Not even knowing if they're still alive, I mean.”

Jocasta found herself lost for words for a moment, and almost slipped on a bloated hand. She wanted to believe the kid didn't mean any harm, but surely he was old enough to know better? Either way, there was only way to respond. “Well if they're dead, I'm sure they died serving the Emperor. You can't ask for anything more than that.” She had to force the words out. You never knew who was listening.

“Oh, yes, of course. I didn't mean... I was just thinking, I don't know what I'd do if my parents got reassigned. I guess they'd move me to a smaller bunk, but I've never lived alone before. Did you ever... Urgh!”

The boy recoiled and fell backwards as the arm he was holding came away from the shoulder with a wet slurping sound. Jocasta dropped her end of the body, leaving it on the edge of the platform, and walked quickly over to him.

“Listen, Lansan,” she whispered as she helped him up. “I need you to be a little tougher, okay? The guards here don't care that you're young, or that it's your first day. If they don't think you can work, you'll get moved somewhere else. Somewhere worse, on the lower levels. Your parents wouldn't want that for you, so just...”

Too late, she saw his gaze move down to the corpse behind her. By the time she turned round it was already slipping over the side of the platform, down into the pipes, and she could only stand there as it disappeared from view. A moment later there was a crash, then a distant, wet thud. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew what was coming.

“Worker!” The shout cut through the noise of the loading bay. Jocasta opened her eyes again and fixed her gaze on the floor; she could hear the heavy footsteps of the enforcer walking towards her. A quick glance at Lansan confirmed he was keeping his head down as well. At least his parents had taught him that much.

“Wasting the city's food is a crime. Which one of you is responsible?”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lansan opening his mouth, but she was quicker. “It was me, sir. I wasn't paying attention. I'm very sorry, it won't happen again, I...”

“Step off the platform.” The man sounded more bored than angry. Jocasta jumped across to the loading bay and turned to face him, making sure not to look him in the visor. “You have your rations for the day?” She nodded. “Give me one of them.” She fished the tin out of her pocket and the man snatched it out of her hand. He opened it, checked the contents, and dropped it into a pouch on his belt.

It was a lighter punishment than she'd expected. She let herself relax a little. “Thank you sir. Permission to get back to-”

Without warning the enforcer swung his shock maul into Jocasta's stomach. It wasn't a hard hit. It didn't need to be. Her world went dark, then brilliant white flashes danced across her vision. All she could hear was a snapping, crunching sound that seemed to come from every direction at once.

It only lasted for a moment, and when her vision returned she was lying on the ground at the enforcer's feet. She tried to stop herself trembling, but she couldn't. Across the bay she could see Seth staring at her. He looked scared.

The man leaned down to speak to her, his boot inches away from her face. “You're going to go down to the pipes during the first break and retrieve that corpse. You will not be late. You will not return empty-handed. Do you understand?” She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out but a dry wheeze. He seemed to take that as confirmation. “Get back to work then. No more mistakes.”

As he walked away Jocasta, still shaking, got back on her feet. The hot, raw pain was starting to spread through her stomach, and she knew from experience it was going to get worse before it got better. It would make the next few hours of work agonizing. And then the pipes... People died down there. She could die down there. All because she'd been too busy trying to help the new kid...

“Um... Jocasta?”

She turned to look at Lansan. There were tears on his cheeks. He looked ashamed.

“I can help, if you want. I can go down to the pipes with you.”

For an awful moment, she thought about saying yes. Maybe the two of them would have a better chance of getting out alive. Or maybe she could run faster than him... She put the idea out of her mind. “Thanks, but I'll be fine.” Her voice was still little more than a croak. “It was only a small one, and it's already missing an arm. I can carry it just fine by myself.”

“But, maybe, I could protect you? Kind of, watch your back?”

Jocasta gave the boy the best smile she could manage. “The Emperor protects.”

***

The area under the ration processing plant was a tangled web of tunnels, pipes, junctions and crawl spaces. Bundles of cables wove through narrow corridors, linking together rusted, humming machines that only the red priests truly understood. Everywhere there was the dripping of oil, grease and other, more organic fluids from the plant above. The lights were so faint that they were little more than stars to navigate by, if they worked at all. The only people who came down here were maintenance teams, and they never made the descent without armed guards. The rats were always watching and always hungry.

Jocasta had no guards, and no weapons except a wrench that Seth had slipped into her pocket as he'd wished her good luck. The enforcers had let her take a lantern at least. The weak, yellow light only reached a few paces away from her. Beyond that there was darkness.

She'd been slow and careful at first, trying to stay quiet, freezing every time she heard something skittering through the gloom, but the morning break was only half an hour long and she knew how much worse things would be if she was late. As she went deeper into the maze she started to move faster, gripping the wrench tightly and hoping her reactions would be quick enough if something jumped out at her.

She walked through one dank, humid corridor after another, rushing down steep ramps and squeezing through air ducts, doubling back on herself whenever she reached a dead end or locked hatch. After a while her pace slowed. Every time she passed a turning she paused, trying to picture where she was in relation to the loading by above her, before choosing a path and continuing.

Eventually she reached a junction and had to stop. There was an opening leading down to her left, but surely the wall of the transit tunnel should be there? And if it wasn't, did that mean she was farther away from it than she'd thought, or had she gone so low that she was underneath it? How long had it been since the break started? She didn't have a chrono. Maybe it had been ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Maybe she'd never find the body, or the rats would find her first. She could hear them, scuttling through the gloom. They sounded like they were getting closer.

She leant against the wall and set the lantern down on the ground. Her hands were trembling. She tried to get her breathing under control, but she couldn't.

Gillan was dead. She knew he was. People didn't just stop working when they had a family to feed, even if they were ill. Perhaps he was just too sick or too badly injured to get to the plant, but the end result was the same. The weak didn't survive for long. Yesterday she'd teased him for the silly little moustache he'd started growing; she'd said it made him look like an old man. That was the last thing she'd said to him, and now he was gone.

Her shoulders started shaking. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, then squeezed hard on the metal handle of the wrench. She didn't have time to cry. Somewhere up there Seth was waiting for her. All she had to do was find the body, and then she'd find her way back to him. They'd share good food, and gossip about their shift mates, and then she could tell him how much he meant to her and hope that he felt the same...

She heard it before she saw it; the click, click, click of claws on metal. She swore under her breath. If she hadn't been so wrapped up in her own head... No, there was no time for anger. Slowly, she bent down to pick up the lantern. Her hand trembled as she raised it. There were pale, milky eyes gleaming in the dark of the corridor behind her. Three, no, maybe four creatures, though she couldn't be sure. She'd seen dead sump rats before, and no two of them had the same number of eyes.

Keeping her eyes on the crawling shadows, Jocasta started to back away. One step, two steps, and then, from behind her, she heard a low hiss. Her heart jumped into her mouth. She froze, trying to work out how far away the rat behind her was; it sounded close. A few paces, maybe.

The wrench in her hand was slippery with sweat. She tried to adjust her grip. If she could turn quickly and get in a good swing... But there wouldn't just be one, would there? They never hunted alone. Running was the only option, and out of the corner of her eye she could see the side tunnel that had confused her a moment ago. She still had no idea where it went, but it didn't matter.

Jocasta bolted forwards, ducking through the doorway as a screech went up from the rats. She sprinted down the narrow corridor, leaping over gaps in the floor grating, racing around the sharp turns and sudden twists of the tunnel. The rats were close behind her but she couldn't look back. She couldn't hold the lantern steady, and it took all of her concentration just to stay on her feet in the flickering light.

She ran on, her heart pounding, desperately, frantically looking for some way of escaping her pursuers; their shrill chittering echoed from the pipes around her. Suddenly, through the enveloping gloom, she saw a metal hatch up ahead. She darted through it, slamming her weight against the door, the rusty hinges screeching as she forced it closed. From beyond she heard the rats scratching and clawing at the metal, throwing themselves against it in a frenzy... and then, the sound faded. Listening hard, she could make out the clanking of loose grating beneath their feet, the noise getting quieter and quieter as they abandoned the chase and moved on. Gasping for air, she slid down the door and sat against it.

She was alive.

As the adrenaline receded, she realised she was in a junction room larger than any she'd found before. She couldn't tell exactly how large; the light didn't reach the far wall. What she did see, lying on the metal floor surrounded by broken ceiling panels, was the corpse. For a moment she just stared at it, uncomprehending. She was lost. She'd run for her life. How could it be right in front of her?

Slowly she climbed back onto her feet, walked up to the body, and knelt down beside it. It had taken a beating during the fall, but aside from the missing arm it was still intact. Now all she needed to do was carry it back up to the surface. But that was impossible. The rats wouldn't have gone far. She couldn't outrun them with that much dead weight on her shoulders. She was going to die. Unless... Unless there was another way out of here.

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than she noticed a faint, pale light from up ahead of her. It didn't look like the flame of a lantern, or the glow of the electric lights that lined the halls of the hive city. It was softer. Gentler. She stood up and started moving towards it.

As she walked forwards the air seemed to shimmer. Motes of light danced around her, swirling in a breeze that she couldn't feel. The space was larger than she'd imagined, and even as the body disappeared from view behind her she still couldn't see the far wall. As she got closer to the glow she saw it was coming from a human shape on the floor; to her surprise she realised it was another, much older corpse. She'd never seen one so decayed before.

The thing that drew her eye though, and the source of the light, was the fungus. It sprouted from every part of the body, pushing through the blackened skin in strangely shaped clusters, not just one type but a myriad of different shapes. There were varieties she'd only ever heard about, and some that were completely alien to her. Fragile looking spheres on delicate stalks, glistening jellies that had eaten deep into the remains of their host, mushrooms of every shape and size. And the colours! She'd thought that all fungi were pale grey, but these were a riot of blues, oranges, pinks and browns, all of them glowing softly in the gloom. It was beautiful.

She stepped forward, holding the lantern as close as she dared. There was a rich, warm aroma rising from the corpse, so strong that she felt light-headed. As she leaned over it she realised there was a pattern hidden in the light. Everywhere she looked, the fungi had formed itself into circles. The motif was repeated across the entire body. Circles overlapping each other, circles within circles, and in the centre of the chest three thick, conjoined circles of bright green mould. They'd grown so that each circle was linked to the other two to form a triangle.

There was something more, though. Something in the centre of the pattern that she couldn't quite make out. She leaned over the body, holding the lantern closer, straining to see what was hidden there... And then her foot slipped. Before she could think her hand jerked forwards to break her fall, and with a wet, sickening squelch it hit the mould and sank into it, the desiccated body's chest cracking and collapsing under her weight.

The smell of rot and death washed over her. She scrambled to her feet and reeled back in disgust, desperately shaking the spongy, stinking slop from her hand. It clung to her skin like glue; she couldn't bare to look at it. She dropped the lantern and pulled out her handkerchief, scrubbing at her arm frantically until it was free of the muck, and then stood there, panting, over the body.

Reluctantly, Jocasta looked at her hand. It was still streaked with grime and dotted with luminescent spores, but she'd done the best she could. The handkerchief was sodden; she threw it aside, then closed her eyes.

“God Emperor, please... Please don't let me get sick. Please show me a way back up. Please let me live, just a little longer.”

She whispered the words into the dark. There was no reply.

It wasn't until she opened her eyes and bent to pick up the lantern that she heard it. The familiar click, click, click, and then a low hiss. The rats had found their way in.

Her whole body went stiff. This was it, she realised. She didn't know where she was. There might not be another way out of this room, and even if there was she wouldn't find it before they caught up to her. All she could do was die fighting; a stupid, pointless death.

She turned and saw the rats at the edge of the lantern's light. Lumpy, misshapen creatures with bony spines and tumorous growths sprouting from their backs. She counted seven of them, each of them as big as a hound and staring at her with murderous hunger. Slowly she reached into her pocket and pulled out the wrench, then stepped forwards to meet them...

And the rats backed away.

She paused. Was this some kind of trap? Were they waiting for her to leave the light? She took another step forwards. One of the rats hissed at her, then turned and scurried into the dark. The others edged backwards.

Jocasta took a deep breath and walked forwards until the lantern's pool of light was behind her. With every step the rats retreated, some of them squeaking and scuttling to the corners of the room. It was as if they were scared. She just stared after them, dumbfounded. But then, she'd asked the Emperor for help, hadn't she? And this... this was a miracle.

For a long moment she stood there, in the dark, trying to think of any other explanation. The rats could have killed her easily. She'd heard of them attacking armed groups when they were hungry enough, and these ones had looked very hungry. Just a few minutes ago they'd been chasing her down. And now suddenly they were scared of her.

No, that wasn't right, was it? They were scared of that old corpse, or the fungus. If they weren't then the whole thing would have been eaten long ago. The rats would eat anything, animal or vegetable, no matter how rotten it was. And if it wasn't the rot, or the fungus, then what else could have stopped them if not the Emperor's protection? And now that protection was on her.

There was one way to be sure. She went back and retrieved the lantern, humming a hymn under her breath, and then picked up the sodden handkerchief. She walked across the room until she saw the last few rats prowling at the edge of the light and threw the rag at them as hard as she could. Before it had even landed the creatures scattered, shrieking in panic.

Jocasta couldn't help but laugh. This was amazing! She'd seen a real miracle, right there in front of her! The body must be some kind of holy relic, hidden down here for who knows how long, and she was the one who'd found it. She wondered if Seth would believe her. In the stories, miracles only happened to holy warriors and saints... Maybe she wouldn't tell him right away. It would be her secret, at least for now.

Sighing, she realised she had more immediate concerns. It would take time to find her way back up to the plant. At least now she wouldn't have to worry about the rats though. She went back to where the ceiling was broken, hoisted the body onto her shoulders, then set off to retrace her steps. As she left, the light in the junction room faded. The sound of her footsteps died away. All that was left was silence, and the soft glow of the fungus, and the clouds of spores that danced through the air without any wind to move them.

#fanfic #ao3 #horror #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #original character #imperium #nurgle

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oftenderweapons · 5 years ago

Text

The Calm After the Storm - maknae line

Pairing: maknae line member x reader

Wordcount: 1.1-1.2k words each

Genre: smut, fluff

Rating: 18+

Hello jell-o to everyone again! I usually try to publish by Sunday night but it’s exam season so I’m a bit busy with uni. Also, Jin’s part was super difficult to start but then boom, it turned out to be the longest, so every delay is due to that and I refuse to postpone again so I’m publishing it unedited. Might reread in a couple days and actually edit the post. Every piece is about 1100-1200 words (they’re getting longer and longer!)

The original theme for the week was going to be aftercare, but me being a chaotic mess made me go a little bit wilder than just aftercare. I tried to adjust every scenario to how each boy would approach intimacy with his partner, and how each couple would recover from different types and degrees of interaction, It also depends a lot on the kind of ideal girlfriend I imagine for each of the boys.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: ahem. It’s very descriptive, some parts more than others. So, let’s get this started. Oral sex galore (highly recommended if you’re a fan of being eaten out yay!) crude language, unprotected sex within a safe and established relationship (please be careful guys, use condoms and dental dams I can’t recommend it enough), voyeurism, overstimulation, biting, spanking, some bold PDA, cockwarming (you know who that is), sex toys (more specifically ben-wa balls), slight angst/insecurity/trauma due to toxic masculinity

Member disclaimers: Jimin is a brat and we all know it, can actually dom but need aftercare afterwards, I love him loads, he’s my squishy and I’m gonna protect him for life. Taehyung is an art freak and an overall freak whoa yeah, let’s move on (also, Where, When and How pt.2, The Return of The Sex Toys). JK goes from soft boy to hard dom to soft boy again in 0.2 seconds and I still don’t know why or how. He’s young and wants some fun and loves his girlfriend because she’ll always embrace his softer side and have fun with his naughtier/playful side. Enjoy!

Here you can find the hyung line

And here you can find my masterlist

Jimin

“Who’s been a good girl?” He teased, the tip of his sex resting on your entrance.

“I have.” You beamed, satisfaction filling your voice as he smiled down at you, his spare hand gently reaching for your cheek, caressing your face and slipping his thumb in your mouth.

“You have, my princess, indeed.” He pushed the tip inside. It was the loveliest shade of pink, pillowy and thick where it attached to the shaft. You knew it very well since you love looking at it and you were just done having it in you mouth for almost forty minutes. You had provoked him endlessly, keeping him on your tongue without moving, just the tip laying there, your lips wrapped delicately around it. No suction, no friction, just there. In the meantime his hand had started toying with the hem of your panties, finally moving them aside, letting one of his fingers rub on your skin.

“Please, Jimin. I’ve been so good.” You dragged your vowels as you breathed out, getting adjusted to the feeling of him inside you. His size was all you needed, not too much and not too little. His dick was the most beautiful you had ever seen, the colour, the texture and the dimensions making it look so pretty you didn’t feel the usual embarrassment or fear that you usually felt while approaching your previous partners.

“It’s all yours, love.” He said with a small grunt. He got relatively more quiet and whiny as he kept pushing in and out of you, staying close to you, the position so intimate you felt like he was becoming your whole world, his hips working their magic on you.

“Are you gonna cum for me, princess?” He asked, his hips keeping up the pace.

“Yeah, so close.” You gritted out of your closed teeth.

“Good.” He moved his mouth to your chest, your left nipple engorged in his pretty pout.

“A little faster, please.” You asked.

“Such nice manners. You aren’t giving me any reason to punish you, princess. Such a good girl.” He praised you again.

This kind of role reversal didn’t happen very often, but sometimes Jimin liked taking care of you, reminding you that he is both your boy and your man. That he can be whatever you want him to be. He needs to feel like you could never do without him. You addressed this sense of inadequateness of his, every now and then, reassuring him and helping him state his own self and his needs.

“Do you like it? That I’m doing exactly what you want me to?” You asked, but you both knew you were asking whether he felt like being harsher and punish you.

“You like obeying me, pet?” He asked, his voice dripping in sugar as he pronounced your nickname.

“I love you, Jimin.” You said softly.

He almost mewled at that, reassured by how that sentence, that feeling meant that he was at your own level, how much of a praise it was to be your equal, to be strong enough to match you, to own you.

“Are you close?” He asked, his thrusts becoming more intense. “I want to take you from behind but if you’re close I can keep going.”

“From behind, please.” You squealed, already eager to change position.

He grinned and slipped out of you, the shift happening so quickly you felt a bit dizzy when you realised your face was pressed on the pillow, your ass up in the air as he entered you again. He started slamming into you his hands pressing your ass against his hips, the sound warning you that the whole attitude had changed too.

“You like it like this, princess? You like getting it all dirty and rowdy?” He groaned, his voice anything but his usually loving and obedient self.

You emitted a muffled ‘yes’ as your hand reached your clit.

“You touching yourself, ____?” He said, using one hand to turn your face towards him. “You better come quick or else you’ll have to lick me till I’m hard again. You’re not gonna cum without my cock inside you, understood?”

“Yes, sir.” The title riled him up enough to get his pace a bit faster, sending you miles deep into pleasure.

His cry echoed yours, signaling his own orgasm. After taking a couple deep breaths he slipped out of you, removing the condom and getting rid of it quickly. He was in your arms again a couple seconds later, laying by your side, one leg entwined around yours, his arms hugging your middle, his head nuzzling in between your breasts.

“You alright sweetie?” You asked.

“I feel so good when I see you that happy. Fills me with joy.” He kissed your breastbone, then, as you lifted his chin with your forefinger, he pressed his lips to yours.

“Do you need anything? Some water? A snack? Shall we get in the shower?” You caressed his hair back, looking at how sweaty he was.

“A shower would be amazing. But I want you close.”

“Would you prefer a bath?” You kissed his forehead. He was all small smiles and fidgeting with your fingers.

“Yes, please.”

“Such manners, always so perfect.” You almost snickered at the contrast between him right now and the man he’d been a few minutes ago.

“Let’s go.” You said, sitting up before he got too tired to get out of bed. “You look amazing, babe.” You couldn’t help but comment, looking at him sprawled on the covers.

He smiled, his pupils disappearing behind his crinkled lids, then he stood up, thinking whether he should wear something or not and feeling insecure for a second, but then following your cue he decided to stay naked.

As you slipped into the tub you let him slide in with his back against your chest, hugging him to you, your nose nuzzling the top of his head. “Is it to your taste?”

“Yes, thank you babe.” He replied. “I really like your bath soap.” He yawned, smiling some more as you caught him. He looked ten times lovelier right now. You felt that fuzzy feeling in your stomach intensifying, and you began rubbing the tense muscles on his back out of fondness and gratitude. “That's truly amazing.”

“You are truly amazing.” You kissed his nape and continued with your caregiving, washing his hair, rinsing him, helping him out of the shower, drying him and applying some lotion over his skin, smiling at him with your eyes through the reflection on the mirror as you brushed your teeth while sharing the sink.

“I love you,” you whispered in his ear as you hugged him under the sheets.

“I love you, too.” That’s bliss.

Taehyung

“Don’t you dare move, you little demon.”

With a forceful hammering of his hips against your bottom, Taehyung slammed into you at an impossible pace, finally snapping forward as he lost his regular rhythm and bent down, his head propped on the back of your neck, his breath fanning out along your spine before he grunted the manliest sound you had ever heard.

You were shocked: laying there, ass up, your boyfriend collapsed on top of you with his exceedingly long dick planted inside you, its girth becoming slightly less bearable as the high of your climax ebbed away.

“Tae, it’s so good.” You moaned. “Too much.”

“Stay put, love.” He helped you lay down, without any intention of parting from you.

“We can’t stay like this forever.”

“Watch me.” He replied cockily.

The whole night had been wildly unusual. It had all started in the afternoon. You had been to an art gallery where the whole exhibition verted on photographs of naked bodies painted into art. He had held you tight, his hand gripping your waist, his thumb fooling around the hem of your jeans, tentatively trying to slither under the fabric. He had asked you about your favourite, pointing out pieces he was very enthusiastic about. You had looked at him baffled as he pointed out the picture of a woman with two big breasts and a Virgin Mary painted on her belly, the model’s pubic hair painted a strange rainbow mesh of colours as if simulating a cloud from which the painting was emerging.

You had been slightly uncomfortable standing before it, but the rest of it hadn’t been that extreme. Well, except for another couple pictures.

One had also attracted your attention. In the back of the gallery one very explicit picture had sparked something between the two of you. As you walked in you thought it was just an empty room but as you turned around you saw a giant poster of a vagina, every detail so precise that you asked yourself what kind of lens and camera could take a picture with such impressive high quality. On the women's thighs seven lines of paint mimicked two branches of a rainbow leading to the model’s inner labia, while a sun — or a halo — surrounded the clit. The poster occupied the whole wall, at least three metres tall and five metres wide.

You were standing in the middle of the room, taking in every detail, seriously impressed by the piece. You were as tall as her slit, for God's sake…

"It looks like you really like this one." Taehyung said, hugging you from behind, his nose toying with your earlobe. His voice made your insides tremble.

"I really get it." Taehyung said. "I would do that too." Silence stretched as he got caught in his thoughts and fantasies. "Your pussy's so good I would take an absurdly high quality picture of it and have it printed as if it were wallpaper and installed in a private room in my apartment and simply sneak in sometimes and stand in front of it and just admire it."

You kept looking ahead, too caught by the luscious way his hips pressed against the small of your back. "Your cunt is art, babe." He whispered and pressed some more into you. "Literally paradise. I'd lick it for days and fuck it till I can't even get hard anymore."

You tried to get your mouth to salivate again. He was playing it dirty. And the fact that you had to go back home and get ready for a nice dinner together and a night at the club with Jimin and his girlfriend made you even more tense. You knew you would have to wait for some relief.

As you reached your apartment Taehyung decided to pick your clothes and have you get ready right in front on him. He settled on the bed, sitting, as you rolled on your stockings and wore a suspender belt that matched your underwear. Slowly you let your deep green silk slip-on dress roll down your body, and you felt his hands stretch towards you, grabbing you by the waist. You stood at the edge of the bed, his chin propped on your belly. "My dove, I have a question for you."

"Yes," you replied, your hands pushing his hair back.

He showed you a blue velvet pouch and you smirked. "Do you want to?"

"You wanna help me wear them?" He nodded.

And that's how you found yourself grinding on him desperately in the club after he had fed you chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert. Not that you complained about that. But the Ben-Wa balls heavily rolling and rubbing against your g-spot were making it difficult for you to fully enjoy your night out. Especially since every time you closed your eyes you saw Taehyung's lips wrapping around them and lubricating them before he helped you insert them.

It didn't take long for the two of you to get too desperate to care about decency, but since you needed to think about Taehyung's reputation you decided to call it a night and feign tiredness in front of Jimin's eyes — who called both of you out on your state of arousal and blessed your intentions for the rest of the night, letting you go home without making too much of a fuss.

When you arrived at the apartment you were both too impatient to reach the bedroom and used the sofa to dull the edges of your needs, Taehyung staring at you wide eyed, kneeling on the floor between your legs while you rubbed yourself passionately. As you reached your first high he dove in between your thighs, his mouth landing on your clit, sucking on it devotedly, eyes fixed on yours. Overstimulation hit you hard, the geisha balls still moving inside you. He made you cum again with his tongue lapping and lashing at your wetness.

He carried you to the bedroom in silence, his gaze dark and desperate, completely oblivious to the way his long and heavy sex strained against his linen slacks. Laying back, you let him tower over you, teasing the underside of his erection as he took off your dress definitively. "You're so beautiful." You whispered religiously.

"Are you talking to me or my cock?"

You chuckled lightly. "Mostly to you."

"Mostly…" He mused.

He pressed his hand to your belly, removing the silver spheres from inside you.

"Mostly, uh?" With that he entered you violently, thrusting in with one smooth, powerful stroke.

"Tae—" You whined. He kept doing you like that, with evenly paced, blunt thrusts. However, since you kept teasing him with the firm squeezing of your inner walls encouraged by your own fingers brushing your clit, he pulled out of you, flipping you around and pushing your backside up, entering you once more. It didn't take long for him to get lost in his own rhythm, for his hand to come up to your tender spot and rub you until your legs gave out.

And now heavy with the sleepiness of bliss, you questioned whether your boyfriend was intending to get out of you. "Tae, baby, we should get cleaned."

"Let me stay inside, love. Please. I feel like I'll want to go at it again in a while, just let me stay in." He muttered, his hands pressing against your hips to keep you close.

"You sure you don't need anything?" You asked again, knowing how needy he could get when he gets sleepy.

"Just you pressed up and around me. This is heaven."

A small laugh. How could you deny him?

Jungkook

You had loved every second of it. The gentle way he had kissed you on the sofa, and how he had carried you to bed. How delicately he had touched you and held you, how he had made love to you. It had all been amazing. Until the initial feelings of fondness and devotion gave way to a hunger deeper and more desperate. Then he had pushed you around, sitting himself up on the balls of his feet, dragging you up with him in the process. You could still feel the echo of the beastly groan he had emitted against your ear as he let your back slide down his chest, his sex entering you and reaching so deep inside you. Your head had rolled back against his shoulder as one of his hands grabbed your breast and played with your nipple.

“You like it, don’t you? You like me so deep inside you.” He had stated, his tone so arrogant. “No wonder you can never get enough of me.” He picked you up by the waist, using you as if you were nothing but a cocksleeve, dragging you up and down his dick. “That’s it. That’s what you like. Being a lazy princess and making me do all the work. You love it when I force you a little, don’t you.” He dropped you down with exceptional violence, moving one hand to squeeze your breast, the other angling your face towards him. “Answer me.”

“Yes.” You replied, almost unconsciously. You were willing to do whatever could please him, make him start again.

“Yes what?” He grabbed your other breast, his hand heavy and possessive.

“Yes, I adore when you use me.”

“That’s my little toy. So mature and composed, but so dirty. You love that I get all those naughty things you like.” The way he propped his hands behind his back and leaned on them shifted the angle once more, his hips snapping back and forth with a mind shattering intensity.

“Come on. Get it how you like it.” He freed one of his hands to slap your ass. It didn’t take that long for the both of you to orgasm, especially after he moved the hand on your chest upwards, his fingers merely resting around your neck, without even needing to hold it, while his other hand worked your clit matching the rhythm of the contractions of your insides.

He clinged to you almost desperately when his high subsided, his hold almost too tight. You were trying to compensate for the lack of contact during the latest round, your hands struggling to find any part of him that you could hold, until your fingers intertwined with his over your left breast.

“I thought I would lose you during the last month. I was never home.” You understood his insecurities. You also thought he would find someone more suitable to his career, someone who could understand what it means to belong to that world.

“I thought anyone could make you see how much of a shitty boyfriend I am.”

You let him continue.

“I thought you would meet a smart university kid at campus, or that cute barista at the coffee shop at the end of the street. I thought of how they would court you, all the attentions, the pretty dates, the small gifts. I thought of them taking you out for dinner, of them taking you home. Trying to kiss you. Sometimes, late at night, I asked myself if you would invite them upstairs. It always got me so fucking mad. Once I almost hit my personal trainer because I was thinking of that. He got mad, told me to keep my head in the game.” He was still inside you, you could feel his shaft throbbing softly, as if it was his heartbeat. Maybe it was just an impression. His head fell to your shoulder.

“I would never, and you know it.”

“I know, but some part of me can’t help but go there. If you could only see the way men look at you when you’re not watching. And our relationship being private only means that they don't know that you’re taken. Makes them think that they’re allowed to look at you like that. I feel so hopeless whenever they act all bold. I can’t be like that. I can’t give you the time and attentions they can give you. Because of who I am, because of me being so fucking shy...”

“I love you.” You said, as if it were a magic spell that could fix all his insecurities. You turned your head to look at him. “And right now you’re inside me. You’ve made me cum twice tonight, with nothing but your body, the way you moved on top of me, behind me, inside me.” He blushed a bit at that.

You loved talking with him after sex. It was so common for the two of you. Sex was like a key to open a secret place of vulnerability and intimacy. All the confessions Jungkook had offered you in bed, laying close to you, protected by you, had very often come in the aftermath of bliss. “I am with you,” you continued, leading him to lay on your side.

“I wanna stay inside you, but I also want to face you, look you in the eye.”

“Same here.” You needed to see his face.

“And I also need a snack.” He considered. He took a long pause. You waited for him to formulate his thought. “If you ever realised you’re no longer happy with me, you would tell me, right?”

“Of course I would tell you. However, I think you should know I don’t think that could happen in this life or in any on the next ones.”

He giggled. “I can’t wait to get you away from anyone. We should do like Namjoon hyung and his girlfriend: get on a private island for vacation. Wear nothing all day. Stay in bed for how long we want. Swim when we want. Make love under the stars. God, that’s heaven.”

“You would miss the guys, you know it.” You smiled knowingly.

“Just a week or so. A quick getaway.” Some part of his mind was already plotting.

“I’ll see what I can do. But would you resist without working out?”

“We could workout together,” he mused naively.

“Yeah, yeah...” you conceded, voice dripping in irony.

“Can I carry you to the kitchen to grab a snack?”

“Maybe if you turned me around and I held on you like a koala bear?” You chuckled

“Do you think that if I lay on my back and you sit up and turn around I can get you to climb me like a koala-bear without me having to get out of you?” He asked, the honesty in his voice getting you to fully laugh out loud.

“I think that’s called corkscrew — it’s a corkscrew if you turn around me… whatever” You thought out loud.

“Let’s try! Ready? Three, two, one, Go!” You both laughed at your attempt, joy filling your hearts.

—————the following morning —————

“So, uhm...”

“No.”

“But—”

“No.”

“Please.”

“Guk, listen, I love you, but you’re not dragging me to the gym at eight a.m. on a Sunday morning after what we did last night.”

“But I love you. Like, a lot.”

“No amount of love will ever fix the organs you so thoroughly rearranged last night.”

“I’m sorry.” He looked like a scolded puppy. “But it’s not like you didn’t like it. You actually begged for it at some point.”

“So rude of you to remind me of that.”

“Sorry. I love you.” He kissed the tip of your nose.

“I love you too. Now go back to sleep.”

“Okay.” He palmed your chest lovingly and closed his eyes again.

#bangtan sonyeondan #bts imagine #bts reaction #bts #jimin x reader #taehyung x reader #jungkook x reader #jimin imagine #taehyung imagi #jungkook imagine

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ham-of-war · 5 years ago

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'The cats should have dispersed enough to locate any active genestealers by that point.' 'Cats?' I echoed, baffled. Plenty of Guard regiments use animals for one purpose or another on the battlefield, generally as cavalry mounts or attack beasts, but I'd never heard of Astartes doing so; and even if they did, felines would hardly seem the most likely creatures to give a genestealer a run for its money. 'See ay tee,' Yaffel elucidated, no doubt divining my confusion. 'Cyber-Altered Task units. Like very simple servitors, without the biological components.' 'Then how do they work?' I asked, even more puzzled than before. I might not have been a tech-priest, but even I knew it was the living brain which allowed a servitor to remember and process simple instructions. 'Quite satisfactorily,' Drumon said, with a momentary smile at his own wit, before continuing. 'They require no cognitive functions; just a simple vox circuit to relay picts and other environmental data. Once released, they just keep moving in a straight line until they reach an obstacle.' 'Of which,' I said, equally dryly, 'I suspect the Spawn of Damnation has more than its share.' 'Undoubtedly,' Yaffel agreed, apparently as constitutionally incapable of recognising sarcasm as the majority of those in his vocation. 'But the CATs have a simple mechanism attached to their tracks. When they reach an obstruction they can't negotiate, they simply rotate ten degrees on the spot, before moving forwards again. If they're still impeded, they repeat the process, and so on. Eventually they find a direction they can progress in.' [...] 'Can you stick a bolter on them as well?' Yaffel shook his head, failing to recognise the joke. 'That wouldn't be a practical option,' he began. 'The power-to-weight ratio-' 'Pity,' I said [...]

the Emperor’s finest

they really do use roombas

#<3 <3 <3

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kimanda · 5 years ago

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Day Eight - Terminal Illness

So it's the 1100s, your brother keeps stumbling and looks deathly pale, and he shrugs off your concern by saying he's just under the weather and will be right as rain soon enough. But then a few weeks/months later, he suddenly disappears and you never see him again.

That was Wales' reality (poor guy really can't catch a break, can he?) He's with his brother Cumbria, someone he was extremely close with. Why don't I draw Cumbria more often? Well I think I have too many OCs and I struggle to give my deceased OCs the love they deserve. On the other hand, Cumbria is just.... so difficult to figure out.

I've more or less figured out his early history. Wales and Cumbria knew each other almost from when they were toddlers, Rome selected both of them to be Roman provinces. Wales was called "Britannia Prima" and Cumbria was called "Britannia Secunda". Then Rome left with his people. Wales didn't get attached to any Welsh kingdom, instead he became the representative of the developing Welsh identity. Cumbria... I've attached him to the Cumbrian identity, but it's complicated. Cumbria represented the Cumbrian people, Celtic Britons to the north of the island who never became Picts but were kind of distinctive enough from the people who lived in Wales?

The name Cumbria itself is also pretty confusing, because it is first attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "Cumbraland" (945) and "Cumerland" (1000). Both of the names translated out is "land of the Cymry", Cymry referring to the British Celtic people who also gave their namesake to Wales' native name "Cymru". So the question is, how do I distinguish Cumbria from Wales? Can I make the distinction? I want to say yes, from the fact that in Latin, Wales' name was "Wallia". There existed an alternative name that was more faithful to Wales' native name, which was "Cambria". Why didn't that alternative name ever take off? From a paper I read, apparently because the Welsh felt it was "too close" to the name Cumbria. So among the medieval Welsh, the Cumbrians were being distinguished from them. They recognized their closeness, but they didn't think they were one and the same.

I've tried understanding Cumbria's history by following the kingdoms that existed within that territory. After the Romans left, the kingdom Rheged established itself in that territory. So would Cumbria have been Rheged for that time period? Then the Anglo-Saxon kingdom Northumbria invaded Rheged and the kingdom disappeared from historical accounts. A few centuries later, after the Northumbrians got their collective asses kicked by the Picts, the Cumbrians rebelled and managed to free themselves from Northumbrian control. At this stage, the territory was known as Cumbria. But. Within this time period, Cumbria was also interchangeably called Strathclyde/Ystrad Clud. Ystrad Clud was the native version of the name. The trouble is, Strathclyde means "valley of the river Clyde", which is a river in SCOTLAND. MUCH FURTHER NORTH THAN CUMBRIA'S ORIGINAL TERRITORY. So I'm pretty much stuck on those questions. Was Cumbria and Ystrad Clud/Strathclyde one and the same character? Is Strathclyde a separate character?? Why are you so complicated?!?!

To end this whole mess off: Cumbria died in the 12th century. It was around that time that the Cumbrian language died out and the Cumbrians as an ethnic identity completely disappears from history. That's why I consider Cumbria to be a deceased brother of Wales. There is an English county today called Cumbria, but I don't believe they have a significant relationship with Wales. That's why I never went the route to consider the English county Cumbria to be a reincarnation of the Celtic British territory (maybe kingdom) Cumbria. I might change my mind, but first I need to finally understand Cumbria.

#art #hetalia wales #hws wales #hetalia oc #historical hetalia #hetalia cumbria #hws cumbria #tw: death #sorry for long pause #been pretty busy and also going through a period of feeling insecure about my art #you know... that good stuff #*sighs*#ah to feel confidence in my art again #wouldn't that be great

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verecunda · 5 years ago

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Books: March 2020

Realised I haven’t logged my books for March yet (I knew I’d only last a couple of months rip). tbh I only managed two books and a very short reread, but I figure they might be of interest to some people here:

Outcast - Rosemary Sutcliff

The Legions of the Mist - Amanda Cockerell (aka Damion Hunter)

Asterix in Switzerland - Goscinny & Uderzo (reread)

Outcast - Rosemary Sutcliff

Well, it’s Sutcliff, so what can I say beyond asddfghjklsa SO GOOD. Engrossing, atmospheric, emotional. It doesn’t feel quite as rich as the dolphin ring books, but it’s still a wonderful read, and most of Sutcliff’s usual themes of identity, of cultures mingling, of being on the outside, and of finding belonging and home, are very much there. I also think I can see her working towards things she would go into more deeply in other books. For instance, in the way that Beric decides during his slavery to focus on negative emotions like hate, because it hurts less than thinking of people he’s loved and lost, he feels almost like a prototype of Aquila from The Lantern Bearers.

There’s less in the way of a central friendship, but that’s sort of the nature of the beast, since as a slave and a runaway, most of Beric’s relationships with other people are brief and transient. But Sutcliff more than makes up for that by providing plenty of vivid character sketches of the people who do pass in and out of his life. I was very fond of the young Lady Lucilla, in particular, and I rather fell in love with Justinius. He’s exactly the sort of quietly sad, thoroughly competent character I can never resist!

The book is full of excellent set-pieces - the section aboard the galley especially was gruelling, and I loved the overgrown, half-forgotten garden of the temple of Pan Sylvanus in Rome. The Italian setting is quite a departure for Sutcliff, and I had the feeling even she was quite relieved when the story shifted back to Britain, and we were back to the familiarity of changeful skies, skeins of wild geese, and the green plover calling! The final section during the storm was spectacular, and I absolutely had to hold in tears towards the end, as Beric lets his old life go and looks towards the new. (It was the dogs that did it!)

The Legions of the Mist - Amanda Cockerell (aka Damion Hunter)

I’ve been wanting to read this one for years, but couldn’t get hold of a copy till it was recently released on Kindle. Happily, it was worth the wait! A lively, absorbing adventure peopled with well-drawn and (mostly) endearing characters. The main squad in particular were all highly likeable, as were many of the secondary characters. I particularly liked the new legate and his daughter, and thought it a shame that they weren’t in it for longer. (Though the fact that she was called Lady Felicia just made me want to watch Father Brown again. XD) Without going into details, though, the fact that the novel is about the death of the Ninth Legion means that getting attached to so many of the characters was… unfortunate. >.>

The story is told from both the Roman and the British points of view, allowing for a balanced take on the history of Roman Britain, and the way cultures clashed or intermingled. I was actually less interested in the Celtic side of the story; apart from Vortrix, most of the British characters seemed to be fairly stock types, and the various tribal politics and interpersonal relationships never felt quite as well-developed as those on the Roman side.

Naturally, the book treads very similar ground to Eagle of the Ninth, and even apart from that, it’s clear that Cockerell owes quite a substantial debt to Sutcliff - so much so, in fact, that longtime Sutcliff fans could probably get a decent drinking game out of it (take one drink for for every Hilarion, Cordaella, or Justin you encounter; chug every time the Hispana’s Eagle gets a mention; drain your whole damn bottle when the little dark people (uncapitalised) appear!).

There’s also a lot of stuff about the Picts worshipping a Mother Goddess and honouring a sacrificial seven-year king, motifs which also feature heavily in Sutcliff’s work. I’m not sure how widely accepted they were as genuine archaeological theories at the times these books were written. In any case, it seems quite dated here in a way it doesn’t quite with Sutcliff (possibly because the power of Sutcliff’s work is such that it’s almost like a mythic vision of ancient Britain? I don’t know, it is a mystery).

For all the evident homages, however, this book has its own voice and is very much its own thing. It’s a most enjoyable read, and I ended up tearing through the last quarter or so in one sitting. From the moment the Ninth marches out on its final doomed expedition into the mists, Cockerell builds the tension brilliantly, to a genuinely tense and nailbiting finale - and an emotional aftermath.

Good news: it looks like there’s a sequel due to be released (reissued?) next month, so I’ll definitely be reading that. :)

Asterix in Switzerland - Goscinny & Uderzo (reread)

I was already thinking about going back through some of my Asterix books, even before I heard that Albert Uderzo had passed away. After that, I figured there couldn’t be a better reason.

This is one of the ones I read most often when I was a kid. Not sure why, since most of the jokes about Swiss bank accounts, etc., sailed right over my head. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that in this one, unusually, Asterix and Obelix are on a mission to save the life of a Roman quaestor. Apparently I’ve just always had a thing about Romans and Celts helping each other out, despite everything! I don’t know. But it’s always been one of my favourites, and it was great fun to read it again.

#books what I'm reading #books 2020

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the-last-ghost · 6 years ago

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Okay everyone, I've been reading the whole "humans are space orks/fae/weird" tags for a while and have been working on my own story to add to it. This is part one and it's really long so stick with it and hopefully you enjoy the read!

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We have all heard their stories growing up; all heard the myths and legends surrounding them. It’s almost impossible to believe that they were real but there is still proof, scattered among the cosmos, almost as impossible itself. I’ve heard them called many things over the years: wanderers, outcasts, lost souls, fae, immortals, demons, destroyers, even death itself. Every name I have heard, if the stories are to be believed, is true and well earned. I haven’t seen one myself, nor has my father, nor his father; rumor is, they haven’t been seen in nearly 3,000 years… Imagine my surprise finding one now��

I realize you may not know anything about the creatures of which I speak; I guess I should say that most people have heard the stories… Well allow me to tell you about them; these, as they call themselves, Terrans.

The story goes that long ago, back in the early years following the foundation of the United Species Federation (USF) (about 8,600 years ago-standard) they sent envoys and scouts out across the stars to find life and if it showed promise, to bring it into the fold of the USF. No one quite remembers how the first contact went, however, it is believed that it went fairly well, what with the Terrans conducting their own search throughout the stars on what they called their, “Third Golden Age of Space.” Apparently they had already gone to space twice before but some form of internal conflict put the exploration to a halt. Records indicate that they melded swiftly and smoothly with the Federation but were always considered to be the more wild and fearless of the 189 species. It wasn’t until the 9th year as a part of the USF that their home world was formally classed as a category 7 deathworld, 3 tiers higher than our previous maximum (supposedly they had to completely re-do the scale to make it work.) The few holo-picts of the world (if you’re lucky enough to find one) showed a world full of beauty and wonder but as we all know, beauty can be deadly in the cosmos.

After joining the Federation, they primarily set their focus on science and exploration; the things they found were astounding and those they made were breathtaking. I remember once going to the USF capitol on Jurhan-3 and seeing a “small-scale” version of one of their Epsilon-Frigate class starships’ power cell; they called it the “Apollo Reactor” and it, still to this day, harnesses the power of a collapsing star held in perpetual stasis. I am unaware of the science behind it but the Apollo Reactor was nearly 8km long, just as wide, and 6km high and the energy the star gives off can, theoretically, power half of the planet indefinitely-to think they put a larger version of this in their starships! They created works of wonder in ways that are now lost to us, for with them went the skill, knowledge, creativity, and much needed insanity to create these wonders. They came up with ideas and solutions for things we never would have even considered and, true to their nature, set out for a solution with an alarming dedication (although the wonders that came from their accidental discoveries are just as marvelous.) Not only were they the creators of the impossible, they were the seekers of the undiscoverable. They would set out on the planets, moons, asteroids, and among the stars in search of all those things our legends said could not be found; and they would find them! They would purposely seek out our own myths and legends and while many were proved wrong, they in turn were becoming legends themselves…

Then one day there was a request for a team to explore one of the many dead-zones the USF had listed and, since they were aptly suited for hazardous work, they volunteered. As it was, they went out with their usual compliment, a Gamma-class frigate at about 13km in length was the command ship for the operation. The Icarus, is well known for what the exploration lead to; and for that, we can’t hold it against them. The Icarus set out with its two Delta-class cruisers, each about 9km long, in tow towards the dead-zone. This is one of the few aspects of their past that we still know actually happened and its easier to view the formal log…

USF Doc. 1193.34-D164Y228

Icarus Expedition Captain’s Log:

--196-- We have successfully completed our jump into system X33-KL09 and are preparing for our initial scan of the system.

--197-- Initial scan shows little promise of habitable locations as expected; will conduct systematic, thorough, cross-examination of each planet for possible mineral harvesting.

--198-- Outer rim planets, X33-9, X33-8, and X33-7, all devoid of any significant deposits of any usable minerals; moving inward towards the system core.

--199-- X33-6 and X33-5 both show heavy iron, copper, sulfur, and other usable mineral deposits. Locations marked and transmitted to the Federation Fleet Command (FFC.) Moving on to innermost planets.

--200-- X33-4 shows sign of former habitation; holo-picts will follow. No sign of current life, no atmosphere to speak of, no signs of water, no signs of vegetation. Will collect samples and transmit them to the FFC. Ground Exploration Team 3 (GET3) sent to surface, base established. GET3 will remain on surface until we leave the system.

--201-- X33-3 appears strange on our scanners. It’s almost as if there is something…wrong…with it. Unsure of how else to describe it. Standby for holo-pict.

--202-- Contact! All ships requested to pull back to X33-4 and form defensive perimeter; lethal force NOT authorized. Standby for further orders.

--203-- Sentient life has been met; sudden fleet emersion from the warp. Non-USF signals. Attempting to hail unknown contacts.

--204-- All attempts at contact have failed. Will attempt other means of ***BREAK—ALL HANDS TO STATIONS—SHOTS FIRED AT CRUISER: RISING SUN—PREPARE TO ENGAGE CONTACTS***

--205-- All ships, unknown contacts are hostile. Open fire on all Non-USF craft. Engage at will.

--206-- Attached is the video footage remaining of the engagement.

--207-- All ships, damage report. *Silence as ships report in* Confirm: Cruiser: Fallen Star destroyed? *Silence while awaiting confirmation* Understood. Enemy fleet as either been destroyed or fled the system. Remaining craft ordered to collect survivors and GET3, then prepare to warp to nearest USF outpost.

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--236-- Final tally of expedition fleet to system X33-KL09: One (1) Delta-class cruiser, Fallen Star, destroyed. 728 of its crew confirmed KIA, 109 of its crew un-accounted for (presumed KIA), 246 of its crew recovered and accounted for with varying injuries. One (1) Delta-class cruiser, Rising Sun, minor hull damage. 17 of its crew confirmed KIA, 0 of its crew missing, 942 of its crew accounted for. One (1) Gamma-class frigate, Icarus, severe hull damage, thrusters at 48%, and near catastrophic Apollo Reactor failure. 593 of its crew confirmed KIA, 197 of its crew un-accounted for (presumed KIA), and 806 of its crew recovered and accounted for with varying injuries. Requesting immediate support to attached coordinates. Sending Delta-class cruiser, Rising Sun, ahead of remaining vessels to prepare for our non-warp arrival.

--237-- Contact re-established with unknown forces. All crew to stations. Enemy ship determined to be on collision course; prepare to repel boarders. *Screams following the sound of impact—Sounds of metal wrenching itself apart—Silence* Shields down. Thrusters now inoperable. Boarding parties attempting to take ship. Will not allow this to happen.

--238—Cruiser, Rising Sun, has exited the system. Life-support systems failing. Authorizing the Manhattan Protocol*. God be with us.

--239—Attached video contains the final moments of the Icarus before the Manhattan Protocol was engaged. All hostile contacts were terminated.

*Manhattan Protocol: If the ship is boarded by hostile forces with no hope/chance of rescue or survival and no friendly forces remain in the system, the detonation of the Apollo Reactor is authorized. Said detonation will result in the immediate atomization of the host craft and nuclear explosion centered on the craft powered by the energy of the dying star. Possible outcomes could leave the system uninhabitable or create a minor black hole (if an Alpha-Class Capitol/Command Frigate is detonated.) This protocol only to be used as an absolute last resort.

----------End Formal Log-----------

As you saw, this no doubt lead the USF to mobilize a task force to secure the dead-zone and establish the identity of the unknown, openly hostile species and determine where they came from. Up until then, we had yet to see these Terrans in open conflict; there had clearly been minor skirmishes but nothing of real note. We were quite unprepared for their way of making war for these simple, bi-pedaled creatures seemed to pose little threat and were believed to have been primarily peaceful; quite at odds with their tier 7 deathworlder status. Apparently this had been the first ship lost in war in over 450years for them, a fact that they were extremely proud of, and so naturally they took it personally and set to it with there trademark dedication. Their sciences switched from focusing on exploration to tracking, from genetic mapping to mapping the weak-points of starships, from creating stronger mining tools to creating near indestructible hull armor; and it was beautiful. That’s when they were rumored to have been called the Fae, after myths from their own past. Beautiful beings capable of untold devastation. And so, the USF went to war against an enemy they knew little to nothing about, with these Terrans on point.

When contact was made again, after nearly 4 years of searching the dead-zone and the surrounding systems, hostilities were immediately established and our foe finally identified. They were called the Xulrata; fierce bi-pedaled creatures that would stand nearly 13ft tall and weigh upwards of 1200lbs. They were covered in a thick, leathery hide that seemed impervious to most of the federations weaponry but somehow the Terrans were able to find ways to pierce it. They had two massive canines that jutted from their lower jaw, deeply set eyes the size of my fist, and hands with the strength to crush a grown Sarlot as if it were nothing. We learned real fast that the only sure way to kill one, was to remove the head; even then, sometimes the body would continue on until its heart failed it, they were nightmare creatures and we lost a good many men and women to them in the following millennia. The Terrans had their own name for them, as they so often did; they called them Orks, after yet more creatures from their myths and legends-although, these myths appeared to be very, very real.

------------End Part One------------

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Please share it around and I'll get to work on part two!

#scifi #science fiction #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #humans are space australians #humans are insane #storytelling #short story #story #first post

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wispythreads · 5 years ago

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Aw, man.

Alright, so even though I didn’t come here to fight in a war, I eventually helped both the Picts and the Northumbrians enough to make them political allies, and, after weighing how I felt about both of them, I eventually did the Fort of the Thicket quest on the side of the Picts.

However, afterwards, Morcant is just sitting there in a daze, and I’m feeling kind of worried about him. I’ve grown really attached to this monk, even if some of his phrases kind of rub me the wrong way, so I try to ask if he’s alright and he’s still with me. The narration said I’d have to talk to him about it at a better time, so I expected that maybe next camp or something we’d have a discussion about it, and his loyalty level and my skills as a leader or whatever would be tested.

But, nope, I wake up realizing something’s not right and eventually see that the ‘something’ is that Morcant is missing. Knowing it’s probably futile, I still have everyone search for him, because, like the dialogue option said, I didn’t really want to leave without him. But, he was gone. I already really miss him, and I wish that I had been given the option to convince him to stay. I mean, I had his loyalty all the way up to Unwavering (10)! That’s gotta count for something... Man...

#expeditions: viking #morcant #bit of play experience

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sharky857 · 6 years ago

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Hello! I want to ask an artist for a commission for the 1st time but idk how to approach and Im afraid to come out as rude. I saw in a post that you are "good customer", so maybe can help? D:

Ok. First of all: relax. Artists are just people like you and me. C;

(Secondly: politeness in general is the key.)

That being said, when looking for an artist to commission, assuming you already found one with a drawing style you may like, always look at their commissions/prices list/info before trying to contact them.

Generally, those lists contain each price for any different kind of drawing, like head shots/close-ups, half busts, full bodies. The most detailed lists also specify the prices based on whether the art work is gonna be also a sketch, lineart or coloured pict; some even go into further details (like with/without backgrounds, price for additional characters, etc...)

In addition, you should also find a list of the subjects/themes/characters that the artist themselves are willing to draw. If something isn’t on that list (and isn’t on the “DON’T DRAW” list either), you can always ask the artist if they can draw what you have in mind (something like: ”Hi, I see that there’s no mermaid listed under “DO” nor “DON’T”. Would you be able to draw them?”)

If you think an artist’s prices may be too much for your wallet/Paypal, do not, under ANY circumstance, ask them to lower a price just for you.

I repeat:

NEVER ask an artist to lower their price.

(You might try to ask directly the artist if they may be planning some limited time/slots discount sale in the future, but know that with some of them you would be walking on thin ice with this question, especially when approaching for the first time.

Personally, I tend to avoid to ask an unknown artist if and when they might be arranging a discount on their commission prices.)

In case prices are too high and you can’t save any further money for the commission, you can try to look for another artist with a similar art style/ability to draw the same subject(s).

Once you find the right artist to commission, it’s time to contact them, naturally.

You won’t need to do a full introduction of yourself. All you’ll have to write is that you’re interested in asking a commission to them (”Hello, I’d like to have a sketch/lineart/full coloured close-up/half bust/full body pict of [insert subject/character to draw here]”.

From that moment on, just keep writing to the artist, answering their questions (and also ask some yourself as well, if you have any; they won’t definitely bite you) and providing them with as many references as you can. The more references, the higher the chances for the artist to do the drawing exactly as you want it to be.

If you don’t have visual references, you may try to either google for any image or attach a written description to your message (usually I do both the latter together).

Once you’re both settled, you could definitely expect the artist to ask you to pay in advance (most of them have a Paypal). If you’re not yet familiar with the payment method chosen by the artist, don’t be afraid to ask them how said method works. There’s no shame into admitting that it’s your first time using such method and that you’re afraid to mess things up.

Remember: it’s always better to ask first and knowing how to do the thing right, than not asking at all and doing the same thing all wrong (and of course, it is good etiquette to thank the artist for taking their time to explain you the things).

From that moment on, if you haven’t stated any deadline, it’ll be all about waiting.

Usually, an artist would contact you back from time to time, in order to show you the work-in-progress of your commission. These WIPs are generally rough sketches, because a work still in a sketch phase is way more easier to fix/adjust than a lineart.

So, if the artist will show you the sketch and something seems off to you, don’t hesitate to let the artist know and kindly point out everything that seems in need to be adjusted, so that they can do all the fixing right away (the less times they take to adjust the sketch, the quicker the final piece will be done, after all).

And yes, the artist should show you the fixed sketch too, so to know if it needs more adjustments or not.

Once the sketch will look 100% alright to you, the real wait will begin as the artist will move on to the next steps of their work (linearts/outlines, colours, etc...).

If you haven’t arranged a deadline beforehand, during this time it is better not to pester the artist with frequent messages to know when the work will be completed.

On the other hand, and if you haven’t done so before, you could still ask for that once. Don’t expect a precise date as answer, tho. Usually an artist would reply with something like “your drawing should be ready in 7-10 days”. Please, note the should and don’t underestimate that word.

Like I said, artists are just people like you and me, which means that their works should be ready within the time they said in their responses, unless some unforeseen event happened in the meantime, which could delay their work.

So, if an artist said “should be done in 7-10 days” but now it’s day #11 and you still see no commission done, don’t panic. Just leave the artist be for a few more days and then, if no message/drawing has appeared yet, try to contact them, without being aggressive. Just keep calm and ask them if everything’s fine/they’ve run into some kind of problem.

Personally, once the commission is officially in progress, I don’t bother the artist anymore. The only times I might ask them how the drawing is progressing is when a couple of weeks have already passed by, and I haven’t heard absolutely anything from them in that lapse of time.

In case you’d like to ask a commission which requires a deadline, it would be great to ask the artist at least a couple weeks earlier, or even a month or two earlier (in short: the earlier you can contact them, the better. Especially when you don’t know how long your commission might take).

Another important point is, for the love of all you hold dear:

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ask an artist to do “some more adjustments” after they’ve moved to lineart or (even worse) are already colouring your commission!

(Yes, some people are like that and yes, all artists utterly loath that kind of customers.)

This is all I could think of on “How to be good customer 101″. Hope this loooongass post may come in handy. ^^;

P.S.: Online artists have the tendency of posting all their works on their profiles/galleries/portfolios, commissions included. If you don’t want your commissioned work to be displayed, make yourself sure to let the artist know at any time before they might complete the art work!

On the other hand, if you want to post their finished work in your own profile/blog, it would be good etiquette to let the artist know. And it is also extremely recommended that you could credit said artist (their online nickname + at least one link to their page/blog/profile/whatever).

#long post #sharky's replies #useful tips #(maybe?)#Anon ask

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