#i wrote more than i anticipated…

[rainynightwrites]

˗ˏˋ turn me on ˎˊ˗

cw: 18+ content mdni. fem!reader. semi public sex. sylus calls reader kitten/sweetie several times. fingering. p in v. unprotected sex. choking. sylus being a tease. sylus degrading reader. sylus also praising reader. overstim. creampie. established relationship. this happens on sylus’ motorcycle. not proofread. ᯓᡣ𐭩

wc: 2.0k

sylus had taken you out to dinner for a little date night. on your way back to his place he took you up to the rooftop of one of the decrepit buildings on the outskirts of the n109 zone. sylus was leaning against his motorcycle as you stood near the ledge looking over the city. it was a strange mix of eerie silence, yet random ruckus of other vehicles and arguments between people below filled your ears.

despite the fact that the n109 zone was a lawless wasteland, you felt at peace here for some reason. you’ve chalked it up to being near sylus. i mean, how could you not feel safe around him? you watched a room full of men shoot at sylus, in an attempt to kill him, and he handled all of them without even breaking a sweat.

and he looked really fucking hot while doing it— but that is besides the point.

you turned around towards sylus, walking back to him. murmuring how you were ready to go back to his place. he stood up straight and put his hands on your hips pulling you closer, his eyes gleaming, “or, we could stay here a little longer. it’s just us up here, sweetie.” you knew that tone, you knew the look in his eyes, and yes, you could feel that he was more than half hard in his pants right now.

“sylus! we are out in public, this isn’t- we shouldn’t.” you knew better, anybody could see, literally. plus it’s the n109 zone, this wasn’t the safest place to do something like this.

“why not, kitten? i can fight, and anyways mephisto would let us know if someone were coming.” those damn red eyes, you truly never understood how you were able to focus when sylus stared at you so intently. “but it’s up to you, if you aren’t comfortable we can just go back to my place...”

sylus’ words faded away. you felt guilty for some reason, something twisted in your stomach, and you knew you were about to give in. your gaze drifted to his motorcycle behind him.

when you’d originally fantasized about sylus fucking you over his motorcycle, it didn’t include being on a damn rooftop. you thought it’d be in the garage of his place, safe from potential prying eyes.

you looked up at sylus, biting your lip as you nodded your head slowly. sylus moved in on you instantly, his big hands grabbing you by the backs of your thighs and plopping you down onto the seat of his motorcycle. “mhh, i thought so. such a good girl for me aren’t you, sweetie?”

throughout your relationship with sylus you learned that he is a switch. he had times where he just wanted you to use him for your pleasure, then he had times where he wanted to completely dominate you until you were nothing but a mindless, cock drunk slut. and tonight was definitely the latter.

“y-yeah, your good girl…” your words were soft. your breathing becoming more and more erratic by the second. sylus had already begun positioning you the way he wanted. bastard, he must’ve anticipated that you’d agree to such an act.

sylus draped your left leg over one of the handlebars on his motorcycle, then he grabbed your right leg and held it up against his body. he kissed the exposed skin above your ankle. sylus diligently moved your skirt out of the way with one hand. his other hand was inching up your stomach, starting an ascent up your body. his hand continued to move up your body, grazing your breasts ever so gently.

sylus was a master at stimulating you, maybe a little too good at it sometimes, especially when you plummeted into a cloudy headspace of need and desire. you’d been so distracted by watching him kiss your ankle and feeling him pinch your nipples through your shirt and bra that you’d completely forgotten his other hand working between your legs. you hadn’t even felt him move your panties to the side.

sylus’ red eyes bore into you and he slid one finger between your folds. “kitten,��� it sounded so chastising. “i barely even touched you and you’re fucking soaked. that’s a little pathetic, don’t you think?”

“i can’t help it!” you protested, but when his finger swiped through your folds again and then drew a tight circle over your clit you nearly broke right then. your moan filled the stagnant air around you. he hummed like he was amused, you could feel a smirk forming on his lips as he placed another kiss higher up your calf this time, causing you to bend your leg awkwardly.

“i think, you just couldn’t wait to have me, could you, sweetie?” sylus punctuated his question by sliding his middle finger into your cunt and lazily tracing your clit with his thumb. his eyes never left your face, he watched every. single. reaction he drew from you. “oh come on, you’re always so brave. you love to talk back. why aren’t you doing it now?”

this wasn’t fair. at all. your lips started to form a soft pout but sylus put a quick end to that when he grazed your g-spot. your head dropped back as he effectively pulled another moan from your gorgeous lips.

you were already starting to fall into that cloudy headspace when you felt sylus draw a line with his tongue up your calf. and if that wasn’t bad enough the hand that had been playing with your nipples had now found it’s way around your neck. it was all a heady combination that sylus knew exactly how to exploit for the sounds and reactions he wanted from you.

“sylus!” his name rolled off your tongue in a high pitched whine. you hadn’t even realized how quickly your body was hurtling towards an orgasm.

sylus tightened his grip around your neck before plunging another finger inside you. “i can feel you clenching around my fingers, kitten. it’s so easy for me to wind you up, but fuck you are so beautiful this way. so desperate. i bet you can’t wait for my cock.”

your world narrowed, you could feel your pulse racing under sylus’ hand. the sounds he was pulling from you were obscene at this point. and it wasn’t just the sounds coming from your mouth, no, you were quite literally dripping. through half-lidded eyes you watched sylus finally break eye contact with you in favor of watching his fingers disappear into your soaked warmth.

just as you were about to cum he pulled his fingers from your core, studying the two fingers that had been buried inside you. they glistened in the low lighting on the rooftop.

“sylus! no, please. i was so close, i-“ your babbling was cut off by hazily watching sylus bring his fingers to his mouth and suck your arousal off them. his eyes slid closed as he savored your flavor.

“shh, just be patient. i enjoy seeing you so worked up for me. does it feel like your nerve endings are blazing yet?” he let go of your throat, tracing his fingers softly down one of your arms. his eyes were all but glowing in the night, it was distracting and mesmerizing— he looked at you like you were special. that made your stomach flip in a good way.

you couldn’t even bring yourself to answer, but yes, you felt like your entire body was on fire. every touch, every little graze had your body acting as if it were a live wire ready to snap.

sylus unbuttoned his pants, and pulled his cock out in one smooth motion. you watched him stroke himself once, twice. you licked your lips as you saw the precum seeping from the slit. his cock was…for lack of better terms, perfect. a perfect length, a perfect girth, the perfect amount of curve. it hit the spot every time it was inside you.

sylus didn’t give you much time to process his actions though, he dragged the fat head of his cock through your warm, wet folds and then buried himself inside you in one quick thrust.

“oh my god.” you somehow managed to choke out between a moan. sylus laughed as he watched your eyes roll back when he pushed himself fully into your cunt. “sweetie, there’s not a single god or deity that’s gonna come and save a cock drunk, needy little slut such as yourself.”

your walls clenched around his cock immediately. something about his unhinged words made you feel strange, yet even more turned on than you already were. you were panting at this point, a constant string of whines and moans falling from your lips.

you’ve come to terms with the fact that sylus was is just that good at sex. it almost concerned you that he’d managed to reduce you to such a state with only his hands so quick before even fucking you. you’ve fallen apart at his hands and mouth— cock too, so many times you’ve lost count. it’s easy for you to lose yourself in him, with him.

“what a pretty girl for me, such a beautiful thing to see you this way, all for me, only me.” sylus mused as he thrust into you at a relentless pace that had you seeing stars. sure, you liked being degraded by sylus, but the praise— oh, how you thrived on it.

sylus slid one hand between your bodies until his thumb found your clit again, he lazily drew right circles before leaning forward causing your knees to hit your shoulders. he easily folded you in half while you were sat on his motorcycle, you weren’t sure how it was still upright. you were more concerned with the fact that the new angle allowed sylus’ cock deeper into your velvety walls.

“sy-sylus! fuck, i’m close!” “it’s okay, you let go whenever you need to, darling. sing for me.” sylus leaned forward more until his lips pressed against yours. you immediately threaded your fingers through his silvery hair, melting into the kiss with zero hesitation. the kiss itself was messy, all teeth and tongues. all your moans and whines became muffled by his mouth.

his cock dragged along your inner walls with such precision. he hit your g-spot with every thrust. the head of his cock grazing your cervix, that alone sent a spark through body. two, three, four more thrusts later and your walls were squeezing his cock so tightly, the velvet heat of your cunt rippling as you came undone for him.

“good girl, such a good fucking girl coming on my cock like that. do you have any idea how beautiful you sound when you let go?” sylus didn’t slow, your euphoric orgasm quickly turning to overstimulation. your eyes welling with tears as you gasped and whined. writhing slightly beneath sylus. the motorcycle didn’t allow for much movement though.

“almost there, just- mmpfh. just a little longer, i promise. you’re doing so well, taking everything so well.” sylus’ fingers dug into the meat of your thighs as he chased his release. your body began to tremble from the continuing stimulation. your walls becoming so sensitive.

sylus buried himself fully inside your cunt, and he stilled above you. his breath coming out in warm huffs. occasional soft grunts filled your ears. warm ropes of his cum painted your inner walls. sylus pressed his forehead against yours, not daring to pull out just yet.

“thank you, kitten,” sylus wiped the tears that had collected on your lashes away and pressed soft kisses around your face; on your cheeks, your chin, your lips, your nose, and your forehead. his eyes softer now, and he didn’t want to let you go. you were precious to him, you both knew it.

while what you just did was a little crazy and risky, you couldn’t help but be happy that your date night ended this way. however, you suspected that when you and sylus were able to move and make it back to his place, neither of you would be getting much sleep tonight.

⊹₊⟡⋆ thanks for reading. ⊹₊⟡⋆

tags: @honeyandlore @nanami1slut

© rainynightwrites 2025. please do not copy/repost elsewhere, translate or claim any of my writing.

[eagle-head-charge]

Soldier how’s spy doing? Feels like you two are very close

WE ARE VERY CLOSE!!!!!!!! WE'RE IN A RELATIONSHIP, MAIL PERSON!!!!!!!! I LOVE MY MOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...I think Spy's in his smoking room right now. He seemed really tired today... I should check on him later to make sure he's okay! And see if he needs hugs!!! Or anything, actually!!!!!! I'd do anything for him!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT WE ARE VERY CLOSE!!! He's such a sweetheart, mail person, he's so loving and gentle with me and it's so great that I get to look after him!!!! I'M A LOT STRONGER THAN HE IS, SO I GET TO PROTECT HIM FROM ALL THE COMMIES IF THEY TRY TO HURT HIM!!!!!!!!!! BUT HE'S A LOT SMARTER THAN ME, SO HE CAN PROTECT ME TOO IF A COMMIE TRIES TO TRICK ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPY KNOWS SO MANY THINGS!!!!!!!!!!! He has to fool those MAGGOTS on BLU all day long, so he's very good at spotting when SCUMBAGS ARE TRYING TO TRICK HIM! OR ME!!!!! HE SPEAKS SIX LANGUAGES, SON!! SIX!!!!!!!!! AND HE KNOWS THEM ALL FLUENTLY!!!!!!!!!!!! HE KNOWS HOW EVERYONE ON BLU ACTS, AND CAN IMITATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM SO PERFECTLY!!! HE'S SO TALENTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I first fell for Spy when I saw how... focused he was during battles. He was so graceful, he got kills so easily and completely WIPED THE FLOOR with BLU team every single time!! One time he killed their Engineer, destroyed his Sentry, destroyed his Teleporter AND killed their Medic when he noticed him sapping buildings!!! Their backline was DESTROYED, and their PUSH WAS RUINED!!!!!! WE KILLED THEM ALL AND GOT AN EASY VICTORY, ALL THANKS TO SPY!!!!!!!!!! ...But it didn't seem like people focused on that. Our Medic got so much praise, DESERVEDLY SO, but it didn't seem like anyone thought to thank Spy for making it so easy for us. It could've went so differently if Spy hadn't been there...

I remember I thanked him, and I think he was trying to hide it, but there was the... smallest little smile on his face. I don't remember what he said, it was something like "I don't need your recognition, you simpleton", but... I saw his face, and ever since I've wanted nothing more than to see that smile every day, and make him happy. He deserves to feel happy and safe and loved, and I'd do anything to make sure he knows that I love him and will always be there to protect him!!!

...I GOT A BIT SIDETRACKED!!!!!! BUT YES, I LOVE MY MOUR!!!!!!!!!!! NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, I'M GONNA GO GIVE HIM A KISS!!!!!!!!!!!! AND MAYBE BUY HIM SOME CROISSANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And practice my INSIDE VOICE FOR HIM, BECAUSE HE REALLY HATES YELLING WHEN HE'S TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thedrotter]

Re:Kinder Fun Facts of the day☺️!!! Have you ever wondered who talks the most from the main cast in Re:Kinder?? Well, I did😊. Today I'll be answering this question with some graphs and as a bonus telling you what words each character uses the most! I will warn you, this will be a bit long and I don't know how to be less verbose so, yeah!!!

First, I've made some basic rules as to what I counted regarding how much the characters speak. Not all lines really count as speaking, after all.

Any of the incoherent screaming lines don't count. There's a lot of screaming since the characters die a lot (as expected for a horror RPG game), but I don't really count that as speaking unless they're saying proper words. In that same vein, I didn't really count any of the panting or sniffing and such that are conveyed through words. Again, I don't really see that as a character actively speaking their thoughts!

If I cannot tell who a line belongs to, I will not give it to anyone. This happens for certain lines, so I felt this rule was important.

I won't be counting repetitions of the same line if it's on a variation of the same scene. This may sound a bit strange, but when a character dies, the game goes on to the same next scene it would regardless (unless the scene that follows it is an ending), with variations and new lines here and there to account for the dead character, but a lot will be reused and placed in the exact same beats it normally would have been in originally. So, this rule is here for that. Oh, and also the scenes with bits of Yuuichi's backstory that appear in Shunsuke's head won't be counted twice, because some appear twice line by line.

Of course, the "..." lines won't count. I am so sorry Aya!!!!😞

Now that the ground rules have been set, there's just one thing I want to mention. Though I will count all the total lines for Takumi and Yuuichi like any other character, I just want to mention that first I will have two separate counts for them! Takumi | Takumiel and Yuuichi | Yuuichi's Heart respectively.

Takumiel is separate because I was curious about how much Takumi spoke as an archangel compared to when he was alive. Yuuichi's Heart is because he speaks so much he feels notable enough to be given his own division, even if he and Yuuichi at the end of the day are one person

(I count the silly mind telepathy where Shunsuke is being directly spoken to [and being told things normal Yuu would avoid saying at that point] and the comical theater as Yuuichi's Heart. I clarify in case one assumes he only starts being counted the moment he's directly labelled as Yuuichi's Heart. Any line that can't be distinguished between Yuuichi's Heart and Yuuichi will be given to Yuuichi by default.)

With nothing else to be clarified let's get to the numbers!!!😊😊

First, the line counts with Takumiel and Yuuichi's Heart counted individually!! Here are the rankings:

Shunsuke (With a lead of 535 lines over second place!!)

Yuuichi

Rei

Yuuichi's Heart

Hiroto

Ryou

Sayaka

Aya

Takumi

Takumiel

You may be thinking— woah, does Shunsuke really speak that much?! You could say that, for a good chunk of those lines are from how he describes interactable points around the map and his inner thoughts, so they aren't all exactly said out loud. The benefit of being the protagonist, I suppose ww

Funny enough, Yuuichi's Heart has almost as many lines as Yuuichi does for not having that much time in the game, being on the higher end between the characters that don't get the benefit of being a protagonist (lol)!

Admittedly I had expected for Rei and Hiroto to have a more similar amount of lines given their nearly equal amount of presence, but for what it is Rei surpassed Hiroto by 51 lines! I also had expected for Takumiel to speak a little bit more than Takumi but turns out the opposite is true.

While the lack of lines of Takumi and Takumiel are to be expected due to their short time on the game, what stands out is Aya not even reaching triple digits between her other peers who are in there for most of the game. This is because a good chunk of Aya's lines in game are silence!^^" And thus weren't counted. If ellipses were a word, she surely would have reached triple digits, but unfortunately they're not.

Now the line count with combined sums of Takumi | Takumiel and Yuuichi | Yuuichi's Heart!!!

In here, the ranking isn't affected, with Yuuichi remaining second place and Takumi being last place. But the disparity of everyone's numbers compared to Takumi's feels a bit more clear to see when Takumiel isn't individually counted.

With Yuuichi's line counts combined, Shunsuke remains 318 lines ahead of him, but it also means Yuuichi has a 59% the amount of Shunsuke's lines; and impressive feat for someone who doesn't get the benefit of being the point of view for everything you press... Although he does also have an upper hand over everyone by essentially being the plot of this game ww

But maybe line counts do not suffice to tell how much a character speaks. Yes, Shunsuke has a bunch of lines from everything he interacts with, but is it really reliable to say he speaks all that much in all those lines? A good chunk of those could easily have 3 words each! So with this in mind, let's do a word count.

Even in a word count, Shunsuke has the lead, having a lead of 2,247 words over second place. But we'll see about that when we combine Yuuichi's numbers. Anyway, here's the ranking!

Shunsuke

Yuuichi's Heart

Yuuichi

Rei

Hiroto

Ryou

Sayaka

Aya

Takumi

Takumiel

This time, Yuuichi's Heart is the one at second place!!! It's pretty funny that he speaks more than his physical counterpart ww. I genuinely didnt think he'd out yap himself that way when I chose to count for him individually 😭!!! He has a lead of 63 words over himself, but a lead nonetheless.

In here, Rei and Hiroto are more even than in the line counts, with the difference seeming more minimal when put into words. But it also showcases that despite Rei having more lines than Yuuichi's Heart in the line count, those only get to have a bit over half of the amount of words he talks (To be fair he does get to infodump a lot in his section of the game).

And here's the combined word count!!! Suddenly Shunsuke's lead is only by a mere 55 words! So Yuuichi speaks about as much as he does with 318 less lines.

I must admit that I genuinely did not expect it to be that close. When I chose to count the lines for when you interact with things for Shunsuke, I thought he was granted to speak an absurd amount more than anyone else. But turns out that Yuuichi speaks about the same amount out loud when most of Shunsuke's are his own thoughts ww. But it does make sense! He is still the plot of this game.

So, after all those charts, here's the average/middle point of lines and words for characters to have, because why not, it's fun.

Average Line Count (YH and Takumiel counted individually): 197 lines

Average Line Count (When combined): 247 lines

Average Word Count (YH and Takumiel counted individually): 1,333 words

Average Word Count (When combined): 1,666 words

So there it is. That's how much the characters in Re:Kinder speak!

But wait!!! I am not done. I will share with you an additional fun fact... Did you ever want to know what word each of these characters said the most?! This one will be quicker, I do promise.

When it came to counting these words I did not count stop words, that being common words that are used all the time by everyone in English. "I, you, me, the, to, a, my, your, yes, no"... Words like that! Otherwise everyone would have one of those as their most said word and it'd be rather boring to look at. With that said, here are the words these characters say the most!

Shunsuke: Yuuichi - said 40 times! (this genuinely confused me so much im sorry he uses interjections so much I had expected it to be something like "huh" or "um" but no i dont know how this passed by me as i was rounding up all the lines he says or proofreading or writing all of those lines WHAT?!?! its been two days and it still takes me out)

Ryou: Shunsuke - Said 14 times

Sayaka: Murderer - Said 7 times (All in one sentence!)

Takumi | Takumiel (counted in one for how little he speaks.): Takumiel - Said 3 times (That name is so important, he said it thrice.)

Aya: Sorry - Said 5 times

Rei: Hell, gonna, look, Yuuchi - said 8 times (Most of the repeated words she says are stop words for she doesn't tend to speak about the same things repeatedly.)

Hiroto: Shunsuke - Said 17 times

Yuuichi (separate from YH): Problem - Said 17 times

Yuuichi's Heart: Mama - Said 24 times

Yuuichi (Overall): Mama - Said 31 times

So that is finally it. That is the fun fact of today.😊😊 Use this to woe your friends at parties!!!

I am aware Mami speaks about enough to be counted in, but this is pretty time consuming to do and I'm not sure anyone is invested on her enough to count her in. But if there's enough curiosity regarding that, I'll try counting her in. But for now this suffices.☺️ Thanks for reading!

[levi-venn]

Tech and Crow

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (Final) Available also on AO3)

On Eriadu, statistically speaking, humanoids died more often from unnatural causes than old age.

Seventy percent perished from animal attacks.

Ten from disease.

Eighteen percent from venomous plants. 

One-point-ninety nine percent from the Empire.

The remaining zero-point-zero-one percent were given to those flinging themselves from a moving monorail car to save their siblings from death.

Eriadu is not an ideal place to die, Tech thought, midfall. But it’s preferable to dying on a fool’s mission for Sid.

For a few treasured seconds he seemed to be floating rather than falling, the cloud cover making it near impossible to orient himself in any direction, though his stomach was telling him his back would meet the ground first. It would be a painful, but hopefully quick death.

The trees, however, had other ideas, both on how Tech would land, and whether he would survive or not.

The first branch shattered against Tech’s pauldron sending him spinning. Another branch broke against his shin guard. There was a nest of twigs, cotton, and unfertilized eggs that slammed into his helmet essentially blinding him.

As he continued in this downward spiral he attempted to quantify how many branches were needed to slow his fall and increase his survival rate. The fact he was hitting branches once every half second told him the odds were in his favor. Evidently, the Eriadian redwood forest was an ideal place to free fall from a considerable height.

Good to know.

While he couldn't control the rate in which he was falling, nor the amount of branches he was shattering, he did manage to land on his back. And in doing so, he jettisoned the remaining breath from his lungs.

He lay there, very still, unfortunately awake, and gasping for air that wouldn't come. Darkness crept around the edge of his vision. He struggled to stay awake. Struggled to breathe. Panic was rising within him.

There is no need to panic, he tried to remind himself. This is just a reaction to present trauma. There is no immediate danger. Breathe...breathe...

Even as the breath returned to him, a new problem arose. He couldn't slow his breathing down, nor calm his heart rate, and the anxiety frayed his nerves as if he were still falling. 

He tried a different tactic: He recalculated the unnatural death toll on Eriadu:

Seventy percent perished from animal attack.

Ten from disease.

Eighteen percent from venomous plants. 

And now two percent from the Empire.

As a youngling, Tech's exceptional mind had mastered every intellectual acuity test presented to him. However, no amount of brilliance would help him when it came to combat training. All altered clones had a defect in one form or another. His came in the shape of bowed and twisted legs, not suitable for a soldier.

It was logical that the Kaminoans broke his legs to reset them. Logical and agonizing. Tech was bed-ridden for weeks. 

They gave him a datapad filled with as much reading material as he could absorb, but even then there was no distracting him from the pain nor the panicked episodes that came with it.

He didn’t want visitors. Didn’t want to appear weak to his brothers. Soldiers weren’t bed-ridden. Soldiers didn’t cry from fear of an uncertain future.

Crosshair ignored Tech’s request for isolation. He appeared every day, three times a day, always for meals. He claimed he was just there to steal Tech’s bread roll, but he only ever took a bite and stayed long after Tech ate the rest of the meal.

Crosshair wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but he would sit on the edge of Tech’s bed, cleaning his beloved DC-15A cadet blaster rifle, and casually ask Tech questions. 

“Why do Kaminoans have such long necks?”

“Who would win in a fight? A Jedi with a vibroblade or a Mandalorian with a lightsaber?”

“How many B1s would it take to equal the power of Jango Fett?”

Tech stared up at the Eriadian sky, mostly obscured by broken branches and his cracked and smudged lens. 

He’d give anything for one of Crosshair’s thinly veiled questions to distract him from the pain and panic.

And truly...he’d give anything to see Crosshair again, regardless.  

***

It took fourteen days and seventeen hours to find Mount Tantiss on the planet, Weyland. It would have taken half that time if Tech had his goggles, a working datapad, and (admittedly) his siblings. Fourteen days was plenty of time to heal his body from its fall, but even at peak condition the climb up the mountain was arduous. Tedious even. Slower as he had to make camp and find food and disarm Imperial sensors the whole way up.

Seventy-eight hours later, he found himself at the base of the Imperial science facility. 

He also found himself exhausted.

“Come on, Tech! You can do it!” Hunter had cheered all those years ago as young Tech clung to the middle rung of the monkey-lizard bars high over the training grounds. The platform might as well be located on another planet.

Tech’s legs had been reset the previous year. He was fully healed. There was no excuse for this fragility. Yet his muscles shook with effort, sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes.

“I’m gonna get him,” Wrecker said.

“No!” Hunter pulled his brother back. “He can do it!”

“No, he can’t! Look at him!” Wrecker whined, face full of worry. 

“C’mon, Tech! A little further!” Hunter looked worried too, even as he cheered his brother on. 

Even as Tech’s grip began to slip.

To this day, Tech didn't remember Crosshair's reaction to his failure that day. What was the point of recalling it, anyway?

Utterly meaningless, he always told himself when he'd try to recall. And he would attempt this often.

***

A carrion crow visited Tech the morning after he collapsed from fatigue a kilometer from the science facility. 

The corvid landed on his back, then proceeded to hop in little circle as if Tech was his own personal, albeit ineffective, trampoline.

Tech hadn’t noticed he had become an amusement ride for the crow until it cawed rather rudely and directly into his ear.

Jolting awake at the caustic alarm, Tech jumped to his feet, pulling his blaster and pointing it at...a few feathers that had been jostled from the startled bird. The crow landed on a nearly smooth boulder nearby, croaking as if flabbergasted by the audacity of Tech’s reaction, then flew off in a cackling rage.

The day was spent doing recon of the area. The sheer density of this side of the jungle kept troopers away, and by nightfall Tech had made a decent, albeit temporary, base.

That evening Tech dreamed.

“You remember ‘C’, don’t you?” Tech asked the small boy sitting beside him. It was a very real memory, but his subconscious twisted timelines, making him a fully grown adult sitting next to a small, gray-haired boy hunched over the datapad, stylus awkward in his little fingers.

“I remember,” Crosshair said, stubbornly, stylus making a vertical line.

“C is for curved,” Tech recited the pneumonic, smiling to himself as Crosshair quickly readjusted his stylus, making a shaky but clear C.

“Now an ‘R’.”

Crosshair hissed in frustration, stylus lifting and lowering onto the screen making little angry dots on the workbook page. “I don’t want to.”

“Shall we do it together?” Tech asked.

“No,” Crosshair insisted, even as he sat closer to Tech and leaned against him. Tech put his hand over his brother's to guide him. “Up, and around, and down to the ground.” Tech said.

“I can do ‘O’ by myself,” Crosshair said, pushing Tech’s hand off of his own, though he still leaned against Tech as he drew a mathematically perfect circle. 

The dream had taken liberties, but the scene was more or less how Tech remembered Crosshair writing his name for the first time. The dream neglected to recall Crosshair asking Tech not to tell their brothers that he struggled to write his own name.

But Tech was allowed to know. Only Tech. And Tech kept his word to this day.

“Let’s see how you did,” Tech said, in this more or less accurate dream.

He picked up the datapad and read in perfectly block letters.

[H E L P  M E]

Tech startled awake. 

He told himself it was just a dream. Memories and information and out of context stimuli colliding together into something nonsensical.

Utterly meaningless, he told himself, even as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.

It was still night. The moonlight punched its way through the canopy of trees, offering illumination that only helped to remind Tech just how alone he was on this mountain.

Actually, Tech corrected, the moon doesn’t illuminate anything. The light I’m seeing is a reflection of the sun. 

This factoid did little to alleviate the situation. 

But he felt better acknowledging it.

***

The crow returned the next morning holding something in its beak: a small pinecone, young and green. The pinecone had no nutritional value to the corvid, nor was it proper nesting material.

Crows have been known to offer gifts as a sign of gratitude for an agreeable exchange or action.

The gift was obviously not for Tech considering he had pulled a blaster on the corvid upon their first meeting.

Who are you giving your gifts to? Tech wondered. A bored trooper? A sensitive officer? A desperate prisoner?

“A desperate prisoner wouldn’t sacrifice food for trinkets,” he concluded to the crow.

The crow hopped around the boulder once, twice, then flew directly at Tech, who ducked just as the crow smacked a wing against his head mid-flight. Even with the pinecone in his beak, Tech swore he could hear a throaty cackle.

Tech continued his recon of the science facility as best he could without being discovered. Getting close to the building wasn’t an issue, it was getting near anything resembling an entrance that was the issue. He had one blaster against an unknown amount of guards, which meant all he could do was recon. And then he would fill his siblings in when they arrived.

It never occurred to him his brothers and sister wouldn’t eventually come to the same conclusion as he. They would find this planet. They would find Tech and receive his very useful intel, and then they would save Crosshair. The squad would finally be reunited.

It would all work out. It had to.

He couldn’t afford to think of the alternative. Worrying about it was useless.

Utterly meaningless…

***

The next morning, he awoke before dawn. No crow was waiting for him.

Trying a different tactic, he broke off a bit of plastoid from his cracked pauldron and set it on the crow’s boulder.

He waited.

Just after dawn, the crow landed on the boulder, cawing immediately at Tech, feathers literally and proverbially ruffled at an unauthorized object occupying his boulder.

But then the corvid calmed, eyeing the object properly, pecking at it as if appraising its value.

“I assure you, it is of a high-quality material,” Tech told the crow. “The fact it is broken means it worked as intended. It did not survive the fall so that I could.”

The crow listened, or at least stared at Tech with intensely black eyes, and then decided - perhaps entirely on his own - to take the plastoid and fly off.

This time Tech ran after crow. 

As he hypothesized, the crow flew directly towards the science facility.

Tech kept his goggleless eyes to the sky as he ran, thanking his imperfect genetics that he was far-sighted, allowing him to track the crow in his pursuit. So long as the crow didn't require him to read a datapad, he only needed to worry about the thick underbrush tearing his compromised under-armor, thorny vines scratching his cheeks, and the uneven ground threatening to trip and trap him.

“Come on, Tech! You can do it!” Hunter’s words echoed in his mind. He chose not to think of Wrecker’s face full of doubt. The crack in Hunter’s voice betraying his words.

Actually, Tech realized. I can do it. 

A crow is capable of flying over ninety kilometers an hour. Tech, even at his healthiest, could reach thirty kilometers an hour.

The crow wants me to follow him, but to where?

As if to answer, the crow suddenly dove towards a hole in the fortress and Tech skidded to a stop just below it.

He gazed quietly at the barred window approximately seven meters above him, the crow’s tail feathers twitching and wiggling as it seemed to be eating something on the sill. 

And then he saw it. Briefly. A flash of familiar fingers. Long and callused and always itching to pull a trigger. 

Fingers that used to wrap around Tech’s hand when the lightning was too bright outside. Fingers that would hold soggy bread in the rain, hoping to conjure a bird that would never come. Fingers that could draw shaky C's and perfect circles.

I found you, Tech thought, his heartbeat growing irregular from this sudden turn of events. Now to get your attention.

***

“Where the hell are your goggles?”

It wasn’t not the first question Tech expected, but a fair one nonetheless.

Tech touched his temple reflexively, trying to adjust goggles that clearly weren’t there. “A long story that I can narrate at a later time. Are you hurt?”

Crosshair pressed his forehead against the bars. “What do you think?”

It wasn’t the answer Tech had hoped to hear.

“How did you know the crow was coming to my cell?” Crosshair asked.

“You used to birdwatch when we were children. That combined with the lack of incentive for anyone on this base to feed a carrion bird. It was obvious. So I gave the corvid a message to give to you.”

“His name is Egg.”

“Egg?” Tech frowned up at Crosshair. “Why is his name Egg?”

“He likes Eggs.”

“So, by that logic, if he enjoyed Colo Claw Fish-”

“Does it look like they feed me sushi here?”

Tech raised a finger…then lowered it. “Point taken.” 

“How are you going to get me out of here?” Crosshair asked. His head disappeared from view a few times and Tech assumed it was to ensure they were speaking privately.

“We’re going to wait for our siblings to retrieve us,” Tech answered.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know.”

“When are they coming?”

“I’m uncertain.”

“Then how do you know they are coming?” Crosshair asked and the crow - Egg - seemed to echo with an indignant craah. 

“Because they were searching for you when we were separated, and I managed to find you on my own. Given that they are lacking my brilliant mind, it may take some time, but I am sure they will figure it out, find the path to Mount Tantiss and we will be reunited...eventually.”

“Eventually…fantastic,” Crosshair hissed.

It could have been Tech’s impaired vision, but it looked like both Crosshair and the crow rolled their eyes at the same time. 

Tech had missed his brother’s sarcastic wit terribly.

Even if it was directed at him. 

Part 3: Cross and Tech and Egg

[xerith-42]

Constantly upset by the inability to freely talk about the DSMP in other spaces. I get why, I 100% understand why it makes people uncomfortable and I'm not saying this has to change. It just like. I dunno it sucks cause I'll have a really interesting take in comparing a character from MCD to a character in the DSMP, and then nothing to do with it. I get not wanting to talk about that and all of the baggage that comes with still loving the DSMP to this day, trust me I do, but there's just something there.

Something they have in common that matters and yes it's that they're both mediocrely written Minecraft Roleplays. The way that the characters in MyStreet aren't their voice actors but they totally are in the same way that DSMP characters are separate from their CC but also intrinsically attached to them.

I can't find coherent words to describe this entirely, there's just something special these stories have in common and I think there's a lot of value in comparing them. I'm just like. Scared to go into it. Because the DSMP is a sore spot for a lot of people, I know the Aphmau to DSMP back to Aphmau pipeline is 100% real, I went through it more than once (somehow). But digging into both of these flawed series and observing them at their on level, on their terms, and comparing them to each other seems like something that would be really fun.

[bloodyarn]

                                                       𝙻𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂 .

                                               unprompted interactions

@mephist4r:  ( uses infernal magic to give babs a matching ‘semi permanent’ tail to go with her crown so that she will never live down the tiefling accusations . And because he was bored )

      A TAIL.      A real ( somehow real ) tail, just like the pretty tieflings have   !   The little lady marvels at this new spine extension, trying out if she could, maybe, perhaps, control it. GLORIOUS   !   The wagging was proof enough it worked like a charm. Babette was having a hard time containing both grin  &  restless shuffling her own of feet   —   that right there was a happy girl. A happy 'almost' tiefling.

      ❝ AAAAAAHHHH   !   Like a kitty-cat   !   It's swooshing   ! ❞

    Eyes could not tear themselves off the newly acquired 'semi-permanent' body part. Too amazed. Too excited. The prospect of even more people now going to falsely assume she was a tiefling went right above her head. Perhaps the hexblood was fine with that now.

     ❝ Thank you so much Mister Devil-man   !   I can finally keep my balls of yarn from rolling away ♥ ❞     Wag wag wag. May the gods have mercy on any soul she will meet next, for that lady was definitely not going to shut up about that new feature.

[enbyleighlines]

It’s my birthday today!!

Does anyone want to ask me a question about one of my oc’s? I’ve been working on a whole bunch of them.

More details under cut

Overall idea:

It’s a modern fantasy story where humans live alongside mythical creatures, which can shapeshift and take multiple forms. Once, they were at odds. However, fairies from the Etherenes Realm began to cross the veil between worlds into our own, and taught humans magic, how to defend themselves, and also how to utilize mythical creatures as familiars. Now, most mage/familiar relationships are regulated through an agency that prioritizes fair treatment and pay for the familiars.

The following characters are all students at an academy located in Etherenes, and it’s a popular place for fae, humans, and mythical creatures to study.

The characters:

Justina Raine: A wyvern mythic. She comes from a long line of powerful dragons, and she dreams of following in her mother’s footsteps working as an appraiser, collector, and distributor of arcane artifacts. She is highly intelligent and a diligent worker, though she prefers to work long into the night while everyone else is asleep. Justina is often heralded as a role model for others, but in truth she has no patience for teaching or advising others, and would much prefer to be left alone. Because she spends so much time focusing on pleasing her parents, she is often blind to her own desires.

Morgan Byrnes: A kludde mythic. She was originally raised by a single mother, but after her mother remarried, they moved to live in Etherenes, the fae realm. Unlike her brother, Morgan never fully forgave her mother for the abrupt move. Morgan is a mischievous person, who enjoys teasing people and sewing chaos and confusion. Justina is her favorite person to mess with. Like Justina, Morgan has a tendency to stay up late, though her nights are spent partying, rather than studying. Though she has many friends, she is rarely vulnerable with any of them.

Mortimer Byrnes: A kludde mythic. Morgan’s older brother. He understood their mother’s decision to move, and doesn’t begrudge her for it. He is an inquisitive person, preferring to lurk and observe others rather than interacting with them. Mortimer can be quite gloomy, at times bordering on melodramatic, but he is also sensitive to and respectful of other people’s feelings. When he isn’t people watching, Mortimer likes to sketch. He has been dating Cole for a couple of years.

Cole Barnett: A firedrake mythic. Cole is the second son of the acclaimed Barnett family, but unlike his golden child elder brother, Cole has always been the odd duck of the family. Apathetic, antisocial, and unconcerned with academics, Cole is mostly ignored by his parents. He spent much of his childhood as a lone wolf. It wasn’t until Mortimer badgered him into being friends that Cole’s icy exterior began to melt. Now, the two are dating, and Cole is unapologetic about his love for his boyfriend, much to the disdain of his parents, brother, and betrothed.

Drysian Bakail: A pooka (a type of fae) that grew up in Etherenes, spent a few years traveling the human realm, and has since returned to their hometown to study apothecary magic. Drysian is neither fully male nor female, as fae get to choose their sex during puberty. Adventurous, charismatic, and full of energy, Drysian has many friends. They are also quite popular, with various admirers. However, Drysian prefers casual flings and hookups, rather than committing to a long-term relationship. Because while Drysian is down for trying anything once, they’re surprisingly indecisive about the things that matter most to them.

[orionsangel86]

I am so determined to post my Lucienne/Lucien meta piece today but it is 11.45pm and I am tired. I am SO CLOSE and I really wanna get it posted for Dreaming Librarian Day. 😩

Watch this space.

[sailforvalinor]

Just had a reverse “you think about your old writing through rose-colored glasses but when you go back to read it it’s kind of terrible” moment, I went back and read some of my pre-uni/pandemic writing fully expecting it to be terrible and was like “oh this is…pretty good actually?”

[dynmghts]

TRANSMISSION FROM @quirkthieves : ‘ this was supposed to be a stealth mission. ’ (monoma) RELUCTANT ALLIES , ACCEPTING .

❛ oi ! i know that, idiot, shut your damn mouth. ❜

the young bakugou remains crouched on the ground with his mask currently pushed up, head turning around a corner with hand balancing him while he tries to scope out the area. aizawa and vlad both wanted to challenge their students / each task was designed to be difficult. they were tackling weaknesses, after all, and bakugou was a shining example of someone who had a quirk poorly suited to a stealth mission. add that on top of ... strong personal grudges, and he was paired with monoma, the actual bane of katsuki's existence.

but while katsuki's quirk performs terribly in stealth missions, and his personality is considered too brash for it, there is one thing that even his classroom home teacher understands :

he adapts and improvises well to cover his weaknesses.

back against the wall now, katsuki begrudgingly turns his attention to monoma, hand reaching to pull down his mask over his eyes. ❛ i ain't jeopardising my grade just 'cause you wanna fucking piss me off, ❜ he starts, though he follows up his statement with a gesture - one hand up, three fingers extended. ❛ three ahead of us. two of 'em got their back to us. ❜

[ sure, they were their classmates ... but he's got an exercise to win. ]

a hand reaches to one of the grenades on his waist. with a swift motion, he releases a component from his gauntlet and drops the vial into a compartment in the device, thumb pressing it closed. ❛ this one doesn't explode, ❜ he interjects, before monoma tries to push the rhetoric of stealth, ❛ it's a flashbang grenade. got enough sweat in it to blind 'em. ❜ does monoma see what he's planning ? he toys with the trigger on the side, slight grin crossing his face - dangerously excited, if anyone were to comment on its nature.

❛ i toss this in, then we go in and take 'em down before they get any idea what the hell's going on. ❜ that'll let them continue. the ultimate goal is to reach the centre of the arena without detection, after all - and while there is one student in their simulation who has a quirk suited to scouting, this group of three wasn't them. they might hear a rustle, but they shouldn't know details. ❛ just keep up and we'll nail this stupid stealth mission, no problem. ❜

that remains to be seen.

[life-in-winter]

Writing update 2

I finished draft 1.5 of the prologue! And now I have to rewrite almost all of it because it's kind of trash. But I'm surprised and proud of myself of getting this far! Because I've never written fiction this long before. And the quality of my writing improved towards the end as I discovered some knowledge gaps and worked to fix them.

My goal is to rewrite this now so that the quality of the entire chapter is at least on par with the quality of the writing at the end. My standard for me to actually share writing with the world is for it to be better than the worst book I read last year which, believe me, is not an incredible high bar.

[great-master-airplane]

when i saw that the rbb fic was going to be my 50th skk fic, i made the tiny joke to myself that it would be such a good fic to go out on. now that my writer's block is following me into the new year, i keep wondering if maybe i shouldn't have made that joke after all -_-

[casiavium]

If I had a nickel for everytime I wrote a sequel fanfic for a series that accidentally became more canon because of retconning/messed up lore I would have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

Finished up Rob Sheffield’s book about Taylor last night and I Have Some Thoughts.

[everythingmp3]

dearest! i know it has been quite some time, but, are you still writing for tess? i kinda miss your povs about her and all the perspectives you present to us. my apologies if this question is invasive, in case this topic in uncomfortable to you. 🌹

stop this is phrased in such a sweet way😭 💘 no need to apologize, its not invasive at all! its very flattering to know that you miss those fics <3 and I am currently not writing for her anymore bc I wrote so many words for her last year and kinda got it out of my system with that I think - but I do wanna say that I still remember how generous some of the feedback was, like the audience for those fics was lovely so thank u, it still means a lot! and I wont say that I will never write for her again bc who knows but as of now I dont have plans to

[m-has-a-blog]

So like. She says she wants to rebuild our creative partnership. Texts me memes for a couple weeks. Does a ‘I’ll always be there for you’ thing ahead of the election. Talks to me election night when u ask if she’s okay. And then NEVER CONTACTS ME AGAIN. Not even a thumbs up emoji to indicate she’s aware I got my stuff. If she’s okay: what the hell IS that. If she’s not: her parents are fucking awful for not telling me.