#dr jamison junkenstein | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

smoll-ratt · 3 years

Text

Dr.Junkenstein X Maid!Reader

Part Five:

——————————————————————————

While laying in your sleep you began to stir. A headache began to fall upon you and you softly opened your eyes before they rolled back into their sockets. Taking a deep breath you turned onto your back and sighed, gently stretching your legs as an attempt to find comfort. You swam inside the cloths that kept you warm as a chill crept it's way up your torso. It was an uncomfortable and unwelcoming sensation, as if the very hands of death were holding onto you, caressing your body.

There was a light tug at your leg and you stirred with a murmur. Then followed another tug, more aggressive than the first. In a daze you stretched your arm to cover your leg, but came to find that the soft touch of your blanket was nowhere to be found. Your tried again, annoyed and on your back, searching both sides of your frame with your eyes still shut. The dark shadows of strain and decay travelled further up your leg and pulled once again with such forces that you were physically dragged down to the end of your bed. You gasped in the dark, shooting straight up with your struggling eyes, but with nothing to see, and a headache most painful, you fell back asleep.

There was a fog during the night, traveling through any crevasse it could slither through, stalking the halls for prey and dancing in the gardens before the sun began to rise. As much as you have slept in discomfort, the king did so as well. Almost knowingly aware of the stressor who had snuck their way through the castle walls.

The morning that followed was grey and crisp with cold air. Giant clouds of melancholy rolled over the sun and casted a harsh white light as they dominated the sky. A gloom was presently beginning to set before a dreadful winter would take its place with a slow shift of seasons where the leaves took their time to show it. Long before baring their place of home they blessed a sight of reds and yellows against the harsh monotones of the day. It was the sound of mourning doves which began to wake the people of the land and a stray ray of sunlight that woke you. In the middle of the room, closer to the door, the other maids dressed and chatted amongst themselves as you sat up in bed. Briefly one of the maids looked at you as you searched for the blanket which had gone missing through the night. Amongst the other beds in the room all other blankets remained tucked in nicely, but on top of the sick frame of the maid you've been caring for, laid your warm blanket cruelly resting there. That morning and for the proceeding three days.

"Don't be bothered, the ma'm is sick." One of the maids called out. "No one else wanted to give up their blanket."

"I can see that." You responded.

"Can you now? Don't get smart here, just ready up already for the day."

The maid shared a look with another and continued to brush her hair as you sat your old white gown.

You listened to the orders given out that morning by a maid with chestnut hair in braids wrapping around the bottom of her head and in place for her white cap. Her voice was low and modulated as she spoke to her gathering. You thought back on the sick woman resting behind everyone at the opposite side of the room. Barely motionless with no change in comparison to when she began taking the medicine you've given her. A steady, slow recovery, and fading fever.

"Anything not assigned means you'll continue yesterday's work as perusal. Lena, Amelie, and myself will be assisting rounds in the castle alongside the laundry maids."

You fiddled with the sleeves of your uniform, adjusting it so the sleeves fit nicely on top of the under layer added to combat the weather.

"Eventually we'll need travels to the fair and work in the gardens. Y/N instead of caring for the women return back anon and join those in the gardens nearby."

You gave a silent nod as a reply without turning your attention away from your sleeve.

Many gardens were hidden within the castle walls, unique to its custom design. The main court yard was what you could see out of the castle from the servants area opposite to the hall you were walking upon. Beyond that; stairs, much like the one you hated, stretched up into a hall - officially part of the castle on the left side of the garden.

Once venturing through the castle, down the decorative halls aligned with glorious overpowering windows sided with thick solid curtains, pass the familiar throne room, and ball room dorned in glistening objects, would one arrive to a series of doors. Libraries, studies, and most importantly guest rooms guarded by rich cherry wood.

Then there is a return to those stairs which mainly separated the two sections of the castle. The main castle and the servant living quarters.

As the main castle had one large garden outside of the ballroom with a small division of another -separated by a flowered arch- the extension of the castle and servant area had several less intricate gardens. They held their beauty satisfying yourself and the other maids who enjoyed the gardens' minimal beauty but they didn't amount to the glory outside of the ballroom.

You yawned passing the kitchen hearing a brief commotion as they began breakfast for the king and a tiny squeak as a little thing darted passed your feet. Down the hall, the torch by the scientist's door was out and remained dark.

To your left you entered the garden space. A large rectangular plot of land where the grey light in the sky blinded you momentarily. A few maids were already working on some rose bushes as others trickled in from behind you. Instead of cleaning up some sticks blown over from the wind last night or trimming some hedges by the benches seated at both ends of the garden, you sat in the middle of garden where smaller flowers were being planted and weeded.

"These aren't going to survive long" you pointed out to the gardening maid. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"The rose bushes is where you should help." She waved her gloved hand at you.

"Very well, but it's getting colder and-" she cut you off with another wave.

The roses stared at you with sad dry petals, begging for forgiveness. The greens of their leaves curled and the only thing barley standing was the sharp thorns out against you as weeds peered out from the roses' base. You sighed.

You lifted one of the weeds for a better look and it pricked you with tiny thorns of its own. In continuing your work you discovered how deep the root of the weeds went, entangling themselves with the roots of the roses.

You dug your hands in the hearts of the weeds as a crow above head screeched.

All other maids in the garden looked up at the passing bird as you continued your work. The thorns, sharp and cold as both plants, dotted your hands. Scrapping your nails loaded with the uncomfortable sensation of dirt under them, the dirt rejected you, numbing the movement of your fingers. There was a strange feeling of nostalgia that came from the numbing pain in your hands. Picking at the ground while unknowingly listening to the older women who cared for you, shaming you in secret for not being capable to help around the castle. It was a memory or memoric sense after the events at the stairs where the unnerving presence of that women followed you through the twisted stair case. After you were pushed and shoved around in the hall as well. Sitting in the garden like now, you were planting small white flowers you didn't know the name to. The soil was also just as unwelcoming as it was now. You're throat dried at the memory.

There was crows above head calling that day, much like today. The maids ignored it then with a few muttered comments you couldn't quiet make out.

What was it they said?

It had been disapproving. A curse to someone.

Now all the women glared at the black bird as it landed behind you. The bird kept crying.

You swiped a tear from your face with your sleeve. You fought to remember that day. As you plucked the weeds your hands held themselves to close to the roses and a thorn etched itself into your skin. You raised your hand in the air, shaking it as a response to the sting but kept attending to the weeds. As if the deep cut signaled an acceptance to the scratched pain you continued aggressively, ignoring the thorns that kept digging into your skin. After creating a large hole you found the base of the plant. Tugging at it, you remembered when you were younger and had reached what you wanted to plant those white flowers.

When you had placed the small flowers and could feel something else aside from yourself move in the earth.

You patted the soil on top, closing the hole at the bottom of the roses and could still feel the rumbling and small vibration of something definitely moving through. For a closer look you leaned in to see the soil break, revealing a set of fingers. A hand reached out and grabbed your own hand which resided by the flowers. You screamed out, falling back at the horror with your heart racing in your ears.

You tore the weed from the soil and tossed it to the side, panting. You reached back but instead of your skin catching itself in its thorns the fabric of your sleeve held you back. You tugged and pulled at the roses until the same hand grabbed your wrist, it's flesh as cold as ice. Frantically you shook your arm but the hand pulled you in. Through the thorns, deep into the bush you were forced to see a face emerge out. Her eyes opened and you screamed again, freeing yourself and falling back onto someone else.

"Y/N!"

You stared at the face melting back into the rose bush as the murder's wings above head sounded almost directly beside you. In a distance, your name was called out again but the piercing dazed eyes of the bush stared back. Holding an opaque blue, you could see a slow movement of smoke dancing within them. The face sank in slowly and the thorns dragged on its skin drawing the deepest blood you have seen.

"Y/N" the maid called out again, grabbing at you arm and pulling you up. "Y/N you damn wench pay attention to me! Can't you hear me?" She dragged you to your feet and slapped your arm repeatedly, but as you were still in shock you paid no attention until she slapped you across your face.

The world fell silent once the slap of her hand grazed across your face with an echo. You could feel the gaze of the other maids working in the garden. From where the maid had hit you a stinging sensation arose. She held onto both of your arms but what she proceeded yelling at you was unclear. Your ears rang and the maid began to shake you. Before she could say anymore and react to your silent response you pushed her back. As she walked back to you with another raised hand you pushed her again with a following punch.

Now your knuckles stung and the world began to make a sound again. The ringing in your ears was slowly replaced with the yells of the other workers. The maid who stood with the one you had hit rushed up to you before you could continue to fight the one on the ground. She looked up at you with a snarl and pulled herself up. The maid intervening stood in front of you with her hands raised in protest.

"Y/N" she called out as you tried to catch your breath. "Y/N, we needed you with the king!" As the other maids helped the one on the ground, with you, they stopped at the mention. "We need more help within the castle and need to have a conversation before an announcement was made. You weren't responding, you never answer to Amelie. What is wrong with you?"

"She hit me."

"Because you were dreaming off again and scaring everyone. I understand you're strange, all the maids do, but Amelie is bleeding, look at your hand!" The maid grabbed the wrist of your aching hand before tossing it to the side. You looked around you and the entire garden had their eyes locked. You began to protest shakingliy with the staggered murmurs of "but " as you tried to recollect yourself.

Looking at your hands again in a confused daze you gained an odd sense of familiarity, not of the situation, but of the sight of blood on your hands.

They've hit you before, you acknowledge now. A forgotten history of some ill treatment.

You wiped your hands on your gown, hiding the stains of blood in its brown color.

"What does the king want?" You asked.

Amelie stood in front of you, annoyed and in pain. The other maids tended back to their business, lending one ear out in case of anymore drama.

"There's plans for a celebration for the upcoming harvest. All the maids are to be involved but for the time being just a few. You, are needed to give updates about the madam." She began leading the way down the wall of your work space to the second set of stairs in the area, parallel to the scientist's end of the hall way.

"I spoke out about how I've shared some of the care for our beloved madam but they still wish for you to be present."

Amelie groaned as the second maid assisted her up the stairs.

"I've mention that I've assisted myself, but there's more to it."

As you entered down a small hall that still held an outlook to the garden you were previously in, the three of you entered the castle officially once passing three smaller steps and the entrance of a gated door. The harshness of the grey light lit up the acoustic halls, emphasized by the echoing steps, as the grey light poured in similarly to the way rays of sun do without the golden colour. Inside this little bit of the castle the cold air trailed along behind you from the gated door. Now out sight or ear range from the others the second maid turned back at you for a quick look.

"We need a report from the doctor."

"And as you've been so kind to relieve the burden of stepping in his deranged space you can understand why we're turning to you-"

"As you fancy him and all," Amelie slapped the girl's shoulder with a laugh of her own. "Don't be so cruel," she insisted as you responded with an uncertain chuckle of your own while recollecting the encounters in your head.

You remembered the first instance you've seen him and how you felt. There was soft curiosity dwindling in the background until you had heard the miss matched steps of his missing leg. Your heart beat began pounding against your chest with an intensity that only rose when hearing the rejection from others. How carelessly they dismissed him as a character in a story told to scare one another. He presented an opportunity to really push the kingdom forward with time and the anger he possessed infested yourself. A passionate anger which correlated with appropriately attractive sharp features.

The curious thought of whether or not what the maids had said was right followed you throughout the castle as they continued to explain other preparation details until eventually they conversed amongst themselves only. With yourself outside of the conversation you pondered on the idea until it was interrupted by the thundering bellied laugh of the king. You had known you had returned to the throne room where you had first seen the scientist when you heard the king and felt a busied energy that breathed life then what actually stood. As you wouldn't converse with the king directly, you and the two other maids walked along the scene's edge to a man in dark brown clothing standing in the corner with a scrolled book at hand.

"Wynston, Y/N as requested."

"Ah yes, thank you," he read through his book again. You scanned the man again taking in his appearance, dark hair and beard, tidy brown fabrics, and polished shoes. He was of thicker stature, built surprisingly of muscle and fat that may be better fitted or common with the knights. Especially those of tired experience. Never once had you been this close to the man or address directly with importance, but due to your age it had been a matter of time for you to be brought up more. Still this, you betted, would be the minim of involvement.

"How is Mina progressing with her illness?" You eye the two maids. Amelie scowled.

"Slowly." You responded.

"I assumed Jamison is not needed if you have control over it and the housemai-"

"Jamison?"

"Yes, Jamison."

The man continued his dialogue about the elder maid and a usual routine expected to take place to care for her until a dire instant calls to grab the scientist who now had a name.

'Jamison ' you thought, awe founded.

"For the harvest there'll be guests from a far staying in the company of his majesty so a division among the maids will be needed as well as isolation from Mina and those caring for her. I originally placed you three with Aria in care for Mina, but I can switch the positions between Aria and Amelie around," he turned to her, ripping a page from his book. "I'll have you in charge with Aria in creating some of the division amongst the appropriate classes. For now here is what I have arranged, tweak as fit."

"Y/N remains with Mina." Amelie spoke aloud as if to offend you secretly by keeping you at a distant from the party.

"Yes that's what I have written." Wynston reassured while distracted by another in need of his attention. "Y/N before its forgotten, what are the details with Mina?"

"Fever remains but she regained some colour. Can't actually tell if she's better at first glance,"

"Good. I'll need a report,"

"The girls informed me." You spoke out now with an internal desperation to see the scientist again.

"Then I'll leave you to your duties then and have you continue with the plans."

Wynston left the three of you and you followed the maids around as they discussed the given sheet of paper. You had half expected to remain with the sick maid and distant from the event as Amelie knew of your one incident with the stairs and mysterious guest. She had poked fun of you multiple times before after finding you pale and shaking. Then you thought back about the scientist's remark about the maids.

"Y/N, I don't believe Mina has received her turn of medicine. I was left to track that as Aria went to town. She said to mix the medicine with a soup as a trick remedy to lessen the taste."

You nodded and parted ways, relief to be alone and process what you had learned. You felt a strange disconnection almost always throughout your life in a comforting sense. A feeling of displacement but passing peace where moments like this, knowing his name as if it was a dark secret, grounded you. This state of mind drove you back into the throne room where the king still laughed with his order of chivalry; made out of a woman quiet liked by the kingdom, her father (the shortest person you may have ever seen) charged with constructing knights armour and weapons, and a male, age shown by his greying hair.

Heading through Wynston's exit you found yourself by the extended hall of rooms, armoury, and library just before the stairs of terror to the kitchen. You paused for a moment, peaking your head in to an empty labyrinth of books.

'Jamison' you thought.

You knew the library held a record of names to every soul that made up the kingdom. An archive of dates and ends, and locations of homes too. Maneuvering you're way through, you reached some wooden tables centred in the middle of the numerous shelves that exceeded your height. Three of them stood as two sectioned off to the side for privacy with crafted chairs waiting to seat you. On the third table, furthest from you and leading to the back of library, laid a book already open for your viewing and a chair pushed to the side. Unknown to yourself the scientist you were searching for had scurried moments prior before you could've caught sight of him. Though you hadn't known then that he was, there a suspicion which arose as you sat down and sworn to hear some movement behind the shelves away from you.

Turning the pages of the book you began reading the listed names. You expected all names were truly of belonging of those outside the walls as the only ones you could recognize were of those you encounter regularly, both personally and through others. Passing through the pages the order of chivalry caught your eyes:

'Brigitte, Torbjorn, Jack...'

Then the listed names of the maids:

‘Mina, Aria, Amelie, Lena, Hana ..."

Strangely as you reached the end of the list of recorded maids you noticed that you're name wasn't listed.

You continued to turned the next page, eyebrow raised. The kitchen staff were listed, gardeners, outside help, all but yourself. As you examined the book closer you noted 'Jamison Junkenstein' wasn't listed amongst the villagers either. Turning the final pages, past a space saved for new birth, you came across you're own name imprinted on a thinner page separated from the rest by the remains of a ripped page.

Your first name was written in a different style of cursive , alone, with a start date and frighteningly an end date.

'Y/N……….1204-1209’

Stepping away in bewildered confusion, you heard the sound of a book falling on the carpeted ground. Turning behind you saw that there was nothing there and returned to the book. About two other thin pages proceeded the one with your name but they were left blank with no other name to read.

1204-1209

Another thump in the library caused you to snap back behind you to see the source of the sound. The aisle behind you again laid empty. Another sound and you froze, waiting to hear what would come next. Slowly, you made your way to the back and aisle beside your left and there laid a book fallen on the ground.

Picking it up, it read of some farm land on the outskirts of the village outside of the castle. You placed the book back in it's vacant spot on the shelf and walked to the next aisle where another book laid. As you stretched back up from retrieving the book you saw a glimpse of white and finally heard the muffle sounds of miss matched steps. With eyes wide of realization you ran in the same direction it fled. Each end you've reached you seen the same white turn the corner and raced to catch up.

"Jamison?" You called out. Your heart began to run down each aisle of books as they grew longer. "Jamison?" You called out again and the muffled steps stopped. You found yourself lost in a labyrinth of books. Not once did you come across the table again and as you looked around you realized you have lost your complete sense of direction. Walking down one more aisle the sound of steps and fabric rubbing against itself picked up and this time you caught the glimpse of the scientist's purple glove as he ran off. Out in a sprint you fought to catch up, calling out his name repeatedly. With one last push you turned one final corner and could hear the man's breathing, even a giggle of sorts. But as you sped around the corner you met the ends of two shelves and a blank wall. Dr. Junkenstien was gone.

The library untwisted itself and you found yourself not far from where you started. The book still laid open but away from your name and at the end of the chivalry's list, now short due to a newly ripped page. You grabbed the book and proceeded to place it back into a vacant spot on the shelf where another one, above the shelf you had placed your book, stood. Wether or not Junkenstien had taken it was a mystery to you as you would've heard his steps behind you from the table if he had.

——————————————————————————

You thought about the library while gazing into the bowl of soup back in the maid chambers as your patient laid fast asleep, a bit of her spit still sliding it's way down your cheek.

How was it possible to have been lost so suddenly and out of breathe despite moving a few feet away from the book?

You were sure you had seen the scientist too.

This curious thought continued as you tried to sleep. Turned to your side you brain ache to solve the mess you had found. Your name was missing as part of the maids. If it had been scribed it should've been with a last name you've never heard of or the name attached to your estranged mother. Similar to Aria, a daughter also taken instead of birthed. Her's was written with the same ends of Mina.

Still, your name remained alone. There was something about each letter on the page that resonated with you.

It is your name.

You turned to your other side, facing away from the other maids. While staring at the wall you tried to remember your childhood within the castle walls and with time your eyes began to grow heavy. You could hear and feel the beat of your own heart, and the deep breathes of the other women in the room. You could hear the candle left by the empty soup bowl and the wind just outside. With enough effort you could even hear footsteps approaching the room, and on que, through the darkness and with your squinted eyes, you could see some movement at the bottom of the wall.

Little bits of stone fell out of place to reveal a small tuff of white fur. A rat squeaked it's way out and smelt the air, scurrying off in the dark and leaving you with a smile. You pondered at the newly made hole and returned to the question from before, coming to a conclusion that maybe you do fancy the scientist after all.

——————————————————————————-

#junkenstein #junkrat #overwatch #junkenstienxreader #junkenstein x reader #dr junkenstein #junkrat x reader #jamison fawkes #junkers

48 notes · View notes

funkymeihem-fiction · 5 years

Text

My Lovely Assistant - The Revenge of Dr. Junkenstein (NSFW)

“Oh, Dr. Junkenstein! There you are!” A voice chimed from above, a soft orange glow descending from the dark skies. The Witch’s curled slippers made no sound as she alighted on the cobbles, wet with rain and blood and scattered with ash from the charred corpse that lay half-curled near the wall.

His labcoat was in tatters, burnt to a crisp and spattered with black where it had once been clean white. The man’s skinny form had gone fetal in a hopeless attempt to defend himself at the very last, but he was peppered with arrows and bullets, and covered in alchemical fluids that had burned him all the faster when his own grenades had exploded as he’d fallen. A pair of blue glass goggles lay in a puddle nearby, the left lens cracked.

The Witch of the Wilds leaned down over the gruesome thing with surprising tenderness, her gloved fingertips reaching out and gently touching the burnt locks of ashen hair. Her eyes closed, she said the correct words, and focused…as a bright light lit the world for half a moment, and the charred husk was a man once more. Dr. Junkenstein uncurled from the ground, coughing up a mouthful of ash and wiping his lips on a thick rubber glove. Understandably, he seemed more disoriented than anything, dragged back to the world of the living yet again.

“Wuugh…” Sitting up, his eyes rolled in two different directions, swaying slightly. “You never think that fire is going to hurt as much as it does, y’know?”

“Welcome back, Dr. Junkenstein,” the Witch said smoothly. “Although I fear that you were bested yet again. Where the Lord of this Castle keeps summoning these new allies from, I’ve no idea. I wonder if I too should seek allies elsewhere…Dr. Junkenstein, please pay attention. That was a veiled threat and you’ve just missed it.”

“Huh? Oh, right. What?”

The mad doctor looked around him, spying the crumpled and exploded scrap metal of his zomnics littering the castle grounds. Scarecrow, too, had been utterly mangled, and his erstwhile creation was little more than piles of moldering cloth and scattered straw. And past that, he spied a familiar lunk of rotted meat… With a wail, Dr. Junkenstein clambered through the cold puddles, carelessly tossing aside Scarecrow’s mask and picking up a huge severed shoe with part of a leg still attached.

“Nooo! My Monster! My creations!” He clutched the leg in a mad embrace, seemingly caring nothing for the smears it left on his coat. He even gave it a sobbing little smooch, not noticing the severely disgusted look the Witch was giving him. “What have they done to you! Not to worry, not to worry, Dr. Junkenstein will fix you right up. Mei, sweetie dumpling, get the needle and thread! Mei, hurry with the…Wait a minute…Mei! Where’s my Mei!”

His loyal jiangshi was nowhere in sight. With the rest of his army in ruins, had they managed to destroy her as well? Could that untidy rabble truly destroy a creature like his faithful Chinese vampire? There was no trace that his undead assistant had ever been there at all; not a bloodstain or scrap of cloth or even the feather from her cap. Now frantic, he tossed the Monster’s severed leg aside and began digging through the wreckage with both hands, metal bits going flying.

“Don’t worry, lovey, I’ll find you!”

The Witch drifted forward and cast him into shadow, primly adjusting her hat and dodging a piece of zomnic scrap that went hurtling by her. “Calm down, Dr. Junkenstein. Mei-Ling is…Well, she’s still alive in a sense of the word. Although I fear she’s had a bit of a complication that I’m unable to assist with.”

“Wot? Then where is she?” Junkenstein breathed out, then scoffed. So Mei was still ‘alive’, at least. But he had a hard time imagining anything beyond the scope of the Witch’s power. He himself had just been violently risen from the dead again, an occurence that was starting to become all too familiar. “Er, whaddaya mean, even you can’t help her? What complication can’t you fix?”

The Witch cleared her throat, perhaps a little awkward for the first time that the Doctor had ever seen. Her lips pursed, gaze darting almost imperceptibly while he busied himself with replacing his goggles. The comforting shield of blue glass settled over his vision once more, turning about with his hands on his bony hips. For once, he was the one doing the confronting, as the Witch busied herself with the sudden need to inspect her broomstick.

“I have helped her to the best of my ability, but it seems that we have hit a…shall we say, impasse?” she said. “It’s all a rather silly matter, really. And she’s terribly embarrassed about the whole thing, so we’d appreciate you stepping in and taking care of this quickly. I’ll take care of the rest of your servants in the meanwhile. Mei-Ling, dear, you can come out.”

There was still no answer, and Dr. Junkenstein frowned as he peered into the darkness past the Witch’s unearthly glow. “Aw, Mei. Where are you, my l’il pudding pie? There’s naught to worry over now, the magnificent Dr. Junkenstein, the Master of Life and Death himself—” He paused at the Witch’s warning cough. “Er, the Doctor is in, and you know there’s no reason at all to be sheepish. No secrets here. You and I’ve been through so much alrea—”

Something moved in the shadows. A very small hunched figure, seeming smaller than ever, shuffled out of the night. Like a very shy vampiric schoolgirl on her first day, Mei took small little hops forward, scooting slightly to the side to hide behind the Witch’s grandeur. Despite the violent battled beforehand, she seemed to be in relatively good shape. There was a splash or two of blood on her robes, marring the white crane on her chest. One of her slippers had torn and would need to be mended. A visible cut had ruined the cuff of her sleeves, and her hat was missing…although the missing hat was easily explained.

Mei was sporting a severed stump of a neck, and her head was completely gone. Cold, blue-tinted meat was all that was left, with the white vertebrae of bone and the tubes of the esophagus stuck within, their edges too clean to have been anything than the swift single cut of a very sharp blade.

Dr. Junkenstein frowned, rubbing his stubbled chin. “Aw, pookie bear, is that the problem! Nothing to be ashamed of, darl, we’ve all lost our heads now and again. Which way did it go? Who did that to you, anyway? Oh, they’re gonna be in for it now! You just tell me who’s the perpetrator, I’ll show them a thing or two about a thing or two! So, first let’s just find that pretty little skull of yours before we…Hm?”

What was left of the jiangshi’s corpse seemed very upset about the matter indeed, hunching down behind the Witch again. When questioned on her head’s whereabouts, she waved both metallic claws and started making very strange gestures. But with no way to verbalize, she was left to an elaborate game of charades, and the doctor could only squint at her in growing consternation. After a moment, she smacked one fist into the other and held up her taloned fingers.

“Hmmm,” the doctor mused aloud, squinting behind his goggles. “Okay, two words. First word. Okay. Big. Giant. Tall. No, movement? Forward, up…Over. Over!” He cackled in delight as Mei gave him the thumbs up. “Okay second word. Shape. Triangle. Wave. Slope. Mountain. Mountain! Right, right, over the mountain.”

She waved her confirmation and pointed towards a large and rocky peak just outside the castle’s territory, then began gesturing again.

“Squeakies. Bats. Spooky, dark, in the dark. Oh! Right you are, darling! I see, they’re on the other side of that mountain, just outside the mouth of a cave with a bat population, on a rather narrow ledge with a crumbled pile of landslide boulders on one side.” He nodded, then turned and started walking. “All right, let’s go!”

The Witch gave him a startled look. “You got all that from charades?”

“You didn’t? Thought she made it pretty obvious,” he scoffed. “Can’t forget, when I first found her, we spent weeks together with her unable to speak even a lick of the language. And don’t tell them I told you this, but my Monster and Scarecrow have never exactly been much for scintillating conversation either, if you catch my drift. So I spent months and months in that tower, perfecting my beautiful creations and perfecting the art of supernatural language interpretation because none of them could talk to me!”

The Witch slowly lifted one brow. “Dr. Junkenstein, yet again I find myself simultaneously impressed and depressed by your personage.”

The good doctor only busied himself with fussing over his headless jiangshi, puckering his lips and leaning down to plant a kiss right on the ice-cold meat of her open neck. “Not to worry, smoochie. The Good Lady and I aren’t going to let my most ghoulish girl go without her parts for too long. Now a stray foot or arm is one thing, got plenty of replacements for those. But well, awfully hard to replace a head, and yours is the prettiest head in the world. Plus all the things we use it for, ehehehe…” His pale cheeks lit up pink at the thought.

The decapitated corpse placed both claws over her heart as if touched by his words, then waved abashedly at him in a ‘Oh, you!’ sort of gesture before wrapping herself up in his gangly embrace.

Unable to entirely hide her disgust this time, the Witch sighed and rubbed two fingers against her temples. “This would all be so much easier if I could simply resurrect you myself, Mei-Ling. But as it stands, your standing with death was made long before we met. Oh, and Doctor? This is really more of a quick recovery sort of thing. Please simply get the skull back and try not to cause trouble. I…have my eye on the one who did this to her. And I do not want him badly harmed.”

“Like hell!” The doctor’s temper flared, even while Mei tugged fretfully at his sleeve. “Resurrect the rest of my minions and I’ll reactivate the zomnics! I’ll turn our whole damned army after this bloke!”

“Mind your tone, Dr. Junkenstein,” the Witch replied coldly, and something seemed to curdle inside the man’s veins. His scrawny body shrunk and hunched down once more, still clutching covetously at his headless companion. She adjusted her skirts to smoothly lower and sit upon her hovering broom, narrowing her gaze at him. “I shall be tending to the remains of our cohorts. You are tasked with simply finding Miss Zhou’s missing head and bringing it back, with no harm coming to the perpetrator. Are my instructions clear?”

“Y-yes ma’am. Lady Ma’am. But…why wouldn’t—”

“Are. My instructions. Clear.”

“…Yes Ma’am.”

***

He was eager to leave the Witch to her duties, hurrying out of the dark castle grounds with Mei’s corpse hopping in step just behind him. She had always been more quiet and polite than him, but now her utter silence was unnerving. He really did miss her having a mouth…for lots of reasons, really, but if he thought too much about it, he’d get distracted. Best to stick to the task at hand. Limping forward along the muddy kingdom paths, they soon left the destruction behind them.

“I’m still not entirely clear on the physics at work here, darl. Can tell you’re able to see and hear me despite having no eyes or ears attached at the moment, but are you really sure you’re up for this? Er, we could always just ask for the Witch of the Wilds to bring back the Summoner. Now she’s not exactly the nicest, I know, but we could ask to have her teleport us right up to—” He tilted his white-tufted head as the jiangshi made more silent gestures, before he gasped and placed a gloved hand to his chest.

“Well! You don’t have to get so snitty, my dear. I know this is the most urgent of matters, but there’s no need to lose your head—” A black claw whapped him in the arm and he cackled aloud. Snagging her hand with his own, he lifted it upward and placed a few smacking wet kisses to the backs of her knuckles. “No, no, no, just a joke! Just lightening the mood! Just give us a laugh- Er…or a nod- Er…Wait.”

Mei waved both hands, gestured, slapped him in the other arm, and gestured again. But her admonishment seemed to be a playful one, headless or no. Especially when she made several more signs with her curled talons, then grasped onto the front of his labcoat, sliding a hand inside and then down his narrow chest.

Junkenstein gasped. “A reward? Mei! Blimey! You’re lucky the others aren’t around to hear you say all that. You’re a naughty girl, aren’t you? You know how the Witch feels about the PDA. But uh, I mean, we do kinda need your head to…Agghck!” His shriek faded into a reedy giggle as her claws slid a little lower, cheeks going from pink to neon red. “W-well! You know that just returning my lovely assistant’s head to her is plenty reward enough. But maybe, you know, since you’re already offering? Yeah, all right! That puts a pep in my step! C’mon!”

The jiangshi did not need to be told twice. She withdrew wordlessly from his skinny body and followed after him, with Dr. Junkenstein fussing and grumbling as he started looking for quicker paths up the towering black escarpment above them. His attempts to climb were a rather pathetic affair, his peg leg screeching against the rock and his flimsy build doing him no favors. Mei waited patiently to at least let him make the effort, before she outstretched her arms and hopped forward once more.

She scooped him up as one would a damsel in distress, claws hooking under his knees and back. He might have even swooned a little, as the headless corpse of a woman lifted him up and bent her knees…and her movements went from hopping to leaping. She bounded with an agility that she rarely showed openly, the scientist rattling against her chest and clinging onto her as up and up they went. Little pebbles went scattering away from her soft slippers, ricocheting off of boulders and scaling the cliffside as the jiangshi was finally boosted up by an unnatural whirl of white mist. With an artistic little spin, she landed with a soft noise amongst the debris of the struggling pines attached to the perilous mountainside.

Unfortunately, the decapitation had affected her a little more than her body was willing to admit. She landed gracefully, even posing with her charge in both arms…and then promptly tilted straight over with a rattling crash when she tried to take a step forward. Trying to navigate the world without her eyes and ears really attached was not the easiest. Like a felled tree, she just tilted right over and the doctor went with her, his shriek muffled as he landed on top of her in a spray of pine needles and dirt.

Dr. Junkenstein pulled his head out of her bosom, one eye opening warily behind his goggles. Groaning, he staggered upright as his assistant helpfully ushered him up again, swaying to one side and jamming his peg into the dirt. “Ooooh, hold on. Hold on. Too fast, just got resurrected here…Brrp. Okay. Nooot gonna chunder…Oh hell—” He bent double, making gagging noises while Mei apologetically patted him on the back. “Hggh. Hggghhh!”

Luckily, he hadn’t eaten anything on his freshly reformed stomach for him to vomit. The nausea soon passed, and he wiped at his chin and looked around blearily as the two found themselves on the other side of the mountain. The doctor composed himself as best he could, smoothing out his labcoat, and tilted his tufted head as he lowered into his favorite creeping hunch.

“You hear something, sweetie? Think that’s them?”

She did not respond, only hopping after her master as he crept along the dark rocks. Junkenstein soon spotted the faint glow of a campfire, and the shadowy figures lurking around it. Just as his jiangshi had ‘said’, the group of mercenaries and allies had made their camp at the mouth of a cave in the steep hillside. Junkenstein kept his distance, even though anger and hatred rankled inside his ribcage as he spied his hated foes that had just finished killing him and stealing his poor girl’s precious head. He was close enough that he could recognize a few of them; the Alchemist, the Gunslinger, the Swordsman, the Archer… Where the rest had gone, he couldn’t say. He was already outnumbered— and if the others were nearby, massively so.

Mei tugged urgently at his sleeve.

He waved her off and squinted, adjusting his goggles. “I know, it’s not looking good. Too many. Others might be close by, too. And she expects me not to blast them sky high? Really, why would the Witch make this a bloody stealth operation? She knows I’m no good for those!”

Another pull at his coat.

“Why wouldn’t she have sent the Reaper or even that useless Scarecrow for stealthy nonsense…Unless it was a trick and she wanted me to blow up this stealth operation? She’s always been a tricky one. This might be another one of her cunning plans, do you think? Like, maybe she was so adamant about not killing whoever stole your head, because she knew I was going to kill whoever stole your head. I mean, it’s not like I can do anything less. After what they did to you?”

There was a soft movement at his side, though he barely noticed.

He dug through his lab coat, pulling out handfuls of bombs and scrap. “I see it now! I’m onto her game! It’s actually a brilliant plan because it’s such a bad plan! Ohohoho, I’ve got it this time, that’s the rub. So it’s decided, then. We blow up this whole stealth mission, kill everyone as revenge, and then find your head! Nobody steals my pookie pie’s head! Except me! Because that’s different in a much more foreplay sort of way! Dunno which one took it, but we’re gonna find out real quick, we are. The Witch can sort through the piles afterward. Okay, Mei. You go in soft, and then I’m gonna go in real loud. You ready, darl?”

A finger tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned. “Darl…?”

A metallic face peered down to look at him, the metallic joints of its tentacled face clicking very softly below the slitted green gaze, glowing brightly in the shadow of its hood. Orbs bearing strange symbols floated around them. Its pointed fingertip withdrew from where it had politely hailed him, curling by its broken manacles. It was an omnic he had glimpsed only briefly, the ‘Monk’ that the Witch had reacted rather strangely to. And now it was poking him.

“Darkness and shadows be upon you,” the Monk said.

The noise that Dr. Junkenstein made next was not the most dignified one, and he had made a lot of undignified noises. But luckily for him, the ensuing sounds of explosions were quick to cover it up. He flung out both arms, detonating the bombs he’d been sorting through. White and yellow light exploded in a spray of heat and metal, catching both the Monk and the doctor in the blast and sending them both hurtling away from each other as they were flung upward.

To his credit, Junkenstein was very well-versed in explosives. He recovered mid-air, already pulling more mines and his grenade gun from the void of his labcoat. With a scream that was half laugh and half warcry, he sent volley after volley raining down upon the startled group of adventurers. He caught both the Archer and the Gunslinger unawares, engulfing them in a series of blasts as their little drinking session was interrupted in the harshest way. The Swordsman was swifter, pulling his blade in a hiss of steel…but not swift enough, forced into a fire-covered retreat as he leapt away.

Beneath the blue glass of his goggles, Junkenstein’s wild eyes darted to and fro amongst the chaos. Which one of them had Mei’s head? It wasn’t immediately clear. Probably best he just kill them all as planned, then. They deserved it for beheading his girl, killing him, and his Monster, and even Scarecrow. They deserved it for laughing at him. They deserved it for kicking dirt in his face all these years.They deserved it for—

A dart sang through the air, sinking into his chest even as his grenade launcher lifted for another round. His limbs suddenly went limp, body unresponsive as the last of his bombs went bouncing along the ground, sending more caustic smoke and dust into the air. Even through the haze, he saw her…The Alchemist stood with her arm raised and her face grim, her wrist-launcher now emptied of the dart that had buried itself into him.

With another crash, he fell into a twisted heap of tangled limbs and mechanical parts, twitching madly as he tried to force himself to move. He managed to snarl, lips curling around bared teeth, drool practically foaming with his efforts. Oh, the curses he longed to spit at them, but he was unable to do anything but utter a distressed wheeze.

The clanking of weaponry all around him belied his situation to be a dire one. As a group they advanced, no doubt ready to send him to his death yet again. He scraped a glove in the dust and waited for the hail of bullets, blades, and arrows to take him: his mission failed.

There was a whooshing noise as a purple blur hurtled through the air, clipping the Alchemist right off her feet and sending her spinning into the darkness beyond the campfire. Mei landed with more of a stumble than usual, her headless body scrambling to Junkenstein’s aid. Placing her body between him and the mercenaries, she swung both claws in a silent warning.

“Fffhgh mmn nnnnn,” Junkenstein slurred from the dirt, helpfully translating her threat.

“All right, this is getting outta hand,” the Gunslinger grumbled, raising a hand over his weapon’s hammer. “Ain’t we killed y’all enough for one night? We better get paid extra for this bull.”

“What could possibly have possessed you to even attempt to follow us?” the Archer sneered. “You’re both weakened…and one of you is not even whole.”

The Swordsman said nothing, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the decapitated jiangshi.

The doctor was finally starting to twitch back to life behind her, dragging himself up to one knee and reaching for his grenade gun. Mei signed something, desperately swerving back and forth in front of the downed scientist to keep their foes at a distance. He lifted his head, frowning severely as he watched her urgent game of charades.

“What do you mean you don’t want to fight, schmooples? They got what’s yours! And I’ll take it back from—” He started to reach for his mines, but jolted back a moment later when another wave of nausea and exhaustion overtook him all at once. It was different from the dart, and when he looked up he saw its source. A single shining orb hovered around him, shining with a sinister looking rune that seemed to drain his energy with a poisonous purple glow. “What the hell! Damnit, lay off!”

“Let us all take a calming breath,” the Monk said, hovering in from the darkness. “I believe there has been a misunderstanding. Perhaps if we allow them to explain.”

“Mish mumkin!” The Alchemist joined his side, holding her ribs and looking none too pleased. “I am not entirely sure what explanations we can expect from a madman and a headless vampire.”

Mei waved hurriedly, hopping in the Monk’s direction, and then hopping right back again when the Swordsman advanced upon her with his sword still drawn. He positioned himself in front of his master just as she had positioned herself in front of hers, his blade held at the ready.

“I have already relieved you of your head once tonight, little leech. Rest assured, I will relieve you of your other parts as well if you—”

The Swordsman was not able to finish his threat. Mei was already moving but not towards him, slamming both hands into the Doctor’s chest to keep him back as he tried to lunge forward. Such was his anger that even the jiangshi was faced with a struggle to hold him at bay, her slippers sliding in the dirt as he surged against her efforts. His voice rose once more into demented screeching.

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO HURT MY LOVELY ASSISTANT?! YOU TOOK HER HEAD, THEN I’LL TAKE YOURS! I’LL BLOODY GO YA! I’LL—”

The Alchemist narrowed her eye at him, catching his gaze and very pointedly loading another dart into place. “Dr. Junkenstein, you’ve been given a rare chance. Have sense for once in your life…lives…and make use of this time. If not for yourself, then to at least translate whatever this poor creature is trying to say.”

The Archer curled his lip. “A waste of our time. Whatever excuse this lunatic and his vampire has concocted to attack us, it matters not. We should do away with them both.”

“I believe that the Doctor is of the genuine belief that we have taken something important,” the eerie omnic Monk said, folding his spindly fingers where he hovered nearby. “I cannot condone dispatching him…this time. While his methods remain enigmatic at best, this time his motive seems to be a pure one.”

Dr. Junkenstein grit his teeth and snarled, but wrapped one arm around Mei and halted in his struggles to get past her. The other snapped up to point viciously in the Swordsman’s direction. “You got a lot of nerve! Now it’s one thing to kill a gentle and innocent girl like my assistant. But stealing from her is entirely another!”

The Swordsman only seemed more baffled and angry than before. “What are you babbling about? I feel no shame in dispatching your vampire, but I have stolen nothing!”

“Explain this then!” The Doctor gestured to the jiangshi’s extremely missing cranium. “Where is it! Stealing a lady’s head while she’s still using it, that’s absolutely low!”

“What? Why should I know where her head went?” The other man scoffed, but slid his blade back into its sheath in another frustrated motion, if only to gesticulate in an equally affronted way. Their pointing grew more aggressive over the campfire separating them. “Likely it fell into your moat or into a ditch during the battle. Go look for it there and cease troubling us.”

The Gunslinger opened his mouth, then shut it again. The Archer gave him a strange look, then turned back to where the Swordsman and the Doctor were still trading barbs.

“Liar! I know you’ve got it! She says it’s here!” Junkenstein looked down to Mei, who made an affirmative motion.

“Then she is wrong! I said I do not have it!”

The Monk tilted his head to the side, tentacled face writhing in subtle consternation. “My student speaks truly. It is not in our possession. Perhaps the jiangshi is mistaken somehow? Though…It is strange that she has not yet been able to find it.”

“She’s gonna find it when you lot finally give it up! Can’t even believe this. I expected better of you.”

“And I expected nothing from you. I say again, we do not have it!”

The Alchemist knitted her brows. “I am reluctant to even say this, but this seems to have been a simple misunderstanding. As a gesture of good faith, perhaps we can simply let you leave to search elsewhere? We are honorable people and have taken nothing from you—”

The Gunslinger coughed loudly, his gaze swerving skyward. All eyes moved to him, and the argument abruptly stopped. Somewhere out in the darkness, an owl hooted just to interrupt the sudden silence.

The Alchemist slowly lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, cursing softly. “Please tell me you did not.”

The Gunslinger pasted a leery smile on his face, chewing down on his cigar. Lifting both hands in a placating motion, he sidled backward and away from the fire. “So, listen…”

“Please tell me you did not.”

“Well Ma’am, you know how these things go,” he wheedled, leaning down to his bulging supply pack. “I figured, we went to a whole lot of trouble for a pretty damn paltry reward from His Lordship, all things considered. Now I ain’t entirely sure what to make of all these particular…Monsters, and Pumpkinheads, Dragons, Scarecrows—”

“Yeah, well. Not much to make of the Scarecrow, frankly,” Junkenstein snorted, then grumbled when Mei slapped his arm again.

“Uh, so, ya see. I was moseying along after the bloodshed and all, and I thought I saw somethin’ in the bushes there. And I thought to myself,” He unstrapped something inside his pack, holding up a round burlap-bound bundle. “Er, well I thought to myself, I might know some folks who would pay a pretty penny or two for a bona fide trophy from a real Chinese vampire, and she was already dead and all so I thought maybe…”

The straps and burlap fell away, draping open. Mei’s missing head sat like a heavy stone in his palm, her eyes opening and blinking owlishly in the sudden firelight. She brightened visibly at the sight of her body nearby, fanged jaws opening and closing. She mouthed silent words, noiseless except for the faintest little mute gasps from an open throat that was no longer attached to any vocal chords. Her body released its grip upon the Doctor, lifting both arms and starting to hop forward to reclaim her missing piece.

The Gunslinger winced away when Mei’s head screwed her lips to the side and glared up at him. “To be fair, Missy, I didn’t know your head was still gonna be all…alive and whatnot. It didn’t respond when I picked it up or anything, or I never woulda assumed— I mean, all the other vampires I killed before, never had this particular problem.”

The Archer haughtily ran a hand through his hair, nose in the air. “Perhaps if you had actually read a book in your life and done studies on how Eastern vampires actually differentiate from their inferior garlic-fearing counterparts? I have killed more than enough of them to know.”

The Gunslinger bristled, turning upon his fellow mercenary. “Then you should know there’s a lot more to my vampire-hunting than garlic. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to brag when your Eastern vamps are afraid of duck eggs and rice. Eggs and rice! Maybe we didn’t even need the Swordsman’s blade, and I could have just chucked a to-go bag at her!”

Junkenstein uttered a shrill giggle from the other side of the camp. “Oh you don’t even know, mates! One time I tried to make her this stew—” He faltered again as Mei slanted her gaze at him. “Uh, nothing. Never mind. Now could you stop flirtin’ long enough to give my jiangshi her head back! Cretins.”

“W-we weren’t…uh…”

Mei snatched her head out of the stuttering Gunslinger’s grasp, hugging it covetously to her own chest in triumph before bounding back towards her Doctor. He flung open his long arms with a grin and she leapt into them, and he cackled and swung her in a circle before leaning down to kiss the top of her head as she lifted it up to him. He beamed down at her as she gently settled her head back into place, straightening it upon the stump of her neck. He only seemed more charmed by her than before. “There she is! Talk about a true beaut.”

The others watched with the usual disgusted curiosity that Junkenstein was so used to, although the Alchemist chanced a small smile.

“In a way it’s actually sort of sweet, how they—”

Dr. Junkenstein pulled a long needle and coarse thread out from his coat, roughly jamming it into the jiangshi’s cold flesh and pushing it harshly through the layers of meat and muscle beneath. Grinning maniacally, he tittered another shrieking laugh as he pulled it taut and began very aggressively sewing the two pieces of her throat back together. Meanwhile, the little vampire flailed and uttered horrid strangled gurgling noises as her head was forcibly strung back into place.

The Alchemist sighed. “Never mind.”

“Don’t listen to them. You look- Hrrrngh!” He pulled the string tight, the stitches sinking deep. “Amazing! There we are, that should help it heal all the faster. How do you feel, darl?”

Mei adjusted her head several times, rubbing at her throat. Her first attempts at words were useless little whistling noises like a distressed guinea pig, but as she finally seemed to line up which tubes went where inside her neck, and she managed a few more hoarse whispers in her native tongue before trying to speak. “C-can you hear me? Hello? Oh! It worked! Thank you, Doctor!”

“The most lovely assistant in all the world! What would I do without you? That’s all right, no answer needed, don’t you strain that pretty voice too hard.” His expression lit up all the more, fussing at the thread end and tying it off. He stepped back and caressed her hair and adjusted the spell paper on her forehead, leaning down over her to plant another kiss to the end of her nose. “Good to have you back proper.”

She uttered an adorable squeak and smiled up at him, dimples just below the dots painted on her cheeks. “It’s such a relief to be able to talk again.”

“Too right! Now, let’s finish blowing up these prats before we head back—!” He reached back to his coat, this time for his gun. But the rattle of weaponry all around him gave him pause, as did the jiangshi’s claws as she grabbed onto his arm to stop him.

“W-wait! It was just a mistake, that’s all. I’m sure none of them meant it. I was still stunned, and even the cowboy man probably just wasn’t thinking.”

The Archer smirked around his bow. “Not an uncommon occurance.”

“All right, I’m just about tired of you steamin’ my beans—”

Both the Doctor and The Gunslinger looked ready to ignite another battle that Mei was not at all prepared for. Her fanged smile wavered, and she clutched onto the lunatic scientist a little tighter, tugging at his arm to urge him back the way they came from. “Listen, it’s been a very long night for everybody, hasn’t it? And…And there’s such a lot of work we need to do back at your lab. And the…you know?”

Dr. Junkenstein was still trying to catch the eye of the Swordsman, who was pointedly not looking back at him. “But that one, the one the Witch was on about. He cut ya up!”

“It’s not the first time I’ve been cut up. And I’m fine now, see? I have my head back. Why don’t we head home! For…you know?”

“But…Huh?”

“Your reward?” She fluttered her eyelashes up at him. She tried what she hoped was a salacious whisper, but with her ragged throat it came out a little croakier than she’d hoped. Still, she tried. “You know? For being so, so good. At helping me.”

Realization hit him like a thunderbolt. His sallow skin went pink and almost as clammy as his vampire as he started to sweat, face twisting into a very particular and stupid grin. Puffing out his bony chest, he pointed at the group of baffled adventurers before him.

“You’re lucky, that’s what you all are. My girl has a soft and tender heart and…oh yeah, soft and tender everything, er…Uh, you’re all pardoned this one time! And only because you gave her back her head without too much trouble. Although you two,” He pointed to the glaring Archer and Gunslinger. “You two piss me right off. But not as much as the guy with the sword. And you,” He shifted to the Monk floating peacefully nearby. “You give me the skeevies, and you got no idea how hard that is to do. And the old lady, you…Well, you’re actually sort of scary too.”

“Charmed.”

He swallowed throatily, twitching. “We’re pissing off. And don’t you dare steal any of my creatures’ parts again, you don’t even appreciate them. Not like I’m gonna appreciate them. Ehehehe.” There was a unified groan from the mercenaries, but Junkenstein ignored them. Looping an arm about the much shorter woman beside him, he turned and began hobbling off towards the darkness. “Anyhow! Damn you all! Blow you all to hell next time, toodle-oo!”

“Have a good night, Dr. Junkenstein,” The Alchemist replied calmly, over the murmuring of the others.

Nobody moved to stop them, and the adventurers watched the strange pair gallavant away together. Once more, the night grew quiet save for the crackle of the campfire and the hush of the insects. Peace returned, and eventually conversation slowly returned after an uneasy silence. But the Doctor and his companion seemed to be gone, having found the strange prize they had pursued.

The Gunslinger chewed on his cigar and merely shook his head. “And they say I’m the oddity…”

The Swordsman said something about more firewood, skulking off into the forest. But he did not bend to scavenge wood from the forest floor, only finding a shadowed place in the already shadowed night. The darkness there could be just as comforting as the cheerful glow of the campfire. He was not the only one who found it to be so. A presence joined him there in the blackness, heralded by no footsteps, gliding through the void.

“My Student,” the Monk said. “What troubles you?”

“Nothing. Merely…the lunatic’s shrieking left me irritable. And I dislike the way the foul little jiangshi looked upon me.”

“The jiangshi was quite polite, considering the state of things.”

“The Doctor, then.”

“…Is it the Doctor’s presence that bothered you, or his words?”

“The man is so addled he can barely string them together. It is nothing.”

“It is not how the Doctor spoke, my Student. It is the truth of what he said. Her gaze has found that which is within you. Do you still carry such thoughts of vengeance and regret? Hers is an old and powerful magic, and she will come to offer you all that you—”

“Then I will deny her.”

“…Will you?”

The Swordsman was silent, gaze downward. After several long moments his head lifted, eyes glinting red even with no light to catch them. He turned away from the Monk, and stepped deeper into the forest.

“We still need to gather firewood.”

“Of course. I shall help you, my Student.”

They moved together into the dark.

***

Elsewhere in the dark, the jiangshi and a rather bedraggled Doctor Junkenstein finally returned to the outer fortifications of the castle. Half-ruined walls and crumbled stone towers were half sunken or in the process of sinking into the muck. The occasional flickering torch lit up the gloom, but the castle and the villages remained locked away and all was silent. The Doctor groaned, pausing to sit on the remains of a low wall, pounding pebbles out of his boot before thrusting it back upon his foot.

“Ooooh my dog is barking. Long walk back, even with you helping me down the steep bits. Not to complain, mind, it’s nothing compared to your troubles! How is everything? Head all right? Stitches holding? Are you sure we shouldn’t go back there and blow them to smithereens?”

“No, I’m sure. We got what we wanted, right? And I think the Witch wants something else from them and we shouldn’t cause her too much trouble. Especially after she was so nice enough as to resurrect you first so you could help me? Although it did take me a little bit to try and get across to her that I wanted you.“

His hairless brows lifted. “My little dumpling! You were the one to ask for me back?”

“Of course. I was so embarrassed when I woke up. Nobody’s ever stolen my entire head before, and I couldn’t even talk to her. She wanted to send the Reaper with me at first, but I said no thank you. Just you. She can understand my language, but…I don’t even need language with you. Nobody can understand me like you can.”

“Got real good at that, just like I said.”

“Plus, you’re a lot more fun than anyone else here. And…” She leaned down to loom over him for once, lips parting to reveal a fanged smile. “You taste a lot better, too.”

The Doctor’s face went heated again. “Aaaha…aaha-ha-ha-ha!” His gloved fingers immediately started groping at the high collar of his labcoat, fumbling with the snaps. He swallowed audibly, the lump in his throat bobbing up and down, and he saw the jiangshi’s keen gaze follow it. Licking at his chapped lips, he tugged the snap free and tilted his head to the side, baring the sweat-dampened pillar of his neck. “W-well! Speaking of! I know what’ll heal that mild case of decapitation quicker than stitches. Hot and fresh, right here!”

The little vampire practically purred, even as she slowly traced one curved claw to his neck, feeling the pulse thundering just below the surface of the straining flesh. “But Doctor…Aren’t you forgetting about your reward? Just for you?”

“P-part of it! This can be part of it!” he practically barked aloud, leaning into her touch. “After all, doesn’t my lovely assistant have to be in tip-top condition before she can assist me?!”

“I should have considered that. I guess…I really should be at my best for you? You make a good point, Doctor.” The very tip of her claw curled a little at the word, scratching at the skin and threatening to break through.

That was not the only thing threatening to break through. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was his love of horrible puns or how the jiangshi was teasing him or a combination of the two, but an erection was already forming a hard lump beneath his coat where he sat. He tried to drag her down on top of it, but she only giggled coyly and pulled away from him. Groaning, he pulled at her robes to tug her back, but she deftly avoided his grasp, hopping several steps towards the darkness of a ruined stairway tower.

Dr. Junkenstein practically somersaulted in his haste to follow, staggering upright and stumbling as he limped after her. She giggled, still just out of reach as she dodged his seeking hands, leaping into the yawning shadows of the tower’s arched doorway. Her laughter echoed around the cold stone walls left to rot so long ago, ringing strangely from the tower’s dark and empty bowels, and anyone else might have thought it eerie. The Doctor did not think so, only redoubling his efforts to chase her.

Something hit him as he ducked into the gloom, where the light was barely enough to see. Just as he was nearly going to trip upon a collapsed section of the stone, the little purple blur hurtled out of the shadows, snatching him up by the front of his coat and dragging him several steps with no effort. His back hit the wall and it nearly knocked the breath from his fragile ribs, but it only made his grin grow wider and his trousers grow tighter.

“My good Doctor…” she whispered in a voice he couldn’t even describe, and her grip on him could have crushed his bones and he wouldn’t have even cared.

“Mmmeiiieiingnh…” he tried to whisper her name as well, but it came out as an embarrassing gurgling moan when her lips pressed to his.

Up on the very tips of her slippered toes, the jiangshi kissed him. Her lips were cold but that hardly mattered, the tip of her spell paper tickling his cheek as she tilted her head. She also smelled a little like burlap, probably from her head being so rudely shoved into a bag for so long, but that hardly mattered either. At least she had her head back to even kiss him with…and to do other things as well.

Cool lips finally pulled away from his, and he choked down air where he’d been forgetting to breathe again. Claws caressed at the side of his face, undeterred by the scratch of his stubble, a five-o-clock shadow just as permanent as the dark circles under his eyes. Instead she scraped a kiss to the side of his jaw, adorable little nose urging his chin upward.

With utterly no hesitation he bared his throat again, and waited. He waited and waited for the bite, but it didn’t come. Instead she playfully tucked her head underneath his chin and just sat there, completely ignoring his irked little growls and whimpers of impatience. She leaned into his chest, still pinning him firmly with his back to the wall, her deft talons dragging up his chest to start plucking at the snap buttons of his labcoat. One by one they snapped open, her hand traveling lower and lower until they reached the belt strung around his scrawny waist. He practically vibrated in helpless excitement, fumbling to help her. But she batted away his attempts, taking her sweet time as buckles clicked and leather hissed through the straps. After a moment, the belt fell down around his legs with a clatter, and his labcoat fluttered down after it.

“Dr. Junkenstein, is something the matter?” she asked, far too innocently.

“Nnngh!” He realized that he was whining aloud and grabbing at her, and he couldn’t help it: his hips and then the rest of him surged forward towards her, stopped only by her grip pinning him to the wall. She giggled again at his misfortune, pressing her chest more firmly against his, but finally had some semblance of mercy as her other hand drifted down, finally gracing the straining bulge in his trousers.

He exhaled noisily as her fingers tickled across him, sliding the gentle pressure of her palm up and down. He grimaced and sweat even at the lightest touch, eyes rolling back beneath his goggles when he felt her unbutton his pants, the downward motion of the zipper seeming to last forever before he was at last freed. No matter how his ears pinkened, his cock was utterly shameless as it sprang loose of its confines, bobbing upward into the night’s chill and into her waiting hand.

His noises echoed strangely around the damp stone walls, little grunts and sighs as she worked him, his breathing already heavy save for when it hitched occasionally at a particularly good one. Eventually his noises were joined by the sounds of wet flesh, when she licked a pool of saliva into her palm to slick his path through. His gloved hand occasionally clawed at her robes, his metal one already sunk so deep into the wall for hold that the rock was threatening to crack. He panted into her hair, hips shifting as her wrist jerked steadily and tirelessly.

“Mmmh! Darl, darl, darl…Please! M-my…” His voice was hoarse, raspy with effort.

“Shhh, Doctor…Let me assist you…”

The pressure built quickly, leaving him slumped against the wall while her tongue lathed at his throat, finding the a pulsing vein and placing her lips there. But still she waited, with the good Doctor writhing under her care, with the patience of one who was not moved by his pleading, focused instead on the precise moment to best strike. And it would be coming soon, as his cock twitched in her hand and his spine ground into the wall and his breathing rasped once, twice—

Her fangs pierced his flesh, opening the vein against her lips. Hot red spurted against her tongue just as hot white coated her palm, turning sticky as she gave him a few final strokes, coaxing out the last drops: even though she knew he barely felt it, not compared to where she sucked on his neck, his body held upright only by her own strength. He was mouthing words, likely nonsense, and his eyes were so far back in their sockets that only the whites were showing, lost to everything in the world except this.

She measured out their pleasures slowly and carefully, pulling his blood and his essence out of his body and into hers. He tasted like unused potential and painful anger and unbridled curiosity, like electricity, as if she had placed the tip of her tongue against a still-hot wire. She liked it: a flavor unlike any she’d had before, before meeting him. His blood always ran too hot, and she took some of his heat as her own…her body radiating warmth where there had been none, skin flushing with new life.

But she knew when to stop, no matter how he begged for more. She wrenched her hungry mouth away from his neck, two thin trickles of red oozing down before she lapped them upward, licking and kissing scarlet-stained lips at the opened wound until it had closed. With the tender care she always gave him, the boneless Doctor was gently eased down onto a nearby pile of rubble where she had thoughtfully spread his labcoat, sitting slumped backward while he shuddered back to life.

“H-hell’s bells…” He awoke to his jiangshi sitting by his feet, arms folded atop his knees, where his trousers had been loosely pulled up around his thighs with her head resting on them. Large, dark eyes swerved up to him as he gasped, and she smiled up at him. He managed a weak grin in reply, head spinning. “Ooooh, that’s my dove. Was afraid you’d…gone? Or…was I?”

“Just stay a moment, Doctor. I’m here.”

“Ah…Yes, good. Just a moment to reflect, is all.” They sat together in the dark, until the haze had cleared and he had control over his faculties again…or at least, as much control as he usually had over those pesky faculties of his. He sighed aloud, shivering as the sweat started to dry on his brow. But the night’s chill was staved off at least a little, when the warmth of her arms wrapped around his waist, nuzzling into his skinny belly. There was still a fleck or two of dried blood by her lip, and it looked most fetching. He always did look good on her.

Sighing happily, he flopped back against the rock. “Does wonders for the mind and the body, all of that. And you’re looking grouse! Knew that blood would help.”

The jiangshi tightened her grip in another fond squeeze, kissing at his belly. “You were right again, Doctor.”

Another grin pulled his lips taut across teeth almost as sharp and shiny as his vampire’s. “Ah! What can I say, lovey? I’m an educated man and you just happen to be one of my favorite subjects.”

“But what about a repeated measures study? It’s just, now I feel so warm and…wouldn’t it just be wasted if we went back to the others and it simply wore off before I could share it? Maybe we have time for just a little more reward? Shall I check your schedule for you, Doctor Junkenstein?”

Mei could barely finish the sentence before he was trying to sit up straight again, jostling her head atop his thighs. “I checked! I checked, schedule’s cleared! Busy man, but I penciled you in. What sort of Doctor would I be if I couldn’t make time for further study, ay?”

“Very generous, Doctor.”

With an unnatural lightness, she rose from the floor and slid easily onto his lap, right into his open arms. They kissed again, but this time her lips were soft and warm with the borrowed life now surging through her. Were it not for the gruesome stitches in her neck, she might as well have been a human woman nestled atop him. But Mei was better than any human woman, better than all the humans in all the world. If it had been up to him, he would have killed them, killed them all, and left nothing but ashes and destruction: a world for his toys and his army and her. Then it would just be him and his jiangshi for the rest of eternity, with him gifting her his blood and her biting him, scratching him, telling him he was good—

The daydreams of bloodshed coupled with her subtle grinding was starting to reawaken him proper. Slyly angling his mechanical arm down her side and groping at her thigh, he pulled her down in a slow rhythm against his front. Dragging his tongue against her jaw and back to her lips, he rasped against her kisses. “Lovely, lovely…Yes, make it warm for me, my lovely.”

He growled when she pulled away, but leaned back when he felt her touches go lower. Her lips moved down his chin, his neck, across the bruises on his chest, his midriff… And then it was warm, all right. He was very well familiar with the eastern vampire’s tongue, how long and wet they could be when fully unwound, but with his absent-minded tendencies it was always a delightful reminder when she used it on him. It coiled about him like a serpent, delicate but strong, pulling his cock from up against his body and up against her open lips.

She kissed it a greeting, slathering that tongue up and down his length while her soft lips circled around the flared tip. Junkenstein was again left a panting mess in no time, leaning back to get a better view of her even though his nerves screamed to grab and take her. Slick with saliva, her tongue squeezed wetly around each inch of him, flesh bulging a little each time she tightened its hold, rivulets of spittle squelching as they dribbled down to his sack and stained the coat beneath him.

For a while he was content to watch her work, but never for too long. Eventually the urge grew too strong, and he reached out to take a hold of the top of her hair, pushing her downward. She moved easily with the motion, her lips opening fully, tongue withdrawing only to guide him into the heat of her mouth. Large, dark eyes gleamed up at him, watching how his expressions twitched madly while he tried to focus.

Warm. Blissful, wet, warm…Lovely! Lovely!

His hand remained draped atop her head, enjoying the leisurely start of a nice hot blowie. She closed and sealed her mouth around the tip of him, sucking gently before pushing him the rest of the way in. She was just as good at this as everything else she did, tongue playing along with soft sucking and the occasional exciting scrape of her teeth. Knelt between his gangly legs, the jiangshi sucked on his member just as expertly as she had sucked on his neck, occasionally toying with that wonderful tongue of hers.

Junkenstein’s tongue was nowhere near as impressive, lolling from his open mouth as he uttered another rattling groan. Chalk up another point for his jiangshi, but she really was superior to a human lady in every way. With no need for air and no need for food as such, she had no concept of things such as choking or gag reflex. Handy, that.

It didn’t mean he couldn’t try. His grip tightened atop her head, no longer resting but actively pushing her down. It urged her deeper, deeper, until her nose was mashed into his pelvis and he was nudging past her tongue, knocking against the back of her throat while she lapped at the sensitive underside of his shaft. And when she swallowed…even through her wounded throat, it squeezed hot and wet and tight and perfect, perfect!

He seized onto both her pigtails and let his dark urges rage. His hips pounded forward, pulling her until there was no more room at all— into her throat, again and again and again. There was no reprieve and no pause, her glasses knocked onto the ground with a clatter as she gripped nigh-painfully onto the insides of his thighs. She welcomed him on every brutal thrust, as he panted and snarled and bent over his undead companion covetously. Alternating between petting the back of her head and yanking on her braids, he groaned praise over the obscene sounds of his cock in her mouth.

“Y-you like it? You like it? It’s good? It’s so good! Yes?” It was simultaneously a demand, a question, and begging desperation: pausing only for half a heartbeat as he stared wild-eyed down at her.

She smiled and nodded, and swallowed him again, and he nearly died for the third or fourth time that night.

“Yes?! Yes yes, YES!”

***

The sounds they made were almost unnatural, together in the darkness of that ruined kingdom. The sounds were so unnatural, in fact, that they did not notice another unnatural sound come upon them. There was a low hiss, something foul and sibilant on a sudden breeze, as the swirling fog was displaced by a darker mist.

The Reaper heard the squawking of that damned irritating Doctor, no doubt busy with some toy or other. There was still work to be done, and the Lady had sent him hence. He would collect the scientist and his vampiric assistant, and they would begin to plan for the next time. Another night full of bloodshed and darkness, never ending and never enough to satisfy any of them: not even the strange human who had cast his lot in with monsters such as them.

“Doctor Junkenstein?”

There was no answer, only more noises from the debris of a tower nearby. It sounded violent. Perhaps one of the adventurers yet lived, and the Doctor was fighting for his pathetic life within? The Reaper would turn the tides, then, and finally finish this—

He solidified, yellow eyes and grinning mouth alight within the enchanted pumpkin that served as his head. Full sight returned to his senses. And he wished it had not.

Junkenstein was once again violating his vampiric servant, frenzied with lust. The jiangshi was knelt between his open legs, stroking up and down his legs while he facefucked her with not an ounce of mercy. Terrible noises were uttered from both their mouths, though his involved much creative cursing and she had no words at all. Neither of them noticed his presence until the Reaper bellowed in surprise and disgust from nearby.

“BY ALL LEVELS OF HELL, DR. JUNKENSTEIN.”

“AAAHH!”

Everyone involved either screamed, or tried to scream through an extremely full mouth. Reaper reeled back, dropping his guns to try and shield his eyes. Dr. Junkenstein fell backward against the stone, while Mei scrambled backward in the other direction. There was a loud ripping noise, and the stitches around her head and neck were popped and pulled apart, scraps of twine hanging loose from her decapitated head once more. Her body collapsed back onto the ground without its anchor, and alarmingly and silently groped at the empty top of her neck. Junkenstein was left holding her loose head, blinking at each other in shock.

Dr. Junkenstein turned with surprising ferocity upon this new interloper, teeth bared and insults at the ready. But he paused when he saw the Reaper already cringing back, still trying to shield himself from the sight of them.

“A little privacy, mate?! I’m in the middle of an extensive study session, here!”

Mei’s head rolled its eyes towards the Reaper helplessly, then opened her mouth a little wider while her body pulled itself to sit upright again nearby. For a moment it seemed that she was trying to decide on being mortified or not. But when Junkenstein only adjusted his grip on her head and continued thrusting, her lips tilted into a cheeky grin and she only wrapped her tongue around him to make him groan all the harder.

The Reaper made a noise of revulsion, his lower half dissolving back into mist as he beat a hasty retreat. “PDA, you two! You know what the Lady said about the PDA! This goes so beyond the rules of Public Displays of Affection, you’ll be sorry y—Auuugh!”

Emboldened, the mad Doctor only moaned in response and actually stood up as he continued driving into the head still attached to his lap, making a mocking display of it. The exhibition of it only heated his blood further, and the jiangshi uttered a muffled laugh even while her headless body sat back and shrugged in a ‘what are you going to do?’ sort of manner.

The Reaper was vanquished, fleeing with a fading roar as he vanished back into the gloom.

Cackling madly to himself, Dr. Junkenstein finally pulled Mei’s head off of him long enough to grin down at her apologetically, features still flushed and glistening with sweat. “Sorry about those stitches, loveykins. I’ll get the better thread for—Oh!”

Mei’s body offered him a little thumbs up, then scooted closer upon her knees. Down by his still-erect cock, Mei fluttered her eyelashes, then stretched her mouth wide open, bidding him welcome. The good Doctor’s expression slacked in surprise, then softened in genuine affection, then grew manic and grinning once again while he took her invitation…and slammed himself home once again.

He could die happy like this. Maybe he would get lucky and he would die like this. He’d die again and again, over and over. They both would, and he’d be happy so long as she was with him. So long as they were together, it would never end. He could think of nothing better.

“M-my lovely! My lovely assistant!”

#meihem #junkmei #meirat #iceboom #junkrat #dr. junkenstein #jamison junkenstein #mei #mei-ling zhou #jiangshi mei #jiangshi #Overwatch #Dr. Junkenstein's Revenge #fanfic #writing #hijinks #humor #mild decapitation

72 notes · View notes