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m-feline · 9 months ago

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No way out but his arms- Part 2

Emperor Thrawn x Freader

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (TBA)

Tags: suggestion of divorce, treason, bath, deals, mention of children, suggestion of smut, suggestion of breeding.

(I asked @vibratingskull to write the spicy part of this story. The link will be added when it is done. The picture is from @netmors .)

You were not in the best of moods. This evening had been horrible. And at the end of the night, Thrawn still expected you to join him in his chambers. You needed everything possible to calm you down and to make you forget what happened at the banquet.

–

The banquet has been a success so far. The guests, food, and topics of discussion went smoothly without any issues. You didn't even think about spending a night with Emperor Thrawn until someone had to say something stupid.

“Your majesty, Good evening to you.”

Grand Moff Kothos was one of those disgusting people you had to endure on the political side of the government. He was one of the few remnants of the government from the time of the previous Emperor. But he was also one who indulged in the rumors that Thrawn had warned you about.

“Moff Kothos,” You greeted the man stiffly. The evening was almost over except for a small get-together with a glass of something bubbly. One more hour and you had to go and ask Thrawn to take you away. But then again if you do it in front of this man, you kill the rumors right there.

“I understand, there will be a new meeting next week,” Kothos said. Kicking the bush as always, he wanted something and you knew it. What you wanted was to remove this man from his position and give it to someone more deserving. You could do it, but without a reasonable excuse, you would be no better than other Moffs, Senators, or even the previous Emperor, in abusing your power. You didn't want to become that. If you had to be the Empress you would be someone who follows the laws and improves all lives of the Empire's people. Which was easier said than done.

“Yes, the meeting will be held without any changes,” You said with a neutral tone.

“I was wondering what topics would be discussed during that meeting,” Kothos said. You didn't miss the glint in his eyes. He was clearly wanting something.

“Then I wish to add another topic,” Kothos said. “There has been some talk about the union of someone important, and that their union is not working.” He thought he was subtle but he wasn't. He used to be good with words but now it seems the age reached him sooner than expected.

“Both are important figures, but me and a couple other Moff's have come to the conclusion that we can discard one if necessary,” Kothos said, and you felt how your stomach went hard. “As much as both of them have improved the current government, we believe a separation is recommended and maybe even welcomed.”

“A divorce, you say,” You say a bit coldly. If it were that easy you would have done it already. At the latest after your brother died.

“In time for that too,” Kothos said. “But we can't have the innocent party suffer and be left all alone. So maybe it would be best to introduce a new partner to the said party.”

That thought never occurred to you, if Thrawn has a lover, he could leave you be. If you play your cards right he will divorce you and you and your family can be free. But it wasn't that easy. He never made an appearance in the political field, even less appeared with another potential Empress. He was always on a campaign to protect the galaxy from enemies which were discovered not too soon after your wedding. And he has efficiently ended all rebel activities with minimal casualties. Now his main focus was on the outside threat coming from the Unknown Regions and possible alliances from other species from that same space. The Chiss Ascendancy to be precise, his home world. There were talks about a possible pact but nothing sure. But that was one of the reasons Thrawn needed you to handle the political power of the Empire. He would not let you go that easily.

As you didn't agree or disagree with any of his words, Kothos continued.

“Of course, but not just anyone will do. Naturally someone who already has made something for the Empire,” Kothos said. You mentally roll your eyes, of course he already has someone in mind. Someone he has connections with. You begin to wonder who he plans to introduce to Thrawn.

“Tell me, your highness. What do you think of my son?” Kothos asked. You looked at him with wide eyes full of confusion. Why would he ask that? Why would you ever care for his obnoxious son? Kothos had to be either stupid or didn’t care about your opinion as he continued. “My son is well known in the social circles, and he has some merits from the navy, but above all else he is way better partner than a non-human.”

As you realize his intentions, you become angry every minute. How dare he? Your family’s life is on the line. And even if it wasn’t, you would never choose a pompous son of an old Moff. And above all else, even if you were at odds with Thrawn, you would never cheat on him.

“Sure, he only got a rank of a Captain before he ended his service, but I assure you he will be very useful,”Kothos continued. “I will help you get divorced, and transfer the power from the Emperor to you. And when you marry my son I will gladly help you with whatever…”

“You filthy pig!” You shout and slap the man as hard as you could. Kothos had managed to keep the conversation in low tone and no one had paid attention to it. But when you had shouted and slapped the man, everyone turned to look and stopped their conversations. For a long moment everything was silent as people tried to figure what was going on, and Kothos was trying to get over the shock over the rejection and the pain on his cheek. The silence was broken quickly by the sound of steps that made way through the crowd to the scene.

“What is the matter?” Thrawn asked with a cool and calm tone. You turned at him but you were too upset to speak right away. Thrawn came to stand next to you and took your hand, that you used to slap Kothos, and inspected it. “What happened?”

“I…”

“She slapped me,” Kothos said, pointing at you. “I was having a civil conversation and…”

“He wanted me to divorce you for his son,” You said with the conviction you had mastered in the senate.

“No, I…”

“He said that if I marry his son, he’ll help with dethroning you,” you kept talking.

“No, I didn’t …”

“You claim that the Empress lies?” Thrawn asked coldly. The other guests began to murmur as they heard and realized what was going on. Kothos was indeed an old Moff from the regime of the previous Emperor, but for him to dare suggest his son for the Empress to marry, or to claim she lied in front of the current Emperor without proof, was a very poor decision.

“Your highness,” Kothos tried to sound diplomatic. “I believe the Empress misunderstood what I was saying.”

“Then what were you trying to say?” Thrawn asked,

“He spoke how he and other Moffs believe we should divorce, how it would be unfair for the innocent party to lead alone, and then he asked what do I think of his son,” You said.

“That does sound very upsetting,” Thrawn said. “I can’t help but feel offended.”

“Your highness that was not what..,” Kothos tried.

“Whether you didn’t mean to upset the Empress,what you said did indeed cause offense and so the Empress can’t be blamed for striking you,” Thrawn said.

“But, sir…”

“Just because you have served the Empire from the days of the first Emperor, doesn’t mean you can disrespect the Empress,” Thrawn said. The murmuring got more intense as people kept whispering about Kothos.

“Since I have served so long I do have some rights,” Kothos tried to save his face.

“You were offering a plan of conspiracy to me, Moff Kothos,” You said out loud coldly. “What you were doing was speak of treason right before my husband, the Emperor.”

That did the trick to make Kothos go pale. And soon people murmured that his position was now everything else except secure. With a small gesture of hand, Thrawn called the guard and gave the order to arrest Kothos. Kothos tried to say something to save himself but no one listened to him anymore. The whole ordeal had soured your mood, but as the scene was cleared you recalled that you still had to spend a night with Thrawn, as he circled his hand to your shoulder. Even now you had to ask him in front all the guests to end the evening sooner, and make it sound as if you wanted to spend the night with him. As if the previous scene wasn’t enough to end the rumors. but right now you didn’t feel like pretending to be a couple in love. But you wished to leave early that was for sure. So you looked at Thrawn at your side.

“I want to go to my chambers,” You said to him.

“You mean our chambers,” Thrawn said.

“You are jesting,” You said sourly.

“I do not jest,” Thrawn said. “But considering what just happened I let you go early to freshen up before I arrive. No need to beg me to come with you.” You were partly relieved you no longer had to beg for him. But you still needed to spend the night with Thrawn, and you knew how it would be spent.

“Fine,” You said and tried not to grumble.

“I will see you soon then,” Thrawn said.

–

So here you were, soaking in a big tub in the huge bathroom of the Emperor’s suite. You needed it after the fiasco that happened moments ago. Every time you would sleep with Thrawn you would try to mentally prepare yourself. It was for your family. You would slip your thoughts to the past when you first met Thrawn. Back then you had no qualms with the Empire, but you didn't support it either. You didn't know your parents were secretly aiding the Rebel Alliance. So, when you met Thrawn you didn't see him as such a bad person. In fact, you were a bit intrigued by him. He was mysterious yet very polite. Though he didn't understand politics very well, he knew art and culture. Then he began to spend time with you. Your parents were wary of him but they didn't forbid you to see him. When he disappeared you were sad for not seeing him. But when he came back your entire family was surprised and worried. When he came for you they were terrified. But from then on Thrawn did his best to be a decent husband to you and a dignified Emperor. Of course, he couldn't spend time with you all the time due to his duties. But when you were in private and you weren't acting up, he would become the sweetest of lovers you ever knew. That is if he was in a good mood and you had behaved like a good wife. As you sat in the water you prayed he would be like that now as well. Sometimes, you wished he would be a selfish bastard who would take you roughly every night, then you would kill every bit of admiration or fondness toward him, and you could demand a separation legally by claiming to feel unsafe. But no, the only time he has ever forced you was when you acted all bratty at him and threatened to run away. But whenever he suggested you spend a night in his chambers, he would make love to you nice, slow, and possibly all night long. In those times you can't help but fill the room with moans and cries of ecstasy as he brings you to your high.

You sighed as you dip yourself more to the warm waters till only your nose was above the water. You weren't in the mood but you knew that with Thrawn's skills he gets you to that mood. And you hated yourself for that. But he did let you off the hook with the begging. But now surely he expected a docile wife waiting for him to bed.

While you were worrying about your morals and the night's finale, you missed how the door to the bathroom opened and closed as someone came in and walked to the big bathtub.

“Everything alright?” Thrawn asked and made you almost jump out of the tub. You were angry for him scaring you like that but you were also anxious that he wanted to start something right here and now.

“W-why are you here? Can’t you see I'm not ready,” You asked, trying to get some authority to your voice.

“I wished to get a few things done before our night together,” Thrawn said, coming closer. You had hopes that he would keep his distance since he still wore his full attire. “How do you wish to deal with Kothos?”

“What I wish for and what I should do are two separate things,” You sighed. “If I could I would remove him from his post, take away his title, and appoint a new governor for his sector.”

“And why not do it then?” Thrawn asked.

“Because I don't want to abuse my power,” You said a bit louder.

“You are the Empress, if you want something done just order it,” Thrawn said.

“I'm not a tyrant. If something is done it will be done by the law with the council,” You protested.

“I'm sure the council will agree,” Thrawn said, and pulled his hand back to pull out a datacard. “Especially once they see this.”

“What is that?” You asked with suspicion.

“All the evidence of corruption of Kothos and a couple of more Moffs. How you wish to use it will be up to you,” Thrawn said, keeping the datacard between the two of you. When you tried to reach it, he pulled his hand back. You turned and tried again but this time not only did Thrawn pull the card away but he also grabbed your hand with his free hand. You were suddenly out of water and you couldn't decide whether to use your free hand to push him away or to cover yourself the little you could with one hand. “It won't be for free.”

“What do you want?” You knew the answer but dared to ask. He already got you to come this far by threatening your sister, what more could he want?

“I have a proposition for you,” Thrawn said and brought the datacard before your eyes. “You get this, if you listen to it, without interrupting me or acting up.”

“Does it have to do with us sharing the bed?” You asked.

“Very much,” Thrawn said. “And more.”

You felt the chill in your spine. Then again you were standing naked and wet from the warm bath you had a moment ago. But just thinking what he might be about to offer made you worried.

“Y-you just want me to listen?” You asked, confirming his words.

“Yes, only listen, whether you accept my proposition or not will be entirely up to you,” Thrawn said and let go of your hand. “I will leave now and wait for you to finish here. I'll keep the datacard so it won't get damaged from the humidity.”

Once he was gone you sunk to the warmth of the waters again. You had a bad feeling of this. But so far he only asked to listen in exchange for the datacard that could make your work easy. Well, easy for your mind. As he suggested, as the Empress you could simply order to replace Kothos and take all his possessions. But you didn't want to become that. It was one thing for your family to know you married the Emperor, but to hear you take down governors by your whim, you were raised better than that. You could never face yourself. Your morals wouldn't allow it.

You soaked for a moment more in the water before you got out and dried yourself with the soft towels. For one part you were grateful to Thrawn that he rarely allowed servants to his chambers or to his bathroom if it wasn't for cleaning. He preferred to do things himself as much as possible. But for certain occasions he allowed servants to come to aid with clothing like earlier. You were not in the mood to hear any words from the servants, whether they tried to cheer you up or simply make you feel better. You had no nightclothes to put on and since you knew what was before you, you didn't need it. You took a light long satin robe that could be tied from the front. Once you got your hair dried you came out of the bathroom to the master bedroom.

Thrawn had already discarded his attire and waited for you wearing his own robe, while sitting on a lounge chair drinking some wine from a chalice. When you came out he drinked the sight of you with his eyes as he set down the chalice.

“You look beautiful,” He said when you finally got close enough.

“What is it that you wish to speak about?” You asked. Thrawn didn't say anything but moved his finger as a sign to call you to come closer. Knowing him, he surely wanted you to sit on his lap. But you were already bracing yourself and you were mentally prepared to only hear his offer, so instead of his lap you sat next to him on the lounge chair. Thrawn didn’t show any disappointment instead he turned to face you fully before he talked.

“I am tired of using your family as a leverage to get you to behave as my wife, and I'm sure you would be less stressed every time I mention your family,” Thrawn began. You went tense when you heard his words. Was he seriously going to let your family go? It was too good to be true. What was the catch? Thrawn could see your inner turmoil as you were going through possible conspiracy theories inside your head. He smiled as he waited for you to say something. But he had said that if you listen without interrupting you would get the datacard. And you needed that datacard to finally remove the corrupted old Moffs who abused their power. So no, as much as you wanted to ask and know what Thrawn was going to suggest how to keep your family from being hostages against you.

“So, I came up with another option. A life for a life,” Thrawn said. You frowned as you didn't understand what he meant, and Thrawn saw it in your face. “I want you to bear my children.”

“What?”

“You heard me, and you interrupted me,” Thrawn said.

“But…”

“We had an agreement,” Thrawn said. You opened your mouth but didn't say anything as you kept repeating a mantra inside your head. Just listen, just listen, just listen. No need to agree, you don't need to accept it.

“I want you to bear my children. Little heirs of the Empire. We have been married for some time and our union isn't bad, but isn't good either. If we have children I'm sure even you will behave for their sake,” Thrawn explained. You lifted your hand like a child in a school, and you didn't miss the smirk Thrawn had on his face when he gave permission to speak.

“You mean ‘a child’, not children,” You say.

“No, I meant children. Plural,” Thrawn said. “You give me a child and I let go, and never touch again, one of your family members. And last time I checked, you have more than one family member, minus one.” You finally get what he meant. He won't chain you by your family but by your children. He wants you to get pregnant and have his children. The night just got worse.

“Have I made my offer clear?” Thrawn asked.

“You did,” You growled. “If you want heirs can't you just get a concubine like other rules do?”

“No,” Thrawn said, his voice growling and his red eyes blazing. “I want you. Only you. And I want you to bear my children.”

“And if I say no?” You asked angrily.

“Then your family may have to suffer another loss in the future,” Thrawn said, his voice cold. You bit your cheek inside your mouth as you went through his words and what he wanted.

For one part he was going to let your family go. But he was going to chain you with your children. Will you agree to that? Will you be able to love them if they resemble Thrawn? Oh Stars, you hated yourself for even thinking that. How could you abandon your child to him? Wait, how many children did he say again? Can you even have too many?

“How many did you say…?” You asked disheartedly.

“One for each of your family members,” Thrawn said, the coldness was gone from his voice as he knew now that you would soon give in. “And I give you my word, I won't touch or hurt the member you choose. Even if they try to defy me, I would simply lock them up for good. But I won't hurt them.”

You let out a sigh when you heard that. This was a new chain you would accept in order to protect your family. Your first chain was the crown of the Empress, now it would be your children. But you would do your best to look after people living in the galaxy. You just had to come to terms that you were bound to Thrawn. As much as you disliked it. But better him than some power hungry Moff trying to push his son at you. Maybe one day. One day long, long time from now, you might get used to Thrawn, and perhaps let him into your life. But you didn't feel like it today.

“Will you let go of my family when I give birth or when I'm expecting?” You asked, staring at your hands on your lap.

“I let one of them go when you're expecting our first child. For the others, after the delivery,” Thrawn said as he got up from the chair and walked to the huge window of the room.

“Can we skip this night then? It is not my day yet?” You asked, hoping you could get a breather tonight.

“Your auspicious day is tomorrow,” Thrawn said without looking at you. “I checked with the droids for your monthly cycles to be sure. And no, that does not mean we will skip tonight.”

“Why?” You asked dreadfully as you got up from the chair.

“Because my dear, I need to prepare you to take me fully,” Thrawn said as he turned to face you. “We will be occupied for the next five days to successfully get you with a child. And I'm making sure you will be thoroughly satisfied.” You got scared of what he just said and tried to get to the door and get away. But the panel didn't let you get out. Did he lock you inside his room?

“I have instructed the servants to only contact us through datapads if necessary. And most of our schedules are completely liberated to focus on our endeavor to get you pregnant,” Thrawn said, walking away from the window towards you. “Don't worry your assistants know that you will be unable to attend a few meetings and they will make sure that everything will be taken care of.”

“I'm not going to remain locked in the same room with you for five days,” You growled as you still tried to open the door.

“You have no choice, my dear. You are here and you are free to leave after I'm truly finished with you,” Thrawn said, coming right behind you to slip his hands around you. “Now, allow me to make love to you, slowly and tenderly, before I start to breed you in earnest.”

“No,.. why… why?” You asked while you gave up on trying to get the door open, yet you still tried to get out of his grasp.

“Why what, love? Ask properly,” Thrawn said and kissed your neck.

“Why… Why me? Why now?” You cried as you also realized that you couldn't escape him.

“Because I want you. I wanted you from the beginning when we met. I didn't push the issue of children on the wedding night so you could get accustomed to your new life. But now,...” Thrawn said and chuckled. “Well, I'll tell you more tomorrow, now I want to taste you.”

Thrawn untied your robe and left it open from the front while his hands found your chest and began to fondle you. You tried to keep yourself from letting any noise but once one of his hands reached for your sex, it was game over for you.

“I know you enjoy what I give to you,” Thrawn said right next to your ear. “The way you make noises when I use my fingers, my mouth, my cock. Stars, you feel so wet already.”

“It… I… it was…’cause the b-bath,” You tried to keep yourself moaning. But Thrawn knew how to make you scream once he set his mind to it.

“Is that so?” Thrawn asked, and you felt how he was smirking behind you as he brought his fingers to his mouth to have the first taste of your wetness. “And here I thought it arouses you to know that the most powerful man in the galaxy can get to his knees for you.”

He stopped touching you and took a step back. You tried to keep yourself up by leaning against the wall. But soon he made you spin to face him, he lifted you over his shoulder and carried you to bed. After setting you softly to the bed, he removed his robe while looking you up and down.

“Relax and get comfortable on this bed, we'll be spending a lot of time here for a while.”

#star wars #thrawn #grand admiral thrawn #thrawn x you #thrawn x reader

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lindszeppelin · 2 years ago

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Smooth Pretender

Pairing: Austin Butler x Fem!Reader

Prompt: You and Austin can't keep your hands off each other at a very important awards show, and you risk it all to quench the insatiable sexual appetite.

Word Count: 9.6k

Warnings: swearing, semi public sex / touching in the company of people, (would this be considered exposition? Lol genuinely wondering), fingering (f. receiving), SMUT; oral (f. receiving), p in v sex. and obvs...baz being adorable to austin lol

Los Angeles, California; 8:00am

The faint chimes of your phone's alarm clock looped in a sweet sing-song, rousing you from your deep slumber. You groaned, annoyed that your sleep deprived body had to be jostled back to the land of the living. No matter how hard you passed out, jet lag drained you of every human function - rendering you like a zombie with a groggy morning voice and a dull pounding at your temples. If today wasn't such a special occasion, you would have the right mind to throw your phone clear across the room and snooze until noon. But it wasn't every day that you get to go to a glamorous award ceremony with your talented boyfriend, who was a nominee and up for the accolades.

Austin was always busy with work. He had a few films he was dutifully working on. His latest project took him to Ohio to shoot a film, and you barely got to see him. Especially because every other weekend he had to fly to California as awards season is ramping up in speed. His role as Elvis Presley in the Baz Luhrmann picture has him sweeping the competition, everyone is pretty positive he's gonna win the prestigious Oscar. Austin on the other hand, isn't so sure. He's keeping his feet on solid ground. But while he's in the running for his awards, he's being pulled back and forth across the continent to do Q&As and give interviews. While it's been wonderful to see your man get the recognition you know he so ardently deserves, you'd be kidding yourself if you said you didn't miss him. You've barely had a chance to see each other properly in months. But today was different.

With the wrapping for The Bikeriders completed, he had to fly right back to California and be at the awards ceremony tonight. You were so excited when he facetimed you saying he had purchased a one way plane ticket for you to California so you could be his date to the ceremony. Finally, you were going to see Austin and support him on this very important day. But you were scared shitless at the same time. This would be your first time going to an extremely photographed and high profile public event with Austin. Since you knew how the general public could be, you didn't want anything you accidentally did or said to be taken out of context. So you knew you had to be presentable and be on your best behavior - as anything mildly negative could reflect poorly on not only you but on Austin. And any bad press at such a serious juncture was not what was needed.

Your eyes slowly blinked open. The Egyptian cotton sheets felt like heaven on earth to your naked body as you writhed on the bed, rolling over on your front and burying your face in the silk pillows. Not even bothering to look, your hand nearest the bedside table fumbles absentmindedly for your phone, putting it on silent. Fine, I guess I better get up.

You huffed, shifting in your hotel king sized bed, and realizing pretty quickly that the warmth of Austin's naked body wasn't laying next to you. Furrowing your brows, you rolled over to the other side of the bed and felt out with your hand - emptiness. Damn, Austin must have woken up much earlier than you to get a few things done before the ceremony. His PR team always had him going to some kind of interview, or round table event - more campaigning for his Oscar. Waking up in bed alone in your hotel room in LA bright and early wasn't exactly how you wanted your day to go. But you learned that being with Austin meant you had to forego any and all expectations of what a normal relationship would be like, and that was okay with you. You both enriched each other's lives and would be in despair without each other.

You swung your legs over the edge of the bed and stretched your aching limbs, shaking away the pins and needles from your arms before padding barefoot on the expensive carpet to the bathroom.

As the day wore on, you still saw no signs of Austin. You imagined that you two would be getting ready in the hotel room together with the entourage of stylists, hair dressers, and makeup artists primping you two up as the hottest couple of the season. But nope, you were still alone aside from any room service men you called to place an order for breakfast, which was a few hours ago.

You sat on the bed, watching something mindless on the tv when suddenly you heard a knock at the door. Your heart raced in your chest. Finally, maybe now was the time you'd have to get ready to endure hours of hair pinning and makeup brushes stamping your eyes and face with makeup. And as you predicted, when you opened the door an entire entourage walked right passed you in a frenzy with their work bags in tow. The hairstylist set down her foldout chair for you to sit in and got to the task of setting up all her hot tools, hair pins, and clips out on the large bathroom vanity table. The makeup artist worked around the hairdresser, setting up her own makeshift spread on the other side of you. It was overwhelming seeing all the different shades of lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, and various pairs of wispy false lashes all placed neatly in a tidy row. With the unfurling of her makeup brush case, and the hairstylist brushing out your hair free of knots, the process of making you drab to fab was about to begin. And your stomach was doing horrific summersaults.

You weren't sure how much time had passed since you started getting dolled up, but you were getting antsy to see how you looked in the full length mirror out in the foyer. The stylist and the makeup artist were nice enough thankfully, making small talk with you and settling your nerves as they asked about your day and how you felt about the upcoming ceremony. They asked you how you envisioned yourself out on the red carpet, and they took your ideas but gave a professional spin on it - doing a much better job than you probably could with your own makeup and hair tools. You were grateful for the help.

Sometime in the middle of getting done up, you heard another knock at the door, and the makeup artist rushed to open the door, ushering in a team of 3 stylists carrying a long dry-cleaning bag on a hanger with your dress inside it. Austin's personal stylist had given you a suggestion of three dresses to pick from that she had in her arsenal that was your size, given maybe a stitch or two in quick alterations. When you saw the pictures she had sent you of a gorgeous bright red floor length dress with a thigh-high slit, deep v-neck, and low back you knew right away this was your dress. It was gorgeous but it wasn't over the top.

Finally after some final last minute touches, your face and hair were set. The stylists led you to the mirror so you could get a look at yourself, and you nearly fell to the floor. Your hair was curled to perfection with delicate tendrils of your long hair falling over your shoulder. And your had a sultry, fox eye makeup look with winged liner, wispy lashes, and a bold red lip to compliment the dress. Damn, you just know Austin is gonna drop to his knees when he sees you in this. But you're not done yet. The last thing you needed was to slip into your dress and nude heels, and then you were complete.

And here you were, looking like you stepped out of a painting. The gaggle of stylists had packed up their things and left the room once their job was complete, leaving you alone to your own devices and chasing the butterflies in your stomach as the clock neared go-time. You were standing by the vast, expansive floor to ceiling windows of your hotel room, looking down at the LA horizon. All the cars down in traffic looked like mere specs on the glass. But it looked beautiful with the golden sun peaking through the clouds. You were so lost in through, trying to quell your nerves, that you didn't register the slotting of the key card and the familiar thudding steps that got louder until they stopped in their tracks.

"My god, you look like a vision." Said Austin longingly, as if his breath was taken away from him the moment he set eyes on you.

The familiar timbre of your man's voice sent a warm shiver down your spine. You turned around slowly, gathering the fabric of your dress and swinging it around so you don't trip. Finally you were face to face with the one person in the world that you'd move mountains for, who's arms that yearned to be around your naked waist this morning were sorely missed - and as he drank in the sight of you, you nearly lost your balance as you were struck with the most handsome man you've ever met in your life. How lucky you were, you thought, to be by his side. All of those sleepless nights curled up in the fetal position wearing his shirt that lingered with his sweet cologne while he was on the other side of the country made those moments worth it. It was in the thousand mile stare, the quivering lip, the hand over the heart, and crystalline orbs that hold every ounce of love for you that reminded you right now of why you chose Austin Butler as the man to spend the rest of eternity with.

And damn did he ever look fine. He's in a bolero jacket phase and you hope he never stops wearing them. The cropped length accentuates his devastatingly long legs. All donned in black, he looks tailor made and strikingly good looking - especially in his newfound facial hair that leaves you compressing your thighs tight to skive off the rush of arousal pooling in your barely-there panties.

You absentmindedly brushed some flyaway hairs from your forehead. Your blood red lips form the most softest of smiles that's reminiscent of old Hollywood glamor. "You look not so bad yourself, handsome." You purr.

Austin's pearly whites blinded you, his moustache prickling the sides of his plush mouth as he puts on the biggest of grins. "Do a twirl for me baby, please. I wanna see the whole thing." He says softly.

You oblige him. The slit of your dress exposes your leg, giving him a flash of your thigh and your foot slipped perfectly into sexy heels that define the muscles of your calves. You purse your lips, not taking your sultry eyes off Auston for even a second. You want to see how every part of him reacts, so you tease him just a little bit. You toss some of your hair behind your shoulder as you slowly turn around on your heels, revealing the low back of the dress. The breath hitches in Austin's throat as his wandering eye makes note of how the silky fabric clings to your round ass he loves so much, and exposes just enough skin to know that when he poses for pictures with you later his hand will make contact with your flesh. That thought alone drives him wild already.

You turn back around and face him fully, letting him get a good look at the plunging neckline that reveals your perky breasts. The thin straps of the expensive dress sits prettily on your collarbones.

"What do you think, Aus?" You ask coyly. You fluff your flirty lashes at him, knowing you've definitely got him under a spell.

Austin gulps, all of a sudden feeling hot under the collar. He can't just stand there gawking any longer. He has to be closer to you. The heel of his italian leather boots click on the floor as he makes his dissent. "I think if we weren't forced to go to this award ceremony tonight I would rip this pretty dress right off your body and make sweet, passionate love to you until sunrise." He said boldly, now all of a sudden right up in your personal space.

His forehead was touching yours, his button nose brushing the tip of yours as he ghosts his plush, wanton mouth over yours. He knows better than to plant one right on you, the lipstick would come right off and get you both messy, ruining the hard work of the makeup artist. But fuck, does he so badly want to collide his eager lips with yours and have his tongue explore every wonderful inch of your mouth - leaving you both gasping for air.

The fact that you can't have him right now kills you. How the hell are you gonna manage tonight? You have no idea, but you hope the ceremony is short so you can make it back here in record time.

There's a glimmer of sparkling embers igniting behind Austin's blue eyes as he seemingly stares into your soul. To him, you're the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. He could break you in half with his cock or wrap you up in a protective embrace, cradling you like a priceless china doll in his arms.

Austin's long fingers brush gently across your rouged cheeks, and pull some of your hair back behind your ear. You can tell this one little maneuver has you blushing hard, the heat of your skin could melt this makeup right off your face and land into goopy pool at your feet. His other hand glides effortlessly over your waist, gently grasping your flesh and guiding you into his body. You suddenly feel dizzy as you take in the feel of Austin flush against your curves. Instinctively, your dainty fingers make their way into the inviting open neckline of his jacket, most of his toned chest on display. His curly blonde chest hairs invite you to play with them, and you do as you gaze into the man standing before you.

He hums as he meanders on the thought of smearing your lipstick, his eyes flickering seductively between your lips inching closer to him and your doe-like orbs. "But showing you off to the entire world as my gorgeous girl is also a good option." He breathily chuckles. You can practically taste the mint of his toothpaste as his breath pillows against your mouth. Before he pulls away from your needy mouth, he lets the rough hairs of his beard tickle you in just the right way to make you weak in the knees. Oh, what you would kill to have that beard of his tickle another place on your body yearning for his touch. Not now, but most certainly later.

It's all a vast whirlwind of mass hysteria swirling around you when you arrived on the red carpet. You swear on your life you've never seen so many grown adults foaming at the mouth just for one or two pictures of passing celebrities. And all of them do stop for these pictures, looking prim and properly dressed with dazzling smiles and sexy smolders. Austin has mastered the art of seducing through the camera lens. He calls it his "Zoolander" moment, aka pulling out the famed blue steel and melting the lens with his animalistic prowess that even he never knew he could muster.

When you first set foot on the carpet, your nerves were on full blast. Fans were behind black velvet ropes with iphones in hand, hoping for the chance of getting a picture with their idol. Austin was always by your side, his large hand entwined in yours. You felt safe and secure in his grasp - like no matter what happened, you knew Austin would be there to catch you. It was really cute seeing Austin pause for a few moments to take some pictures with fans who were calling out his name. He just couldn't help himself. He always had to oblige someone who admired his work. It's like he was having all of these "pinch me" moments right before your eyes, and you were witness to the blossoming of Austin Butler.

He stole the show. And with you on his arm, you could feel a few eyes on you too. After all, this was your first public appearance being seen with Austin in a major way. While the occasional paparazzi shots from diner dates, or nice walks in the park at home was something you got used to with time, this was an different animal entirely.

The further down the red carpet you went you felt like you were in Oz, traveling down the yellowbrick road into madness. All around you were famous movie stars, directors, screenwriters, models, and other important people dressed in clothes you knew were so expensive you'd probably lose your mind if you saw the price tag. And here you were, a run of the mill girl from small town beginnings with your boyfriend Austin Butler. To say it was surreal was an understatement.

You gripped Austin's hand a little tighter when you noticed that you were both making your way to a photo-op specifically for high profile guests to get their pictures snapped by about 20 zealous photographers for magazines. The thought of the whole world seeing all of your imperfections in 4K made you sweat uncomfortably. Austin could feel you trembling on his arm, and he looked down at you with a concerned furrow of his brow.

Austin placed his free hand over yours, stroking you lovingly. "Baby, it's gonna be okay. Just breathe." He said in a whisper against the shell of your ear, so only you were privy to what he was saying. He's all too aware that there could be wandering eyes and he didn't want to draw anymore unwarranted attention to your anxiety, making you uncomfortable.

Your frightened eyes glanced up at him. "What if something happens? Like, the photographers yell at me or I get booed? Is that even a possibility?" You ask in a frenzy.

Austin's lip tweaked into a slight smile, admittedly finding your nervousness a little adorable. "No one is gonna boo you. And if they do, they'll deal with me. And they won't like me when i'm angry." He said playfully with a slight growl at the end of his words.

His humor cuts through the trepidation like a knife, making you smile. Your eyes melt when you catch his fixed gaze upon you, his blues sucking you in and making you forget about everyone around you except for him. "I can see the headlines now. 'Austin Butler punches the lights out of boisterous photographer. Still wins award for Best Actor'.". You joke.

Austin scrunches his nose and throws his head back, laughing adorably. Out of your peripheral in this moment you see the bright flash of a camera illuminating both you and Austin. A photographer definitely snapped that candid moment of you two laughing together. You're sure when that picture makes it on to the internet that people are gonna be wondering what you said to make the man of the hour laugh so hard. If only they knew.

It was your turn now to stand on the red carpet and get your professional pictures taken with Austin. Even though you cringe at the thought, it reminds you of high school prom. But this time, you're not linking arms with some acne-faced teen and a dress you picked out last minute from some local department store with a cheesy smile plastered on both your faces. This was the moment you knew the internet at large would never let you live down. It would either go over swimmingly, or it would be a disaster. But you hoped for something in the middle to better your chances of succeeding.

Austin led you over to a spot on the ground with a large X, indicating where exactly you stand so all the photographers can have their best shot. Immediately all you could hear was a litany of men and women with cameras strapped to their necks shouting Austin's name, begging him to look at them for a picture. But Austin wouldn't give into their pleas so easily. He was laser focused on you.

As you got into position like you practiced - standing to Austin's side with one hand behind his back and your front leg pointedly posed to show off your best assets, you could feel Austin ogling down at you, and only you.

While the photographers were getting rowdy, at this point begging your man to look up into their cameras, he was transfixed on how beautiful you were nestled warmly into his side. You trailed your eye up his lean body, landing on his baby blues that were like tidal waves lapping against your body. His cup overflows with complete adoration of you, and he feels like the luckiest man to get to be with you. Austin proudly smiles down at you, never once daring to give the eager photographers what they want. This is about you and him. No one else.

You could feel your heart racing wildly in your chest as you lingered on his hypnotizing gaze. The blinding flashes of cameras snapping was going on in front of you, but in this moment you didn't care what you looked like or what was going on around you. All that mattered was the man holding you close to his side, displaying you off in a light show of dominance to everybody that you're his and he is yours.

His lips parted, and time seemed to slow down when you caught him leaning down close to you. While he resisted his urges back in the hotel room to kiss you, he wasn't going to now. It felt like the right moment, and he was gonna seize the opportunity. He just wanted to have a genuine moment of shared intimacy with his woman. And you let him finally caress his velvet, all encompassing lips onto yours for the first time in what seems like forever.

As he let his hand dance over the searing skin of your exposed back, the other one cupped your face tenderly. His hands are so large that it feels like your entire head can fit perfectly in his palm. It leaves you trembling, and yearning more of him. For a few moments, you bask in the sweet kiss. And you whimper against him, totally forgetting your surroundings and not caring who can see the PDA. Austin's moustache faintly whispers over your top lip, and he too moans softly as his mouth works against yours in a tasteful display of affection.

Little do you know that the photographers are eating this up like it's the best thing they're ever gonna get for their magazines. It's a fury of hollers and cheers from other celebrities who see the whole thing going down on the carpet, egging you both on. They probably assume that this was purely a show for the cameras, but they applaud you all the same.

Austin's thumb grazes over your cheekbone, and with a wet pop his lips were gone from yours. You both slowly open your eyes and stare into each other's souls. You giggle a little when you notice a pink flush creeping up on Austin's tan skin, demure once again in his usual modality. And luckily not a lot of your lipstick transferred over to him. Whatever little stain it did leave behind, he licked his lips and rubbed them together, deciding he was gonna proudly display your lipstick residue on his mouth - all the more reason to let every single person at the ceremony know who he belonged to.

Not long after the exuberant display you and Austin made to the cameras on the carpet, you both made small talk as you made your way inside the venue. It was dimly lit, but there were glass chandeliers hanging from each ornately made up table. It looked so regal, and yet again you felt out of place. Like, should you really be here? Did you belong here? But with Austin by your side, he made you feel like you could walk on water and you'd believed it. So for the time being, you let the nagging thoughts leave your mind and allow yourself to just be present.

With your hand in his, Austin led you to the Elvis table where you saw a few familiar faces. His movement coach Polly Bennet was there, the fantastic fashion designer Catherine Martin looked sensational in one of her own creations, and of course the wonderful Baz Lurhman looked dashing as ever as he greeted you both warmly with smiles and a hug.

As Austin pulled out your chair for you to sit down, ever the gentleman, Baz perked up. "I thought I heard all that commotion going on out there. Word got around quick that you two were making quite a scandalous scene on the carpet. Do tell." He said a little tipsy already with his champagne flute sitting daintily in his hand. He wiggled his fluffy white brows and narrowed his dark brown eyes as he dramatically took a sip of the bubbly.

You blushed all over again, this time from embarrassment. And you heard Austin laugh nervously from behind you, making sure you were settled in your seat before he sat down next to you. "What good will words do when you can see it for yourself in the papers tomorrow?" Austin quipped teasingly.

Baz snickered. "Oh, young love. Ain't it just the best." He said in a wistful dreamy tone, leaning back in his chair, admiring the pair of you before him as if you were a young romeo and juliet.

Austin smiled at you, interlacing his hand with yours and kissing your knuckles sweetly. "You damn sure are right about that, Baz.". Well shit, you blushed all over again. You thank god it looked like the most darkly lit Hollister store right now in this venue, because you were sure you looked beat red.

Baz sipped more on his champagne, eyeing the two of you just a tad bit longer than maybe one should. But he was looking on in almost a proud fatherly way. Austin was happy, and it was obvious. And that meant the world to him. Not just because Austin was the star of his film. No, it was because he and Austin formed a special bond on set that can never be broken. Austin's likeness and talent doesn't come around all that often. Maybe once in a blue moon. And seeing Austin happily settled in the romance department made him sigh a breath of relief, as he knows the man deserves it. Baz put one of his arms behind the chair of his beautiful wife Catherine, and allowed the love radiate over the table.

As time drew on, dinner was served at the tables. You were used to being wined and dined by Austin. Money is no object for you, and he loves to pamper his girl. Sometimes you want to retch at the 3 or 4 digit totals of the bills you two have shared together, but he insists on splurging for you. He dutifully saves his money so he can have the means of treating you like he believes you should be.

This time, you were thankful Austin didn't have to reach into his pocket to pay for dinner. It was a nice spread, and occasionally you would both pick at each other's plates, or feed each other heaping forkfuls into the other's mouth like a newly married couple. No one really batted an eyelash at you and Austin being sickeningly sweet at the table, and if they did they kept their mouth shut letting you both enjoy this magical evening of pure delights.

One thing remained constant the entire evening - Austin's hand never left your thigh. And he chose his seat wisely, knowing that you cross your leg on the side where the slit hangs off your thigh. While no one can even notice he has his hand on your exposed leg, you two certainly know what's going on. With his hand under the tablecloth, out of eyesight, sometimes you could feel his calloused fingertips painting lazy circles on your flesh. Maybe every so often he would toy with the fabric of your dress, rubbing the silky material between the pads of his fingers. Other times, he would push the fabric to the side, letting it fall even further up your thigh, and tracing featherlight touches on the newly revealed skin.

Some of this he was was doing almost as a subconscious tick, not even aware that his hand was on autopilot. But other times it was deliberate, and you both knew it. He tried to get away with just how much he could show off your tantalizing skin, and how close he could get to your heat without daring to directly go there. It was the best kind of torture. Especially after that longing, dreamy kiss you shared with him on the carpet. You wanted nothing more than to get through all the awards and drag him back into an uber to a one way trip to your hotel bed. But since Austin was up for an award, you weren't going anywhere. You were glued to your seat for the next foreseeable few hours. This was gonna be hell.

Finally you were excited when the award ceremony actually got underway. One by one awards were being given out like hotcakes to happy winners, and long speeches were made in their wake. You'd be lying if you didn't find yourself zoning out for most of the event. It was getting a little tedious, and honestly all you cared about was Austin's nomination. It seemed like they were saving the best for last though, because after an hour of awards being passed out left and right, they were nowhere near the Best Actor category your man was nominated for.

But just as quickly as your brain was starting to tune out the world around you, there again you felt the familiar caress of Austin's fingers trailing up your thigh under the table. Your heartbeat jumped, your ears ringing the more it seemed like Austin wasn't stopping. He was walking his hand along his desired path right where you wanted him after all this teasing.

Hold on. Right here and now, though? In front of everybody? Maybe he's gonna stop just shy of your aching heat, leaving you wanting more. Surely you figured that he wasn't bold enough to do anything more than that. Right? No, seemingly not, you were mistaken.

All you could focus on now was his hand. You didn't even hear anything that was being said onstage or what was happening. You just kept a deadpan expression on your face as best you could as you zoned out, as to not alert anyone of the goings on under the table.

Austin brushed the fabric of the dress to the side and inched his hand up higher on your thigh. Giving the flesh a gentle squeeze, his hand snuck between your crossed legs, nudging them apart with barely any force. Slowly, you allowed yourself to uncross your legs. Your right knee touched Austin's as you settled into this new position. You could feel the heat radiating off of him in droves just from that one gentle graze of his black slacks against your bare leg. Already debased thoughts were swirling around in your brain. It was getting hard to concentrate on anything else but what may happen next. He was keeping you on your toes, and your body was willingly giving into him.

You wanted to see what he looked like right now, his hand fully committing to the task at hand, and under the cover of darkness. No one was the wiser. Slowly but surely his fingertips went high and higher under your dress until his pinky landed at the hem of your panties. You were frozen in your spot. Oh fuck, he's really gonna do this. There's not stopping him. He was gonna take what was his, and in front of the most famous people in Hollywood.

You swallowed thickly, awaiting for his next step. His pinky finger trembled slightly as it dared to trace your clothed slit up and down languidly. All of your senses were heightened so much that you could just barely register the gasp Austin emitted from his throat when he felt just how soaked through you were for him. Does he dare to go further? Yes, he does.

Not wanting to waste any more time, needing you right this very moment, he carefully grasps your ruined panties in between his fingers and shifts them to the side. A cool breeze hit your hot, aching pussy. You tried your best to stifle back the whimper that wanted to come out when you felt Austin's hand cup your slick mound, his long middle finger running circles over your entrance. He obscenely smears all of your juices that come gushing out of you and collects some of it on his fingers, letting the sticky wetness coat him good and proper.

Now you really wanted to take a look over at Austin and see if he was crumbling or not like you were. It was added torture that you couldn't give away the game by passing a glance back in his direction. He could feel how needy you were for his touch, how wet you were for him in front of all these important people. And that made him painfully hard.

He's the master at edging. And with his fingertips dripping with your heavenly nectar, he makes a beeline for your swollen clit. You couldn't help yourself, you let a little moan creak past your lips. The chair you sat on was enduring the mighty strength of your grip against it as you white knuckled the seat with one of your hands, trying to ground yourself.

Momentarily, Austin shut his eyes and faintly whimpered, the cracks of his facade shining through. He knew exactly how to touch you to have him writhing in pleasure. You just have to sit there, pretending like Austin isn't running deliberately slow circles around your throbbing clit, making you feel every single stroke of his masterful fingers as he toys with you like his own perfectly tuned musical instrument.

This game is too much to do alone. The longer he spins laps around your clit, the more soaked your seat beneath you becomes. This erotic power play is intoxicating for the both of you. What started off as innocent touches is now a full blown high speed chase for primal pleasure, no matter how public it is. Even if it were to somehow risk Austin's chances of winning his award tonight, it would be worth it to have his fingers forever tangled in your folds, smothered in your juices.

You can't take it anymore. You have to feel him. With your right hand you go under the table and slowly make your move to his manhood - but not before you tease him too. The moment your hand lands on his muscular thigh, you feel Austin's breath catch in his throat. He wasn't expecting this turn of events. But he's not pushing you away. He wants to see where this goes, and more so than ever he wants you to touch him just as badly.

Austin shivers under your hand as you walk your fingertips over his slacks. The pleats at his crotch yield way to the massive girth of his cock that strains underneath the luxe fabric. You breathe a sigh that's one of relief and pleasure when your hand comes into contact with his erection, at long last.

Poor Austin had to cough out loud and grab his glass of iced water on the table, pretending like he was overcome with a sudden coughing spell. But it was all a rouse to bite back the moan he did a bad job of concealing the second you squeezed his cock in your warm hand.

It was a sneaky game of chess now. You made your move, but you weren't prepared at all for the swiftness of the turn this would take when all of a sudden you felt Austin's fingers make their way down from your clit and plunge into your pussy. Your walls immediately clamp down around his index and middle fingers, knuckles deep inside you.

You felt like soon enough the chair you were sitting on would give way due to how strongly you had it in a vice grip. You pursed your lips together and breathed harshly out your nose during a moment in the ceremony when loud claps erupted after an arduous speech, skillfully hiding the feeble noises you were making.

You knew that you couldn't just unzip Austin's pants and whip his cock out under the table. That would be putting the two of you at a massive risk of obviously being caught. So you do what you can, and you wrap your hand around his throbbing clothed cock and start to jerk him off up and down under the table.

You can feel Austin suck in his stomach, holding back the urge to throw his head back and moan obscenely loud at how good you were stroking him. His good girl, his sweet innocent girl working his shaft to the entire Academy of Hollywood elites had him nearly cumming in his pants. And as his fingers plunged in an out of your soaking wet pussy, he could tell it was all too consuming for you too.

This wasn't enough. He needed more. You both craved the other. Screw the awards ceremony. While this was Austin's big moment, all that mattered to him was sinking his thick cock into his girls dripping wet pussy. He didn't think of it as a risk to undertake. It was a simple solution to a problem he created. But the trick was getting you both away from everyone and having his way with you.

As if fate was on both of your sides, the host of the ceremony announced a brief 15 minute intermission midway through the doling out of awards. Thank fucking god. It was now or never. The tables around you were bustling with new energy as people started to rise to their feet and stretch their limbs.

You let out a whine when Austin removed his fingers from your pussy, wanting nothing more than for him to be back in there. But as he wiped off your juices on the napkin on his opposite thigh and clutched onto your hand atop his cock, you knew that you were gonna get something even better than his fingers.

The brief but intense heated glare you both passed each other for the first time since this whole teasing game started was palpable. The tiny embers from when Austin saw you in the hotel for the first time to the rolling flames on the red carpet as he kissed you deeply in front of the cameras, to the insatiable burning inferno his stormy blues ricocheted into your lusty eyes said it all. 15 minutes was all you'd get with him, but it was enough to tide you both over.

Austin cleared his throat, swallowing the arousal that pooled in his throat. He leaned over to Baz and said, "We'll be back in a few. Don't wait up for us." With his best attempt to disguise the obvious sexual desire dripping from his vocal chords.

Baz eyed the both of you in a very dad-like manner. "Well, hurry back Aust. You don't wanna miss the announcement of your award. If you miss it i'll happily scamper up there to collect if on your behalf." He jabbed playfully.

Austin laughed, patting Baz on the back. He waited for the right moment when everyone at the Elvis table was looking elsewhere before taking you in his hand and rising from the table, albeit a little awkwardly and hunched over. His raging boner was making it almost impossible for him to stand up straight, but he thanked god that there was a little wiggle room and pleats at the front of the pants to hide any unfortunate fashion faux pas, like right now.

He let you lead the way, hiding his erection behind you from the view of possible eyes as you both walked hand in hand to your unknown destination.

While fucking Austin in a coat closet wasn't the ideal situation you'd hoped for, and it certainly wasn't on your bucket list, you made do with the best of the situation. The bathrooms would be too crowded, and not enough privacy. Who would be heading into the coat closet during the middle of the ceremony? Two horny lovers who can't get enough of each other, that's who.

As soon as he closed and locked the door to the large walk in closet, it was endgame. Like a lion going in for the attack, Austin rushes over to you with a few brisk steps and crashes his lips onto yours.

You both pass each other needy moans into each other's mouths, sucking and swirling in a messy collision of lips and tongues. Austin would be covered in lipstick marks by the end of this, but he didn't give a damn.

He backed you against the wall, fumbling hands clambering over every single bit of skin he could latch his fingers onto. And you found purchase in Austin's ashy blonde waves, tousling his coiffed hair his stylist spent a good amount of time getting just right. But you needed him closer. If you could melt with his soul in his moment you would.

Austin moaned heavy against your mouth before pulling away, gulping down air like it was going out of style. "I can't believe how wet you were for me out there." He heaved out, his lips attacking the sensitive flesh of your neck. You mewled and clung even more desperately for him.

"I can't believe how hard you were for me. You have no idea how badly I wanted to pull your cock out and make you cum in my hand." You breathed lustfully, sighing as Austin's mouth worked wonders on suckling the skin down your decolletage.

He whined haughtily. "You'd like that wouldn't you, baby? Milking my cock while they call out my name to get my award."

You moaned, wrapping the leg exposed by the slit of your dress hoist up around Austin's svelte waist, drawing him in. Austin takes the invitation and grabs hold of your thigh. The silver rings on his large dominating hand press into your skin, leaving red welts behind. Latching onto your leg, he brings you closer to his hard body, rocking his hips directly into your aching core.

You mewl, lolling your head to the side, earning Austin more access to nip and lick back up the column of your neck. "Maybe I would. At least everyone would know for sure that you were mine." You purr.

Austin darkly chuckles against the shell of your ear, grinding his erection firmer against your mound, which made you whimper softly. "Don't fret, my love, we made sure to remedy that on the carpet earlier. By tomorrow everyone will get to see the girl that captured my heart for life."

Face to face with Austin once again, he looked like a wild animal in heat with mad eyes, smeared rep lipstick, and his waves now unruly atop his head. With one hand still firmly holding your leg against his waist, the other one glided up your feminine curves, cupping your breast roughly in his line of fire, causing you to gasp.

His fingers wrapped around the front of your throat, applying just enough pressure to assert his dominance. "The entire world will finally know the pussy I sink my cock into at the start of every morning and end of every night." He growled huskily. His rumbling baritone permeated through to your very core, sending a homerun directly down into your clit.

You furrow your brows together and moan at this emboldened statement. As if you weren't already wet before, that made you gush out and ooze onto your ruined panties. The corners of Austin's lips curled devilishly into a coy grin. All the while he was still teasing you with grunts and thrusts of his strained cock against you. Seeing the effect he had over you made him high, better than any drug can do, and he could chase that feeling all day for the rest of his life.

"Austin, please." You plea in a whiny high pitched tone. Your deft fingers play with the curls at the nape of his neck, and you grind yourself as best you can against his length, stirring up the friction you desperately needed on your pussy. Austin sunk his pearly whites into his puffy bottom lip, getting off on everything about you. 15 minutes was barely enough time with his best girl, so he needed to stop playing like he had all the time in the world and get down to brass tax.

Not letting go of your leg, he swiftly sinks down to his knees, throwing your thigh onto his sturdy broad shoulder. He looks up at you through his long lashes, his blues swirling into a cacophony of love drunk ecstasy. "I know we don't have much time, but I wanna taste you. I need to have my tongue buried in your sweet pussy. Want your taste to linger on my palette to get me through the rest of the ceremony." He slurred hot and heavy.

You didn't even have time to respond before you looked down to Austin dragging your panties down your legs and pocketing them in his bolero jacket, repositing your leg over his shoulder. All you can do is mewl in response at his request. If it's one thing you love about Austin, besides his heart of gold, is his heavenly mouth that can bring you countless crippling earthshattering orgasms with a flick of his masterful tongue. Yeah, you needed this just as badly as he did.

In a flash, he let his tongue escape past his lips and lick one long broad determined stripe through your folds. You shuttered and squealed, immediately carding your hard through Austin's golden tendrils.

At first he explored you like the more he licked away at your pussy he would soon strike gold - the treasure of a lifetime. Your slick coated his tongue and lips, making it the easiest thing for him to slurp you up. By your own volition, your hips arched off the wall and started slowly rocking your pussy into his facial hair covered face.

He moaned against your wetness, his long tongue parting your folds with every deliberate swipe and lick.

"Fuck, Austin." You moaned breathlessly. His freehand dug into your waist, helping you along in humping his face as he buried his strong, wet muscle against your pussy. Dragging the tip of his tongue along your slit, he made his way up to your aching swollen clit. Giving your little bundle of nerves all the attention he could muster, he impressed upon you the swiftest and sloppiest flicks of his tongue as fast as he could manage.

He groaned against you, your arousal seeping into his mouth as he delivers an onslaught of licks and flicks of his tongue against your clit that leaves you shaking and clinging to his hair even harder.

"Oh yes! Just like that, baby, please." You scream, not caring who walks by and hears Austin going down on you. He devours your pussy like a man who's starving. As if he didn't just eat one of the fanciest meals of his life in the company of fellow high profile celebrity elites. But you're his favorite meal, by far.

The noises his mouth is making as he messily and eagerly slurps you up is borderline pornographic. He loves to make you wetter than a waterfall, and he savors the taste of your divine juices like they were tailor-made just for him. He could eat your pussy for hours, licking you until you go dumb with only the most base of urges left residing in your brain. And if tonight was a normal night, he would have you cum by his mouth. But the clock was against you both. He knew he didn't have the time to allocate to getting you to your first orgasm on his tongue, but he for damn sure knew he cock would do the job.

Parting from your clit, he swipes more fast and broad strokes of his tongue through your folds, sloppily, obscenely moaning deeply against your sopping cunt. You throw your head back and grind faster on his face.

"Mm. Aus, I-I need...I want to cum on your cock. Now." You moan desperately, savoring in the last few final salacious flicks of his tongue on your pussy before he pulls away from your core completely.

When he rises to his feet, he looks positively fucked out on your pussy. Noticing that his beard is fully drenched in your slick, making the hairs turn a darker blonde, you feel a wave of arousal drip down your thighs.

Austin captured your mouth in a deep and passionate kiss, one where you could taste yourself on his lips as he molded his mouth into yours. Still holding onto your one leg, his free hand gathers up the fabric of your red dress hastily, moving it out of his way to free up your other leg. He lightly smacks the back of your thigh, indicating that he wants you to jump up into his arms.

Taking his nonverbal que, you wrap your arms around his broad shoulders and wrap your other leg around his waist. He pulls away from your mouth with a wet pop, grunting hoarsely as he cradles you fully in his arms, pushing your back up against the wall with brute strength.

Time is of the essence, there's no dillydallying here. With you in the perfect position, Austin lets go of one of your legs and unzips his pants, pulling them down just enough to spring his leaking cock free from his trousers. Taking his erection in hand, he smears his pre-cum oozing from his puffy, red tip over your slippery folds, making you both sigh lustfully as you stare into each other's eyes.

He swallows the remnants of your juices in his mouth and pants. "You ready for me, baby?" He asks, still just as polite and taking into account your comfort even in the heat of the moment.

You nod your head. "Yes, please Austin. Don't make me wait for your cock anymore." You purr, nuzzling your nose against his.

That was all he needed to hear. No longer did those words leave your red lips that he aligned the tip of his cock with your weeping entrance, and slowly pushed through your constricting walls.

The guttural groan that erupted from Austin's throat made you even wetter, and inadvertently clenched around his hard cock at the same time, making him shiver. Feeling him inch his way through your wetness, filling you up to the brim made you want to scream out in pleasure. "Holy shit, Austin." You moaned high and raspy.

He bit his lip and whimpered. Now that he was all the way seated deep inside your pussy, he adjusted his hold on your body, gripping your hips with both his large hands.

Austin withdrew, leaving just the tip lingering inside you. And with full force, he snapped his hips in one fluid motion and his cock fully entered you again, causing you to groan at the feeling of being stretched yet again.

In a frenzy, Austin went to work on slamming his cock in an out of your wet pussy. Over and over his cock pushed deeper through your walls, somehow brushing against all of those hard to reach spots that no other man has ever managed to hit before you met Austin. The curve of his cock was just the perfect fit with your pussy - like it was designed for you.

Austin buried his head in the crook of your neck, fucking you into sweet oblivion. "So goddamn tight for me, baby." He moaned, his breath hot against your neck.

The sounds of your combined noises of love making and the slapping of skin on skin with the sloshing of your pussy juices echoed off of the expensive fur coats and barren wooden walls. Nothing else mattered except for the feeling of Austin's engorged cock getting heavy by the second as he plunged further and harder into your soft heat.

Your breasts jiggled through the neckline of your dress, the thin traps already fallen off your shoulders as Austin fucks his way through your pussy and straight to your soul. He grunts, and you writhe against him, at his mercy and unable to bounce yourself back down on his cock. He's in control, and you let him steer the ship.

The longer he massages his cock along your g-spot, leaving bruises on your cervix, your pussy aids him in slipping in and out of you at an easier and faster rate than ever before. Pretty soon, you're literally dripping onto the floor. In the back of your mind you hope you don't make a mess on Austin's expensive italian leather boots. You just know that by the sounds of it that he's absolutely murdering your pussy right now.

Your walls flutter around him and stroke his cock in such a way that has him buckling already. He can tell by the ramping up of your high pitched moans and your pussy clamping down on his cock that you're nearing the finish line. And you know he's close as well just by how his hips stutter as he sloppily fucks through your slick heat blanketing him from all angles.

It amazes you genuinely how quick he can get you there, but you feel your orgasm threaten to ripple through your body. But you don't want to cum solo. It's gonna be your mission to make him cum with you. This is afterall his special night, and you want him to revel in the moment of falling off the precipice into heavenly bliss with his woman before winning his award. You were already set on your finishing move.

As you pant and whine into Austin's ear, one of your hands yanks his head back perhaps a little too roughly. His face peels away from your neck, and you can see he's sweating bullets. The look in his eyes reads that he's nearing the most sensational orgasm he's had in a while. And you were gonna help him achieve that.

With your best sex kitten voice, you breath through his ragged thrusts as you look into Austin's baby blues. "I want you to fill me up with your cum. Make your load drip down my thighs in front of everybody. Mark me as yours." You pant needily, on the edge of the proverbial cliff just seconds away from diving head first into your orgasm.

This was enough to set Austin careening over the edge. His eyes widened, his brows knitted in concentration as he slammed you down onto his cock, groaning out loudly as he nears his climax.

"Fucking hell, i'm gonna..." He warned loudly, his lips ghosting yours.

"Me too." You muttered helplessly.

And with a few final hard, messy, juicy thrusts you both moan in pleasure at the same time. You feel Austin's cock throb hard inside of you, his cum spurting out in thick globs painting your walls. Just like you wanted, you have every single inch of your pussy drenched in his cum. And while he's shaking uncontrollably, moaning your name as he cums, your walls milks his orgasm so good that he's nearing on the brink of insanity. Your slick gushes out around him, earning you all of his gruff and sexy mewls of fantastic serenity pouring out of Austin's mouth one after the other.

"Goddamn, that's what im talking about, baby. Oh yes." He purrs thickly, letting his lips lazily graze yours in a barely there kiss. His cock is still buried to the hilt in your pussy, and his thrusts come to an eventual halt.

You breathlessly smile against his mouth. "That was everything."

Austin hums in agreement. You whine from the loss of him when he pulls out, his cock lobbing back heavy against his stomach. Gingerly, he places you back down on the ground as you unfurl your legs from his waist. You're wobbly on your heels and you clutch onto his strong forearms for support.

Once he see's your okay to stand as normal, he tucks his cock still coated in your combined orgasms back into his pants. That's a mess he'll deal with later. Plus, he'd rather know that he can have a physical reminder of you on both his cock and his tongue when he sits back down at the table.

After quickly adjusting your dress and your hair back to look somewhat presentable without a mirror present to double check you look okay, you lean up on your tiptoes to place one last tender kiss on Austin's lips. Luckily any lipstick that did transfer on his face isn't there anymore. So he's safe, and no one is still the wiser.

Austin sighs. "I think our 15 minutes in heaven is up." He laughs. "C'mon, let's get back out there."

Linking hands once again, you make sure to look both ways down the hall to check that the coast was clear before you both strolled back into the dining hall as if nothing happened.

And to no ones surprise, Austin swept the competition that night by securing the first of many well deserved awards. When he went up on stage to collect his trophy, he never once looked away from you - the girl that managed to capture his heart, mind, soul, and body. As he thanked you innocently on stage, he licked his lips. A gesture that to everyone else is seemingly normal, nothing to raise concerns over. But to you and him, it brought back vivid flashbacks to those 15 glorious minutes spent with him in that coat closet.

This was absolutely a night that you two would never forget.

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slothquisitor · 8 months ago

Text

What Moves in the Dark: Chapter Four

A post-campaign Baldur's Gate 3 eldritch horror AU.

Chapter Summary: Liv and Astarion continue their investigation at the Wide.

Read from the beginning.

Read on A03.

_______________________________________________________

Liv can’t get away from Astarion fast enough. She barely gets the shop door locked behind her and up the stairs to her apartment before she collapses on her hands and knees. She’s been shaky since the fight, since the rush of adrenaline had faded and the horror of what she’d done had sunk in. She’d volunteered to go get the Fist to get away from the harrowing scene as quickly as possible. Once she was sure Astarion wouldn’t notice, she’d ducked into an alleyway to pathetically retch against the stone wall.

There has always been much in Liv’s life that was out of her control, but her magic was never one of those things. She calls and it answers. She has spent her whole life learning magic, studying spell theory, practicing drawing on that well of power within her. Her magic is an extension of herself. There is something comforting about a spell, about the precision required. Say the right words, form the correct somatic gestures, and the outcome is always what is expected. She has always liked owning that sort of control.

So, of course, she had known that her magic could be used to destroy, to snuff out life. But it is one thing to know that and another entirely to hear a person’s screams as her fire scorches their skin, burning them alive. She had told herself it wasn’t killing when it was mind flayers, that it was in self-defense, that mind flayers might have once been people but weren’t in those terrifying moments when they transformed and attacked. But those cultists, she hadn’t even tried to reason with them. Did they deserve to die? They were people, with entire universes: friends, families, people who cared about them. When had she become judge, jury, and executioner?

It’s difficult to breathe on her apartment floor. Her heart is racing, and she can’t seem to get enough air. She wonders for a moment if she’s dying before she realizes dimly that she’s having a panic attack. It’s funny, even knowing what is happening doesn’t seem to stop it. She’s home and she’s safe, but she can’t quite seem to convince her body of that. It’s been months since the last attack like this, and she feels a profound sort of disappointment in herself. Why isn’t she past this?

She presses her hands more fully into the rough wood of the floorboards to the point of pain, feeling every bit of the wood grain. She focuses on her breathing, letting this thing run its course. At least she’s alone. There’s nothing worse than an audience when you’re falling apart.

When it’s finally over, she kicks off her boots, shrugs out of her cloak, and crawls right into bed. She doesn’t care that she’s still fully dressed because her bed feels safe and secure and she just needs a moment to come to terms with what she’s done. With who she is now.

Those cultists had come to them with the intent to kill them. And Astarion hadn’t hesitated to draw his daggers. She fought effectively, she can acknowledge that much. But she hopes he didn’t realize just how much it affected her. He’d known something was off, of that much she’s sure. He had stared at her like she was something fragile, liable to break. She can’t let him see just how out of her depth she is here, doesn’t want to risk being sidelined. She’s spent her whole life being told she’s not capable, not competent enough. Moving here, helping at the shop, it’s shifted things somewhat. She gets to be someone else, gets to be free from the expectations, or lack thereof. But she doesn’t want Astarion thinking she can’t hold her own. Because she can. She’s fine.

She’d tried to keep from looking at him. Her mother’s voice had been echoing in her head, telling her that her emotions are always evident on her face. Tomorrow night she’ll be better. A lifetime as a Vires has taught her more than just magic: she knows how to pretend to be unaffected.

But tonight she doesn’t have to, so she cries into her pillow until she falls asleep.

In the morning, she wakes up and opens the shop like she didn’t just kill two people the night before. She eats freshly baked blueberry muffins that Wynn sent with Kharis, and she lies when he asks her about her night. They have a few of their usual customers and some new faces, and Liv whiles away the hours studying books on healing magic and blood diseases, writing down notes, and wishing for a larger selection of tomes to choose from. She closes the shop, and Kharis bids her goodnight.

And the world doesn’t end. In fact, for all of her panic of the night before, she feels…steadier now. She’s not necessarily interested in getting into another fight, but she’s been thinking about how she could have incapacitated instead of killed, and the guilt has faded. It’s been replaced with a grim determination to do better next time, to not lose her head. To prove that she can do this.

With sunset not far off, she sets off for the Wide. The Upper City has a strict curfew, but it’s the warm season and a fine evening, so she expects the Bailiff won’t begin clearing the market until the stars appear in the sky. She’d been in such a hurry the night before that she and Astarion hadn’t made plans for where to meet, so she just wanders the crowds, looking for any sign of his silver-white hair.

The Wide is always busy, crowded with the din of people and smells and business. When she was a child, the Wide had seemed to be the most beautiful and glamorous of places. Colorful stalls to browse, exotic goods to buy, and above it all the beacons of the pole-carters weaving through the crowd, goods attached to tall poles that darted in and out of the maze of people.

The Wide is no less magical now, but it’s Liv who’s changed. The press of people no longer seems exciting, but rather oppressive, and the stalls are still beautiful, but she wonders if it might just be a lot less work to buy from somewhere else in the city. She’s not sure when the shift occurred when a place like the Wide is no longer touched by promise and possibility and instead feels irrevocably tainted with the grime of the city.

She’s turning a corner to wander down another crowded line of stalls when Astarion falls into step beside her with such a suddenness it makes her jump. “And here I didn’t think you’d show up.” He’s smiling, but it’s a sharp thing, full of briars and teeth. The comfortability they’d sunk into the night before is gone now. A small, quiet part of her that remembers exactly what he is whispers: run.

“It’ll take more than a few Bhaalists to scare me off,” she replies, voice firm and even. She keeps her chin high and maintains eye contact as if challenging him to tell her she’s not cut out for this.

Her response doesn’t seem to be what he’s expecting, his eyebrows raise in surprise. “Well, I believe we have a job to do and not much time to do it?”

“After you.”

Astarion leads them down a wide, crowded aisle. And she’s once again baffled at how she didn’t know him for exactly what he is when he first entered the shop. He moves with a preternatural grace that no one could mistake for mere mortal. He’s wearing the same clothing as the night she met him, fine and expensive, but this close she can see the way the golden thread of the embroidery is unraveling.

“So, say we do manage to find someone who meets our…parameters, what exactly is your plan then?” he asks lightly.

“I figured we’d talk to them, tell them what’s going on, and ask them for a sample.”

He laughs. “Darling, take it from someone who knows, most people aren’t quick to offer up their blood simply because they’re asked. Besides, do you really want to incite panic in the common folk?”

“Gods no. I didn’t think we’d tell them everything, just enough. But…I suspect if someone…meets our parameters they’ll also have other symptoms. I brought tinctures and potions and balms.” Her bag is packed with anything she might need, including needles and vials. She also prepped a few more offensive spells, just in case. But she doesn’t tell him that.

“So what? Free healing for blood?”

“I’ve heard of worse deals in the Wide.”

“And if diplomacy and bribing don’t work, I can always knock them out and drag them into an alley for you.” The smile he gives her is all fangs, eyes bright. She realizes then that there’s some part of him that revels in the chaos; he’d enjoyed the fight last night.

She’d been so caught up in trying to hide her own reaction, she hadn’t been paying attention to him. But now that she plays it back, she can see it, the smile he’d tossed her at the end, the self-satisfied way he’d drained the cultist before realizing she’d seen. She wants to ask him about it, but she doesn’t.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Oh, you’re no fun,” he complains and then seems to consider his own words before turning to her more fully. “But really, you’re no fun at all, are you? This is three evenings we’ve spent together and you haven’t mentioned a single plan to move or engagement to reschedule. You’re too young to never have plans.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m not that young, and how do you know that my social calendar isn’t just very flexible?”

But she’s simply confirmed his suspicions rather than refuting them and she knows it by the way he smirks and leans conspiratorily toward her. “Forgive my assumptions, what plans did you put off to be with me this evening then?” There’s an amusement in his eyes, and she wants to play along, laugh and joke and flirt back.

She doesn’t.

There’s something about the way he flirts that feels like it is borne more out of habit than any real feeling. So, she sidesteps it entirely. “Are you paying any attention to the people around us? The Bailiff is going to close this all down very soon.”

“Please darling, I’m very good at multitasking.” He puts emphasis on the last word, says it like a promise.

Somehow, she very much doubts that. “I could say the same about you though. You’ve also not complained about moving any plans around.”

“My social calendar is very flexible. As am I.” He flashes her a grin, to which she responds by looking unimpressed. He sighs and grimaces, waving his hand in defeat. “If you must know, since we defeated the Absolute, I’ve found myself a little at a loss for how to spend my time.”

Liv adds this moment to the tally she’s subconsciously keeping of the times he’s dropped the too-smooth facade, when she glimpses through the cracks something that feels real. That feels true. She refuses to wonder what game they’re playing or why she’d even want to keep this tally at all though. “Understandable. What were you doing before?”

He looks away from her, scanning the crowd. “Bending the knee to my master’s every whim. So no, I will not be going back to what I was doing before.”

She’s said the exact wrong thing, and she can feel his defenses building back up. She scrambles for some way to save this moment, to prolong the truth of it. “I’m sorry, I-”

But then he freezes, head twisting to the right. “There it is…”

“Really?”

He pauses and then turns down a crowded alley. “This way.”

She sticks close to him as he weaves through the crowd. He’s walking with intense focus, nostrils flaring as the people move around them like some slow-moving river. He pauses in front of a stall, covered in a canvas of deep blue. The counter is a collection of meticulously organized wooden plates and bowls and other carved goods. The two women at the stall look tired, bored even, as they converse quietly. There’s no one giving the stall a second glance.

“I think it’s her, with the dark hair,” Astarion says. “I’ll need to get closer to be sure.”

“We can just watch for a moment,” Liv says.

The two of them pretend to peruse the goods offered at a spice stall across the way while taking turns watching the women. No one makes a purchase at their stall, though a few people stop to admire a plate or utensil. While they watch, several young people dart in and out of the closed-off portion of the stall.

“What are they doing?” Liv asks under her breath.

“I’ll find out.” Quick as a whisper, Astarion makes his way toward the stall, but somewhere in the crowd, she loses him entirely. She doesn’t want to draw undue attention to him or the stall in question, so she continues to browse the nearby stalls, keeping an eye out for any sign of Astarion.

A few moments later he reappears at her side, flickering into view like a specter. “Well, what are the chances that the one person we find with questionable blood is also fronting a stall for the Guild?”

***

Astarion had thought it was going to be more difficult to suss out what was going on in that stall, but the second he’d slipped inside, he’d recognized the man at a table: Uktar. The same man who had told Tavren about Minsc and the Counting House. Bursar to the Guildmaster, and he was sitting in a stall taking payments run in by children who could skirt the marketplace more easily than any adult.

Uktar’s blood had smelled fine, it was just the woman’s at the stall that seemed off. Something about this is ringing alarm bells in his head, but he’s still not quite sure what about it feels off. Uktar hadn’t liked their group but had seemed at least marginally grateful to not have been killed by the Zhentarim, so he hopes that goodwill will extend a little further because Liv is already walking over to the stall.

He grabs at her arm, pulling her back towards him. “What are you doing? We need a plan.”

Liv pulls away a bit, and he releases her. “I have a plan; I’m going to talk with her.”

“Have you ever dealt with the Guild? This isn’t going to work.”

She sighs. “The first person who died was a runner for the Guild.”

Ah, he sees the connection now. She’s going to leverage it. It would be nice to have all of the information at some point, but it’s clear Liv is playing some things rather close to the chest. He tries to disguise his annoyance, but he’s sure he’s not successful at it. “Well then, you hardly need me.”

She rolls her eyes. “Without you, I wouldn’t even know they were members of the Guild.”

Before he can reply, she approaches the stall and offers a friendly smile to the woman. “Hello.”

The woman smiles in response, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She’s glancing between him and Liv with suspicion while the other woman remains silent and watchful beside her. “Can I interest you in some hand-carved plates and bowls? Artisan made.” She sounds like the worst salesperson in existence. Is this really the best front the Guild can muster?

“I’m actually here to see if you might be Alfran’s friend?” Liv asks, her voice is light and the question is asked gently, but the effect on the woman is immediate.

The woman’s smile drops. “I don’t know who you’re referring to.” It’s a clear lie.

Liv’s calm demeanor doesn’t falter. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to scare you. My name is Liv. I’m a healer; I was treating Alfran.”

“I don’t know anyone by that name,” the woman replies simply.

The other woman is doing a better job of looking aloof, but it’s clear that this exchange hasn’t gone the way they expected. “If you’re not here to buy, kindly fuck off.”

This is going south very quickly. He’s pretty sure if this woman holds fast, Liv won’t press, and he’s getting impatient. “Come now, we’re not with the Fist. The disease that killed Alfran, we think you might also have it. Do you know him now?”

Liv’s glaring at him, but he simply shrugs. The woman’s demeanor changes from suspicion to fear. “What do you mean you think I’m sick?”

“This is much easier to explain somewhere more private.” Liv is oscillating between trying to calm the woman and looking like she wants to set him aflame. He flashes her a gleeful smile.

The woman nods to the back of the stall. “Come on back then. If you knew Alfran, then you know who we work for.”

They follow her into the back area that Astarion’s already explored. Uktar is sitting at a low table, small pouches of money spread out in front of him. He has a book open and a quill and is marking down amounts. His mask glints in the candlelight.

“Ah, you again. Come to sell me more keys?” Uktar says.

“You know these two?” the woman asks, clearly surprised.

Uktar looks between Astarion and Liv, but he’s difficult to read through the mask. “I know the elf. We’ve done business.”

“Well, good. Now we don’t have to kill you,” the woman says.

Astarion refrains from pointing out that he’s pretty sure that Uktar couldn’t hurt a fly since he’d cowered during the entire fight with the Zhentarim. But that wouldn’t help, so he keeps his mouth shut.

“I’m feeling at a bit of a disadvantage here,” Liv says with a strained smile.

“I’m Moira and that’s Uktar. Now tell me why you think I’m sick.”

“Your blood. It smells awful,” Astarion offers helpfully.

Uktar laughs from his desk. “I’d trust that one on that,” he says giving him a significant look.

Moira, for her part, seems to miss the implication. “My blood smells bad? How…”

Liv steps in then, guiding them away from this particular topic. “I think Alfran died of a blood disease. I’d like to take a sample of your blood if that’s okay. Have you been feeling odd lately? Headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears?”

Moira shrugs. “A little, but that’s normal when my monthlies are approaching. Right? Listen, I can’t be sick, not like Alfran was. I’ve got to work.”

“That’s why I’m here, by the time Alfran came to us it was too late. We’re hoping we can help you sooner if you’ve even got the same thing. I’ll need to take a sample of your blood to confirm it. Is that alright?”

Moira nods. “Fine. What do you need?”

“Just access to your arm.”

Astarion doesn’t necessarily want to watch the process. Open wounds can be their own sort of challenge, but this woman’s blood is rank enough he’s not sure he’d even be tempted by it at all. Besides, he wants to see if it behaves like the other blood Liv has shown him. If they are in fact onto something.

Liv asks the woman banal questions he doesn’t bother paying attention to, but he realizes that she’s good at this…at people. She’s charming and comforting while still being genuinely warm. She reminds him of Tavren, of the way they were so quick to take care of people. Liv doesn’t owe this woman anything, but she’s kind and reassuring.

She’d surprised him by showing up at all after last night. He was sure that she’d been so put off by him that she wouldn’t. But she hadn’t just shown up, but she’d made some comment about the Bhaalists not being enough to scare her off. It was…nice. Seeing her with Moira, extending the same kindness she had to him, rankles. There’s nothing special about her care or warmth, it’s just the way she is. His immediate impulse is to be as cruel and unpleasant as possible, to see just how far her limits extend, but instead, he just shifts his attention off of her.

While she works, two more runners come into the tent dropping off pouches of gold to Uktar, and Uktar marks the names off in his book after counting the gold in each pouch. The amounts are small, and Astarion realizes what the money is for: protection bribes. These runners aren’t just to bring money, they’re to keep an eye out for thieves and likely alert whatever merc group is patrolling the Wide that day. The stall owners pay a tax for protection, and at the end of the day, the runners bring in the gold for the Guild.

It’s efficient. Clean. Astarion almost admires it.

“Was Alfran doing anything peculiar or special for the Guild? He told me he was a runner, but that’s all.”

“I’m not about to air the Guild’s business.”

Liv is bandaging up the woman’s arm, gentle as always. “Fair enough. Any recent injuries? Exposures to anything odd? Were you and Alfran ever in the same places together?”

Moira shakes her head. “Just here. I cut my hand open a couple of weeks back. All healed up now though.” Moira holds out her hand, revealing a reddened scar between her thumb and forefinger.

Liv reaches into her bag, producing a couple of bottles. One looks like a healing potion and the other he can’t identify. “You seem to be doing just fine, Moira. But, if you start feeling worse at all, I want you to drink both of these and then come see me. I’m at The Shadowed Quill, do you know where that is?” Liv is lying; this woman is sick. A part of him wants to call her on it in front of Uktar and Moira, but he can’t quite get the words past his tongue.

“Course I know about it. You should’ve led with that. We all know what you do for folks in the Lower City.”

Liv’s answering smile is the first he’s seen entirely free from strain. “We are trying.”

“But I’m not sick?” Moira asks. “Even if my blood..smells bad?”

“I wouldn’t take it personally, not everyone’s smells like a delicious bouquet,” he smiles, allowing his fangs to show.

“We’ll be going now,” Liv says. “Thank you for your help.”

Moira walks them to the tent flaps. “Thanks for doing what you could for Alfran. He was a good kid.”

Uktar steps close as Moira and Liv step back to the front of the shop. His voice is pitched low, barely louder than a whisper. “She’s not your usual ally, and I’d be careful with her if were you.”

Is Uktar really warning him about Liv? She’s handy enough in a fight, he supposes, but he’s still pretty sure he could take her out should the need arise. And it won’t because she’s too boringly nice. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t come back here. Either of you. I’ll be sure to send Moira to you if she needs anything.”

His curiosity is piqued, but what is the point of pushing? Uktar has clearly given him every bit of information he plans to. And Astarion trusts the bursar about as far as he can throw him, and that’s not far.

He follows Liv out of the tent and back into the crowded market. He waits until they’re very much out of earshot before he leans down close to her ear. “You lied to her.”

Liv looks up at him with confusion. “What are you talking about? No, I didn’t.”

“Her blood smelled just awful. She’s going to die, just like Alfran.”

Liv pulls the vial of blood from her bag with a shake of her head. “Her blood is normal, Astarion.”

He takes the vial and examines it. There’s not a single hint of tendrils. “Shit.”

“I’ll take it back to the shop and spend some time with it, but whatever’s wrong with her…her blood isn’t doing the same thing.” Liv looks lost, unsure, and disappointed as he hands back the vial. She looks like she’s on the verge of apologizing, and for some reason, he doesn’t want that.

“We probably need a larger sample size before we come to any conclusions, yes?”

She looks relieved and strangely grateful. “Yes.”

Then he gestures down another aisle. “Shall we?”

#astarion #tavstarion #astarion x tav #astarion bg3 #bg3 astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #astarion x liv #what moves in the dark #slothquisitorwrites #eldritch horror au

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qqueenofhades · 1 year ago

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Leftists are genuinely so transparent with their misogyny, it baffles me. Someone made a point about how Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi are very close in age but only one of them constantly gets hounded about their competency and ability to be a politician, and these people are like "hm but Bernie Sanders thinks everyone deserves healthcare and Nancy Pelosi doesn't" what??? Where does that information even exist beyond the smear campaigns the leftists have made up in their heads to insist the Dems (Pelosi, in particular) suck and justify hating them? It's like... even when the Dems do something good, and take the right position on an issue, these people are just waiting to find some way to rearrange it to fit their narrative that they actually hate them and it's only people like Bernie Sanders who genuinely give a shit.

not to mention thinking everyone deserves healthcare and actually working to make that happen are two different things. Bernie can have all the "correct" ideological positions in the world, but it doesn't seem like he's done much to advance most of them lol

Well, yeah. That's why they are useless dickweeds at best and and unrepentant enablers of fascism at the worst. They gleefully latch onto any lie, mischaracterization, exaggeration, or other bit of propaganda that makes the Democrats look bad and themselves feel Exaltedly Special and justified in not sullying their hands with a flawed democratic process. They don't give a shit if the actual world goes to hell, as long as they still have the Bestest and Most Special Ideas. Which serves the aims of both the actual right wing machine that feeds it to them and the organized Russian troll farms that feed it to THEM. And yet.

Give me a hundred Nancy Pelosis, arguably the most effective Democratic politician in living memory, over Bernie Sanders, he of the blindingly obvious once-a-month Guardian op ed and literally nothing else in the way of substantial policy, while tacitly or openly encouraging his supporters to withhold their vote as "punishment" for any candidate not him. I will say in Bernie's favor that he has changed his tune ahead of 2024, but it is the least of what he owes everyone for contributing to the clusterfuck of 2016 as substantially as he did. So.

And lol yes, the Online Leftists, known for their radical compassion and empathy to all people! They're too busy policing fellow leftists for Thoughtcrime or any other impulse to actually take a tangible action (which might therefore be Morally Problematic) to ever actually once apply compassion to a real person, let alone those who don't agree with them in some part already. In fact, they are perfectly happy to let the people they are supposed to be caring about suffer the increasing effects of nationalized, racialized, homophobic, misogynist, xenophobic white supremacist fascism, as the proper punishment for not being Leftist enough and voting for the Democrats, who they (as noted) eagerly sabotage and undercut far more than the Republicans. So yeah.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

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schraubd · 11 months ago

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DeSantis' "Asylum" Offer to Jewish College Students

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has issued an emergency order waiving various requirements for prospective transfer students into Florida public universities "who are seeking to transfer to a Florida university because of a well-founded fear of antisemitic or other religious discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or violence" at their current colleges.* The "well-founded fear" language is borrowed from asylum law, so if I were a Jewish student considering this offer I'd have to be concerned that DeSantis' next step would be to traffic me right back out of the state via a one-way to a New England island. In all seriousness, I have to give DeSantis a very faint tip of the cap here, if only because a few months ago I had a similar thought about whether colleges in blue states should offer a form of "asylum" running in the opposite direction -- assisting admissions or transfers of students leaving Florida public universities in the wake of DeSantis' assault on academic freedom and the rights of sexual minorities. I've certainly noticed an at least anecdotal uptick in "red state refugees" on the faculty side of academia, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn there's similar pressure on the student side. And on the other side of things, I actually wondered back in 2022 if DeSantis might seek to expressly differentiate himself from Trump on the subject of antisemitism. He hasn't really done so -- the seemingly obvious need of a GOP challenger to challenge Trump continuing to founder on the absolute inability of any Republican of substance to say a bad word about the Supreme Leader -- but he has tried to make "antisemitism" a relatively large part of his presidential narrative. And so as DeSantis' presidential campaign continues to flounder in the most pathetic fashion, this reads like a theatrical attempt to capture some of the Stefanik-magic from last month. Of course, DeSantis isn't alone here. For whatever reason, Republicans have learned that fake performative concern about antisemitism is the easiest route for craven gutless mediocrities to become media starlets, at least for a few days. That it keeps on filling this role is maybe something that the Jewish community needs to ponder -- while on the one hand I'm not convinced it's actually Jews who are most impressed by these stunts, there does seem to be a repeated gullibility on this front that deserves closer interrogation. How has the GOP become so convinced that this play, in particular, is a winning strategy for them? * Nominally, "other religious discrimination" encompasses Muslim students as well -- an interesting prospect as various Muslim and pro-Palestinian groups have begun adopting the broad understandings of "antisemitism" vis-a-vis discourse about Israel and Zionism promoted by some Jewish groups and trying to cross-apply them to similar broad understandings of Islamophobia vis-a-vis how university actors talk about Palestine and anti-Zionism. In practice, it's hard to imagine that will amount to much -- in part because of the vagueness surrounding "well-founded fear" of persecution, and in part because the sort of person who is concerned about that sort of Islamophobia is perhaps unlikely to find Florida an attractive destination to flee to. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/WbQVEK9

#academia #anti-semitism #discrimination #Florida #Jews #Ron DeSantis

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omg-hellgirl · 3 months ago

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lol Angie was yelling at Corinne for no reason, that’s why David put his hands on her. I’m not defending that because its disgusting and disrespectful towards her but it happened. Angie couldn’t see her child because once again she gave him to David and basically held up the deuces and started a whole different family claiming that she didn’t want to be reminded of David. How do you think her son feels being in the middle of this war and his mother uses him as a scapegoat. You saying on your blog that’s iconic was weird as hell. Maybe you don’t hate them but you have a weird way of showing your likeness to one person then point out flaws on the next person while the person you uplifted is basically the same. Nobody is the bad guy, they all were victims of drugs. You say things about Anita’s personality when Angie was the same person just different fonts. lol you’re upset for nothing. Then you go responding to other peoples blogs invaliding their thoughts and opinions because you feel Angie was done wrong when really Angie knew that David didn’t love her and because of that fact alone her being the way she was is why he eventually turned his back on her (not blaming just pointing out facts) but Keith loved Anita in his own way and that’s why he never turned his back on her, nothing to be lucky about they had an understanding of each other, David on the other hand didn’t care about her from the jump. Does she deserves better? Yes. She’s done a lot for him. But is blaming and saying slanderous things about Corinne for validation of Angie’s character gonna somehow make her a better person? No. “Thanks for your opinion” likewise.

"Then you go responding to other peoples blogs invaliding their thoughts and opinions because you feel..." I've never been to anyone's blog to say anything about Angie or defend her. I don't know what you're talking about. I just post about her. You're the one who came to my blog to send these asks invalidating my thoughts.

Angie yelled at Corinne for a reason. She put the reason in her book. I don't care if you think it's not a valid reason or not. I don't know why you believe this story if you don't believe what Angie wrote in the first place.

"I questioned Corinne rather sharply about the amount of baggage she'd assembled for a trip to Jamaica, where David was going to record. She snapped at me, so I snapped back at her - "Don't you dare talk to me like that!" -

Putting your hands on a woman isn't just disgusting. It's a crime.

"blaming and saying slanderous things about Corinne for validation of Angie’s character" I hardly ever post about Corinne and when I did it was excerpts from Angie's book. Her book contains slanderous to you. What did you say, before? Remember you were not there. For you they are lies and for me they are Angie's words, which I believe, but I still don't know why so much drama when I only have one or two posts about Corinne. And they can hardly be considered slanderous when they are more about Angie's impression of her.

It will be a pleasure to put them here.

"At the same time, a threat already in place began really asserting itself: the awful Corinne Schwab fired up her campaign for exclusive rights to David Bowie, body and soul."

"My troubles with witches may have been over, but my troubles with bitches had only just begun."

"Of the many acolytes at the altar of the Church of David Bowie, then, Corinne turned out to be both the most enduring and the most privileged. Whether she's ever been admitted to the tabernacle and tasted the holy loins, however, I don't know. I suspect that might have happened in the beginning, since that's how David marked his turf."

Apparently these are the excerpts from Angie's book that I posted and used to "blame" Corinne and say "slanderous" things about her. You are upset for nothing.

You stated things in your previous ask that simply aren't true because they aren't things I said. I never said I hated Anita, but I can still give my opinion on her. Anita is not perfect and I have criticized her because she has flaws like everyone else, but she is not a monster. I've said on my blog that she's in a gray area for me. I don't love her and I don't hate her.

But again, you can feel and think whatever you want, I don't invalidate people's feelings. I'm not telling you how to feel about Angie or anyone else. I post about my feelings and thoughts based on quotes from books I've read.

David never talked about what really happened between him and Angie. His version. So you're making your own assumptions based on what you think his feelings were. I believe in what she said.

"Does she deserves better? Yes. She’s done a lot for him." Yes, we agree on that. And yet, as I said once before, fans can forgive aggression, Nazi gestures, underage girls and parental alienation, but God forbid if a woman talks about her experience with that same man or not having taken custody of her child. Of all Angie's character flaws, because nobody's perfect, nothing compares to this.

You want to see me criticize Angie? Well, here we go. In my opinion, she should have fought for the custody of Duncan. She should have kept her son. She shouldn't have let David keep their son even if his mental health suffered because of it. She shouldn't have given up custody of her son, she should have fought in the sexist Swiss court and gone to the English court if she needed to. She shouldn't have gotten pregnant again. She should have put the world down to see her child. NONE of this erases the things she went through. None of my criticism erases what she went through. What are we supposed to do with this, crucify her? Don't go around assuming that I think she's perfect and that I think she didn't do anything wrong.

Once again, no father has the right to make a mother-son relationship difficult and it was David's choice not to respect Angie. He may not have loved her but she was still the mother of his child and if he had been sensible he would have encouraged and helped Angie to have a good relationship with their son.

Let's not mention the fact that, according to her, he had photos of her in sexual moments with other people that left her at a disadvantage in court. You can call this slander too. Please, also call the nice things she said about him slander. Of course, I would never invalidate someone's feelings and opinions.

Not loving a woman is no excuse for not respecting her or doing the right thing. Keith loved Anita and didn't turn his back on her even when he fell in love with Patti Hansen, but even if he never had loved Anita, it wouldn't be okay for him to throw her under the bus and try to hide the influence Anita had on him.

I will not answer any more asks from you. I will continue to post about Angie so block me if it bothers you so much.

Thanks again for your opinion, please don't go to other people's blogs "invaliding their thoughts and opinions because you feel..."

#angie bowie #david bowie #anita pallenberg #keith richards #anon ask #corinne schwab #sexism #mysogyny #domestic violence #parental alienation

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dooplissss · 10 months ago

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i would like to know about the ocs 🫴🏽

bless you

ok I have way more than just these but these are the current standouts, maybe I’ll do a part 2 tomorrow bc i cant stop talking about my silly little guys

Emmett & Marasmus: Newest oc for dnd, pact of the undead warlock. Emmett was just living his life til he ate the wrong mushroom for dinner and it revealed itself to be a god named Marasmus that wants people to praise it, so it took over poor Emmett’s body and puppeted him around, turning his hometown into a cult. Emmett broke out of his stupor and escaped after nearly feeding a spore to his brother and he’s been running ever since, his body slowly being eaten by the monster that inhabits him. Also they bicker constantly, real Beacon and Duck Newton vibes.

Emmett is truly just some guy who doesn’t deserve to have this wannabe god parasite stuck to him but that’s how these things go. He’s so sweet and ofc he loves his family bc I’m predictable and make that a trait for nearly all my ocs. I tend to avoid family drama or at least do it in a different way than most people, in that I prefer my characters to be striving to get back home or avoiding going home because they feel they don’t deserve to be a part of their family anymore, but always always always they are loved despite everything bad they’ve done/think they’ve done. I really hope the game goes long enough to see Emmett get to hug his brother again and forgive his mom for not being able to help him, he’s the only one of my ocs who’s been wronged by his family and even then its neither of their fault. God he needs a hug so bad

Salem & Erin: god this guy is so fun. Salem is a skellington who started as a rich brat that got peer pressured into a ritual that makes you immortal, 40 years later he had a heart attack, died for a second, and then started rotting alive. He spent decades alone in his big mansion haunting his own halls, bored out of his skull. Occasionally people would come thru, be terrified by him or try to kill him, but largely he was just left there. It took him years to work up the courage to enter his son’s room and reminisce about him; he was married a long time ago, but as soon as he floated the idea of having his spouse and child go through the ritual too they up and left him.

Eventually a realtor, Erin, comes to the house to sell it, and she’s the only person who isn’t scared of him. It’s the first conversation Salems had in years and they become friends, her daughter Olivia makes clothes for Salem to disguise his form and help him gain the courage to leave the house more and more. Salem lets more people into the house, especially artists he really loves art, and eventually lets people live there while he moves in with Erin and Olivia once he feels safe enough to live among people again.

Originally Erin and Salem were supposed to just be friends but ofc I started shipping them and ughhh they make me insane. They’re both divorcees and have talked at length about how they’ll never make that mistake again, but Salems been in love with Erin since the beginning. And he’s the least subtle person on the planet so ofc everyone knows, including Erin and she’s just patiently waiting for the day when Salem admits how they feel, however long it takes. I made Salem for dnd and his quest is basically to find a way to undo his immortality, but tbh every time he joins a campaign it dies soon after so I think I want to try making a comic or a series of vignettes or something for him anyway, especially since I’ve had a lot of time to think about plot hooks and stuff.

this is the only fic i have them but i really love it please clap

Tillian & Somlen: The OCs of All Time. I literally have a tattoo representing them, they mean so goddamn much to me its hard to put into words like they changed me as a person. Somlen isn’t my oc, he belongs to my dm, but the two are so tied together and influenced each other so much it all kinda blends together.

Tillian is a haunted one bard who grew up in the town of Winslow, a little prairie town that had something Wrong in the well that caused all the sounds to warp. The crops whispered, the blueberries gossiped, her mom echoed, her dad sang, her brother spoke backwards, and when Tillian herself spoke everyone would hear something different (I had a d100 list for what they would hear). After someone disappeared while doing recon inside the well, the town boarded it up and went their separate ways. When Tillian’s family went to stay with her aunt, she said hello to her cousin and instantly killed him with her voice.

She went to bard college to help get her voice back, and as the game started she was simply looking for answers to why this happened and what caused it. She meets with the group, starts adventuring, and one fight goes so bad she gets fully 3 failed death saves killed. Something picks her out of the river of death and brings her back to life, and that’s when she buys a haunted doll, a homebrew item from TAZ that takes that final death onto itself.

As the adventurers leave town, she feels her bag moving on to find oh fuck the doll is alive and its an asshole. The doll says his name is Somlen and he was cursed after he slept with the wrong person. Tillian HATES this guy at first but ah fuck, if she dies he’s going to die in her place so she has to be more careful. And as she talks to him more, she starts to warm up to him. He cheated on his girlfriend and he’s the perfect picture of the horny bard trope, but he wants to do better and become a better person.

Things happen, yadda yadda, Tillian finds out the location of the hag that cursed him and they kill her, taking the curse away but Somlen is still stuck in the doll body, they need powerful magic to get him polymorphed back to human. The group decides to go to a city but, as a lark, one of the npcs decides to try her luck to change him back and she rolls a goddamn nat 20. Somlen is human again and oh god he’s in his birthday suit. While Tillian is in total shock, the group gets him clothed, Somlen jokes around and plays it cool up until he gets back to Tillian, who just. Wordlessly takes her signature scarf, the one her dad knit for her, and wraps it around him and hugs him. And it hits them both like, they did it, he’s safe, and Somlen would do anything for her and vice versa.

They go into the city where they get a clue to visit the outskirts where Tillian’s aunts house is, except its old, like really really old, all that’s left is a hole down into the basement. And when they get in, Tillian can feel something trying to communicate with her, and she learns this place is over 2000 years old and so is she. That night, when she sleeps, she wakes up inside the well surrounded by hundreds of faces and she knows every single one of them. The thing that lives in the well tells her to bring her friends back for it, and that’s when it hits her: This thing, the Uvuuduam, has been sending her out every hundred years to go collect a group of adventurers and bring them back to feed them to this monster. It controlled her into tracking down every villager of Winslow and throwing them down into the well, including her mom and dad and brother. She is as much the thing haunting her home as this awful creature is.

She wakes up, silently collects her things, and leaves everyone behind to spare them. They catch up, ofc, but she is desperate to spare them from this fate. She offers them a anti-scrying necklace so they can leave her and be untrackable, but no one agrees to take it, they’re all in it to save her much as she begs them not to. She is absolutely broken by this revelation, but the group and especially Somlen are there to hold her together.

They send some time leveling up and preparing to go to her town, and finally the day comes when they arrive. They go into the well and face the Uvuuduam, it’s a tough fight (we had a irl sleepover to play it all the way thru), but they do it and she severs this horrible things neck as she screams, her voice finally returning to her after all these years. Everyone in the well wakes up, she reunites with her family, and (this part always makes me cry) when she sleeps that night, it’s the first restful sleep she’s had in 2000 years. She and Somlen stay behind in Winslow, finally home.

Like. They are truly everything to me. They are foils in so many ways but it just makes them stronger. Tillian is an aromantic bard, helping me realize I myself am aro, and it always gets to me that she loved so fiercely and so much and it was used as a weapon against her, that the monster knew it could depend on her to make connections strong enough to make people willing to do anything for her and therefore bring back its food. She loves too much for her own good, but she’s safe now, she’s with her family and the people she loves and god forbid anything try to take advantage of her ever again.

Also these two are just funny. Two halves of a whole idiot. Tillian is a neurotic mess at all times, Somlen is full of himself, they’re life partners and also an inseparable comedy duo. They’ve seen each other at their very worst and choose each other without hesitation over and over. They’ve both had their free will ripped from them thru curses and manipulation and they vow to break the hold others have on them, they would tear the world in half if the other asked. And just. Tillian wants nothing more than to return home while Somlen runs as far away from his past as possible, but he finds a home in her and he helps her win back hers. They love each other and they are best friends forever :’) also I’ve written so many fics about them and I still have so many more I want to write lmao

#tillian and somlen #emmett #salem #i could talk about tillian and somlen for ten thousand years and i will #ocs

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dianaburnwood · 2 years ago

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HITMAN Freelancer: First Impressions

Let’s be real, this is not a first impressions post. I’ve been playing Freelancer for a month now :D

First of all, before we even get into Freelancer, can we all take a moment to appreciate the new menu screen for World of Assassination:

DIANA is the story, she is the Moment, she is THAT girl

Now, for Freelancer

ok this is going to be long

tbh I don’t know how to distill my emotions

I DO actually have some negatives to say, but TL;DR my impressions are overwhelmingly positive. It’s an incredibly fresh and interesting mode while still feeling true to the core of the series.

So, Freelancer Missions Pros and Cons: Cons: A few bugs that have cost me dearly e.g. shots from an emetic pistol being reacted to as both a distraction and a bullet, NPCs seeing through walls, poisoned drinks having no effect. Also the burner phones counting as “calling a meeting” seems to be sporadic.

Two things I might consider cons but I’m not sure: Not being able to save, and not being able to choose starting locations.

The not being able to save thing might actually count as a pro, as it really makes everything super tense. But starting locations can really mess you up e.g. starting at the top of Dartmoor Manor when you were trying to avoid getting spotted.

My other con is that I was hoping alerted territories would be based on player action, like the notoriety system in Blood Money. But at the same time I understand that you could end up with no alerted territories then, which would take away some of the strategic elements of the campaign e.g. choosing your showdown location.

I think it’s a shame that there clearly wasn’t either enough time or resources to nail down the randomised dialogues. I’ve had loads of instances where 47′s line and the supplier’s line don’t add up - e.g.

Supplier: Hey there, you need anything? 47: I am.

It happens with Diana too, and her line transitions aren’t smooth enough so it makes it obvious they were all recorded separately instead of them sounding like they flow e.g. “So you need to be careful. Be careful 47″ and things like that.

It’s hard to get randomised lines perfect, but I think this could have done with more polish time.

Pros: Literally everything else :D The stakes are high, the NPC targets are fresh, the showdowns are fun and require careful planning, the assassins and lookouts make for excellent complications, showdowns in alerted territories are a wonderful nightmare, buying from suppliers is great too BUT I have been disappointed now that I’ve collected everything I get nothing from suppliers or supply crates :/ I don’t know what I expect them to give me, but every time I open up that empty supply crate after a mission I’m like... :(

Got everything a few times over now except for the outstanding service coin???? It’s nowhere??? Must be a bug, or maybe it’s only awarded for Hardcore.

Speaking of which, Hardcore looks pretty but it’s also tough so I’ll wait till I’m bored with the regular mode.

The biggest plus for me is obviously the safehouse. I mean who doesn’t want to play dress-up in Barbie’s Murder Mansion????

The safehouse deserves its own post (THAT is coming) and I have a lot to say - namely it’s pretty obvious that Diana canonically bought this house for 47????? He didn’t get it, SHE got it for him? LIKE, I AM DECEASED

The Safehouse

When you first get here, I was struck by the absolute aloneness of the upper floors. I know this was deliberate as you get to choose your own music later, but omg. I think IO portrays emptiness and loneliness so well in Hitman in general, and this is no exception. The slow echo of footsteps, the silence, the large, empty spaces... it really gave that feeling when you first move in somewhere and you’re like, what now?

Progressing through levels and unlocking more stuff is SO much fun. Decorating is so much fun. 47′s little blend in actions are SO much fun. I wish he had more tbh.

Like why can’t I sit here?????? It’s PERFECT???

The shed is such a nice thing to have, really reminds me of Silent Assassin. I love that he can make little poisons in there as well as in the infirmary, and he can go make bombs in his garage, like dude

Speaking of Silent Assassin - he can grow tomatoes????? Do IO know what they’ve done for me

It’s so beautiful out here, so soothing, when Diana says she loves the lifestyle she is RIGHT like, the music out here is so calming I love it - meditating beside a picnic table???? YOU’RE KILLING ME

Wish I could check out this church tho

His house appears in a mid-century modern style to me, so I’ve kept the furniture and decor mainly matching that aesthetic where possible.

I’ve finally opened my asks again lmao lemme know if you want a house tour complete with “dark floors... hide stains easily....”

And I’ll post on all the things I’m freaking out about in the safehouse. My playstation is overflowing with pics

Happy hunting babes

#first impressions #hitman freelancer

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traveling-at-the-speed-of-light · 1 year ago

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Master Post: Wrapped Fics #1, #2, #3

Thankyou to @ucannotkillmeinawaythatmatters for every single one of these. My playlist (and writer's block) thanks you!

#1 - Steddie, 15 (Outsiders by Against The Current)

#2 - First Prince, 24 (Freezing by Mimi Webb)

#3 - Narlie, 89 (Bois Lie (feat. Machine Gun Kelly) by Avril Lavigne)

~1~

Steve never thought being disowned would be a good thing. The Harringtons, his ancestors, had been privileged, a working family made of old money that had built most of Hawkins's buildings and even owned them one time or another.

Steve had expectations put upon him, a legacy and worse, the family name to live up to and while he’d never done a decent job of it, losing it was a new experience. He’d do it all over again if it meant Eddie would still take him like he already has.

God, Eddie. Eddie was a true outsider to Steve when they first met, now they’re sharing a bed and a life Steve only glimpsed in teenage angst fueled dreams, Steve now being nameless and Eddie fearing people still, both damaged beyond repair.

They had always felt alone and unloved in the world, everyone around them golden while they trudged through black and blue and hurting till now. Now, when every broken bone Eddie once had below the surface has healed and Steve no longer has to tell lies to save his reputation or live in broken walls that never held him as tightly as Eddie does when they’re sleeping in Wayne’s trailer late at night as the moon shines through the trees.

They might be outsiders now, Steve a rebel and Eddie still a freak, but they’re free. They aren’t hiding anymore, their true selves out in the open for all to see.

The others/ They don’t know what they’re missing.

~2~

Alex has never felt so cold in his life in this moment and he’s been in England, his face a mask of indifference as he views the recent call list on his phone to see Henry’s WhatsApp number in a list of the same digits going on for endless scrolling before it disappears.

The Latino never thought he would have to be the cold one in the relationship. He’d tried, he’d /tried/ to put up with Henry, but the constant rules, the hiding, it was too much.

He couldn’t keep sneaking behind everyone’s back just to get his cock sucked every one in a while before he was ruthlessly tossed like trash away from the prince and told to pretend like nothing happened. They weren’t together, yet Henry acts so plainly like they were and it makes him hurt under the ice he’s put over his emotions.

At one point, Alex had fallen for that delusion, yes, he’ll admit that, but he’d seen though it now - how Henry only called when no one was around and made sure everyone was none the wiser and not getting a hint, any hint, that him and Alex were more than the “close personal friends” that they were made to be.

Henry said the last time they saw each other in Paris, when Alex instead of making love to him pushed him away, that everybody makes mistakes, but Alex knew that this “mistake” could hit hard and hurt other people than just them. It makes his decision to tell him point blank that he’s leaving, come home, shut that door and swallow the keys even more brutal, but he had to. Not just for Henry to get the hint that he wanted more, deserved more, but so Henry would see with a push that living his life in the shadows and on other people’s opinions and time weren’t worth it.

It more than likely looked like Alex ran for the hills or in more proper terms, abandoned ship to the other, given he’s not answering his calls and declining his invitations, but he had to be ruthless. It was cold, so very goddamn cold and very not like him in retrospect, but he had to do like Henry had - cage his heart for the foreseeable future and work on his mother’s campaign without interruption and without Henry’s continued commentary on his life.

It wasn’t just cold anymore once he closed his phone - it was downright freezing.

~3~

Normally, Charlie Spring doesn’t like to get into fights. Much less fights that he didn’t expect to even get into in the first place, but now he’s here, broken objects around him and the current villain - his supposed to be boyfriend Nick Nelson - looming over the other side of the room as they both breathe heavily, cheeks stained red and tears on both their faces, a blowout fight having commenced due to several factors.

First of all, Charlie cheated on him. Yes, he knows that’s horrible and shameful it’s all on him, but it’s really not given Nick was no fucking saint either. The man had a tongue like a razor blade and lately, had been lying straight to his face about several things, the comments and passive responses feeling like Nick was twisting a knife into his back and carving his name all over Charlie like he was owned and not loved like he had been. Like he used to be.

On top of that, Charlie had become anxious of late and had to make up little stories in order to cover up everything he’d been doing off to the side, due to Nick just obviously not caring for him anymore despite pretending to be faithful and forthright with him, just telling him what he wants and weaving words to create magic in Charlie’s ears before it disappears and leaves him hollow. Charlie wanted revenge and he’d gotten it, the only problem with it was that with telling the truth, the illusion shatters.

Last night had been a particularly bad spell, as that’s what had led to now - Charlie’s guilt making him talk way too much and no longer able to continue doing “fake shit” as Nick had coined it during the hours-long row that had now put them in a standoff where they had no idea where to go from because both of them never told each other the truth, neither of them saying sorry and throwing everything in their way to avoid it.

Soon enough, Nick, heavy with regret and hunched over with the pains of sadness and guilt of losing his patience and knowing he’s caused all of this (though Charlie’s sure his friends would say Charlie was the bad guy while his own would say Nick was) stares him down and Charlie watches forlorn as he leaves the room, the sound of the door slamming upstairs making his heart stop with it’s echo and suffer before he falls to the floor, the remnants of what was happiness and acceptance in pieces around him.

It doesn’t take a genius for someone like him to know that life as he knows is over for good.

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maareyas · 1 year ago

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alright i've recovered from the heart-shattering and i can put my thoughts about Octopath Traveler 2 into words now.

Gameplay is great, Visuals are great (though somewhat overwhelming with the light effects when you just start playing), Stories ranged from great to eeeeh, Characters are all mostly great too

overall experience is 10/10! This game has rewired my brain in some way and i don't know what

less succinct rambles below

I love this game so much I don't know how I'll ever recover from it. The exploration alone was so much fun, the concept of path actions and the day/night mechanic is so good. It reminds me of my favorite turn-based RPGs from when I was a teen. But nostalgia has nothing to do with how good this game is, it's so genuinely fun and I wish there was more stuff for me to do alksjdlakjsd

And the music!! I love the music. I wish the dungeons got more unique themes but given how many there are + the amount of banger character motifs we got, I understand why the devs decided not to do that lkasjdlksajd

now though, gotta talk about the main selling point of this game: The Narrative✨

Ochette was my starter but tbh my favorite tales have to be Castti and Throne's. Partitio was a close second and honestly, the most consistent in quality to me.

Following his is Hikari's tale, since I feel like it had some untapped potential. He's very...idek, Classic Samurai Hero™ (I say that as if I've seen enough samurai/East Asian swordsman media to know) Disgraced prince, heart of gold, honorable to a fault, evil shadowself--the works. I don't think his shadowself was utilized as much as it could've been, but I can see why since they have to fit an entire journey into a few chapter's worth of cutscenes.

Temenos is in the same rank. He's a fun character to follow and I love the mystery aspect. Solid overall but I wish it had more personal stakes for Temenos aside from avenging Roi (who deserved more screentime imo), the pontiff, and Crick

Ochette is slightly lower overall but BOY did her final boss hurt me emotionally and in battle :''D She's one of my favorites As a Character too

Osvald's story is interesting and well-executed, with a satisfying ending, but it's not really my taste and as a character, he's kinda boring to watch unless there's someone else to play off him ksjdlkas like his and Parti's Crossed Paths tale. That plot twist with Elena's brainwashing was brutal, tbh. I love it.

Agnea...still has a weak story to me 😅 I like how bright it was, especially compared to the others, but like with Hikari, I feel like there could have been more done with it. It just felt too light, y'know? None of the stakes feel too hitting even on a personal level. I like Agnea but I don't love her, yknow?

honestly, if these were truly individual stories, I would seen them as only "pretty good" at best. But their "brevity" plays well into making them feel like parts of interconnected whole--of Solistia. Each journey is different, but not above nor below the others, if that makes sense. I love that vibe of it ✨

THE EXTRA STORIES THOUGH that was. kinda bad in hindsight. It should've been its own campaign instead of just One Episode 😭 Or like, had any proper build up at all. All the plotwists either feel like they came out of nowhere, or added as an afterthought. The whole episode felt like an afterthought. They hit hard, but not in a way that's satisfying :^( The NPCs don't even acknowledge the eternal night aside from maybe those at Flamechurch cathedral.

In general I think the game struggles with leaving a bunch of lore bits unresolved. Claude's entire existence is the most obvious example. He's just hanging out ig. grandson of D'arquest, with Vide blood, Throne was supposed to be some "Vessel" we don't elaborate on that??? p l s. Arcanette being immortal??? literally WHO is she aside from the Moonshade Order's leader?? are the two of them the characters from that fairytale that keeps being brought up? and like. that thing with Trosseau and Castti apparently just walking around Lostseed to collect herbs when Lostseed, to me, was implied to be "hidden".

much to think about. Or maybe I just missed a lot of things, like that detail with Roi being the monster that Ochette fought in her chapter 1

I love this game and its worldbuilding graaaahhhh i wish Extra Stories was better :^(

#rey plays octopath 2 #rey rambles

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aspiringsophrosyne · 2 years ago

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Episode 4: Those Who Walk Away

There's a long line at the concession stand. Think you can get something before the show starts? Traffic was pretty bad.

Because trust me, you don't want to miss the beginning of this one.

The Good.

There's no end to the praise Liam O'Brien deserves just for the first couple of minutes of the episode. I knew what was coming; how devastating it would be for these characters and how painful it would be for them all.

Especially for Vax.

And still. Still. Vax's desperate "Somebody do something!!" stabbed me right in the goddamned heart. And the delivery of his line to the Queen of Death, the one that every critter who watched Campaign one knows, the words that changed Vax's destiny forever...perfect.

The visuals for the ritual were really cool, too. It was hard to imagine how they would communicate what was happening in the show; as in the stream it was down to dice rolls and rituals. The gold dome over Vex, the Queen's claw piercing it and then causing it to shatter....it calls up dread from the deepest pit of your heart.

And then Vax just having the armor on when they turn around...quick, efficient and spooky as hell. Very good move there.

Those shots of the Calamity in the vision. My God. For the record, and I touched on this before, I love that the peeks we've gotten into that period of Exandria's history have been broad and unspecific. They are meant to be grandiose to mind-bending proportions, and you can ironically lose that effect by trying too hard to get that idea across. It also leaves the impression that as big and crazy as this all looks, what we've seen (Osysa's story in S2E2 and now Vax's vision) is only the tip of the iceberg.

I like that Purrvan got to shine a bit here. Partially this is because I can sympathize with Matt over that name; (Vox Machina's reaction to it was pretty much the cast's in the stream) and also because it makes sense. Funny name or not, the Matron doesn't hire chumps. In the watch-along for this episode, the cast mentioned that they originally had Matt record grunts, sounds of effort, and reactions to getting hit...and then decided the scene was more striking without them. It was a good call. It gets across just how beyond Vax this former Champion is. And it foreshadows just how formidable a being Vax will one day become.

As I've said before and will say again, titmouse knows how to do a good fight scene. I was surprised the monster was savvier than it looked, angling its tentacles around Keyleth's obstacles to get at her and Percy. Some damn good lines here too. Pike's understandable exasperation ("Son of a bitch!") and Percy's testy incredulousness ("Oh, just petrified!?") are incredibly relatable.

Perhaps the scene only feels this way to me because of hindsight, but Vax's acceptance feels like a crown being placed on a head under a guillotine.

I didn't immediately realize what they had done with the Deathwalker's Ward. I had honestly forgotten what it did: aside from its most obvious perk, which we'll see in a future episode. In the game, it's mostly a defensive item. Ironic: a Death Goddess's artifact that made it harder for you to die. But what they did in the show was combine it with another magic item Vax had, the boots of haste, which the twins fought over incessantly. They let him cast haste on himself without having that spell, and with it, he could haul ass like a motherfucker.

This allows us a demonstrative visual for the ward's power-up, and it gets those boots in the show without them being in it. Plus, the ability they grant fits Vax as a speedy, stealthy guy.

Not only that, but it also shows us in very little time just why Osysa sent Vox Machina after these things. Seeing the whole crew get trashed by this monster, only for Vax to take it down alone, cements how powerful the Vestiges are and how essential they'll be in defeating the Chroma Conclave. Another great use of show-don't-tell.

And that shot. That shot. Reactors and the cast alike can't help but cheer when That Shot happens, where Vax leaps into the air and is framed by the Matron's mural above him before he delivers the final blow. Like Liam O'Brien's acting, I can't say enough good things about that shot. It looks cool, but it also has weight; it suggests that Vax has taken his place as a figure in history who will have murals in temples dedicated to him that other adventurers will stumble upon one day.

The new implementation of the necklace is clever. It makes sense a bounty hunter would have something like it. And Wil get's one more good line out before he and Zahra exit.

The Bad. (Or at least not great.)

You're hot, then you're cold.

Zahra is the one to vocally oppose Vex's attempted resurrection. This contrasts her with Kash, who leaps right in to try to help when Pike's efforts don't work. This behavior comes across as somewhat inconsistent.

Zahra was the one who had a personal relationship with Vex, even if it ended badly. Zahra was the one who supported and saved Vex in the battle with the Adaro, even if it was at least partially to show her up.

I could see Zahra cautioning both Kash and Vox Machina that what he's trying to do for Vex has a minuscule chance of succeeding. Or even warning Kash against it for fear of drawing Vesh's attention. (Vesh is Kash's goddess, and she is bad fucking news.) But Zahra just unemotionally writing off Vex as dead and declaring it useless to try to help her seems disproportionally cold compared to how she'd acted up to that point.

No Drama is Better Than Bad Drama?

Previously, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Take included at all, let alone so well integrated into The Legend of Vox Machina's story. Likewise, Zahra and Kash were a delight, and the passion for their characters comes just as strong through Mary's and Will's performances as it does for the rest of the voice acting cast.

But the Onlooker fight is where the momentum stalls.

Zahra specifically says this to Kash after Grog is petrified:

Kash: Shit.

Zahra: Would you relax? As soon as they're restrained, I swipe the armor, you unfreeze your new friends, and we get the hell out of here.

So we have a clear scheme here. Let the Onlooker turn Vox Machina to stone, steal the Deathwalker's Ward from Vax, de-petrify everyone, then book it.

As far as plots to steal an artifact go, it's pretty tame and harmless. It probably wouldn't have even worked because after Vox Machina was restored, they would've been pretty pissed about the theft, and then it would've been a two-on-seven fight. One on seven, if Kash decided he wasn't on Zahra's side.

But as the battle continued, more of the other group succumbed, and Kash got upset and said he wouldn't be a party to Zahra's plan.

...Why?

Later, after Vax Awakens the Deathwalker's Ward, Kash says this to him:

Kash: Look, I'm sorry. We didn't mean for any of this to happen, I swear.

Yes, you did!! You absolutely did. Or at least Zahra did. That was her whole plan.

The script treats the fight like an escalation from what Zahra planned. That her recklessness and stubbornness let things get out of her control. That she put Vox Machina in danger.

By every indication, that is not what happened.

Things were going exactly as planned before she tried to put the monster back in her necklace on Kash's objections, and Vax Awakened the armor.

Not only that, but Vox Machina would've been perfectly fine if everything had gone the way she'd wanted. They would've been rightfully pissed that their Vestige was stolen, but they would've been unharmed otherwise once Kash restored them.

The crew said in the Q&A that they wanted this monster fight to have more drama than its stream counterpart. I like drama. But I'm most satisfied with drama when it makes sense. When it's consistent with what we're seeing and hearing on screen. What I'm not impressed by is a drama that's introduced for the sake of it and thus ill-conceived and ill-implemented. That brings nothing to the table.

This isn't the first time the script of The Legend of Vox Machina was at odds with what we were actually seeing or had seen on screen. And sadly, it won't be the last time this season.

A Question of Motivation.

Something else harms the deployment of the monster. Beyond the disconnection between what's happening and what is said, Zahra's motivations, or lack thereof, hold things back.

Zahra's clearly irritated that Osysa told Vox Machina about the Ward instead of anyone at the Take, but how does this motivate her? Is she acting out of envy? Greed? Worry? A sense of responsibility? A feeling of betrayal? Her old bitter feelings about Vex? Does she feel Vox Machina could be worthy of the Vestige, but she won't accept that unless she sees it for herself? Or all of the above?

We'll probably see Kash and Zahra again. And future episodes could shed some light on this. But as of this episode, it's hard to tell how you're supposed to feel about her, the fight, and Vox Machina more or less letting her and Kash off the hook after. We can guess how she's feeling, but it isn't made explicit, so we don't know why she does what she does or whether or not we're supposed to find her actions understandable or sympathetic.

Here are two possible ways I think they could've done it better.

Option A, have Zahra announce to Vox Machina that although they found the Vestige, one of them would've died getting it if it wasn't for Kash (as far as those two know). The others will be similarly hard to get, and even if they manage to get them through pure dumb luck the way they got this first one, that doesn't mean they're worthy of them. Vestiges are incredibly powerful and dangerous; they shouldn't go to just any bumble fucks. So they must pass one last test to keep the Deathwalker's Ward.

And then Onlooker.

This approach makes for a smoother transition, firmly establishes Zahra and Kash's priorities and motivations, and gives the audience and Vox Machina a chance to understand their perspective. Because once we see Vax Awaken the Vestige and take the monster that had petrified the rest of the team down all by himself...we can understand why Zahra and Kash were trepidatious about letting someone outside the Take walk away with this thing.

And when Zahra and Kash see Vax do that, they relent, heal the others, and admit he's worthy to wield it.

Option B, we could've had the thing just be there like it was in the stream. But, we could have had Zahra and Kash be involved in its ambush of Vox Machina in another way. After the Adaro fight, while they're by themselves, the two mention that the fish people usually don't gather together unless they've got something bigger than themselves to latch onto. Similar to remoras and sharks. We could even add an image of the Onlooker drawn in the fresh blood from earlier for foreshadowing. But the two keep that to themselves; the monster attacks and everything plays out like in option A.

Nitpicks

Let's look at Vex's line at the beginning of the episode.

Vex: Whatever happens...it's out of our control.

For anyone, for Vex, and especially for a kid, the line feels unnatural. In fact, it's obvious she says this not necessarily because it's in character but to set up Vax's Awakening of the armor later.

And you could argue that someone who didn't know what would happen wouldn't feel that way, but people will watch this show more than once. On a re-watch, a newbie might feel similarly.

While we could change the line, we might not even need one here. Just have Vax flashback to the twins and the bear while he's fighting Purrvan, only with him in the place of the mother bear with his young sister's hand soothing his cheek and his younger self's dagger at his throat. That gets across exactly how Vax's feeling in an instant with no dialogue at all, and it informs his letting go.

~~~

Instead of this at the end of the episode:

Vex: And what about my debt to the Slayer's Take?

Zahra: What debt?

I like something like this better:

Vex: And what about my debt to the Slayer's Take?

Zahra: Well, you did say you wanted to speak to Osysa because of four incredibly wealthy dragons didn't you? You better not fail in slaying them, then.

Zahra basically going put up or shut up here. You said you wanted a Vestige to kill dragons? Well, go kill some dragons. But it's not unkind, as it shows that now she thinks they might actually mean to try, and they actually might even have a shot at succeeding.

That's episode 4 down. It's only getting more interesting from here folks.

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